How Fry’s Electronics lost my business

Published 4 years, 10 months ago in macintosh

Today, a friend of mine called me to tell me that Fry’s had a 17″ Powerbook (refurbished) on sale for $2599 if you bought it in-store, and that they had a limited supply available. He’d read it in the newspaper advertisement, so I quickly grabbed my newspaper and looked for the ad. I found it, and sure enough, they were selling last month’s 17″ Powerbooks (refurbished) for $2599. It sounded like a great deal, as I’ve recently been in the market for a new Powerbook, but I was looking at the 15″ models because the 17″ models were too expensive and I really didn’t need that big of a monitor…

So, I called the local Fry’s to see if they had any in-stock. While I waited on hold for the better part of 10 minutes, I decided to check around on what a refurbished 1GHz 17″ Powerbook was going for elsewhere. I checked the Apple Store’s Hot Deals section and found the same Fry’s advertised refurbished 17″ machine for $2,499 instead of Fry’s price of $2,599. “Hmmm, that’s stupid,” I thought. “Why would I spend $100 more for the same machine?”

So, I checked Frys.com (which is really Outpost.com if you want to shop online (I wondered where the hell Outpost.com went)) and guess what I found? The same refurbished 17″ Powerbook for $2,499 with free shipping. “That’s totally fucked up” was my next thought.

So, I’m still on hold, waiting for someone that can help me to answer the phone, and I’m thinking how stupid this is, and that I should look up the number of the closest CompUSA to see if they have a new 1.25GHz 15″ Powerbook in-stock, as a backup for the call to Fry’s. You see, Fry’s has a lowest-price guarantee, and I figured if they’d sell the $2,599 machine for $2,499, I’d go buy one, because it’d be sweet to have a 17″ machine, even if that meant it was just a little slower than the new 15″ model.

So, the Fry’s ‘computer department’ sales guy answers the phone, finally. I asked him if they had any of the 17″ refurbs in-stock, and sure enough they did. Then I asked him if they’d honor the $2,499 price from their website, and he said “No, the web prices are always lower than the store prices.” I asked him why that was and he said “man, that’s way above my pay-grade.” I chuckled… and then spent a few minutes testing him for possibly breakage in his pricing powers, and he didn’t have any flexiblity.

So, I called CompUSA and had them put their last new 15″ Powerbooks on hold so I could pick it up later in the evening. They said ‘no problem’ and took my name and held a machine for me (which the wife is picking up right now).

So, how did Fry’s loose my business? By not selling the same machine they were selling online for the same price. Any you know what the worst part is? I’ve only been to Fry’s once, and wasn’t impressed the first time. I am a consumer that likes instant gratification, prefering to buy offline than online most of the time, unless price is truly an issue, or convenience is the same (like buying e-tickets for an airplane trip). I wanted a Powerbook today and was willing to drive to Fry’s to buy it, but they screwed the pooch. They had the chance to get me back into one of their massive stores (which was like visiting the zoo last time I went) to impress me again with the large “find every high-tech electronic you want” store-type again, and to turn me into a life-long Fry’s customer because they were selling something in the store for $100 more than it was worth. Fuck Fry’s. I’ll never even think of them as place that I might buy anything at again, unless of course the offer a loss-leader that entice’s me to visit their store.

And you know what the funny thing is? I’m also shopping (just shopping) for a large flat-screen TV that I’d like to purchase some-time in the coming 12-24 months… and I won’t shop at Fry’s for it. I might buy it from Fry’s if they’re the cheapest in town, but I won’t shop for it there… because they had a stupid online/offline pricing policy.

The web is another channel for the the same products, not it’s own channel for different products than are available through stores or catalogs. Company’s that have the same prices across all channels are more likely to earn more per customer than those that price things differently, as that Fry’s online customer will never shop at the store (because he knows he can get it cheaper online), and the guy that shops in the store is there because he likes to pay more for his shit (dumbass). If Fry’s goal is to expand their ‘foot-print’ across the US, then they’re shooting themselves in the foot by offering something online for less than they offer it in a store…

I don’t know what their overall business goal is, but I do know this. I’ll never shop at a Fry’s by choice.

I won, and Apple won this scenario, and so did CompUSA. I just bought a new 15″ Powerbook!

