[lug] OT: Great Laptop Deal @ Flatirons Best Buy

[Nate Duehr]

On Nov 23, 2004, at 6:55 PM, Ken MacFerrin wrote:

> Completely off topic but thought folks would like to know that the  
> BestBuy near Flatirons Mall has a great deal running on a Toshiba  
> laptop.  They have the Toshiba Satellite A75-S209, typically about  
> $1400, marked down (in-store only) to $1249 plus another $200 off in  
> mail-in rebates.  A great package for $1049 + tax.
>
> 3.06 P4 w/533 bus, 512MB in 1 dimm, 15.4 WXGA screen, 60GB HDD, etc...
> http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp? 
> id=1093468376724&skuId=6850972&type=product
>
> Haven't had a chance to load linux on it yet but the specs look  
> compatible..  And no, I have no affiliation with BB.
> -Ken

I guess that's my queue to tell my brand new Best Buy story.

I bought an eMachines M2105 knowing full-well that EM has had a sordid  
past history with quality - so I purposefully paid extra for the Best  
Buy service contract.  The sales wonk was happy to state that this  
meant BB would repair or replace the laptop locally if something  
happened in the next three years.

Well, of course - EM had a manufacturer's defect in the hinges that  
hook the LCD to the main case and stress cracks have begun forming  
(google for eMachines hinges to see photos... not fun...).  Anyway, I  
stop by Best Buy to take advantage of this extra money I've spent and  
find out that they will gladly send the laptop off for three weeks to  
their repair facility and won't do an in-store replacement.  (The model  
is discontinued, but I specifically asked about that -- the sales wonk  
said they'd replace with a like model if the model was no longer  
available.)

Anyway, to make a long story short - BB says they do have a "3 strikes  
rule" -- if I send it off (3 weeks at a time) to their repair facility  
and it keeps breaking they'll replace it.  Other friends reported that  
they were able to do in-store replacements on this model (one friend  
took his back four times, twice for stuck pixels on the LCD, twice for  
cracked hinges).  But they don't consider dealing with the manufacturer  
directly as one of the "strikes".

Talked to eMachines - they're fully aware of the problem, have a  
permanent design fix where they'll pull the guts out of my machine and  
stick it in a new case with redesigned hinges at no cost.  They'll ship  
me a padded box, and FedEx overnight the machine both ways.

So the gist is... if I'd have thought eMachines direct support was this  
good, I've have bought the manufacturer's extended warranty, not BB's.   
  And BB's was supposed to be specifically because I knew in the back of  
my head that the eMachines system would probably have problems.

Anyway -- pretty much all of the eMachines laptop models from  
manufactured around March through June had this hinge defect.  If you  
know anyone that owns one, tell them to look carefully at their hinges.  
  In general I've really liked the machine, it's handled four different  
flavors of Linux and only really failed on one (Debian's installer  
chokes on the machine right now for some reason - I do have a bug  
report in and intentions to try to help them fix it -- it tries to load  
agpgart which this machine does NOT need.), and in general it's been a  
really solid machine.  I think they're truly hurting over this hinge  
thing -- their customer support staff is well-prepared to handle the  
calls and immediately dispatch a shipping box to get it fixed, so I'm  
impressed, considering it's eMachines -- and even more impressive  
considering they merged with Gateway which has always been even less  
impressive as brand-name PC's go, to me anyway.

Talking with BB corporate today about the extended warranty and how  
worthless it was in this particular case today, they seemed stuck in  
the past... "Well we couldn't know that they'd have a manufacturing  
problem."  No, ma'am... but you've known I'd be showing up with cracked  
hinges for at least three months now -- the problem is well-documented  
and you pulled this model from your shelves... and you had nothing  
better to offer me when I showed up than a three-week waiting period to  
effect a repair when the manufacturer is going to turn it around in  
about 5 business days total, including shipping?"  She had no answer  
for that one.  Well she did say that any local Best Buy manager does  
have the authority to decide to do a replacement if they choose, but  
it's a crap-shoot.  So basically my options were:

1. Send it to the manufacturer who appears to be doing an excellent job  
on service, but will not count as a "strike" against their lemon rule.
2. Sent it to the BB repair depot and wait at least three weeks for  
them to do the same repair the manufacturer will.  (Hell, they're  
probably just shipping it to the manufacturer anyway.)  This would  
count as strike one against their three-strikes lemon rule.
3. Go argue with a Best Buy manager to try to get them to do something  
they probably don't want to do.

In all three cases, the locally purchased extended warranty is  
next-to-worthless... at least until the manufacturer's warranty runs  
out.  eMachines is automatically extending their warranty by three  
months on any machine that has this repair done.

Oh well, caveat emptor - and I got bit.  No more purchases from BB for  
me unless I can make a good guess that they're a loss-leader.  Their  
staff is always rude and condescending anyway, and so far I've spent  
about four hours of my personal time trying to explain to them the  
whole purpose of purchasing the local-serviced service contract is so  
one can get.... oh wait for it... wait.... local service!

Sigh... common sense is SO trumped by "processes" and "policies" these  
days -- it's sad.

So... thumbs up on the eMachines lappies, especially for Linux.  Even  
ACPI seems relatively sane on them with later 2.6 kernels...

And thumbs down... way down on Best Buy.  They're on my "you're getting  
coal in your stocking" list for Christmas, for sure.

If the afore-mentioned rebates are manufacturer rebates... buy the  
thing somewhere else.

Nate