My Fry's dealing

D

dawtips

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 23, 2004
Messages
413
At about 3pm today I finally bit the bullet and gave up on finding a good deal for a BFG 6800GT and decided to buy one for 400 bucks. I called fry's and asked the person, very specifically, 'do you have any bfg 6800gt's in stock?'. The person responded yes, and even said he was holding one in his hand at that very moment. He then asked me if I wanted to put it on hold and I said yes.

So 30 minutes later I was able to get off work early and head down. Even though Fry's closes at 9, I wanted to one, beat the 5-6:30pm traffic, and two get it in my hands quick ;) . I don't arrive to Fry's until 4:15, so a 45minute drive. As soon as I get in the store I goto the will call area and have them grab my item that I put on hold. The lady comes back with a PNY 6800GT, obviously not the card I wanted. So I told her that I wanted the BFG one and she said talk to someone in the components department.

There I was greeted by an empty shelf, no BFG 6800GT's in sight. I then asked a person working there if they had any in the back room, he checked the computer and saw two. We couldn't find them so he took me to the manager nearby after I explained what happened to me. The manager went on to tell me that he had no BFG's in stock and even after I told him my story, about being lied to, the best deal he could offer me was a rain check on the item. Frankly I don't want a rain check for an item i was lied to about because I won't be doing bussiness there anymore. BTW, both of these two gentleman were understanding and very nice.

So in the end I'm out an hour and half drive, and an hour and half of work (im an hourly employee) and I was lied to. I'm pretty pissed about the situation and even though I could have gotten a PNY, if I'm going to be paying the same price for the card I'll take the BFG for it's better warranty and customer support. I honestly don't like being pushed a different product than I was supposed to get.

This was at the Renton (near Seattle) Fry's. And just a tip to everyone, if you call in and ask for something to be put on hold, get the guy's name. I didn't and the manager wanted it for obvious reasons.
 
dawtips said:
Frankly I don't want a rain check for an item i was lied to about because I won't be doing bussiness there anymore.
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I'm sorry for your frustration. But is anyone else noticing a peculiar habit lately of people referring to honest mistakes as "lies?"

I think the guy screwed up. Calling it a lie really implies an intent to deceive. Do you really think it was his plan to lure you to Fry's and annoy you?

H
 
i was pretty clear when i said i wanted a BFG, the guy even said he had one in his hand...
 
mey be not , may be yes ... or maybe they just wanted him to come to store and BUY PNY becasue BFG wouldnt be available for obvious reasons.


BY the way , i bought BFG ( i had hidden it behind stack FX 5200 cards ) in SoCal Fry's. Funny thing is , my BFG is DOA (dead on arrival) and now PNY's are all gone ( they had 5 of them on saturday ) SO now i'm AGAIN without a friggin card.
 
BFG seems to sell fast at Fremont Fry's. We have a lot of PNY's though.
 
Hurin said:
I'm sorry for your frustration. But is anyone else noticing a peculiar habit lately of people referring to honest mistakes as "lies?"
Click to expand...
I've noticed many sites with obvious price misprints (Monitors for $5, etc.) being called "liars" when they refuse to honour the price. Frankly, this is the only bulletin board (that I visit anyway) where these kind of accusations occur. It's kind of funny :)
 
Welcome to wonderful world of LIES...errr, I meant FRY's. The nightmare starts here. I have stopped shopping there, many months ago.
 
That doesn't surprise me at all...from my experience with Fry's you have to prove that your IQ is under 40 and have the morals of a flea before they will even consider hiring you. At least it seems this way at the nearest store to me..
 
Fry's employees will say anything, even mislead, to get you into the store.
 
I had one of the worst purchasing experiences of my young life at Outpost.com (Fry's online alter-ego). I will never order anything from them, even if it's a discounted weekend romp at the Playboy mansion with Asia Carrera and Cameron Diaz!!!

