"I ordered a laptop from compUSA that was SUPPOSED to be a good deal..until they informed me that they didn't have it in stock and it had to be shipped to me at MY cost ($69).. which was fine.. I did NOT want a warranty but the sales guy would NOT let me get out of it..he would NOT let me go on it, and finally I relented (an extra $140)..I just wanted an inexpensive laptop for work purposes that would be used mainly for ONE thing @ one website..that is IT.. anyhow, I had told my mother about it the night before and she thought she would suprise me and buy it for me... So we BOTH bought it!!! So I called ONE HOUR later after I purchased it (on a sunday mind you)..and they said they could NOT cancel the order because HP had already started to process it (uhm-if they have a 90 day guarantee and I can return it anyway..why would that even matter???).. Nobody informed me of that BEFORE i bought the computer--i might have thought more heavily about it.. I just felt really pressured about the whole thing.. it was a miserable experience..I decided to call CS and ask a CSR if since I was NOT told about the non-cancellation policy (yet informed it had a 90 day guarantee)...If i could cancel it, she said she would "TRY" and would send them an email..SO i called HP later that night to see if anything had been sent.. the HP rep told me that you CAN cancel it.. all the company (compUSA) has to do is send them email-she also informed that it had NOT even been configured NOR shipped (this was the tuesday night after)... she also told me that NO email had been sent and/or notes attached to the order #.. so i called CompUSA back the next day, they gave me the run around to a million different people..and I finally was told they were not able to cancel.. So needless to say, im going to return BOTH computers and lose the $69 ($138 total) for BOTH orders but it is better than giving a sale to a company like this.. they have HORRIBLE customer service both in house and on the phone, and emails I sent were NEVER even answered! It was pathetic and I am so angry with them--that I am willing to forgo the shipping costs for BOTH and be done w/them and NEVER ever step foot in that store again...and make sure to tell EVERYONE who will listen how crappy I was treated... The thing that REALLY aggravates me is that all this is unnecessary.. i KNOW i do not want the second computer for a fact, I knew 1 hr AFTER i purchased it...and so, they are making HP work on this order, ship it..have the shipping company ship it..I am going to be out $850 for an extra 2-3 weeks and I am going to have to go to the store and bug them with a return..and it could be avoidable.. All this extra work for NOTHING, plus I am out the shipping costs..it makes absolutely NO sense! DO NOT BUY FROM THEM!! They are horrible!!"

"Terrible, rude, slow customer support! Shipping tracking does not exist. I will not purchase from CompUSA again.

I ordered a wireless router from CompUSA at January 03. I was charged the very next day, but a month past and the router's no where to be found. I call the customer support # and waited FORTY-FIVE minutes before someone answers the phone (they still have the "due to holiday season...high call volume" recording, holiday in February?). The customer service Timica is very rude when I show my displeasure in the wait and the missing shipment. In the end, we settled from a refund which I have yet to receive.

Be warned, this company is a scum! Do not buy from it unless you want to lose your rebate or not get anything back.

-xifan hong"

"As other reviewers have indicated, a confirming e-mail from Compusa that your order is ready for pickup doesn't mean anything.

My most recent order was out of stock. Of course I didn't know that until I had driven 10 miles to the store, because I had a "confirming" e-mail that stated "The following order will be available at your chosen location within 15 minutes from receipt of this e-mail and will be held for 72 hours." Of course, the item was out of stock at the store when I arrived.

The salesperson said that the comfirming e-mail is automatically mailed when she prints out my order to go pick the items from stock. If they are out of stock, there is no follow-on e-mail sent. She also thought this was a poor system and had complained, but to no avail.

I stated that the wording in their confirmation e-mail was misleading and I would like to speak with the manager. She paged him several times to no avail and finally took my phone number saying he would call me. Of course he never did, consistent with several other reviewers here who have said CompUSA management is totally unresponsive.

And I never did get the item I ordered.

The only thing you can do is phone the store before you come to verify that they are holding the item for you. Good luck getting someone to answer and help you.

As many others have said, I think CompUSA is getting worse and worse. Be very careful in dealing with them."

"Emailed their customer support about their shipping mistake and did not get a reply in 24 hrs. "

"Hey! Got my rebate..... AFTER three months! Terrible customer service!! WILL NOT BUY FROM AGAIN!!!"

"Placed an order online for several things for someone for Christmas and a pack of batteries. First only one item shipped despite all the others saying In Stock. After a few emails found out an item was no longer in stock and they could send the rest my order. Said ok and was charged for the rest of the order despite missing two items. I thought noting of it as I assumed the missing items would be sent without charge (I was wrong and will get to that).

