Fry's Electronics Repair Service Plano Texas

This letter concerns the Service Department at Fry's Plano, TX store.

On Sunday, June 22, 2008 I inserted an MS Pro Duo picture card into my laptop's card reader without the adapter. It was so small that it fell inside. Since I did not want to destroy my reader nor picture card, I took it to the Plano store. The technician said it would take about 30 minutes to take apart my case to remove the card. He said there was a 3-day backlog, so it would ready on Wednesday, June 25th (SRO# 844931). I said Ok and paid the Service fee. He said he would call me when he finished extracting the card.

At 8:15 P.M. on Wednesday, I called the store (since no one had called me) and the man I spoke to said that it was still in process. At 12:00 P.M. on Thursday, June 26th I called the store and was told that my PC had been ready for pick up since 7:42 P.M. the night before! Since I had called 33 minutes later than that, I found that to be rather irritating. I went back to the store and picked up my laptop.

On Saturday, June 28th I tried to use my DVD player and discovered that not only would the access door not open, but also Windows did not recognize that the drive existed. The DVD drive was not seated properly in the laptop. It had been forced in (normally it just fits with ZERO pressure), and the screw holding it was put in at such an angle that it was crossed threaded. Yet, the drive still was extending 1/8th of an inch out of the case. The optical reader's pins were so mangled that it was no longer usable. I took the laptop back to Fry's. A different tech helped me and said it was not necessary to remove the DVD drive to extract the card. He did not understand why the original tech had done so. He took it back for rework and said I would be given priority service.

At 8:30 P.M. Fry's called and said that it was fixed and ready for pick up. I went back to the store, and when we turned the system on, it did not recognize the DVD drive. When I asked the tech what happened to the reader, he said that he could not get it apart and in the process of extracting the card he damaged the pins. The technician told me that he put an oversized screw in the laptop since the original screw was stripped. He then adjusted something and snapped the drive back in the laptop (originally it just fit). The drive now showed in My Computer. When I took it home, I turned the system on, but Windows failed to recognize the drive. It still was still not seated properly in the backplane.

On Sunday, June 29th I took it back to the store again. Another tech checked it in again, but this time under SRO # 847948. He must have copied a different customer's information, as my name was correct, but it said I lived in Illinois (different address & phone #).

On Monday, June 30th I called the store. The person I spoke to corrected my information and said no one had looked at it, but a Manager would call me within 24-48 hrs to let me know the status. On Wednesday, July 2nd I called the store and the girl I spoke to said there was some damage to my machine. I said I know because Fry's caused the damage! She asked me if I would I like to be transferred to a Manager? I said yes. I left a message for the Manager to call me back.

On Thursday, July 3rd at 11:30 A.M. I called again. The tech that answered the phone said the lead tech was discussing my situation with the Store Manager, and that someone will call me back. At 4:00 P.M. I still had not received a call back, so I called again and asked to speak to the Store Manager. I was told that he was not available. Then I was connected with someone who took down my information and said he would get back to me. At 7:00 P.M. I called again and was told someone would contact me the next morning.

On Friday July 4th, I called at noon. After 37 minutes on hold, I was disconnected. I called back and was told that made a decision not to fix my PC. This is after they have had it for 5 additional days. The tech who caused the damage is trying to cover up his incompetence and told his Manager that the unit had the damage when he received it. He has already admitted doing the damage.

I still have not received a call from anyone at Fry's except for the 2nd pick up!

In Summary, I have since had to buy an external USB card reader at my expense because my internal one was damaged beyond repair by a Fry's technician. If I wanted to damage the card reader, I could have extracted the card my self without damaging the DVD drive. I paid Fry's to extract the card, because the tech said he could take the reader apart to remove the card. Now, not only is my card reader ruined, my DVD drive does not work, and so far I have made FOUR round trips to the store with at least one more to go, (at today's gas prices!) and have not had my laptop for over 12 days for a 30 minute fix!

James
Plano, Texas
U.S.A.

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