Dick Smith in store decline

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#1485881 5-Feb-2016 13:01

andrew027:

If we're digging out the Dick Smith memorabilia... this isn't mine (it's just a random picture off the interweb) but one of my flatmates had one of these:

We were both IBM System360 mainframe computer operators at the time and when we weren't playing Space Invaders type games on it, he taught himself some basic programming skills and subsequently got a job as an applications programmer. Good times...

Good gracious !! A System 80. Spent ages typing, modding (sound, voice, 48K RAM, reverse video, etc) playing games, on this thing. Never had the cover on ...

Killed it once when trying to hook into a old valve TV, and vaped a dozen IC's. Fixed it all up thanks to a decent 'scope, and 4Mhz signalling. None of this fancy gigahertz clock speed nonsense !!!

Only ditched it 10 years ago during a move ....

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#1486043 5-Feb-2016 16:08

SepticSceptic:

andrew027: If we're digging out the Dick Smith memorabilia... this isn't mine (it's just a random picture off the interweb) but one of my flatmates had one of these:

We were both IBM System360 mainframe computer operators at the time and when we weren't playing Space Invaders type games on it, he taught himself some basic programming skills and subsequently got a job as an applications programmer. Good times...

Good gracious !! A System 80. Spent ages typing, modding (sound, voice, 48K RAM, reverse video, etc) playing games, on this thing. Never had the cover on ...

Killed it once when trying to hook into a old valve TV, and vaped a dozen IC's. Fixed it all up thanks to a decent 'scope, and 4Mhz signalling. None of this fancy gigahertz clock speed nonsense !!!

Only ditched it 10 years ago during a move ....

Makes you wonder though - perhaps Dick Smith should be marketing at the current equivalent audience, e.g. selling Raspberry Pi, etc. Instead they're basically just a generic appliance store. I remember my wife seeing the slogan "Dick Smith - Talk to the Techxperts" and saying "Who needs a 'techxpert' to buy a kettle or a toaster?" My thought was "Who develops marketing that uses "dick" and "spurts" in the same sentence?"

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#1486097 5-Feb-2016 17:17

I remember these:

hairy1

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#1486113 5-Feb-2016 17:34

My grandparents bought a Laser 200 from Fiji which was a DS VZ200 rip off. I remember typing for hours on that thing.... The tape machine was completely hit and miss for loading and saving programs. We had the RAM upgrade which added 16 kb of ram. The RAM module was bigger than our Fire TV. Awesome!

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

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#1486116 5-Feb-2016 17:38

MurrayM:

I remember these:

That was the first home computer I ever had. Back in 1983 I think it was. I learned to write my own programs on it.

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#1486460 6-Feb-2016 13:56

There's no money in selling Raspberry Pi etc...

The only people I see really doing well in the computer space are PB Tech, the stores are crowded, they import products to cut out the middle man and the range is only getting broader. A little too broad in some categories (with low'ish product knowledge in the TV space as an example) but all in all, they do Bricks 'n Mortar well.

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#1486478 6-Feb-2016 14:34

Dunnersfella:

There's no money in selling Raspberry Pi etc...

The only people I see really doing well in the computer space are PB Tech, the stores are crowded, they import products to cut out the middle man and the range is only getting broader. A little too broad in some categories (with low'ish product knowledge in the TV space as an example) but all in all, they do Bricks 'n Mortar well.

PB Tech stores are great judging by the Queen Street and Christchurch shops I have been into. Every time I buy something at PB Tech I have a happy time browsing around looking at the range of stuff they are stocking.

Maybe *some* of the DSE staff will finish up getting jobs there. The ones that are pleasant, helpful, & hard working. I can think of two or three at DSE Riccarton that fit that description, but even more that do not.

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#1486483 6-Feb-2016 14:46

amiga500:

Dunnersfella:

There's no money in selling Raspberry Pi etc...

The only people I see really doing well in the computer space are PB Tech, the stores are crowded, they import products to cut out the middle man and the range is only getting broader. A little too broad in some categories (with low'ish product knowledge in the TV space as an example) but all in all, they do Bricks 'n Mortar well.

PB Tech stores are great judging by the Queen Street and Christchurch shops I have been into. Every time I buy something at PB Tech I have a happy time browsing around looking at the range of stuff they are stocking.

Maybe *some* of the DSE staff will finish up getting jobs there. The ones that are pleasant, helpful, & hard working. I can think of two or three at DSE Riccarton that fit that description, but even more that do not.

The downsize is the competition for sales between sales people. I had a sales guy remove a co-workers card from a quote the other day, then staple his own card to the quotation. I guess it was for a potential 20k of business... but still...

