01-20-2004, 12:05 AM
[rant]
Should anyone suggest to you that you buy a VPR Matrix computer (Best Buy house brand), run far far away after slapping them silly. Last year, I had a need of a laptop PC to keep my sanity. After having been a long time customer of Best Buy (even had a temp job with them and met the owner back when it was only a small local electronics chain here in Minneapolis), reading good reviews and seeing the special offers on price, I decided to go with VPR Matrix - the 185A5.
It mostly seemed like a good choice with the exception of having a slot load dvd/cd drive. I didn't see any problems with the drive when using it for data disks. Then I started using it for playing music and movies. This is a system that was advertised for it's widescreen display for movies and special audio system. It always seemed to struggle when starting disks and when it did finally get them started it sounded like a jet plane taking off. It got worse and worse and I got nowhere with their phone tech support. They finally gave up and wanted me to send it in for service.
They sent me a UPS box for shipping and told me that they didn't actually service the machines at their stores but just provided the convenience of having them pack it up and ship it to Texas for you. I certainly didn't want to let it out of my hands to even bring it in to the store, let alone box it up and ship it off, but it had to get fixed and I wasn't about to try opening a laptop that was still under warranty. I had backed up most (but not all :( ) of my most critical data. The testing we had already done had showed it to be a problem with the dvd drive hardware and not windows and I expected them to replace the drive and send it back. I checked their web site often to see when my baby would be back in my arms.
The box finally showed and I had to wait until that evening to unpack it and fire it up. I plugged it in, sat down and hit the power. A minute later, others in the house came running at the sound of my blood curdling scream. I was staring at a virgin windows screen! They wiped my hard drive to "fix" a wonky optical drive.
I got on the phone to find out how they could possibly be so inept. I spent the next hour trying to find out why they did that. I heard a lot of: "We're sorry sir." "I feel for you sir." "Sometimes that happens, especially since 9/11." They said they warn everyone that they might lose everything when shipped - they hadn't! I asked them why I wasn't at least given the option to have them back it up when they decided to wipe the drive. They said they don't normally do that. I asked why they would wipe the drive to fix a hardware problem in the optical drive. They said they like to do that to eliminate all the variables. I told them that was like replacing the car to find a bad spark plug. I don't remember ever being that angry. I also told them they should be thankful they weren't standing in front of me since I would probably have strangled the person.
I have been working for the last three days getting windows updates and trying to rebuild the system close to where I had it previously. I still have a long way to go. I keep thinking about how I would be questioning the continuation of my employment if I had ever done that to someone when I was working in an IT department.
Now, for the last shoe to drop (and I'm sure you know what is coming), the drive is doing the exact same thing it was doing before it went. They fixed nothing!! Bang. Zoom. To the moon Alice.
[/rant]
Oh well, at least they did a great job of cleaning the junk off the hard drive. ;)
Should anyone suggest to you that you buy a VPR Matrix computer (Best Buy house brand), run far far away after slapping them silly. Last year, I had a need of a laptop PC to keep my sanity. After having been a long time customer of Best Buy (even had a temp job with them and met the owner back when it was only a small local electronics chain here in Minneapolis), reading good reviews and seeing the special offers on price, I decided to go with VPR Matrix - the 185A5.
It mostly seemed like a good choice with the exception of having a slot load dvd/cd drive. I didn't see any problems with the drive when using it for data disks. Then I started using it for playing music and movies. This is a system that was advertised for it's widescreen display for movies and special audio system. It always seemed to struggle when starting disks and when it did finally get them started it sounded like a jet plane taking off. It got worse and worse and I got nowhere with their phone tech support. They finally gave up and wanted me to send it in for service.
They sent me a UPS box for shipping and told me that they didn't actually service the machines at their stores but just provided the convenience of having them pack it up and ship it to Texas for you. I certainly didn't want to let it out of my hands to even bring it in to the store, let alone box it up and ship it off, but it had to get fixed and I wasn't about to try opening a laptop that was still under warranty. I had backed up most (but not all :( ) of my most critical data. The testing we had already done had showed it to be a problem with the dvd drive hardware and not windows and I expected them to replace the drive and send it back. I checked their web site often to see when my baby would be back in my arms.
The box finally showed and I had to wait until that evening to unpack it and fire it up. I plugged it in, sat down and hit the power. A minute later, others in the house came running at the sound of my blood curdling scream. I was staring at a virgin windows screen! They wiped my hard drive to "fix" a wonky optical drive.
I got on the phone to find out how they could possibly be so inept. I spent the next hour trying to find out why they did that. I heard a lot of: "We're sorry sir." "I feel for you sir." "Sometimes that happens, especially since 9/11." They said they warn everyone that they might lose everything when shipped - they hadn't! I asked them why I wasn't at least given the option to have them back it up when they decided to wipe the drive. They said they don't normally do that. I asked why they would wipe the drive to fix a hardware problem in the optical drive. They said they like to do that to eliminate all the variables. I told them that was like replacing the car to find a bad spark plug. I don't remember ever being that angry. I also told them they should be thankful they weren't standing in front of me since I would probably have strangled the person.
I have been working for the last three days getting windows updates and trying to rebuild the system close to where I had it previously. I still have a long way to go. I keep thinking about how I would be questioning the continuation of my employment if I had ever done that to someone when I was working in an IT department.
Now, for the last shoe to drop (and I'm sure you know what is coming), the drive is doing the exact same thing it was doing before it went. They fixed nothing!! Bang. Zoom. To the moon Alice.
[/rant]
Oh well, at least they did a great job of cleaning the junk off the hard drive. ;)
Lochnar[ITB]
Freshman Diablo
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"I reject your reality and substitute my own."
"You don't know how strong you can be until strong is the only option."
"Think deeply, speak gently, love much, laugh loudly, give freely, be kind."
"Talk, Laugh, Love."
Freshman Diablo
"I reject your reality and substitute my own."
"You don't know how strong you can be until strong is the only option."
"Think deeply, speak gently, love much, laugh loudly, give freely, be kind."
"Talk, Laugh, Love."
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