RIP, CompUSA: 1984 - 2008
By Ryan Block 
posted December 7th 2007 7:11PM
posted December 7th 2007 7:11PM
Days after we first reported that CompUSA could be shutting down for good very, very soon, [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Best Buy Stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!They dont have exprianced help and they are overpriced as well.In the last 6-8 months cc was cheaper.BB is a rip-off
this summerI shopped for the very first and also for the very last time at compusa. let me tell you what happened: i went in to buy a new Macbook the first salesperson was to busy emailing his girlfriend so did not even try to respond to my question...sales guy nr 2 tried to convince me that i realy should look to the new HP laptops that had after asking four times if he just could get me an macbook he directed to me the Apple sales person who insisted thati would take the extended Compusa warranty instead of Applecare..i told him that I was a tourist from europe and did not need/wanted the extended warranty after more debating he finaly went to the back to get my macbook..after 10 minutes he came back holding a box that looked liked it had been ran over more than once but that wasn't the worst: on the side was a sticker that this machine had been repaired by an Apple certified repairshop! i questioned the salesperson about it and he admitted that the macine was not new and no the prices was the same as for a new one!!!! after that i turned around and swore to never enter another Compusa store in this lifetime...
So goodbye Compusa!
This should have happened ten years ago.
The next one should be J&R. Horrible electronics store.
Newegg should open up a real store. But then again if they open in NY, i'd have to pay tax.
Will extended product warranties still be honored after they go belly up? How does this work?
I'll be honest guys. I work there currently, and have been for almost a year. Apparently everyone forgets what it's like to work for a retailer - that shit is difficult at times. On the other hand, I worked at a store who's staff was tech savvy at worst. We helped people buy the shit they wanted, and had guys like a bunch of you "techier-than-thou" pricks come in, day in and day out, who either preached the virtues of newegg or tiger direct or came to quiz us - and more often than not, a few a day left more impressed with our knowledge and helpfulness. We're not faceless douchebags. Just like everyone else, we were out to MAKE MONEY and SURVIVE. The upside was that I know, personally, us at this store were able to help people at times, and looked out for customers. If you think it's a fun fucking experience to have your company go down the shit during the holidays, fuck you. I don't love CUSA, and never will I try to tell anyone it was "better" than shopping direct, but for fuck's sake - now you have Best Buy, Geek Squad et al. to get your shit from. And personally, I'll take CUSA's $22 usb cable vs Best Buy's $40 cable. And for people who only have Circuit City and Best Buy to shop from now, I feel sorry for you. I'll never forget how many customers came to us to get actual information and help.
Long and short, fuck CompUSA. It was a shitty run company who let it's employees down. But fuck you pretentious assholes who think brick-and-mortar stores going down is somehow *better* for ANYONE at all. You may be wise to direct ship companies and you may know more than us "newbs" but for anyone who wasn't spoon fed a computer and needed an answer to a technical question, they are now relegated to Walmart employees who don't know how to say Linksys any better than the person trying to buy the "router thingy".
Very sad... I wore the red shirt 15 years ago. Novell classes for 100 bucks a day got me my first real job.
The sector is clearly doomed, crushed between newegg abd best buy. I hope Frys and Micro-Center can expand to fill the gap.
Do people actually still buy computers in stores? Why?
Hooray! Dead!
Got totally hassled and ripped on an extended warranty.
OMG I almost worked there!!! but then i got a job at best buy...then i quit there beacuse they treat employees like shit, thats why they dont know shit beacuse they dont give a shit. but then i got a job a circuit city... and that place is just one more bad holiday way from being comp usa dead by the new year...
get a degree folks. there is no career in retail... long hours short tempers and no money...i feel sorry for the people that even attempt to have a career in those places... soon you will see snot nosed kids being managers since the real ones would have gotten out before all these b&m stores sink.
Honestly....Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, Walmart and Target all stink...Newegg, Amazon & Zipzoomfly have them all beat. I will gladly wait 1-3 days for my products to arrive not only cheaper, but 90% of the time with free shipping and no tax. The customer service even though they are mail order companies still beats the majority of your local retail stores hands down, especially Newegg.
I'm not surprised. I stopped shopping there at least 7 years ago.
Terrible customer service - mmm - NO customer service, high prices and total aggravation and disappointment every time I shopped there.