A month later and still missing the last two items. Emailed and was told they were still out of stock even tho their website showing the items in stock and availble for shipping! Emailed again with this information and was sent some quick email saying it was shipped. Got the box, but it was missing the batteries! Even the packing slip showed they were supposed to be there! And, to top it off, was charged an extra $22 for these items!!! This is currently being disputed with American Express.

Not sure what is goign on with them, but they suck so badly now. In the past I have been able to order from them reliably, but now I don't dare!

And I must say the last time I was in a CompUSA store they didn't really try (or come close to) going out of their way to make the customer feel appreciated, or even wanted in the store.

With all this, it's hard to even think of buying from them ever again."

"Simply terrible. I ordered a hard drive online from these guys because it was a great price after rebate. Well it said it was available for in-store pick up but magically when I submitted my order it wasn't available in store anymore. Oh well I decided to have it shipped. Little did I know it was going to take nearly a month to receive the product. By the time I received it I had 3 days left until the rebate had to be post-marked. So I filled out the online rebate form. Another magical thing this store did was not manage to find any matching rebates for my hard drive. After sitting in a queue for a few weeks finally I got a change of status saying no matches found. All information was double and triple checked when entering. I've emailed the customer support but only received automated responses that help nothing. I guess I'm out of $80 for the rebate. Thanks CompUSA, I'll never be purchasing anything from this store again, online or in person."

"Ordered Vegas Movie Studio on 12/15/05 online. Received tracking info several days later and credit card was charged appropriately. Monitored tracking info online and saw that item was delivered to the wrong address (12/22/05), in fact the wrong state. Immediately after seeing this attempted to get situation rectified. Ended up cancelling the order by phone and still waiting for refund (01/13/06). Sent follow up email and made phone calls. Lousy customer service, nobody knows anything just get the run around. Never offered any type of remedy, besides a refund that I'm still waiting for.
Update 02/04/06 Got my money back today, although they still tried to stiff me for the shipping cost. Took another to the point email to get that back as well. I will never deal with them again."

"I just bought a TV tuner card for my Mac at CompUSA. I work at CompUSA and hopefully this site will post this. First, for anyone who has been treated unfairly at CompUSA I am sorry. Most of what I am reading here has to do with our extended service plan, or TAP, Technology Assurance Program. I have noticed recently a complete lack of personal responsibility, not only at technology stores, such as ours, but in the entire retail world. When someone asks you to purchase any type of extended warranty, which ours is not, or a service plan or replacement plan, which ours is, it is up to the consumer to read the agreement or fine print. Ours is a fair plan. It offers to replace peripherals which have stopped working, or repair computers, which have stopped working properly or their respective parts. It does NOT cover abuse, mistreatment, negligence, being dropped, or any breaking by accident by your kids or anyone else. For peripherals we will replace them at the store level for the life of the plan, either one or two years for most peripherals, up to ten years for speakers. Our printer express exchange plan is great. When your printer stops working properly you dial a 1-800 number and a new printer is sent to you within two business days, you only have to put the old printer in the box and leave it for the USPS, all postage and handling is on us. It is not a magical cover whatever you would like insurance policy.
I am a tech in our tech shop. It is unreasonable to think that you can bring a computer in and have us fix it in a couple of minutes, which a lot of people, mostly the PC uneducated, would like. Sorry, but we're not magicians.
As for the rebates, only one rebate is good for any one household address. That is a constant at CompUSA. It is spelled out very clearly on the rebate form. Please, for yourself, read the rebate form when you fill it out. I have spoken to numerous people who have not read them, or filled them out wrong and then come into our store and blaming us for them not getting the rebate.
Where is the personal responsibilty?
All responses are welcome. I am willing to try to help anyone who has had trouble at a CompUSA anywhere, or to help explain how our service plan works.
****@****"

"This has to be absolutely the worst of the worst among retailers. Ordered a Targus Tornado Chillpad notebook cooler on Jan 3rd '06 for in-store pickup (DelAmo superstore, Torrance, CA) Went in for pickup on Jan 4th '06 at around 5:30pm. Guy at the pickup register looked up the web, printed something and asked me to wait while he got the item for me (it had not been set aside despite being 24hrs) After about 10 mins, he comes back and says they dont have it in stock. I was furious. Their store system showed they had 6 in stock. He said they couldn't locate them in their warehouse. He said someone had come that morning asking for the same and that they had failed to locate them. If that were the case, wasn't it incumbent upon them to look up orders for the same item and let customers know about this issue, so they could not waste their time on a trip to the store ? Apparently not. This kid just shrugged when I asked if that was the most they could do. I demanded to speak to a store manager and he said he was the store manager - this kid of no more than 20-22 years. I laughed and said that the least they could do was to substitute another product at the same price for having made me come to the store. He threw his hands up in the air and shrugged.

