One thing to avoid is the "monster cable" that they sell. It is priced as much as 5x more than standard wiring cables but they try to tell you how much better it is because it is "gold plated" or some such.
Posted on 12/08/2007 9:04:25 PM PST by Westlander
Consumer electronics retailer CompUSA says it will close its stores after the holidays.
CompUSA closed more than half its stores this spring.
(Excerpt) Read more at wxyz.com ...
Don’t ever go to Circuit City.
They treat their employees like yesterdays garbage.
good riddance
One of many.
From the link: "Early on in CompUSA’s existence, a different chain named “Computer City” challenged CompUSA. CompUSA, which had the better brand name, and offered special “free after rebate” sales, beat down Computer City, and eventually bought up the chain at a steal of a deal. One down, many more to go."
It's interesting that the author of that blog chose Computer City as the comparison. Whenever I would walk into a Computer City, I was impressed with the cleanliness, ample lighting, and well-stocked, tidy shelves. I avoid talking to salespeople in stores as much as possible (unless I'm really frustrated), but I do not recall ever being unsatisfied with them.
Contrast that to CompUSA: Dimly lit stores, merchandise crammed on shelves in aisles that were too narrow for people to walk past each other comfortably, and what little open floor space they might have had was crammed with bargain bins, where they were trying to sell software at least a decade out-of-date.
My observations were similar whether I was shopping in Maryland or in California. I was sad to see Computer City get bought out by CompUSA; it was only a few weeks before the once bright store I was used to became dingy, cluttered, and dimly lit.
I suppose some people will tolerate almost any shopping conditions if it means rock-bottom prices, and I would guess that's why CompUSA lasted so long. Personally, I prefer attractive stores with slightly higher prices.
If they treated their customers that well, they might not be coasting to oblivion.
CompUSA will go Internet. Watch.
Worst customer service of anyplace I’ve dealt with. Had a nightmare experience with my daughter’s laptop and it was impossible to get service for it despite their crappy extended warranty for which I paid wayyy more than it was worth. Never again!
Or it’s owner - one Carlos Slim, Mexican multi-billionaire.
As we all file past the casket and spit into it,
I’d like to share a memory of the deceased...
Back in ‘83, I was in graduate school and Apple
released the Mac and offered special educational
buys. I bought. Loved it.
These were the days before internal hard drives
on Macs. I had two 3.5” disk drives - both internal.
The WHOLE operating system fit onto one 400k disk.
Your program files AND data went on the other.
Presumably, in computer years, that must make me
ancient. I’m 50.
This was before the World Wide Web. I was online
with a 300 baud modem. Everything was in text only.
Anyway...
Diskettes were expensive - way out of the budget
range of graduate students... except at one place.
In North Dallas, over by Brookhaven college, back in
a quasi industrial area, there was a little hole in the
wall store that sold those diskettes SO CHEAPLY that
during the lunch hour, there was a line of people
15-20 deep waiting to buy.
The whole store was probably 12 X 12. it fronted a back
end warehouse.
I stood in that line many a time. Diskettes were basically
all they sold. The people on the warehouse side of the
ordering window looked like they were from the Middle East
somewhere.
We always wondered how they could sell those diskettes for
HALF or less as any other store. Of course, nature abhors
a vacuum, so we speculated that they were using this system
to ship money into or out of the country.
To make a long story short, that tiny hole in the wall
became CompUSA!
[shuffles from the front of the casket...]
I bought a lot of diskettes...
ampu
Their choice. Newegg.com and a few others are light years ahead, established etc.
Last spring I bought a 22" Samsung WS Digital Monitor from them. They had a sale plus a rebate on it. I felt like I was stealing for the low price I paid. About a month later I dumped my Dell from Hell and bought a Systemax p.c. from them, it rocks. Made in the USA and the Tech Support is at the factory, no India baloney like Dell.
As to CompUSA I haven't went to them in about a decade. The store they had in Downers Grove, IL moved. I thought they closed down so I thought they already were out of business.
Com-poosa wasn’t too bad until you had a problem with something you bought. Then you really found out what they were all about.
I won’t miss them at all.
The single easiest way to describe why CompUSA lost the battle with everybody else was their employment practices. They had two types of employees: ghosts and stalkers. Either the employees would disappear and there was nobody to help you do anything or they were hovering over you to get the commission on whatever it was that you bought.
The were the last one to take employees off the commission system and they had the least trained employees. They sold the exact same stuff as everybody else but consumers needed HELP not just inventory. CompUSA managed to miss the boat and they’ve been losing money sinice the advent of any real competition. Next on the block? Circuit City.
Try Newegg....they are excellent!
It’s online only...but fast delivery.
“The single easiest way to describe why CompUSA lost the battle with everybody else was their employment practices. They had two types of employees: ghosts and stalkers. Either the employees would disappear and there was nobody to help you do anything or they were hovering over you to get the commission on whatever it was that you bought.”
The stores I went to were full of ghosts, you could never find help - BestBuy is also the same in my area. I’ve walked in *wanting* to spend money, but could’nt find anyone to help me (some of the items have to be unlocked from cases, or larger items have to be brought out. The worst was always the counter with ram or flash memory - there was never anyone there!
I also several times broke a personal rule and butted into conversations their employees were having with customers, the rare occasions they’d show up - they were spouting utter nonsense to them. It was;nt even to upsell them or get them to sell them stuff they did’nt need, it was just *wrong*.
CompUSA just never had any deals worth it. BestBuy and Fry’s took them out. I won’t miss them. They were the WORST for bait and switch with their ads, and 75% of the junk in their stores were useless.
Forget the fire sale, they closed the store here, and the “deals” were hardly that. *Maybe* 10% off, and still more expensive than Fry’s or online.
I don’t bother with Fry’s anymore, either, they’re just the Walmart of gadgets now, full of screaming kids and rude foreigners and hostile geeks. Last time I went, I wanted to look at digital cameras, and buy a printer, and the cameras I wanted to look at were being slammed against the counter by a couple of tow headed middle eastern boys, pieces of plastic flying everywhere, and no salespeople (or parents) to be seen. I then went to buy a $700 printer (Epson 2200), they’re the only retailer who carried it. I needed it for a freelance job, or I would have bought it direct. After waiting forever, I finally got a guy who barely spoke English, and I had to send back 3 already opened boxes before the guy understood I would NOT buy a printer for that much money when the box has been opened. He grumbled, and it took half an hour for him to shuffle it out, but my dad did’nt raise a fool. (The printer is still going strong, too, love it!) I refused the 50 offers for their extended “warranty”, I’ve heard all the horror stories. Havent been back. Their “deals” are really not much of a deal, these days - and for electronics, often Costo has the same stuff cheaper.
Costco has had some kick ass deals this year, on electronics. Their webpage is worth keeping an eye on!
Fry’s was cool back when nobody knew what they were, before they opened the “superstores”. I used to go to the themed stores in Fremont and Cupertino, and they were cramped, dark, but full of real deals, that were worth the hassle.
I hold my nose when I need ink or cables or a new mouse and go to the BestBuy around the corner, but for big ticket items, it’s all online now. Cameras? B&H or Beach Camera. Computer parts? Pricewatch or NewEgg. Dvds or books? Amazon. Ram? Crucial.
One thing to avoid is the "monster cable" that they sell. It is priced as much as 5x more than standard wiring cables but they try to tell you how much better it is because it is "gold plated" or some such.
CompUSA failed in Colorado. It was a terrible Mexican flea-market.
Microcenter, for all its faults, provides what we need. They’re the real-deal and good prices. They learned to have 10 registers open and they still have lines.
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