Why did it take so long for them to go under????
Best Buy don't get to cocky your day will come as it does for all stores.
Phphpt. You kids and your "cheaper is better" mantra are what killed CompUSA and are killing quality small merchants.
In the early days-- before most of you pissants were out of diapers-- CompUSA (Software Warehouse) was the place to go for cutting edge computer equipment; blazing fast 4800 baud modems, roomy five-megabyte hard drives, reliable 5.25 floppies that would hold nearly 500 kilobytes of data. Manly men would forage through a jungle of electronica trying to find things that fit together, this being when makers weren't looking to be compatible.
Before that it was Radio Shack for geeks and dweebs.
*sigh* Good times.
Yes, while COMP USA was a higher priced store, no one out there can possibly beat the size of their selection. If I was trying to find something that was less than easy to buy, I could always find it there.
to all you people talking shit about compusa, look at bestbuy and circuitcity's prices
they are higher than anywhere online and way higher than compusa
circuit city has some good deals every now and then but bestbuy usually has the highest price on everything
After shopping at CompUSA several times, and being sold the WRONG merchandise EVERY time, I quit going there. Last time I was in, the store resembled a ghost town. Only one cashier, and not another employee in sight. I paid by check, and was given the check back by the cashier. Later that night, I got a phone call from the manager asking me to bring the check back. LOL, they didn't do electronic checks! The cashier got fired as apparently she gave everyone who wrote a check that day their money back. Wonder how much that cost that one store? Bad service, high prices, and lack of employee knowledge aobut product did them in.
I bought a computer from Comp USA about 8 years ago. It had battery problems immediately so I took it back to the store. They wouldn't touch it because I couldn't find the receipt. I figured they had some sort of record of the sale of the serial number as it had only been a couple of days. The service guys were pretty rude.
I asked to speak with the Regional manager and was given a phone number but refused an address. I called multiple times where I left messages on the recorder but the manager never returned my calls. Finally I called IBM and they had a record of when it shipped to the store and also when I bought it. They sent a new battery but it didn't arrive until I had left the country and it took several weeks to get everything straight.
I vowed never to walk in another of those stores again. A promise I’ve kept. Good riddance to a poorly operated, non service oriented company. Guess they treated too many people this way.
I wish I knew that they were going out of business
there was probably a sale.
CompUSA had the WORST service of any store I've ever seen. I can't believe they actually lasted as long as they did. I went to spend $2000 on a computer and couldn't get any one of the multitudes of "red shirts" to wait on me, even after I sought out a salesperson. I went there twice - left empty-handed both times. That place SUCKED.
Thats it! Blame Canada!
If you have complaints about Best Buy, Circuit City, or any other major electronics chain, try living in a small town where all you have is RADIO SHACK. God help us all!
Echoing the sentiment of many others: Good riddance. Worst.retailer.ever.
And Micro Center? They need a lesson in Feng Shui. The one in San Jose is like a funeral home. (And presumably, they all look the same.) Fry's is full of idiots too. But I'll take a nationwide Fry's over Best Buy anyday. Get ready for Circuit City...
As a former employee at CompUSA, I'm sort of sad to see it go. That's where I met the folks I played Counter-Strike with back in 2000. We were called TAP1, after the Technical Assurance Plan. Of course we told everybody it really stood for Texas Area Pimps, but everybody here (and elsewhere) knows better, I'm sure. I associate CompUSA with some of my worst employment memories, yet I met plenty of cool people while working there.
so long nerd herd...
one of my friends is a manager at compusa and tried to get me a business sales job there. thank god I took another job with a company that acually has a future.
Fry's is better than MicroCenter, both are MUCH better than CompUSA and NewEgg still kicks all their butts. I used CompUSA in emergencies when there was no other choice...not much of ringing endorsement, I suppose.
I used to work at CompUSA. Just like ANY franchise, there are bad locations with bad customer service, and you have good locations with good customer service.
Ours was one of the best. This is how it happened. We had two General Managers in a row that really cared about customer satisfaction. I've seen one deliver plasma TV's in their own truck. I've seen them tell the Tech Manager (soon to be traded to another store) to stop arguing with the customer about what the service plan covered and "fix their #$%#$%^*& machine for them."
