Comet
 

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 5 Nov 2012 22:51:23 +0000, tony sayer
wrote:

Didn't bother to look in Comet or Curry's as I knew what sort of clap
trap I was going the get there anyway!...


If you'd looked at, Currys, you might have realised there's no
apostrophe.

Mea maxima culpa;!(...

Started off as Curry and then became Curry and Sons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cu...gate_1903.jpeg
--

Martin


Therefore it should have an apostrophe, short for Curry's shop. If it had
been Currys - an unlikely name - then it would be Currys' to avoid the
discomfort of Currys's. Marks and Spencer is the name on that shop front -
but Marks and Spencer's is fine, following the same rules.

Comet
 

On Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:10:32 -0000, Roderick Stewart
wrote:

In article , Jim Lesurf wrote:
You appear to be suggesting that we should buy things in shops at higher
prices than we could obtain elsewhere in order to ensure that the shops
remain in business.

You appear to be misunderstanding what I actually wrote. I was simply
pointing out that in some cases we may judge it "advantageous" to buy "in
shops" if we decide that will be "advantageous" for us with respect to
future dealings, etc, and we judge that worth the higher up-front price.

I'm having difficulty thinking of anything that could be considered
advantageous these days in buying something from a shop, and thereby helping
to keep it in existence, as opposed to buying it elsewhere at a lower price.
Once upon a time the shops would be able to provide advice and assistance
with specialist products, which it could be argued had a value, but those
days are well gone. Now umpteen online vendors compete against each other on
price, delivery and range of products, and the shops aren't even bothering
to compete with them.

I can see several advantages in using a physical store. It gives us a
chance to view the product when buying, we can often take the product
away straight away (rather than having to wait in all day for a
delivery), and there are still specialist places that give good advice
and service. Also it is easier to take a faulty product back to a
shop than to test out the awful call centre or badly designed web site
to get a RMA number.

I use both physical stores and online retailers as appropriate. There
are many products I just can't get locally.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) If a man stands in a forest and no woman is around
(")_(") is he still wrong?

Comet
 

In article , Scott
wrote:
On Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:33:30 +0000, Peter Johnson
wrote:

On Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:28:15 +0000 (GMT), Jim Lesurf
wrote:


He then simply relied on the makers (i.e. us) to sort out any problems
or questions after sale. Whereas our established specialist dealers
would actively help customers sort out things out when they made
errors or didn't know what to do. The result was bad for customers,
makers, and specialist retailers who charged more but would then help
customers.

This is the Dixons/Currys/PC World model. Some years ago I read an
article that explained that Dixons had gone to the makers of white
goods, saying something to the effect 'You test all this stuff before
you ship it, you rarely find anything wrong and it costs you loads. Why
not ship the stuff to us untested and we'll split the saving. If
anything is returned faulty, we'll replace it (and you'll pay).'

I can remember in my student days there was a rumour that Comet
negotiated a deal with manufacturers that the goods would be of lower
quality in return for a discount. I was sceptical at the time as I
could not see how the manufacturers could produce goods of differential
quality depending on the customer.

That didn't happen so far as we were concerned. I am not certain now, but I
think Comet did try and get a 'lower price because we buy a lot' but we
refused. The reason being that we felt that we could easily end up becoming
'captive' to one retailer who could then dictate the price to us or drop us
- once they'd driven most other dealers out of the market. We felt it was
in our interest as well as that of end-users to have many dealers and
retailers in the market. And that specialist dealers were already under
pressure due to the costs of helping their customers.

The difficulty back then was that audio was a growing sector, but often
needed some knowledge to assemble a suitable (and safe!) combination of
speakers, amp, tuner, etc. Not all items were compatible. So there was a
risk that people would buy the cheapest or most-fancied 'box' for each
item, then have real problems getting them to play nicely together. Whereas
a specialist dealer would know what combinations would suit, and which
would prove a nightmare. T'was decades ago, though.

People can still be caught out, though. e.g. a while ago I realised that
some comments about old Quad FM tuners 'lacking bass' were because some
people had started using them with modern amplifiers that have an
input impedance as low as around 10kOhms. This interacts with the
output d.c. block caps in the tuner and rolls away the bass rather early.
Back when the tuner was designed Quad took for granted that any
amp input for a tuner would have an input impedance more like 50k or
higher. (I've seen similar problems with modern kit of other kinds.)

Problems like that can be avoided by someone knowing the necessary
details and spot when a combination will give a problem. Nothing
wrong about either item. Just that they don't go together well unless
one of them is modified.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

Comet
 

On Mon, 05 Nov 2012 06:35:47 -0000, Roderick Stewart
wrote:

--snip--

Another aspect of this is that economy of scale and the increased
reliability of mass produced electronics

I don't think mass produced electronics has improved in reliability.
Quite the opposite actually. I've got electronics from the 1970s and
80s nearly all still working yet most modern devices fail after a
couple of years.

eventually made it cheaper to
throw away something that was faulty and replace it with a new one than to
pay for the time of an expert who could fix it. Sadly, all that electronic
knowledge that had come back from the war and filtered down one generation
or thereabouts eventually became useless as a means of earning a living.
This means we are now in a situation where any new piece of technology
offered to the public is expected to be developed to a stage where it's
idiot proof before it's sold, because it has to be otherwise it won't
survive.

