Due to the volume of stories, I have added a second page. Click here to view it.

Here are some other stories from irate (and a few non-irate) customers, former customers, and Fry's employees:

• A Good Experience at the Fremont Fry's (???) (editor)
• Writing a check at Fry's
• General frustration
• Picketing
• Previously opened merchandise and a rip-off
• Sales Tax Rip-off
• Another line from hell experience
• Print Cartridge Rip-off
• A Fry's Employee Responds
• A Fry's Employee makes a pass on a customer
• Check that box before you take it home
• Brain-dead Customers (employee)
• Another Fry's Employee Point of View
• Arrested at Fry's
• Stupid Fry's Policies
• Returns at Fry's (employee)
• Returns at Fry's II (employee)
• Scanner Problems
• One Hour Hard Drive
• Fry's Lover - Hates CompUSA
• Portland Fry's
• Miracle at Fry's - customers treated with respect!
• Another Fry's Employee letter (edited due to content)
• Fry's Alternatives
• Working at Fry's During Summer Break
• Mexican Motherboards?
• Price Hikes
• Line Torture
• No Refunds for "Missing Parts"
• Illegal Security
• Mismarked "CD Writer"
• Posting Policy

After a long delay of avoiding Fry's, I decided to drop back into the new Fremont Fry's Electronics store. From my experience, things have changed dramatically for the better. I went to Fry's to look for a network print server box since printing to my Epson color printer is so slow over the parallel port. I looked everywhere but could not find it. I finally asked a Fry's employee where it was. He looked as well and could not find it. He then went and asked several other employees until someone told us where it was. It was mixed in with the hubs (but with dozens of types of hubs it was hard to spot). I also bought a PCMCIA network adapter for an old laptop I have. The Fry's employees were very curtious and went out of their way to help me. They were very professional.

At the checkout the line was not too bad and I had no problems (of course I used my credit card since checks are a nightmare). Again, the cashier was polite and there were no problems (I was shocked by this point). At the checkout, the cashier noted that the price had dropped on the print server and charged me the lower price (which was not on the box).

I found that the print server worked perfectly and was more than I expected. As for the PCMCIA adapter, I found that my laptop is dying (it's an ancient laptop that is pretty beat-up). Anyway, I decided that a 10/100 network adapter isn't worth it for a 25MHz 80486 laptop that is not working very well.

The next day (7/22/99), I went back to Fry's to return it. I had to wait in line about 15 minutes, but it wasn't the chaos I've experienced in the past and the employees were polite and professional. There were no problems.

They gave me a slip of paper with my receipt and told me to take it to the front counter. I also watched them place a sticker on the opened box before the box was re-shrink wrapped (if they do so). I told them that as far as I know that the adapter is good, but my laptop is not. No questions asked. At the front counter (after an extremely short wait), there were zero problems. The employees were polite. The man next to me asked how to get to the San Jose airport and the cashier helping me gave him some directions (his cashier wasn't sure). The customer then went to write a check. His cashier asked him if he was in a hurry and then proceeded to tell him that writing a check would take a lot longer (which is true) and if he's in a hurry to use his credit card. She was very polite and professional.

All I can say is that I was extremely impressed with what I saw. Hopefully the other stores will follow suit with this.

Now the new Fremont Fry's is impressive to behold. The walls are covered with wood paneling and it is well lit (unlike the old store). It is also huge (also unlike the old store). One enters the store through a huge archway with the return counters (yes, counters) on the right and around 60 checkout counters to the left.

The store is well layed out, with computer components on the right, A/V in the back, and appliances and general purpose gadgets to the left. The center has low shelves of software, DVDs, and videos. There are some cool displays such as a GIANT tesla coil (I havn't seen it running) and a huge Jacob's Ladder (where the spark rises between two wires) which must be at least 12 feet high! There are some other high-voltage related displays in there as well, most of them operating. There's also some nice classical music playing softly over the PA system. All in all, a very enjoyable experience. This is NOT the old Fry's I and my friends have always loathed.

I must also say that I went with my father soon after New Years day where he bought a hub. The checkout line, as one can imagine, was quite long but (surprisingly) moved fairly quickly. An employee even went through the line and handed out candy bars to the people waiting.

