Eeeediots!

[elfs]

This afternoon, Omaha took Kouryou-chan out to watch Curious George, and I, having a family-friendly 87 minutes to sit around and wait for them, wandered over to CompUSA. I was going to implement Charlie Stross's recommendation to writers and buy a USB keyboard for my laptop so I could type into the laptop without wearing it out the native keyboard. That happened to Lain, remember, and I'm sure I don't want it to happen to my new laptop, Kusanagi, which finally came in the mail after three and a half months of waiting.

The people at CompUSA are morons. I found a $10 USB laptop and found a salesgeek. "Does this work with Linux?" I asked. The question was somewhat rhetorical; I was reasonably sure it did, but I wanted some confirmation. Anyway, the dude at CompUSA said, and I quote, "Uh, I don't know."

"Well, do any of these work with an iBook?" I said, knowing that the Mach USB keyboard drivers for iBooks were reasonably close to the drivers for Linux, and if one existed the other probably did too.

"You mean, like a Mac?"

"Yeah, like a Mac."

"I don't know." He turned the box over. "Says here it works with Windows 2000 and Windows XP. So probably not."

Whatever happened to customer service? Look, if you want to make a sale, you could go and see if that brand and model has a driver for my computer, yes? And then I might buy it, yes? Do floor people just not get commissions anymore? That's not right.

Comments

[lionman.livejournal.com]

I've learned to try not to rely on CompUSA drones to know anything technical, and sometimes I don't rely on them to know the prices either, I can find that out on the website before I get there. :-/ I wonder if they're not becoming more and more Radio-Shack-like.

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

Ummm, what sort of commission could he earn on a $10.00 keyboard? I've had great experiences with CompUSA salesfolk when I'm spending money, but less-than-enthusiastic responses when I'm looking at small stuff.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

They don't care if you buy that because they're pushed to sell big ticket items. If there's no commission, they're not supposed to care about it.

Yes, stupid but true.

[solarbird]

I asked a guy in a CompUSA store once if this external network card had drivers for the packet driver system. (It said "drivers included for all network operating systems" but didn't list them on the outside of the box.) He told me that cards didn't need drivers now because, and I quote, "they don't have the little relays inside anymore." Which I had him repeat, because I couldn't believe that's what I'd just heard.

The only thing I could think of to say was, "Ooh... kay. Could I speak to someone who knows anything whatsoever about networking now, please?" He wasn't real thrilled with that.

Also, they hate you as much as you hate them.

[solarbird]

Penny Arcade: True Story!

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

The answer was, in fact, "yes" on both counts. USB keyboards are 100% standardized - all USB keyboards and mice implement USB HID, just like all USB hard disks and flash drives implement USB Mass Storage.

similar story...

[-pollox.livejournal.com]

had one try and convince me once that you could run a PC without RAM because they had at least some memory built-in to the motherboard... I think that was at a best buy...

[elfs.livejournal.com]

To which my simple reply is that if they're not going to help me in giving them $10, I'm much less inclined to give them $200 later...

Re: similar story...

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the time I bought a bad DVD drive (now remembered because my current one died tonight) and the first-tier moron at Sony wouldn't give me an RMA number because I had used it under Linux and that voided my warranty. I bitched and moaned and he gave me to the next tier, who told me that it was a hardware problem, he knew it, I knew it, and here's the RMA, and the first tier idiot is, indeed, an idiot. It was nice to talk to someone sane for once.

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

Um... Sweetie, you were at _CompUSA_. They don't have customer service. They've _never_ had customer service. If you find one CompUSA employee out of ten that has any technical knowledge at all, you're doing damned well. For that sort of thing, you're better off going to a small, independant store. Unfortunately, the prices there are going to be prohibitive. Frys, as a big chain store, is better, but they're pretty rare and not sure you have any. Best Buy...I don't want to even _think_ about Best Buy. Sorry.

[fallenpegasus]

They are supposed to.

One only needs to read the comments in the Linux USB storage and the Linux USB HID drivers to see what actually has happened, where the device implementers designed their silicon and their firmware around the idiosyncrasies and occasional bugs in Microsoft's implementation, instead of around the actual formal standard.

[pteryxx.livejournal.com]

There's a Fry's in Renton, not exactly close to Seattle but within reach. And they're less clueless... I haven't done hardcore computer shopping there, but in other departments, I've found their staff are at least friendly and if they don't know the answer, they'll go looking for the one experienced guy that does. I spent two months returning various phones, and on every weekly visit they were happy to see me. That's saying something.

[yamazakikun.livejournal.com]

It's surprising that the keyboard only cost $10 -- normally, it's as if Carlos Slim thinks he has a monopoly in American computer stores in addition to Mexican phone lines. But, yeah, I've never expected any actual clue from any retail establishment targeted at the general computer user.

You might want to take a look at the Happy Hacking keyboards -- the Lite2 USB can be had online for $50 plus shipping, and word-of-mouth seems to be positive. Your tolerance may be higher, but for me the cheap keyboards aren't particularly usable.