CompUSA cheating on restocking fees, violating posted refund policies

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robert Tolliver
  • Start date Start date
R

Robert Tolliver

**** Post for FREE via your newsreader at post.usenet.com ****

CompUSA's posted policy on returns is that unopened hardware returns are
eligible for 100% refunds, but opened items are subject to a 15% restocking
fee. But
guess what? They deem unopened packages as opened and charge the 15%
anyway, even for an upgrade exchange.

Last Friday, I bought some 256MB DDR from them but decided that I'd
better get 512MB because my motherboard has only two memory slots. So
on Sat I return the 256MB - unopened, and expected to pay the price
difference
for a 512MB. But the stupid CompUSA store said that I had to pay a 15%
restocking fee as well because the packaging had been opened, but I hadn't
opened it - hard to open one of those hard plastic, fused-together
containers
without causing major damage. Another customer said that they tried the
same trick on her husband, and I can believe it.








-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
*** Usenet.com - The #1 Usenet Newsgroup Service on The Planet! ***
http://www.usenet.com
Unlimited Download - 19 Seperate Servers - 90,000 groups - Uncensored
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 
Robert Tolliver said:
**** Post for FREE via your newsreader at post.usenet.com ****

CompUSA's posted policy on returns is that unopened hardware returns are
eligible for 100% refunds, but opened items are subject to a 15% restocking
fee. But
guess what? They deem unopened packages as opened and charge the 15%
anyway, even for an upgrade exchange.
Click to expand...

I'm not surprised. It's probably their biggest source of income considering
their prices. OTOH, the CompUSA near me took back a product I opened with
no restocking fee. Apparently it's also at the discretion of each store.
 
Robert Tolliver said:
**** Post for FREE via your newsreader at post.usenet.com ****

CompUSA's posted policy on returns is that unopened hardware returns are
eligible for 100% refunds, but opened items are subject to a 15% restocking
fee. But
guess what? They deem unopened packages as opened and charge the 15%
anyway, even for an upgrade exchange.

Last Friday, I bought some 256MB DDR from them but decided that I'd
better get 512MB because my motherboard has only two memory slots. So
on Sat I return the 256MB - unopened, and expected to pay the price
difference
for a 512MB. But the stupid CompUSA store said that I had to pay a 15%
restocking fee as well because the packaging had been opened, but I hadn't
opened it - hard to open one of those hard plastic, fused-together
containers
without causing major damage. Another customer said that they tried the
same trick on her husband, and I can believe it.
Click to expand...

Stores do not say anything; their employees do. Did you talk with the
store's manager? If not, you certainly should.
 
**** Post for FREE via your newsreader at post.usenet.com ****

CompUSA's posted policy on returns is that unopened hardware returns are
eligible for 100% refunds, but opened items are subject to a 15% restocking
fee. But
guess what? They deem unopened packages as opened and charge the 15%
anyway, even for an upgrade exchange.

Last Friday, I bought some 256MB DDR from them but decided that I'd
better get 512MB because my motherboard has only two memory slots. So
on Sat I return the 256MB - unopened, and expected to pay the price
difference
for a 512MB. But the stupid CompUSA store said that I had to pay a 15%
restocking fee as well because the packaging had been opened, but I hadn't
opened it - hard to open one of those hard plastic, fused-together
containers
without causing major damage. Another customer said that they tried the
same trick on her husband, and I can believe it.
Click to expand...
You just weren't adamant enough. I've returned OPENED SOFTWARE to
CompUSA. Just stand your ground...

-Martin O'B
 
Robert said:
**** Post for FREE via your newsreader at post.usenet.com ****

CompUSA's posted policy on returns is that unopened hardware returns are
eligible for 100% refunds, but opened items are subject to a 15% restocking
fee. But
guess what? They deem unopened packages as opened and charge the 15%
anyway, even for an upgrade exchange.

