I love my AmEx!

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of 
Jarred White
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 10:14 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [brlug-general] A cautionary tale

And also why no one takes Amex :P
On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Petri Laihonen 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Additionally, Every time you dispute something with the credit card, no matter 
how small of an amount, the seller have to pay penalty fees. 10yr. ago they 
were $25. today probably a lot more.

This is why smaller businesses prefer to work with you instead.

P

On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 9:37 AM, Tim Fournet 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
One piece of advice that I have for situations like these, is to always keep a 
credit card that has purchase protection, and make large purchases using that 
card. So what if the interest charges are high, pay it off as soon as you get 
home. I've had to deal with similar problems with non-tech-related purchases 
where the store refused to honor their own return policy. After calling 
American Express and explaining the situation, I was not required to pay the 
balance for the purchase and then I just had to figure out what to do with the 
merchandise. Thanks to Craigslist, I turned a profit on the whole thing.

On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 8:36 AM, Mark A. Lappin 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
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<http://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]> 
[mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf 
Of Edmund Cramp
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 2:14 PM
To: '[email protected]<mailto:[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



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"The world's my oyster, a hotel room's my prison cell..."
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