I recently bought a new computer. I was originally going to buy the computer online, but my dad convinced me to purchase the computer in a brick and mortar store. The reason was that it is much easier to get support in a store. He had a friend that bought a computer from Dell.com, and, just to be safe, bought the overnight support service for her computer. Her new laptop did have problems. She sent it back, and then Dell sent it back, and then she sent it back, and so forth. Despite being extra careful with purchasing extra support, she never got her problem solved.
I was skeptical at first. I wanted to buy online because of the wider selection and the lack of sales tax. I took the leap, though, and purchased my computer at Micro Center.
Fast forward a week. I’m trying to uninstall a non-functioning Linux partition, and I stupidly end up deleting the boot partition. Don’t worry if you don’t know what that means, basically: I broke my computer, and I broked it good. And since it was entirely my fault, I’m sure I voided my warranty multiple times.
I took the computer into Micro Center. They had a free walk-in clinic. They could not fix my computer. I told them what I did, and there was no doubt that the problem was on account of me trying to do something stupid with my computer. The technician left the room…
…And came back with a new computer! They gave me a new computer, for free, for turning my computer into a brick. Amazing. The manager-on-duty even stopped by to ask me if I was pleased with the service I had gotten.
Moral of the story, always buy computers from a store with a great reputation for customer service. It’s not worth paying for a good warranty if you can’t enforce it. If there isn’t a Micro Center in your area, ask around and learn from other people’s experiences. You can save yourself a lot of money by paying attention to these details, and you encourage job retention within your community.
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