Is this even legal?
Mar 13 '01
The Bottom Line The only thing you need to know about CompUSA computers and their store in general is STAY AWAY. You'll buy yourself more headaches than anything else
Luckily it has been some time since I dealt with CompUSA for a major purchase. Well, any purchase for that matter. Unfortunately they have a mega-store less than a half mile from my house that keeps attracting me in. One of these days I will learn my lesson, (I hope).
First Try
My problems with them started a couple years ago when I decided that it was way past time to upgrade my old 486SX computer for something that wouldn't crash at the site of a Pac-Man game. So off to CompUSA I went with a couple thousand dollars I had been saving. As soon as I walked in the door I was noticed their stack of sales flyers and grabbed one to thumb through on the way back to the desktop computer section.
WOW what a bargain. They had a computer with a couple more features than I had planned on getting and for several hundred dollars less that I had planned on spending. I was sure the computer gods were smiling on me that day. If they were, it wasn't for long. I couldn't find the sale computer on any of the shelves. There was a couple like it, but for much more money than the advertised model. After about 25 minutes of wandering the aisles looking for an employee that was able to handle (or so he said) the computer aisle, I was told that they had sold the last sale computer but they had a comparable one for only a few hundred dollars more. He made no offer of rainchecks or prepayment to get the sale price because as he explained, it was a discontinued item. Well the sale flyer I was clutching didn't mention "discontinued", or "limited quantity" anywhere that I could see. And after having my mind set on one computer I started having trouble deciding on another. Not a problem he tells me, they have a new sale starting next week and there are going to be some more great deals if I want to wait a few days. So wait I did.
Second Try
The next week, on the very day I was told their new sale was starting, I went back to CompUSA and grabbed one of their sale flyers. WOW another great deal. He wasn't lying, this computer looked better than the last one. I went straight back to the computer aisle and again saw no sign of the advertised computer. So again I spend as long as some people get for lunch everyday finding an employee to help me. Surprisingly enough they had sold out of the sale computer within a couple hours of being open. He had no clue how many the store had stocked for the sale, only that there were not any there now. It wasn't a problem he explained, there was a computer better suited to me in stock for only about $500.00 dollars more.
By this point I was starting to become visibly angry and we "agreed" that it would be best if he found his manager so that I could explain the problem to him. The manager showed up and seemed to care very little until I asked if he was simply too incompetent to stock sale items or if this was a blatant "bait and switch" tactic to generate higher sales. Before I could get the word switch out of my mouth he was off to the stock room where he miraculously "found" the last sale computer in the store. Apparently the reason it was overlooked was because it had been opened and taken out of the box. What for was still a mystery, though he promised to plug it in to see if it still worked, and check to see that all the parts were still with it. For reasons I think are obvious, and the manager agreed, I chose not to buy a computer that may or may not work. What I did chose to do was drive down the road a little and buy a great computer from the competent salespeople at Gateway.
Why do I keep going back?
Mainly due to laziness. And hey it's a big store, it's close, they probably have what I need at a reasonable price. Right? Wrong. At least half the time don't have what I need, I can't persuade anyone to help me find it, the employees don't know what it is, or if they do it doesn't have a price on it, leaving me to wait in an atrocious line just to see if it is as overpriced as all the like items surrounding it. One day I hope to wake up and stop wasting my time thinking that they have gotten better. I can't remember the last time I went into a CompUSA and bought myself anything other than a headache
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Epinions.com ID:
patrick860
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Member: Patrick Spring
Location: Atlanta, GA
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 14 members
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