29 Responses to “How Fry’s Electronics lost my business”

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1 Spanky Sep 19th, 2003 at 11:40 pm

Fry’s is the poster child of clueless and unhelpful staff.

I have never ONCE had a pleasant shopping experience there. It never fails that I go there to buy something on sale in their flyer, carry it to the front and it rings up at the regular price.

The person behing the register gets all huffy when I question the price, accuses me of picking up the wrong item and then waits to see if I am going to pay the inflated price or make them go to all the trouble of voiding it off their ticket.

Twice I have bought things which promised multiple rebates (a 20.00 rebate and a 50.00 rebate) - neither time did both arrive. When I approached the people at the desk about it they acted like this is not uncommon.

Fry’s does not deserve your business, no matter what kind of “savings” you might get there. No business which treats their customers the way they do deserves your patronage.
2 Don Sep 20th, 2003 at 11:09 pm

Congrats of that new PB15 ! I’ll be watching for what you think of it.
3 James Sep 23rd, 2003 at 12:19 am

“The web is another channel for the the same products, not it’s own channel for different products than are available through stores or catalogs.”

Why can’t people and companies realize this? I’m reminded of the Southwest Airlines accessibility law suit that was eventually won by them. Southwest offers web only deals that you can’t get over the phone or in person, yet their website was inaccessible to people with disabilities.

To me a store is a store.
4 Tiff Sep 24th, 2003 at 12:41 pm

Is it possible that the price difference was to offset the cost of shipping the item to you?

Some companies offer products for lower prices on their website to offset people’s price-sensitivity when it’s time to add shipping costs.
5 Screwed by Fry's Nov 22nd, 2003 at 12:42 am

Guess what. Just went to the Fry’s in Oregon to buy what I was told was a NEW NEC FE991SB Monitor. Drove over an hour. Got it back home and found it that it was an opened box, return to Fry’s. Fuckers never told me that or I would have never bought the damn thing. And yes, of course it was defective. That would have been why it was returned to them in the first place. I will never go back to Fry’s.
6 tom leconey Jan 5th, 2004 at 3:16 am

heck what planet are u people from? I shop frys all the time great service way more knowledgeable techies than compusa or god forbid best buy (staffed by teenagers)

my GF jokes her dad and her brother go there every week

I have bought new items that were defective and they replaced them

I bought a new sony clie 80nx qnd AND TWO OF THEM QUIT ON ME in two weeks they replaced both giving me the last one (display and it has worked for months) w/o using my frys one time free replacement ext warr so I still have one replacement left

god people everybody knows web prices are cheaper ITS BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT STAFFED AND THEY SAVES MILLIONS ,IT IS FOR PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY WANT IT IS NO SECRET AND IT MAKES SENSE do uyour own researcha dn save jeez where have y folks been tha last 3-4 yrs??!!
7 Messed up by Fry's Jan 5th, 2004 at 7:17 pm

Went to Fry’s last Saturday to buy a washer. While waiting for a person to back up from the parking lot, one rude lady behind me kept hunking her horn and going to the extent of instigating a fight. Found out later that she is a cashier at Fry’s. ( Reported her ASS to her Manager and I’m in the process of writing a letter to Randy Fry) ( Not Customer Service Oriented ). Not only that, they’ve scheduled the delivery of my washer yesterday between 2 to 6 pm. I called their office so many times yesterday to verify the status of my washer, and they told me to wait a little bit longer because they might be stuck in traffic due to the weather. I received a call from their delivery guy at 9:00 pm telling me that they’ve left the machine in their store, and up to now I haven’t received my washer yet. The irony is, I only live 5 minutes away from Fry’s, it should have not taken them 7 hours to deliver. I did not even receive any courtesy call from them at all. I’ve been shopping at Fry’s ever since I moved in the bay area, and all the gears that I need at the place where I work, I usually buy at Fry’s. Now that I’ve experienced this, I don’t know if Fry’s will be on top of the list now. ( Hmmmm….. just wonder what company I’m working at.)
8 WhoCares Feb 9th, 2004 at 2:18 am

