The_phantom_poster
West Plains,#2
Thu, August 20, 2009
This is exactly what is wrong with the consumer mind-set today. Consumers love the low-price and convience and mass-market products and big-box stores, but don't want to accept the responsibility that comes along with it. Back in the day when the mom-and-pop store had maybe a customer base of only a hundred, maybe two, each customer could get all the attention in the world. The store would bend over backwards to keep that one person. If you lost your warranty paper-work or somthing it's ok, cause the owner knows your face and knows who you are and what you bought. But the products they sold had to have a much higher profit margin because there were fewer customers. Now-a-days mass-market product are release with very low profit margins, banking on the fact that thousands and thousands of units will be sold. Customers enjoy the benefit of being able to walk into a store and buy equipment at lower prices, but don't like the fact that part of the support experiance is now their responsibility. Frys has hundred of thousands of customers nation wide, thousands perhaps at one store alone. They can't be expected to remember your face, what you bought, and what you are entitled to. They keep records of things like warranties sure, but those records are input by humans, and humans make mistakes, so even if it's only one time out of a thousand that an agent spells your last name wrong, or files your warranty under the wrong account, that still means there is a lost warranty out there somewhere. That is why it is a customer's responsibility to keep records of those things themselves. Keep your reciept that shows you bought the warranty, keep your contract, keep your credit card statment. If you assume that a national company with hundreds of thousands of customers will never make a record-keeping mistake...you are a moron....that is WHY RECIEPTS EXSIST. Did you ever stop to think of why the idea of a reciept exsists? The whole point of a reciept is to allow you proof if something goes awry with the merchant. Receipts are there for everyone's benefit, the merchant and you. So there are two records. And what is Frys supposed to do in your situation? They have no record of your warranty...you have no record...are they just supposed to go "aw shucks, he seems like an honest fella, let's just give it to him." Frys is fully aware that, even if it's very rare, they will occasionaly lose customer records, it's not on purpose, they have no interest in ripping your off for a lousy $500 or so, but human error dictates that it will happen sometimes. So why don't they just honor it if the customer says so? Well if you have ever worked in customer service you know the answer to this...people lie...all the time. If people feel they are entitled to somthing all morality goes out the window and they will rob a company blind if they can. So for every one person who comes in and is telling the truth when they say "I had a warranty" there will be 40 people lieing about it. It's just not finacialy worth it. Its tragic to loose a customer, but they can't just assume your telling the truth, cause most people don't tell the truth. Of course this could all be avoided if you did what a responsible customer should do and held onto your records. Long story short.....if you enjoy the prices your get at a bix-box electronics store, you have to accept that fact that you bear more customer responsibility. If you want unconditional "customer is always right" style service, you can still get that. Go to a small specialized shop. Of course you will pay more, but you will get the customer service you want. I guess the main criticizm I would have about you personaly is this..... You admit to having love Frys and been nothing but satisfied with them for years. You enjoy their store, their prices, and their prodcuts. But because they made a human error, and you didn't do your due diligance....you are willing to deflame and condem their entier company. It's not like you are free of blame here. A warranty is a contract, when you make a contract each party gets a copy, they lost their copy...but you didn't have yours either....seems to be you bear almost as much blame as they do, maybe not for the service, but for the records being lost. Big Box stores are too much for you to handle, please shop only at small specialized shops from now on.