-Aaron Williams (editor)

Randy Griffith -
When trying to make a purchase at Fry's, I was told that since this was my first purchase at this particular store that they would have to call my bank to verify my check. After the cashier called my bank and used the automated check approval service, she returned to tell me that my check would not clear. I requested that she try it again which she did with the same results. I became highly alarmed because not only was I thoroughly embarrased, I also supposedly had over $10,000 in my bank account to try to cover a $379.84 purchase. I left the store in a rage and promptly called my bank upon returning home. My check passed through with flying colors after I tested the exact same service the cashier had reported had denied my check amount. I later figuired out that the when the service asked for the nearest dollar amount, she entered in the digits 37984 which would have been over $37,000.00. I called and told a non-reponsive manger my problems and informed them that they lost a customer for life, as well as anyone I could inform of their stupidity.

Manager
Fry's Electronics
6100 Canoga Ave
Woodland Hills, CA 91367

Dear Manager:

On March 9th, my friend and I ventured to your Woodland Hills store (#8) to purchase some equipment for our businesses. I had never been to a Fry's before.

First we were met by a parking lot that was completely full. We spent several minutes in our car waiting for someone to pull out of a spot before we could finally park. There was a line of several cars behind us as we waited. We noticed several people parking illegally, blocking pedestrian walkways, etc. Clearly we were "lucky" to find a spot at all.

Inside the store my friend found the CD-ROM drive that he wanted, so I ventured off to find the modem that I needed to buy. I found the modem I needed and began to walk away with it when a short rude man wearing a name-badge told me to "stay put" as he had to "write me up". I didn't understand why I just couldn't take it to the counter, but I played along.

While this man started asking me questions (and slowing me down considerably) my friend whispered in my ear that his salesman was giving discounts, and that I should have him write up my order. I felt this was a good idea, and I asked the short badged man to give me back my modem, and that I wanted someone else to write it up. He didn't seem to want to cooperate and proceeded to "explain" why HE had to write up this modem. I practically had to rip the thing from his hands. He proceeded to follow me around the store as if I was some sort of criminal -- making me feel very uncomfortable.

With the modem written up (with a $10 discount) I ventured off to find some radios. There were no sales people anywhere around the area, so I began the search myself. Finally, after what seemed like a very long time I ran across a very nice sales person. He was nice, but knew considerably less about the radios than I did. He didn't know about frequencies, range, batteries, chargers, or anything else relevant to the radios. I explained to him the difference between citizen's band, and VHF band. He seems most interested in learning about the equipment he was selling me.

I made my choice and he went off to find "the key" to open the cabinet. After about 10 minutes he returned with the key, and proceeded to search the cabinet for the radios of my choice. I noticed that the radio I wanted was right in front of him, but I watched as he literally dumped the contents of the cabinet out -- not seeing what was directly beneath his nose. I started giggling, and pointed to the radio of my choice. He asked me a variety of personal questions, which I answered in good spirits. He wrote me up and I was off again.

Next my friend and I reached the registers. My friend told me that the registers "in the back" were less crowded, so we walked all the way around and waited in line behind a woman. After a wait, the man behind the counter told us that he was indeed not open -- the woman had been a friend of his. In fact, he told us that none of these registers were open. We had waited in vain. I wish one of them had told me that 10 minutes earlier!

We were forced to walk all the way around and wait in line again. We noticed an employee who was directing customers to the registers. We wondered why he hadn't warned us about the closed registers when we walked past him earlier.

After a twenty-minute wait in line we finally got to a register. We squeezed into the tiny space allotted at the counter, and attempted to make our purchase. To my amazement, the clerk would not allow me to buy my modem and my friend to buy his CD-ROM separately because they were on the same "write up". This policy makes no sense, and the clerk had no clue why the policy existed. He struggled to defend the indefensible.

We spent quite a bit of time trying to work with him to find a solution to our quandary. Finally he suggested that he tear up the "write up", deny the salesman his commission, and invalidate the discount he had given me. We found this whole ordeal to be inexplicable and ridiculous. Seeking a solution -- any solution -- I volunteered to pay for the entire order myself -- my friend would reimburse me later. I didn't want to do this, but it was the only sensible choice available given the bizarre circumstances. I wondered how he, without a receipt, would find a way to explain this deduction to the IRS!

Eager to move things along, I presented my American Express Corporate Card -- the card I make all my business purchases with. The clerk told me that he could not accept that card. At this point I must confess I began to lose my temper.

