I purchased a Toshiba A300D Satellite laptop in August of 2008 with the extended warranty (which I now consider a $300 dollar fuckover). Recently, my laptop experienced a problem where I would open a browser window and it would instantly tell me that it was not responding. I took my laptop into futureshop and explained my situation and was told it was NOT COVERED BY THE WARRANTY BECAUSE IT WAS A SOFTWARE ISSUE and it would be $100 for an operating system wipe, $80 for a data transfer, and $90 for an external harddrive to backup my data onto. I was angry but stuck – I need my laptop and my data because I’m a student. So they “fix” it and give it back to me, and obviously they had not checked to see if it worked, because when I got it home it STILL WOULDNT WORK. I took it back and spoke to the one tech with a brain, and he said he would re-work it for free and would call me when it was done. He discovered it was a hard-drive malfunction, which is a hardware problem and not a software problem and thus COVERED BY THE WARRANTY! He sent it to Toshiba, they replaced the hard-drive and he put windows 7 back on it for me (also for free – it was my copy of 7). So my laptop now works, but im still out the $200 for the UNNECESSARY SOFTWARE REPAIRS. He told me to come in Sunday (Today) to see the head tech and discuss a full refund. When I go there today, I have to wait 10 minutes for him to get off his ass, and he simply says that the work was done and theres no refund since they did it. IT WAS UNNECESSARY WORK!!! If you brought your car in for an oil change, and they changed 4 tires and charged you for it, wouldnt you be pissed off? He claimed that the data transfer was necessary – Necessary means it was needed to make the computer work. Then he says he can give me the $100 back if I bring my laptop back so he can put Vista back on it. HE WANTS TO PAY ME $100 SO HE CAN DO EXTREMELY UNNECESSARY WORK. So to sum it all up, I was robbed of $200 dollars when a simple diagnostic would have shown that there was a hard-drive malfunction, and now im going in Tuesday to talk to someone above the head tech idiot. Wish me luck. F*** FUTURESHOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
14 Responses to “Futureshop – 10,000 employees, 1 brain.”
UPDATE – Got $100 back for the OS wipe. Both tech staff on duty told me that the head tech is a total douchebag. No argument there. Im just glad to get something back. From now on, ill only ask for the one tech and ill be back soon to file a complaint against the head tech so his boss knows how he treats customers. REMEMBER THIS – THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!!! DONT TAKE SHIT FROM SALESPEOPLE CAUSE THEY WORK FOR YOU!!! IF AN ASSHOLE “HELPS” YOU, MAKE SURE HIS/HER BOSS KNOWS THEY WERE RUDE!!! WE CAN TAKE BACK THE STORES IF WE REFUSE TO TAKE THEIR SHIT!!!
Why dont you return your hard drive and get 90 bucks back?
Also, the customer is not always right unfortunately. In this case however, I think the lead tech handled things very poorly.
wow stupidity of this comment astounds me. obviously you got either a virus or you’ve done something incorrectly. (not closing programs before shutting down). Who nowadays doesn’t backup their data..?(the 90 dollars was justly applied for the DAT drive) you are as dumb as they come.. you shouldn’t be allowed around a computer. if you brought it to the company I work for you would have gotten around the same amount for a bill. there is a huge different between hardware and software. you had obviously a software issue. which is not cover under any type of warranty… you should have called Microsoft. count yourself lucky you got 100 bucks back..
Obviously YOU “Hacatone” don’t read well so ill explain it nice and carefully for you. If you had read the comment carefully, you would notice that it was a HARDWARE problem, and not a virus or ’something ive done incorrectly’. so obviously I did NOT have a software problem. What i did not say in my comment is that the data transfer was needed because I had backed up my laptop about 5 weeks prior to this hardware failure and had just finished my semester. If i had not paid for the transfer, I would have lost my final notes and final projects for 6 classes, as well as some music and other media. When I wrote my first comment, I had just left Futureshop and I was extremely angry. I soon realized that I was never going to get the 80 back for the transfer. I usually backed up to blank dvds and had planned on buying an external harddrive in the near future (in response to ‘Johnponz’ comment). So the only thing obvious about all this is your stupidity ‘Hacatone’. No one should ever bring anything into the company you work for, because you not only don’t know what you’re talking about, you don’t know how to read. The next time you make an attempt at sounding smart, make sure you read the entire comment dumbass.
Well by the sounds of things, everything worked out as it should have. You had a hardware problem with the HDD and it was replaced under warranty. All you paid for was a data transfer and an external hard drive that you were going to buy anyways. The way the lead tech handled things was very poor in my opinion but im glad you had the fortitude to ask to speak to someone else.
I think perhaps the title of this article should be something more like Future Shop 10,000 employees, 1 brain dead. Or something like that since there really only was 1 guy you dealt with who seemed clueless.
Anyways, thats my take on the situation.
@The_Q: Hard drives do not just start failing by themselves after such a short time. Whether you installed a program that was not coded properly, a virus infiltrated your system, you might have knocked your computer around a few too many times. What ever it was, the hard drive started failing because of it. The tech room should have done a far better job than that. Either I work in an extremely good tech room, or we do things way differently because it is our default rule to run 2 different diagnostic sweeps on hardware with every machine. Sure, not every machine gets the same treatment (ie. Virus removal). We even run a HDD check on OS Installs. Getting angry does not solve anything, you should have kept your cool, asked more questions, even asked if they could run a diagnostic first (sure it would have cost $40, but since it was a hardware fault, you would get $40 back because of warranty).
