Fry’s Electronics

I witnessed a mind boggling customer service event, next to me in the return line. Two men were arguing with what was supposed to be be a manager. The man had just picked up a computer which Frys builds for the customer, just the previous evening. When he got it home, he found several broken pieces, rendering it unfit to even start up. The manager told him that they could not refund, replace or even give credit as it was built by Frys! Does this sound like something illegal? I have never been reluctant to butt in when I witness unfair practices, also being a purchaser for twenty years, advised him that there is an «express warranty», in which every product sold implies that it will operate as indicated. This product clearly was inoperable and the store «Frys» was in breach of this warranty. I advised the gentleman to take it as far up the pipeline including the Attorney General. That manager should be fired! I didn’t hang around and hope they were able to get compensation. I will not ever purchase my next computer or any other expensive product at that store. I hope the store general manager reads this. The manager who made that stupid decision was white, heavy set and about 6′ 2″, if that helps. The next time I go in there, I plan on meeting with the top person and share this damaging situation.

Frys used to be an exciting place to go, and it felt special. These days it feels normalized and like every other big box electronic store. Although the employees are generally nice and try to be helpful, they don’t actually seem to know all that much, and several times they have given me information that I found out to be flat wrong.

My first and last time here!
Gross incompetence, and Jan, a Manager, was extremely rude! Train your employees in one department only and fully so they can answer simple questions and not sound like bafoons.
I had simply asked if mounting hardware was included in the product, and was told by not just one, but three employees that TOOLS did not come in the kit. I did not ask about tools, but hardware. I should have known not to ask anyone anything!
On top of this, ALL the employees talk down to you as if you were stupid.
Jan, the Manager, totally disregarded my complaint as if I were stupid. They just lost a customer

I used to be really sad for the people who work here. They all seemed so downtrodden and angsty and tired of what seemed like a job they hated to go to. But now the folks are different. They seem cool for the most part, but no one knows where anything is or really how to do anything except walk around, stock stuff and talk to their coworkers. They do a pretty good job at those things. Yesterday I found something on their site that they had in stock. I ran up to Fry’s to pick it up. Looked through the each of the four sections it could be in. Nope. Asked someone. Nope («this is all we have»). Had to leave for an appointment. While at the appointment I ordered the item for in-​store pickup. Within ten minutes I had an email telling me my item was ready for pickup. Went back, got it, and, well, I guess that’s how you do it. Might try that next time while I’m in the store.

Want to talk to a person. Impossible from this phone loaded with claptrap. This store is an hour away and I’m not going unless I’m sure they can do what I need.

This experience was much better. I needed an internal hard drive and a small tool set. Plenty of associates were available so I was able to find what I needed quickly. The down side to the store, from my last experience, is that the service department is over priced and the wait is very long. It costs $ 70 to install a hard drive and I was able to install one myself in about 5 minutes in my car. Have some background knowledge and do some research so you can just buy the replacement parts you need without having to deal with that. There were plenty of checkout lines and I was in and out of the store in a total of 5 minutes. They have a huge selection, but the store layout is not my favorite and the aisle marking are small.

I want someone to see this and pass this along. I tried to call about inventory and I literally tried every single Prompt through the phone system and every one tells me to go online and I just want to talk to someone. Fix this. Its a big deal.

Super excited to be buying a steam oven, after having check availability online as well as calling them, I drove 45 minutes only to find out — of course — that they never had it. According to the clearly-​on-​commission sales rep their system always shows one in stock even if they don’t have it… awesome

I went in to buy microwave to be installed and Phillip Winston helped me. He was so helpful and informative!
Little did he know I just had such bad customer service from Best Buy & as we are remodeling our kitchen and plan on replacing all our appliances. Unfortunately, I already bought the range from Best Buy, but given the bad customer service I will not buy any more appliances from them. I received such good service from Philip as I purchased the above range microwave, we will return to buy the matching dishwasher & fridge!
He should get a raise! He was so friendly & so helpful. Also Best Buy has a 12 hr installation window (which is absurd!) and Fry’s said they could deliver the very next day and gave me A morning window or an afternoon window! I had to drive from very south Austin I will continue to shop with them and will continue to see Philip Winston!

