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Does anyone remember microbytes in Quebec?
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Sep 20, 2015 05:21
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EngineerJoe posted:Does anyone remember microbytes in Quebec? You mean aside from the guy on the last page who brought them up?  Yes, I do.
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Sep 20, 2015 08:40
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:Yeah, but their whole business model has seemed quasi-sketchy since they started. It's been a while since I've been in one, but the last time I visited one of their stores about 10 years ago, the whole place had a "No officer, all these products just fell off the back of a truck." vibe. My only two experiences with them have been bad, but they've never got a dollar out of me so I wish them well as they expand out to everywhere. In the end, I wish Canada's citizenry could just be declared one big wholesale operation and we could all just buy direct from Ingram Micro rather than having to gently caress around with increasingly disappointing middlemen portal site for drop-shipped Ingram packages. It still breaks my heart that Amazon.ca punted their PC parts business and that I didn't get in on their insane closeout firesale last year.
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Sep 20, 2015 10:32
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Skandranon posted:Canada Computers really needs to update their website... it's barely changed over the last 10 years. Pathetic really. It's pretty needs-suiting, don't know what you'd need to update it with.
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Sep 20, 2015 14:40
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EngineerJoe posted:Does anyone remember microbytes in Quebec? Does anyone remember Compusmart? Holy poo poo were they ever a racket. Their entire business model was "Let's charge 15% more than our competitors why aren't we making money waaahhhh!"
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Sep 20, 2015 15:03
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Migishu posted:Does anyone remember Compusmart? Holy poo poo were they ever a racket. Their entire business model was "Let's charge 15% more than our competitors why aren't we making money waaahhhh!" They made up for that with super awesome Boxing Day sales although I think that just hastened their fall.
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Sep 20, 2015 15:12
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The Canada Computers store in the west island of Montreal is a nice establishment. Doesn't look like any sort of white-vanning that some people mentioned above. Maybe they changed over the past 10 years? Sure, why not. I've never really had any problems with them, other than it's a 3hr round trip to the closest store. They said they were looking to build one downtown but that's been delayed until god knows when.
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Sep 20, 2015 15:18
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Chris Knight posted:It's pretty needs-suiting, don't know what you'd need to update it with. Because technology changes? Their navigation is terrible and the site is slow and painful to use. Sure, it functions, but so did Geocities pages.
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Sep 20, 2015 16:30
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CanadaComputers is weird, the turnover at the stores is insanely high and as a result people range from really helpful to completely indifferent. So much stuff is locked up despite many of the stores having multiple alarms/scanners at the entrances, its annoying to sit there waiting 30 minutes for someone to just open a case and get an item. Their price match policy is total bullshit and they will sometimes fight you hard on warranty/return stuff even if its totally innocuous. I often make sure I put all of my purchases on my credit card there so I can dispute the charges and its a good thing because I've had to threaten it twice. The website and store prices often have huge discrepancies too which is frustrating. A few times an item has scanned higher than the advertised price on the website and I have to point it out to get it resolved. This happens everywhere to some extent but far too often at CC to be an honest mistake. They also used to do some pretty shady stuff with laptop COAs and I caught them more than once selling a used item as new. On the other hand its one of the few places left where I can walk in and grab a videocard without waiting 2-5 days.
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Sep 20, 2015 19:10
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Like, every experience of mine with CC is the total opposite of what this thread is saying. Before they came around the idea of a local shop for enthusiasts that was stocked AND good was a fantasy. Been a customer of theirs ever since they were just a tiny glass booth at Pacific Mall. I've found nothing said so far to be true.
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Sep 20, 2015 22:50
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Ditto here, right down to that lovely cubicle/fishbowl of theirs at Pacific Mall. They've been pretty reliable ever since. NCIX is good as well but their backorder system can eat a dick sometimes.
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Sep 21, 2015 05:35
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I've only ever had an excellent experience with Canada Computers and find their prices to be very agreeable, especially their daily sales. v  v
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Sep 21, 2015 16:44
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Anyone ever go to ATIC in Vancouver? They had quite the scammy rep. I told a guy specifically to NOT take his laptop there for repairs but he misheard me and thought I meant he should take it there. They held on to it for weeks without doing any work and when he went to go get it another disgruntled customer came in for some other reason and got into a fistfight with a sales guy. So many of those shady places in Vancouver even still, surprising that NCIX's dominance hasn't killed them all off. Part of me wonder if these places are just hobbies or tax shelters or even some kind of immigration loophole (open a small business for easy citizenship).
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Sep 21, 2015 17:48
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Isn't NCIX itself an umbrella of 6-7 different physical store brands and websites? Maybe they keep a 'fighter' brand like the phone companies and equally misheard their true intent.