Things don't survive. However this doesn't matter[1] so much since
there is always a new model out to "upgrade" to when the old one
fails.

[1] To most consumers. It annoys me.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) If a man stands in a forest and no woman is around
(")_(") is he still wrong?

Comet
 

On Sun, 04 Nov 2012 09:40:21 -0000, Roderick Stewart
wrote:

In article , Mark Carver wrote:
There's another problem that Comet suffered from (though Currys/DSG are no
different either). They hold little to no stock on site, particularly large
items, so you need to get it delivered, and often with a 20 quid delivery
charge slapped on. In the past, I've stuffed a washing machine in the back of
the car, and driven home there and then.

On the other hand, when I bought my washing machine from Comet, I realised it
would need to be delivered anyway, so decided to order it online. I was
astonished to find that you could specify not only the delivery day at the time
of ordering, but even (for a little extra) whether you wanted a morning or
afternoon delivery, including Sundays.

That must have been at least 10 years ago, but even Amazon don't offer that
service now. Standard procedure is that a courier will attempt to deliver while
you're out and leave one of those little cards and you then go to a website and
specify a day for their second attempt. It must cost them more to visit every
other house twice instead of once, and you have to set aside a whole day, not
half a day, to wait for them. If Comet could get this right, why can't the
others?

I find many companies' delivery processes are poor. Often they arrive
outside the stated time, and several times I have found one of the
"while you were out" cards on my doormat when I was in all day, I
assume because the delivery person can't be bothered to ring the
doorbell, placed conspicuously by the front door.

And then there's some who just dump the item in a recycling box out
the front and don't even put a note through the door. I once found a
parcel in a recycle box I had left on the kerbside on collection day!
It's a miracle it wasn't taken by the bin men.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) If a man stands in a forest and no woman is around
(")_(") is he still wrong?

Comet
 

On Sun, 04 Nov 2012 12:21:38 -0000, Roderick Stewart
wrote:

In article , Richard Tobin wrote:
I suspect that the additional cost of choosing a time of day for
delivery of a washing machine is a much lower proportion of both the
overall price and the delivery cost than for (say) a book, so it would
probably not be so popular for Amazon. Also, they can't really leave
a washing machine with a neighbour if you're out.

For anything delivered by courier, a delivery will require two visits if
nobody is at home the first time. If you can specify when you will be at
home, the delivery will only require one visit. It would actually save
the delivery companies time and fuel, and therefore money, if customers
could specify a delivery date.

Large online retailers like Amazon can usually show on their web pages
whether they have an item in stock, and they surely know how long it
takes to get things packed and onto a van. It shouldn't be too difficult
to set up some deal whereby customers' delivery preferences are
collected and conveyed to the couriers *at the time of ordering* instead
of after an unsuccessful delivery attempt.

In several cases I have been unable to specify a delivery preference
even after one failed delivery. One courier is particularly unhelpful
and will only redeliver at their convenience, even when I told them I
would be out on the date they specified.

I could see no moral problem
with a surcharge for a delivery specified but not met, but normally it
would save everybody time and money and give them happier customers.

As long as they pay us compensation if they fail to meet their own
delivery times.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) If a man stands in a forest and no woman is around
(")_(") is he still wrong?

Comet
 

In article ,
Martin wrote:

Currys seems to be a reasonable name for a shop owned by more than one
Curry.

According to the normal rule for English plurals, that would be
"Curries".

In any case, I see no reason to allow businesses to decide how we
spell or punctuate their names.

-- Richard

Comet
 

In article ,
Mark wrote:

I can see several advantages in using a physical store. It gives us a
chance to view the product when buying

I think this is the only long-term advantage. Delivery services are
improving, and I have never had better advice from a shop than I
got from browsing the web.

As well as customers, manufacturers of (good) products have an
interest in letting you see before you buy, so perhaps there will be a
trend towards manufacturer-owned shops where you can examine the
physical objects. The manufacturer will benefit even if you buy
online.

-- Richard

Comet
 

On Tue, 6 Nov 2012 09:16:15 -0000, Geoff Pearson
wrote:

Started off as Curry and then became Curry and Sons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cu...gate_1903.jpeg

Therefore it should have an apostrophe, short for Curry's shop.

No it shouldn't. Do you have a problem with the concept of plurals?

Are you a greengrocer?

Comet
 

In article , Richard Tobin
wrote:
In article , Mark
wrote:

I can see several advantages in using a physical store. It gives us a
chance to view the product when buying

I think this is the only long-term advantage. Delivery services are
improving, and I have never had better advice from a shop than I got
from browsing the web.

I've often had better advice from a shop.

As well as customers, manufacturers of (good) products have an interest
in letting you see before you buy, so perhaps there will be a trend
towards manufacturer-owned shops where you can examine the physical
objects. The manufacturer will benefit even if you buy online.

But may lose out if the retail thins down to a few 'cheap with no help' web
dealers who try to dicate factory price whilst shoving any need for advice
and support onto the makers.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html