🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <loquismo-2907952246200001@dial-sf1-23.iway.aimnet.com>,
loquismo@aimnet.com (Bryan Cowan) wrote to The Netcruiser
<ftrsblek@ix.netcom.com>:

:Question: have you tried places like Fry's? (JPL is in Silicon Valley,
:isn't it?) Fry's doesn't seem to be too bad-I have a Mac so I haven't had
:any experience with them, but I figure that if so many Silicon Valley
:professionals trust them (especially the one in Sunnyvale) then they can't
:be all that bad. That said, you SHOULD watch out for these mom-and-pop
:computer places that have sprung up all over the place-chances are good
:they have no clue what they're doing. 

From my experience, Fry's salespeople don't know a hell of a lot of what
they talk about either. I once went there to look for hard drives for a
Mac  (they sell those now), and the salesperson I spoke to excitedly went
to show me a brown cardboard box, containing the Apple 2X CD-ROM drive. :)
The person selling the hard disks seemed to have been thrown off by a Mac
question, so he pointed me there. Another time, I went to look at PC
motherboards, and the salesperson told me to talk with his customers--they
knew more than he did! <g> (To be fair, these incidents took place at
their still-new Woodland Hills (Southern CA) store, and the salespeople
may not have been trained well yet (either through formal training or
direct experience).) Their prices, however, are among the best available,
and if you can put up with the lousy service and general incompetence, you
may still end up walking out with a great deal. Hell, my brother's looking
for a computer, and is seriously considering Fry's. They also have an
excellent selection of computers and computer parts. But I'm not sure how
good their service is if you actually have technical problems (and in most
instances, you have to have an extended waranty to have your computer
serviced at the store, even if your machine is covered by the
manufacturer's warranty). I'm not quite sure what the qualitative
difference between shopping at Fry's and using good mail order is. Caviat
Emptor...

[BTW, JPL is in Southern California, near Pasadena. I believe it's a bit
of a drive from the Fry's stores in So Cal.]


Peace,

<> David

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"We have a Department of Defense, they're to make war.  We have an
 intelligence community to produce secrets- I'm sorry, to gather secrets."
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----------
"My experience is that most people who think they are beyond the intellect 
 actually haven't quite gotten up to it yet."
--Ken Wilber, transpersonal philosopher, in Yoga Journal, Fall 1987