Frys’ Quality Service
Published Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Have I mentioned that I have a love hate relationship with Fry’s Electronics. I love Fry’s prices. Often their prices cannot be beat. But the cheap prices come at a price complete loss of customer service. Basically customer service is nonexistent. Actually let me take that back. The Fry’s customer service is never helpful but they are always willing to do one thing. They are willing to ask for your name and phone number to type into their computer, generate a printout, that you take to the front desk along with your purchase selection. This paper server no purpose other then indicating that the get the sales commission. But they didn’t even help with the sale. They just stand around looking for people that have already made a purchase and then pounce.
It’s kind of a game. Can you get into the store, find your item, and then get to the front desk before one of the employees spots you and try’s to help by invading your privacy? Sometimes no matter what you do you have to ask for then to retrieve an item for you (for example a hard drive or memory). Last time that happened and they asked for my name and phone number I said “no”. The employee was shocked. I said that I do not want to give my name and phone number. He then called the manager who informed me that the name and phone number were needed in case of a recall. Like they are really going to recall this $24 memory card. It was complete bullshit and I told him so. He then instructed me to make up and name and number. So now at Fry’s I am J. Smith at 310-123-4567.
In another instance my wife was looking to purchase a new wireless home phone. The phone we wanted was not on the shelf. So my wife asked the employee very nicely if they had any more. She was the one who asked because I refuse to talk to them. The employee response was “Does it look like we have any?” gesturing towards the empty shelf. My wife, rather shocked, explained that she was asking if there was more in the back. The employees response, in a very condescending tone, was that if there was more in the back they would be brought out. Amazingly after that encounter I noticed the ass’s picture on the isle rack with the title “This section proudly presented by XXX”. I really should have remembered the guys name but this was a few years ago.
Anyway, I’m writing this tonight because I am again annoyed by Fry’s. Today I needed an extension cable. So I ran into Fry’s, b-lined to the section I needed, grabbed the cable, then dodged a few employees on the way to the checkout line. As I stood in the checkout line with 30 some odd people in front of me and only two cashiers I could over hear a loud conversation by two employees obviously not working near the checkout. The conversation went something like this:
Employee 1: Shit Dogg. I can’t remember any of that.
Employee 2: Fucker, you were so shit drunk I had to carry your ass to your car.
Employee 1: So who the fuck dented my car.
Employee 2: Fucker, I don’t know. You drove.
Yeah, those are some quality Fry’s employees for you.
March 8th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
I love your site. It’s about time Frys starts caring about their customers. I will also link this page on my ultimate anti-fry’s electronics article at http://www.rfuz.com/reviews/computer-shopping-guides/10-reasons-why-frys-electronics-sucks-and-has-the-worst-customer-service.html
March 31st, 2007 at 6:34 pm
My experiene with Frys service was horrid. I purchased and extended service contract to go with my computer. I go the machine home and the Ethernet went out after about a week. Rather than make the 50+ mile, round trip, I canibalized an Ethernet from an older machine. Then, after a few months, I checked the HP download site to see if there were any relevant updates for my machine. They had a BIOS update that was supposed to fix a problem with the network. Well, I had a problem with my network so I downloaded the BIOS. Big mistake. The BIOS did not have the correct settings for my machine’s fans and they started acting very strange. They oscillated from low to high speed about 2 times per second and the CPU utalization would climd to 100% for no apperant reason. I contacted HP support and got a total runaround. They denied that the BIOS update could cause the problem I was having with the fan and they suggested that I do a complete system restore, from disks that they were happy to sell me. I ordered the disks and dis an install, and it didn’t fix the problem. HP support suggested that I try it again. I went ahead and did it even though I knew it was a waste of time jsut so I could HP that I had done it and we could move on to the next step in debugging the problem. Well, half way throug the second system restore, the DVD stopped working. This left me with no other option but to return it to Frys and have it fixed under the service agreement that I purchased. Then things got really fun. First, when I told them that I had updated the BIOS they acted like I has committed an original sin. They took the machine and said that they would run diagnostics but if they couldn’t find a problem I would be liable for a $60 “diagnostic fee”. Against my better judgement, I signed the agreement and left the machien with them. Well 7 weekes latter they call and say that the DVD is working fine but the BIOS is not the right one for the motherboard because it fails during boot with some purple screen or something. This is kind of strange since the BIOS was able to boot enough to run a restore until the DVD died. It never had this “purple plague” that Fry said it had. Then they hit me with the real zingger. Since I had updated the BIOS, the SERVICE CONTRACT WAS VOID and they would not fix the broken Ethernet because it was cause by the bad BIOS!!! This is infuriating that I can’t stand it. The Ethernet was broken before I ever did the BIOS update so the fact that it doesn’t work can’t be related to the BIOS update. The real kicker is that I told them about the BIOS update when I dropped off the machine and they didn’t say that the service contract was voided. Instead, they got me to committ to pay them $60 if they couldn’t find anything and then they say that they can’t check the machine out because of the BIOS update and besides, the service contract is voided. The part of th agreement that they used against me was “ANY SERVICE, REPAIR OR REPLACEMENT TO ANY EQUIPMENT IF THE EQUIPMENT HAS BEEN REPAIRED OR MODIFIED IN ANY WAY (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE INSTALLATION OF PERIPHERAL DEVICES IN THE EQUIPMENT) AFTER THE ORIGINAL PURCHASE OF THE EQUIPMENT, UNLESS SUCH MODIFICATION HAS BEEN MADE BY FRYS OR A FACTORY-AUTHORIZED SERVICE CENTER”. In other words, they claim that a BIOS update from HP constitutes service or repair. On the other hand, it is a requirement of the agrement that the Buyer perform preventative maintenence.
The Frys service agreemt is, in my opionion, fraud. They were looking at having to replace the motherboard in order to fix the problem with the Ethernet so they blamed ths problem on the fact that I updated the BIOS. After they said that they were not going to fix the problem under terms of the service agreement (they would fix it if I gave them more money) they then had the balls to tell me that I couldn’t get my machien back until I paid the $60 ransom otherwise knwon as the “diagnostic fee”. When the told me this, I thought my head was going to explode. My computer is still at Frys and I may never see it again. I don’t intend to ever give them another dime of my money, ever. I suggest that if you do happen to find something at Frys that you have to have, DO NOT BY THE EXTENDED SERVICE!