One less customer…

On my way back from the hospital, I popped into Currys, to look at their microwaves, as mine has recently conked out. While there I took a look at their gas cookers, as I intend to replace my old one, now that the kitchen is done.

I’ve been looking around for a few weeks, but hadn’t seen anything outstanding. But today I saw it – a Zanussi which was the right size (55cm), has a fold-up glass surface (so increases my usable counter top) and has a dual oven – the smaller top oven being so much more economical when cooking for one. An electronic timer, nice easy controls – all in all it looked perfect.

Then I noticed that the front was stainless steel, which is a no-no for me. Walking around the display, I saw the equivalent model, in white, but it was 60cm wide.

So I caught the eye of an assistant, and asked him to check if the white version also came in 55cm.

He walked between the two cookers about 3 times… looked at me, and said “this one is 55cm, mate” (Chris grinds teeth at the “mate”, which is probably why I need an orthodontist). I pointed out that it was stainless steel, which is why I was asking him if the white version comes in 55cm. He then went off to look at his computer.

I was standing there for 15 minutes, while he looked at the screen, while chatting to two of his mates. Eventually, I walked over, and was looking over his shoulder. He didn’t like that.

“There you go, that is white and 55cm.”

“But it’s not the same model, it’s not even a Zanussi!”

“Oh” he said, and walked back to look at the two cookers again.

I left.

When I got home, five minutes with Google, and I know that ZCG551GWC is the white 55cm version of this cooker. And it is available from a number of people, but apparently not Currys.

4 Comments

  1. December 17, 2010
    Reply

    That’s a total “Fives” failure right there. I hope one of our mystery shoppers catches him doing that, ASAP. =:o

    Our systems don’t exactly make it easy to find out about “same model, different colour” on things (often the best way is to take down the model number of the “wrong colour” model (hoping it’s been transcribed accurately to our sysem from the manufacturer), pull up the manufacturer’s website, find out *their* model code for the colour you want, then head back to our own system and hope (again) that that model number has been transcribed accurately…), but he clearly wasn’t even trying. And that’s quite apart from a complete faily to “engage” with the customer, which is supposed to come first (and which, even if he hadn’t got it right first time, would have allowed him to see your reaction to “mate”, apologise, and switch modes of address to match you).

    • December 17, 2010
      Reply

      “faily” = “failure”. Other typos may exist which have not as yet been detected. =:o}

      • December 17, 2010
        Reply

        If I see ‘faily’ (which sounds vaguely Scots to me) become a replacement for ‘failure’ I’ll know who to blame *g*.

        If you want a totally confusing system for trying to find something similar to something you’ve already found, try the Maplin online catalogue. It’s impossible, because they use their own numbers for everything and very often don’t even have the original numbers except on the physical item. With white goods that’s less excusable.

    • chris
      December 17, 2010
      Reply

      Yes, that is exactly what I did in Google. I looked at the codes for both the 55cm SS and the 60cm white. I took the ZCG551 from one and added the GWC from the other. Instant match.

Leave a Reply to keristor Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *