This is a long story and getting longer as the police are trying to help us, but I'll try to be brief.
In March, Mindy Ammon, a mentally challenged girl and close friend of mine, opened a "layaway" account with Gemstone computers because she wanted to get a computer to learn the Internet. She is often home alone during the day and really needs something constructive and helpful to do with her time.
She made several payments on a "150-200 MHz" computer over the course of 15 months before she finally figured she wasn't going to EVER get a computer. She contacted me and I went with her to the store to try and straighten things out. Apparently, she had finally stopped giving them money and the had called threatening to close her account.
We spoke to Greg, who claimed to be the store manager. He tried to tell us that he didn't know anything about any layaway accounts and that they had changed to a new accounting system, hinting that perhaps her account had just been lost. Gemstone had told Mindy to just pay cash when she made her payments (usually $10-15 at a time) and was never issued a receipt. Of course, since she didn't have any receipts, Greg said he couldn't help her. He was unwilling/unable to consult a computer or a ledger or anything to at least determine how much more Mindy "owed" the store.
This gets better. The guy was obviously lying. What kind of store manager wouldn't have some idea of what money was coming in/going out of the store? Please. Anyway, we couldn't really do anything that day, so we went to Mindy's house so I could contact the Middletown Police.
We got in touch with a Detective Bush, who called me and spoke to Mindy before contacting the store. Sure enough, they came up with Mindy's missing "layaway payments" of $106.00. They said Mindy could have her choice of a 133 or a 200 MHz computer for an additional $63 or $98 depending on the speed she wanted. She of course chose the 200 MHz. Mindy was told to bring in her old computer (an antique 486) and an ADDITIONAL $98.00 to get her new tower (she was told to keep her monitor and speakers).
This is where the REAL fun begins. Mindy's new computer was a total piece of junk. It didn't work when we got it hooked up because it had a bad hard drive in it. I took it back to the store and they claimed to have replaced the drive. Mindy went there the next day to pick it up after they booted it up at the store. Remember, Mindy is mentally challenged and would have no way of actually knowing how operational the computer actually was.
1) The computer was NOT a 200 MHz. It was an over-clocked 166 MHz.
2) The processor fan was not connected to it and was laying on the bottom of the computer case. If it HAD worked, the processor would have burned up in no time.
3) The hard drive was NOT replaced.
4) The front panel LEDs weren't hooked up.
5) There was no PC speaker, so no way of hearing the error beeps that the computer would generate in case of boot-up failure
6) After trying to fix the computer and replacing most of the parts (I am a certified computer tech who will be providing Mindy with a real computer), the system continued to fail. The floppy drive went out, the front power LED burnt out, etc., etc.
7) Windows cannot be installed on this computer because it can't detect the hardware installed in it.
In short, there is really no way of fixing this computer short of replacing just about EVERYTHING in it. Mindy deserves no less than a FULL refund and an apology from the store for what they tried to pull. This computer was sold to her with NO intention of it actually working. I believe 100% that they sold this piece of sh*t to her in retaliation for us involving the police.
I wish I could help Mindy more. I have written to several newspapers, the Middletown City Hall, and the Better Business Bureau in hopes that something can be done about this travesty. Please be warned, if you are a Middletown resident, to STAY AWAY FROM GEM/GEMSTONE COMPUTERS!!! Thanx for reading:-)
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