I've had similar experiences with BestBuy; got the laptop I wanted to purchase, it was whisked away to the GeekSquad to be checked and I went DVD hunting. Go to check out and they just assumed I wanted everything installed....so that was a fight. For a variety of reasons, I went back about 3 hours later to return it (the person who insisted that he leave town with a laptop that day, didn't like it, didn't even look at the computer, just the box!). Had a 2nd `nice' discussion with the manager when they wanted to charge me a restocking fee on an opened product, which I had never even taken out of the box.
ML Mark A. Lappin, CCNA, MCITP: Enterprise Administrator | Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry Director of Information Technology 11314 Cloverland Ave | Baton Rouge, LA 70809 Ph: 225.291.9094 ext 245 | Fax: 225.368.3675 | Mobile: 225-362-2770 www.lmfj.com This communication is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of this communication . -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Edmund Cramp Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 2:14 PM To: '[email protected]' Subject: [brlug-general] A cautionary tale Yesterday I needed a 64-bit machine running Windows 7 - I looked around on-line and found a cheap little Lenovo laptop at Office Depot for $399 - OK, so I'll get it and swap it out with the sales demo machine once I'm done testing the 64-bit installers that I'm writing and my daughter can have the old laptop (a Toshiba running Vista) for Christmas. New machines all round - everyone's happy. It looked like the local (Millerville) Office Depot had the Lenovo in stock so, five minutes later I'm up there, credit card in hand. Turns out they did have it, but it was the floor model - they jumped on the phone (nice folks there, very helpful) and they found on at the Cortana Mall store and sent me there. I get to the Cortana Mall Office Depot, introduce myself (I should point out that I'm wearing a new pair of dark jeans and a t-shirt that says, "Go Away - or I will replace you with a very small shell script") and after five minutes the manager turns up with the laptop, boxed and ready to go. I hold my hand out to take it. He doesn't offer me the box and the conversation starts; OD: "What are you going to do with this machine?" ME: (thinks, "none of your damn business") but sweetly, "I'm writing an installer and I need to test it in a standard 64-bit environment" OD: "It this Business or Home use" ME: "Business" OD: "You'll be needing a copy of Microsoft Office then" ME: "No Thanks, I just want a standard machine without any other software" OD: "What about editing documents, you'll need a copy of Word" ME: (thinks, "When did EMACS go out of fashion?"), No thanks, I just need a basic machine." OD: "What about Outlook for emailing?" ME: "No thanks, I just need a basic machine - nothing else." OD: "This system has no Anti-virus software, you'll need Anti-virus software" ME: "No Thanks, I won't be connecting it anything - look, can we just take it as read that you've tried to sell me all the software that you're required to try and sell me, and that I've refused to buy anything?" OD: "We are required to tell you all of this when you buy a system - if this is for business then you'll need a copy of QuickBooks" ME: "No thanks, I just need a test machine without any additional software" OD: "We offer a service to setup the computer and install all your software" ME: "No thanks, I don't need anything other than the operating system." OD: "We can set the computer up for you and remove all the bloat ware and unwanted software" ME: "No thanks, I can do that" OD: "If this is for Business then you'll need the extended warranty" ME: "No thanks, I don't need an extended warranty" Buy this time we've crawfished over to the register and he hands the box to the girl at the register who smiles at me and says, "Cool T-shirt" OD: Loudly, "Fetch me the LIMITED 14 DAY WARRANTY labels" and then to me, "This machine only has a 14 day warranty" ME: (Thinking WTF 14 days!), "Why such a crappy warranty period?" He sticks their standard limited 14-day return policy label on the box - that's standard, they've done that for years, and says, "We don't make these machines and at this price we limit the warranty to 14 days" I think to myself, "If I can't debug the script in two weeks than I need another job." So I paid for it and left the store, never to return to the Cortana Mall Office Depot store - EVER. And getting the laptop back to the office, inside there's a little thank you note from Lenovo with a card saying that I have their standard 2 year warranty. It boots, it runs like a charm ... unlike my 63-bit installer script - but that's another story. Regards, Edmund Cramp -- Motion Lab Systems, Inc. 15045 Old Hammond Highway, Baton Rouge, LA 70816 USA Tel: +1 (225) 272-7364 | Fax: +1 (225) 272-7336 Web: http://www.motion-labs.com _______________________________________________ General mailing list [email protected] http://mail.brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net _______________________________________________ General mailing list [email protected] http://mail.brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net
