Today I purchased a Powerbook online.It marked a moment of freedom from my three-year hellish ordeal with Future Shop and the lemon laptop computer their slimy salesguy peddled onto me. I call it my Craptop.It all started at the Richmond, B.C. Future Shop in December 2002 when I was a graduate student. The salesguy sold me the last Presario 2800 in the store, and assured me the box had only been opened to show the model to other customers. Uh-huh.I take my new baby home, call Compaq to register it, and they tell me the same computer has already been purchased three months previous by someone else.I paid full price for a used computer someone else obviously wasn’t happy with.I take it back to the store, and they are, of course, unapologetic. They offer me $100 back. What an idiot I was – I took the rebate. I should have just returned the machine and walked away.By May, the hard drive dies. By next January, the motherboard dies. Next May, hard drive dies again.Oh, but it’s fine, because I have their *fabulous* warranty that sends my Craptop on a free 6-week trip to some warehouse each time.Did I mentioned I write for a living? And that I use my Craptop professionally? So I have the humiliation of being hired for freelance jobs, only to show up at the gig empty-handed and needing to borrow a computer from my temporary employers. I was red-faced.I now live in Saskatoon, and the Craptop recently died again. So I took it to my local Future Shop, where they at first say, sure, you’ve had three repairs, this is your fourth repair, you have a new computer coming your way under your *fabulolus* warranty.But oh no. It’s never that simple.See, during one of the repairs, some incompetent Future Shop employee’s shoddy record-keeping meant they sent me back a fully-functional computer, but the paperwork claims no repair was ever done. That seems unlikely given that the darn thing wouldn’t boot before I sent it away and worked perfectly upon return.Despite my assertions the computer left broken and came back fixed, Future Shop refuses to correct their clerical error, thereby denying me the new computer I am entitled to under the warranty I bought.The number of hours I have spent on the telephone to these unhelpful, ungracious idiots who tell me a different story every time is embarrassing. It certainly wasn’t worth the time investment.So, I wrote another missive in a growing series of my complaints to the Future Shop head office. I also filed a lengthy complaint with the Better Business Bureau of B.C. and am waiting to hear if they will suggest a resolution process. Not only will I never shop at that store again, but I want to ensure no-one else does either. So I also sent a letter to 120 friends asking them to boycott Future Shop, and at least 20 of them wrote letters to Future Shop’s head office on my behalf, saying my case disgusted them and they would avoid patronizing their company from now on. My impatience and frustration with this unethical company now only manifests itself in rage and determination to have them stop treating customers as disposable.What blows my mind about their dealings with me is that I’m now a newspaper reporter, and I’ve told them that. It doesn’t seem to matter to them that they’re not only burning bridges with one woman and her associates, but pissing off someone who could potentially orchestrate some bad publicity for them.Apparently their tactic is to prey on the innocent who haven’t heard about their shoddy dealings and write off those who are disatisfied.Speaking of which, if anyone in Saskatchewan is reading this and would like to tell me their Future Shop horror stories, I’d be interested in hearing them in hopes that I’ll one day be able to put an article together about their unacceptable practises. You can email me at janta@shaw.caPlease stop those around you from making the same mistake. Friends don’t let friends shop at Future Shop.
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