Fry's attempted to screw my friend.

[ravenshrike]

Well, to be specific somebody at Fry's was screwing them and they passed it on to us without doing due diligence.

 

So here's the story. My friend decides that he wants a computer, and rather than wait the week or so for me to assemble the parts decides to buy an Alienware. He pulls the trigger on what is supposed to be an Aurora R7 with the 8700. They only have the demo model in stock however so he gets an additional discount off. He buys it two days ago and I reset windows for him. Everything is working well for the moment so I go home. I'm over there yesterday futzing around and install HWiNFO. The CPU instead of being an 8700 like its supposed to be is a 7700. Cue internal screeching of brakes. I pull up dxdiag and it pops up as the Aurora R6, last year's model. He and I pack everything up and head back to Fry's.

 

At the time I though maybe they had just screwed up somewhere and thought the old demo model was the new one since they look exactly the same. What actually happened was much more interesting. Somebody had swapped out the old model for the new. What's more, they were tech savvy enough to swap out the physical service tag from a 9 year old Optiplex with the current one to cover their tracks. Course, the demo unit was put out all of a week ago so they're still probably screwed since the security recordings will still be current.

 

Meanwhile my friend gets another $200 off and it will be an unopened unit, so all in all a successful venture.

[Rupe]

Cool story bro, glad you got what you ordered in the end

[Eduard the weeb]

I've personally never liked Fry's tbh 

[Tieox]

The only appropriate reaction.

[knightslugger]

well this is just a bad employee, not a reflection of Fry's as a whole.

[AskTJ]

Rude employee, great customer support. This is what we need to see more of.

[Evanair]

More than likely was a returned item made into a demo. The mistake was probably at the return counter... they have no clue what's what in there, so they just return it.

 

I use to work there a decade ago... you'd be surprised the shit people try to pull.  They'd buy HDDs, replace it with an old FDD and reshrinkwrap it and try to return it. Or swap put old Motherboards for new ones (same process). 

 

Frys no longer accepts returns on Videocards, except exchanges for bad cards, because of bitcoin but also because of people trying to reflash the cards (think eBay scammers) so return employees see the correct thing in POST.

 

You got what you needed in the end, but it's really more someone screwing Frys than the other way around.

[ItsJosh18]

Frys wouldn't take my card last time I was there.

[App4that]

Yeah, you can run into idiots that work at Fry's, but fry's as a whole is awesome. Fry's has replaced CPUs and even motherboards for me no questions asked. 

[LogicalDrm]

You should change title to be more suitable. No need to blame company for single persons actions.

[ravenshrike]

1 hour ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

You should change title to be more suitable. No need to blame company for single persons actions.

Due diligence on their part would have included checking everything fully as it was a demo unit. Either through the service tag, which would have immediately tripped warnings, or upon resetting windows and running dxdiag.

[App4that]

1 minute ago, ravenshrike said:

Due diligence on their part would have included checking everything fully as it was a demo unit. Either through the service tag, which would have immediately tripped warnings, or upon resetting windows and running dxdiag.

So the CEO of Fry's should check every unit sold? It was a bad employee, something that happens everywhere. 

[ravenshrike]

1 minute ago, App4that said:

So the CEO of Fry's should check every unit sold? It was a bad employee, something that happens everywhere. 

Unless the employee that sold the unit was the same as the one who swapped it out(unlikely as the demo unit was put out on the floor a week ago and the thief would have done everything possible to discourage such a sale given the timeframe) the employee doing the selling should have had it wiped and checked before letting it leave the store.

[App4that]

2 minutes ago, ravenshrike said:

Unless the employee that sold the unit was the same as the one who swapped it out(unlikely as the demo unit was put out on the floor a week ago and the thief would have done everything possible to discourage such a sale given the timeframe) the employee doing the selling should have had it wiped and checked before letting it leave the store.

Who knows what happened, the fact is Fry's resolved it. Buying open items is always a crap shoot. 

