MicroCenter, One CPU... For Life

When I asked about a year ago, they said that it was a good idea to limit the CPU/motherboard combo purchase to once a month. But I was under the impression it's not fully enforced. Just enough to deter people from reselling on Ebay.
 
When I built my desktop & my wife's desktop the MC in Minneapolis let me buy my Core i5-3570k and my wife's Core i3-3225 on the same ticket no questions asked. But I did also buy 2 new cases, 2 8GB RAM kits & a Sony Optiarc DVD-RW drive.
 
I've only had an issue once with a salesperson there... the funnier thing is it was the same salesperson who tripped over the rest of them to help me twice beforehand (I build all my friend's / co-workers PCs). This time, I was rebuilding some of mine (case and such mainly) and also building a co-worker a new gaming PC. I asked him for help trying to find an eSATA to SATA cable and to get some things (CPU, GPU, SSD). He couldn't be bothered and I waited for 15 minutes before finding another sales person, who spent a good 15 minutes looking around for it on the racks. I then told him what else I needed and told him to feel free to sticker everything so he got commission (I was already basically all done shopping.)
 
Someone I know that works at the Columbus location asked the district manager. Basically it should be one CPU SKU per household, period. That means one address should be able to buy one of each model.

Lady I talked too must be trying to scare me off. Every time I go I use all coupons available, and get them to combo deal open box items from time to time. Though if they advertise a coupon, and have a policy to give a combo deal on open box items, then she shouldn't be giving customers trouble when doing so.
 
quiktake said:
When I asked about a year ago, they said that it was a good idea to limit the CPU/motherboard combo purchase to once a month. But I was under the impression it's not fully enforced. Just enough to deter people from reselling on Ebay.
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That's what a sales rep at order pickup told me as well when I asked about coming back and buying another CPU in a month or so.
He said it's not necessarily a hard limit but they don't want people in there trying to buy the same CPU multiple times a week and throughout the month - so they put the "limit 1 per customer" verbiage to deter resellers.

Hell since the one opened up near me locally a few years ago I've bought 2 i7 920's, an i5 2500K, a Cele G550, and an Athlon X4 640. Never got a warning or a funny look, paid for them all with the same 2 CC's/same address in the system.
 
yeah, if some fucking manager told me that shit, I would ask to see that policy in writing, and if he can't produce it, I would ask to speak to his manager. And then go all the way up the chain till his ass was grass. I hate bullshit like that...
 
I think the manager doesn't understand the policy. The policy is one CPU at a time. MC is possibly the largest Intel dealer in the country. Why would they by so many CPUs and only sell you one in your lifetime? It makes no sense. I've bought 5 CPUs in less than a year. Send an email to Customer Service. They are pretty good to deal with in my experience with them.
 
How would they know if you've bought one already? I go in Best Buy quite often but I'm pretty sure no one there recognizes me from one time to the next and has no idea what I've bought in the past. Just withdraw your money to pay in cash instead of a card.

However, in today's economic times I can't understand why a business would turn away a paying customer for a potential customer that may never come.
 
htpc_user said:
How would they know if you've bought one already? I go in Best Buy quite often but I'm pretty sure no one there recognizes me from one time to the next and has no idea what I've bought in the past. Just withdraw your money to pay in cash instead of a card.

However, in today's economic times I can't understand why a business would turn away a paying customer for a potential customer that may never come.
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They require your lifes history to make a purchase.
 
Retarted EGO Maniac Manager.
Ask him how many female cashiers did he do it with ...
(Was so Unapropriate but that's what he seems like, EGO)

It is one SKU per Household means lets say one AMD K6300 for your house hold not more. It this means sometimes also Lets say they have a LOT of K6000 and K6100 with K6300 and K6350 On Sale(Smoking deal). What the rules also imply that they want you to only buy 1 CPU out of that lot. But u can feel free and buy any other CPU at normal price.

(Prevents me from buying the entire Lot of 6000 6100 6300 6350 and then turn around and resel online for profit)

What the manager here in Houston says, it is to prevent you from buying 8x AMD K6300 that are on the sale. And lets say once the sale is over they expect to restock new CPUs anyway so technically the SKU should not be coming up any more.

