service@futureshop.com  

Dear Futureshop,

	I know in advance that this email will have little consequence, but please bare with me, I need to vent [I know, not the first thing you want to hear]. You see, my girlfriend was recently a customer in one of your stores, and she is less than satisfied with her purchasing experience. This leaves me with an unhappy girlfriend and you with an unhappy customer [I think you can figure out which of us is worse off]. It all started innocently enough; she wanted to buy a new laptop for school next year. She's really smart, and she got into McGill [I know, I know, I'm bragging for her], so she thought she would go buy a new computer to keep her company on those long nights where she would undoubtably be writing many more pages than me on this morning. Because she had heard good things from her friends who are already in university, she decided to buy a laptop from Futureshop. While eating breakfast one Sunday morning [and I say Sunday because this is the morning I associate most with eating breakfast, for all I know it could have been a Monday], she happened upon a flyer that stated if she bought said laptop in store, specifically the store in Moncton, New Brunswick, that she would receive a free 250 gigabyte external USB drive. This was not a deal she was ready to pass up, so she called her brother who lives in Moncton to buy this laptop of all laptops, with free USB drive. After wiring the money to him, he promptly went to the store to purchase this laptop. Acting as an intermediary between the salesperson and the sister who was speaking through a cell phone, the brother managed to select the software that was to be installed. Now this is crucial, because the software that was to be installed also cost money. It was decided that Norton Antivirus would be installed and Microsoft Office would be skipped [probably going to go with OpenOffice at my suggestion]. It all sounds simple enough, but would these instructions be followed as the customer asked? All will be revealed shortly. The brother, who lives about 6 hours from home, and has a job, was unable to make it home to give the laptop to his sister, my girlfriend. So the laptop sat in his house untouched until he could make it home to give it to his sister. Two weeks later he finally got home and gave the laptop to his sister, and almost immediately afterwards I get a phone call. It's my girlfriend, and she got her new laptop. However, something was not right, she didn't sound happy, she was crying. I know this is not something most people will cry about, but she is a sensitive girl. She explains to me that they didn't install Norton Antivirus and they did install Microsoft Office, among other things. Also, there was no USB drive. I tell her to calm down, "If you just call them, they will fix this whole situation. It was probably just a mistake", I assure her. She hangs up [not immediately, we talked about other things first, but it's not pertinant to the storyline]. The sales person, a certain "Frederic Blanche", was going to call her back. He never called, she waited all day.  She called back the next day, and she was told again to not worry, Fred would call her. Another day passed and he never called. I get a call with this poor girl still crying to me. I hear the story, and am confused. I didn't know that Futureshop trained their employees in the same school of customer service as Radio Shack, or the Source, trains theirs [Sorry, that was harsh]. Not only are they unwilling to honor the 250 gig USB drive deal, but they plan on charging her if she decides to bring the computer in to get Norton Antivirus installed. The reason for not honoring the 250 gig USB drive deal? Apparently, it's too late now, they would have to return the laptop and ring the sale through again. Unfortunately for her, it's past the 14 day return policy, so even if she did drive the 6 hours to Moncton to return it and pick it up again 15 seconds later, she would be out of luck, by a matter of a few days. I'm not even sure what I'm expecting out of this letter. I guess what I'm looking for is some acknowlegement that what happened is not the regular service that your stores offer their customers. If you could go out of your way and get the store to cooperate with her, that would be great, but you probably won't. Why would you? You already have her money, and if you lose one shopper, there are always five more to take her place. It must be comfortable being a big chain of stores, because if you were one of the many smaller computer retailers you might have to atually rely on good customer service to keep customers. Instead you choose to rely on empty promises and a "too bad" attitude. 

~Chris Baker