Solipsistic Meanderings » Purchase pains strike back!

April 28, 2006

Purchase pains strike back!

Yesterday, I mentioned all the stuff that had transpired up to the event of getting a new notebook computer for me. If you thought that was bad, that’s nothing compared to the events of yesterday :p

I call the sales guy at the computer shop around noon to find out what is going on since his boss had said that the computer should be there by about noon (but he did ask till 5 o’clock to deliver the unit in case there were unforeseen delays). The guy says that he has no idea – all he knows is that I’m supposed to get the notebook by 5 o’clock. I ask him to call his boss to find out what is going on and he promises to call me back. As usual, no call. So I call him again and we go through a weird phone-warp because they seem to be having phone trouble – I get connected to (seemingly) hundreds of other conversations. There are all these people going "hello" and trying to say stuff over each other’s voices – truly surreal. Anyway, he says that his boss had said that I’ll get the computer on time and that’s it. So I wait.

I get a call around 3:30pm saying that they’ve finally got the machine and to come pick it up. I can barely contain my excitement (yeah, right :p) and we leave after work to go get the computer. We get there, take a look at the machine and it looks fine. So I say fine, I’ll take it. Then starts the trouble :p

First, I had to pay the rest of the money. The last time we paid, they made a song and dance about paying by credit card. Apparently, their bank charges them 2.6% on credit card transactions and so they wanted to pass that on to me. I said, no. I had bought another notebook from them about a year ago and I didn’t have to pay 2.6% extra then. So how come I have to pay the 2.6% now? The guy had backed down and agreed to not charge me 2.6% and I told him that if it was easier for them, I’ll try to bring cash for the rest of the payment. Given all the back and forth we had about getting the computer, I never did get cash out and so when we wanted to pay the other half, I proffered my card again. And again, the whole drama about 2.6%. The sales guy wasn’t there this time – the one I’d dealt with before. So they call him and he’s like "we have to charge you interest". I’m like, you guys were supposed to get me the computer days ago, what about that? He’s like, "well, our boss is giving you a thumb-drive and so we can’t do that and deduct the 2.6% as well." So I said, "Fine, drop the thumb-drive and drop the 2.6%" and the guy finally agreed.

Then, they try to upgrade the notebook to 2GB RAM. I had asked for the notebook with 2GB RAM instead of the standard 1GB it came with and I had hoped that they’d get it as 2GB from the dealer. Oh no, they were going to bring the notebook down and do the RAM swap in the showroom. Guess what? The notebook had two RAM slots and they were taken up by two 512MB DDR2 sticks and they’d gotten one 1GB stick to upgrade the machine :p This despite the fact that the sales guy himself had told me that the machine had two 512MB sticks and that they’d have to put in two 1GB sticks – so it wasn’t as if they (or at least somebody there) didn’t know about this. And they say that they can’t find another 1GB stick in a hurry. I throw a fit – mostly for effect since they gave me all that hassle about the 2.6% – and tell them that I want to speak to their boss. The poor guys in the store (I feel sorry for them – I really do …. it wasn’t actually their fault – it was more of an organizational thing) are sweating by this time. They really didn’t want me speaking to their boss but I spoke to him anyway just so that he’d know how incompetent he and his whole team were – they were only interested in flinging blame elsewhere and not in getting the issue resolved. The boss assures me that the issue will be resolved soon.

The guy at the store is supposed to find out about replacement RAM but he takes his sweet time on the phone talking to another customer while we sit there cooling our heels and this doesn’t improve my mood :p The guy says that he can’t get another 1GB in a hurry and after some talking, threatening to cancel the order and so on, I finally agree that we will take the machine with the 1GB stick and that they can get us another 1GB later. Then comes the next shocker – the 1GB stick they have is DDR RAM and not DDR2! I have another fit (again for effect) and then they tell me that they will bring the 2GB over personally and replace the RAM at our house instead of us having to make the trip again. I say that I’ll agree to that as long as they throw the thumb-drive in as well :p By this time, I think they are ready to give me anything – even the whole store – just to get me out of there 🙂 So they unobtrusively wipe the sweat off their brows and agree. We take the notebook with the existing two sticks of 512MB RAM, tell them that we’ll see them tomorrow and leave. But will they have the replacement RAM? Will they actually give us the thumb-drive? Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion of … purchase pains 🙂