Was that CrapUSA or CompUSA

The next day, Friday, July 16th, at 9:35 PM my younger brother called me to tell me someone had left a message for me at my parents house (the number I left to be reached at for the previous evening) saying my part was ready to be picked up. Knowing the store was closed for the evening I figured that I would not be able to get to the store until Sunday since I had a pressing business meeting all day Saturday. I was understandably anxious to get my drive back and a bit annoyed that I was left a message at the wrong number. If I had been called at my home number I could have gotten in by Friday evening. Come Sunday, July 18th, I gathered up my computer, various paperwork, (I had collected quite a pile by this point) and CD I headed out to the store. I wanted to bring my computer and CD in to make sure that the drive was in good working condition before I took it home. My intuition was correct. I showed yet another new employee, Ken, my latest receipt and he brought out the drive. I pulled out my computer, and believe it or not it was the wrong part. It was a Toshiba CD-ROM drive; it was just not the right one for my model. I thought the photocopied serial number was supposed to prevent this. I told Ken that it was the wrong part and handed the drive to him. He then proceeded to start jamming the drive into my computer. I grabbed the drive from him and asked him what he was doing. I have never in my entire life seen a computer store employee start ramming objects into a computer. The drive was obviously too big for the slot it was supposed to go into and this employee just starts forcing it against a fragile piece of equipment! I again ask to speak with a manager and a fellow by the name of Paul Chenard, a hardware Lead, and explained that I had been given the wrong part. I decided against telling him the long story and just wanted to find out how this was going to be resolved. Up until this point I can only say that I have been very understanding, patient and unreasonably tolerable of the whole experience. 43 days have gone by and the final result is another error. I was at my wit's end. How could I be expected to be satisfied with an answer of "the part is going to be ordered.?" I was told that so many times before to no avail. Paul finally said that I could speak with Eric Goldman. I instantly agreed thinking that this was my moment to speak with the most responsible employee in the store. Eric came to the front introduced himself and I started off with asking him if he ever got the message to call me Thursday night. "Call you?" He said rather rashly, like the idea of him calling me was unfathomable. I explained that Frank Bodeman promised me Eric would get the message, but it was never delivered. I briefly explained bits and pieces of my situation, not having time or desire to go into the whole matter. I could barely get a few sentences out before Eric would interrupt me. He would ask me questions that I was just about to explain and when I did try to give him an answer he would interrupt again. I felt like I was intruding on this man's precious time. I got the feeling that he wanted me to finish up and get out of the store. I would like to believe that his feelings were much different but his outward persona was only conveying lack of patience and understanding. He never once apologized for my inconvenience, which is the least he could have done. All I was looking for was a small bit of comprehension and compassion for my frustration. I was only met with blank stares and interruptions. Not even given a chance to fully explain my situation Eric decided that he was going to order a new drive and in the mean time loan me an external CD drive that ran off my PCMA port, but not without stressing that he is really not supposed to be doing this. Grateful that Eric was going out of his way to help remedy my problem I accepted the offer. He got the drive and I requested that I hook it up to my computer to see if it would even work. I had failed to bring my floppy drive with me not knowing that I would been needing it to install the program to run the drive but the computer seemed to acknowledge that there was a drive there so I decided to take it home and give it a shot. Eric explained that I would need to sign a form and he excused himself. After 15 minutes has gone by Mr. Goldman returned and asked me for a credit card number as collateral for the drive. I refused. After all I have been with out my drive for 7 weeks, I have been treated so badly that I can barely control my anger and he wants me to put a collateral on this drive? I told him that they have my drive, which was sufficient collateral. He said that since the loner drive was of higher value I had to give a credit card number. I was going to do no such thing and Mr. Goldman looked at me and pointedly remarked, "I'm trying to do this favor for you, you either want it or not." Shaking with anger and afraid that I was going to say something totally inappropriate, I mustered all my dignity and decency and said, "no thank you." I gathered my belongings and left the store. I was livid at the thought that I should be required to leave a credit card number for that drive as if I was a thief. After all I have been through with your company asking me to assure I wasn't going to rip the store off was laughable at best. If a manager like that cannot see the importance of the phrase "the customer is always right" in a situation like this, I believe Mr. Goldman should not be in the position he's in.

On Monday, July 19th, I called the store and again spoke to Arnold. I gave him my information and wanted to know if the part had been ordered. He put me on the line with Jeff Fazell who was under the impression that the drive I tried to pick up was the right drive; it just failed to work. Who ever made that entry into the system had no idea what was going on and once again proved that there is a serious lack of communication within that department. I explained to Jeff that the drive did not even come close to fitting into the computer. Jeff then went on to say that they had taken the bracket off a new drive that they had in the store and put my drive in that bracket thinking it would work since they still have not received the bracket they had originally ordered. Jeff then went on to say that they expected the new bracket to come in sometime this week and I will be called. I really wish that someone would have explained this to me earlier saving me the frustration of thinking they had ordered the wrong part again. I appreciated the attempt to quickly get my drive back. However because it was pawned off and the part they had expected to receive, I just feel lied to. As of now can only hope that the correct part had been ordered and by the end of the week I will have my drive back and never have reason to go into a CompUSA store ever again.

This is my situation as is stands of this date. I again apologize for the length of this letter as I felt I had to be as detailed as possible to convey the complexity of this experience. Please accept my sincerest thanks for taking the time to review this matter. I trust that you will find the proceeding events cause for concern regarding the dealings of your company and the treatment of your customers. I cannot assume that you can begin to understand how deeply angering and frustrating this has been for me, however, I have confidence that you can see how necessary it was for me to contact you regarding this matter.

With deepest sincerity,

Jantina Moulton

CC: CompUSA Inc. Customer Service Center.