Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Fry's Sticker of Doom

I went to Fry's this afternoon to return my Altec-Lansing speakers, because they made a hissing noise, like a radio tuned to static. It wasn't particularly loud, but since the speakers have no off switch, it was constant. I don't care what people say about the soothing power of white noise -- I found it annoying, because I knew it wasn't supposed to be there.

So today, I took a little time off work and drove to Fry's to return it. I've found it's good to hit the return line at odd times, otherwise you can spend forever there; there were only about 5-6 people in line at 3pm.

I got to the head of the line and described the problem to the return guy. He looked at my receipt, determined that it was OK, then, without even looking inside the box, he printed out the infamous "Fry's Sticker of Doom*" and a sticker with a discount price on it and slapped them on the front of the box.

This was an object lesson on why someone should never, ever buy a product with the sticker of doom on it. Hopefully someone in the back checks inside the box to see if all the parts are there before re-stocking it.

* For those not in the know, this is a sticker that Fry's places on products that have been returned.

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