turbowebguy blog

Most people know me as a portable web designer, I go on site, do a lot of the work at the feet of my clients, johnny on the spot.

I bought an HP Tablet, AMD 64 bit processor, 4 gigs of RAM, Windows Vista, WACOM screen, bio-metric, DVD burner with Lightscribe (can flip and etch on the disc, a name, graphics, etc.), you name it.

I also bought a warranty, two year warranty to be exact when I purchased it from Fry’s Electronics in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2008.

It’s been close to two years since I bought it, but not close yet.

Last few weeks, the tablet started acting funny, I’d turn it on, then it’d turn off, it did this a few times. I thought maybe it was overheating, it wasn’t, had a separate cooling house beneath it, I normally don’t run it at high-performance setting anyways.

So, next thing that goes wrong…

My tablet has a small 15.5″ monitor. So I normally plug in a large monitor and use that as I’m working.

Well, I’m working one day, and all the sudden my monitor colors go bright bluish green. I unplug monitor, turn it off, let it rest, plug it back in, everything fine.

It happens again a few days later, I repeat, goes back to normal. Then in that same hour, it goes bluish green and stays. First, I think okay, change resolutions around, try 16-bit instead of 32-bit, tried 800×600 instead of 1440×900, no difference. Maybe it’s the monitor?

I plug the monitor into one of my desktops nearby, everything is fine.

Okay, so I dig up my warranty, I still have three weeks left! Yes!

I’ll take it to Fry’s, it’s some distance from the high desert of Southern California, so I go!

I get there, a bit rushed, I go to the counter, an Asian woman behind the service counter, I tell her all that’s going wrong, video card, maybe the motherboard, she looks at my warranty first,

She says with a serious face all loud, “Oh your warranty is almost expired!”

I’m thinking, huh, so what? I paid for it, it’s still in the green, so look at my machine.

She calls her supervisor over.

She says like she just solved a CSI case, “Look, he brought this in, and look his warranty is almost expired!”

Okay, now this is awkward, I’m thinking are they accusing me of being dishonest or waiting to the last minute?

I should mention, I was there once before in March of this year 2010, because my power cable wasn’t working right, they gave me a new one right away. So I thought the service was something like that! Right? First impressions good, therefore…

So, the Supervisor asks:  “What’s wrong with it?”

I tell him what’s going on, they plug it into a nearby monitor…

Woman says like she just watched the end of a good movie: “Look, it works, it’s fine.”

I replied, “No it’s not! Look it’s all blue green! It’s not supposed to be like that. It wasn’t like that before.”

Supervisor: “Sir, it’s Windows colors, it’s supposed to look like that.” <<—– WTF???

I said: “No it’s not! here, look at the main monitor, the colors are normal.”

Supervisor: “Hmmm. Looks the same to me.”

And either he was a poker player or serious, or I don’t know.

I said: “Well, I’m going to insist you inspect it, that is not normal.” I went further: “I’m a web designer, I do photography, videography, graphic design, linux administrator, currently studying for the A+ exam…look, grab any other laptop (I pointed to some) with Windows Vista, plug in this monitor I betcha it won’t look the same.”
P.S.–they have a huge “all our service team are A+ certified banner on the back wall!”

Supervisor mutters to woman: “Start the paperwork on this.”

And he walks away.

Woman: “If we find nothing wrong you pay $69.99, okay?”

I said, “No. I’m not going to pay it, because it’s not working right, something’s wrong.”

She goes to get the Supervisor!

He comes over, guess what, like an owl, repeats the same thing! Should I type it again? Sure. Here you go:

Supervisor: “Sir, if we find nothing wrong you have to pay $69.99 still for us inspecting it.”

I said, “Well, if it comes to that, I will dispute that, because something is very wrong with it.”

So, other guy comes up, name is Julis, and he was cool, one of the technicians. We actually chatted a bit, I wrote out the issues on paper, I made a backup before I left of course. Whew.

I ask, “So will you guys take a look, I have to meet with a client, and you call me later, or I call, how does this work?”

Julis: “No, we won’t look at until 3-5 days from now.”

SHOCK. I said nothing, instead of being a belligerent customer, I turned the other cheek.

Me: “Okay, so then it’ll be fixed?”

Julis: “No, once we determine what’s wrong, then we fix it, the 3-5 is when we assess what’s going on.”

Me: “Okay, so what if it is the video card?”

Supervisor walks back over.

Supervisor: “Then because it’s the motherboard, we most likely would have to order one from the manufacture, ship it, install it, test it. For that is six to eight weeks.”

UPDATE, I called today, I talked to the same supervisor, to find out, it’s been 5-6 days now since I left it there. He said they shipped it off to repair it, found multiple things wrong with it.

So, does that make me want to ever have something serviced there again? No. SIX TO EIGHT WEEKS!!!! MAY AS WELL BE ETERNITY!

Yeah, I’m an angry consumer now. I’ll never look at Fry’s the same (and neither should you). I’ve bought tens of thousands of dollars in hardware, software, movies, gadgets, trinkets over a decade from them, this is just awful.

I remember some years ago, Best Buy, if you had a computer under warranty and it was toast or it would take this long to repair, they’d swap you for the current market equivalent (following an inspection, etc.) Frys didn’t even offer such a thing, I would of taken a refurbished version (as an IT friend of mine mentioned). What are the expecting, to tell me it’s broke, my warranty expired, here sir, go spend $2,500 on a new one, the one we sold you is a P.O.S.?

Too much. Now my work product gets out slower, it’s like having a license and I can’t drive my car, thanks guys, thanks Frys. Blah.