so my HP12C calculator took a **** after only 25 years of service. I mentioned it to my girlfriend, who took it upon herself to get online and buy one for me, even though I went straight to office depot and bought one myself A couple of days later she gives it to me. Rather than tell her I already bought one, I thank her for it, yada yada. Anyway, she tells me she bought it online at frys.com So, I check out their return policy online and see that I can return it to a frys store for credit. So today I drive over there. As I walk in the store, my clusterfuck meter is pegged at 10. The "customer service" line is a mile long. Finally, I get up to the front. This vietnamese broad with, quite literally, chopsticks in her hair as decoration is "helping me". She gives me the third degree about why I don't have a receipt for this unopened item in perfect condition. I explain. She tells me "there's nothing on the package to indicate that it came from Frys". I tell her "since it was a gift, maybe she peeled off whatever stickers were on the thing". So, she calls for the manager. This sloppy looking fat 30-something waddles over, in no hurry whatsoever. She tells him I don't have a receipt. She says "how much is the item". She's trying to figure that out. I say I think it's about 65 bucks. She gives me a lecture about how I will only get the lowest price it's ever sold for. Whatever. Finallly ,she tells the manager 64 bucks. He says OK, do the return. She spends about 5 minutes typing **** into the computer after asking for my I.D. LIke the car rental episode of Seinfeld. Then she calls the manager back to enter his approval password in the computer. It takes him a couple of minutes to put down his brownie to waddle back over. He types a few keystokes and leaves, and she takes over again. after typing for a few minutes more, she yells out "C S". Then she steps back and some other chick comes over and takes the keyboard. After she types for a minute, she calls the sloppy manager back over to yet again, enter his password. Then she leaves and gives it back to chopstick hair. About 90 seconds later, I am given a green piece of paper that is my store credit. Whew. That took a while. OK. So now I wander through this clusterfuck of a store looking for anything that I might want/need. "Gran Torino" is out on DVD today. Grab that. SD card for my camera....check. After a few more minutes I'm stressed out from all the asswipes in the store, so I head to the register. On the way, there is a junk food gauntlet that you must pass through. I succomb to a bag of sun chips and a diet coke. Then I get to the line where some pimply employee stands and tells you which register is now available. There is literally FORTY TWO registers in the store. I was shocked. Of course, only about 6 are open. Anyway, finally he sends me to register 22. I get up there. I have two DVD's, the SD card, and a bag of chips and a diet coke. Total comes to 35 bucks and change. I give her the piece of paper with the credit for 69 bucks. Oh ****. We need a supervisor. 3 or 4 minutes pass before "Lupe", the register supervisor, makes her appearance. She punches in some numbers and leaves. The casher looks confused, and punches into the keyboard for another 90 seconds or so. Can't figure it out. We need Lupe again. 2 minutes or so and Lupe comes in and saves the day. They give me a gift card for my change, and I leave. Then, I have to wait in line at the door to have pimply pierced-lip look at my receipt and peer into my bag to make sure that I'm not sneaking out with any laptops. What a piece of **** store. I will never go back there. This gift card will probably expire before I ever use it, unless I order something online.
It's definitely annoying at times. The thing I found at the Dallas store was that I had to take a motherboard back two or three times before I finally determined it needed to be exchanged because it simply didn't work. The guy in the computer center kept insisting it was fine, even though I pointed out that the CPU was not on the motherboard's approved list - but the sales guy had insisted it would work. Apparently it's not unusual for them to repackage items that have been brought back as defective, so I'm sure someone else had to go through the same thing (if the motherboard was, in fact, fried.)
They hire Vietnamese and people who are overweight and have bad complexions? Well, I'm not shopping there!
So is the lesson is to return items to Office Depot instead? Maybe we're just spoiled and have forgotten how horrible retail stores are. Then again, maybe they make it a giant bureaucracy so that next time you'll think twice about returning something.
Sounds like a product of the federal full-employment act. That's a dozen people somewhat gainfully employed who probably aren't qualified to do much else if Fry's went away.
Wow, thats a lot of words about going to store to return something without a receipt or even a price-tag and the manager kindly allowed you to despite it being against their policy. And then you had to wait in line to check out! Seriously, a word of advice, never go into a WalMart, you might end up writing a book about that experience...
fry's is definitely a nightmare. but they can have killer deals. i usually price things out online and then see what fry's is selling it for. and if its the same price i go into frys, buy it, and run out.
Actually, I've found Fry's return policy to be somewhat lenient and pain-free compared to some stores. Open box, hacked-up blister packaging, etc... never had any problems so far. Always requiring "CUSTOMER SERVICE!" is a strange practice, though.
Big Will, that was Funny. Fry's is cheap and has a ton of stuff. But they do suck. One of the major news shows did a hidden camera expose on computer stores and Frys was the main one I remember for some dishonest employees. I agree, newegg.
you don't have to wait in line for the pimply faced geek to check your bag to make sure it matches your receipt. you tell me what the f**k he can do to you? just keep walking and tell him you're not bothering to wait on him. done and done
That's it? Let's see - you weren't ripped off, your intelligence wasn't insulted, you got some free DVD's and all it took was putting up with some clueless people. It boiled down to a few inconveniences for you to never come back to a business?
i don't think it was the inconveniences as opposed to the manner in which the business is run. a manager should stay put at the register to make sure there are no more 'inconveniences' for the customer. it'll only take less than a minute of his time. instead he'd waddle away, have to come back, waddle away again, then waddle back over. he needs to supervise that everything is taken care of in a timely manner. and if you've never been to fry's, you'd understand what a ****-hole that place is and the customer service is ******* aweful. i've been three times and don't plan to ever go back. best buy for me.
Free dvds??? No. In retrospect, I should have been dishonest and taken the thing back to office depot using that receipt, instead of returning it to where it was purchased.
Builders Square had a policy that allowed you to return an item without a receipt, even with another companies price tag on it, as long as the item was normal stock. Granted, they only issued in store credit, but still...
Fry's checkout line = win. It's much, much better to have one line for everyone and always send the first person to whatever register is available then it is to have a separate line for each register. Their customer service definitely is bottom-tier though. When it comes to asking somebody for help finding / selecting a product ... never have so many been required in order to do the job of so few.
I think their check out line is the best in retail. It may seem longer, but they move everyone through much more quickly. Returning an item (which seemd to happen about 50% with any Fry's purchase) does take a while though.
I have had excellent luck with Fry's. But you do need to know what you want and not rely on anyone there for advice. They seem to attract the world class slackers for employees.
frost...my post was in response to "the good old days". If you reread you will see that I also said "had a policy".