You’re all a bunch of whiners. Who gives a shit that you didn’t find the sale item ontime or that some bitch in the parking lot was honking at you. Shut your fuckin trap, go find a different store, and quit your fuckin annoying bitching. Fry’s has many more customers who spend 10 times as much as you would, being your penny pinching, ad stalking, coupon clipping selves. I doubt they give a shit that they lost a whopping $2,599 for one day due to not giving a shit about you. Fry’s, on average, makes approximately $1,000,000 PER DAY, PER STORE. Being that there’s 28 stores nationwide, your pissant little $2,599 doesn’t mean shit. Go buy your shit from CompUSA from now on. Idiot ass drama whores.
9 Fry's Sucks! Feb 26th, 2004 at 5:13 pm

Sounds like one of the Store Managers to me. Of course it has to be a Store Manager that wrote that, because they don’t give a shit, just as he stated! They all work at min wage and commission. ALL of them, the only exception is Loss Prevention. Can’t wait to open up my own store and compete directly with Fry’s!
10 apathy rules Jun 14th, 2004 at 2:48 am

on the contrary “fry’s sucks”. not ALL of the employees at fry’s work on comission. there are the sale people who lie to your face, they make comission. a majority of the cashiers make comission on the items they ring up, but they have to take a test and become certified first. the acessory sales people aka “acessory bitch” who answer your dumbass questions, and generally walk around with an apathetic look on their face…they’re NOT on comission.

and Loss prevention DOES make comission. if they catch some dumbass trying to steal something or if a cashier rang up something wrong, they get comission on that. thats why they’re such nazi’s at the door.

nope, i’m not a store manager. i’m just one of the grunts working at fry’s who has it a LOT worse than the customers. compared to how the company treats employees, the customers are treated like vip.
11 ONTOP Jun 26th, 2004 at 2:23 pm

One constant that is forgotten in all the communications on these web pages is the fact that most of Fry�s management and supervisor personnel have no training in being a manager or supervisor because most of them are so young; this includes college degrees or course work, on-the-job experience (a must), business ethics and laws and the lack of communications training. These people are chosen because of their top notch sales numbers, not for their intelligence or management skills. How many older people have you seen in store management at the Fry�s you have visited?

To point out these facts; what about all the sexual harassments charges that have been and still are being leveled at these supervisors and managers? Age discrimination in job promotions? The lack of communication skills these people have but claim they are the best manager/supervisor known to retail businesses? All the hostility towards employees in the form of being threatened by their job for not working overtime/weekends/any hours and for making very simple mistakes?

Then there is the issue of double standards in that the men who work for Fry�s have to be professional looking and on time but the women can always look like sluts with massive amounts of makeup, pants worn so low you can almost see pubes, see through blouses, tops so short they are almost up to their breasts and then all the time they are late or do not even show up and stick the rest of their team mates with covering their missed time and efforts.

If Fry�s would wake up and realize that just because someone is good in sales does not make them a good supervisor/manager. If this would ever happen them maybe the employees would start believing in their worth and in the company.
12 Kris Sep 19th, 2004 at 11:28 pm

The customers at fry’s are so incredibly rude. You all have no patience at all. You are all penny pinching, cheap ass whores you have nothing better to do than ask a billion fuckin questions about nothing and then get all your fuckin answers and not buy anything. You think Fry’s is a Swap Meet, where you can negotiate the price?! Do you do that shit at HEB, or Albertsons, or BestBuy?!?! Fuck that, you all fuckin suck, and I just wish that for one fuckin day I didn’t have to deal with you all! You act like it’s a fuckin walmart,opening everything, wastin our time, at least our commision based pay makes us more knowledgeable for you all. I can answer any Home Audio question you have with no problem… and Bestbuy and Circuit City can’t even compare… they don’t know jack shit. Online prices are cheaper b/c they’re part of the grey market. For the most part, they’re not Authorized Retailers, so you don’t get a factory warranty and they jip you. And for the other places like Crutchfield.com they like the other guy said, don’t have to pay sales man or what not, so they can afford to give you it at a lower price. Fuck you, we don’t match online prices! For once… I wish customers would believe me when I show you what you need to make your audio system work! Instead of being the little fucking cheap ass and tryin to go a cheap route that’ll sound like shit and then you’ll realize you should have have gotten that shitty ass Norcent Product, cuz that’s what i’ll sound like! SHIT! FUCK CHEAP ASSES!
13 paid too much Jan 17th, 2005 at 12:51 am

If you purchase extended warranty with Fry�s Electronics, I just want to say SORRY.