A couple of days ago, I went there to get a router/print server. The store said they had 5 in stock. And guess what ! They couldnt locate any on either the shelf or in the warehouse.

In an era of increasingly competitive retailing, when most prominent retailers bend over backwards in such a case in order to retain/encourage customer loyalty, heres one company that doesn't bend and has it completely backwards. They cannot locate their stuff in their own stores. They care two hoots for their customers. After reading all the other reviews (I have to search hard to find a positive review) just how this store has been surviving this long, stupefies me. People should really boycott this setup. They just dont care about customers.

EDIT: I looked at my history of Compusa purchases for 2005. Apart from a $100 Compaq desktop (a price mistake) and a $3.99 can of compressed air, there was nothing else !! Guess it will be the same for 2006."

"Bought printer insurance for two years from the COMPUSA store in Brick, NJ and was told to bring back the printer to store if there to be any problems. Did so, but was told to call some 800 numbers to get the same printer, even though this was not what I was told when I bought the printer in August OF 2005.!! Do yourself a big favor and do not buy from this store. Management and company organization is below zero."

"This is definitely not the place to buy iPods. They don't care at all about long time customers. I've gone to CompUSA all my life for anything. I'm an IT Professional and whenever people ask me where to go I always told them CompUSA, but they have proved me wrong.

For iPods, I would absolutely recommend going to Costco. My friend bought his there TWO YEARS AGO, and he was having issues with it, took it back, and got full in-store credit. I bought my iPod six months ago at CompUSA, and they can't do diddly squat.

It's supercilious BS if you ask me. They clearly don't care about their customers, or their business."

"Not enough help on the sales floor waited a long time for help and then they were out of stock on advertised item."

"CompUSA continues to provide some of the worst customer service in the industry. They promote idiots to be the "store managers" who have no understanding of customer satisfaction, store policies, and the importance of repeat business. I have had multiple problems with their service, but today it has reached a boiling point.

Their current policy is that they will take Christmas returns for any products purchased after November 25 through January 7, 2006.

Today, I attempted to return a defective projector that I had purchased on November 25th on compusa.com. The standard policy is that they will take returns up to 21 days of date of receipt of the product, which would be tomorrow.

Today, the "manager" informed me that they could not to returns for online orders after 21 days of date listed on the receipt, that if it is defective, that I should call the manufacturer directly. This is after I have tried to return the items 3 previous times:

First try (12/4) - was told that the item would be in stock shortly, so they could do an exchange. Was told to just do the exchange so I could lock in the price that I had gotten on Black Friday.

Second try (12/11) - was told that the item would be in stock within the next "few days". Again said that if I returned it, I would not be able to buy it again at Black Friday price.

Third try (12/16) - still not in stock. Was told that the return policy had been extended for all orders until January 7, 2006.

Fourth try (12/18) - still not in stock. Now I'm told that I cannot return it at the store because it is over 21 days of order date. I told him that their policy was 21 days from date of receipt. He offered me store credit, but said there was no way they could credit this back to me.

I am shocked and appalled by their lack of consistency and customer service. I have dealt with incompetent people in the past, but CompUSA's ability to hire the worst dregs out there is intolerable.

Anyone want to buy a CompUSA credit?? I'm boycotting those MF's.....I hate them....

"

"The extreme pressure to buy extended warranty which would "take care of my camera if it had an accident", seemed concerned with my and my families photographic well-being. Flash forward to this month. Having just returned from Japan and needing my camera fixed for holiday pictures, after a nasty 'accident’ involving a two year old, a kimono, and a brother in-law who is a professional newspaper photographer. Now my 'warranty' is void due to "customer abuse". No longer are I, and my camera covered for an accident. Instead, we are abusers. Therefore, my advice is if you must shop there DO NOT BUY the WARRANTY. It is worth no more than the paper it's printed on, and the matter of fact, unsympathetic, and even condescending attitude of the store manager and employees will do nothing more than infuriate you even more. After all is it not the holidays a time for joy not rage and anger. That can wait till January."