Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Names John Browett as New Senior Vice President of Retail
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I totally agree here. John Lewis customer service is on Par with Apple. Very good. I always walk out of these two stores with a smile.
This was literally my latest experience with Currys digital.
ME: Hi what's your cheapest HDMI cable?
HIM: You won't get one much cheaper than about £35
ME: Right... where are they?
HIM: *over here*
ME: There's one here for £8.99
HIM: Yeah that's right, but you'll get a terrible picture with that
ME: I'm going to Argos.
ME: Hi what's your cheapest HDMI cable?
HIM: You won't get one much cheaper than about £35
ME: Right... where are they?
HIM: *over here*
ME: There's one here for £8.99
HIM: Yeah that's right, but you'll get a terrible picture with that
ME: I'm going to Argos.
This.
I hate being pestered by the staff in Dixons/Currys/PC World, asking if they can "help". Most of the time I'll say "no thanks" but then I just get bothered by another one - so when I do concede and say yes, they just stare at me blankly when I ask them what I'm after etc., because they are poorly trained and don't know about the products they sell or the fundamentals of the underlying technologies in consumer electronics.
I don't mean to sound harsh, I'm sure these guys aren't paid well and training probably isn't high on the store managers agenda, so it's not their fault personally - but in doing this, as a company, they make customers feel unwelcome and under pressure to buy, and then come across as less than professional when they don't know what you're talking about - which hardly installs confidence in someone about to part with their hard earned cash.
So in short... I hope none of this approach has followed John Browett to Apple.
/rant.
I've bought loads of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0017RW94A
Just as good as the £200000000000 ones as they must all comply to the same standard
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Slavery!
Dixons/DSG are present in Ireland as well -- they were recently advertising jobs for zero pay!
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056505445
Dixons/DSG are present in Ireland as well -- they were recently advertising jobs for zero pay!
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056505445
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)
My fear too
Is this the death of apple. Let's hope not as dixons group is a joke!!!!!!
Apple what have you done
moose.boy said:
My fear too
Is this the death of apple. Let's hope not as dixons group is a joke!!!!!!
Apple what have you done
That's hilarious, PC world in Dublin once lost my Mac Mini after its hard drive failed and I took it into repair , they then refused to give me a new one as a replacement and eventually after threatening a law suit agreed to give me a replacement.
Also bought a camera from Curry's and it broke and they refused to allow me to use the warranty to get it repaired.
Pretty horrible company.
I am currently employed by DSGi. So heres my opinion on things..
All of those, saying you get 'pestered' all the time, that's because we are told to constantly ask if you are okay, to check to see if you need help. I do agree that this gets annoying for some customers, but some customers will also then moan when they are not approached. Hard to please everyone I guess.
Saying we are untrained on products, I would agree with. We have to do our own training on products and are provided with a learning centre. But weather colleagues actually use this is a different matter. I can say for myself I do, as I know how annoying it is when you know more than the person selling it to you. If however I do not know an answer, I will be honest with the customer and ask if they would like me to find out for them..
Now onto the actual story of John Browett. I think he has done some good things for the company, and a lot of the stores are looking much nicer, however, customer service working for DSGi is completely different to Apple. Within DSGi, we have a lot of targets to hit, hence sometimes you will find a pushy salesman (we do not work on commission by the way) whereas within Apple, targets are not pushed. They have key products they are told to sell, but its not the end of the world if they do not sell them with hardware, hence them not being so pushy, hence leading to a better retail experience.
Only time will tell on Browetts acquisition as to what he will bring to the table....I hope he doesn't bring down the experience at an Apple Store though.
All of those, saying you get 'pestered' all the time, that's because we are told to constantly ask if you are okay, to check to see if you need help. I do agree that this gets annoying for some customers, but some customers will also then moan when they are not approached. Hard to please everyone I guess.
Saying we are untrained on products, I would agree with. We have to do our own training on products and are provided with a learning centre. But weather colleagues actually use this is a different matter. I can say for myself I do, as I know how annoying it is when you know more than the person selling it to you. If however I do not know an answer, I will be honest with the customer and ask if they would like me to find out for them..
Now onto the actual story of John Browett. I think he has done some good things for the company, and a lot of the stores are looking much nicer, however, customer service working for DSGi is completely different to Apple. Within DSGi, we have a lot of targets to hit, hence sometimes you will find a pushy salesman (we do not work on commission by the way) whereas within Apple, targets are not pushed. They have key products they are told to sell, but its not the end of the world if they do not sell them with hardware, hence them not being so pushy, hence leading to a better retail experience.
Only time will tell on Browetts acquisition as to what he will bring to the table....I hope he doesn't bring down the experience at an Apple Store though.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)
If memory serves, Dixons were always terrible. As were Curry's, and PC World.
If memory serves, Dixons were always terrible. As were Curry's, and PC World.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)
Look at what Tim Cook says about this guy. Clearly Tim Has confused a dream he had with an actual meeting with this guy as customer service in the uk from DSG group is ****.