1) For example, if you bought computer warranty, software issues are not cover. If the diagnostic result to be software related, the customer have to pay for the diagnostic fee. �Warranty do not cover software relate(virus, os/window corruption etc.)� I don�t care what the sale person said. READ the contact before you purchase it.

2) Fry�s does not have to honor the contact if the serial number rubs, fade, or unreadable scratch, missing, .

3) Warranty replacement rule is a joke. The unit has to fail four times SAME hardware problems in order to be warrant replaced.

4) T.V. warranty. The rule is the unit has to be 40 miles from the nearest Fry�s store to get in home repair.
14 ex-fry's employee Mar 7th, 2005 at 10:53 pm

I used to work at fry’s and now am a representative for a company who does business with fry’s. First of all, outpost is its own company that has a contract with Fry’s and therefore offers fry’s products on its site. Secondly they do have lower prices to compensate for the delivery and their high tax rate. The employees do go through extensive training, but some people are just stupid and do not pay attention. the extended warranties through fry’s would obviously cover only the hardware on the computer, because that is the expensive stuff, if you are not smart enough to purchase a good antivirus software program to protect your computer then that is your fault. Also the managers are very young, but that is because not many older people know about the products. How many people, who don’t have degrees in the stuff, know the difference between dos and windows, or DLP, LCD and Rear Projection TV, or even the different computer software and hardware? and obviously if the person is moved up because of his very high sales is because he knows his product, and most of the cases where people think a manager doesn’t know what he is doing is because he doesn’t take the young manager seriously, and then the manager is so frustrated with the customer he cannot think straight. and a lot of you people need to understand its a business, not there to just satisfy you, but to make a profit, if they don’t lower their price for you and its already lower than any of their competitors, stop being cheap and get the thing, every company has its limits, if the price is already at its limit, then they cannot do anything its not their fault, its set in the system so stop whining. and for the open box items, there is a big sticker on the box that says reduced and if you didn’t see it then its your fault, how can they keep track of every item that was returned they are not computers they are people and make mistakes just like you, and if it didn’t have a sticker on it, it was one of the wonderful customers like yourself who decided to open it without permission and messed it up. and in response to the end of the opening article about fry’s on this site, if you are still going to go to fry’s to buy something cause its the cheapest, then they really never lost your business did they, because you are cheap at nature you will shop at fry’s cause its the cheapest and that is how fry’s is able to open up stores across the country and that is why they do more business and make more money than best buy and circuit city, because they do offer the lowest prices and good products. also another fact about fry’s that most people don’t know is that fry’s makes so much money that they actually buy the land they put their stores on and don’t lease it like best buy and circuit city. And they also buy every product before hand and monthly like again its competitors. So please do not give your opinion about something you have no idea about.
15 screwed by a fry's customer Nov 16th, 2005 at 4:06 am

you guys don’t hate fry’s as much as me. I worked at the new store in oxnard for 2 months where i was the number one sales person for the entire duration of my employment there. then comes a little half mexican half filipino lady who complains about me saying negative things about a pos labtop. I’m talking 400 dollar GQ status crap. The kind of stuff if you sold it to your dad you’d feel guilty. In any event she complained about my honesty and I was fired. be careful when you shop there the salesmen will lie to you constantly.
16 Adan Nov 17th, 2005 at 4:14 pm

Well, I have been going to the fry’s store by Baytown and I haven’t had the chance to get any kind of conflicts with the employees or service. It might be because I usually just go and grab what I need and don’t ask too many cuestions, I don’t know. I’ll keep going for now but if I get a bad customer service or they disappoint me, then I’ll have to go somewhere else because customer service is the number one priority.
17 Patrick Dec 17th, 2005 at 4:17 pm

If you like poor service and sales people who
coundn’t give a rat’s ass about your problem or
questions, Fry’s is definitely the place to shop. You can also find the widest selection of re-packaged, returned merchandice at Fry’s.
Enjoy wasting time, fighting crowds, and parking in a seperate zip-code?? Go to Fry’s!
18 Joseph Jan 3rd, 2006 at 11:35 pm

I used to work for Fry’s as well…For 2 years in fact, and I can tell you that no matter how bad you think they treat the customers, they treat the Employees worse. One of their greatest tricks to get their employees to QUIT and not be fired:

1)place them on a 5-day suspension and then when the employee returned place them on a second and third until they just didn’t return because they had not made any money, for x amount of days and could not even get to work if they wanted. the reason didn’t have to be anything more than they failed to get the Required 2 FRY’S Credit cards that have like a million % intrest, really it’s 23.9% right now, but it still is tough. or they would say you were out of dress code if they didn’t like a tie.