phas3d
 
I don't claim to know everything about computers but I always get in an argument with the people at Fry's here in town. They mostly seem to be arrogant idiots that clearly have no idea what they are talking about. One time I was there with a buddy and he was talking about the extended warranty on the motherboard he was getting. He said it covered the board no matter what. So I replied what if I overclock the hell out of the processor, just kidding around. Then he tells me that the only way you can successfully overclock a processor is with a water cooling setup. Then he pointed at the case with the Koolance water cooler built in and said that's what I needed. Hell I didn't even plan on overclocking my buddy’s computer I was just joking around. After we got through talking about that I asked where some AC5 was and he made some smart assed comment and I just went about my business. After all that we went to get his CPU from the checkout desk and they preceded to hand us an opened and used processor. I asked if they had another one and got the big no. I asked if the processor had the same warranty as the new ones and they assured us that it did. Then I had to explain to the girl working there that the guy/gal that returned it could have voided the warranty already by overclocking it. She said no it should still have the same warranty. On top of all this they didn’t offer any type of discount or anything because he had to get the processor a step down. The trip there that should have took about an hour at most ended up taking 4 hours. I don’t know how they screen their “experts” or “salespeople” but obviously they don’t have to take a test in what they are selling or use common sense.
 
ya i didn't mention this because it really didn't need to be mentioned, but while I was searching for a BFG 6800gt with one of the salespersons, another one came up and said, 'O the pny is a better card anyways'. And from what I've heard all of the 6800's are the same and the only difference is the warranties and the software bundles. I looked at him (already pissed) and said 'No it isn't. I want the BFG' and he just walked off.
 
dawtips said:
At about 3pm today I finally bit the bullet and gave up on finding a good deal for a BFG 6800GT and decided to buy one for 400 bucks. I called fry's and asked the person, very specifically, 'do you have any bfg 6800gt's in stock?'. The person responded yes, and even said he was holding one in his hand at that very moment. He then asked me if I wanted to put it on hold and I said yes.

So 30 minutes later I was able to get off work early and head down. Even though Fry's closes at 9, I wanted to one, beat the 5-6:30pm traffic, and two get it in my hands quick ;) . I don't arrive to Fry's until 4:15, so a 45minute drive. As soon as I get in the store I goto the will call area and have them grab my item that I put on hold. The lady comes back with a PNY 6800GT, obviously not the card I wanted. So I told her that I wanted the BFG one and she said talk to someone in the components department.

There I was greeted by an empty shelf, no BFG 6800GT's in sight. I then asked a person working there if they had any in the back room, he checked the computer and saw two. We couldn't find them so he took me to the manager nearby after I explained what happened to me. The manager went on to tell me that he had no BFG's in stock and even after I told him my story, about being lied to, the best deal he could offer me was a rain check on the item. Frankly I don't want a rain check for an item i was lied to about because I won't be doing bussiness there anymore. BTW, both of these two gentleman were understanding and very nice.

So in the end I'm out an hour and half drive, and an hour and half of work (im an hourly employee) and I was lied to. I'm pretty pissed about the situation and even though I could have gotten a PNY, if I'm going to be paying the same price for the card I'll take the BFG for it's better warranty and customer support. I honestly don't like being pushed a different product than I was supposed to get.

This was at the Renton (near Seattle) Fry's. And just a tip to everyone, if you call in and ask for something to be put on hold, get the guy's name. I didn't and the manager wanted it for obvious reasons.
Click to expand...

That's really surprising...I did the same thing...at the same Fry's, and had no problem.
 
Well I am sorry your experience at Fry's didn't turn out how you expected it to go, but I doubt the sales associate in question intentionally mislead you on the video card. There are a number of reasons that you could have received the wrong card. The associate could have not heard you say BFG but just heard 6800GT. He could have had another associate run the product down to the willcall area and the second associate made the mistake.

The fact that they didn't have anymore BFG cards in stock can't be blamed on the store, those cards sell out the day they get them in stock. The 2 that had shown up in the computer could have already been taken by other customers but just not paid for yet.

I am glad to hear that they were nice about the situation though, even when you encounter a bad situation at a store its hard to stay mad when the employees are acting well.

The fact that you missed work to just pick up a video card was your choice, even if it didn't turn out how you expected it to. Sure traffic sucks but that money could have been used on fun stuff.

I can understand you wanting a BFG, but they basically are the same card and I would have personally just taken that one rather than wait for more cards to come in or to locate another store with them.
 
Ha ha. Apparently only the Fry's near me have mostly competent people. You people just need to understand that the people working there don't have the access nor knowledge about every single thing.

There is no training when you start work there, and only 1 hour trainings on new products once a week (and not in depth). It is a normal retail computer store.

