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January, 2002 Diablo Blue Page 9 |
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exercise your wrists to eliminate carpal tunnel. Like all good techie devices, it has a built in gauge to measure how many rpms you achieve. For our raffle, we will pull 3 tickets and whoever gets the highest rpms in one minute walks away with XP. We all need a little excitement! At our Board meeting we hit over 9000 rpms… In February I hope to have a friend of mine with the FBI come and speak on computer security and other interesting “G-Man” stuff. Right now, the meeting is classified and on a need to know basis. As soon as I know, I’ll let you know. Our meeting schedule beyond February is presently a blur, but I hope some of the people I met at Comdex will be able to join us. As always, we welcome your input for speaker suggestions! Hope you have a happy, healthy and safe holiday, and 2002 brings a better start to the new millennium. |
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ware is not like a jacket you can try on…there is no way to know in advance if the software will adequately cover your needs or is buggy by just reading the side panel of the box. Fortunately, if the software is unopened and sealed, most retailers will gladly accept the return with a sales receipt within a specified period of time. When it comes to hardware and electronics it’s more of a black and white world of delineated guidelines. With the exception of the increasingly popular 15% or higher open box or “restocking” fees, your rights are reasonably negotiable for exchange, refund, or credit within a 30-day period and with a sales receipt. Be aware of unreasonable restocking fees that can come back to bite you. Can you imagine paying a 15% restocking charge on a $2000 computer you decided you didn’t like 5 days later because the keyboard was not right for you? Well, if you purchased that computer at CompUSA you would have just flushed $300 down the toilet—that is an expensive “oops.” One last caveat—with the exception of the week after Christmas all major retailers will require an original receipt and valid ID for returns or adjustments. That said, here are four large national chain’s return policies ranked from best to worst. As return policies are subject to change and modification without prior notice, these are the store policies in writing as of November 2001. 1. BestBuy: This retailer is in the number one spot for several reasons. Aside from having great prices, they also claim the least restrictive return policy of merchants in this group. BestBuy usually is first to have new product releases on its shelves. Although they sometimes charge a 15% restocking fee (unless defective), it’s only applicable to notebook computers, camcorders, and digital cameras. 2. Circuit City: Circuit City’s 15% restocking fee expands to all computers, monitors, and printers. Now here is their grey area: “and related merchandise.” This statement is open to interpretation, but generally I have found grieving my case in a diplomatic manner to the store manager can be fruitful. Circuit City prices can be less competitive on some items so keep an eye on their circular advertisements to get the best deals. 3. CompUSA: This retailer plays hardball on any return. They are not quite as nasty as Media |