2)CUT COMMISSIONS
Overall the commissions for a sales associates throught the store is based from the gross profit of an item… so if you ever wonder why the associates hate ad items its because they make no money, and while i was there I admit I was even guilty of this… I’d avoid the customers who had ads and try to help those that were not, also before you really complain about something an associate did/sold you, did he show you something else related to it that was just a little more? if so he was showing you the item that made him money and had the better quality ratings. Like if you went in for an advertised Motherboard/CPU combo did he try to explain others to you? because the ad combos are almost always ECS “Extremely Cheap Shit” Mainboards.
Anyways Fry’s recently cut the amount of commision we made on a product close to half, say I had been making $350 in commissions i had to work extremely hard to break $175. the only guarenteed way for a salesman to make money is to sell their PSC and 95% of the customers said no the minute you even suggested it.

well enough Ranting the best thing I can tell you is to Go TO MICRO CENTER and then your customer service experience is their ultimate goal. By the way I work there now and much prefer it, I have learned far more and excelled much faster than i ever could have at FRY’s I was there 2 years and was on the second tier of employees and could go no where from there even though I repeatedly asked for a promotion.

Good Night all
19 Lola Jan 6th, 2006 at 10:55 pm

OMG! OKaaaaaaay. “Low Price Guarantee” that is the Fry’s promise, you stated that CompUSA had it for $2499 so why didn’t you tell them that? They would have matched it. So in actuallity you didn’t think. You wanted them to honor a price from an on line ad. Regardless of whos site it was Fry’s can only honor newspaper ads. So what if some bitch honked at you in a parking lot at Fry’s. Don’t even act like you haven’t honked your horn at some dumb bitch. So Get the FUCK over it already.
20 Rob Feb 1st, 2006 at 9:33 am

Same thing happened to me at Circuit City. I found a laptop I wanted online and went to the store to buy it. It was $1300 with a $100 off rebate. Before I purchased the laptop I asked the clerk if about the rebate. He looked it up online and said, “yea, it will print out when you buy the laptop.” Well, I bought it and the rebate didn’t print out. After the sales guy went looking for a manager for 20 minutes he came back and said the rebate was online only. So I went directly from the back of the store where I bought the laptop and returned it at the front of the store. After that hassle I have stayed away from Circuit City.
21 me May 17th, 2006 at 11:37 am

I’ve had some problems with frys just as I have with other retailers. It’s the nature of the business. But Rob, you should’ve kept the laptop, gone home and printed the rebate. The rebates online don’t require a purchase, just click the link, print it out, send it in.
22 loltastic Aug 14th, 2006 at 4:17 am

You guys complain way too much. I have never had a problem with Fry’s and though their associates are not knowledgeable about everything, they do get the job done and get me what I need. I’ve not had a problem with purchases, getting questions answered, or returns. Are we talking about the same store?
23 Barth Drooks Jun 11th, 2007 at 8:56 pm

I love Fry’s and shop there regularly for several reasons:

1) They are a behemoth. A huge chain of huge stores with such a wide variety of products, many of which you can find cheaper than elsewhere, ala Walmart.

2) I’ve bought “Return” products off the shelf (after careful examination and deliberation, of course), which were wholly satisfactory, and hella cheap.

3) They have a store a mile from my job and another one a mile from my house.

And to the guy who works in home audio and says “fuck cheap asses” in this terrible thread of flame: Dude, you sound like you’ve had a silver spoon up your a$s your whole life, and now Daddy is making you pay half of the car insurance on your new Jeep.

