So my mother recently decided she wanted a new computer. She knows nothing about computers and my dad, though he knows enough, defaults to just whatever ‘looks neat’. So I offered to help them find something that would work well for my mom’s needs and wouldn’t cost them an arm and a leg. At first they wanted a brand new machine but I told them they’d get more for their money with refurbished. Now, I have always bought refurbished myself on whatever I can get it on. Desktops, laptops, cameras, etc. And I have NEVER had a problem. They’ve all worked fantastically. It took a bit but I finally convinced her that there would be nothing wrong with it.
So, after spending quite a while shopping around at the sites I was familiar with, mostly Newegg and Tiger Direct. Well in my browsing, I ran across Geeks. I hadn’t really even used them before but they seemed to have a large selection and seemed to be a fairly established company. Pretty quickly I found this computer. Since we already had a monitor that worked, it looked to be perfect and the price was pretty nice as well. So I order it.
Skip to delivery date. I’m a little dubious since the box looks a bit…old. It’s obvious they just taped over some old tape on the box. It wasn’t even taped well. Just one strip across the middle. Ok, well whatever. The box looks a little worn but no obvious damage to it. Open up the box and not at all impressed with what I saw. That’s the entire packing job. The keyboard was jammed between the box and the case. Nothing around it. Though, the mouse and the power cord were very carefully wrapped in a Safeway grocery bag. :eek: And, no speakers, even though it was advertised as having them. This was the kind of thing I might have accepted from a private seller but a big company like Geeks? Wtf people.
Well, I figured as long as the computer worked, it wasn’t a big deal. But I think you can guess by the looks of that pic that something’s not right. I took it out and the front of the case, which is detachable, is completely off kilter. I attempted to reattach it, but apparently something was broken and it refused to go on correctly. It was so bad, there was no way I couldaccess the front ports. At this point I’m pretty much done with it but I figure I might as well see if it works. Plug everything in, hook it up to the monitor, and turned it on. Oh and I had to detach the front of the case to even power it on because the power button wouldn’t work. Yup, turns on just fine but…nothing. Won’t boot. No bios screen or anything. Just…nothing.
So I have to tell my parents that I have to return their ‘new’ computer as it’s a piece of shit. Of course they’re a bit annoyed and start going on about how this wouldn’t have happened if I had just gotten a brand new one from the Dell website. And really, I couldn’t say much about it. It was just a complete disaster, and as their first and only experience buying something refurbished, of course it soured them on the idea of trying that again.
I’m just so pissed with Geeks. I think it’s mostly because I did so much to convince my parents that refurbished doesn’t mean crappy. And yet here I stand, my foot in my mouth and a busted computer on my floor. I did their automated return process, since it’s the weekend and I got a RMA number. Of course, I have to pay for return shipping, which I imagine isn’t going to be cheap. I’m just going to get a complete refund and consider it a lesson learned.