Fry's Electronics
Reviews and Complaints

I was in Fry's in Plano, TX yesterday and purchased a Lenovo computer for $219.00. After I got it home and opened it, I immediately took it back to exchange it. When I got in the line to return it, the associate told me I had to take it back to the guy at the door so he could write it up and then I had to take it to the Service Dept. to do a check and write it up before I brought it back to him.

I was waiting in the line to see a service person for about 10 minutes while one service person was helping customers and the others were not. My friend went to get a manager to see if the process could be shortened since we had just purchased the item and were exchanging it. The assistant manager was not very pleasant to my friend and when he did find time to come around the corner, he talked to a service person and the service person then asked if he could help. That process took another 10 minutes.

By the time we got back to the line to exchange the item, we were informed it would be a 15% restocking fee. I asked why because I had just purchased the item and was exchanging it. The assistant manager informed me that was the policy and I could check anywhere and would see it was a common practice. I told him I thought it was unfair because we had just bought the computer and brought it back immediately to exchange it. He said something about how much work it was to make sure it was in the original condition. I said that I had just opened and then boxed it back up when I figured out it wasn't what I wanted to bring it back and exchange it.

The assistant manager was less than friendly and I couldn't understand why I was paying $33.00 and they were only reducing the price by $11.00. What was the other $22.00 for, resealing the box? I know for a fact that box tape is only $5.00 a roll at Wal-Mart.

I found a good deal at Best Buy, purchased the extended maintenance plan spending a total of $627.00. That amount would have been spent at Fry's had the manager not been so unwilling to work with a valued customer regarding $33.00. Best Buy does NOT have any restocking fees for returned items! I found this interesting since the manager assured me that everyone has the same policy.

I don't plan to ever go back to Fry's if I can avoid it because of the nature of their viewpoint towards customers. I have been going to Fry's for my every electronic need for the past five years, Garland and now Plano. They lost a valuable customer who shopped there frequently and can no longer recommend them with peace of mind.

I have purchased my printer "Brother" from Fry's Electronics with 5 years performance plan and when it got defective after 2 years, I took it for repair.
Before repair problems:
1. Paper jam on ADF
After repair Problems:
1. Paper jam on ADF
2. Very Loud Noise
3. Damaged Frame at 2 locations
4. 3 months and 3 weeks and still not fixed!
5. They didn't replace it and told me you have to keep it for 6 moths to be replaced!

Wanted a pair of 1GB 400 MHz DDR2, sales guy said no prob, punched it into the presales slip as Kingston. I'm buying it for a friend, very clearly said DDR2. Purchased it for $80 w/tx, which I thought was high. Took it home, it turned out he punched in DDR, not DDR2, which are not interchangeable. Raced back to store, got refunded, went back to same smiling SOB and told him AGAIN, I NEEDED 2 STICKS OF 1 GB DDR2.

This time he didn't even look it up, and just said they didn't have them. This means he KNEW they didn't have what I needed, and tried to sell me something similar, knowing all along they didn't carry what I needed. Thanks, Frys wise ###, I'll think twice about buying parts from your store again. Happy ending for my friend: Newegg.com had the right parts for less than $50.00 including tax and shipping. Installed a "loaner" 512MB I had laying around, this gets him out of virtual memory, and when the parts come in, it will be even faster with dual channel. Frys needs to train its employees not to send out customers with fake sales. It will ruin their reputation. If you don't carry a part, say so. Instead, they wasted an hour of my time, and $5 worth of gas.

This is the letter of complaint I sent to the company:

To whom it may concern:

Over the years since you have opened the store in Renton WA. my husband and I have spent thousands of dollars with your company. My recent purchases with your company have gone well until I had experience with your warranties and lack of customer service /equal treatment. I am outraged this has happened to me twice and the difference between the way my husband gets treated and the way I get treated is the kind of thing you write to dateline about.

This last experience with your company has sent me over the edge. I am asking that you do something to make the situation right, I am outraged. This is absolutely unacceptable.