Oh Fry’s, it would help so much if you would put the prices on the items you are trying to sell. Instead I have to stop once I find the item, go find an associate, then come back and see what the price is. That’s your first problem.
Your second problem, you have things like tablets and computers on display to be viewed. But once I decide what I want, again, I have to go find an associate to look for the said item. This can take a while at times for computers and tablets. They have to go look it up on the computer to see if they have it in stock, ask you for some type of code, then they give you a card to take to the front cashier when you are ready to check out. The cashier has to get it from a bend and scan it to add to the total of purchase all at once. No chance to look it over to decide for sure that you want it. Just bam, here it is, scan to add to total purchases, put in a bag, done. I think this type of scam is used to force the customer to buy without having the chance to think about it. Oh, and yes, again, you have to provide the code for the cashier. Bad, bad, bad.
Your third problem, your store seems to have a grimy feel to it. I remember some years back when I didn’t even live in Austin and I visited this same store. It was bright and clean. Not so much now. Please Fry’s, dust, hire someone to come in and dust off you merchandise, clean your store, make your products look squeaky clean and more appealing to the customer.
Your fourth and last problem from me, the check out on the way out. Really??? You have to have one person checking everyone that goes out of the store, holding up a line as long as the store. If you want to do this, let me suggest you hire more than one associate to do the checking. Smh, give me a break.
Overall, at times, they do have some decent sales. But if they did not have a good sale on something specific that I’m really needing and can’t find some where else, I probably wouldn’t bother visiting.

Service is Awful
I bought a $ 500 printer a couple months ago. I also opted to purchase their additional warranty for a couple years. Needless to say the printer failed after a couple months so I brought it back. The asshole at the returns section opened the printer, pulled out the toner cartridge and said «oh, you have an unauthorized brand of toner, your warranty is voided.» I asked him if he even wants to hear what’s wrong with the printer or what type of warranty I purchased and he said «no, I’m done with you.» With a gleeful smile.
Long story short, spoke with a manager, the manager checked it out and was knowledgable about a «known problem» with my type of printer and said he would have to send it to get it repaired. However he sent me over to the asshole CSR again to get my warranty processed and guess what… He still has a problem. So I go back to the manager again and ask him «what’s this guys problem? The guy doesn’t want to honor the warranty.» The manager apologized, went over and sent the asshole on break and gave us a temporary printer to use while our printer is getting fixed. It was a good effort by the manager but I’m afraid that CSR was just way too rude and needlessly caused me to be there for way too long. Not only am I never coming back but I guess I’ll be returning my laptop & TV I bought from them less than a month ago.
Icing on the cake: I’m walking outside carrying my temporary printer and I see Mr asshole CSR coming back from his break… But he gets stopped in the parking lot by some random thug who proceeds to tell him «if you ever talk to my mother like that again I’ll F**k you up!!» I about died laughing. Good riddance.

meh.
It has more than Best Buy by far as far as computer supplies and electronics of all kinds. If I’m ever going to get a component in person I go here, not really because it’s that great but mostly simply because there isn’t any real alternative around anymore. None of the employees ever seem that happy but price-​matching usually goes well when attempted, not a lot of arguing about it like at other stores.
Like other stores of it’s kind though the worst part is the customers who insist on seeing how loud stereos can go, playing whatever crap is presently disgracing the word «music.» My disdain for these people knows no limits.

Fry’s used to be good. Now – service is awful. They never have what you need and they are pretty rude about accepting price match, although they made the guarantee.
Two times this week I’ve been and they haven’t had what was advertised on their website. I actually ordered an iPod site to store and never received a call or email. Went to the store and apparently they are out of iPods. Why advertise them on your site then???
Ugh. So frustrating. Wish there were some better places to buy electronics in Austin.

I don’t like that Fry’s allows people to openly carry guns in their store. FREAKED ME OUT!!! Not feeling it AT ALL! It also freaked out the young men who worked there and who were helping me shop for printer. So I left and ordered what I needed on Amazon.
To their credit the young men were kind and helpful. But I don’t prefer to spend time in place which allows open carry because I have a dear friend’s who died in a gun accident when his child accidentally shot him. Sorry to share… but it’s hard not to react when I see a gun at someone’s side.

