Apple's success is hardly the reason CompUSA is closing it's stores.
What do you suggest Apple doing to help them out? Put some cash into a dying company?
Brilliant.
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CompUSA To Shut Down
- Thread starter Daveway
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Apple's success is hardly the reason CompUSA is closing it's stores.
What do you suggest Apple doing to help them out? Put some cash into a dying company?
Brilliant.
Ding ding ding! You get the gold star for that one, Kira. You're absolutely right. It's like the old saw about "the head of the fish rots first". I've worked for several big-box retailers over the years, and I can tell you that, all things being equal, management sets the pace for the store.
Well, I really have so little patience left at this point for computer owners this is one of those things which I could care less about. If someone doesn't back up their data, or have a spare computer from which to continue conducting their business, then as far as I'm concerned, it just sucks to be them. Any compassion I've ever had has long since been burned away (incinerated, actually).
Cr@p! I just made my parents buy a mini @ a compusa because it was the closest place to buy a mini. And got a year contract instead of applecare, since there was no 
store within 250 miles!!! So are they closing down all stores or what?
store within 250 miles!!! So are they closing down all stores or what?That's because the store makes much more on the extended warranty that they make on the computer sale, even if you also purchase a printer & display. That's the sad thing about how prices work at computer stores. Many salespeople loose their jobs because their rate o selling the extended warranty was too low.
Bill the TaxMan
i idnt know such a place existed, lol
so i guess i dont really care
i will look for a store though to take advantage of their discounts!
so i guess i dont really care
i will look for a store though to take advantage of their discounts!
Don't waste your time, when my local CUSA in Rockville, MD shut down back in the summer I stopped by just to take a look and there was nothing but junk!
Micro Center gutted the building and set up shop, the new store is mind blowing with an Apple department larger than my local Apple store and better stocked I spent over an hour in the Apple section last weekend and the customer service is A++++
http://www.ctbarker.info/2007/10/new-micro-center-opens-in-rockville-md.html
I'll miss their 20 day no questions asked return policy. Apple displays and laptops are notorious for stuck and dead pixels. CompUSA was always my safeguard against getting stuck with a defective product. I don't think it's so easy when buying from an Apple store.
My one and only experience with CrampUSA was when I bought my first Mac, a PowerMac G4 with mirror drives. It was a gorgeous computer, but the salesman gave me lots of erroneous information. The machine never worked properly. It was crashing all the time. I brought it back to the store (I had the CrampUSA extended warranty) and they couldn't (or wouldn't) fix the machine. I asked if I could trade it up to the new PowerMac G5 -- and they refused! I couldn't even give them more money!
I wrote Apple a long letter documenting my dissatisfaction with the company. Then I went to a locally-owned computer store that sold Macs. They took my G4 as a trade-in for a new dual-processor PowerMac G5, which has been working flawlessly for over five years. And I swore I wouldn't shop in CrampUSA ever again. I'm surprised it took them so long to go under.
That's exactly what I meant by "the competition isn't fierce".
Yeah, Micro Center is my physical store of choice as well. Someone needs to talk to their buyer and explain that they need to get new products into the store faster, but I've always been pleasantly surprised by their staff. Helpful, knowledgeable, low pressure. It's where I tend to go first when I'm looking for things.
Unfortunately they're getting clobbered here by Fry's, where the staff is unhelpful, clueless and annoyingly persistent, and where it seems every product on the shelf has been returned at least once.
I am not sure but the CompUSA in Latham, NY has been going downhill for years. When it was new it was great. A large supply of software, different hardware and cables to fit your needs, Serial, Parallel, Null Modem Adapters. Wide supply of accessaries, from cheap low quality to high quality products. It was a good spot to get stuff for your computer, even though the apple section was still in the ghetto section of the far right back. Now The apple section is still in the ghetto section in the same spot even though it had increased it popularity. The software section is about 1/4 of the original size replaced with TVs and a huge section dedicated to digital cameras and pda's much larger then what is needed.
What seems like that happened was they made the same mistake that a lot of companies do. They went towards selling a lot of high priced items at the expense of lower priced items that people will come back for again and again. They should have made it easy for us to find cheap USB and Firewire Cables, Not the high quality extremely long and expensive ones. Replacement parts should be easy to get, a wide verity of good software. But they moved away from that to compete with Best Buy and Circuit City, they had a good nitch market bigger then Radio Shack (And don't get me on Radio Shack) then they sold out and have a bunch of stuff that are to expensive for impulse buys and not high enough quality for researched purchases.