I purchased a sony camera in Feburary 2009 my total purchase included your extended warranty. A couple days ago I noticed that my camera wasn't turning on so I look at it. The battery eject lever has broken off this is a very small moving spring loaded piece inside the camera that holds the battery in. I take my camera to your store and go see service they tell me its not covered and falls under the "accidental" category. I explain to them I bought the extended warranty. They repeat they will not cover it and will not fix or replace it which I expect when I buy a warranty on on something. So I go to the front ask to speak with the store manager and he looks at it and says the same thing to me. I explain to him no I didn't break it, I haven't dropped it. I believe its a defective piece. He proceeds to tell me that your company will not cover it calling me a liar. His name was Tuk. I proceed to say that I can't understand how they can sell a product and a warranty and not back it up. If this tiny piece inside the camera is not covered what is? He proceeds to tell me that your company sells lots of these camera's and they don't come back with this piece breaking and if he sent it out there would be a charge to your company. This camera is not even a year old surely sony backs their own products. I can see that your warranties are at the whim of whoever is at the desk. This was the store manager that I was speaking with. Over the course of 15 minutes he helped everyone and everything that came his way after initially speaking with me when he finally came back to me he said there was nothing your company was going to do I am out $270.00.

I talk with my husband, he goes down to the store the next morning. Walks up to the customer service counter tells them the camera has a broken piece fills out a form is informed that it will fixed and back in two weeks.

You clearly have a few issues discrimination and policy inconsistencies.

This is not the first time I have been treated this way by your Renton store. I also purchased a fujitsu laptop in March and bought your extended warranty. In July my brand new laptop stopped working. I go into your store get to the service counter where they inform me its going to cost $70 to diagnose the laptop problem. I say "oh well I bought the extended warranty". Orion tells me I still have to pay the $70 if the problem can be pinned on the manufacturer than I get my money back. I need my laptop so I agree, but this charge is in addition to the $300 I paid for your warranty on this great laptop that was suppose to be top of the line. So you can imagine I am not happy that you are charging me to look at it. To add insult to injury the diagnosis was a disc inserted in my laptop and within 2 minutes Orion informs me my hard drive has gone out but good news I won't have to pay the $70 for the diagnosis.

We get the diagnosis out of the way and Orion tells me if I want them to try and save any information on my laptop that its going to cost me $85 to transfer the info. Its a new laptop so shouldn't that fall under the warranty its a couple months old. I buy an external hard drive pay the money to try and save my precious children's photos that I have stored on my new top of the line laptop $200 later. My husband goes down to the store to find out about these charges and pick up the laptop to take the information off himself. The customer service representative says oh you don't have to pay for that we will do it for free, refunds the money and off he goes.

Its been my experience that your company does not back its products or warranties. If you can get more money out of someone you gladly will. If you can get out making good on your word you will and not blink an eye. Its 2009 I never would have guessed that being a woman would make such a huge difference in an electronics store of all places. However I have been treated so badly by your store here in Renton. I feel strongly that you need to do something to make this situation right. You have a small opportunity to do the right thing for a customer who has bought some of the best products you offer and your warranties which I know is a huge chunk of your profit margin.

Please get back to me within 48 hours

Applied for a Fry's Electronics card earlier this year. Given a discrepancy [outdated info] on a credit report, the app was denied. Contacted the appropriate credit bureau and updated the info. Today, a few months later, stopped in and re-applied. This time the delay was due to a "duplicate application". Called Fry's credit company from the store and was told that since the first and second applications were less than 6 months apart, the 2nd app will be denied also. The credit "rep" said I will now have to wait ANOTHER six months before applying again. I told him they make it tough to do business with them. The store employee apologized and said he "didn't know" about the 6-month policy. No great loss; the general atmosphere at Fry's Electronics in Tempe is so unfriendly, starting with the accusatory-looking staff at the entrance/exit, that I remembered on my way in/out why I bought my last computer--and will buy my next one--elsewhere.

We purchased a Service contract from Fry's with the purchase of a new HP Laptop computer.
The computer started shutting down Intermittently. Starting in November 2008 we have taken it in to Fry's for service at least 10 times for this problem. Each time we have taken it in they say it was repaired. each time we received it back it would fail withen a couple of days. The last time we brought it in for service they we called after waiting a month and they claimed the problem is liquid damage and it is not covered by the contract. When I left it at the Fountain Valley Fry's service Center the computer was working. Now after opening the computer more that 9 times they claim it has LIQUID damage. How did they not notice this the first time it was opened? The fact is they want your money for a contract but they don't want it to cost them to honor it!

I purchased an External Fire wire drive at Fry's Electronics and was told at the checkout that there was a thirty dollar rebate. I mailed my rebate application, original rebate receipt from Fry's and the original UPC code from the box. I specifically remember feeling the cardboard of the UPC symbol in the envelope before I mailed it.About a month later I received a call from rebate department saying they didn't have the UPC code in their possession and could I please send it? I explained to them that I can't send them something I already sent them. They told me there's nothing they can do and finally concluded I wasn't going to get the rebate. While on the phone with them they disconnected me twice, unnecessarily transferred me to Tech Support twice, and transferred me to voicemail once for no apparent reason. When I called back and asked to speak with a manager I was told she wasn't available. I was been avoid all the time I tried to talk to them. This is what? I would say that it's a clear scam.

