A carnival of technology

How many times have you said, aloud or to yourself, following some spectacular disappointment in the goods or services provided by a company, that you would never patronize them again? I know that I’ve said that to myself several times, but, since I never wrote it down and I have a terrible memory, I doubt that I’ve followed these personal mandates very well. Well, now I’m writing them down.

The entries for each company will include the perceived offense, any related correspondence, and the reparations I require to consider forgiveness. Members of a capitalist society are often told to fight the injustices of companies with their dollar, and this is exactly what I plan to do. I don’t expect to have much of an impact, since companies tend be big and even the foolishly spent disposable income of a young, single adult is but a drop in the bucket for most, but perhaps one or two will listen, and, even if not, I can’t bear to give my money again to an organization whom I detest.

This may all seem stupid and petty, but isn’t that what the Internet is for?

And now, on to the tale of Compusa and the broken UPS.

My birthday is on June 23. My parents, knowing that I seem to always have power issues with computers, bought me a much-needed UPS my 23rd birthday. They purchased it in Huntsville on June 19th, and I received it when they passed through Atlanta on July 2nd. Not wanting to unplug everything right away to hook it up, I waited until the next power outage, which happened to be on the week of the 21st. I opened up the UPS, connected the gigantic battery, hit the switch, and…nothing. No lights came on, no circuit breakers were thrown, and no power came through. Further attempts and tests were unable to produce any sort of reaction from the UPS; I couldn’t even get it to make the beeps and flashes that it’s supposed to when no battery is connected. It was dead, and nothing short of a miracle was going to bring it back.

I decided that it would probably be more sensible to take the UPS to a store than a priest, so, after getting the original receipt from my parents, I stuck the 23 lb monstrosity into my car and drove across the street to the nearest CompUSA. APC, the makers of the UPS, were very understanding of my situation, offering to replace it under warranty, but they wanted me to pay for shipping to Rhode Island. I can’t blame them, really; I didn’t want to pay to ship it, either. Having heard of CompUSA’s usually lenient returns, and thinking that they would be more understanding since I only wanted an exchange, not a refund, I tried them first. I was met with no complaints about the fact that I was returning to a different store from the one at which it was purchased, but instead I was denied on the ground that it had been more than 21 days since the UPS was purchased.

The thing that irked me most about this was not that they refused to take the UPS due to me being outside of a returns windows, since I did, admittedly, have it for a while, but that the return window is so very short. A quick scan of CompUSA’s competitors reveals a sea of 30-day return policies. Wal-mart boasts a 45-day return allowance on electronics. Target, the most lenient I’ve found, has a 90-day gift return policy. Of course, no one can accept returns indefinitely, but 21 days is a bit short, especially for gifts, which one would think could be granted a little more time.

I shipped the package by FedEx Ground on 7/23 from a Kinko’s. I missed the cutoff for Saturday pickup, so, at the time of this writing, the last information on this package is that it left the Ellenwood hub and is, presumably, trundling north towards West Warwick, RI. Shipping by FedEx cost a lot less than I was expecting, less even than USPS, so at least one company in this ordeal gave me a pleasant experience.

Reparations demanded: A change in the official return policy and the $9.53 I spent returning the unit to APC.

CompUSA does not provide email addresses to which to direct complaints, so the following is what I stuffed into a web form, including the extra fields and radio buttons that I would have preferred to ignore.

david@gophernet.org
07/21/2005 11:04 PM

To:      customer_service@compusa.com
cc:
Subject: In-Store Customer Service: 21 day return policy

Please process the following request:

=========================================================
In-Store Customer Service
=========================================================
CONTACT INFO:
Name:               David Shea
Phone(Day):         404 547 XXXX
Email:              david@gophernet.org

CONCERN:
Store:              Marietta, GA(491)
Type of Concern:    21 day return policy
(NB: "21 day return policy" came from a dropdown box and was not inputted manually)

Have you spoken to a Manager in the Store? No

I recently came into possession of a UPS backup system
purchased from your store, a birthday gift from my
parents, purchased on the 19th of June.  I held on to it
for about a week, and recently, after attempting to hook
it up, I found that the unit was defective.  APC
technical support confirmed that I was doing everything
correctly and that the unit was at fault, so, after
getting the receipt from my parents, I felt that the best
course of action was to attempt to exchange it for
another UPS at one of your stores.

I was heartened to meet with no complaints that I was
attempting to exchange an item purchased by a different
person at a different store (Hunstville), but my hope
turned to anger after I was eventually informed that an
exchange would be impossible, since I am 11 days beyond
the acceptable window of returns.  I am not trying to
cheat your company out of the cost of the UPS; I merely
wanted a functional one in exchange for one that could be
returned to the manufacturer.  The unit is still under
warranty, so I will be able to return it to the
manufacturer, but the inconvience of waiting for shipping
and, as a person of more limited shipping resources than
CompUSA, the cost of mailing something the approximate
size and shape of a sack of Quikrete across the country
are disapointing, to say the least.  Though your return
policy claims to be fair, it seems to me that it is fair
only to CompUSA.  Any item given as a gift, as
electronics often are, is effectively unreturnable.

I thank you for the kind service that you provided my
parents in your Huntsville location, but I was not
pleased with my CompUSA experience.

Reply on 7/26:

Dear Mr. Shea,

Thank you for contacting CompUSA. Your email has been forwarded to the
appropriate department for review.

Thank you,

Customer Service
CompUSA