Last Friday, I bought some 256MB DDR from them but decided that I'd
better get 512MB because my motherboard has only two memory slots. So
on Sat I return the 256MB - unopened, and expected to pay the price
difference
for a 512MB. But the stupid CompUSA store said that I had to pay a 15%
restocking fee as well because the packaging had been opened, but I hadn't
opened it - hard to open one of those hard plastic, fused-together
containers
without causing major damage. Another customer said that they tried the
same trick on her husband, and I can believe it.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
*** Usenet.com - The #1 Usenet Newsgroup Service on The Planet! ***
http://www.usenet.com
Unlimited Download - 19 Seperate Servers - 90,000 groups - Uncensored
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Click to expand...

Hmm. I returned a PSU to them a month ago. Full refund no questions
asked. Maybe the store close to you is worse than the one by me. I still
prefer to order from Newegg because I hate jumping thru all the rebate
hoops at CompUSA.

Bob
--
Takeoff is an option.
Landing is a must!


And in the end on wheels we will depend.
 
Martin said:
You just weren't adamant enough. I've returned OPENED SOFTWARE to
CompUSA. Just stand your ground...
Click to expand...

I actually did that once too.. I somehow ended up buying a box
of software that was not sealed (my son took it off the shelf
and I forgot to look) and when I returned it I said that it was
like that when I opened it and I was not the one who opened it.
As you say, stand your ground and eventually they will give in.
I certainly would not have paid the 15% the OP claims to have
paid for a closed package of hardware.

OP might try disputing the charge with his credit card company,
or go back to CompUSA and ask to see the manager and complain.
Of course, at this point there's little proof, although they
might concede that someone who was wrong would not go to the
trouble of going back to complain.

Bill
 
Stores do not say anything; their employees do. Did you talk with the
store's manager? If not, you certainly should.
Click to expand...

If by store's you mean the brick and mortar building I suppose not.
But if you mean the corporation called CompUSA then they do say.
The Corporate heads decide their policy on all business transactions
and how they will be carried out or honored.
Example: My wife went out and bought a computer at CompUSA without
consulting me. Of course they screwed her over by selling her a crappy
PII socket seven with no upgradeable options and a very slow
cd-burner.
My wife at first didn't want to admit her poor judgment and accept the
fact that she'd been rooked.(the computer cost 799 bucks.)
After three days of my trying to get her old peripherals to work on
it.(Had NO 16bit slots and only 3 pci slots.) she agrees it needs to
go back.
Burner also didn't work properly(error rate way high) and the HD was
really flakey.(slow or erratic spin rates and had a habit of hunting
way too much.)
CompUSA refused to take it back flat out.
We'd done nothing more than hook it up to her existing monitor and
install a few drivers for hardware.(which we overwrote when we did the
system restore before taking it back.)
Their inhouse service center said it tested out fine for them and they
saw NO reason to give a refund even though we were well within the 2
week refund period.
The only excuse the manager gave us was that these computers were on a
close out and all sales were final.
Never mind they charged my wife the full normal retail price and our
receipt said nothing about the sale being a closeout or the item sold
being a closeout or no return item.
They plain and simple saw an opportunity to screw a customer and took
it.
The manager flat out stated that the policy was not to allow refunds
on any item that had been put on the close out list unless it was
totally non-operational. This policy was put out by the home office.
Plain and simple CompUSA runs their business in a very unscrupulous
manner.
Avoid them at all costs.
 