Now the flaw in this rule is that you only suppose to buy 1 CPU per sale LOT.
Though their sales are very long and the LOT include almost every CPU.

Thats where the Manager is being a retared EGO maniac.
 
Its a female manager ;)

Im sure she was just trying to scare me off since I always look for coupons and deals. But they shouldn't frown upon that when they offer them.
 
LoL then it mean who ever she is with she got not saying to she is trying to use her power at work excessively.

Besides with this economy everyone is looking for a deal. I don't blame you for doing so, I don't blame other for doing so when i sell stuff. Sure i want more money for my items.
But we are all not made of gold.

And you are right why offer them if you don't want to let ppl use them or make it hard.

Over here they gave all the cashiers a Coupon sheet to scan.
So when the item has a combo deal they automatically scan the deal and get the price Buttom low =)

They even go out of your way to get you a deal here.

I bought CPU Mobo Combo with a non Combo Ram and HDD.

HDD failed so I returned. Though they didnt have HDD i wanted, so i decided to pick up more ram.
They used the purchase before to give me the System Build Ram Discount and told me to return the other one and double on the new one this time around.

So I got a CPU Mobo Combo with a 2x Ram Combo Discount. 2 different days.

I returned HDD already and will be returning the Non combo ram =) so much prettier in my case Now hahaha.

But yeah she seems Shady. Avoid her at any cost LOL
 
I have never had a problem at all, especially @ the newer Towson store..The staff is always friendly and fall all over each other to help you since they are commission based sales..I have been patiently waiting for them to get the new NZXT H630 in stock!!! The wait!!:mad:
 
What this looks like to me is a less than intelligent person (in the midwest? Nooo) just trying to keep his job, and out of paranoia of being screwed over, enforced a policy that he didn't quite understand/misread.

It seems kind of silly to make a post about it and really believe that is the actual policy. And CCity, I we call that part of town Parkville, not Towson.
 
unusualfire said:
If i was paying cash I would refuse to give them any info.
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Many stores these days claim that they will not warranty your purchase unless you "register" the purchase in their system by giving them your full information. I'm sure this could be challenged, but none the less it's a trend that is growing.

Stiletto said:
Sounds like you have an asshole manager at that store. Contact corporate and let them know what happened. I bet they go out of their way to make you happy.
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I 2nd this. CALL and express how thoroughly upset you are (in an aggitated yet POLITE manner) and that this will cost them all of your future business. Most B&M stores know they are competing with online merchants and will try hard to keep you happy and buying in store.

Just my 2 cents worth.
 
I've purchases several cpu's in the past (2600's, 3770's and now a 4770) , all from the same sales guy. He'd always ask if there was anything else I wanted, and of course I told him of the nice motherboards (asus maximus series) and top end video cards that they didn't carry, which I'd gladly purchase from him but the store didn't ever seem to have them. Well, guess what, now they carry them. And they price matched for me when I found a nice price online, too. Store is Paterson, NJ. Never had a problem there. I suppose this is the way a store should be run, so I buy any other stuff they have instead of buying it at other stores. I like to support stores with good people in them. Bought a big screen tv on sale there last year, and while I'm a big guy and had no problem handling it on the cart, one of the guys in the store insisted in taking it out to the car and loading it up for me.
service. hard to find anymore. Support the stores that give it. Oh, and those that don't? Write to the owner and the manager. Their jobs and investments rely on satisfied customers. If any of my people screws up, I want to know, and I'm sure other managers feel the same way. Oh, and if you get great service? Write the store a nice short letter and mention their name, maybe they'll get some nice employee of the month award or something......and they're remember you next time you shop.
 