I don't know how you people can expect a person saling everything from lava lamps to PCI extenders to microwaves to know everything about everything.

Do your research, find product numbers, call up to the store with the product number, not the item name and everything should be good. I have not had 1 bad experience with buying stuff from Fry's.
 
kcthebrewer said:
I don't know how you people can expect a person saling everything from lava lamps to PCI extenders to microwaves to know everything about everything.
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The person that is selling me my TV and computer case are two different people. If you want to be a good salesperson then you really have to know your product. This is true no matter what you are selling.
 
dawtips said:
ya i didn't mention this because it really didn't need to be mentioned, but while I was searching for a BFG 6800gt with one of the salespersons, another one came up and said, 'O the pny is a better card anyways'. And from what I've heard all of the 6800's are the same and the only difference is the warranties and the software bundles. I looked at him (already pissed) and said 'No it isn't. I want the BFG' and he just walked off.
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Actually he is right.... not about it being better but PNY, BFG and eVGA and possibly others are the same card with different stickers on the heatsink. BFG just overclocks theirs slightly and slaps on a lifetime warranty. Maybe eventually all of these companies will use their own pcb's for a revision but for now they're all reference cards.
 
yeah i really don't talk to those dumb asses in electronic stores.. seems like every one who knows just enough to be dangerous works there. Personally I work at office max in electronics.. and we always have dumb asses applying for electronics. I have a little test written to see if they really know electronics or not.. and more often than not they fail (it even has assembly questions on it ^_^ ) on the otherhand.. we have alot of dumb ass customers too. not saying you are one of em, but just saying there are a lot of em. I always have customers that are like "can you show us your modems".... so i walk em to our modems and am like "do you want an internal or external" and the next thing that happens.. "NO WE WANT TO SEE YOUR MODEMS!!!! you know the things that sit on the floor"... then i am like "ohhh you mean a COMPUTER"....

now i don't think you did anything wrong.. i think he just messed up... i know i mess up at officemax sometimes.. but if they ask for my name, i always make one up ^_^

btw.. i did make the mistake of asking a guy at fry's if a dvd player could play dvd-r discs about 5 years ago.... i will never forgot the goofy ass look he gave me.. and i just said "uhh nevermind"
 
The guy's making minimum wage and he sees "6800gt" on the package. Do you really think stating you want a "BFG" makes any sense to him?
 
I have been to at least 10 FRY's and received the exact same service: Crap. Rude, horrible customer service, and no respect. That's all I can sum up my experience.
 
Cannibal Corpse said:
I have been to at least 10 FRY's and received the exact same service: Crap. Rude, horrible customer service, and no respect. That's all I can sum up my experience.
Click to expand...

same here. combine that with an over 90% percent failure rate on parts i get from there (never have had one failure from parts from zipzoomfly, svc, or newegg), i cant stand that store. only thing that will make me even consider going is that they have good sales on CD-Rs.
 
joemama said:
That doesn't surprise me at all...from my experience with Fry's you have to prove that your IQ is under 40 and have the morals of a flea before they will even consider hiring you. At least it seems this way at the nearest store to me..
Click to expand...

sounds like a Guitar Center to me...except there, you have to have been in some sort of 80's/90's death/thrash/glam/hair band and really, truly, suck.

cheers,

dave
 
freeloader1969 said:
The guy's making minimum wage and he sees "6800gt" on the package. Do you really think stating you want a "BFG" makes any sense to him?
Click to expand...

actually the folks that you get transfered to that have the ability to put items on hold are on commission.

anyway, Frys has horrable customer service. period. i've found that if i can make it out of the store without talking to any of the salespeople everything usually turns out alright.
 
dawtips said:
ya i didn't mention this because it really didn't need to be mentioned, but while I was searching for a BFG 6800gt with one of the salespersons, another one came up and said, 'O the pny is a better card anyways'. And from what I've heard all of the 6800's are the same and the only difference is the warranties and the software bundles. I looked at him (already pissed) and said 'No it isn't. I want the BFG' and he just walked off.
Click to expand...

Umm, like someone else said, right now everyone is using the reference design. And most are reference PCB/cards made by evga with a different sticker slapped on them. Even the albatron (blue PCB is unchanged from the reference design/layout.

