Hi, I did an alta vista search for my cusa horror stoory posting in the newsgroups, but I forgot to specify newsgroups, and your www site came up- requesting submissions, no less. Well here's one which you can also read in the newsgroups. I'll also attach a copy of the formal letter I sent to cusa and Compaq. Enjoy.
 

   CompUSA Horror Story

re: CompUSA Service Order # 29705093
    Compaq Case # 589081301156

CUTTING TO THE CHASE: If you are thinking of doing business with CompUSA, be it new hardware, software, service or training; READ ON!!! If you read my story which follows, you'll know to CUT YOUR LOSS BEFORE IT BEGINS!! This company is clearly screwed up from the top brass to the bottom workers- especially the top brass which plainly isn't "watching the store". To the brass at Compaq Computer who is tarnishing their own name and causing their valuable customers to wring their hands in frustration: STOP AFFILIATING WITH COMPUSA!! Your name is being diminished by association!!

MY STORY:

Day 1
Thursday Aug 13 1998: Brought my Compaq Presario 1622 Notebook to CompUSA store in San Bruno, CA for warranty service. Suspected failed motherboard. I'M TOLD SERVICE WILL TAKE 5-7 DAYS, and they'll call me upon completion.

Day 12
Monday Aug 24: I have heard nothing from CompUSA, I call the store, navigate the voice mail system to connect to the service dept., listen to the phone ring for TWENTY (20) MINUTES. Finally an answer, I ask what's the status on the repair, I'm told an ordered part came but was DOA, it's been re-ordered. I ask what's the new time frame for completion, he could not tell me at that time. I ask to please call me when a new time frame is known, he says okay, verifies my phone number, SAYS HE'LL CALL. I didn't get his name, but I gather from the history on my final receipt that his initials are "CC".

Day 14
Wednesday Aug 26: No callback from CompUSA. I call the store, navigate voice mail to service, listen to 10 rings or so, then a click as someone picked the line but simultaneously put it on hold. Now it's a repeating loop of the handful of different CompUSA radio commercials. I listen to this nonsense for NINETY (90) MINUTES, then hang up in dismay as I need to
leave.

Day 15
Thursday Aug 27: CompUSA is still AWOL, I have no laptop and I'm totally in the dark as to when things will be back to normal. I call the store again during business hours (as always), navigate voice mail to service dept, this time only one ring and then a message asking that I leave a message and someone would return my call. Now normally, a company which would choose to have an answering machine answer their customer calls during business hours would be a bad thing; but I had been through a twenty minute wait on day 12, and a FUTILE ninety minute wait on day 14; so by comparison- this was a relief. I could leave a message without waiting, and they could return my call after they've done the investigating. I leave a message with all the proper info, and a brief review of what has happened, and an urgent request that I get a call back at once with the latest info.

Day 17
Saturday Aug 29: COMPUSA IS STILL AWOL!!! I call the service dept again, get the message again. I leave a message reviewing all of the above, emphasize the importance of this matter, emphasize that this situation is escalating and escalating, and I URGENTLY REQUEST AN IMMEDIATE CALLBACK WITH SOME INFO.

Day 20
Tuesday Sep 1: You guessed it- remarkably, CompUSA IS STILL TOTALLY AWOL. I decide to call again and see what happens. I call the service dept, listen to about 20 rings (no message this time- so much for consistency), get that deja vu feeling. I hang up, decide the way to do this is to call the store's main line, get ANY HUMAN, and insist that they keep me live on the line while they walk over to service, grab someone by the earloab, and put them on the phone to me at once. Executing my fail-safe plan, I call, choose the voice mail option "for all other calls", and wait for an answer. Unbelievably, on the store's MAIN LINE, I WAITED NINETY (90) MINUTES AND NO ANSWER!!! (yes during business hours as always...) I gave
up and hung up. I figure, "Wait one hour, they're the fools. Wait two hours, I'm the fool..." I cut my loss after 1.5 hours.

Many of you reading would have done this long before, but it was day 20 for me when, after all of the above, I drove to the store to retrieve my notebook computer regardless of the status. There was no line at all (imagine the line of people I expected to see after spending all that time on hold...). I was helped by the same guy who helped when I dropped off the notebook 20 days before; "GOJED". I was conscious of not unloading any anger on him- I figure he's an underpaid guy who's already got a bad lot in life working for CompUSA. Calmly taking care of business, I gave him my receipt and requested the machine. He punched it up in the terminal, and then said a new part had arrived, it's not installed yet, and "uh, it'll be, uh, a few more days." With the above experience, I knew that the proper translation of this from CompUSA-ese to English was, "The time frame for getting your notebook back is COMPLETELY OPEN ENDED AND DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME TRYING TO CHECK ON THE STATUS..."  Without providing my whole sob story (doing this would profoundly change my  mood...) I told him that I was cutting my loss on this transaction, and I absolutely MUST get the notebook at once. About ten minutes later I had my computer, and a final receipt. I gathered the names of the store's Service Manager and the General Manager (Joseph Ramos and Gary Sebastian, respectively) from GOJED, thanked him, and left.  While my dissatifaction was plain from the action I was taking, GOJED offered no apology. Twenty days after dropping off my machine, and after incalculable frustration, I have my machine back and I need to start from scratch in getting it repaired. This time I'm having Compaq pick up the machine and drop it off after completion.

I hope that those of you who have read this far now understand my warnings at the top. I feel it is my duty as a diligent onsumer to do all I can to "pass the word" about CompUSA's systemic problems, and to save as many others from grief as possible. CERTAINLY don't buy any new systems from them, as you are marrying the whole disfunctional CompUSA family including
the service department which is a lost cause. As for new peripherals, YOU CAN ALWAYS find them cheaper elsewhere. CompUSA has that "warehouse discount store" size and feel to them-- but the fact is, the prices may as well be in a boutique on Rodeo Drive. They're publicly held and need to try to keep quarterly profits high, they pay for massive radio and newspaper advertising, and they are located in high rent strip malls and other high traffic metropolitan areas. Look to the REAL discount outlets in your free computer rags and elsewhere. If you've just bought something within 10 days, RETURN IT JUST OUT OF PRINCIPLE! A Company this screwed up should simply dis-evolve; go the way of the dinasaurs. I've told several friends and co-workers (I work with computers) about my experience, and every time the dialog quickly became an exchange of CompUSA horror stories. I kept asking, "Where were you people before I made this mistake of going to CompUSA??" Now I urge all readers again- Don't shop CompUSA; and CUT YOUR LOSS BEFORE IT BEGINS. Pass the word.

Thank you for reading,

Tom Rategan, MCSE