We shop there because we can find what we want at the price we’re willing to pay, relative to other shopping experiences. Many values to be had. Yeah most of the people are are stupid, customers as well as employees, but I’ll just punch em in their face if they get out of line. Hot chicks behind the counter keep nerds coming back, and they know this. THey put the pretty chick as the greeter, and sometimes at the exit as well.
24 Niti Aug 6th, 2007 at 11:22 am

ok so i been working for frys for more than 3 months now, i have a position of service tech A , i fixed the most amount of computers, made money for the department, and acted really nice to the customers and helped them the best way i could. Now after 3 months i make 1 mistake and fried a motherboard by a careless mistake. Now because of that i got suspended for 5 days.. i know it was my mistake and i told them i would pay for the motherboard but NO they wanted to suspend me for 5 days… in frys getting suspended is like getting fired… i really dont want to quit or get fired because i like working there.. iets see what happens tommorw.. its my 5th day tommorw. i dont know what to do.. i;m scared… its my first job..and i’m only 18..
25 Floyd T. Hopkins Feb 5th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

Dear Whom It Concerns:

On February 20, 2006, I purchased a Toshiba “Satellite” tablet/laptop computer from Fry’s Electronics. I normally do NOT buy extended warranties. However (and this part is the key to everything that happens from here on out), the Fry’s salesman tells me that ‘because tablets are so new only Toshiba will be able to repair the spinal-hinge’. That was still not enough to get me to buy the extended warranty. When I was told that I would get a “loaner” computer to use “in the event that the Toshiba needed to be sent off for repair”. I have commissioned a local company (Tex-Star) to service my computers for a number of years. But because of the concern for the “newness” of the tablet, I agreed to purchase the 24 month warranty.

Sure enough, ironically, 20 months later the spinal-hinge broke! In other words I was sold on the extended warranty based on the part that broke. Now I have a tablet/laptop with a top that will not close. So, on November 21, 2007, I happily take it back to Fry’s, glad that I was wise enough to buy their extended warranty. {That, by the way, leaves 3 months on the 24 month warranty.} When they gave me the “loaner” I went on a campaign telling my friends, family and business associates how cool Fry’s extended warranty is; Man, was I wrong!!!

Prior to returning my computer for repairs I had two local computer repair companies diagnose the problem. I did this in hopes of having the computer repaired within a few hours or days, without having to send it off somewhere. When I returned the computer to Fry’s I told the two service-technicians what the problem was. One of the service-technicians (I believe it was David Pyo Jongsoo) joked that a five foot drop would not hurt a Toshiba/Satellite. Giving me confidence that the computer would be repaired and I need not worry about the “diagnostic fee”.
Plus the fact a 6 year old could see what the problem was (and still is). Both service-technicians looked at the computer’s problem and went on to accept it for repairs. This was the second step in cheating me (the first was selling me a worthless warranty).

Just to add insult to ripping me off, I gave the service department 2 telephone contact numbers. They did not bother to use either one of them. On December 10, 2007 I called Fry’s (yes I called them, not vice-versa), they told me ‘they’ were waiting for me to approve the payment of $443 for the repairs. FOUR HUNDRED - FORTY - THREE DOLLARS for repairs to a computer when I have already paid $159 for the extended warranty. This must be insult number 3, but there will be more! The following day, December 11, 2007, I call Fry’s again to request a face to face meeting with the store Manager. I was speaking to Jerrod Gable. He told me to contact the home office at 1-408-487-4500. Here comes the next insult. I call the “home office” got transferred and put on hold until I was disconnected. So, being a sucker, I called again; got transferred and put on hold until I was disconnected AGAIN. Oh, Fry’s did call me, Jerrod called me back to inform me Fry’s will NOT repair my computer without the approval to pay the $443. He said the part which broke is not covered under the warranty. He all but said I abused my computer! {He said the computer was physically abused. And since I am the only one that has access to it, then he is saying I abused my computer.}

On December 12, 2007 some guy named Jason, from the Arlington, Texas store called. I got the impression that he was unaware of any previous conversations I had had with Fry’s. He asked that I authorize the $443 for the repair work. I told him “I want my computer repaired and I will NOT be paying the $443″. He informed my computer was in California and he will have my computer returned to Arlington, Texas unrepaired. Once again I call the ‘home office’. On the third try, I finally got to talk to a person, Kim. Kim told me she would have the Arlington (Texas) store Manager call me. IT NEVER HAPPENED!

On December 13, 2007 I went to meet with the store Manager. They sent me the Assistant Manager (I can only assume the Manager was afraid to meet with me). He pretty much said the same; pay the $443 or Fry’s will not repair my computer. He too, said the damage was not covered. {I have concluded the only thing covered by the warranty is a working computer.} I told him to either fix my computer or I will stand at the entry door (to Fry’s) and tell incoming customers not to buy extended warranties from Fry’s. Which I did! The Assistant Manager came out and told me to leave or he would call the police. I asked him if he wanted to use my cell-phone. He said “no, I know the number, I have done this a number of times.” I told him if he would stop cheating his customers he would not have to have the Arlington Police Department on his speed dial!

