People keep shopping at Fry's because they don't know any better. After my experience, I found there were several retailers, online and brick-and-mortar, that carried the same products, for much less money, and with much better service. If I'm willing to wait a couple of days, I've found phenomenal deals online. So by that manager being extremely rude and threatening me, they did themselves a great disservice. I'm an engineer and have spent probably 10k in the last two years since this happened that could've been theirs. And then there's the ~20k my father-in-law spent elsewhere. He was a Fry's die-hard, but after hearing from his daughter how rude the mgr was to her, he's listened to me and also worked himself to find alternate channels for his purchases. Finally, being intelligent, somewhat charismatic, and running within circles of people who are potential Fry's shoppers, they lost a valuable Brand Advocate. What's amazing is...they don't care, about who they hurt, or the money they lose.
Fry's is awful. There are plenty of places to go that actually offer better prices than they do and better service. You may have to go to 2 stores instead of just one, but I know I could go to a combination of MicroCenter, Circuit City, CompUsa, RadioShack, Best Buy, etc. and build a computer with more power for less money and have a more enjoyable experience than shopping at Fry's. MicroCenter's book selection rocks. And RadioShack has a lot of what I need for building robots. CompUsa/Circuit City have much better deals on hard drives. And I can beat them all by shopping online if I'm willing to wait. Fry's might have been great at one time, but they're not anymore,and it's because my experience is not unique.
Actually, I bought a computer for my wife from Fry's in Fremont, but then she got one from her Dad for her bday. So we called and they said we could return the computer to the Fry's in Menlo Park. After waiting for a long time, we were given a refund for all but 6$. They said that this was due to the fact the tax in Fremont and Menlo Park is different. I questioned this, as it doesn't make sense. I can buy a shirt at Gap in CA and return it to Gap in UT and get the same refund. Anyway, the manager there, was very rude to my wife and I. My wife was shaken up, so I took her to the car, then came back and went to go talk to the Manager again. He blew up and threatened me the moment he saw me; he kept asking if I wanted to fight. It was like somebody in Jr. High, he did the whole head bob thing and kept saying: wanna fight? wanna fight? I said no,(and he said "sure you do!") and left discouraged while he egged me on. I was unable to beleive what I just endured. He then followed me out of the store and said his name and said not to forget it; which just added to my disbeleif. The manager followed me out of the store and called me out in the parking lot? Anyway, I discovered tigerdirect.com and microcenter and all sorts of other online shops and haven't shopped at a Fry's in 2 years. I suggest the same to everyone else. Oh, the manager's name was Joel Byers; he's the fighter from the Menlo Park Fry's. ("Joel Byers, don't forget the name" he said out front) I wrote a complaint (the first time I ever did to anyone) to Fry's corporate and never received a reply. That's just how they are.
Stephane has been a very vocal opponent of ooxml. As someone just trying to do something useful with it, I see him banging the anti-ooxml drum loudly in the comments sections of most ooxml sites. His input is never that helpful, and I beleive his intent is to basically interfere with anyone trying to do anything creative and useful with the format. From what I understand, he works for a commercial company with a vested interest in maintaining the legacy excel formats. Also, when challenged on his technical critiques, his level of discourse often degrades into taking things a bit personally. Thanks to Miguel for breakin down the flaws of his arguments. I myself don't care for MS, but I find ooxml and what they've done with office2007 intriguing and supercool to work with. But I also think xquery is the future and sql's the new cobol, so go figure.
It's great to see interest in computers that young. Good for her. And Good Job! to MS for letting her take the test and letting her earn the certificate. I actually was a "Level II" Authorized Apple Service Technician at the age of 12. (1982 people) I was from a small town in Arizona and people were nice to me, and many treated it as novelty, as if maybe I didn't know how to take apart their IIc, IIe, Mac, Lisa, etc.
and repair it(Yes, Mac/Lisa came out later, but once certified you received offers to take trainings locally to be updated on the latest hardware. I went to Phoenix and saw the Mac/Lisa and upped the certification before those boxes hit retail.) But I came to Cupertino for a week just like everyone else. I had to troubleshoot the machines, take 'em apart and put them back together just like everyone else. I burnt my fingers on the sodering iron just like everyone else. Bent the pins on the rom the first time I inserted just like everyone else. There were a lot of naysayers, but I had a lot of fun doin that stuff and there were a few who supported me. I worked at the local shop repairing Apples and Osbournes all through jr. high. If I would've met Steve Wozniak at that age I would've wrote him a poem or something just as crazy too. But the support I did receive, and the fact Apple let me earn and take the test fired me up, and now I have a CS degree and work in Silicon Valley living the dream! Word!! If that's what she wants, I hope she gets it!
Besides the name, did you see how long it took to put up one panel? These are great toys, but I can't wait til that thing can throw a wallboard up and nail it down on it's own without all the human intervention. The video of HeRPe getting up off the ground was pretty impressive; I just can't think of much of a market for a robot that can get up off the ground and not much else..... "Want to watch my robot HeRPe get up off the ground again? Go ahead, knock him over..."