What seems like that happened was they made the same mistake that a lot of companies do. They went towards selling a lot of high priced items at the expense of lower priced items that people will come back for again and again. They should have made it easy for us to find cheap USB and Firewire Cables, Not the high quality extremely long and expensive ones. Replacement parts should be easy to get, a wide verity of good software. But they moved away from that to compete with Best Buy and Circuit City, they had a good nitch market bigger then Radio Shack (And don't get me on Radio Shack) then they sold out and have a bunch of stuff that are to expensive for impulse buys and not high enough quality for researched purchases.
Not surprised, but suprised
I used CompUsa to obtain new clients once the sales people had annoyed potential customers enough for them to leave. My sister worked at CompUsa, and she informed me sales of extended warranties was the name of the game. Not selling enough was grounds for slow termination. Meaning they would give you less and less hours until you found another job, thereby quitting. The Apple guy at this store really knew his stuff, and I hope he landed on his feet okay.
I used CompUsa to obtain new clients once the sales people had annoyed potential customers enough for them to leave. My sister worked at CompUsa, and she informed me sales of extended warranties was the name of the game. Not selling enough was grounds for slow termination. Meaning they would give you less and less hours until you found another job, thereby quitting. The Apple guy at this store really knew his stuff, and I hope he landed on his feet okay.
HAHAH, that just reminds me of the time I went in to CompUSA and they had a special where they would install your modem for you for $29.99... lol what a joke... Their service department was pretty crappy come to think of it. I always went there for PC games though, this was back before all the EB / Gamestops starting popping up everywhere.
Well, I work for CompUSA. The Metairie, LA location.
I can't speak for the company because I frankly don't give a **** but as far as my store, I'll be sad to leave. My managers have always been awesome. They don't pressure you into selling and frankly become a good friend. My coworkers have been awesome, and with a few exceptions have all been very knowledgable about what they know. Everyone I work with is friendly and in general it's just a great atmosphere. It sometimes has the feeling of an old mom 'n pop computer store sometimes.
Back when I started in '05 I was the only person that knew anything Apple outside of our Apple Rep, Shawn Ritner, so when he wasn't here I was a one-man genius bar, and in many ways still are. When customers come in they're frankly shocked that there is an employee in the store that knows Apple as well as I do. I've made quite a few PC people Apple people as well, by just parking them in front of the machine and showing off Expose, Dashboard, and Spotlight. Recently, Time Machine has been the wower. I'll miss the familiar, repeat customers.
But hey, CompUSA is going down the *******. Life goes on. I could care less about CompUSA the company, but the store I work in I'll definitely miss.
If anyone has been by the Metairie store let me know.
I can't speak for the company because I frankly don't give a **** but as far as my store, I'll be sad to leave. My managers have always been awesome. They don't pressure you into selling and frankly become a good friend. My coworkers have been awesome, and with a few exceptions have all been very knowledgable about what they know. Everyone I work with is friendly and in general it's just a great atmosphere. It sometimes has the feeling of an old mom 'n pop computer store sometimes.
Back when I started in '05 I was the only person that knew anything Apple outside of our Apple Rep, Shawn Ritner, so when he wasn't here I was a one-man genius bar, and in many ways still are. When customers come in they're frankly shocked that there is an employee in the store that knows Apple as well as I do. I've made quite a few PC people Apple people as well, by just parking them in front of the machine and showing off Expose, Dashboard, and Spotlight. Recently, Time Machine has been the wower. I'll miss the familiar, repeat customers.
But hey, CompUSA is going down the *******. Life goes on. I could care less about CompUSA the company, but the store I work in I'll definitely miss.
If anyone has been by the Metairie store let me know.
Yeah, I feel sorry for the folks like the guy above, not for the company. Having gotten that out of the way, I plan to be swooping down regularly on my local CompUSA store in the next few weeks to check out the going out of biddness deals 
Heh, I used to work at that store while I was in college. For that reason alone, I know why the company is going down hill. Shaddy business practices and even shaddier managers there. Prices were expensive, people that worked there were mostly clueless. Ugh.
I like J&R, Apple Stores and if I need something else, Circuit City and Worst Buy round it out.
No idea as far as online prices, but I do know that the first round of discounts (Between 5% and 30%) will start Wednesday here.