I viewed the ad in the Saturday paper which identified a vacuum...the Dirt Devil on sale..for one day only. I drove a long distance to the store.
This vacuum was not to be found..BUT, a sales associatee said to take a similar one to checkout and they would honor this ad. At the counter, the check out lady refused, called it the wrong model, and then the managere came over. THe ad PHOTO matched the item, but he showed that the SKU number didn't match...and would not honor the sale.
So they expect the impossible...how can a customer look at the photo and not know it matches the skew number?
Unbelievable BAD customer service.
These guys are just sharks looking to rip you off. Stay away and be warned of their false advertising.

They charged me $80 for doing nothing to my computer.
They could not fix it at all after they left me a message telling me that it was ready. What a joke. Do not take your computer to have it fixed at frys. I think they have average college students who hardly know anything about computers.
I took it to micro center and they fixed it with no problems with the parts that I wanted and charged less.

I took my pc in because it was "crashed" Fry's computers held on to my computer for a week before I called to check the status of my SRO. I was called back and told that my pc harddrive failed and that I should just buy a new pc. Right after that I noticed my bank account had some fraudulent activity. I did get my pc back from Frys and had a friend who works on computers check the hard drive again to see if my photos could be backed up to find out the hard drive was completely blank. Fry's claims that they did nothing to my pc except run a cd to try and correct the problem and that this is why the hard drive is now blank. Im not a computer geek but I know that doesn't make any sense. I did file a police report, Fry's is on my bad people list.

Oxnard store (#44) on Saturday July 11th and purchased one item: a cooling stand for my laptop, the price was $24.99. While I was going over my banking records later the next week I noticed that they showed a charge for $54.35 from Fry's, so I looked at my receipt and I had been charged twice for my item. So the following Saturday (today July 18th) I went back to be refunded for the stand I did not receive, the customer service employee took my receipt to go and verify, but when he returned he said that the stores inventory matched my receipt and there was nothing he could do for me. I asked if I could speak to a manager so they could rectify the situation. I was given the store manager's business card and told to call back on Tuesday because there are no managers in the store on the weekends.

Lets see how long it takes to get a response if ever...

I brought in my 2 year old Fujitsu Laptop for repair. I was told they determined that I needed a motherboard and it had to go back to the factory. They told me it would be 6-8 weeks to repair. Ok, I thought I'll deal with it. BTW- the harddrive already crashed once on this unit and needed repair but I digress. It has been now over 10 weeks and all I get out of tech support has been that its at our factory or its at their factory. It's always a song and dance with no answers. Getting to corporate has been a joke, I finally called the store mgr today. He is not in and they dont know when he'll be in...? So I am awaiting a call today.

Through several bad transactions with Fry's they have proven themselves just too devious in their dealings to be trusted any more.

The latest was with a rebate. Not in their newspaper ad, not on the price tag on their shelves (where the price, the rebate amount and the final price is outlined) nor on the rebate form printed at the cash register did it mention any other requirement, other than purchasing the item and submitting the required UPC, receipt and rebate form, to receive the rebate. Only after opening the software did I discover you needed to purchase tax software also to get the rebate.

I tried dealing with the local store's Returns Dept. and spoke with the department's manager, but they refused to allow the return of opened software.

It is Fry's responsibility to inform the customer through the ad, through the price tag on the shelf and through the printed rebate form that another purchase is required for a rebate to be good.

When they don't and then refuse to allow a return it can only be considered Shady Dealings

Frys Electronics has many co-branded rebates running at all times. These are the ones Frys is involved in and provides a "Rebate Receipt" and website for the rebate form.

Submitting a legitimate, very high quality rebate still results in it being rejected over 50% of the time. Re-submitting COLOR copies of everyting, including the envelope to prove you used the correct address, lowers the SECOND rejection rate to about 33%. It ofen takes three or four attempts, using Certified Mail ($3.20) each time to get the check you qualified for the first time.

Fry’s Electronics often pulls stunts like 1) two different rebates requiring the same original proof of purchase, 2) requiring an “upgrade” from a product so obscure nobody will qualify for it, and 3) printing a “Rebate Receipt” that is not accepted by anyone as either a sales receipt or proof of purchase (using it results in a rejection).

I bought two Bluetooth brand wireless head sets (one for myself and one for my daughter). Neither one would charge, even after may hours. They had the same type of charger, so I am venturing a guess that that was the defective part.

