Call Kurtis: Where's My Computer?

Sallysue Stein of Auburn keeps up a hilarious blog, thebutterflymind.com. But readers haven't seen a new post in months.

"I have readers from all over the country," says Stein

The quirky website is based on the adventures of her 85-year-old mother whose nickname is "Butterfly." Why the nickname Butterfly, you ask?

"Cause I never stay on the subject very long," says Butterfly.

"She flits like a butterfly," according to Stein.

Since late July, Stein has been for the most part off-line and making due without her laptop.

"I want my computer back, they can't fix it, they aren't giving it back to me," says Stein.

When her laptop starting having problems, she took it to the Roseville Fry's, where her extended warranty would cover repairs.

"I thought, 'Oh this is all going to work nicely.' I did not know I was entering the black hole of Fry's support."

Stein has a loaner from Fry's but can't use it for everything she did on her own computer. She says she was told the repairs would take at most six weeks. Fry's called up Stein, six weeks on the dot. They told her the computer was ready to be picked up.

"Silly me, I thought that meant that they had tested it," says Stein.

But Stein says when she arrived at the store and tried to start her laptop it would not boot up. And now, after more than 11 weeks of phone calls and frustration, she has a six-page log of her dealings with Fry's.

"When I think about fry's electronics I'm almost past the angry stage and I'm just into 'it's a joke' stage. The company's a joke," says Stein.

We got in touch with Fry's to see what was taking so long. Fry's responded within a week with this statement:

I am happy to report that Ms. Stein has been contacted by our Roseville Store Manager, and she will be choosing a new computer to replace her original Sony unit.

Fry's experienced an unusual delay in receiving the computer recovery disks from Sony which helps explain the delay in completing the repair of her unit. In the meantime, however, our diagnostics uncovered a potential problem with the computer motherboard, and so Fry's will replace the unit under the terms of the Fry's Performance Service Contract which our customer purchased when she bought her Sony computer.

We regret the extended time frame for the resolution, but Ms. Stein is very happy to have the matter resolved--and so are we!

Thanks for contacting us regarding our valued customer.

Manuel Valerio
Community Relations Manager
Fry's Electronics, Inc.

With our help and a new laptop from Fry's, Stein can now post the latest anecdotes from Butterfly.

"I want to know how you did it," Stein tells us, "But I have to tell you, I'll never go into Fry's again. I'm done."

Stein says the manager of the Roseville store apologized to her. He also arranged for her to get a one year warranty from the date she got her new laptop.