gothika said:
If by store's you mean the brick and mortar building I suppose not.
But if you mean the corporation called CompUSA then they do say.
The Corporate heads decide their policy on all business transactions
and how they will be carried out or honored.
Example: My wife went out and bought a computer at CompUSA without
consulting me. Of course they screwed her over by selling her a crappy
PII socket seven with no upgradeable options and a very slow
cd-burner.
My wife at first didn't want to admit her poor judgment and accept the
fact that she'd been rooked.(the computer cost 799 bucks.)
After three days of my trying to get her old peripherals to work on
it.(Had NO 16bit slots and only 3 pci slots.) she agrees it needs to
go back.
Burner also didn't work properly(error rate way high) and the HD was
really flakey.(slow or erratic spin rates and had a habit of hunting
way too much.)
CompUSA refused to take it back flat out.
We'd done nothing more than hook it up to her existing monitor and
install a few drivers for hardware.(which we overwrote when we did the
system restore before taking it back.)
Their inhouse service center said it tested out fine for them and they
saw NO reason to give a refund even though we were well within the 2
week refund period.
The only excuse the manager gave us was that these computers were on a
close out and all sales were final.
Never mind they charged my wife the full normal retail price and our
receipt said nothing about the sale being a closeout or the item sold
being a closeout or no return item.
They plain and simple saw an opportunity to screw a customer and took
it.
The manager flat out stated that the policy was not to allow refunds
on any item that had been put on the close out list unless it was
totally non-operational. This policy was put out by the home office.
Plain and simple CompUSA runs their business in a very unscrupulous
manner.
Avoid them at all costs.
Click to expand...
It hurts to lose money especially if you feel you have been duped. But
let me take the other side of the issue. Your wife went looking for a
bargain and bought one of the cheapest systems around and might have
gotten what she paid for.

Law provides some protection -- the system must function and it must be
suitable for the application intended. The latter requires that the
customer actually ask the store help about it. So if she said, "I want
to copy CDs at 16x. Will this do it for me?" She is covered.

In MA stores must post their return policy but there is no obligation
for them to make customers read it. And that policy can be anything at
all, including "No Returns".

Caveat emptor.
 
gothika said:
If by store's you mean the brick and mortar building I suppose not.
But if you mean the corporation called CompUSA then they do say.
The Corporate heads decide their policy on all business transactions
and how they will be carried out or honored.
Example: My wife went out and bought a computer at CompUSA without
consulting me. Of course they screwed her over by selling her a crappy
PII socket seven
Click to expand...

There's no such thing as a "PII socket seven." P-II is slot-1. Socket 7 is
Pentium Classic, Pentium MMX, AMD K6-II, K6-III, or one of the other
'Pentium clone' chips (Cyrix, Winchip, IBM, etc).
with no upgradeable options and a very slow
cd-burner.
My wife at first didn't want to admit her poor judgment and accept the
fact that she'd been rooked.(the computer cost 799 bucks.)
After three days of my trying to get her old peripherals to work on
it.(Had NO 16bit slots and only 3 pci slots.) she agrees it needs to
go back.
Burner also didn't work properly(error rate way high) and the HD was
really flakey.(slow or erratic spin rates and had a habit of hunting
way too much.)
Click to expand...

If the hard drive had erratic spin rates it wouldn't be functioning at all.

Reason I bring it up is if you still have the system then people in here
might be able to help.
CompUSA refused to take it back flat out.
We'd done nothing more than hook it up to her existing monitor and
install a few drivers for hardware.(which we overwrote when we did the
system restore before taking it back.)
Their inhouse service center said it tested out fine for them and they
saw NO reason to give a refund even though we were well within the 2
week refund period.
The only excuse the manager gave us was that these computers were on a
close out and all sales were final.
Never mind they charged my wife the full normal retail price and our
receipt said nothing about the sale being a closeout or the item sold
being a closeout or no return item.
They plain and simple saw an opportunity to screw a customer and took
it.
The manager flat out stated that the policy was not to allow refunds
on any item that had been put on the close out list unless it was
totally non-operational. This policy was put out by the home office.
Plain and simple CompUSA runs their business in a very unscrupulous
manner.
Click to expand...

Actually, what you've described is a local store manager violating
corporate policy.
Avoid them at all costs.
Click to expand...

The few experiences I had with CompUSA were quite a while back but, in the
local store at least, they were unbelievably disorganized and the
inventory/order tracking system was more often in error than correct. In my
case, they claimed I had already picked up the hard drives I was in there
to check on and there were three others in the 'service' line looking for
computers the store claimed had already been 'delivered'. Now, I could have
screamed my head off to the guy behind the counter but after seeing him key
things in for 30 minutes, and still not have an answer from the system, I
realized it wasn't 'his' fault.