nightfly said:
I've purchases several cpu's in the past (2600's, 3770's and now a 4770) , all from the same sales guy. He'd always ask if there was anything else I wanted, and of course I told him of the nice motherboards (asus maximus series) and top end video cards that they didn't carry, which I'd gladly purchase from him but the store didn't ever seem to have them. Well, guess what, now they carry them. And they price matched for me when I found a nice price online, too. Store is Paterson, NJ. Never had a problem there. I suppose this is the way a store should be run, so I buy any other stuff they have instead of buying it at other stores. I like to support stores with good people in them. Bought a big screen tv on sale there last year, and while I'm a big guy and had no problem handling it on the cart, one of the guys in the store insisted in taking it out to the car and loading it up for me.
service. hard to find anymore. Support the stores that give it. Oh, and those that don't? Write to the owner and the manager. Their jobs and investments rely on satisfied customers. If any of my people screws up, I want to know, and I'm sure other managers feel the same way. Oh, and if you get great service? Write the store a nice short letter and mention their name, maybe they'll get some nice employee of the month award or something......and they're remember you next time you shop.
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Plus you get half sales tax there too.

Deals so hot a van caught fire in the parking lot a few years ago.
 
[star wars voice]

He doesn't like you.

[/star wars voice]


In all seriousness, though, I suspect that the manager didn't understand the policies in place, and made a mistake.

The "one in a lifetime" policy, if my guess is correct, applies to those that are on sale at a big discount. I can understand if they limit you to one for that specific type, and that's it, but for other CPU's? This simply doesn't make any sense.

This reminds me of the South Park episode "Cartmanland..."
 
quiktake said:
When I asked about a year ago, they said that it was a good idea to limit the CPU/motherboard combo purchase to once a month. But I was under the impression it's not fully enforced. Just enough to deter people from reselling on Ebay.
Click to expand...

Supposedly this...
 
Cecil said:
Yeah their CPU deals used to be a lot better. Now they are same price or $10 less then online, except for the most popular ones, but even they aren't hugely discounted anymore.
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the thing they do now is you get a mobo with it for dirt cheap, I don't see anyone who can match their prices when doing this combo for Amd or Intel.
 
butterfliesrpretty said:
the thing they do now is you get a mobo with it for dirt cheap, I don't see anyone who can match their prices when doing this combo for Amd or Intel.
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Their motherboard combo deals used to be a lot better, and now Newegg is doing $80-100 off combo deals with motherboards for Haswell.
 
Cecil said:
Yeah their CPU deals used to be a lot better. Now they are same price or $10 less then online, except for the most popular ones, but even they aren't hugely discounted anymore.
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Less than online is fantastic compared to most of the country without such retail stores. Our options are buy online or pay out the ass. Must suck to be able to get it now AND get it cheaper. :rolleyes:

The best we have in the area here is a crap store with a crap selection and they will order me in a 3770k for the low price of $350.
 
I've never ever been hassled at Micro Center. Always pleasant experiences.
 
Zenshi said:
Never had a problem with MC and from this thread it doesn't sound like its a standard thing yet. For the moment, I will continue to shop at MC as usual.
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I was @ Rockville today - this time, for a specific refurb deal (the open-box GTX550 Ti deal was only available in Rockville, as neither Fairfax or Baltimore had any open-box versions). It's now solidly installed in my desktop. Cost (to me) - $63.46, including tax. A mere two quibbles - HDMI port on the card is mini-HDMI, not full HDMI; therefore I have to put my sound card back in for now. Second quibble - it's dual-slot.
 
Went with a buddy down to the local MC, he picked up his 2nd I7 4770K after a month. Same Credit card and address no hassles. I think it was just a local manager having a off day.

On a side note, how much can you honestly make selling CPUs. With tax, and shipping costs, plus ebay seller costs or amazon seller costs, the profit is in the single digits. If you look at it Newegg's Haswell deals are pretty comparable to MC, without tax, and with tax there the same....
 
Of course it was an isolated incident, much like this Asus warranty garbage going around the forums lately. Ridiculous.
 
^True. I initially thought the one per household limit was necessary, caz MC associates always drove the point that they loose money every time you buy a CPU from them. Now I realize they loose money, but not the original, overzealous way the associates drive that point home, since Microcenter is an OEM (powerspec computers), Im sure Intel does give them some crazy offers to boost their margins.
 
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