PC World is pants. Still.
And you think I would know better than to shop in PC World, but unless someone can tell me where else I can shop for the odd PC bit in Peterborough where else can I go. So it’s Sunday morning, and I’ve now signed up as a revision3.com member so I can download and view the Live Diggnation in London podcast now rather than waiting for the public release. Now, I don’t want to watch in on the 19″ widescreen monitor, I want to relive it on the 37″ HDTV. Problem,VGA cable too short and moving the PC box is problematic. So I’m in the market for buying a longer VGA cable, and too impatient to wait for delivery online.
So I go into the shop and on the shelf they have a 1.8m VGA extension cable for £24.99. 1.8m was definietly going to be too short. Annoyingly, the bit labelled up 3m VGA extension was empty. So I go ask a member of staff if they have any, just in case they are hiding them in the back or something. First off he takes me back exactly to where I was looking. That is just so annoying when they do that. Then he goes asks a colleague, and comes back again. So then I ask if they have an s-video extension instead, to which he goes back to his colleague, comes back to me and tells me they do, but then he can’t find anything on the shelf. After about several more times waiting going backwards and forwards for about 20 mins, the guy goes, “well, you could always buy 2 of the 1.8m VGA extensions”, to which I said no way at a total price of £50 for something that I knew would still be too short. So I left empty handed.
Just about to get in the car and give up, when I think that maybe, just maybe, that Staples (or Office World whatever they are called) might possibly do some cables. Took a little time to find them cause they were hidden away, but they had the 3m VGA extensions for £9.99 each. So I bought 2 of them. 6m worth of VGA extension cable for less than a 1.8m cable from PC World. And they were both Belkin ones in the same packaging.
So moral of story, no matter how desperate you are, don’t even try to buy anything at PC World. The likelyhood it will be in stock are slim, and if it is it will be way over priced. I should really know better. (BTW - Diggnation on 37″ HDTV does look indeed look awesome.)
October 9th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
You have my sympathy on your shopping trip experience (yes i do hate being lead back to the shelf i’ve already stared at for 5 mins when asking for help!) and PC World do seem to suck. On the other hand I think you are slightly mad for going to all that trouble to watch the Digg episode AGAIN, the one you already saw LIVE! It better be good this one - when’s it go on general release?
October 10th, 2007 at 3:33 am
It’s out now -
http://revision3.com/diggnation/2007-10-04London
And if you want the see the 15 minutes before they started the actual show, some nice person has uploaded it here -
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/858806/diggnation_118_live_in_london_the_bits_you_didnt_see/
It’s still good, but not as good as being there
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:54 am
I searched a PC World in Edinburgh for a S-Video cable and couldn’t find one. I asked one of the shop assistant for a standard 4-pin S-Video cable he looked at me blankly and said sneeringly said, “What’s that?”, as if such a thing never existed. He took me to the tech guys area/enclosure, but they were all out.
There is such a thing as an S-Video cable, isn’t there? I am not crazy, am I? Baaa!!
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
PC World staff are renowned for their retardation. Basically people who know absolutely nothing about computers go there for remedial courses. I they ever learn I don’t know. Maybe they are specially chosen just to make you feel smart? Who knows?
Thanks for the link to staples - - I check there next time I need something.