The software, warranty and support is the only real difference and should be what your decision is based on.
Software: I'd rather one that bundles good games, like eVGA bundles FarCry
Warranty: BFG give lifetime warranty!
Support: I hear BFG has good support (tech/warranty/help/etc)

But the cards are almost COMPLETELY identical. BFG might be giving the card a little more juice in the bios, so they overclock better. (so the BIOS's could be SLIGHTLY different, but NOT very much. not enough to make a difference in purchasing decision)
 
i know neweggs pics aren't always correct but they show a regular green PCB on the Albatron card. some folks have also said that the Albatron 6800GT has dual molex connectors, but the current lot, or at least the card used in the newegg pic only has one.

anyway, they are all physically the same card, just different levels of support, customer service and extras with each card.
 
you should have taken the pny card hard.. had fun with it... and then return it for the BFG...

maybe you still can?

they will just put a "reduced price" sticker on it, as you return it...
 
Cannibal Corpse said:
Welcome to wonderful world of LIES...errr, I meant FRY's. The nightmare starts here. I have stopped shopping there, many months ago.
Click to expand...

the key is to only shop there when you can get uber deals with a little timing...
 
At least the folks who helped you there were nice. Here in SoCal, the Burbank Fry's ran a nationwide search for the rudest people in the nation and hired them all.
 
chrisf6969 said:
Umm, like someone else said, right now everyone is using the reference design. And most are reference PCB/cards made by evga with a different sticker slapped on them. Even the albatron (blue PCB is unchanged from the reference design/layout.

The software, warranty and support is the only real difference and should be what your decision is based on.
Software: I'd rather one that bundles good games, like eVGA bundles FarCry
Warranty: BFG give lifetime warranty!
Support: I hear BFG has good support (tech/warranty/help/etc)

But the cards are almost COMPLETELY identical. BFG might be giving the card a little more juice in the bios, so they overclock better. (so the BIOS's could be SLIGHTLY different, but NOT very much. not enough to make a difference in purchasing decision)
Click to expand...

Exactly, the guy said the pny card was better, but they are the same. So I pretty much wanted to laugh in his face. And BFG is better than PNY for the warranty.
 
I use to work at Fry's, (i'm not bragging)

But if what you say is correct that you had this gentlemen put the item on hold for you. Then his name is on the Item's quote. No item can be put on hold/willcall for a customer unless it has the original quote.

Most all of the Employees at fry's hired/trained/and moved up from within. I saw countless idiots moved into sales position that really didn't have a clue about anything. Pretty much read the box to the customer and sell the points to them that they could have just read in the first place. You have to think most of the people in this position really don't have any real life qualifications in the first place. Who in their right mind with a plethora of certs or degrees is gonna waste there time selling ecs mobo combos and wireless routers to mother's of 6 all day(oh and some of the worst smelling people with the worst hygiene shop there)

Components is generally an honest department, except for the warranties.(sales goals)
For some of the items they sell, they are quite a bit under educated.
Raids, Watercooling, scsi, etc...

Computers is completley deceptive, Your grandma could come in asking for an internet terminal and end up with a 30in lcd and a Sony Vaio Media Center. Yes maam this is what you need to get started on the internet, dont forget about the PG!

Audio Video, once again extremely commission driven. Mitsu Mitsu Mitsu, All these guys see is $ signs. Do your own research before ever listening to one of these guys.
That and most of the av stuff at fry's is bottom of the barrel.
 
Keeping in mind that Fry's is a store thats out to make money, and they do that well, I find
when armed with knowledge of what your looking for and what else is available Fry's is a
wonderful place...to shop because of the variety, somethimes when I go there to buy
something but something else changes my mind I might find something else completely
different.

One thing I do hate about Fry's and really love exploiting is their reciept check policy...
I dont want to wait another 10 minuets for my reciept to be checked for some watch battery after
waiting 20 minuets in the regular line...I just walk on by while they continue to ask me for
my reciept. Hell I'll purposely wait till there's nobody around so I'm sure they'll ask me for
my reciept, a few times some fat short bald white guy will ask for my reciept like 3 times and
say something like, "jerk" or "way to go buddy"...and I just ignore them. That small little
petty ownage puts a smirk on my face till I get passed the shopping cart area.

