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Quick backstory: We purchased a refurbished Dell laptop from Staples online a few months ago. One of the reasons we did so was because it was listed with a 3-year warranty. For the price (around $300) this was a great deal because you're usually paying $150 - $250 extra for a 3-year warranty. These days you're lucky if you even get a 1-year warranty as some sellers have been cutting it down to 90 days because they know their hardware is going to fail that quickly.
Anyway
2 months ago we're trying to show the laptop to a customer and the battery won't charge. Embarrassing. They ended up buying something else, but it still doesn't look good for us when we're trying to demo a computer and something isn't working.
Call Staples. Explain the issue. Get sent to Dell.
Dell can't help because it's out of warranty.
Oh noes, I say. It's a 3-year warranty.
That's through Staples, they say. I call Staples again.
Get a very condescending agent who is talking to me like I'm a 5 year old, explaining that most laptops only have 1 year warranty.
I know this, I say. I own a computer store and I know how warranties work, and I know that the laptop we got from you guys has a 3-year.
Get referred to Dell again.
Now I'm fuming. Call Staples back. Somehow in the conversation it comes up that this was a refurbished laptop. AHA! Now we're getting somewhere. If it was a refurb you need to contact the refurbisher.
Get the refurbisher's contact info - still wondering why 2 other Staples agents didn't think to ask me this. Perhaps I am in the wrong for not mentioning it's a refurb but perhaps I am a silly person for thinking someone know how to do their job.
Refurbisher sends a UPS tag to swap out the battery for a new one. Score.
Ask the refurbisher what the actual warranuty on this unit is. It's a 1-year.
By some miracle I had the forethought to print out the original listing for the laptop in April and I had it tucked away in my desk. Check the printout. Yep - clear as crystal. It was listed on their web site with a 3-year warranty. Someone screwed up when they typed up the listing.
Pull up Staples site and look up the order so I have the info in front of me when I call Staples to complain.
Well that's odd. It no longer says 3-year warranty under the listing.
Compare my printout with what's on the screen.
They changed it. They EDITED the listing.
GODDAM MOTHER%!@*^#$%!@$%$!*%^$*
Staples screwed up and they're backtracking. NOT ON MY WATCH, BRO! I BACKTRACED YOU AND CONSEQUENCES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!
Me and the biz partner finally decide we've had enough of this crap and want to return the thing for a refund.
Call Staples and (exhaustively) explain the entire situation. THEY screwed up in the online listing but I have a printout proving it. Whatever yutz I talk to offers a partial refund of something like $20.
Yeah, you can take that $20 and pound it up your ass.
Start emailing and calling Staples. Email a few of their executives. Call them and leave messages. A month later, no one has bothered to respond.
Remember the title of this epic adventure where I mention the BBB? Biz partner suggests we try them. I give a thorough description of the Staples Dell Laptop massacree with Full orchestration and five-part harmony and stuff like that, and other Phenomenon.
Two days later a nice fellow from Staples calls to apologize for the confusion and they'll make an exception and let us return the laptop for a full refund. They send a UPS call tag and as soon as they get the laptop they'll cut us a check for the original amount.
You may be asking yourself, constant reader, did justice prevail? Did the gods of Staples look down upon this downtrodden soul and bless us with our three hundred bucks - probably 1% of what their CEO makes in a week. Did the Justice League finally beat some sense into the Legion of Doom and give Lex Luthor an atomic wedgie?
I hold in my hand a check from Staples for the full amount of said laptop.
I feel like a Dungeons and Dragons character who was allowed to return a cursed magic item.
So after numerous phone calls and emails, all it took was complaining to theBetter Badger Bureau Better Business Bureau.
I can't help but wonder if I didn't have the printout from our original purchase if they would have done anything. But that possibility exists in an alternate timeline where the Towers still stand and Paris Hilton was eaten by wolves.
Thus endeth the tale of the lowly computer tech facing the big scary giant named Staples. And stabbing it in the dick.
Anyway
2 months ago we're trying to show the laptop to a customer and the battery won't charge. Embarrassing. They ended up buying something else, but it still doesn't look good for us when we're trying to demo a computer and something isn't working.
Call Staples. Explain the issue. Get sent to Dell.
Dell can't help because it's out of warranty.
Oh noes, I say. It's a 3-year warranty.
That's through Staples, they say. I call Staples again.
Get a very condescending agent who is talking to me like I'm a 5 year old, explaining that most laptops only have 1 year warranty.
I know this, I say. I own a computer store and I know how warranties work, and I know that the laptop we got from you guys has a 3-year.
Get referred to Dell again.
Now I'm fuming. Call Staples back. Somehow in the conversation it comes up that this was a refurbished laptop. AHA! Now we're getting somewhere. If it was a refurb you need to contact the refurbisher.
Get the refurbisher's contact info - still wondering why 2 other Staples agents didn't think to ask me this. Perhaps I am in the wrong for not mentioning it's a refurb but perhaps I am a silly person for thinking someone know how to do their job.
Refurbisher sends a UPS tag to swap out the battery for a new one. Score.
Ask the refurbisher what the actual warranuty on this unit is. It's a 1-year.
By some miracle I had the forethought to print out the original listing for the laptop in April and I had it tucked away in my desk. Check the printout. Yep - clear as crystal. It was listed on their web site with a 3-year warranty. Someone screwed up when they typed up the listing.
Pull up Staples site and look up the order so I have the info in front of me when I call Staples to complain.
Well that's odd. It no longer says 3-year warranty under the listing.
Compare my printout with what's on the screen.
They changed it. They EDITED the listing.
GODDAM MOTHER%!@*^#$%!@$%$!*%^$*
Staples screwed up and they're backtracking. NOT ON MY WATCH, BRO! I BACKTRACED YOU AND CONSEQUENCES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!
Me and the biz partner finally decide we've had enough of this crap and want to return the thing for a refund.
Call Staples and (exhaustively) explain the entire situation. THEY screwed up in the online listing but I have a printout proving it. Whatever yutz I talk to offers a partial refund of something like $20.
Yeah, you can take that $20 and pound it up your ass.
Start emailing and calling Staples. Email a few of their executives. Call them and leave messages. A month later, no one has bothered to respond.
Remember the title of this epic adventure where I mention the BBB? Biz partner suggests we try them. I give a thorough description of the Staples Dell Laptop massacree with Full orchestration and five-part harmony and stuff like that, and other Phenomenon.
Two days later a nice fellow from Staples calls to apologize for the confusion and they'll make an exception and let us return the laptop for a full refund. They send a UPS call tag and as soon as they get the laptop they'll cut us a check for the original amount.
You may be asking yourself, constant reader, did justice prevail? Did the gods of Staples look down upon this downtrodden soul and bless us with our three hundred bucks - probably 1% of what their CEO makes in a week. Did the Justice League finally beat some sense into the Legion of Doom and give Lex Luthor an atomic wedgie?
I hold in my hand a check from Staples for the full amount of said laptop.
I feel like a Dungeons and Dragons character who was allowed to return a cursed magic item.
So after numerous phone calls and emails, all it took was complaining to the
I can't help but wonder if I didn't have the printout from our original purchase if they would have done anything. But that possibility exists in an alternate timeline where the Towers still stand and Paris Hilton was eaten by wolves.
Thus endeth the tale of the lowly computer tech facing the big scary giant named Staples. And stabbing it in the dick.
I AM the evil bastard!
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