A little over 50 years ago, I ordered a bottle of my then-favorite wine, with my wife at a fine dining restaurant, This experience was strangely mirrored when I bought a new computer from Micro Center last week.
In both cases, my initial expectations were not met.
The first taste of the wine (Louis Jadot Beaujolais Blanc) tasted sour. I sent it back. The game me another bottle; same problem. After three attempts, the server and I agreed that the whole case must be bad and I got something else. No one showed any distress to deal with the returned stock. In a classy restaurant, they prefer you identify a problem with your service, rather than suffer through it. They handled the situation with grace and insured that they could (and did)enjoy my future visits (all trouble-free!).
Fast forward to my computer purchase at Micro Center. After viewing Amazon's big sale offerings, I found a very competitive machine on sale at Micro Center. It was a PowerSpec, the house brand. I took it home, mad the connections and fired it up. The case lights came on, the fans whirled, the monitor flashed briefly and went blank. The screen stayed blank for over an hour. After that, I managed to get it to slowly boot, but I could only get 640 x 480 resolution. Mildly annoying, but when I took it back to the store, there was no trouble in swapping it out for another unit.
Except this guy booted up slower than an Apple II loading from a cassette drive. I fiddled with this, as I did with the first one, but got no joy. I used to sell computers and I've built some before, so I knew this was getting pretty hopeless. So I went back to Micro Center and explained the situation. We agreed to try one more machine, but the service department would check it out, with me watching, before it left the store. This time, it ran great from the git-go and is still behaving consistently well.
My hat's off to Lance Gerst, Brett R., and the rest of the staff who gracefully turned this situation around. I was impressed by their professional approach. They were clearly not just appeasing an unhappy customer; they clearly demonstrated pride in their product and a desire to make sure we arrived at a solution that would actually be effective. I offered to keep the second machine, if they wanted to bench check it, but no, they felt the situation called tor a clean-cut solution with a new unit. They kept me in the loop on everything as it developed. This isn't the first computer I've bought here. It won't be the last.
Always a good experience shopping here. Staff is friendly and attentive while also being knowledgeable. I have built an entire gaming PC just buying components here in the past. Tons of selection and cool to just browse. Highly recommend if you prefer an in-person experience. I find their prices very competitive to online.
Parking is usually okay here, but the overall plaza is almost always a thunderdome. Try to come in from the back or through the commercial park to the south.
