Future Shop

Look on http://www.resellerratings.com - the reviews are not favorable to futureshop.

I will never buy a computer from Future Shop again, especially not a Mac from there.

I bought my second PC (back in 2002) at Future Shop, what an experience the staff knew nothing about my computer and mistakenly charged me $200 less for my computer then calls me at home and asks me to please go back and give them the $200 that they miscalculated (we went down and gave them the $200 because my mom said it was the right thing to do). Furthermore I was suppose to get a free copy of Quicken that they never gave me even though I mentioned it to the salesperson.

I rather buy my computer from a guy in the back alley then to deal with Future Shop staff. Try to buy a Mac at an apple store if you can, I bought my PowerBook at CompuSmart (which is now defunct throughout Canada I think but I really don't care since my Mac has never had a problem) because at the time no "official" apple stores existed in Montreal.

But if you ever do buy a Mac at Future Shop try to get applecare and NOT that Future Shop extra warranty nonsense.

Futureshop doesn't seem like a good place to buy anythiing other than headphones or other small items. They aren't very knowledgeable especially with computers, but if you already know which one you are getting, it should be fine. If you ask them and you you have no clue about computers, they can't help you.

Usually, if you buy stuff there and have problems with it, they tell you to go ask the manufacturer anyway.

I worked at Futureshop and I agree with what a lot of you people are saying. But they have a great 14 day return policy on computers. You can rent a computer for 2 weeks from Futureshop.

The service is highly dependent from salesperson to salesperson some are knowledgeable others don't know very much. Truthfully FS provides great training on how to sale, but no real training on what your selling. My old Futureshop had extremely knowledgeable staff some of them were trained techs, so they definitely know their stuff, but there are a few staff that don't have a clue, and personally it really pisses me off to see them give false info to customers.

One piece of advice, if you don't plan on buying the service plan please go to an apple store to buy your mac. They place an extreme amount of pressure on the employees to sell the service plan and they get fired for not selling enough of it. So next time your in FS and the employee is being pushy to take the service plan, it is because his/her job depends on it.

As far as the quality of the service plan, it is usually pretty good, I mean I saw a lot of customer (both mac and pc) get good service, and fast turn around times. But I guess this depends on the FS store.

jay1097 said:

I worked at Futureshop and I agree with what a lot of you people are saying. But they have a great 14 day return policy on computers. You can rent a computer for 2 weeks from Futureshop.

The service is highly dependent from salesperson to salesperson some are knowledgeable others don't know very much. Truthfully FS provides great training on how to sale, but no real training on what your selling. My old Futureshop had extremely knowledgeable staff some of them were trained techs, so they definitely know their stuff, but there are a few staff that don't have a clue, and personally it really pisses me off to see them give false info to customers.

One piece of advice, if you don't plan on buying the service plan please go to an apple store to buy your mac. They place an extreme amount of pressure on the employees to sell the service plan and they get fired for not selling enough of it. So next time your in FS and the employee is being pushy to take the service plan, it is because his/her job depends on it.

As far as the quality of the service plan, it is usually pretty good, I mean I saw a lot of customer (both mac and pc) get good service, and fast turn around times. But I guess this depends on the FS store.

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I can vouch for this guy ^. I worked at Circuit City for 2 years (about 7 months before the whole bankruptcy thing happened), and can totally agree that while some of the guys that work are fully knowledgeable and can really give the schpeel of all the technical stuff, some of the other staff seriously have no idea what they were doing. I was a Lead Associate when I was there, and hearing the other guys in my department give false information, and "myths" and all that just gives me the chills.

And to go along with the service plan thing, that totally was the same way when I was at Circuit City. They progressively started to pressure you to sell more of the plans, and you would either get major props for selling more, or start getting written up for them if you couldn't. If you do decide to buy from Future Shop, just don't take the whole service plan lecture personally, it's just a guy doing his job, since most of the people there seem to not really care about selling that.

Oh and just as a side note, I have noticed throughout high school that Best Buy and Future Shop (BB owns FS btw) always seem to hire people based on their looks rather than their actual qualifications. I remember going to a Best Buy to buy the first Rock Band when it was released, and the girl that worked there, although cute, was probably the dumbest rock I've ever had the unpleasantry of talking to. And SHE was a SUPERVISOR...wow. I asked her to find me a PS3 version of Rock Band, and she checked the computer, and it said only 1 left, and, get this...she took me to the pile of Xbox 360 versions and said, "here you go." I said, "uh, this isn't what I'm looking for, I said PS3." And she said sorry, and went to talk to someone else to "try to find it" but then she just ended up gossiping with a couple of other employees, and left me and my friend there to search for the lone PS3 version of Rock Band. Yeah, talk about a bad experience lol

I walked into Future Shop today, since I was buying an iPod Touch for my sister for christmas, and since I don't have an Apple Store near by, it was my only choice. I pretty much promised myself, I would just be in and out. The employee tried to sell me the protection plan, and tried to justify it by saying I will get a free case with it, and that for $79, my battery would be covered and the "sensors" for the screen would be covered. I mean, I totally understood why he was saying all that, since I have been the one in those shoes before.

In my perfectly honest opinion, I would only buy from Future Shop if you are going to just be in and out, know EXACTLY what you want, and are not susceptible to being upsold by the employee. Just do your research here, find out exactly what you want to get, then get it. If you have an Apple Store near by, that would be my number one choice. If not, then pretty much anywhere else is next.

Whew...enough of me ranting on. lol

EDIT: Oh, to just add one more quick comment, my sister DID get her white macbook there about a month before the new ones came out, since she didn't want to wait and kind of needed the computer quick for school. Hers came out perfect, not one defect, so if that means anything to you. Of course, the experience might be totally different for you.