I was first drawn to the store by the anti-Big Brother feel of its plant and the charming unkemptness of its staff. In the past year, I've spent over two-thousand dollars at their site and never had a complaint. But once they were tested with an accident, the store's penny-pinching ways and inhuman understanding became clear. \r
\r
I had just picked up my iBook laptop after they replaced my faulty hard drive with a new one. I took it and booted up in the store, just in case I ran into any problems. I didn't. The machine seemed to be running as good as new and that felt nice. Then, just before shutting the laptop down, a toddler who had been running around the store for twenty minutes with a soda cup in hand ran into his lazily supervising dad. The dad tried to yank the soda from the kid's hand, but it ended up splashing all over the keyboard and screen of my laptop - not ten minutes after I'd picked it up. The dad said he'd help me out and get somebody, but he just took his family and left. I continued sopping up the Sprite with my jacket and brought the iBook to a tech and explained the freak situation. Although he didn't see the actual accident, he noticed the rambuctious behavior of the kids and sympathized with my predicament. \r
\r
Five minutes later, he returned to tell me that the computer would need a spill clean-up and that it would cost $250.00. First disarmed that I was actually being quoted a price, I fired back that there was no, no way that I'd be paying for an accident that took place on their site through no fault of my own. He left to speak with a ""supervisor."" The same guy returned to say that since it was an accident, they'd knock off half the price. Further exasperated at this hemorrhage in logic, I demanded to speak with a manager. \r
\r
Three ""managers"" and stubborn refusals later, they acquiesced to reason and swallowed the cost. They called the next day and said it had been cleaned. But if I wanted, I could replace the keyboard for 53 bucks.
Pros: Free internet on 23rd Street
Cons: Heartless service from a smug staff
more