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Sep 21, 2015 21:45
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priznat posted:some kind of immigration loophole (open a small business for easy citizenship). That might explain the place down the street from me. The storefront's served at least three or four different computer stores in the last twenty five years, usually with one crapping out within a few months to a year, but this one's been squatting there for a decade or more. It's run by a nice guy, I think he's Nigerian or Ethiopian, but the poo poo on the shelves there is often just ancient. Seems to see more repairs than sales too, for that matter.
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Sep 22, 2015 00:59
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priznat posted:Anyone ever go to ATIC in Vancouver? They had quite the scammy rep. Ohhhh man, Atic, what a poo poo-heap. They fully and totally embraced the computer store ethos of "There are eight sales-people sitting around doing nothing while one person helps a lineup of 40 people."
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Sep 22, 2015 01:24
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priznat posted:Anyone ever go to ATIC in Vancouver? They had quite the scammy rep. Back in the 90's a friend of mine bought a monitor from ATIC. Less than a month after he bought it it died so he brought it back (from Kamloops no less) and they did everything in their power to prevent the exchange. Eventually they allowed it though after a lot of arguing. Then the replacement monitor died a few weeks later and they refused to do anything because it was 30 days past the original purchase date. My friend had to find out who their distributor was and use them as leverage to get them to listen to reason. Another fun store for different reasons was Frontier Computer near Metrotown. Again back in the 90's I wanted the new 3dfx video card that was just coming to market (Voodoo2) and they didn't have it in stock there but the owner/manager insisted that it would be a bad idea to purchase it anyway since 'first revisions always have lots of bugs' and that I would be better off getting something older since it would be more reliable. He then revealed that he didn't even have a PC at home because dealing with computers all day at work made him not want to have one at home. A fine salesman if ever I saw one. On the topic of internet, ugh Telus is annoying, there doesn't seem to be a way to upgrade your service speed without phoning them. It seems that I can get 100mbps service from them now for $10/month extra which seems nice to me. I just don't want to sit on hold for ages just to talk to a sales person :/ First world problems I suppose.
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Sep 22, 2015 01:24
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:Ohhhh man, Atic, what a poo poo-heap. They fully and totally embraced the computer store ethos of "There are eight sales-people sitting around doing nothing while one person helps a lineup of 40 people." Even NCIX was like this sometimes, I would go to their old Broadway location just to pick up my internet order and I swear the guy would just go out back to have a smoke before bringing it out for me. Their newer stores are much nicer and quicker, going to the Coquitlam one it is always weird to me to have salespeople at an ncix who are actually engaged and friendly. The metrotown one still sucks though.
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Sep 22, 2015 01:32
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Oh poo poo, I bought my old voodoo 1 card at Atic. I am shocked they are still around. Anyone remember that old used computer parts place on Canada way near the superstore that just had boxes and boxes of poo poo? Going in there on a Saturday AM was like going to a crazy California flea market. In other news, ordered my new laptop, stick of ddr3l and m.2 SSD from NCIX last night. They sent me shipping notice of the RAM and SSD today but back ordered the notebook  Motherfucker they showed 2 in Stock last night and even still show 1 at the NCIX warehouse so I hope it's just a matter of them getting their stuff together. The ram and SSD do me nothing without the pc.
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Sep 22, 2015 02:04
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priznat posted:Their newer stores are much nicer and quicker, going to the Coquitlam one it is always weird to me to have salespeople at an ncix who are actually engaged and friendly. The metrotown one still sucks though. I go to the Coquitlam one as well when I'm buying stuff in person. They're not perfect, but yeah, it's like heaven compared to their Metrotown dump.
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Sep 22, 2015 02:48
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Called NCIX to check on my backordered laptop and utterly shocked at how fast they helped me out. Called their 800#, pressed option 1 for order status, had a human being on the phone in about 15 seconds  I expected automated phone hell, but worked incredibly well. Turns out they are shipping it today so all is good so knock on wood I'll see it Thursday
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Sep 22, 2015 20:13
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:Yeah, but their whole business model has seemed quasi-sketchy since they started. It's been a while since I've been in one, but the last time I visited one of their stores about 10 years ago, the whole place had a "No officer, all these products just fell off the back of a truck." vibe.
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Sep 22, 2015 22:37
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Shumagorath posted:Someone never went to Factory Direct. They're the reason I will never buy another Phillips product to the day I die.
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Sep 22, 2015 23:18
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Good news for us with TPPs: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/big-internet-providers-must-open-fibre-networks-to-competitors-crtc/article25633317/ Now we have to wait for rate changes, because as mentioned by Teksavvy, the current model of CBB has rates that would make it too expensive. Also: quote:Major Internet providers warned the commission during the hearing that mandating access to fibre services would create a disincentive to them investing in such infrastructure in the first place.