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People keep shopping at Fry's because they don't know any better. After my experience, I found there were several retailers, online and brick-and-mortar, that carried the same products, for much less money, and with much better service. If I'm willing to wait a couple of days, I've found phenomenal deals online. So by that manager being extremely rude and threatening me, they did themselves a great disservice. I'm an engineer and have spent probably 10k in the last two years since this happened that could've been theirs. And then there's the ~20k my father-in-law spent elsewhere. He was a Fry's die-hard, but after hearing from his daughter how rude the mgr was to her, he's listened to me and also worked himself to find alternate channels for his purchases. Finally, being intelligent, somewhat charismatic, and running within circles of people who are potential Fry's shoppers, they lost a valuable Brand Advocate. What's amazing is...they don't care, about who they hurt, or the money they lose.
Fry's is awful. There are plenty of places to go that actually offer better prices than they do and better service. You may have to go to 2 stores instead of just one, but I know I could go to a combination of MicroCenter, Circuit City, CompUsa, RadioShack, Best Buy, etc. and build a computer with more power for less money and have a more enjoyable experience than shopping at Fry's. MicroCenter's book selection rocks. And RadioShack has a lot of what I need for building robots. CompUsa/Circuit City have much better deals on hard drives. And I can beat them all by shopping online if I'm willing to wait. Fry's might have been great at one time, but they're not anymore,and it's because my experience is not unique.
Actually, I bought a computer for my wife from Fry's in Fremont, but then she got one from her Dad for her bday. So we called and they said we could return the computer to the Fry's in Menlo Park. After waiting for a long time, we were given a refund for all but 6$. They said that this was due to the fact the tax in Fremont and Menlo Park is different. I questioned this, as it doesn't make sense. I can buy a shirt at Gap in CA and return it to Gap in UT and get the same refund. Anyway, the manager there, was very rude to my wife and I. My wife was shaken up, so I took her to the car, then came back and went to go talk to the Manager again. He blew up and threatened me the moment he saw me; he kept asking if I wanted to fight. It was like somebody in Jr. High, he did the whole head bob thing and kept saying: wanna fight? wanna fight? I said no,(and he said "sure you do!") and left discouraged while he egged me on. I was unable to beleive what I just endured. He then followed me out of the store and said his name and said not to forget it; which just added to my disbeleif. The manager followed me out of the store and called me out in the parking lot? Anyway, I discovered tigerdirect.com and microcenter and all sorts of other online shops and haven't shopped at a Fry's in 2 years. I suggest the same to everyone else. Oh, the manager's name was Joel Byers; he's the fighter from the Menlo Park Fry's. ("Joel Byers, don't forget the name" he said out front) I wrote a complaint (the first time I ever did to anyone) to Fry's corporate and never received a reply. That's just how they are.
Stephane has been a very vocal opponent of ooxml. As someone just trying to do something useful with it, I see him banging the anti-ooxml drum loudly in the comments sections of most ooxml sites. His input is never that helpful, and I beleive his intent is to basically interfere with anyone trying to do anything creative and useful with the format. From what I understand, he works for a commercial company with a vested interest in maintaining the legacy excel formats. Also, when challenged on his technical critiques, his level of discourse often degrades into taking things a bit personally. Thanks to Miguel for breakin down the flaws of his arguments. I myself don't care for MS, but I find ooxml and what they've done with office2007 intriguing and supercool to work with. But I also think xquery is the future and sql's the new cobol, so go figure.
It's great to see interest in computers that young. Good for her. And Good Job! to MS for letting her take the test and letting her earn the certificate. I actually was a "Level II" Authorized Apple Service Technician at the age of 12. (1982 people) I was from a small town in Arizona and people were nice to me, and many treated it as novelty, as if maybe I didn't know how to take apart their IIc, IIe, Mac, Lisa, etc. and repair it(Yes, Mac/Lisa came out later, but once certified you received offers to take trainings locally to be updated on the latest hardware. I went to Phoenix and saw the Mac/Lisa and upped the certification before those boxes hit retail.) But I came to Cupertino for a week just like everyone else. I had to troubleshoot the machines, take 'em apart and put them back together just like everyone else. I burnt my fingers on the sodering iron just like everyone else. Bent the pins on the rom the first time I inserted just like everyone else. There were a lot of naysayers, but I had a lot of fun doin that stuff and there were a few who supported me. I worked at the local shop repairing Apples and Osbournes all through jr. high. If I would've met Steve Wozniak at that age I would've wrote him a poem or something just as crazy too. But the support I did receive, and the fact Apple let me earn and take the test fired me up, and now I have a CS degree and work in Silicon Valley living the dream! Word!! If that's what she wants, I hope she gets it!
Besides the name, did you see how long it took to put up one panel? These are great toys, but I can't wait til that thing can throw a wallboard up and nail it down on it's own without all the human intervention. The video of HeRPe getting up off the ground was pretty impressive; I just can't think of much of a market for a robot that can get up off the ground and not much else..... "Want to watch my robot HeRPe get up off the ground again? Go ahead, knock him over..."