Great place, extremely knowledgeable people.
I went there to buy parts for a PC I’m using for machine learning research (bought a GeForce GTX Titan Z!). Every single employee there was super knowledgeable and helpful in giving me detailed info on anything I asked about. It’s amazing they can keep up with everything as they do.
I’ve built 5 — 10 PCs so far, and I had a terrible time with this one. I put the PC together, and it simply would not boot up. I even tried exchanging the motherboard and processor and had the same problem. Finally I took it into Fry’s, and they determined that the Thermaltake Frio Solent 12 heatsink top mounting plate was resting too closely to some capacitors on the motherboards and had shorted all of them out (BEWARE of this terribly-​designed Thermaltake heatsink!).
I actually went through three motherboards before they determined the problem — and Fry’s exchanged the boards without giving me any trouble. They showed integrity and took full responsibility for recommending and selling a bad heatsink. In the end, I paid $ 50 and had them build the PC (with the parts I selected and a new heatsink), and it runs great.
Great place, great people, great products sold there.

It is SO hard to find what I’m looking for in this store!
Every employee I attempt to ask for help acts like I’m completely imposing on them.
I’m sent to multiple locations within the store for one type of cable splitter and none of the 3 departments have it. Each employee states that the cable «should be here.» And not one offers to help me find it or look it up on computer. I’m not sure why they have so many employees… none of them ever seem to want to help me make purchases.
I put back the other $ 100 worth of stuff I was going to impulse buy… thanks for saving me that money.
This is my third time to shop here and my last… I can think of better places to go on «wild goose chases.»
Just know… I DID give you THREE chances!

This place is great for all things computer parts. They have a great selection of components and hardware you can’t get at any brick and mortar stores in town. The staff working the computer department are all very knowledgeable and helpful. If you scour the weekly Fry’s ad you can find some really good deals on things like RAM, peripherals, sound cards, GPU’s, motherboards, etc. Best part is Fry’s will price match most all reputable online competitors like Amazon, Newegg, Tiger Direct, Dell and so on. You’ll have to pay tax on it but you’ll get it right away and it’ll be way easier to exchange or return it if need be.

Fry’s computer service is great! Let a huge company find good techs that’s not my area of expertise. I had a hard drive off an old MacBook I needed info off of. Called this «Data Recovery Specialist» we are wizards type place and they said $ 300 min. Well, hold on I thought and remembered that Fry’s is like an enormous Radio Shack. I went there and asked what’s the cheapest way to pull photos off my hard drive? $ 12.99 !!! NexStar CX goes around your little laptop hardware and bam! Your photos appear right on your new laptop screen. Great, honest advice and they are not out to take you for a ride. Fry’s computer service is outstanding saved my over $ 300.

I used to visit Fry’s a lot, but my needs have changed over time…
I appreciate that they bring the blend of modern «big box» store and the small «Radio Shack» experience into one.
You can come here to buy a whole computer or you can piece one out. You can even buy the circuits and resistors for your latest home project.
As with any «big box» styled store, the associates are abundant and yet spread out all over the store. They do their best to help you, but it’s hard for them to be where you need them when you need them.
3 Stars overall for the store and 4 Stars for some of the unique items they carry at affordable prices.

When I spent a summer in San Jose for a tech internship, other interns talked about Fry’s like it was some sort of nerd Mecca where you could get everything from electronic components to computer parts for dirt cheap prices.
When I moved to Austin, I was excited to discover that there was a Fry’s just up MoPac. Unfortunately, it doesn’t live up to the hype, and there are few times I’ve gone there and not come away disappointed. I’ve occasionally had good experiences finding small screws and hardware here. On the other hand, I can think of many times where I came and didn’t find what I needed. One time, I came for a DVI to HDMI adapter, and of course they were «sold out» of the $ 2 one but had plenty of the needlessly-​gold-​plated model for $ 6.99. I bought it, but left cursing under my breath and swearing never to come back. But I did.
Today, I came in for a 150 ohm 5 watt resistor. According to the website, it was in stock at this location. Was it? Of course not. When I asked the (admittedly helpful) associate about it, he said that the web site often gets out of sync with the store’s inventory, since it’s only updated once each day, in the morning before the store opens. For real? This is 2014, not 1984. It’s not like your inventory management software needs to run as a batch job with a stack of punchcards on a mainframe and generate reports once per day (although in this case, I wouldn’t be surprised if it does).
I also looked for some Hakko CHP-​170 flush cutters. Fry’s must think these are a strong seller, since they had two whole rows where they would have gone if they had any in stock.
Seriously, Fry’s needs to get it together before they go the way of the dodo, or Radio Shack. And then where will I go to have a ~50% chance of finding some part I need?