Have
you ever been screwed by a retailer? Innocently, you walk into
a computer store with your hard earned money to purchase something,
take it home, and it dies 1 day after the "bring it back"
policy expired. CompUSA is the worst when it comes to repair
and replacement not to mention the return policy. I believe (unless
it's changed in the last 2 weeks since I've been there) the return
policy is 14 days. If you bought software, then forget it, it's
yours now bud. You can try to appeal to the store manager but
more than likely he'll direct to you to the manufacturer of the
software for you to do your begging.
To date, the only place that
ranks on my best list for returns of any kind is Micro Center. This CompUSA like computer
store has 13 locations and mediocre online presence. They carry
the common elements for your everyday computer user, okay prices,
but they have the best return policy of any store I've ever had
the chance to walk into.
One fine day not to long ago,
I bought a portable Zip drive from them and it didn't work. I
went down to exchange it and I forgot my receipt. Damm! I thought
getting out of the car, well, I guess I do need some extra CD-R's
so I went in. While inside and checking out I mentioned the fact
that I forgot my receipt and the clerk said they could look it
up in the computer! What the Hell! Wow, what a hell of an idea!
I gave them my name and we looked up the product code, and right
there in front of me was everything I purchased for the last
6 months! Amazing! So the clerk prints out my receipt, and I
go back to the car get the zip drive and returned it. Man.
After that experience, I decided
to test it with other purchases. I bought some software, brought
it back opened and un-shrink rapped and they took it back. Apparently,
Micro Center has a 30-day money back or exchange policy for 30-days
on everything in the store! Whoopee! You gotta love it.
Anyway, being a daily net surfer,
I have heard of people resulting to the following to get they're
products refunded or replaced.
Scenarios: ( all hypothetical of course
)
1) Amy walks into Fry's Electronics to return
her Windows 2000 Professional software after it screwed up her
Windows 98 installation. The clerk at the service desk says she
'opened' the package, so they can't take it back. Amy complains
to the store manager to no avail...
Amy gets and idea; go to kinko's to get the package re-shrink
rapped for 50 cents. She carefully pulls the price sticker of
the old shrink rap and puts it on the new box. She then goes
to another Fry's Electronics to get her refund saying she got
it as a gift and her system won't run this software. FE gives
her money back.
2) Jeff buys a brand new Iomega Zip Drive
for his son only to discover that 1 week after the warranty period,
it stops working. He calls the store and they refer him to Iomega.
After a few phone calls, and a couple of hours on the phone he
gets the idea that Iomega won't give in and he is stuck with
it.
Jeff gets an idea; to buy a new Zip drive for his son, take the
old one and the new one apart, exchange the new guts with the
old guts and return the "new" unit. Jeff later discovers
that Iomega get sues class action style and a couple years later,
Iomega's policy to repair or replace any Zip drive. That's okay,
Jeff's Zip drive is working just fine.
Thats all I have for now kids.
If you have a interesting story about returning something, please
email me.
Fondest regards,
Michael
