Oh blog, how I've missed you? Our beloved Mac died a slow and painful death last week, and as a result we spent a painful 5 days without a computer, the Internet or my blog. Yuck!
All that aside, the process of purchasing a new computer turned out to be very painful. We set out to a popular Canadian retailer, that I will refer to as Fu Shop, to price out our options. When we visited our local location the Sales Associate offered all kinds of discounts and actually was very helpful. We decided to talk it over before making a snap decision.
The next day we ended up in an Fu Shop in another city. The Sales Associate at this location again was able to offer us some discounts, but told us that the Associate at the other location had given us some incorrect information and he couldn't offer all the same discounts. However, he was able to put together a reasonably priced Mac at a lower price than the other guy. Of course the whole thing hinged on us buying the Fu Shop extended warranty which we didn't want. Our preference was to buy Apple Care, but again the sales guy told us that we couldn't buy Apple Care with an Educational Discount for teachers because the discount wasn't offered by Apple on their warranties as we had been told by the other Sales Associate. So since we wouldn't be saving any money by purchasing Apple Care (even though it was our first choice) we opted for the in-house warranty and discounted computer. What a mistake!
When we got home I looked up Apple Care and it WAS offered with an Educational Discount. I did a little more research on Fu Shop's website and discovered we were given other false pricing info by the second Sales Associate. So, JD trouped out to our local store to get things sorted out and was given a song and dance about the price of the computer going up if we returned the Fu Shop warranty. I went back again to our local store and received some more garbled information, but also discovered that the Customer Service Rep that JD spoke to the day before is in a relationship with the guy who sold us the computer in the other store. At this point I was convinced that we were being misled in both locations and so today I went back to the store we purchased from with the intent of returning everything just because I was ticked about all the misinformation we were given.
The Customer Service Rep at the store was VERY helpful. Finally, having met an honest Fu Shop employee I was able to return the more expensive warranty that we didn't want and keep the discount on the computer. All of this not because she was sympathetic to my annoyance, but because she was honest. She unwittingly confirmed a number of the lies that the Sales Associate told us. Thank you!
I like to think that I'm not naive when making large purchases. I worked in retail for over ten years and had a career in professional sales. I've worked for commission and been required to use both soft and hard sell techniques. I know that the goal is to up-sell as much as is possible at the lowest cost to the company as is possible. All that said, I was never trained or instructed to mislead a customer or provide false information, especially information they could research on their own! I don't know what Fu Shop expects of their employees or how they train them on the selling process, but I do know that whether this employee acted on training or of his own accord is irrelevant. I will never step foot in an Fu Shop again and I'll be sure to warn my friends and family. Dealing directly with Apple is the only way to go! I'm giving Fu Shop two fingers up, and they aren't my thumbs!
The good news we love our new MacBook as much as our old Mac!
No comments:
Post a Comment