Friday, August 03, 2007

CC beats BB

... any day of the week and twice on Sundays!

My disillusionment with the famed electronics super store Bogus Buy began several years ago. I purchased the Family Guy 3 ("Victory shall be mine!") DVD for myself, and then received it as a gift shortly thereafter. Naive American Shopper I was, I thought, "no problem. The copy I bought is still in the plastic wrap. I have the receipt. I can return it."

Yea, right.
Bogus Buy would not take the damn thing back. ... Despite my best attempts at reason; despite my prettiest smile; despite having my original sale's receipt in my hot little hand; despite still being shrink-wrapped in that Kevlar-spiderweb-forcefield creation.

The betrayal didn't even end there! Blake had difficulty exchanging a faulty camcorder. My colleague was given the run-around when she tried to take back a TV that didn't work right out of the box. The list goes on.
(OK, it really doesn't - that's pretty much all the instances of which I am aware. But they're all big deals, man!)

When it came time for me to replace my cell phone, I was decidedly against patronizing Bogus Buy. So I did a fancy little web search and, whaddaya know, was able to buy the phone online for in store pickup at Cycle Center, and save $15 to boot!

But ... the story does not end there.

The phone didn't quite perform to my high standards. I know I can be picky, and I'm sure these things wouldn't bother some people, but I noted a few minor dysfunctions. A short list: the R/4 key on the inner keyboard didn't work; the connection cut out in the middle of conversations, even when the signal strength was high; only one of the two screens displayed data; the camera didn't actually take a picture, but shot me an error message instead. Admittedly, these are small things, but they are important to me.

So I trotted back to Cycle Center and .... (here's the kicker ...)
was able to ... (are you sitting down? ...)
walk out of the store with a phone that worked to my satisfaction!

I *heart* Circui-- I mean, Cycle Center!

2 comments:

monica said...

Yay Cycle Center! And glad to hear you got a new phone too.

Anonymous said...

My phone took a walk in the ocean today. I wonder if I'll repeat your experience or rely on Sprint to provide a decent replacement. Replacing phones always stinks.