Big Byte product reviews

Since I have been in the PC Hardware Retail industry myself, I thought I would test how well the new generation of salepeople were being trained. Could they spot a situation that could easily cost the company? Let's find out.

Take one knackered 40gb hard drive unit, and start by finding out if the target business actually stocks them. In this case, it did, so on to the next phase. Wander in, encounter the salesman at the PC Clinic, buy the drive, confirm that if I encounter any issues I could get a refund, and head off.

An hour later, I rang the chap back and explained that the drive wasn't functioning correctly. Grab the other, pre-defective drive and head back to the store, sales invoice in hand. "It doesn't work..."

"Erm, excuse me sir, but this is not the drive I sold you. It's a different unit." "No, sorry mate, you must be mistaken. That IS the drive I bought off you about an hour ago." "No sir, I can assure you it isn't. As you can see here, this drive was indentical to the one I sold you, and these two drives are not the same at all! They are 2 models apart!"

"OK, well done... Time to let you off the hook... I work for a review company and you've just been Mystery Shopped. Out of the three stores I have hit with that one today, you're the only one who picked that up!"

So now the scene is set, here's how it seemed to me... The salesman was very friendly, knowledgeable and quite on-to-it overall. Did well to spot the drive swap, making him a valuable resource for the company.

The range of stock in the shop was pretty comprehensive, but somewhat restricted to a minimal number of brands in each range. The apparent quality was quite high, however there were some budget brands sneaking in an appearance here and there.

But the store was very sparce, stale and drab. There was no warmth to it, and it really gave me the impression of a warehouse with sales staff, not a comforting retail outlet at all.

Overall, I was impressed with a few aspects of the visit, but overall, not my idea of a place to take pleasure in shopping for new gear, more a destination shop to walk in, pick up, and head out.