Maplin

I'm never sure if Maplin is on the cutting edge or a UK version of Radio Shack, stuck in a time warp. Stopped here for some basic audio equipment and paid some decent prices. Surely I could have gotten it cheaper on Amazon, but I needed it same day.

I have been in this store to buy a hard disk. I didn't know products, prices but the service is very helpful. They can advise me, they know their products and their jobs. Beside, they doesn't search to sell you the most expensive product but only what you really need.
Finally, I have bought a hard disk, 500 GB, USB 2... for 69£ and I'm not disappointing about it.
If I need other electronics stuffs sure, I will go here.

If you order on-line and collect in store the price you're charged will be the store price, even though the price in your basket will be the online price. They get away with this because they don't include the price on your reservation email or on the final page you click on to reserve, so the first you know of this con is when you pay in the shop. I was not the only person in the store that commented on this when I was there,but the customer service adviser was more interested in practicing his training speech than listening to what i was saying.
This to me shows it's a common way that maplin misleads it's customers and on purpose (either the store staff could feed this back to head office but choose not to, or they do feed it back and head office chooses not to act, so misleading either way).
Avoid this store unless you want to be conned, especially if you need to travel to get there. No one likes a long journey, only for the shop to change the price once you get there.

Been there a couple of times and found the staff very helpful. They suggested a different product to the one I was thought was correct and it was a little bit cheaper. I have no problems shopping there and probably will do again.