Oh and since a picture is worth a 1000 words...
fryspc01.JPG

fryspc02.JPG
 
That is very true. I don't know if the management policy mandates a general "rudeness" or what: ALL stores (and your experiences) indicate this behavior, it can NOT be coincidence.
 
i have been to two fry's (sunnyvale and palo alto CA) and i have to agree that most of the employees seem very incompetent. prices are RARELY competetive with online stores, and they do not have a lot of the specific little things that i may be looking for.

Little story: i went to the sunnyvale fry's today to return a dvd burner that didnt read cd's dvd's anything, i mean this thing did NOT work at all. so i wait in the returns line, and finally i get to the desk, and tell the lady the deal. shes like ok and goes through the box to make sure that everything is there. she even opens the unopened bag with the manual and driver cd and she i looking all through the manual. not sure what she was doing really but she looked confused. so anyway finally, she gets done with that, and she prints up my refund reciept and she slaps a sticker on the box. for those who go there often, you know the sticker im talking about. basically, it is a discount of $9 (on a $200 burner), and a warning that the product is returned. im thinking what an idiot but whatever i got my money back. so now due to her incompetence, some poor schmuck is gnna buy a broken burner for 9 bux cheaper :rolleyes:

that being said, i LOVE to just walk around in there and check out the hardware. i dont often buy, but i love to look around and steer clear of employees.
 
Yeah Fry's employees are asses. I bought a refurb wireless router there last month. It's the older b-band netgear with a painted blue metal case. The first one I bought had a huge scratch on top. I took it back and told them I didn't want this one it's scratched I just want an exchange for the exact same thing. First he tells me it's refurb, that's why it's scratched. I told him this one was probably beat to hell and reminded him of the 30 day no questions asked return policy. Then he tries to tell me that there probably all like that. I said well I guess I'll find out cause I'm exchanging this one. So he takes the router and him and some cs manager try and buff the scratch out with a cloth ! Hmmm I guess it won't come off. No shit idiot, it's painted. I opened a new refurb box and inspected. Sure enough, it looks brand new. Thanks for wasting my time Randy ! :rolleyes:
 
I'm pretty sure I got one of the last BFG cards at the Renton Fry's, and this was over 2 weeks ago now. I called on a Friday night and they said they had over 40 of the BFG's left in stock, so I didn't bother to put one on hold. Saturday morning I drove out there and they had 3 or 4 of them on display way up on the top of the video card section, out of reach. I asked some guy to get one down for me and he took me over to a small display at the end of one of the aisles that I missed, there was probably about a dozen of the cards there at the most. The guy told me that they had been selling like mad and their inventory would probably not last through the end of the day, and I'm sure it didn't since I saw atleast a couple other people picking up the cards when I was leaving the area going to checkout. I really wish I hadn't missed that small display since the guy picked my card out for me and it ended up being one that doesn't get to ultra speed on memory. I thought about going back out there and exchanging it for another but I didn't want to run all the way out there again just to find out they didn't have any left.

I was out there on Friday the 16th again, and I looked all over in the video section and they were indeed sold out of the BFG's, and I didn't see any PNY's either.
 
ruffz said:
I'm pretty sure I got one of the last BFG cards at the Renton Fry's, and this was over 2 weeks ago now. I called on a Friday night and they said they had over 40 of the BFG's left in stock, so I didn't bother to put one on hold. Saturday morning I drove out there and they had 3 or 4 of them on display way up on the top of the video card section, out of reach. I asked some guy to get one down for me and he took me over to a small display at the end of one of the aisles that I missed, there was probably about a dozen of the cards there at the most. The guy told me that they had been selling like mad and their inventory would probably not last through the end of the day, and I'm sure it didn't since I saw atleast a couple other people picking up the cards when I was leaving the area going to checkout. I really wish I hadn't missed that small display since the guy picked my card out for me and it ended up being one that doesn't get to ultra speed on memory. I thought about going back out there and exchanging it for another but I didn't want to run all the way out there again just to find out they didn't have any left.

I was out there on Friday the 16th again, and I looked all over in the video section and they were indeed sold out of the BFG's, and I didn't see any PNY's either.
Click to expand...

They got more in stock after that, since I bought mine at the Renton Fry's on the 21st, and they had about 20 or so on the shelf. I talked with the manager and he said that if they notice a certain store is low on stock, they will transfer in some product from a different store overnight, which explains how they manage to have pretty good stock of these cards compared to everyone else.
 
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