[ale] [OT] Store closings - NOT MicroCenter!!

[Robert Reese~]

> Robert Reese~ wrote:
>
>> Yeah, I just found out my $50 Sharper Image card I got a couple
>> of years ago is worthless - not because they surcharged me but
>> because they filed bankruptcy back in February.  Turns out they
>> sold gift cards up to the day prior to filing bankruptcy.  I'm
>> thinking criminal charges should be applied for wire fraud.
>>
>
> I'm surprised it has any value after holding it a 'couple of years.'

Well, that's why I held on to it... the terms had nothing in them about losing 
value.  Essentially they got the benefit of the interest and inflation.


>> I guess I need to petition the court to get anything on my card
>> at all.

> I suspect you'll be way down the list. ;)

Surprisingly, card holders are quite close to the top in my research.  Basically 
we card holders "loaned" the money to them.


>> And you'd think AMEX gift cards were fine, but NOT.  They have
>> some very serious and troubling issues with them, and the
>> customer service people were probably hired from AOL.
>>
>> FYI: Simon Malls are the WORST cards.  Tell your friends and
>> family to not fall for that "mall gift card".
>> https://www.simon.com/giftcard/terms_and_conditions.aspx?giftaccount=1
>>
>> <https://www.simon.com/giftcard/terms_and_conditions.aspx?giftaccount=
>> 1>

> Yeah, Simon is to malls, what Microsoft is to computers.

Unfortunately, all of the malls in the Atlanta area are Simon malls.  The good 
news is that malls suffer the most in a downturn of the economy.  One bright 
spark in a gloomy night...


>> P.S.: I agree that it would be nice to have a Microcenter open
>> earlier and later.  But alas, we have only a Bust Buy in Warner
>> Robins, as well as a couple of well-known office superstores.
>> (Hey, at least I got BB to honor its own website price last week
>> on that 1TB drive.  I'd never had gone to BB, but it was an
>> emergency.)
>>
>
> Ouch, you should research Best Buys troubling practices.  Bait and
> switch and what not.  I refuse to enter Best Buys.  Especially
> since I was asked to leave one after offering advice contrary to a
> salesperson. :)

Well, to be fair I've only been in BB twice in the past six or seven years: once 
to buy a router for my midtown client at the brand-spanking-new BB store 
somewhere around five points (there was no other store within a 30-minute drive, 
and I needed it NOW) and the second time just last week to get the harddrive 
seeing as Circuit City across the street is about to bite the dust and have a 
no-return policy.  I had to have the harddrive that day, and while I could have 
settled for a 500GB drive, I decided the benefit of the 1TB for less than the 
500GB drive outweighed the discomfort of getting it at BB this one time.  
(Remember, I finally got a reliable dual-bootable Linux installation with enough 
space to settle in on that 1TB drive!  How about that for a reason for me to 
step over the boycott line once?)

Why have I only been in BB those two times in the past six or seven years?  The 
store on Barret Pkwy in Marietta gave me the worst customer service experience 
of my life back when SuSE 8 came out.  The manager actually joined with the 
clerk cussing me out because I was trying to get them to honor their own price. 

Yes, out of the dozen or so unhappy store customer no-service incidents I can 
recall of the last 25 years, this is the one that clearly stands out besides 
Fry's and is only marginally worse.  It happened last year at the new Fry's in 
Alpharetta, who wouldn't even honor their own sticker price and had the biggest 
@$$hole assistant manager this side of that BB manager years ago.

I've had good experiences at the Fry's up I-85, but the corporate executives I 
spoke to in response to that Alpharetta nightmare were nearly as bad as that 
assistant manager, proving the old adage that the apple doesn't fall far from 
the tree.  So, no Fry's ever again.  Besides, their prices, if lower, seem a 
maybe a percentage point lower than any other store; however, the lower prices 
are fewer and further between and the prices that are higher (it seems the 
majority of them) are higher than their lower prices are lower in my experience.  
So no economic reason to go.  Their techs are pretty clueless too, so no 
technical reason to send anyone there.  Are they better, the same, or worse than 
the BB's Peek Squad?  I wouldn't know.  ;c)

Cheers,
R~