I make all my company purchases with that card -- that's MY policy.

I was torn between giving up at this point, and just doing whatever it would take to end this nightmare. Finally I gave in, and offered to write a check. I pulled out my personal checkbook. I had left the company checkbook in the office, thinking I could use my AMEX card.

The clerk then told me that the check would take, and this is a quote "about an hour and forty-five minutes to clear". I didn't even ask why at this point. I looked around to see if I could spot any flames as I had begun to wonder if I had fallen into hell.

At this point I was red-in-the-face angry. This was the third time in my entire life that I've felt this level of rage. I slapped down my personal Visa card (not even knowing if it had enough remaining credit for the purchase). I just wanted the ordeal to end. The clerk sensed my mood and apologized over and over.

With the luck of the gods my card was approved and I stepped away from the register.

As a last insult -- as a final rub of salt in my wounds, a rude woman stopped us at the door. She appeared to be some sort of "security" person. Obviously assuming we were thieves, she made us unpack the bags the clerk had just packed 10 seconds ago. She examined each item, comparing it to the receipt. Finally, once she had been fully satisfied, we repacked the bags and we were allowed to leave.

I want you to know that I have never been treated so poorly by a vendor in my entire 18 years in the computer industry. I want you to know that I've never run across more obscure, illogical, and bizarre policies and procedures in my life. I want you to know that customers don't like being treated in this imprudent and uncivilized manner! It takes a lot to make me lose my temper, and you're store accomplished the feat with ease.

My purchase that day was for about $1,000.00 worth of equipment. I purchase about $25,000.00 of equipment each year. I assure you that I will NOT be purchasing that equipment at your strange and condescending store.

Why not splurge and hire a competent and friendly staff. The money would be far better spent on improving service than on a bizarre and meaningless "Alice in Wonderland" decor. I hate to think how much was spent on those huge statues.

I may even share this story on the internet with my industry colleagues. Maybe if we stand up to this kind of treatment, you'll be forced to do something about it.

I welcome a response to this letter.

Sincerely,

- Sam

NOTE: I never received a response to this letter from the store manager. I did receive a letter 11 months later (no joke) saying they'd "changed the management" and wondering if I had any outstanding issues.

I saw a picketer in front of the Fremont Fry's store. The sign said that Fry's cheated him out of his money.

My dad and i go to Fry's all the time. This final time was the last time for me. We had decided to go for sattelite TV instead of cable and since they were having a sale on Dish TV we mosied on down to Frys. When we FINALLY got a salesman and decided whish particulat system we wanted it took him forever to find it in a box. The one he fnally did find had been opened (it was a return). "Don't worry the guy says" and rings it up , a total of $308.00. So we purchase the dish and a second receiver, go home, watch the install film, and then climb up on the roof. 5 hours later we are ready to go. I call up DishTV and give them our access numbers. Dish wants to know where we bought the main receiver. I tell her Frys, and she is thoroughly confused. It seems that a man in Anaheim had owened the receiver FOR 6 MONTHS, ran up a service bill and never paid it. She said our 2 options were to either pay this mans past due bill or return the system and get a new one. She also said she couldn't believe Fry's didn't check it out before accepting the return or reselling. So we disasembled the dish (alot quicker i might add) and trek back to Frys where they tell us .....OH WELL! The man in charge of electronics tells us we got a $100.00 discount on it because it had been used and that we could either shell out another $100.00 (so that it would total $400.00) and get another one or go home and try to get another access card from dish (if it worked it would cost us 20 more and take up to 2 weeks). I start yelling at the guy that 1. he had not disclosed the fact that we were getting a discount on the product and 2. we had spent 5 freaking hours up there on that hot roof and we were due some compensation (a straight trade). Side note to this story, today i went to the dish home page and guess what, the particualr series we bought (4000) is listed at $299.00 . HE was smiling and telling us that was all he could do and we were getting a real deal in the long run.... A raw deal more like it. We argued back and forth for 20 minutes untill finally I told him I wanted to see his manager. He smiled wider and said sure no prob and wandered away for about 15 minutes. When he eventually came back he said the manager authorized a trade but it wouldn't be until monday (2 days later) because they didn't have any on hand. By this time we were worn down said fine and left. I hate Frys! And you know what? I am going to tell everyone at the corporation I work for that Frys sucks and they should buy all electronics elsewhere.

