PC Richard Sucks Repairing Stuff

This is completely off-topic, but I feel this might be of general interest, especially for those who reside in the New York tri-state area. Just a warning: be careful when buying extended guarantees for electronics bought from PC Richards, sending them for repairs can be very dissapointing.

To make it a short story, a little more than a year ago, I bought a Vaio laptop from PC Richards, the store in Union Square, and everything was fine until earlier this year, when the computer started to have trouble turning on, and eventually wouldn't turn on at all. By the time I already had a second laptop, and my wife was using the troubled one. So, we kinda took our time before taking it back to the store, making use of the extended 2 year guarantee I bought with the computer. The store took the computer and told me that it should be ready in two weeks, and if I didn't hear from them by then I should give them a call. Fair enough. This was just before our trip to Puerto Rico, so we were not in a rush.

About a month later, a Tuesday, I was visiting a client in the Union Square area, and decided to see what happened with the computer, so I went to the store. Once there, they told me that they couldn't find anything about the status of the laptop, and that I should call the repair center directly... fine, but something wasn't quite right. That week we were very busy, and I didn't remember about the laptop until next Tuesday. When I called the repair center they me that they computer just arrived last Thursday (wtf?!) and that the technicians were just about to review it. In other words, the store didn't send the laptop for repairing until after I visited them, and that's why they were so weird that day. I called the store manager immediately, and after wrestling with his cynicism, he finally told me that they are not responsible for "human errors". So, if your company isn't responsible for deceiving your customers, who the hell is?

But it doesn't end here. Two days later they called to tell me that the problem with the computer was that it had "multiple viruses" and they needed to "reset the RAM", and that they do not cover that, but as a "courtesy" they were going to repair de computer anyway. In other words, to cover for their complete lack of responsibility, they were blaming me for the damage, in the most stupid way possible. I laughted at their ignorance, and decided not to go any further, I will just wait for my repaired equipment and cancel my account as soon as possible.

Next week they called me from the store to tell me that my laptop was ready for pick up. So, we went and picked it up. But we weren't prepared for what we saw, already home, when unwrapping the laptop: it has scratches everywhere! In the fourteen months we had it, we kept it in an almost prestine shape; we travelled to Peru and Sydney with it, I carried with me through airports, city tours, zoos and aquariums, and nothing happened to it. Now, you send your stuff for repairs and they give it back working, but with scratches and stains. Yes, in addition to the scratches, there was a stain on the cover, which I only hope was coffee.

We are still waiting for a call from the manager of the repairs center, we called to complaint but they have not returned our calls yet. But there's no way they are going to give me a new laptop, and there's no way I'm gonna buy anything else from them, ever. Be advised.