Most people who applied to CompUSA probably wanted to be techs to, when I worked there you had to already have experience in a techshop before they would hire you as one.

My experince wasn’t so bad, we did the best for customer that we could but most customers wanted more. Free accessories, free labour, didn’t want to wait for the manufacturer to send parts and wanted a new machine on the spot.

Every salesperson is sleazy to a point, I found when CompUSA didn’t have commission slaespeople they were less than when they did; currently they don’t get commission if they work with retail customers. I’ve heard salespeople everywhere make stuff up.

Your totaly incorrect on the extended warranties, there has never been deductibles on any that CompUSA has sold. Also for the average customer its a great service, but not as easy as it should be. I don’t know where you are grabbing your 80% figure from, but would like to know. I personally had three laptops replaced after leaving CompUSA with their warranties since the repair would cost more than the replacement. It took 2 to 4 weeks for the replacement to be determined to be cheaper and all the approvals to happen for it to be in my hands - for some that may be too long, I thought 4 weeks was stretching it but still acceptable once I got a new and better laptop in the end. I also had 3 PDAs, 1 printer, 1 scanner and 2 monitors replaced with their warranties and those were instant on the spot after a tech verified they were not working; also long after I left them and nobidy ever knew I was an employee at one time in a different state.

Take a look at what CompUSA charges for repairs to most other retailers… its cheaper, Best Buy charges a lot more in most cases and the flat rate labour can be a God-send for a major repair. Even some mom and pops charge more. Is it expensive to you since you can do it yourself, yes, as a $50 tire rotation at Jiffy Lube would seem expensive to a mechanic.

Cables have a huge mark up; one reason is due to a no return policy from the manufacturer so they discount the cost of the cables to account for a given number of defective units. Basically put they would give you 20% off it you agreed to eat any defective cables the customer returned. Our store would get 20 to 35 cables returned every two weeks; I was the person who cut them in half before we junked them in the dumpster which is the only reason I remember how many there use to be.

Anyone who buys anything without first researching it is in trouble. I agree the average salesperson at any retailer will not admitt they don’t know an answer and make something up most of the time. If they have no personal interest in what they are selling they won’t take the time to learn about it and all the training the company offered although was good, was very basic.

Open boxed units are suppose to be reformatted, restored and pass a test from the manufacturer and marked as open boxed. Based on the amount I saw last time I visited CompUSA it looks like they were doing it correctly. Most of our open boxed units were demo items that never left the store. I heard of a few issues here and there from other stores where somebody forgot to do a restore, but it was very rare and I can remember how serious mangement was about not selling a used item as new or unopened.

I agree with you that cables are reliable, the people using them are not so many get returned defective that are not.

Never had an issue with a rebate that I made copies of everything and sent them with delevery confirmation. The few times a manufacture declined them CompUSA got me in contact with them and since I could prove they got it and had copies I got my rebates. I never purcahse anything due to a rebate unless it is over $50, anything less is not worth my time.

I personally like CompUSA’s own eRebate where you enter your receipt information on a website, they confirm the rebate in a few days and after the return policy is over reconfirm it wasn’t returned and process the rebate. You can track it online, I had one issue where I did an exchange and after sending an email they corrected it and waited for the return policy on the item to expire and sent the check. But they informed me of the issue, which I was impressed with.

I miss working at CompUSA sometime, for a retail establishment it wasn’t bad. I don’t miss a lot of the customers who just couldn’t understand why the computer they had for two years wouldn’t be replaced on the spot with a brand new one and they had to wait for it to be repaired. But most of the customers were very nice and we would do our best to help them.

I’m sad to see them in trouble, I hope they can pull it out and save the stores that are left.

Being a scholar, I was forbidden to take a “real” job in high school, but took side jobs doing theater tech for ballet, etc. in our HS’s quite fancy “little theater” (really pretty big for a high school). I was once also a clown and got a blister pumping up an entire box of balloons and making frickin’ dogs out of them for about 2 dozen screaming kids. In 90-degree heat. In the South. Within about 20 minutes of hitting the pavement. Hell.

My first “real job” was working in the music library at UT (alma mater). A room full of Mac Centris machines, real high-speed internet, and I got to test Mosaic, Navigator, etc… while listening to everything from Coltrane to Cage.

The next time I went in, and the signs proclaimed everything was up to 30% off. Almost every single item in the store was the same price it had been the week before. The only items I could find with a 30% markdown were brackets for hanging TV sets on the walls.

On another note, my first retail job was working at a bookstore. People would routinely approach the counter and ask us for that book with the green cover, they couldn’t remember the title… Or could I please recommend a book for their husband/wife/son/daughter/cousin/coworker? No, I don’t know what they like to read, or even if they like to read.

I eventually wound up just recommending the books that were the closest to the cash register.

And I guess all first jobs stink…mine was working at an italian restaurant where the owner would make me get down and my knees and scrub the grout for five dollars an hour, all while listening to how this “builds character.” Blah!

Bah! In that case I either got conned, or Apple stores in the UK aren’t operated by Apple. I’ve taken my MacBook in a few times and each time they say they can’t deal with it in store, and that they’d have to send it away for repair. A couple times they say it’s because I bought it from the online Apple Store that they can’t deal with it in-store.

And yeah, my first job was very similar to Alex’s (except we didn’t get bonuses for toilet cleaning…)