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#1486621 6-Feb-2016 18:45

The patchy level of stocking persists. Heaps of Samsung monitors, lots of TV's. Some printers. Plenty of Dick Smith branded cables. Plenty of Dick Smith flash drives. However, other things look to be in short supply. For example laptops - pretty much the same as a week ago. They appear to only have display computers left, in the recent past they would stack up the actual laptop boxes if they were on special. If this is the case it looks as if they have sold virtually no laptops in the last week. As for portable hard drives, about a month ago they put an apology sign saying more portable hard drives would be arriving in 'three weeks'. Now, those apology signs have been taken down and the only hard drives they have are four or five very expensive desktop expansion drives (3.5 inch type). Now, I may be wrong but the removal of the un-dated apology signs seems to mean that they don't expect more hard drives any time soon. Interestingly, at the other end of the mall Noel Leeming have just got in a whole lot of of those 1 tb. Seagate drives & they have a good special on them.

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#1486630 6-Feb-2016 18:55

JayADee:
amiga500: A guy called Steve Biddle posted to his twitter account a photo of a bin of 56k modems. In reply others asked if he had seen any Iomega zip drives! No wonder commentators in Oz question the real value of their inventory.

Lol I can lay hands on one of those drives. I really need to clean out that cupboard!

If you find the Zip drive check that it is not making 'the click of death' that some made.

It would be bad karma for DSE to sell these in the current environment. Lol.

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#1490072 11-Feb-2016 07:05

So the flatmate is not to happy

He purchased a kindle voyage back in oct/november from DSE, now it has stop working and pi**ed that if he takes it back to DSE he will just be an "unsecured creditor".

Do you think if he contacts amazon about it they will do something?

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#1490092 11-Feb-2016 07:50

amiga500:

The patchy level of stocking persists. Heaps of Samsung monitors, lots of TV's. Some printers. Plenty of Dick Smith branded cables. Plenty of Dick Smith flash drives. However, other things look to be in short supply. For example laptops - pretty much the same as a week ago. They appear to only have display computers left, in the recent past they would stack up the actual laptop boxes if they were on special. If this is the case it looks as if they have sold virtually no laptops in the last week. As for portable hard drives, about a month ago they put an apology sign saying more portable hard drives would be arriving in 'three weeks'. Now, those apology signs have been taken down and the only hard drives they have are four or five very expensive desktop expansion drives (3.5 inch type). Now, I may be wrong but the removal of the un-dated apology signs seems to mean that they don't expect more hard drives any time soon. Interestingly, at the other end of the mall Noel Leeming have just got in a whole lot of of those 1 tb. Seagate drives & they have a good special on them.

It's hardly surprising they have no stock. If you were a big supplier owed money already would you send them further stock without cash up front to pay for it?

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#1490097 11-Feb-2016 07:57

tripp:

So the flatmate is not to happy

He purchased a kindle voyage back in oct/november from DSE, now it has stop working and pi**ed that if he takes it back to DSE he will just be an "unsecured creditor".

Do you think if he contacts amazon about it they will do something?

Based on my anecdotal experience, yes.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

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#1490100 11-Feb-2016 08:03

tripp:

So the flatmate is not to happy

He purchased a kindle voyage back in oct/november from DSE, now it has stop working and pi**ed that if he takes it back to DSE he will just be an "unsecured creditor".

Do you think if he contacts amazon about it they will do something?

You could try, you never know what could happen. My multiple dealings with Amazon customer support for order and shipping related issues have all been great.

The receivers have told everybody they should have confidence buying products, if Dick Smith try and give you the runaround I'm sure you'll find some mainstream media after come clickbait stories will be happy to trash Dick Smith again. You could also try approaching the receivers directly and ask them how they propose to resolve the issue if the store won't help.

Kyanar

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#1490364 11-Feb-2016 13:42

tripp:

So the flatmate is not to happy

He purchased a kindle voyage back in oct/november from DSE, now it has stop working and pi**ed that if he takes it back to DSE he will just be an "unsecured creditor".

Do you think if he contacts amazon about it they will do something?

Contact Amazon directly. They're super keen on protecting their image, so highly likely they'll be willing to take the hit to make sure they keep a happy customer. I've had to replace a kindle that was way out of warranty before, and even though they weren't required to abide by Consumer Guarantees Act, they happily offered to replace it at a pittance ($60 when retail was still $200) and cover the shipping for both the new one and returning the broken one.

They may ask you to ship it back at your own expense and then provide them the cost of shipping which they'll refund.

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