Business

Future Shop Boxing Day Laptop Fiasco

by Alan Yu
12/28/2007
6 Comments

People have been informing me about a situation that they have experienced in trying to buy a laptop on boxing day through various Future Shop stores here in BC. Based on all the information I received, it seems like the company advertised a Toshiba laptop that was being sold with very limited quantities at a low price of $499. However, people are complaining that they were forced into buying a $99 recovery disc of some sort as a mandatory add on as they were told the laptop would not work without it.

I then contacted some of the people that I know who would have inside knowledge of this to try and get a better understanding if this was a corporate decision or simply one bad management decision from a store level on a case by case basis. From what I was told, there were instructions given that about half of the laptops were to be pre-configured in an attempt to get people to buy the $99 add-on although some stores got greedy and made all of them as such. I guess that is certainly a good reason for people to complain about false advertising.

The senior vice president of the company did issue this statement on the companyâ€™s web site forum:

Dear Customer,

Future Shop is committed to delivering great customer service and honouring all of our consumer policies

In an effort to make customer shopping experiences in our stores faster and more convenient, especially during high traffic days like Boxing Day, a percentage of laptops and desktop computers are pre-configured with set-up and recovery CDs.

If you feel you were not given the option to buy a laptop or desktop computer without the pre-configured package on Boxing Day, we apologize for this inconvenience. Please feel free to contact us to request a refund. Contact us at your convenience either in-store, at 1-800-663-2275 (select language option and then select 2), or send an email to service@futureshop.com.

We are deeply committed to ensuring our customers are satisfied and that their interactions with our stores, web site, and call centres all deliver that promise. This is of the utmost importance to the Future Shop team.

Sincerely,

Moe Amirie

Senior Vice President

I was asked what recovery discs were too. Generally speaking, it is simply a tool used to start up your computer in situations such as if you downloaded a virus and your computer wonâ€™t turn on properly anymore. So it is no way a mandatory requirement initially and you can easily create one yourself for free.

One thing that was kind of shocking to me though was how apparently a store technician had to actually open the new laptop in question to create the disc as well as essentially having to sign the End User Licensing Agreement for the customer. Granted no one usually reads those, but it sure places the business in a sticky situation.

As mentioned above, you can request for a refund if you were one of the people who were forced into buying the $99 disc. Would this be considered as shady business practices you say? I personally wasnâ€™t there so I canâ€™t really comment on whether or not they were simply trying to profit off the less technically savvy crowd who were in that shopping frenzy mode.

One thing that I do know is that retail is an extremely low margin business and very often people resort to misleading others to make a profit. Although to be fair, sometimes it is a result of ignorance from the person serving you. May as well save your money by getting a refund if you are one of the people who feel was tricked into buying that recovery disc.

6 Comments

comtechguy 12/29/2007

This was not an isolated incident, and this was not done for anything as noble as accomodating customers without computer skills. The Future Shop forum has edited and deleted every message I’ve posted in response to others who refused to pay the setup fee and were denied the sale item, myself included. There were people that lined up at 2 and 3 AM to get these sale items. Right from store opening they were told that they didn’t have any of the not setup units at the $499.00 sale price, but did have presetup units for $599.00. This was a grab for money pure and simple, and it backfired on them, big time. I hope more people contact the manufacturers of the sale items, and consumer affairs.
theman2000 1/2/2008

very possible because you were being quite one sided about what you were saying, im a big fan of future shop and know a lot of the techs there and this was purely a case by case situtation, comtechguy is a geek who has nothing better to do then try to scam future shop for his $25 gift card, grow up buddy.
GregInVancouver 1/12/2008

Hey theman2000,

This was not a case by case situation as should now be obvious. It was a nation-wide, chain-wide money grab which failed miserably. I was told in two different stores for two slightly varying reasons (“this is the last model we have so it’s already been set up” , “We set up all computers for customers so the work has been done for you”) that I had no choice but to pay the fee or else I wouldn’t be able to purchase the machine.

Discussions on blogs all over have proven this was premeditated. The store hoped customers wouldn’t notice but there are just too many tech-savvy people out there who want to set up their own computer their own way.
Product Expert 5/20/2008

It was not a chain wide money grab. I can assure you that as our store did not participate in the 100% pre setups. We followed suit on the 50% setup instructions and it worked out perfectly.

By all rights if the customer does not want the computer setup for them they have a right to refuse to purchase it. Since there was no time to remove the setups should stores run out of unconfigured boxes they would just take the recovery cds out or give it to the customer regardless and take the loss as trying their best to give good customer service. A few stores got greedy and there was many lessons to be learned from this.

Just to educate readers on what the $99 recovery cd here is a breakdown of what it entails.

Setup & Restore:
1. Complete Vista setup.
2. Update windows and drivers if necessary.
3. Remove / Deactivate manufacturer bloatware.
4. Fix known software conflicts to best of ability.
5. Clean up windows startup & edit registry for optimum performance if necessary.
6. Burn & test recovery cds/dvds
7. Remove trial version of Norton if instructed by customer.
8. Install and configure any printer purchased with computer.
9. Test and inspect computer for visible/unknown defects/damage/issues to best of ability.
10. Check battery health on laptops.
11. Configure other system specific settings.

As you can see. all of this is a lengthy process. 5 hours on average depending on the specs of the machine. For many this is a valued service. Especially those stressed for time in their personal lives and those who haven’t a slightest idea how to get optimum performance from their new computer.
Jessica W. 6/15/2009

There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points in this subject. So, just want to say great job!
Curtis 4/12/2010

I think its not a matter if the service is worth $99 or not, its a matter of making it mandatory.
Just today my father went to Future Shop to get a laptop. They would not sell it to him without the $99 setup. He didnt buy it.