When they close where will people be able to purchase Mac items and get service. We recently purchased our Mac at a Comp store 45 minutes away,but it was worth the drive to be able to take it in if necessary.Also what about the extended warranty we purchased,will it still be good? Thanks for any response.Jan

Former downsized Compusa employee They still should be good because the warranties are with an external company and if you had apple care that is through apple

CompUSA warranties are underwritten by another company, they will remain valid. How to contact this warranty company I cannot say.

If you have AppleCare warranty on your Mac you can call 1-800-APL-CARE and they will guide you through repairing the computer yourself, direct you to the nearest authorized repair center, or have you send the unit into Apple's repair depot.

If you purchased Apple Care from CompUSA it is still good. If you have an Apple Store in your area, it can be serviced there.

Although CompUSA has to have the absolute geekiest stores in the world (and I only shopped there on rare occasion), it was nice to know that there was a nearby place to go to buy just about anything you could possibly think of that was computer related. If you were looking for something that you wanted immediately, such as a cable to hook up some new device you had just purchased, and didn't want to wait for mail order and didn't mind paying a little extra for the instant gratification, it was often the only place to go. The big-box stores like Best Buy carry a lot of merchandise but not some of the more obscure stuff that CompUSA does.

I hope Apple finds another outlet for it's Store within a Store relationships. Best Buy is NOT a computer store and not its staff are not prepared to handle any sophisticated questions, not to mention their less-than average marks on Service and Customer Relations.
I enjoyed CompUSA's environment and staff. I hope a replacement is in the works.

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Guest wrote:
I hope Apple finds another outlet for it's Store within a Store relationships. Best Buy is NOT a computer store and not its staff are not prepared to handle any sophisticated questions, not to mention their less-than average marks on Service and Customer Relations.
I enjoyed CompUSA's environment and staff. I hope a replacement is in the works.

Please, Apple users aren't real computer users. The most complicated question you're likely to hear from an Apple user is "why does my finder keep disappearing?"

Any ways, sales guys are not the people to ask for computer support, technicians (those would be known as the geek squad at best buy, or the nerd herd at buy more - I swear I think Chuck was pitched by one of my old co-workers) are the people to ask for computer help, and technicians are A+ certified at Best Buy, atleast they were when I was one. (Your warranty only covers your hardware, and as Macs now use the exact same components as any other PC, you only need A+ to handle current Mac hardware).

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daemon wrote:

Please, Apple users aren't real computer users. The most complicated question you're likely to hear from an Apple user is "why does my finder keep disappearing?"

Cmon Man, last time I saw you post you were so polite-do we really need to get into it again? That was just obnoxious, IMO, and you have to know from your experience here that's crap. Not to mention, there are far more ignorant Windows users than there are ignorant Mac users; thats just common sense since there are so many more, even if the percentage were lower which even without a statistical backup I'll have to say I doubt that quite strongly.

As to this news, I'd like to say I care but I really could give a crap, as we have a very nice local computer builder/retailer whose prices and service have always eclipsed CompUSA's, so I haven't been there in years. I do hope people who work there are able to land on their feet, but thats about all.

It is too bad that Apple's in-store service has been sub-par in my personal experience, but as I've noted in the past (http://www.macobserver.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=60120&highlight= - Links Still Aren't Working!) there are those of us who will fill that gap, I'm getting my Apple Tech Certifications next year and starting a service company with a friend of mine currently finishing his Cisco/IT stuff.

It's just handy Apple switched to Intel chips/hardware, should give us alot more business as they seem to have more problems in my experience so far than the PPC Macs did.

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Guest wrote:
I hope a replacement is in the works.

Wow, someone who actually liked CompUSA. I was never so happy to see a store close as when they announced that all the local CompUSA stores were closing. They sold more junk with more BS poured on it. Since they've closed my help calls from family, friends, and neighbors have gone to about zero. And I always questioned Apple's "Store within a Store" that was done in CompUSA. CompUSA's personnel bad mouthed the Apple equipment, actively steered people away from Macs, and sabotaged the Macs so they wouldn't work right. The CompUSA "Apple" store was usually filled with junk and empty boxes. Good riddance CompUSA.

I preferred Computer City, back before CompUSA acquired them. But after that, it was nice to at least have an alternative to Fry's. Now there will only be 2 choices for brick-n-mortar: tiny places with huge overhead, or Fry's and their nonexistant customer service. Makes you wonder if soon the only thing you'll be able to buy in an actual store is food!

In response to itsmejan,

http://www.apple.com/buy/ lists all the authorized service centers and places to buy Macs. Insert in the address right after .com/ and before buy your country's two letter address for Apple's localized website (i.e. http://www.apple.com/ca/buy/ is Canada's website for buying Macs and getting service centers).

If you have lost your only service center, often AppleCare will handle service repair inquiries by phone:

http://www.apple.com/contact/phone_contacts.html

Find a local Apple Authorized reseller. The service is going to be 10 times better than what you'll get at CompUSA, Best Buy, or the Apple Store, while being cheaper.

Support your local independant resellers.

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DaiMac wrote:

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daemon wrote:

Please, Apple users aren't real computer users. The most complicated question you're likely to hear from an Apple user is "why does my finder keep disappearing?"

Cmon Man, last time I saw you post you were so polite-do we really need to get into it again? That was just obnoxious, IMO, and you have to know from your experience here that's crap. Not to mention, there are far more ignorant Windows users than there are ignorant Mac users; thats just common sense since there are so many more, even if the percentage were lower which even without a statistical backup I'll have to say I doubt that quite strongly.

Did you read the post I quoted in my response? It was a direct sarcastic response to his declaration that Best Buy was not a "real" computer store. Do I need to start adding the "/sarcasm" tags again?

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It's just handy Apple switched to Intel chips/hardware, should give us alot more business as they seem to have more problems in my experience so far than the PPC Macs did.

Mean time between failures I think are the same, they're just more Macs now to have failures.

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daemon wrote:
Did you read the post I quoted in my response? It was a direct sarcastic response to his declaration that Best Buy was not a "real" computer store. Do I need to start adding the "/sarcasm" tags again?

Heh, it just read as "me too" bashing to me, I suppose my bad on that one

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Mean time between failures I think are the same, they're just more Macs now to have failures.

I swear on an anecdotal basis in my own life there is a significant difference, I've had 2 different friends go through multiple MacBook Pro units with major heat/mobo issues, whereas I've abused the hell out of my little G4 iBook and all its needed was a new PS board (about a $10 part, but mandated $99 apple repair-argh!), and thats just one example, I know several people who are hesitating to upgrade from their trusty G4 iBooks and PowerBooks. I hate to point fingers without more statistical backup (of which I fully admit there is none), but Intel switch is one of the biggest variables that could explain this. Hopefully part of the solution will be these new 45 and 32nm Chips they're working on.

The Apple Store was the only part of Comp USA that was good for any kind of service! I have never seen so many empty shelves, mislocated stock and missing price tags as Comp USA, a close second is Circuit City, where most sales staff does their best to avoid eye contact because you might ask an intelligent question...

Russell - Idaho USA

Is like the Special Olympics. No matter who wins, you're both f'in retards.

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Anonymous wrote:
Is like the Special Olympics. No matter who wins, you're both f'in retards.

As opposed to you, who built your own machine with custom silicon and coded your own OS, so that your machine can't be classified as a Mac or a PC in any way? Or perhaps you just use a server machine, so its not a "personal" computer?

Why do you even bother with coming here, let alone posting, if you have nothing to add but hate?