The customer is never right. Nor is the sales person/technician. Both have a give and take relationship. You give your problem, they see if they can fix it. If you expect them to just fix everything without any question… you are going to run into a few problems. Plus, no one wants to deal with a whiny brat (Which sadly you seem to be, at least you make yourself out to be).
@CM9P77: I really dont care what causes hard drives to start failing or fail completely. While something you described may have caused it to fail, it makes no difference because it was replaced for free, as my warranty dictates. If you work in a tech room that executes 2 different diagnostics on every machine, then your customers are very lucky to have your store. However, you shouldnt tell me not to get angry, or to “keep my cool” until you have been in my position. Im sure if you ever have any technical problems with your electronics you bring them into work with you and solve them yourself (whether or not you’ll admit it). Also, by saying “the customer is never right”, you’re allowing yourself to be cheated by salespeople wherever you go. I don’t understand how people can go into this situation (or similar situations) and believe that the customer is wrong. As a customer, you’ve exchanged money for “goods”, and so if something goes wrong with said goods, you come in and expect for the situation to be resolved by an employee (who works for you, since you paid into the company who pays his/her salary). I don’t expect them to “fix everything without any question” as you said, but rather I expect them to take a logical course of action (in this case, a diagnostic) to tell me what is wrong with my computer, and fix it. As for the whinny brat comment, I can be a whinny brat if I damn well please. I’m the customer, and employees need to know that what I say/want comes first. As for the employees, I dont give two shits what they want. I could care less if they think im a “whinny brat” or a “trouble-maker”. If I want to buy something/get something repaired/return something, I’ll do it. The end.
@The_Q: Yea, your not a do***e-bag. Not at all…
@ cm9p77: Want me to get really douchy? You should have used “YOU’RE” and not “YOUR” in YOUR sentence. YOU’RE an FS employee, which means I don’t give a fuck and a half about your opinion. Maybe you need me to restate this for you: I’m the customer. I’m right. FS answers to me. And if they try to screw me, I’m going to complain about it. And if they don’t like it, I can give them a list of things to fuck themselves with. And if you don’t like it, feel free to refer to that list.
Your hard drive failed, understood. Even if a hard drive is failing or has failed and is covered under warranty you are still responsible for the data on there. So, the external hard drive and the data transfer is justified. Once it was replaced the depot or technicians restore the system with the factory recovery discs which in your case would have been Vista. You had them load your copy of Windows 7. Doing such costs $100 (originally paid $100 for a restore and that amount would be applied to an OS install). So in reality you got what you paid for originally. Be very greatful you had $100 refunded because it doesn’t sound like they needed to. It’s very easy to play the victim when you don’t really understand what’s going on.
Hello everyone. I just wanted to say that in this case no one has mentioned anything in defence to tech service guy. I am, for example having a lot of difficulty believing anything this “the_q” person is saying, just because of the F bombs and derogatory terms used in every of his posts. Especially for the comment about how tech has said to him that the manager is douche bag. Well, we all know that all Future Shop managers are there for a reason, and most of the time they deal with issues showed on this web site plus lot more. Reading between lines, I can see that manager offered him money back and some sort of resolution for both parties involved, the resolution that was adopted later with another manager. I would just suggest to “the_q”, take it easy, you are probably 20+ years old, own up to your mistakes now and it will be easier in life later, maybe you can learn something from your family members, I am sure somebody is working in a field that involves customer service and can teach you some manners and that customer is not always right. No customers are allowed to abuse anyone, verbally, physically or with body language, and I can see “the_q” doing all those 3, hence why he was dissatisfied with this particular manager, from Future shop or not.
Hello everyone. I just wanted to say that in this case no one has mentioned anything in defence to tech service guy. I am, for example having a lot of difficulty believing anything this “the_q” person is saying, just because of the F bombs and derogatory terms used in every of his posts. Especially for the comment about how tech has said to him that the manager is douche bag. Well, we all know that all Future Shop managers are there for a reason, and most of the time they deal with issues showed on this web site plus lot more. Reading between lines, I can see that manager offered him money back and some sort of resolution for both parties involved, the resolution that was adopted later with another manager. I would just suggest to “the_q”, take it easy, you are probably 20+ years old, own up to your mistakes now and it will be easier in life later, maybe you can learn something from your family members, I am sure somebody is working in a field that involves customer service and can teach you some manners and that customer is not always right. No customers are allowed to abuse anyone, verbally, physically or with body language, and I can see “the_q” doing all those 3, hence why he was dissatisfied with this particular manager, from Future shop or not.
Dude, this is ancient history. I, and pretty much everyone dont care anymore. I got money back, end of story. Fuck off.
Something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Well you should be backing your own stuff up, and if you had, and used your own recovery discs you wouldn’t have had to pay for any of that.. Because if you still had issues then YOU would know it was a hardware issues.
Do you deserve a full refund? Yes, you still certainly do, except for the hard drive.. You should probably keep that. But it DID look like a software issue, which no warranty will cover. But it wasn’t, so talk to their GM and he’ll probably comply.
Left by Karma on May 18th, 2010