Consumer Alert (non-svx related)

[Chris]

I am posting this information to accomplish several things:

#1 Save people the hassle I have had to deal with
#2 Vent anger
#3 Effect the sales and image of the crappy company doing business

The business or corporation I will be refering to as CrapUSA is in reality CompUSA (The computer super store) <Im laughing>

The soap opra starts here:
At the end of August, a close friend in Seattle, Washington invited me up for a get-a-way/party up in his neck of the woods. He also was a previous boss. I was stressed out and with no real job to speak of, I had no excuse on why not. The trip went great, but while there my laptop started to act up. My laptop is an IBM Thinkpad i1700 series. Was the top of the line when bought. This unit was purchased from CrapUSA (also where I worked at the time) along with what they call TAP (Technology assurance program) or an extened warranty. In short, it says they will fix or replace the unit for the exteded period of time, same or greater function/value/features. I am not a big fan of extended service plans on anything but cars and laptops. Now to be fair I will list the feature set of my laptop.

IBM Thinkpad i1700 series model 720
Pentium II 266mhz with 512k cache
64 megs (with 64 added for a 128 total)
4 gig hard drive
56k modem
24x CD with 1.44 meg floppy
13.3" Active TFT XGA(1024x768) display

This unit has been a wonderful workhorse. The diagnosis is that the onboard charging circuit for the battery has gone bad. On September 4th this unit was dropped off for repair at the CrapUSA store in Tukwilla, Washington (south of Seattle) store number #457. I will not go into all the dettails on how many times I had to call them afterwards to get information about progress. (Side note -- I left the state of Washington on September the 7th. I did leave ALL customer contact information for my Idaho address) Customer contact was less than poor to say the least. On the paperwork I got when I checked in the unit it has some bull crap that says, "Commitment To Excellence: We diagnose all systems within 48 hours, and parts are ordered if nesessary." It was not until the 10th that the tech (Brian) was able to "diagnose" my laptop. So much for the 48 hours huh? It then was not until the 18th until I was contacted by the tech and was informaed that the unit was going to be un-economical to repair and was going to request authorization from the exteneded service company to replace the laptop. This took so long that the unit the tech had requested to replace my laptop with, became discontinued and with the lowered price sold out like hotcakes. I was then informed that I would have to wait until the next shipment of Toshibas came it. After waiting a patient amount of time I called back on October 8th (afterall I have now missed out on two paying computer contract jobs AND they have had my laptop for 34 days now!) I was told it will be a bit longer due to the new shipment of Toshibas would have WindowsXP on it and they have not yet been authorized to ship. I explained that this was unacceptable and that they need to find a way to expedite this process now. He told me that they still had a top of the line Toshiba from the line just recently discontinued as a display model. He told me there was no manuals or software, just the laptop, battery, and power supply. I asked what the unit was, and he told me a 2800-s402. This is a nice laptop. I told him that as long as the laptop functioned and didnt look lke it was a relic of a world war, this would make an acceptable replacement. Instead, they waited for another day to pass. By chance a customer who bought one of the recently discontinued Topshiba economy lines had passed away and his wife brought the unit back as a return. I get a call from the tech on the 9th telling me that I will be getting this (not so nice) 1800 series dead mans laptop, and that he would ship it out 2nd day Fed-Ex on Wednesday the 10th. Logic dictates that this unit will arrive on Friday the 12th. I have another job contract offer for a Tuesday (the 16th) network laser printer install, so I take it thinking I will have my laptop in enough time to get prepared. Friday comes and then goes with no delivery, so I call the store to get a shipping and or tracking number. I am told that the tech (Brian) is out and that I would have to get with him. I explain the situation to the person on the phone only to get hung up on. I call back to speak to the manager, only to get voice mail. I leave a message that it is extremely important that I get a call back tonight (that night) with some information or I am calling corporate. I never get a call. So, I call in a favor from a local friend still living up in that area. Needless to say I have been back in Idaho for quite some time now. He drops in on Saturday the 13th telling them that he is not leaving until he has an answer.

Todays stupid answer is: We didnt have any boxes to ship it in. (Does anyone else here think that this is total bull crap and that this yo-yo treatment deserves a good pop in the head?!)

I call them back extremely furious and they assure me that it will go out first thing Monday (15th) morning next day air. Well, I called on Monday and I basically had to walk them through the process of shipping a package. Worse off, it took them so long that it wasnt ready for the Fed-Ex pick-up time and wont ship now until Tuesday the 16th! IF I am lucky at all and someone there doesnt have a deathwish, it might leave this morning. Unfortunalty I am going to miss the deadline for the printer install and the money that goes with it, another $150. Total, I have now missed three paying contracts totaling over $750. This hurts BAD since the only other income is two days a week of minimum wage ($5.15 hour) pizza delivery. This also hurts my image as a computer contractor that cannot keep agreed work. I accepted the job for Tuesday under the information that I would have my replacement on Friday the week before. To make matters worse, the Holloween Classic starts on Wednesday. This is the last racing events of the season. It lasts thru Sunday, and as a top conteder in my SVX for points, I cannot miss this event. I am club captain, as well as the groups cheer leader I am going to have to find someone to house sit until the shipment arrives for signing. The last thing I want is a returned shipment! I would never see a laptop again at that point. I am guessing that the shipment "might" be here on Thursday the 18th. That would give this a total of 44 days to do what I did as an employee of CrapUSA 5-8 days to do. The whole time I did not get one manager to call me back, even after a total of 5 messages.

So, in short. STAY AWAY FROM CompUSA at ALL COSTS!

Sorry for the ramblings
Chris