My name is Terry and I purchased equipment worth about $600.00 from the Woodland Hills Store. The equipment would not work so I returned it to my nearest store in Anaheim Hills. Here is the problem: Woodland Hills is in LA county and Anaheim Hills is in Orange county, the taxes are 8.25% and 7.75% respectively. The computers at Fry's can not compensate for this difference. They kept my excess sales tax money. I feel that I was robbed and the State of California says they can do nothing but make sure the money is returned or paid to the State.

I pointed out to the Manager that if I purchased $10,000.00 worth of equipment and drove it to a LA county Store I could make about $500.00 dollars. It would be a nice daily income and he had nothing to say. The Fry's corporate office said they would let me know and I am still waiting for this call.

Terry
Ontario California

I recently had an incident with the Fry's store here in Phoenix, AZ.

I needed to return a modem that I had purchased and found that someone else had bought a better one for me...no big deal...so I thought.

I proceeded (just as you did) to stand in line for about 1 hour! This is no joke. When I finally was able to reach a human at the other end of the counter I was told that I would have to go to their "other" department for a refund or store credit. You can imagine how I felt after waiting this long....

When I went to see the credit dept for my return I had to wait in line for only about 5 minutes....no big deal...so I thought. They told me that I would have to go back to the same line I just came from!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This scenario played out about 4 times before a "manager" stepped in and started to give me a refund.

First...they tried to charge my card again....not refund....
Second....they couldn't figure out how much tax to refund me because our state tax had just gone down(stadium was finally built)....so they spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure that out!!!!!!!

By the time I had everything taken care of I had been there for about 2 hours and 45 minutes!!!!

I don't think I will be shopping at their store anymore....besides shopping of the "net" is a lot easier and I haven't had a single problem with anything I have purchased....

Very pissed!!!!

Dan P.

The people I spoke to at Fry's could not understand that my printer requires two cartridges, one black and one color. They did not understand that a color printer could take a black ink cartridge. I finally managed to convince them that I needed a black cartridge.

Fry's then suggested that I buy this no-name Taiwanese cartridge which I knew from past experience would not fit my printer.

After around 45 minutes of trying to straighten this out I left in disgust. I drove down the street to Central Computer where I was greeted at the door. The salesman knew exactly what I needed, and the price was significantly lower. Total time to purchase the ink cartridge, including some not so complementary comments about Frys: 3 minutes. I havn't been back to Fry's since.

I work at Fry's and I'd have to agree with most of what you said. I often am appalled at the state of merchandise that I put back on the shelf. As for the waiting we have so many customers (many have said and still say they'll never be back) and our policies for doing anything are so complex and time consuming it takes forever to help anyone. Most people complain about the lack knowlegible service from the floor. Fry's does not distinguish it's employees from box boy to supervisor. Ask the person if there a salesman, not "Do you work here"? We wouldn't be wearing the name tag if we weren't fucking working there. We get most of the whiners up at Check out.

They like to jump in our face because they think their lordship has been violated in some way. To tell you honestly if you come up to me with an attitude I'm not going to give a flying fuck about you and pretty much show you with my uncaring and mocking behavior. I would have to say that 50% of complaints come from nerdy little fucking losers that just killed a level 2140090 dragon, got done polishing their rod, and decided to power trip on down to Fry's.

Name witheld

When I returned it in Palo Alto, I decided to buy one that did say 33.6 without the "ready". The box felt light, though. I had customer service open it. It had all the documentation, but no modem inside.

