Κωτσόβολος - Καβάλα - Averof

✋?

Friendly staff very helpful

Super

Terible shopping experience and outdated policies on returning purchases. Dont make the mistake and buy something without a thorough check on competition prices. You may be paying a hefty overcharge!!

a good, 'traditional' if i may say so, electronics store for Kavala. i've never had a problem with customer service, on the contrary, quite helpful and polite, informative. prices could be better.

Administration and sales staff in the Kavala store are super helpful and obliging. Prices are OK and probably helped by the fact that Kotsovolos is practically the only chain in Greece that offers instalment deals. Having said that, even though Kotsovolos are part of the Dixons group, they are steeped in bureaucracy, maladministration, obsolete stock control and ordering systems (remember MS-DOS, anyone? Yes, Kotsovolos are still using an MS-DOS application to control stock and pricing; doesn't their risk manager warn them of the security risk to business and customers? Do they even have a risk manager?). My guess is that they take an "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" approach to electronic infrastructure, to the detriment, of course, of their customers and staff. Example: their online ordering system is not automated. If you order on instalments, a human still needs to process that order and you'll still physically have to sign contract documentation. More often than not, an online order will not even register with their processing department unless you call them later. If an item is not in stock, they will still charge you your instalments even before delivering it. And God save you if your item is discontinued or the supplier has limited stock. To cancel or change an item means that your *entire order* must be cancelled and a new order created, for which you will need to sign again *in person*. There is evidence of large turnover of staff in their Athens offices, as it seems that the entire business is carried on by a handful of "experienced" people who can navigate the chaotic IT and actual paper trail set up of the organisation. Helpline waiting times are ludicrous (had to wait more than 60' once) and there is no guarantee you will speak to someone who actually knows what they are doing. Inexperienced staff have put the phone down on me when they realised that my order scenario was too complicated for them to handle. Local branches are at the mercy of this centralised (mal)administration. I've had super-helpful ladies at the Kavala branch call "central" and specifically ask their colleague on the phone how long they have been with the company. If less than a year, they then ask to speak to someone else. It took us more than 5 months to receive an oven, a fan extractor, a small hob, a TV and a fridge. Orders had to be cancelled and recreated 4 times so we could get something that actually *was* in stock. The deposit was returned once so that it could be repaid later, rather than simply transferring it from one order to the next. We are still not out of the woods when it comes to crediting instalments already paid to the current deal. Two gift coupons worth €70 that were part of the deal were cancelled because someone centrally cancelled the order and reissued it (probably to balance something out in an odyssey of orders created and then cancelled because of stock issues). We are now waiting for them to be issued anew. Overall, in 2021 and amid Coronavirus lockdowns Kotsovolos is frightfully unprepared for the digital age and distance selling. Their processes are obsolete, non-lean, inefficient and probably costing them hundreds of thousand euro in wasted staff hours. Their IT systems are insecure and it's only a matter of time before they are exposed to a data breach or worse. Equally significantly, this inflexible infrastructure probably costs them millions in staff turnover and training hours. Last but not least, their colossal paper trail probably makes them one of the least sustainable organisations of its size in Greece.

We were in a predicament! We needed to confirm a purchase by the end of the day, by paying in a deposit to secure our order that was made in another town. We had rushed around, not managing to go back to the store to pay the deposit, due to transport issues.. then arriving in KAVALA late afternoon (our next stop over before we reach our destination the next day) my only hope and option was to see if ΚΟΤΣΟΒΟΛΟΣ ΚΑΒΑΛΑ could perhaps help us. To my surprise they did not hesitate, they were extremely helpful, they made the necessary phonecalls and adjustments on the computer in order for us to make the payment, even though it was not from, nor for their store. We would just like to thank them once again, and wish them great success for the future ♡

Worst experience! They just do not care about the clients and they are too lazy to do their job. I had to wait for one month to get an order and still did not get it. They cancelled it without informing me, they did not provide me a tracking number for the order and not even a confirmation email. The cashiers did not give any interest to help, they only said that they do not know. Who is supposed to know then? I came 3 times in person and no one solved my problem. I will go to Public next time, thank you! The other stuff is nice and try to help you, but in my situation they all sent me to the cashiers, who only say that they do not know... terrible terrible service