Too Little Too Late

We live on the south side of Houston; and Comp USA was the only dedicated computer store close to us. When I needed to go somewhere else, I drove up to the Apple store or MicroCenter both located on the west side of town in the Galleria area) or traveled to the north side of town to the Fry’s Electronics store located just off I-45. Just before Christmas of last year, Fry’s opened one of their big megastores just south of us and along I-45. It’s only a couple of miles south of the CompUSA store. Getting to either takes about the same amount of time and effort.

Now, I’ve never really thought much of CompUSA. Their return policies, like everything else about the store, have not been customer friendly. Help is never around when you need it, and crawls all over you when you don’t. And while you can get a good deal every now and then if you watch their ads, prices are generally average. The Mac section has always sucked, with prices lagging seriously behind Apple’s price cuts and old demo machines that always seem to be missing pieces or just not working on the shelves. But back to the return policies, for that’s where this story lies.

My wife bought my iPod Photo from there. When she did, the salesman told her that the iPod could be returned within 21 days for a full refund, even if it was opened. Not believing what she was hearing, she asked about it again; and the salesman reiterated the 21 day return policy with no holds barred. We were used to the 14 -30 day (depending upon what you bought), 15% restocking fee opened or not policy. It’s not clear to me if the store has had a forced change of heart or if the policy applied just to the iPod. Even if it did apply across the board, it really is too little too late.

I told my wife that when Fry’s opened, they would kick the stuffing out of CompUSA. The only time the local CompUSA store has any appreciable traffic in it anymore is when they hold some kind of special sale, the kind where they close the store and give really great deals away for only a few hours. Other than that, when I go inside the store anymore, there are more salesmen than customers.

As you can probably tell, I have no loyalty toward CompUSA. The store never seemed to be customer oriented and always possessed a hint of arrogance. I can contrast that with my feelings about MicroCenter whom I have sometimes gone out of my way to purchase from. Or with a local Chinese food restaurant named China Square that my wife and I patronize not only because the food is good and the prices are reasonable but because we have built an almost personal relationship with the family who runs the place. We go there despite the bigger Asian food restaurant with more parking just down the road.

CompUSA never seemed to worry about keeping its customer base, and now it may finally have caught up to them, at least in this one store.