What happened??
****
MacRumors said:
Apple announced this morning that John Browett will be joining Apple as their new Senior Vice President of Retail. Browett will be leaving his current position as CEO of Dixons Retail.Prior to the role of CEO of Dixons Retail, Browett held executive positions at Tesco plc including CEO of Tesco.com, and previously advised retail and consumer goods clients at Boston Consulting Group. B rowett holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Wharton Business School.
Browett replaces Ron Johnson who left Apple for J.C. Penny in November. Johnson has been credited as being the driving force behind Apple's massive success in their retail initiative.
Dixons Retail is one of the largest consumer retailers in Europe with over 40,000 employees. Dixons has already announced that Browett's role will be filled internally by Sebastian James. Browett officially makes the transition to Apple in April.
Article Link: Apple Names John Browett as New Senior Vice President of Retail
Look at what Tim Cook says about this guy. Clearly Tim Has confused a dream he had with an actual meeting with this guy as customer service in the uk from DSG group is ****.
What happened??
****
While surprised that Apple choose someone from the former retailer known as Dixons, a shop not known for anything positive, I don't share the simplistic (IMO) analysis that this reveals the downfall of Apple as though previous to Steve's death he did all the interviewing and chose top management single handedly. Tim Cook is pretty clued in and if one weren't being cynical (ok, I realise cynical is the default position for peeps on fora), its assumable that the interview process for this dude was pretty intensive and meant being interviewed by Tim and the rest of the senior management team. This is very likely largely the same group of people who interviewed Ron Johnson.
Of course under Steve's leadership the executive team made at least one high profile hiring mistake, Mark Papermaster who Apple hired from IBM, then fought a lawsuit with IBM over the hiring, then worked with said Papermaster and subsequently dumped him. According to Wikipedia "...Papermaster's exit from Apple was rather due to "broader cultural incompability", and a loss of confidence from Apple CEO Steve Jobs." It's noted in the Wikipedia article that Bob Mansfield pointedly didn't think Papermaster was right for the job and obviously someone over-ruled him. Wonder who that might have been?
It seems to me that given the proven high quality of executive leadership at Apple the rants here against the new hire with a "sky is falling analysis" from people with no insider information other than the word Dixons is at best premature.
Of course under Steve's leadership the executive team made at least one high profile hiring mistake, Mark Papermaster who Apple hired from IBM, then fought a lawsuit with IBM over the hiring, then worked with said Papermaster and subsequently dumped him. According to Wikipedia "...Papermaster's exit from Apple was rather due to "broader cultural incompability", and a loss of confidence from Apple CEO Steve Jobs." It's noted in the Wikipedia article that Bob Mansfield pointedly didn't think Papermaster was right for the job and obviously someone over-ruled him. Wonder who that might have been?
It seems to me that given the proven high quality of executive leadership at Apple the rants here against the new hire with a "sky is falling analysis" from people with no insider information other than the word Dixons is at best premature.
Site Down
Looks like Dixons website is being intermittently /.'ed. Will be interesting to hear reports on their web traffic.
Looks like Dixons website is being intermittently /.'ed. Will be interesting to hear reports on their web traffic.
An interesting bio from The Guardian gives a different picture of John Browett, one much more positive than some of the assumptions here based on shopping at Dixons.
The death of Apple? Their stock is up almost 1% today to record highs. Their market cap is currently $23B greater than Exxon Mobile. Apple's doing just fine.Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)
My fear too
Is this the death of apple. Let's hope not as dixons group is a joke!!!!!!
Apple what have you done
I can't wait for his first board meeting: "Now Tim what we need to boost sales is to fill the stores with last years models and discount everything to £499 to confuse everyone into thinking they're getting a bargain. Then we'll sell them a vastly over priced warranty which nobody needs but which makes us a shed load of money". Lovely jubbly.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)
Are you this guys friend or something. Duh. It means he comes in a ****s it all up by bringing what he did to the uk stores. Are you so ignorant to ignore all the uk posters? How many have a good word to say about DSG group.
This position is a joke. Screw people over, give
shoddy service, employ unscrupulous people, make the shopping experince horrid. And for it all get a job at apple. Who'd have thought it
Rogifan said:The death of Apple? Their stock is up almost 1% today to record highs. Their market cap is currently $23B greater than Exxon Mobile. Apple's doing just fine.Zxxv said:My fear too
Is this the death of apple. Let's hope not as dixons group is a joke!!!!!!
Apple what have you done
Are you this guys friend or something. Duh. It means he comes in a ****s it all up by bringing what he did to the uk stores. Are you so ignorant to ignore all the uk posters? How many have a good word to say about DSG group.
This position is a joke. Screw people over, give
shoddy service, employ unscrupulous people, make the shopping experince horrid. And for it all get a job at apple. Who'd have thought it