Why I buy online
I want to buy a laptop hard drive for a project. I could easily order the one I want from Newegg for about $75, but I thought it’d be nice to get one sooner, so I called around to see what was available in the area.
First I called CompUSA (which admittedly is going out of business) hoping I could score a good deal, but I never got through to anyone. The phone just rang and rang and rang. I tried twice.
Then I called Circuit City (which is only a few blocks away) and waded through their phone menu system, eventually narrowing down to the fact that I wanted “product availability and pricing” for “computer” “hardware”. I somehow ended up being redirected to a general customer service person with apparently no knowledge of whether they carried internal laptop hard drives or not.
So he attempted to transfer me to their computer department 3 times, and by the third time finally said, “Hold on, let me just walk over and ask someone.” Yeah, why don’t you, I thought.
Then he came back on the line and asked, “Do you mean, memory?”
“No, I mean an internal laptop hard drive.” At this point I didn’t dare specify that I wanted a 7200RPM IDE drive. I heard muffled talking in the background.
“Umm, yeah, he said we do.”
“Well can I get any information about what types—”
“He said they start at $100 and go up depending on the quality [sic] of the drive—”
“Ok, thanks.”
Finally I called Best Buy, and surprisingly the phone just rang and rang and rang. For over 4 minutes. No one answered.
Why oh why isn’t there a Fry’s in San Francisco? They’d make a KILLING.
I might just scoot down to CompUSA and pick through whatever’s left on racks. Verdict: no luck. Only SATA laptop drives. :(
Semi-related story about Circuit City.
UNFORTUNATELY, none of the above had a Wii the day we needed it, but Walmart did. So we got it there and bought games and peripherals from Fry’s. i am disappointed in our technology retailers.
Andre, ha, yeah, I remember reading that, and was definitely thinking about that while I sat on hold.
Too bad PM went to war with us. Anyway, what is the dedication to going and getting a hard drive from a brick and mortar joint. Can’t you just look for a good deal on the ‘innernet’ like the rest of civilized society. Although you get one gold star for utilizing telephone technology.
I prefer to pick a specific model and find the place that is going to give it to me new at the lowest price. That way you are more or less guaranteed the quality/specs of the manufacturer and model; therefore you get what you want. It is just retarded to pay more to get what you want when you just don’t have to.
Brad, my “dedication” (as I thought I explained) was simply a desire to have the drive now, rather than a few days from now. I thought that would be worth paying a few extra bucks for. But unfortunately, even in San Francisco, there doesn’t appear to be much of a market for a wide variety of internal laptop hard drives.
Nice one, after not steping into a Best Buy for 2 years I decided check some of the stuff inside 5 minutes later I was on my way home things are not the same after you meet newegg. Frys is the only store that still seems amazing to me.
Thats the opininon of a 18yr living in Phoenix,AZ by the way it sucks that you dont have a Frys electronics in San Francisco I have 2.