[no subject]

> 	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.
>

Sorry you had a bad experience! I would write the district manager and
explain what happened. They are usually somewhat sympathetic about these
types of things.

> 	lesson learned,
>
> 		Ben Scherrey
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
&gt; <a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale";>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a>
&gt;

Ryan Matteson - UNIX Administrator | GPG ID: 92D5DFFF
Public Key: <a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.daemons.net/~matty/public_key.txt";>http://www.daemons.net/~matty/public_key.txt</a>
Fingerprint = 4BEC 6145 30A6 BCE6 5602 FF11 4954 165D 92D5 DFFF


</pre>
<!--X-Body-of-Message-End-->
<!--X-MsgBody-End-->
<!--X-Follow-Ups-->
<hr>
<!--X-Follow-Ups-End-->
<!--X-References-->
<ul><li><strong>References</strong>:
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="00002" href="msg00002.html">[ale] How NOT to buy/sell a computer.</a></strong>
<ul><li><em>From:</em> scherrey at proteus-tech.com (Benjamin Scherrey)</li></ul></li>
</ul></li></ul>
<!--X-References-End-->
<!--X-BotPNI-->
<ul>
<li>Prev by Date:
<strong><a href="msg00010.html">[ale]OT It begins...</a></strong>
</li>
<li>Next by Date:
<strong><a href="msg00020.html">[ale] USB problems</a></strong>
</li>
<li>Previous by thread:
<strong><a href="msg00012.html">[ale] How NOT to buy/sell a computer.</a></strong>
</li>
<li>Next by thread:
<strong><a href="msg00023.html">[ale] How NOT to buy/sell a computer.</a></strong>
</li>
<li>Index(es):
<ul>
<li><a href="maillist.html#00011"><strong>Date</strong></a></li>
<li><a href="threads.html#00011"><strong>Thread</strong></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

<!--X-BotPNI-End-->
<!--X-User-Footer-->
<!--X-User-Footer-End-->
</body>
</html>