Another thing that helped is that we lost our HR Manager early and they had computer people give the hiring interviews (only reason I had gotten hired with no sales experience). As such, we usually only got people in who knew about computers. We had some bad salesmen that would do some of the things that people have been complaining about, but we got rid of them.
I had been lent out temporarily to other stores to help them out, and some places were just sad. They would have morning meetings about not fighting in front of the customers.
For our store, things were a bit different. Even now, every six months or so, all of us who worked at that CompUSA at any time for the last 6 years or so, get together for a LAN Party. Most of us had left for other jobs long ago, but the people who worked at that store all got along well. Most of us were just between tech jobs and as soon as the economy started hiring again, we all got hired back to our respective niches.
In closing, I'd like to say that before it closed last year, our CompUSA had one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings for the East Coast. I had worked my way up to Business Rep, and I had customers in all of the surrounding states, and even a few on the West Coast. They would rather deal with me and our CompUSA long-distance then the CompUSA right up their road.
While they may be few and far between, please remember that there ARE some good people losing their jobs, and a handful of good stores closing.
I was just in the CompUSA in Virginia Beach yesterday.
I couldn't find the USB hard drive enclosures so I asked
some girl at one of the registers.
She apologized and said "I really don't know where
anything is right now. I've been working here for
only four days..."
Sucks to be her.
2 Comments:
1. Best Buy is not going under. Nor will it. I have watched it grown form the first Best Buys here in Minneapolis to what it is now. If you havent been into a new Best Buy lifestyle store (mainly launched in the midwest area), you may be impressed. The PC section is still terrible, but the layouts are much better, help still sucks, but the store is much easier to shop, and i just tell sales people i dont want help and they ignore me.
2: CompUSA
I was a compusa worker for 7 years. My store had some of the highest customer satisfaction ratings. But we also refused to hire anyone under 18. Most of our workers were physical majors from a local university and actually knew what they were doing. I ran the front end of the store and unlike most CompUSA's we were willing to give you your rebates back if the company refused them. We also helped anyone submit rebates that asked. We were closed last april as one of the only profitable stores on the list. We care about our store, reorganized it ourselves, hired full time merchandisers to make sure we were stocked at all times and tagged properly, and had managers that were once normal workers. I hate what they did to the stores, stripping our core by getting rid of tech parts, trying to make "high profit" items the best sellers by marking them with "customer choice", which we refused, and hiring worthless drones at the top called the good old boys. The company, for year and years, was run by the same line of old boys, not the CEO but regional and divisional managers. During a yearly managers meeting in Las Vegas, my divisional manager was arrested on drug charges and kept on working. This happened routinely. In seven years the highest level person i saw in our store was our divisional manager. IT was a pathetically run company, but some of the stores had a good heart and tried to make it the best. I feel bad for the employee's knowing they will be offered the same 4 weeks of severance i was for 7 years of 50+ hours a week.
THANKS FOR THE SYMPATHY ON THE FELLING BAD THING I HAVE ONLY WORKED THERE FOR 1.5 YEARS BUT I CAN TELL YOU THAT YOU GOT A MUCH BETTER SEVERANCE THAN ANYBODY AT OUR STORE. AGAIN THANKS FOR LETTING THESE PEOPLE KNOW THAT NOT AL OF US ARE BADGUYS.
This indeed is good news.Now if only best buy would go the same way. Assholes!
Not too sad to see it go as a store but wondering who the heck is going to back my Compusa extended warranty if anyone. :-(
Finally, I never bought anything from Crap CompUSA anyway...Best Buy and your neighborhood malls are next Give it 5 years. If your paying retail for electronics and computer stuff your just as dumb as Slim. Hail Newegg!! and friggin Ebay!! Who says you cant compete with BEST Buy..Why wait inline when you can Buy online!!!
its too bad compusa is closing, but they did do this to themselves. Im in san francisco and I have been the the compusa on market st. many times. I will admit to you all those times I have been there I have only been greeted once. When you enter you would have to go downstairs to meet all the cool stuff. Immediately in front of you as you go downstairs you will meet a little cell phone booth with different cell phones and different carriers. Man, not once have I seen a sales rep. there to help anybody! Not once! Do you have any idea how frustrating that is! Really, they did not do a good job at all on controlling and disciplining the employees.