But, as I said, that was a while ago so maybe they've upgraded the Eniac
they were apparently using back then.
 
There's no such thing as a "PII socket seven." P-II is slot-1. Socket 7 is
Pentium Classic, Pentium MMX, AMD K6-II, K6-III, or one of the other
'Pentium clone' chips (Cyrix, Winchip, IBM, etc).
Click to expand...
What planet are you from? Of course there are socket 7 PII's. I have a
shelf FULL of them. Would you like to see one?
If the hard drive had erratic spin rates it wouldn't be functioning at all.
Click to expand...
WRONG. Are you always so full of it?
I've seen HD's display all kinds of erratic behavior. That INCLUDES
slow spin ups as well as the more typical hunt or seek errors.
 
gothika said:
What planet are you from? Of course there are socket 7 PII's. I have a
shelf FULL of them. Would you like to see one?
Click to expand...

I'm on the planet Intel originates from and they didn't make a socket 7
P-II. The desktop P-II is slot-1; all of them, from 233MHz to 450Mhz. Had
to for the 'high speed' but still separate cache, not to mention the bus is
different.

The last desktop socket 7 processor Intel made was the P233MMX (not to be
confused with the Pentium classic, which maxed at 200 MHz) followed by the
first P-II, the slot-1 P-II 233. And, of course, with the celeron of the
time being a skinnied P-II there were never any socket 7 celerons either.
When Intel went back to a socket, first with the celeron ppga and then the
P-III 'coppermine' fc-pga (on-die cache being the key to it), it was socket
370 (but no P-IIs in that socket either).

They made a MOBILE P-II in micro-pga and bga, but those aren't desktop
processors nor are they socket 7. (They also went to 266MHz in the mobile
MMX but those are the TCP package and not socket 7 either)

It was AMD who kept socket 7 alive, to avoid designing a completely new
chipset, with their K6-II and K6-III processors which grew it into 'super'
socket 7 with a 100MHz FSB.

I don't know what your shelf is 'full of' but I don't see how they could be
'socket 7' desktop P-IIs unless you pried the cores off of slot-1 carts, or
are mistaking socket-7 MMX processors for P-IIs.
 
***snip***
I'm on the planet Intel originates from and they didn't make a socket 7
P-II. The desktop P-II is slot-1; all of them, from 233MHz to 450Mhz. Had
to for the 'high speed' but still separate cache, not to mention the bus is
different.

The last desktop socket 7 processor Intel made was the P233MMX (not to be
confused with the Pentium classic, which maxed at 200 MHz) followed by the
first P-II, the slot-1 P-II 233. And, of course, with the celeron of the
time being a skinnied P-II there were never any socket 7 celerons either.
When Intel went back to a socket, first with the celeron ppga and then the
P-III 'coppermine' fc-pga (on-die cache being the key to it), it was socket
370 (but no P-IIs in that socket either).
Click to expand...
***snip***

If Intel didn't make socket 7 P2's, then why did companies like Abit
sell 'slocket adapters'? It was a slot 1 card with a socket 7 on it,
to put a socket 7 chip in a slot 1 board...

-Martin O'B
 
If Intel didn't make socket 7 P2's, then why did companies like Abit
sell 'slocket adapters'? It was a slot 1 card with a socket 7 on it,
to put a socket 7 chip in a slot 1 board...
Click to expand...

They were slot 1 to socket 370 adaptors, non had socket 7 sockets.
 
Martin O'Brien said:
***snip***

***snip***

If Intel didn't make socket 7 P2's, then why did companies like Abit
sell 'slocket adapters'? It was a slot 1 card with a socket 7 on it,
to put a socket 7 chip in a slot 1 board...

-Martin O'B
Click to expand...

So it could run Celeron 1.2 instead of the Pentium 11 400 like one of mine ?
 
