[ale] How NOT to buy/sell a computer.

[miguel]

i have bought 3 machines from them. so far so good.
they dont ask to many questions, replace your parts and have
a nice day.

rgds
-mig
On Sun, 2004-02-01 at 17:40, Robert Heaven wrote:
> I had the opposite experience recently at www.pcusa.com (PCSourse in
> Peachtree Corners)... A couple of weeks ago I bought a new MB/CPU/RAM
> upgrade and when I put it in my box it wouldn't boot. (no bios, no
> nothing, like it had bad memory) On Saturday, I took it back.
> 
> As I was walking in the door, without having to say a word, the lady
> up front immediately picks up the phone, punches the intercom and
> says, "technician to the front". Within 1 min a technician came up and
> ask me what was wrong. I told him what happened and he said "no
> problem, I'll take a look". He took the MB/CPU/RAM into the back room
> and proceeded to look. One minute later he came out and asked me to
> come to the back with him where it was running perfectly. As it turned
> out my old ATX power supply did not have a connector that the new MB's
> need (something he called a P4 connector) so, for only $8.95 I walked
> out with a new power supply and a much better feeling.
> 
> 
> On Sun, 2004-02-01 at 16:43, Benjamin Scherrey wrote: 
> > 	Just had an interesting experience with the MicroCenter in Gwinnett county. Yesterday I 
> > picked up one of these cool litle Shuttle X boxes that runs an Athlon64. Tony, the sales guy there 
> > was helpful and knowledgeable so I was satisfied I had a good system with the right components. 
> > Spent just under $1000 for the components and brought them home to assemble. It cost me nearly 
> > $200 more to buy it locally than mail order (even after shipping expenses) but I always prefer to 
> > support my local stores with the expectation that they'll stand behind their product and the added 
> > advantage of immediate gratification. It was a nice idea anyway...
> > 
> > 	Unfortunately, the machine didn't get much past POST. Recognized the CD media but 
> > locked up during the boot. Also immediately locks when trying to get in the BIOS. Checked out the 
> > online support forums and saw several reports of power supply problems which seemed to fit the 
> > behaviour I was seeing. So today I take the machine back and explain what's happening. Initially 
> > MicroCenter wanted $85 to look at it - but I could exchange it for free. This made no sense to me 
> > but I explained I just wanted to get a working computer and would do whatever was easiest for 
> > them. There were only four possible components to change out to see what the real problem was 
> > so I suggested a 20 minute effort was cheaper for them and myself than exchanging out everything 
> > at once.
> > 
> > 	So they let me back in the tech room with the tech (Walt is his name I believe) and 
> > explain to him the symptoms and what I had found on the support forums. He plugged the power 
> > supply into a little 3" long device with a power switch and a green LED which lit up. With that he 
> > declared the power supply fine! I suggested that it might be better to test it with a load on it but he 
> > insisted that the device did this. I figured it wouldn't do to ask him what remarkable technology was 
> > able to dissapate 200+ watts of power without performing any work or heating up enough to burn 
> > his hand... ;-) He then attempted to boot the machine, got the exact results I had described and 
> > said there was no telling what the problem was and a tech would be available on Tuesday for the 
> > afore-mentioned $85.00 - reinforcing my long-held belief that ego/attitude and talent are inversely 
> > proportional amongst tech types and photographers.
> > 
> > 	Not quite understanding what the point of that excersize was, I decided to just take the 
> > initial offer of exchanging everything - even though it didn't sound like such a great deal for 
> > MicroCenter. So now I needed to extract my DVD-ROM out of the box as it was the only 
> > component of my own in the box. Unfortunately the tech said I couldn't borrow a screw driver or 
> > work on the box in any way inside the tech area for fear I'd electrocute myself and sue them. 
> > (Seriously - this is what he said) I guess he'd be glad to do it for $85.00. So I take all my stuff out to 
> > customer service and start disassembling the box there with my pocket knife. Can't get two of the 
> > screws out (that's what I get for screwing things in right) so, when the manager (Bill) asks me what's 
> > going on I explain to him what's happened and that I need to borrow a screw-driver to get my DVD-
> > ROM out. He disappears back in the tech room and finally comes out asking me to follow him back 
> > to the tech room (again) where he will let me borrow their screw-driver - but only after enduring his 
> > anecdote that had I bought tires at an auto store they wouldn't let me borrow their tools to install 
> > them. He literally held the screw driver away from me until he finished his story - which took an order 
> > of magnitude longer than the time required for me to remove my drive. Once removed, he also 
> > noted that if I exchanged the computer and had similar problems that there would be a 15% 
> > restocking fee! 
> > 
> > 	Finally insulted and harrangued enough for making the effort to do business with 
> > MicroCenter and attempting to solve the problem with as little cost or trouble to them and myself as 
> > possible, it was clearly time to cut my losses. I told him that I'll just return everything and take the 
> > added savings of mail order rather than do business with them again. So, Bill & Walt of MicroCenter 
> > managed to spend nearly an hour in an effort to lose a $1000.00 sale plus the loss of taking the 
> > returned items and all future business from me rather than the 20 minutes necessary to keep the 
> > money, stand behind their product, and retain a customer.
> > 
> > 	lesson learned,
> > 
> > 		Ben Scherrey
> > 
> > 
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