Horrible experience with Bestbuy Return policy. (7811fx)

Hi guys I had some bad experience with them and it's quite long. I posted at
Bestbuy forum... I just wanted people to becareful with their service. I'm not saying that Gateway 7811fx is a bad product. I agree that it's an amazing product, it's just that I did not have any luck with it. I feel like I was in the middle of bad batch, anyway here it is Link If you read this than you will find out that I have ended up with Toshiba (and I regretted it DONT GET IT!!! the performance was horrible compared to 7811fx I couldn't even run BIoshock in the native 1400/900 resolution when It was smooth on Fx on its 1900/1200 native resolution) hope you guys can forgive my coward like act at the end but i have returned the laptop and currently I'm saving up more money to build my own PC. So... don't smack me across my face.

anyway

Peace

 

Best Buy and Geek Squad are both terrible. That is all.

 

Circuit city is the absolute worst. Best buy is second. Costco is very good (90 day return policy, no restocking). Fry's is also good (15/30 days...depends on product...no restocking fee).

 

I had the worst product returning experience of my life when I tried to return ram to Best Buy.

They accused me of trying to return the product with my old ram inside the box because the description on the box and the product inside the box didn't match. I tried to explain to them that this was the exact reason that I was returning the product. The resident Geek Squad genius told me that the ram I was trying to return was not sold in stores and only comes pre-built in computers. Out of options I went to the computer section, grabbed a new box off the shelf (which of course had the exact same ram inside it) and showed it to the guy. Long story short I got my friggin refund.

 

Lol... I didn't realize that I wrote that long and carelessly on that site... sorry guys who tried to read lol. I was really angry at them thats all

 

Mistargill, For sure the x305 q701 isn't as powerful as the p7811 fx. That's because the Toshiba model was well thought out from the concept as far as affordable gaming and longevity is concerned.

The p7811fx is awesome brute force but I think it was just thrown together in order for Gateway to stop Toshiba from getting a significant portion of the mainstream gamer market, since they already started with the X205 gaming notebook line, so Gateway had to design quickly and one up Toshiba to compete for market share, but with that something had to suffer.

Gateway just crammed in the more higher spec cpu and gpu in thier last generation notebook casing which didn't take into account issues like heat upgradeability etc. and they didn't focus on sound which is an important element to a good multimedia (gaming) experience, it was rushed with the intent to just smash it's competitor with graphics performance, but who knows how long it will last because of the faulty design.

On the other hand Toshiba implemented what was necessary to play modern games and games well into 2010 without breaking the bank. 1440 x 900 is more than sufficient for gaming and it helps with keeping graphics running smooth at max settings. They learned alot from their previous gaming notebook and that's why it's thicker and hollower for better heat dissapation
and I assume they rethought implementing SLI configuration into a notebook due to weight considerations. The x305 is lighter than my x205 SLI1 and yet it's cheaper and more powerful.

I own Bioshock and it runs at max settings on native res (1440x900) and hovers between 30-60 frames per second. Also if you still own the X305 you may want to install the latest driver updates on the Toshiba website. I've notice a substantial improvment in overall performance and it seems that all components have improved coordination as far as processing software which equals faster smoother operation along with faster frame rates for gaming due to the latest nvidia display driver update 176.39, which is released officially from Toshiba.

I would also suggest that you don't install laptopvideo2go drivers if you don't want to lose the ability to game using just battery power, since unofficial video drivers will "downclock" your graphics performance when not plugged into an ac.

In the end the Gateway P 7811 FX is every gamers wet dream. I just wish they spent more time working out the bugs, but then again it probably would cost a little more than the x305.

 

If you get an email asking for you to fill out a customer experience survey for best buy, DO IT. I gave "unsatisfactory" ratings after no one at Best Buy could help me after weeks of attempts over the the phone and in store. Anyway, I filled out the survey, 2 days later I get a call from the nicest lady ever. She worked for the BB customer satisfaction team and had the ability to pull hardcore strings for me, ended up in me being credited back the full price of my 7811 after having it for over a month.

 

Oddly, my experience was completely different. On Sunday night, the Service manager tracked down a newer 7811FX for me and said he would have it for me Monday afternoon. He said he'd be on vacation, but pointed out another guy who would be there on Monday. On Monday, I went in, the found the 7811FX from the other store, but it was the same old 2887 serial number. After a few phone calls to the other store, they found one with a 2888 serial number and sent a guy over to pick it up. I went back to work, returned an hour later, and exchanged my 2887 serial numbered 7811 (which had locked up a number of time) for a 2888 serial numbered 7811. Three seperate people at my store and a few people at another store went way out of their way to get me what I wanted.

I find that if I'm nice to people, explain WHY I want something specific, like the serial number and tell them they can take whatever time they need, I generally get what I want. But then, I live in Minnesota... maybe people are just nicer here

 

I think i should simply shut up, but i cant help it. I would go walking all the way to the other store to bring your laptop to mine. It's not because im nice is because that way i get be out of the store for 2 hours... Maybe just maybe they aren't like me and did it to go the extra mile for their 8 bucks an hour it just seems hard to believe. I do remember going the extra mile for nice costumers but it usually meant me enjoying it as well, life is short and the days at BB just shortened mine hahaha. But like you said maybe ppl are nicer in your state

 

OK, I think we are a bit off-topic here, but I don't think it's just my state. I think if you treat people nicely, they usually respond in kind. I've seen people walk up to the service counter and just let into the poor schmuck who happens to be there. That kind of behaviour generally does not inspire extra-mile service.

I'll also point out that I got the service I got before anyone knew I had also purchased the black-tie service plan.

A "How do we fix this" attitude gets much better results than a "Who can I blame" attitude.

 

Nah, if you're in a lot of Northeastern states people are all selfish. Like NJ. Rush rush rush, me me me. I've traveled all over the US, people really are nicer out west.

 

I never argued with them nor accused them or anything. They purely told me lies and tried to charge me the 15% even though they saw multiple dead pixels. I than was mad and started to talk about how they are not doing what the policy says. They told me I couldn't even turn it in when I offered to pay 15% when I actually got there.

 

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The golden rule has been around for a while.. And this aside, respect warrants respect. Its human nature. Glad everything worked out for ya fiziks.

mista, just delete your MBR and then take it back. That makes it defective..temporairly. Will give you enough time to return.

Sorry, broke golden rule..wouldnt want someone giving me something back broken..but, I'm just guiding..not doin on my own.

 

thanks for review

but still it's the cheap place.

 

I know it's dishonest but try "It just keeps crashing at random times, and I'd like to exchange it for another one."

 

Yeah, some of the nicest people I've met (retail sales wise) are from Wauwatosa, WI on a visit to my friend going to med school. I don't think it's coincidence that the nicer ones are the ones away from the big cities like New York or the Bay Area. However, I did encounter some good service in the LA area; guess that throws my theory out the window...

 

Well. My opinion is it really depends on the people you are dealing with. I'm not American and have not visited very many different palces in this country so I can not say that there is regional differences of people being more kind State wise. I've only been to Ney York bestbuy and buying 7811fx was my first encounter of dealing business with bestbuy. When I wrote on that forum there was several topic complaining about the service and stuff. I went through with few of those and found one that was talking about the same bestbuy that I had trouble with. The topic mentioned the manager's name, who was Stephen and the location of the bestbuy so I knew it was the same bestbuy.

I think it really depends on who is managing the place and such.