[MorganO]

4 minutes ago, ravenshrike said:

Unless the employee that sold the unit was the same as the one who swapped it out(unlikely as the demo unit was put out on the floor a week ago and the thief would have done everything possible to discourage such a sale given the timeframe) the employee doing the selling should have had it wiped and checked before letting it leave the store.

shit happens, they fixed it

[LogicalDrm]

4 minutes ago, ravenshrike said:

Unless the employee that sold the unit was the same as the one who swapped it out(unlikely as the demo unit was put out on the floor a week ago and the thief would have done everything possible to discourage such a sale given the timeframe) the employee doing the selling should have had it wiped and checked before letting it leave the store.

Without having worked in store, I can't say how hard it is to swap/fake tags. But in all, as this was not systematic thing, they did allow swap for new unit and extra refund, I don't see any point of blaming whole store for mistake when culprit has been single worker. Its not like you actually lost something. Its the store which might have lost even more if the worker has taken actual demo unit with them.

[NTDaws]

3 hours ago, Eduard the weeb said:

I've personally never liked Fry's tbh 

too greasy. 

[Canada EH]

You think minimum wage workers actually care?

[dizmo]

What a bullshit title. They didn't try and screw you over' if they did, they would have refused to return or do anything with the unit you were sold.

They could have easily said "how do we know you didn't change it when you got home?"

It's not Fry that's the issue here, since they went above and beyond to help you out. It's the employee.

 

I see this more as a positive of Fry's, not a negative.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Fry's quality varies from store to store. The two Fry's in the Phoenix, AZ area, and especially the one in Tempe, are pathetic. I've ordered items to pulled and held for pickup and they take the order, then email back to say they don't have it despite what their inventory shows, they pull the wrong item, or they pull the wrong quantity. The Tempe store always looks like it's going out of business because of the large number of stockouts in the store.

 

If I order online to be shipped directly to me, it comes from their warehouse, takes several days to pull the order, then ship it by the slowest method possible (dog sled?).

 

Fry's has been notorious in the past for putting returns back on the shelf without determining if they were in good condition or not and selling them as new. After catching flack for it, they now indicate that they are returns (putting strapping around the packaging) and sell them at a reduced price. I still don't trust buying returned products but, at least, they are identifiable in the store now.

 

I often visit friends in San Marcos, CA and the Fry's there is always well stocked and their employees have their heads screwed on straight, unlike Phoenix and Tempe.

[Eduard the weeb]

26 minutes ago, Being Delirious said:

too greasy. 

also there like all things tech, but when your there they have like only half the shit you need or none of it

[Tsuki]

8 hours ago, knightslugger said:

well this is just a bad employee, not a reflection of Fry's as a whole.

i used to work at Frys in Oregon, this is not just a bad employee and is consistent with frys as a whole.

 

while i dont believe this was intentionally malicious, the people that work there dont receive proper training, and are fucking retarded. mistakes like this happen all the time(ive seen the service department put the wrong cpu in a customers computer and had to call them a week later to get it back since it belonged to somebody else).  The computer department knows nothing about individual components, and only knows that the higher priced one is probably better. the fact that the 2 models look the same, tells me they didnt actually check the barcode and just assumed it was right.

 

or, it could have been malicious, and an employee purchased the "old" demo units after swapping it with the new one. its very possible.

[Hiitchy]

Don’t let one person ruin the outlook of an entire company. Even management saw there was an issue and worked with you and your friend to rectify it.

 

I wouldn’t say Fry’s is bad as a whole, they just have one bad employee that is making the place toxic.

[TetraSky]

10 hours ago, Kierax said:

The only appropriate reaction.

But, Frys is a US based company, they have zero store location in Canada.

You can't blame all your issues with Canada, no matter how much you want to.

[Fred Castellum]

So technically Fry's didn't screw you over, it was just a bad employee. 

 

I built my first PC with Frys Electronics, they had a splendid return policy and never gave me any problems.