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Sep 26, 2015 01:03
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shadow puppet of a posted:the second was re-bagging returned products for sale as new, especially if the customer return was due to defective goods. The only thing the retailer has to gain by trying to resell a defective item they've returned is they save the time and effort of sending it back to their distributor, and a really tiny amount of shipping cost. And I mean truly tiny, cause they don't ship one item by itself they ship them in batches AND retailers all have volume discounts from the shipping companies they use. So overall it just does not make sense. This is all based on my experience working in a canadian computer and electronics retailer. A small one, not any of the retail chains that have been mentioned in this discussion. Now selling used stuff as "new" is a whole different story, that would be an effective way to make money if you're an rear end in a top hat. Col.Kiwi fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Sep 26, 2015 |
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Sep 26, 2015 01:56
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Col.Kiwi posted:Yo does anyone have any actual proof of any retailer doing this? It seems completely pointless, the retailer has essentially nothing to gain. If an item is defective and within the distributors defective exchange timeframe, the retailer sends it back to the distributor. If it is outside that timeframe the retailer refuses the return. It's not like the retailer has to just eat the cost of defective items, every computer & electronics store in north america would be out of business if the industry worked like that as margins are WAY too low for that to work. The only thing the retailer has to gain by trying to resell a defective item they've returned is they save the time and effort of sending it back to their distributor, and a really tiny amount of shipping cost. And I mean truly tiny, cause they don't ship one item by itself they ship them in batches AND retailers all have volume discounts from the shipping companies they use. So overall it just does not make sense. This is all based on my experience working in a canadian computer and electronics retailer. A small one, not any of the retail chains that have been mentioned in this discussion. What do you consider proof? I have first hand (and yet completely anecdotal) experience with this from working as the lead tech for a medium sized electronics retailer that sold new and refurbished goods. Can I post specific emails or memorandum proving it? No. But there was repeated and consistent verbal instruction from both store level and higher level management to put "returns" back on shelves if the issue wasn't immediately visible because returns are a money sink depending on how the retailer purchases their stock and their relationship with their suppliers. Putting the burden on the customer can be seen as an entirely valid way of dealing with it if the business is lovely enough.
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Sep 26, 2015 02:02
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Every box at Canadian Tire is so beat up I just assume it's all been returned at some point in the past.
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Sep 26, 2015 02:09
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infernal machines posted:What do you consider proof? Again though people do dumber poo poo so I guess it probably happens
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Sep 26, 2015 02:11
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woops quote isnt edit
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Sep 26, 2015 02:12
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Col.Kiwi posted:Hm well its super stupid for the reasons I explained, but I guess I can believe people would do it anyway as people do much stupider poo poo. If you are using sketchy/lovely distributors that will fight you, and/or you're just not really thinking stuff through it could seem like a good plan. In reality it's always going to cost you more because in most cases if the item is truly defective then the same item is just going to get returned over and over until you finally stop reselling it or finally some idiot buys it and doesn't start using it until their return period is over. AND you're going to ruin your reputation as a retailer in the process. Yeah, counting on business to be wholly rational and think of the long term costs of their decisions probably isn't going to get you very far. At the risk of being sued some 15 years after working there, the retailer in question rhymes with Phylactery Erect...
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Sep 26, 2015 02:14
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infernal machines posted:Yeah, counting on business to be wholly rational and think of the long term costs of their decisions probably isn't going to get you very far.
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Sep 26, 2015 02:15
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8ender posted:I think they're consolidating some locations. London had two in lovely places and they merged them into one in a much better spot. Mister Macys posted:Do you know where ( yes, I could look it up, but Bieeardo posted:Living within scowling distance of Labatt Park and being at the mercy of the LTC, losing the ones on Richmond and on Wharncliffe was definitely frustrating, though I'll admit that the new place is a hell of a lot bigger, nicer and better stocked than either of the others. Holy poo poo, other people who live in London. Moved here a few months ago. As for relevancy we switched to Rogers because TekSavvy was being barred from provisioning new hookups over 60Mbps at the time, and so even though we had a 150Mbps package in Waterloo, we couldn't get it here. The Rogers service, to the credit of their black souls, has been solid; we're paying ~ $100 for 250/20, though I usually get more like 350/10. My favorite part about having TekSavvy was they let me hook up my nice Motorola cable modem I'd brought with me from Time Warner in the States.
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Sep 26, 2015 02:44
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mediaphage posted:Holy poo poo, other people who live in London. Moved here a few months ago. I'm so sorry.
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Sep 26, 2015 03:39
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8ender posted:I'm so sorry. Oh good someone else said it first so I don't have to worry about pissing someone off. Yeah, I know. SO got a fancy UWO job, though, so here we are! I found some pretty good coffee, so I guess things could be worse. But gently caress do the LCBOs have lovely selections.