When the police arrived I told them that Fry’s are the one’s stealing from their customers and yet I am being treated like a criminal. They told me I had to leave and I complied.

Wisely, on their part, they did not return my computer until after Christmas. I am sure they waited until after Christmas in fear of my protesting out front again. And that would be correct, especially after what happened next. Now I have lost count of the number of times Fry’s has insulted me; but they weren’t through yet. Once again, they did NOT call me. I received a post card telling me they had ‘tried’ to call. That is another flat out lie! But that is not the insult. The insult is when I go in to pick up my computer they told me I have to pay $107 for diagnostics! Heck, I told them what was wrong the computer and (again) a 6 year old could tell them what was wrong with the computer!

Needless to say, when they told me I had to pay $107 , there was a fight. And it ain’t over yet. I told them to stop stealing from me and give me my computer. They did not. In fact the guy behind the counter tried to take my receipt away from me. That would have left me with NO proof that I had ever left my computer with them. I had to reach across the counter and grab it back as he was walking away!

One final thing, the computer that they loaned me has the new Windows ‘Vista’ operating system. It did not work with my printer, plotter and my CAD software. So, after loading the software onto it, I took it off and went and bought a new HP computer (and paid to have Vista remove and Windows XP installed).

Thank you,
26 What was the question? Feb 23rd, 2008 at 8:25 pm

Kinda curious if we got the OP’s question answered - will Fry’s match their own online pricing - and no it is not a separate company - or they would not collect sales tax from states where they have stores.

CC and BB will meet their online pricing - will Fry’s and if not why - the Outpost excuse does not fly.

BTW nice language throughout the post - try thinking and expressing yourself intelligently instead.
27 galvez Apr 19th, 2008 at 7:06 pm

Went to Fry’s in Webster, Texas with a friend. We each bought an Aircard for our computers and one for my wife. I do not live with my wife (she lives in an assisted living facility in Houston) and we have separate Sprint accounts, and my friend has his own account. The shelf price indicated that it was $299.99 with a $300 instant activation credit. All 3 were activated. We were charged $49.99 each for them. I showed the manager the tag (Mr. Adrian Ortiz), and he told me he would give me the price, but not my wife, even though we each have our own accounts with Sprint. He claimed she would have to come in. Problem is, she is visually and mobility impaired and it would be difficult for her to come in to the store since none are located near her. He did not care that she was disabled and would have a difficult time getting there and he claimed we were one customer. He also claimed that my friend must be getting the Aircard for me, since he was my friend. It did not matter that each of us had our own 2 year contract for the devices. I took the tag, and he wanted me to give it back to him. I refused. He would then only give me the price if I gave the card back. I refused. I plan to file a complaint based on the ADA for refusing to accommodate a disabled person. Probably will not shop at Fry’s again, since they are making this such a hassle.
28 Jesse May 2nd, 2008 at 11:57 am

I guess none of you are aware that Fry’s does things the way they want to. It is run by four people who make the rules. The thousands of employees under them are simply following the direction of their bosses(Much like you would if you ever had a job). They do their best to accommodate, but you can’t put your own terms and conditions on the sale and expect them to do anything you want, just because you’re the customer. I bet you’re the kind of people that throw tantrums in the middle of the store when you don’t get your way. Kind of like a toddler. Do me a favor you brain dead idiots, next time you go shopping, stop by the customer service desk and ask to have your bottom powdered. When they give you that confused look, tell them you’re just a big stupid baby!! Go run and cry.
29 Devin May 12th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

Floyd, I feel your pain. My experience has been worse. Some issues they have fixed, others they won’t. The wireless in my laptop has not worked since day one, I’ve had it for about 10 months out of the last 34. They hold on to it for months if you don’t call, then when you do, they say they can’t find a problem. I have to go down and show a new person (the previous employee has finally left for whatever reason) that the problem indeed exists. They then say they will “Call you” which is ALWAYS a lie they never call.

I called corperate and got disconnected 3 times in a row, then I got a stupidviser. Now I am waiting for someone to “Call Me” again. I would love to find out if there are any legal means to get my money back.

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