The stock was better than Microcrocenter or Central Computers (when they were relevant), and their sandwiches weren’t held bad. But the floor staff and that stupid thing where they have people at the exits pretend to check receipts on the purchase side. On the return side it was just awful. Today in age their return policies are just bad. On some items they have restocking fees.
they hired unknowledgeable floor staff
The receipt-check theft-deterrence theater is annoying. I never wait for it.
Today in age their return policies are just bad.
More than once there has been a line of a half dozen people at the pink sharpie exit, and I've just walked on by, much to the amazement of the people waiting in line.
Note: I'm talking about Fry's, not Costco. I'm told Costco is different because it's a membership club and you have to agree to their terms and conditions to shop there. (I'm also told that even Costco can't demand to see your receipt, but they can cancel your membership if you don't show it.)
How does Costco figure out which membership to cancel? Surely they don't detain you if you refuse to show your receipt.
Current nearby Frys plays dirty. Has a severely physically disabled guy checking receipts.
Yea. Total guilt trip for not letting him mark receipt.
Anecdotally speaking, I had a high rate of those items not working and had to return them myself. So while all the parts were typically there and the devices powered on, the product often times didn't work. I finally concluded that they likely didn't differentiate returns that were caused by the customer changing their mind vs. customers claiming the stuff didn't work... or that the only check they made for "not working" product was a simple power on type test; given the quality of staff and costs of doing any thing more probably made it difficult to do better (maybe they didn't have good vendor return terms, good vendor allowances, etc. ... who knows) Again, my experience, but I felt like I was playing for slot machine odds when I bought those products... your mileage may have varied.
I stopped shopping there years ago because the quality of the experience and that I didn't trust the open box product and wasn't sure I could reliably get unopened product... the trip to the store just wasn't worth the aggravation. I think that must have been before the restock fees as I don't recall ever having that issue myself (those the returns process was not exactly fun). I did like the store theming, particularly in the Southern CA stores (which is where I shopped them the most).
full price
I find central computers is often staffed with people that are less than personable.
I was in Fry's recently and they seemed to do the same thing. After asking for some help they asked me to print a "quote," which meant printing out a receipt at a kiosk on the sales floor with their name. They pulled it up when I checked out. I kind of understood what they were doing, but the process seemed a bit awkward--especially when my question was more along the lines of, "Do you have more stock in the back? When you do you think you'll have more?"
I don't really understand how Microcenter does it, but they often have equal or better prices than Amazon, and in any case, they'll price-match. Also, there's no worry about whatever I buy turning out to be counterfeit.
The one slightly odd thing about the Microcenter experience is how all of the salespeople have little stickers to take credit for when they help a customer find something. Are they on commission? Is this Microcenter's way of identifying the most useful floor staff? They're never pushy about it, but it does stand out in stark contrast to pretty much every other retail shop I can think of.