Our Mystery Shopper is out around Bolton wanting to buy a graphics tablet. We want to see what staffs recommends and if they know much about them, money isn’t too much of a concern as long as the product is good.
PC World
The store staff were busy in numerous locations as I entered, from the central aisle I could see the graphic tablet section was clearly sign posted with large lettering. The display was a full dedicated 2m bay with 3 shelves filled with different graphics tablets. There were 2 different sized Trust tablets; the smaller was £34.24 and £49.99 and 4 different Wacom Bamboo tablets; ranging from £59.99 to £169.99 and the most expensive tablet was a Wacom Intuos Tablet which was £199.99. In support of the display a 32” screen was connected up to the £79.99 Wacom Bamboo allowing customers to try the product.
I spent at least 10 minutes in the area playing around with the demo unit before I tried to get some staff attention. I wandered back to the centre of the store and approached 2 staff members working on a computer together, “Hi, I was looking at your graphics tablets and was wondering what the difference was between the products?” The female staff member referred me to her colleague Danny who smiled, stood up and took me back to the display.
I asked Danny why the £199.99 Wacom Intuos was a lot more expensive than the majority of the tablets on the shelf, he proceeded to pick up the respective box and began to read the back. After a minute he looked up, “This one has got buttons on it which are customisable, this model is top of the range and has Corel Draw included as well.” “Oh, so these other cheaper models don’t have Corel with them?” Silence fell so I asked if there was any literature I could take home with me. “Yes I can print off the specs if you want, it will have more detailed information for you.”
Less than 5 minutes later Danny returned with 4 different types of specs for the graphics tablets, he pointed out the description and then pointed to the section that told you what was in the box; I thanked him for his time and left with the specs. Unfortunately the specs did not really have enough information, I could see that Photoshop software was included in the Wacom Bamboo Fun Medium Graphics Tablet priced £159.99, Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen Touch Medium Graphics Tablet priced £169.99 and the Wacom Intuos 4 Small Pen Tablet priced £199.99 but none said about the inclusion of Corel Draw. The information was a bit vague giving a description as to what a graphics tablet does and that the majority are both compatible with Mac and PC.
The shopping experience was good aided by the store layout, excellent range of products and the great demo unit. I was expecting PC World to have the best variety although the information gained through conversation was not enough to sell me the product.
8/10
Curry’s
The large store made finding the graphics tablets very difficult, after walking around the PC and consumer electronics sections for a while I gave up and went to find some assistance at the customer service desk.
I enquired with the lady behind the counter who arranged for a sales person to come and help me. After a minute or two a young man dressed in the typical Currys uniform approached me and asked how he could help. I explained my plight and we set off to the PC section to review the products available.
The two Graphics Tablets available were placed on the bottom shelf next to a multitude of computer mice; both products were Wacom Bamboo units displayed in brightly coloured boxes. “Is this what you mean?” “Yes” I replied, “What is the difference between the two, is it just the colour of the box?” He proceeded to read and compare the back of both boxes “I think it’s a difference in size and included software.” “The blue boxed unit is the pen and touch version and has extra software included, Adobe Photoshop.””The green boxed one doesn’t have the touch feature just the pen is used.” “So what is the difference in price?” I asked as there was no sign of any price labels on the shelf. “I’ll go and look them up for you; the shelves are being redressed today so the labels are changing.”
He was gone only a few moments, “The entry one is £59.99 (Green) and the other one (Blue Pen and Touch) is £79.99”. “I have never used one of these; when they first came out they weren’t accurate enough. I don’t know how good they are now. I presume they are good because people buy them and don’t bring them back.” I thanked him for his advice and said that I would have a think about which one I wanted.
The experience was not quite what I expected, although it was a large store and part of the DSGi group the range available was much smaller than PC World. The service was friendly and helpful but all information was gleaned from the rear of the box and the final backward compliment was very odd.
6/10
Curry’s Digital
On entering this Curry’s Digital store which was situated on the main street in Bolton town centre I had only just gotten past the alarm barriers when I was approached by a girl called Sara. She was dressed in the normal uniform of Curry’s Digital sales assistant’s and asked how she could help.
I explained my desire for a graphics tablet and Sara told me to follow her “Sometimes we do get the odd one in.” After checking a few shelves she said she was very sorry but they did not have any in store. “You could try our bigger Curry’s store on the Retail Park or PC World but there are no other stores in Bolton town centre that may sell them.”
The market for graphic tablets is not as large as PC Mice but to have a couple of units on display would have been useful even to drive interest and customers to the demo ready PC World display out of town. Sara was attentive and helpful enough, she gave some alternative stores to visit both in the same DSGi group as expected but the visit was ultimately doomed to fail.
5/10
Comet
This was an average looking Comet store and as I walked in I was greeted straight away by a smiling lady called Kathy “How can I help you today?” she chirped happily, wow someone who was genuinely smiling. Kathy’s optimism made me smile as well; just goes to show it is infectious.
Unfortunately this did not last for too long as after I told her what I wanted I was met by the all too re-occurring sentence “I’m sorry but we don’t have them in store.” “Oh” I said disappointedly to which Kathy replied “I think your best bet would be to go to PC World in the retail park at the other end of town or you could probably get a better deal if you tried online.”
I thanked Kathy for her time and left the store, I was happy with the overall customer service I had received; Kathy was friendly and gave an appropriate recommendation. Her upbeat attitude had cheered me up as well, which got Comet another point in my eyes.
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5/10
Zen Computers
Located on a business park in Salford the store looked more like a house inside and as I was making my way up the stairs a gentleman came out of a door and asked how he could help.
Martin was dressed in trousers and a jumper and the room itself was filled with different computers, boxes and other electrical equipment, I could see that this was not a store which sold items off the shelf. I explained that I was after a graphics tablet. “I can’t give you one today but I can order you one and it will be here tomorrow”.
“Would you like me to show one working?” “This is a Wacom graphics tablet it’s a nice A4 size and is very easy to use, it comes with a pen which you use to draw on it and this one is great if you have to trace designs with this in-built transparent sheet.” I asked how much they were, “Well depending on which size you want I think this one is around £150 but I’ve had it for 15 years so it is not like you need to re-new them once you’ve bought it, it doesn’t need upgrading like computers do. If you give me your e-mail address I will e-mail the list with prices if you want?” I did so, thanked him for his time and left.
The next morning just after 10am I received an e-mail from Martin who as he promised sent me a list of the various types of graphics tablets with prices. In the e-mail he told me that there are 2 different types of Wacom Tablets the entry level Bamboo and the higher end Intuos. Further information was available at the Wacom web site for each type. The prices where as follows:
Bamboo Fun A6 Wide Tablet + Pen (White) USB Mac/Win – £74
Bamboo Fun A5 Tablet + Pen (White) USB Mac/Win – £140
Intuos 4 Small USB Mac/Win – £174
Intuos 4 Medium USB Mac/Win – £286
Intuos 4 Large USB Mac/Win – £373
Prices shown are ex-VAT E&OE
The visit was very good; Martin was very friendly and showed great enthusiasm for the products. Whilst the store did not have an immediate range available in comparison to PC World Zen Computers could have ordered it for me, with next day delivery.
7/10
PC Retail Issue 75 – Mystery Shopper Graphics Tablet