Submitted by T. Albert

FOR ALL YOU PEOPLE OUT THEIR THAT THINK YOU HAVE  HAD A BAD
TIME SHOPING AT FRY'S, LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT ALL OF THE BRAIN
DEAD PEOPLE THAT WHEN WORKING THERE I HAVE HAD TO HELP.
1.I HAD A LADY COME IN TO THE STORE ONE MORNING AND AFTER
A WHILE OF SHOPING SHE CAME TO ME CRYING TELLING ME THAT SHE
WAS LOST AND SHE COULD NOT FIND THE EXIT DOOR.!!BRAIN DEAD!!
2.PEOPLE WHO COME IN THE STORE MAD BECAUSE THEY BOUTH A
$29.00 DOLLAR MODEM AN DID NOT WORK. WELL IF HALF THOSE PEOPLE WHERE NOT
SO GOD DAM CHEAP AND BUY SOME THING GOOD
THEY WOULD HAVE NEVER HAD THE PROBLEM TO BEGIN WITH.
3.FRY'S IS JUST LIKE ANY OTHER JOB OUT THEIR YOU WORK AT IT.
IT'S NOT THAT BAD.IF YOU WHERE IN THE RIGHT DEPARTMENT YOU
CAN MAKE LOT'S OF MONEY.I FOR EXAMPLE MADE ABOUT 17 AN HOUR
SO IT'S REALLY NOT BAD AT ALL,THEY JUST HAVE SOME THINGS THAT
THEY NEED TO FIX.
KHFJKDHFKJHDGLKFHJL!!THANK YOU!!!ILJFGKLJDFKLJGLKFDJGLKJ

Editor note: The last time I was in the Fremont Fry's (7/20/99) returning an item (which actually worked but wasn't what I wanted) I saw two people standing in the return line returning BTC 56K modems.

I'm truly amazed at the Ignorance in you're page on Fry's. First you should blame the manufacturer, not the reseller for the quality of the product. The worst customer service and employee knowledge I've seen has been located at CompUSA. At least at Fry's there are over 10 registers open, instead of 2 at a place like CompUSA. As far as employee knowledge goes, I wouldn't expect them to know everything about EVERY product they sell. I would like to see you explain everything about all the products they sell. Considering how rapid technology changes, I would really be supprised to see anyone to keep up with it. I've purchased hardware from Fry's multiple times and NEVER have had a problem with ANY of it! CompUSA sold me a SCSI adapter, which when cross- referenced with a distributor, was a model which was only supposed to be sold in South America!

Granted, there customer service is not that good. It is no worse though, than any other retailer I've seen, and better than some, namely CompUSA. They do have a large selection. I, and those of my family and friends who have purchased products there, have had a grand total of 1 problem with hardware we've purchased. I don't think that constitutes a store selling crappy products. As far as there prices, sure there are other stores that carry similar prices. Do you really want to go to ten different places to take advantage to their prices, or one? I think you really sound like someone who has had 1 or 2 different bad experiences, and now you have a vendetta agianst them. The page you created is just electronic ignorance....grow up!

(1) We lived in Oregon 3 years - the Portland Fry's was really bad - far worse worse than even teh San Diego one (which i am told my Bay Area people is pretty bad compared to the SFO ones). They *don't* refund you - period - even for completely defective merchandise. At best they'll give you a store credit so you can buy more defective merchandise. That store is part of the imaginarium chain (or whatever it was called) that Fry's acquired. The returns counter was staffed by specially-chosen monster-looking people, who tried to intimidate us when we returned faulty stuff. They claimed that I couldn't prove that the product (software) didn't work because it would have to be run on a computer, and they refused to run it on theirs. So I produced my computer, but they objected to my computer because (!!) it had a post-it note on the side (maybe they thought it would interfere with the electrons inside the computer?). Then they wouldn't supply elecctricity to my computer because of 'fire liability' or something.

(2) Prices - try paying 30% more for a WD hard drive than the price fromm the computer store up the road (literally). So much for guaranteed lowest prices. In fact most stuff that isn't on sale, I find, costs more than it would in a proper computer store - that goes for things like electric drills, too, not just computer items.

(3) Another trick - stuff *advertised* "$29 after manufacturer's rebate" - then when you buy it, you discover that the rebate expired a month ago. I've personally seen this in the San Diego store.

Foreigners like me will find Fry's reminds them of the lousy service typical in places like England. This interesting mutant form of retail store provides Americans with a glimpse of what they're missing out on, so they can be grateful. Or not, depending on which type of economic culture you prefer.

cheers

Gordon

Anyway, to make a long story short, the line actually moved pretty fast. Instead of the usual 1-2 hour wait at the old store it only took around 15 minutes. When I got up to the cash register I saw that the bottleneck was the guy who tells the person at the front of the line which register to go to. Apparently he couldn't keep up. I saw several registers waiting for customers!

Overall, this visit to Fry's was actually enjoyable. I have never seen a Fry's like this. It is totally different than the old Fremont store (which was one of the worst). Their prices still are not the best. While looking at X-10 stuff their prices were actually pretty high.

-Aaron (moderator)