I took the headsets back to the store with the receipt within the time allowed. However, I did not have the boxes because my son-in-law had thrown them out in the recycling (which was already picked up). They charged me a $5 "restock" fee for me to return these defective items to their store. Worst yet, the guy doing the paperwork put on the screen, which I'm sure he didn't realize I was actually reading, "repack." This means that they will repackage and place these defective items back on the shelf for some unfortunate customer.

I can't imagine ever being charged for something that is defective. I didn't destroy it, so why am I responsible.

I will tell everyone to watch out for the rip off from Frys. Unfortunately for them, I have lots of computer geek friends.

This letter concerns the Service Department at Fry's Plano, TX store.

On Sunday, June 22, 2008 I inserted an MS Pro Duo picture card into my laptop's card reader without the adapter. It was so small that it fell inside. Since I did not want to destroy my reader nor picture card, I took it to the Plano store. The technician said it would take about 30 minutes to take apart my case to remove the card. He said there was a 3-day backlog, so it would ready on Wednesday, June 25th (SRO# 844931). I said Ok and paid the Service fee. He said he would call me when he finished extracting the card.

At 8:15 P.M. on Wednesday, I called the store (since no one had called me) and the man I spoke to said that it was still in process. At 12:00 P.M. on Thursday, June 26th I called the store and was told that my PC had been ready for pick up since 7:42 P.M. the night before! Since I had called 33 minutes later than that, I found that to be rather irritating. I went back to the store and picked up my laptop.

On Saturday, June 28th I tried to use my DVD player and discovered that not only would the access door not open, but also Windows did not recognize that the drive existed. The DVD drive was not seated properly in the laptop. It had been forced in (normally it just fits with ZERO pressure), and the screw holding it was put in at such an angle that it was crossed threaded. Yet, the drive still was extending 1/8th of an inch out of the case. The optical reader's pins were so mangled that it was no longer usable. I took the laptop back to Fry's. A different tech helped me and said it was not necessary to remove the DVD drive to extract the card. He did not understand why the original tech had done so. He took it back for rework and said I would be given priority service.

At 8:30 P.M. Fry's called and said that it was fixed and ready for pick up. I went back to the store, and when we turned the system on, it did not recognize the DVD drive. When I asked the tech what happened to the reader, he said that he could not get it apart and in the process of extracting the card he damaged the pins. The technician told me that he put an oversized screw in the laptop since the original screw was stripped. He then adjusted something and “snapped" the drive back in the laptop (originally it just fit). The drive now showed in “My Computer". When I took it home, I turned the system on, but Windows failed to recognize the drive. It still was still not seated properly in the backplane.

On Sunday, June 29th I took it back to the store again. Another tech checked it in again, but this time under SRO # 847948. He must have copied a different customer's information, as my name was correct, but it said I lived in Illinois (different address & phone #).

On Monday, June 30th I called the store. The person I spoke to corrected my information and said no one had looked at it, but a Manager would call me within 24-48 hrs to let me know the status. On Wednesday, July 2nd I called the store and the girl I spoke to said there was some damage to my machine. I said I know because Fry's caused the damage! She asked me if I would I like to be transferred to a Manager? I said yes. I left a message for the Manager to call me back.

On Thursday, July 3rd at 11:30 A.M. I called again. The tech that answered the phone said the lead tech was discussing my situation with the Store Manager, and that someone will call me back. At 4:00 P.M. I still had not received a call back, so I called again and asked to speak to the Store Manager. I was told that he was not available. Then I was connected with someone who took down my information and said he would get back to me. At 7:00 P.M. I called again and was told someone would contact me the next morning.

On Friday July 4th, I called at noon. After 37 minutes on hold, I was disconnected. I called back and was told that made a decision not to fix my PC. This is after they have had it for 5 additional days. The tech who caused the damage is trying to cover up his incompetence and told his Manager that the unit had the damage when he received it. He has already admitted doing the damage.

I still have not received a call from anyone at Fry's except for the 2nd pick up!

In Summary, I have since had to buy an external USB card reader at my expense because my internal one was damaged beyond repair by a Fry's technician. If I wanted to damage the card reader, I could have extracted the card my self without damaging the DVD drive. I paid Fry's to extract the card, because the tech said he could take the reader apart to remove the card. Now, not only is my card reader ruined, my DVD drive does not work, and so far I have made FOUR round trips to the store with at least one more to go, (at today's gas prices!) and have not had my laptop for over 12 days for a 30 minute fix!