David said:
I'm on the planet Intel originates from and they didn't make a socket
7 P-II. The desktop P-II is slot-1; all of them, from 233MHz to
450Mhz. Had to for the 'high speed' but still separate cache, not to
mention the bus is
different.

The last desktop socket 7 processor Intel made was the P233MMX (not to
be confused with the Pentium classic, which maxed at 200 MHz) followed
by the first P-II, the slot-1 P-II 233. And, of course, with the
celeron of the time being a skinnied P-II there were never any socket
7 celerons either. When Intel went back to a socket, first with the
celeron ppga and then the P-III 'coppermine' fc-pga (on-die cache
being the key to it), it was socket 370 (but no P-IIs in that socket
either).

They made a MOBILE P-II in micro-pga and bga, but those aren't desktop
processors nor are they socket 7. (They also went to 266MHz in the
mobile MMX but those are the TCP package and not socket 7 either)
Click to expand...

So far so good. ;-)
It was AMD who kept socket 7 alive, to avoid designing a completely
new chipset, with their K6-II and K6-III processors which grew it into
'super' socket 7 with a 100MHz FSB.
Click to expand...

Actually, it was Cyrix/IBM that pushed the Socket-7 into the 75 then
83MHz busses. Then AMD came on board again at 100MHz, along with
Cyrix/IBM.
I don't know what your shelf is 'full of' but I don't see how they
could be 'socket 7' desktop P-IIs unless you pried the cores off of
slot-1 carts, or are mistaking socket-7 MMX processors for P-IIs.
Click to expand...

Who knows what he has. As you correctly state, they are *not* socket-7
PIIs. No such thing ever existed.
 
I'm on the planet Intel originates from and they didn't make a socket 7
P-II. The desktop P-II is slot-1; all of them, from 233MHz to 450Mhz. Had
to for the 'high speed' but still separate cache, not to mention the bus is
different.

The last desktop socket 7 processor Intel made was the P233MMX (not to be
confused with the Pentium classic, which maxed at 200 MHz) followed by the
first P-II, the slot-1 P-II 233. And, of course, with the celeron of the
time being a skinnied P-II there were never any socket 7 celerons either.
When Intel went back to a socket, first with the celeron ppga and then the
P-III 'coppermine' fc-pga (on-die cache being the key to it), it was socket
370 (but no P-IIs in that socket either).

They made a MOBILE P-II in micro-pga and bga, but those aren't desktop
processors nor are they socket 7. (They also went to 266MHz in the mobile
MMX but those are the TCP package and not socket 7 either)

It was AMD who kept socket 7 alive, to avoid designing a completely new
chipset, with their K6-II and K6-III processors which grew it into 'super'
socket 7 with a 100MHz FSB.

I don't know what your shelf is 'full of' but I don't see how they could be
'socket 7' desktop P-IIs unless you pried the cores off of slot-1 carts, or
are mistaking socket-7 MMX processors for P-IIs.
Click to expand...

He's mistaken. There are no Socket 7 desktop P-II's. He's confusing
Socket 370 with Socket 7. He won't back down since he made a wee-wee
statement.
 
Martin said:
***snip***



***snip***

If Intel didn't make socket 7 P2's, then why did companies like Abit
sell 'slocket adapters'? It was a slot 1 card with a socket 7 on it,
to put a socket 7 chip in a slot 1 board...
Click to expand...

A slotket is for putting a socket 370, not socket 7, CPU in a slot-1 board.
 
K said:
David Maynard wrote:




So far so good. ;-)




Actually, it was Cyrix/IBM that pushed the Socket-7 into the 75 then
83MHz busses. Then AMD came on board again at 100MHz, along with
Cyrix/IBM.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they made those. But I don't give them credit for much since they
couldn't keep themselves alive, much less socket 7.
 
JB said:
He's mistaken. There are no Socket 7 desktop P-II's. He's confusing
Socket 370 with Socket 7. He won't back down since he made a wee-wee
statement.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but there weren't any socket 370 desktop P-IIs either.
 
Back
Top