Hi Don,
I too am a consultant and have done a similar volume of business with
CompUSA. Having had nothing but horrorible experiences with their
customer service, I too will take this opportunity to vent a bit.
The cost of doing business with CompUSA is trememdous, and nearly impossible
for me to justify. Also I don't understand how they can stay in business with
all the extra time and effort they expend in cleaning up their messes. That
has to be much more costly than just doing it right the first time. There
must be *something* TERRIBLY wrong with the procedures and policies there.
It doesn't seem to be the staff's fault, and they are always apologetic
when orders get screwed up. (which is nearly every order) It's a SHAME
that I have felt it necessary to apologise to my customer for referring them
to CompUSA to purchase something as simple as a RAM Upgrade! I don't
understand how an organization can provide such consistently bad service.
I think that buying mailorder and from independent dealers is going
to be cheaper in the long run, even if the sticker price is slightly higher.
I wonder if there would be enough interest to justify creating a usenet
newsgroup like alt.compusa.horror.stories?
Regards, Dennis Reichel
Owner, Reichel Systems Support
> I'm not generally one to write this sort of message, but the last 3 weeks
> I've been trying to get a working printer out of CompUSA and as yet have
> been unsuccessful. I feel a need to let others know about it so they don't
> wind up spending hours dealing with unhelpful sales/support staff and
> uninterested management.
> No, in all fairness, they've done nothing "against policy", but it's been
> my experience that when you sell defective equipment you should go out of
> your way to make things right.
> The particular policies in question:
> - No exchange (even, like-item exchange ... I wasn't asking for anything
> other than a working printer the same model as I bought!) without the
> receipt.
> - No exchange after 10 days.
> I, like many of you, work 12-18 hour days, 6 days a week. I took the
> printer back a week after the purchase but had misplaced the receipt. The
> folks where absolutely not interested in trying to be the least bit
> accommodating. It wouldn't have bothered me nearly as much, except that
> they did everything short of accuse me of trying to pull some trick. They
> were rude, unprofessional, and uninterested in the amount of time and money
> that this little game was costing me.
> It's also not like I'm an infrequent customer. I, and my business, have
> done several thousand dollars in business with this store, and I've sent in
> excess of $100K business to them in the last 3 years. Apparently
> consultants doing this sort of business steal from them all the time (or at
> least that was the attitude I received).
> After being dismissed, it was a week before I could make it back to try
> again (today). The support person behind the counter was no more helpful
> this time than last, and the manager quizzed him on the phone before he
> would give him permission to accept it as it was past the 10 days.
> What's more, when I went to get a replacement they were out and it would
> be up to a week before they received replacements. Since I took only the
> core (no documentation, cartridge, etc..) for replacement, I couldn't take a
> refund.
> When the guy behind the desk called his manager, the manager again spoke
> with him for nearly 5 minutes before he gave approval to _allow_ me to
> return it when they received more stock!
> I've related this story to several other professionals in the system
> administration/consulting field and almost all of them had similar stories.
> You can draw your own conclusions, but personally I feel quite abused and
> would warn everyone who will listen away from CompUSA. While my previous
> relationship with the company has been fair (not spectacular, but they
> always treated me with some respect), this incident has cost me far more
> time and money than the damned printer is worth. My shadow will never
> darken their doorway again.
> Don
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