It was common knowledge that CompUSA did themselves in. They introduced a horrible upper mangement team a while back, failures that came over from the Sears realm. Once they drove that company into the ground they proceeded to "teach all the customers a lesson" at CompUSA.
Wall St. analysts point to the company's basic numbers resulting from simple operational grudges of CompUSAs approach to store returns. To paraphrase:
There were serious penalties for bring-backs, even if unopened, usually about 20%. Corporate policy. The management insisted merchandise was to move OUT the door and not IN, but the damage it did to the customer base was irreparable. Upper management didn't want to hear about these "whining" customers, after all they had a business to run.
For instance, the penalty to bring back a mouse (maybe you mistakenly had 2) was about $25.00. As soon as they finished gloating over their "win", the customer (of course) would promise never to shop there again. So say you shopped there once a month, and purchased like $100 or so each visit. So if they socked you once for $25.00 and promptly pissed you off, they lose $1200/yr in sales, or about $700 in profits/yr. Quick math multiplied by the each store doing this 10 times a day for 8 years results in multi million dollar losses. And it happened. Investors wouldn't touch them with a 10' pole.
Yes, the board not only allowed it to happen, they condoned it. It filtered all the way down from senior management to the cash register clerk. And now, most of these management idiots have moved to New York and have opened no-return stores on-line such as Amazon and even Ebay.
Wall St. analysts point to the company's basic numbers resulting from simple operational grudges of CompUSAs approach to store returns. To paraphrase:
There were serious penalties for bring-backs, even if unopened, usually about 20%. Corporate policy. The management insisted merchandise was to move OUT the door and not IN, but the damage it did to the customer base was irreparable. Upper management didn't want to hear about these "whining" customers, after all they had a business to run.
For instance, the penalty to bring back a mouse (maybe you mistakenly had 2) was about $25.00. As soon as they finished gloating over their "win", the customer (of course) would promise never to shop there again. So say you shopped there once a month, and purchased like $100 or so each visit. So if they socked you once for $25.00 and promptly pissed you off, they lose $1200/yr in sales, or about $700 in profits/yr. Quick math multiplied by the each store doing this 10 times a day for 8 years results in multi million dollar losses. And it happened. Investors wouldn't touch them with a 10' pole.
Yes, the board not only allowed it to happen, they condoned it. It filtered all the way down from senior management to the cash register clerk. And now, most of these management idiots have moved to New York and have opened no-return stores on-line such as Amazon and even Ebay.
Hmm, I'm not entirely sad to see them go, but then again, they do have a better selection than Best Buy or Circuit City on some items like hard drive enclosures.
They had poor service, and the sales people usually didn't know what they were talking about, but that's about par for all stores like this, including Best Buy and Circuit City. I decided I really don't like them when they wanted $900 to replace the reed switch and inverter cable in my iBook. Of course, the repair guy insisted he would have to replace the panel, logic board, and top case, and that I should just get a salesman and buy a new MacBook instead. I bought the $25 cable and fixed my machine myself, but I had to have them loosen one of the little bolts on the lid, for which they charged me $30 for less than a minute of work. Oh well.
Anyway, I went into CompUSA tonight and was told that there would be no discounts on Apple products, which they say they are just going to send back to Apple rather than liquidate. But, I was told I might get up to 5% off on PCs and other products if I wait until after the holidays. I don't think I'm really going to miss them much.
They had poor service, and the sales people usually didn't know what they were talking about, but that's about par for all stores like this, including Best Buy and Circuit City. I decided I really don't like them when they wanted $900 to replace the reed switch and inverter cable in my iBook. Of course, the repair guy insisted he would have to replace the panel, logic board, and top case, and that I should just get a salesman and buy a new MacBook instead. I bought the $25 cable and fixed my machine myself, but I had to have them loosen one of the little bolts on the lid, for which they charged me $30 for less than a minute of work. Oh well.
Anyway, I went into CompUSA tonight and was told that there would be no discounts on Apple products, which they say they are just going to send back to Apple rather than liquidate. But, I was told I might get up to 5% off on PCs and other products if I wait until after the holidays. I don't think I'm really going to miss them much.
I sure hope not! I love CompUSA!
Best Buy is pure evil
yep i have bb i like CompUSA better anyways theres one by my house
Stuff like this is just sad to hear. I really hope you don't transfer to a Best Buy. I hate best buy with a passion.