I was looking for a new notebook and went to Circuit City and decided on a Toshiba Qosimo. It was the best notebook they had available and the sales guy was nice and helpful. I took it to work and began checking it out. I carefully unpacked it (I always do).
I set it up and plugged it in and began getting a feel for it something you really can't do in a store. It performed well, the nvdia graphics were good, the design was really nice but then I began to discover things I did not like.
The raid configuration was such that I'd have had to reinstall the whole unit to configure it for Raid 0 which I thought should've been default. Who buys a performance unit and wants two drives sitting separately with no striping in a raid array?
I suppose one could ask who would go to Circuit City to buy a performance unit of any kind and I can only say in response that ocassionally I am a wishful shopper. When I realized I was going to have to reinstall everything and it was Windows XP media edition when I really wanted XP Professional. I also had a screen saver crash which I thought was not good given it was only a couple hours old with nothing else running. The fingerpad also had an annoying dual mode which was too easy to switch from mouse to shortcuts in miduse. The simple fact was the more I used it the more I didn't want it.
I then carefully repacked the unit. I had not opened any of the accessories and had not activated windows and aside from two stickers on the front of the bag holding the laptop one would've been hardpressed to know it had even been opened. I then after work went to the store and began the process of returning it.
That was when I was first told of the the restocking fee on opened laptops. I couldn't believe it, I could've understood a flat fee for the cost of shipping back to the manufacturer or the cost of repackaging but for a total of 433.12 once they add $20.63 in sales tax you for something you technically didn't buy. I've never encountered this at at any other retailer but I hear this is becoming the norm. I'll certainly stick to the net in the future.
I just think this is a ripoff. I've read plenty of apologetics from the corporate justifiers but the crux is simple. I purchased an expensive item, I returned the item essentially in mint condition 4 hours later, I was not informed at anytime during the sales process that a 15% restocking fee would apply, the receipt didn't even list the restocking fee but instead referred to a website, I ended up with a gratuitous expense which I was also taxed for and received nothing of value for it.
I think the idea of percentage based restocking fees is essentially unethical. What happens if you buy a 5,000 flat screen tv and its screwy and they don't have another one in stock? Don't get me wrong, but I get better service at Walmart.
I don't disagree with restocking fees based upon flat costs to restock an item but a percentage based fee is clearly a way to take a sizable profit at the expense of the customer who receives nothing in return. I fully understand that a small percentage of customers take advantage of stores but this is just crazy from a CRM perspective. There are better ways to identify problem customers and deal with them and recoup costs.
The one thing CircuitCity is not going to recoup is my electronics budget though I'm sure they don't care. If they'd have dealt with this in a simple reasonable fashion I'd have had nothing bad to say about the company but now I feel like I got mugged and I intend to give them the $433.12 worth of bad publicity they deserve.
(Does anyone else get the feeling when they talk to the store managers that they'd make great IRS auditors?)
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