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Sep 26, 2015 03:43
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drat it. Beaten. If you like nerd stores, we actually have a good selection for CCGs, comics, minis, and boardgames. Better than K/W and possibly even Toronto. Otherwise, London is just an oversized college town, and pitstop between Toronto and Detroit. Nice bike paths though. Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Sep 26, 2015 |
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Sep 26, 2015 03:44
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Mister Macys posted:drat it. Beaten. If you like nerd stores, we actually have a good selection for CCGs, comics, minis, and boardgames. Better than K/W and possibly even Toronto. Honestly, I don't play CCGs or minis, or read comics much anymore. I do like some boardgames, though it's hard to find people to play with. What kind of nerd stores are we talkin? Also has anybody used that Cardboard Cafe or whatever? Sorry in advance to others for Londonchat but I work from home so it's impossible to find people who know about poo poo.
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Sep 26, 2015 03:50
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mediaphage posted:Oh good someone else said it first so I don't have to worry about pissing someone off. I've been here all my life, and was hoping someone else would say it. Mister Macys posted:drat it. Beaten. If you like nerd stores, we actually have a good selection for CCGs, comics, minis, and boardgames. Better than K/W and possibly even Toronto. These are all true, if physical media nerdery are your thing. The city has a really loving weird mismatch of cultures-- on the one hand there's a lot of deep-seated cultural conservatism, but on the other we've got a fairly active queer community, some decent live theatre and a history of provocative weirdos like Marc Emery and the sadly passed bordello owner who used to run for mayor on a platform that included building UFO landing strips outside of town. And the bike paths have been getting better the last few years, though our motorists are still goddamn crazy. Nerd stores: LA Mood, two blocks south of Dundas on Richmond, does all your basic nerd stuff: comics, collectibles, CCGs, RPGs, and board games. They have events and game nights in the basement. City Lights is a nice little spot if you're looking for used books, and occasionally get bits of old RPG stuff people dig out of their basements. Heroes is on Dundas, just east of Richmond. Mostly comics, but a poo poo ton of 'em. A block or so further east is Imperial Hobbies, which... well, when I shopped there twenty years ago, it was your archetypal Weird Pete shop. No idea how they've stayed afloat. On Dundas still, a bit east of Adelaide, Worlds Away carries (last I checked) mainly comics and some RPG stuff. Further down there's Neo-Tokyo the anime shop, and the Comic Book Collector, which hosts Heroclix games; I haven't been there in a while, so I'm not sure what other things they stock. I haven't been to the Cardboard Cafe, but I really should try to drag some friends out just because.
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Sep 26, 2015 04:31
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^ Nice KODT reference gently caress Marc Emery. His only progressive view is marijuana legalization. He doesn't give gently caress about the poor. mediaphage posted:Honestly, I don't play CCGs or minis, or read comics much anymore. I do like some boardgames, though it's hard to find people to play with. What kind of nerd stores are we talkin? Also has anybody used that Cardboard Cafe or whatever? PM'd you nerdstore/club locations that I know of. Completely forgot about Cardboard Cafe. Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Sep 26, 2015 |
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Sep 26, 2015 04:45
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Col.Kiwi posted:Yo does anyone have any actual proof of any retailer doing this? It seems completely pointless, the retailer has essentially nothing to gain. If an item is defective and within the distributors defective exchange timeframe, the retailer sends it back to the distributor. If it is outside that timeframe the retailer refuses the return and the customer RMAs to the manufacturer, or the retailer does that on the customers behalf. It's not like the retailer has to just eat the cost of defective items, every computer & electronics store in north america would be out of business if the industry worked like that as margins are WAY too low for that to work. This was also taking place in the middle of the era of bulk pallet-scale harddrive theft going on at Pearson airport, where one cargo handler guy sold most of the city's harddrives to stores Many parts likely did not come from traditional channels in the early 2000's. Also, people have a lot of funky hardware and oddball ram, garbage internal cables, no actual troubleshooting knowledge, the PC parts interchangabilty we take for granted is actually a remarkable house of cards. A single PCI card with a poor driver can take down a system if its simply in the wrong slot. So re-shelving goods is a reasonable admission that not every defective part is actually defective, and CC, among others, lots of others had that reputation for being willing to gamble on it. Its not unreasonable. 50% of the stuff I ever ordered from TigerDirect between 2003-2007 came with obviously opened packaging, I viewed it as a consequence of paying the lowest price.
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Sep 26, 2015 04:49
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Bieeardo posted:I've been here all my life, and was hoping someone else would say it. Sweet, thanks! We ended up getting a place smack in old north, so most of this is sort of walkable when I'm in the mood to get out. Mister Macys posted:^ Nice KODT reference Seriously; he's kind of a douche. I mean I'm pro weed but he's always rubbed me the wrong way. Thanks for the PM. Let me know if any of you guys want to grab a beer or something sometime, if you're not all twelve, or whatever.
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Sep 26, 2015 04:58
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