Dixons stores panned in best shops survey

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 29 Jan 2009 at 10:59

A customer service survey conducted by consumer watchdog Which? makes uncomfortable reading for the troubled Dixons Stores Group (DSGi).

Currys Digital, Currys and PC World - all owned by DSGi - occupy the bottom three slots among electrical retailers, with all three scoring a customer satisfaction score of below 50%.

The survey of more than 14,000 Which? readers asked respondents to rate shops on "everything from products to price".

The Which? readers certainly weren't afraid to offer their opinion on the Dixons' stores. Currys Digital staff are described as "unhelpful and unknowledgeable", while one person described the store "as big, brash and impersonal".

The one bright note for Dixons is that Currys online store did "substantially better than its high-street shops".

The Dixons Stores Group announced earlier this month that computing sales slumped by 12% in the normally busy Christmas period.

Top shops

John Lewis, independent retailers and Co-Op were ranked as the top three electrical retailers in the Which? survey. John Lewis was the only electrical retailer to score maximum ratings for environment and staff, product and price.

Independent retailers also came out top in the ranking of mobile phone stores, with Tesco and Virgin completing the top three.

Vodafone was joint bottom of the pile along with Phones 4U - the latter being criticised for "being more interested in selling specific products than giving customers what they want."