Great Deal at CompUSA if anyone is interested

[ET Awful]

If there are any computer geeks out there in DU land like me, just thought I'd give you a heads up. . .

CompUSA has 160GB Maxtor hard drives (normally $159) with a $50 instant rebate and $30 mail-in. So they end up half-price.

I just slapped two of them in my computer to replace my old drives, and they're super quiet and super fast. Highly recommended.

If no one cares, no one is interested, or I'm not allowed to post junk like this, just let me know :).

[brainshrub]

1. I hate mail-in rebates

They are the biggest fraud to hit American capitalism since multi-level marketing.

When I see a mail-in rebate I go home and buy the product over the internet. (It's usually cheaper anyways.)

[madmax]

3. Just mailed in 6 rebates for

two items. Never again. Took me almost as long to do the damn rebates as it is to do my taxes. I made copies of everything and now will wait 6-8-10 weeks? By which time I'll have forgotten about the damn things anyway.

You're right.

[burythehatchet]

4. the brightr side of that is when you get the checks

I was able to purchase several cases of Heineken, and a bottle of Grey Goose with the surprise check I got last week.

:)

[brainshrub]

7. You'll need the Heineken to put up with all the junk mail

and the phone calls you'll be getting from telemarketers soon.

And while I'm on a rant: I would like to say that the only thing worse than a telemarketer, is a telemarketer from India. If your gonna pester me, at least give the job to an American.

[ET Awful]

6. Normally I'd agree. . .

But in this case, the instant rebate brought the item down to the on-line price, and the mail-in was just gravy :).

I research this stuff alot before I buy :).

[pagerbear]

9. I'm with you!

Bought an expensive cell phone online that promised a generous mail-in rebate. When the phone arrived I went to the web site to download the rebate form and found there were strict date restrictions. They update the form every few days and you have to have the form that is online the date you place the order. (Yes, I'm a schmuck for not downloading the form the day I placed the order.) Of course this restriction is not mentioned anywhere else. I was SOL for the rebate.

I'm happy with the cell phone, though.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Link (out of stock near me)

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?ref=dsr&product_code=300018&pfp=BROWSE

[Bozita]

15. 5 stores near my home -- all out of stock

sigh

[ET Awful]

17. Bummer :(

All of the stores in the Boston area had them as of yesterday.

You could always mail-order it from CompUSA though, the price is the same.

[trotsky]

5. Great tip!

Though I avoid Maxtor drives like the plague. They have the highest failure rates of anything I've worked with. But then maybe I've just been unlucky!

[ET Awful]

8. Really? I've never had a Maxtor drive fail, in over 15 years of. . .

working on computers.

IBM has the highest failure rate of anything I've ever dealt with, especially their desk star series (which has in many circles been dubbed the "death" star for how many times they die).

I've had Seagates die as well. Maxtors and Western Digital have always been good to me.

[frylock]

10. i think i had to rma a maxtor once..

but have had good luck with them for the most part. I think I probably have 5 or 6 Maxtors on my home network right now. Your dead on about those Death Stars though. I'm an IBM tech, and am constantly replacing those damn things.

[thermodynamic]

12. IBM *is* Seagate

Well, they used to be, I dunno if they now legitimately make their own or if they license someone else's hard drive...

[ET Awful]

14. I had never heard that. . .

I know IBM sold off a big chunk of their hard drive business to Hitachi a year or two ago after the desk star fiasco.

[Az]

11. I think its your experience

I use pretty much exclusive Maxtorthese days. Much better performance over time for my buck. Return policy is very user friendly.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. I've not had a maxtor drive fail on me, either

Love 'em!

Had an IBM drive fail within a year.

Maxtors, though - still going strong.

[Bozita]

16. The best site for finding low priced deals on computer stuff...

...is:

www.dealmac.com

Dealmac readers and staff scour the ads and post the best deals.

If you know of a better site, please post it.

[Awsi Dooger]

18. Yeah, IF the CompUSA general manager honors the instant rebate

One year ago in Las Vegas, asshole general manager Steve Thompson did not. And I'm still seethed.

It was an offer very similar to this one, Maxtor hard drive with promise of a $50 instant rebate emblazoned in the ad. I printed the ad, brought it to CompUSA, and Steve Thompson blatantly refused to honor it. He didn't even have the decency or guts to come to the register himself, depite pleadings from the girl who was at my register.

Instead, Steve Thompson sent one robotic messenger after another to deal with me. They memorized his pathetic rationalization, offering nothing but store credit on a subsequent purchase. I defied them to find justification of that in print, instead of an instant rebate. They could not, and finally conceded it was Steve Thompson's manipulation alone.

When I finally confronted Thompson, he claimed not to know the address or phone number of the national headquarters. Not until I planted myself in his office and refused to leave did he miraculously summoned the info from his Palm Pilot, taking all of 15 seconds.

I sent a detailed 6-page compaint to the national and regional offices. They contacted me by phone and mail, emphasizing that Steve Thompson had been "severely reprimanded", whatever that meant. I was finally granted the instant rebate price on the Maxtor, plus an additional $50 in store credit. I used both at the CompUSA in nearby Henderson, with a general mamager and employees who could not have been more polar opposite than Steve Thompson.

[Rabrrrrrr]

20. Maybe I'm a total moran who knows nothing about retail sales,

(although actually I *do* know a fair amount of retail sales), but if I were the CEO or COO or whatever of a major world-wide brnd, and I had a manager who claimed "not to know the address or phone number of the national headquarters", I'd fire his ass. And I mean that seriously, since that's an admission that a store manager actually doesn't know what company he's working for.

AndI don't want any employees - especially at management level - who don't know for what company they work.

I mean that seriously - if that was my store, that idiot would have been fired on the spot (assuming that there weren't any idiocitc liberal-driven "job-progtection" bullshit laws keeping me from eliminating an obviously incompetent boob.

[Lostmessage]

19. I want Quinn

He is so cute.