How To Get The Goods
OK boys and girls, gather a little closer around my virtual camp fire and let me share a little story with you. Yes, this story is true and was passed down to my by an actual CompUSA employee. This is the story of how iPodicus came into being…
It all started in June of last year. I strolled my way in to what I call my grown up toy store (because adult toy store just wouldn’t sound right): CompUSA. I was on a mission. A mission to aquire the latest in technological hotness: the iPod (I’m not worthy!). After pushing my way past many…many distractions, I make my way to No Man’s Land, also known as the Apple Section. I rush in and out carefully making sure no one saw me.
Once I got up to the register, I plopped down my load of iPod swag. As the clerk was checking me out, he asked me if I wanted the CompUSA extended warranty. I thought about it and finally said, “No.” Then the clerk was like, “No you REALLY want this warranty.” “…I do…? Why?” “Let me tell you how this works: You get the warranty and if it breaks within one year, we’ll replace it…no questions asked. If this model isn’t available, we’ll give you the closest matching model (i.e. newer) or give you store credit towards the purchase of something else.”
In other words, you bite the bullet and throw down some hard cash for some technological wonder and the one year warranty. Just as a heads up, they’ll try to push the two year warranty on you but don’t take. Then you wait 9 – 11 months, stroll up to CompUSA, and make your way to the Customer Service desk. You hand them said wonder, explain the “problem” that you are having with it, and go get something else. Now here comes the genius part: get the warranty on the new wonder. Wash, rinse, repeat. The idea is that you make that initial investment, wait a few months, make a smaller investment, and end up with something better. The investment accumulates over time.
In my case, I bought my iPod last year with the one year warranty. Then I waited for Apple to release a new iPod and drive down the prices of the lesser models. Once that happened, I went up to CompUSA, got store credit for my old iPod, and thus iPodicus was born. Basically I doubled the size of my iPod and got color all for $50 plus the cost of a new extended warranty. So next year when I go back I’ll be able to get store credit for iPodicus. Oh, it’s noteworthy to mention that you get store credit for amount that you paid then and not the current market value one year later.
Needless to say there is a nVidia GeForce 6800 GT graphics card in my PC that needs to be switched out soon as well.
Lauren, I would be more than happy to donate my old iPod to your worthy cause, but alas, it sacrificed its life for iPodicus.
Finally, in OMG news, ye ol’ website rolled over 10000 hits last night. That means I’m averaging about 3333.33333333… hits a month. Rock, rock on!! Mucho thanks people!!
“Some beach somewhere, There’s nowhere to go when you got all day to get there. Theres cold Margharitas and hot Senoritas, Smilin’, with long dark hair on some beach, somewhere.” Blake Shelton – ‘Some Beach’
The Anti-Liger Alliance site is back up this month. (again, link cred goes to Heather)
Drive and Dodge – the product of Pac Man and Super Sprint.
Drunk homeowner whips out pistol from rear waistband to scare off coyotes… if “whips out pistol” actually means “shoots himself right in the butt.”
Carcass Art - a must for road kill enthusiasts.
In an effort to make laptops more secure, Hitachi will release a laptop with no hard drive. To reboot, you simply turn it upside down and shake it.
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I'm currently living in Tallahassee, FL where I am a graduate of the Computer Science program at FSU and a C# web developer for a local software company.
wow.
That is a pretty sweet deal there with the iPod. Thanks for the willingness to donate to the cause–it’s the thought that counts
Holy crap, switching out a 6800 GT now?
Is there something actually better than that?
Very nteresting tip, as I’m planning on buying an ipod very soon.
Other than switching to a 6800 Ultra or moving from AGP to PCI Express, I don’t think there’s anything better out there. But I believe I’ve got a few more months until I have to start thinking about it.
I purchased a set of speakers from Compusa a couple of years ago. They did the little wink and nod and told me the same thing about the warranty. So, I purchased the one year warranty, as it wasn’t too expensive. Interestingly enough, my subwoofer died about 10 months later. No kidding, it really did die. Not “die” but actually die. I took the speakers back, and no questions asked, I got a new set.
And the Apple section is not “no man’s land”. It’s more like the land flowing with milk and honey.
More like the “the land milking you of all your money.”
I’d say the entire store, all electronic stores for that matter, would be the land of milking you of all your money.
Speaking of milking money, the Hitachi laptop with no hard drive will cost $2,476.
That is a pretty expensive etch-a-sketch and calculator combo.
And since it has to be at headquarters to interact with the servers and pc’s, why are they making it in the form of notebooks?
I guess it depends on the premise that all souls entering an electronic store is worth milking
The Hitachi Laptop is “ohh ahhh” considering the reason they give out laptops is to let employees have a mobile office. GO figure.
I think that if the soul has any money at all, they will try to milk it. If you don’t want to be bothered at these stores, pretend that you don’t have any money and say “I’m just looking.” Of course, if you say that and then need some help later, good luck.
No soup for you!
you know, i did the same thing back in the summer with a GPS receiver. i bought the two-year warranty along with my GPS. after a few months, my GPS died. seriously, it died…as in “ceased to exist” died. so i took it back to best buy and, much to my delight, they no longer made the GPS that i purchased. so, in order to make well with the situation they offered me the next nearest model. (in the back of my mind, i swear i could hear the words “shibby!” and “sweet!”) the closest model that they had was the color edition. also included was a 16 MB upgrade to the memory. on top of that, my warranty transfered over to the new device. by that, i mean i get two extra years out of the original warranty. oh yeah, and did i mention that this particular unit also had a more powerful receptor. i can pinpoint a location within 3 feet whereas with the older model i could only pinpoint a location within 8 feet…all by using only two satellites. with three satellites it drops to 1 foot. it’s pretty much dead-on after that.
so, when the salesman asks, “would you like to purchase the extended warranty?” reply with, “are you kidding?!? YES!!!”
in other news, ladder 49 is out on video today. i urge y’all to check it out.
now, where did i put my ‘rhinestone cowboy’ 8-track…
That reminds me of when I purchased my GPS (Garmin Etrex) from Compusa. I asked the sales lady about them and then showed her a best buy ad that had that particular model on sale. She said that they might be able to match the price. So, she called Best Buy to confirm the price, but they didn’t have it in stock. She told me that they can only price match if it is in stock at both places. But instead of giving up and going to best buy for a rain check, I decided to try one more thing. Insert about 20 minutes for talking and flirting, and more flirting, and a tad more flirting. Fast forward to half an hour later and I was walking out of compusa, not only with the GPS that I got for the Best Buy price, but also a complimentary power adapter and data transfer cable. I think it may be time to upgrade the gps now, too bad the warranty no longer holds on it. Oh well. Plan B.