When I enter best buy, anywhere, I am immediately greeted as I enter the doorway. Walking half way in I am greeted again asking me if I need help with anything. Honestly 1 hour in best buy I am greeted many many times by the employees, I know most of them hate to do it but they have to. I know I hate It after a while but it does make a difference for me.
danomite
@ Dec 18th 2007 9:46AM
"An IT manager at corporate level doesn't need to be working at CompUSA either selling machines or working in the tech shop servicing machines either."
I did in my early 20s... and now I am a network admin for a corporation... technically I’m not a manager but mine are in other states and I write the budgets, do the purchasing, et cetera for my region and users…
Anyway, it was a good learning experience and I moved on... also, I can see why they went under. Bad management, typical retail game playing with the employees, et cetera. I was pretty good at what I did (worked in service). Did all the PC repairs. I'd probably have stayed another six months or even a year if they'd have offered a reasonable wage. Same problem geek squad has now. They'd rather pay an idiot hardly anything than keep someone good for an extra few dollars an hour... that doesn’t work long term…
NEWSFLASH: ARMED GUARDS AT CERTAIN CRAMPUSA STORES DUE TO CUSTOMER RIOTING AT THE TECH COUNTERS.
SALESMEN NOT RECEIVING THEIR PAYCHECKS. SEEMS TO BE A REAL MESS OVER THERE GUYS. AVOID THE GORDON BROTHERS DISASTER GROUP. DONT BUY THEIR SHIT. SALES ARE PHONEY AND PRICES HAVE BEEN JACKED UP!
This is a better best buy rap video ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmjquc8pxLs
TO ALL YOU PEOPLE OUT THERE THAT HAVE NO RESPECT OR SYMPATHY FOR THE GOOD PEOPLE THAT ARE LOSING THEIR JOBS AT COMPUSA. IT WAS PROBABLY CUSTOMERS LIKE YOU WHO WERE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THE CHEAPER DEALS AND FREE TECHNICAL SUPPORT THAT CAUSED MOST OF THIS ASIDE FROM THE FACT THAT CARLOS SLIM JUST DIDN'T CARE ANYMORE. SO ALL THE BELLY ACHING AND WINING ABOUT THE HIGH PRICES IS A MOOT POINT. IF YOU WANT TO SHOP AT NEWEGG OR TIGER OR WHOEVER FEEL FREE JUST QUIT RUNNING YOUR MOUTHS ABOUT THE PEOPLE AT COMPUSA BEING THE "BADGUYS". NOT ALL OF US JUST CARED ABOUT THE MONEY. JOHN UP TOP SOUNDS LIKE HE USED TO WORK FOR US TOO. SO AGAIN TO ALL YOU NEGATIVE CHEAP ASSES TAKE YOUR FRUSTRATIONS OUT ON CARLOS SLIM OR THE LIQUIDATION COMPANY BUT LEAVE THE REST OF US ALONE. A**HOLES
CompUSA Mangers were the worst ever. Every third word out of their mouths was "DUDE". Illiterate half-wits indeed. Bad business model. Those stores give the IT industry a bad name. Most of the workers will end up ay Circuit City (lol) and then 1 year later it will ALSO throw in the towel as the USA is heading towards a RECESSION baby! Enjoy!
Screw all those loser companies like CrampUSA, Best Buy, Circuit City. I hope the oncomming recession finishes them off for good. Crap business model deserves to be destroyed.
What's great about the video is all of the best buy jargon that these kids use. I'm sure their boss would love to see this video HAHA!
It is no wonder why those posting negative comments had bad experiences. YOU are the customers that the employees hated. You would come into the store and say that you can get an item cheaper at another store...so why the Hell did you come shopping at compusa for the item in the first place. All of you that had nothing but negative things to say, I wish you well on those days where you need something and there is no other place to get it than the local higher priced stores. And for those who are shopping for those items at places like WalMart...haha, you WILL get what you paid for. And, those of you who are wishing for other stores to close down as well, I think I can speak officially for everyone who is losing a job as a result of you jackass attitude...We all hope you lose your job very soon and hope that at the same time your company has no sympathy for you as well, gives you a one week severance and kicks you out into he job market with multiple bills to pay and a large amount of the public that could give a flying rat's ass about what happens to you in the mean time.
Happy New Year to all...