Currys PC World customers left furious after failing to receive refunds

Currys PC World appears to have fallen victim to its own success in the last month – after seeing sales of gadgets and appliances surge online during the coronavirus-linked lockdown, the tech giant is now facing a huge pile of complaints. 

Angry customers have revealed their frustration with the company after having to wait up to five hours on the phone to get through to its customer service centre.

A number of people have struggled to receive refunds for faulty products or cancel expected deliveries with many failing to speak to anyone from the firms customer service team at all. 

Currys PC World has also removed the option for customers to email in their problems, meaning they have to wait for either a webchat service agent to become available or wait, sometimes for hours at a time, on the line to customer services until they get through.  

One reader, Cheryl Barstow, 67, got in touch to say she received a fridge-freezer from the company on 18 March but realised by 1 April that it wasn’t working properly.

The freezer wouldn’t stay cold and, as a result, she has had to throw a large amount of food away – a waste of money, and while in lockdown, even more of a pain to replace. 

She tried to get through to the customer services helpline multiple times but said she was never able to get through. 

It wasn’t until mid-April that she managed to get through to someone on the webchat service who promised that a return phone call within 30 minutes. However, this never came.

Cheryl, from North Wales, said: ‘As you can imagine I am at my wits’ end. Having to throw away food seems criminal.’

Weeks later, she is still waiting for a response from Currys PC World but so far, has had no contact.

We were expected to leave our old dishwasher outside 

Another customer, Jon Taverner, 66, said he ordered a dishwasher online, and having looked carefully at the terms, paid extra for what he thought was the old appliance to be taken away and the new one installed.

He said: ‘I understood that as long as social distancing was maintained, there would not be a problem. 

‘The delivery driver rang us to say that he was on his way but that the old dishwasher must be outside and that he could not enter the house with the new one and that he would leave it outside.

‘Unfortunately, this could not be done as both my wife and I are elderly and I am unable to lift heavy loads. We, therefore, cancelled the delivery.’

Jon, from Greater Manchester, never heard back from Currys and felt that he had to contact them to ensure that the cancellation had been officially logged and that their refund of £429 was on its way.

However, he was unable to do so as the chat agent always seemed to be engaged and each time he called, he waited for more than hour to get through to someone. 

He is still now waiting for confirmation his order is cancelled – and a refund.

Alison Litten, 65, had a similar experience after she realised she had mistakenly ordered three items from Currys PC World, alongside other items that she had ordered correctly.

She called the customer service line to give the correct item numbers as she did not want the ordered cancelled.

Whilst she did receive the TV she ordered, she then got an email saying her request of cancellation for all the other items was being processed, despite her not wanting them to be.

She has since been trying to get a refund of £314.97 – the total of the other items that Currys have cancelled.

Alison, from Suffolk, said she has spent hours on the phone trying to get this sorted only to be transferred and then cut off most times. 

When she did get through to someone they said they cannot handle refunds but she cannot find out where they do.

Alison said: ‘I am 65 years old, I cannot afford not to receive this refund but additionally I cannot spend hours on the phone either.

‘Incidentally, after spending five hours on the phone the day I placed the order, my mobile phone company disconnected me because they said I was not using my phone for the purpose intended.’

She has now been waiting more than 33 days to get her money back.  

This is Money has contacted Currys PC World for comment but at time of publication, we haven’t received a response. 

Other customers have taken to social media and Trustpilot to vent their frustration.  

The problem of call centres working from home? 

The waiting time for refunds is likely to be down to the pandemic meaning that the customer service team are working from home. 

This in itself creates many problems for major firms – not just Currys PC World – with staff potentially having bad signal on their phone at home. 

Currys PC World is busy at the moment, with Britons swamping to its online store. It recently reported an increase in sales of 166 per cent in the five weeks leading up to 25 April on the same time the year before.

It said that, in April, it has seen strong demand for home office equipment including computers and home networking as people work and communicate remotely. Gaming and TV sales have also been strong.

It added that refrigeration and food preparation products including bread makers have sold particularly well. The latter part of the month has also seen increased sales for personal care products and fitness trackers.

By contrast, sales for other major domestic appliances have fallen as home moves stall and the imaging market continues to decline.