Rather frustrated at the moment. And absolutely sick of Frys Electronics. The store in Woodland Hills has screwed me over twice today. WARNING: LONG-ASS RANT ABOUT NOTHING PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT My laptop charger shorted out, so I had to get a new one. Started off by going to best buy, grabbing one of their universal chargers and throwing it into my laptop. It worked fine until I tried to play a game of League. The power kept cutting in and out, so the battery died rather quickly. It happened consistently every time I tried to play a game. Any game. So I go back to Best Buy, thoroughly confused, when one of the Geek Squad techs explained that the 90w power supply wasnt enough to power my laptop during a game. Which made sense, but unfortunately, they only carry 90w chargers. So I drive out to the place I purchased my laptop, Frys in Woodland Hills. I make a beeline for the computer section, where after standing at the help desk for a good 10 minutes, watching all the employees converse in a language that Im unfamiliar with, one finishes up with the customer he was helping, looks at me and asks. Have you been helped? When I answer no, he looks incredulously at his fellow employees and, after a brief explanation of my problem, leads me over to the laptop chargers. We find a dozen different brands of 90w chargers, a couple 100w and one single 120w, which I believe is what my original charger was. This 120w charger was a returned item, which is fine with me normally, but this one was packaged disgustingly. Im not a neat freak, by any means, but if you are going to have a product on your shelves, whether its a return or not, make it at least look showable. This thing was taped up, the cardboard label was ripped and had holes in it, The plastic was gaping open, it looked like the person who returned it just shoved it in the plastic sideways, taped it shut, said Here you go, I dont want it anymore., and then the employees took it AS IS, threw a we checked this out and its cool even though it looks like crap sticker on it, and put it back on the shelves. Even with looking how it did, I purchased it. The price had been reduced, it was the product that I needed, and there was a sticker that guaranteed that it was a functioning item. I check out, drive back to the best buy in Simi, return the old cable that wasnt powerful enough, finish up the rest of my errands, and go home to play some League. I plug in the new charger, the blue light on the power brick nearly blinds me. Thats a good sign. I say to myself out loud. Then I search through the dozen+ different attachments to find the one that fits my laptop. There is no guide as to which adapter goes to what, but I eventually figure it out, I plug it into my laptop! Nothing happens. I pull it out, glare at it for a second then plug it back in! Again, nothing happens. I let out a heavy sigh. As it turns out, they left a faulty, broken (which is probably why it was returned in the first place), poorly packaged product on their shelves for a customer to buy. So what can I do? I already returned the other charger. So I hop back in my car and drive all the way back to Woodland Hills, which granted, isnt too far, but its a pain nonetheless. I return the charger, saying that it was broken and not working, they give me a voucher for its cost and send me back over to the computer department. The same employees are standing there talking in the same unfamiliar language. I search for the one that helped me before, and hes off helping some other customer. I go back to the help desk again, there are two employees standing there, just carrying on their conversation, paying me no mind. Then there manager comes storming over and yells at them in the same language and I barely understood something about customer waiting. They roll their eyes, and finally one of them turns to me and asks, How may I help you today? I explain my situation and he leads me back to the same section with all the same chargers that I had been standing in 2 hours before. We look over all the same chargers and I tell him multiple times, I need something with a higher wattage than 90. All of the 120w are not on the shelf, none of the half open chargers that are littering the counter and floor are the right wattage. He hands me a 140w power inverter with a car adapter and tells me that it will work. That was when I knew I should have just gotten a different person to help me, but I didnt want to be rude, so I politely point out that it wasnt the product I was looking for. He looks at the packaging, reads it for a moment, then says Oh and puts it back. He hands me a 100w charger and ASKS ME Will this work? I tell him Well, Im sure it will be compatible with my laptop, but I just dont know if it will be powerful enough to let me game. I noticed that his eyes kind of glazed over at the word compatible. So he just stands there, staring at me for a good minute at least, while I try and think of what to do. I ask him if he can check the computer to see if maybe there are more of any of the 120w chargers that arent on the shelves in the back. He just shakes his head and says This one will do and goes over to the computer anyways, and prints out the piece of paper that you have to take to the register to prove that youve been helped by someone. So I make the drive home, plug in the charger, it at least charges. I hop into a game of League to test out the 100w power supply, and low and behold, its still not powerful enough. So here I am, stuck with a product that only half works, unable to do anything about it until tomorrow, when I have to drive BACK to Woodland Hills and try and find a competent employee. TLDR; I dont like Frys screwed me over twice and I had to deal with some pretty shitty customer service.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 04:47:41 +0000