Future Shop

I would like to inform you about the actions by Future Shop employees without any regard for customer respect and satisfaction. I have also sent a copy of this occurrence to Better Business Bureau for further actions.

I bought a LG 42 LED TV from Heartland Town Centre (Mississauga) on 20-Dec-2010 and also bought an Extended Warranty as well for the said product. When the Extended Warranty was sold to me, I was informed that within my extended Warranty Period, if due to any issue the TV does not work, a replacement will be provided by any Future Shop Location.

My TV stopped working on 05-Jan-2012. I took the TV to the same location where I purchased it. Upon my request, they agreed to replace the machine; however, the same model was out of stock at the store. I was requested to go to another location, (2975 Argentia Rd, Mississauga), where my TV would be easily replaced, hence I drove all the way to the other location. The agent in customer services for exchange / return asked me to take the printed receipt, get a replacement TV, and bring it back to her.

As per her advice, I selected the same model for replacement and brought it to her. She then asked me the reason for replacement and I informed her that it was not working. At this, the Manager, Ms.**, came and told me to go back to the same location and speak to them for the exchange as it was not purchased from her location. I told her that I already did and was sent to her store from the Point of Purchase but she refused to assist me. Upon my request to speak to someone else who can resolve this she called a Sales Manager, Mr. **, who gave me the same response.

I informed him that it was not a solution and since I had already gone from one location to another, there should be an alternate solution provided as I was sold an Extended Warranty by giving misinformation. He told me that he was just wasting his time and if I did not leave the store he will slap me and throw me and my spouse out of the store and if I approached anyone else they shall not help me as well. Being a valued and regular customer of Future Shop I am enraged and insulted by the actions of the staff. I have paid a good amount of money for both the TV and the extended warranty and I do not see this as good customer service.

All I was looking for was someone to assist me. I never expected this rude behavior from the staff, which leaves me with no choice but to write this email to your newspaper. Such actions by the employee and has forced me to inform you about the worst kind of service received from the staff of Future Shop where a customer is threatened and insulted by an employee.

I recently placed an online order for a Keurig B60 coffee machine. My information was submitted on Dec 16th and at 7:10pm on December 18th. I went down to the Future Shop store to pick up my item. After the customer service woman looked up the information, she realized that my order had not been filled. No problem she said, as there were still some available in the store, I picked up the same model and the two packs of K-cups that came free with the purchase. A Sales Manager, David ** took over the sale and informed me, rather confrontationally, that I had "gamed the system" and that he would not honor my purchase. When I asked for what reason, he merely stated that it was through his sheer will and that because the k-cups were being given away for free, I did not 'technically' buy them. Rather than allowing me to pay for the K-cups separately, he told me that he would not let me buy it period.

He also stated that he was the only manager at the store, despite his business card stating that he is merely the "sales manager" and not the "general manager", he further refused to put in writing his refusal, stating this word would be good enough. I feel my purchase should be honored and that the Sales Manager erred in refusing it and was also unprofessionally by losing his professional cool and accusing me of lying and cheating. This is not reflecting of a top tier retail experience, where there should have been no fuss made over an item that was being given away through promotion. This does not foster the Future Shop brand and I know from personal experience that this Sales Manager is not representative of the rest of the company. I merely ask that this event be corrected in accordance with the terms of the original contract. As I feel this is a violation of contract law, I will also have to unfortunately raise this matter with the Better Business Bureau.

Futureshop has always been my number source of all my electronics but after what happened this week, at the Halifax branch in Nova Scotia (Dartmouth Crossing), I doubt I will be shopping there ever again, due to lack of customer service and knowledge about their products. I came in with $10,000.00 of my hard-earned money and decided to buy some products from future shop. I purchased a 27 inch iMac computer, iPad, The Boxee Box (HD Movie Streamer), TV stand, Camera (Powershot), 60 inch (LG) TV with polk audio surround sound, Three 3TB Seagate GOFLEX Home Network Storage External Hard drives, plus a Yamaha receiver for my Polk Audio Surround Sound and a slew of accessories for the iMac, iPad, camera and my home theatre set). At the end of my spending spree, my bill was a little over $9,900.00 then the problems started when the girl behind the counter had to count my money three times because she lost count and the customer service representative was demanding that I still owed her money. I know basic addition and subtraction, so I told her to recount and I was correct, I didn't owe Futureshop any extra money.

The next week, the plan was that, I would receive my iMac, Boxee Box, TV, surround sound, receiver, TV stand (and ordered Pro Connect to set up just my surround sound) and other items I ordered for delivery. So when the PRO Connect guy showed up the following week, he only had my iMac and Boxee box and had no idea about the other items, so it wasn't a big deal at the time. I would contact futureshop after he leaves. The guy had no idea whatsoever on how to set up a Boxee Box and even admitted that he had no training on how to set up this product at all. So after he was done fiddling around with the Boxee Box and failing to connect to my wireless network or to a wired connection with the Boxee Box, he apologized and said he would refund me $200 for two hours of work, that I did, and then he left.

I was very excited to use my new iMac, but couldn't change any of the system settings because it required a password. I called customer service at the Halifax branch and the person who I was talking with, had no idea on how to change the system password, luckily there's a friend called, "Google" and again I had to do it myself. Even on the Pro Connect install guide, I specifically wrote down what I wanted the system password to be, so I had to reinstall the iMac and enter the system password myself. After this, I decided to call about my home theatre package, well buddy at home theatre, had no idea where my package was and I was put on hold for twenty minutes. After the twenty minutes was up, he said it was supposed to be delivered today with my iMac and Boxee box. He had to contact the sales representative, who sold me my Home Theatre package, which took another ten minutes and told me to come the next day to get my refund on the hours on the Pro Connect and talk with him about my home theatre.

The last thing I want to do is go on my days off to Futureshop and deal with this; I just get back from a six month deployment to Afghanistan. After that I decided to test out my Seagate 3TB Network Storage external hard drives. Now when buying these drives, I asked the sales representative, who worked in Computers for eight years, if the network can pick up all three drives. He assured me that it would work, but it didn't. All three devices have the same device name and the network will only recognize.

So the next day, me and my buddy went back to futureshop to get the refund for the hours for the Pro Connect, the two 3TB Seagate external hard drives and to see where my home theatre package was. When I went to the customer service and told him about the external hard drives and how that networks only pick up one device, he looked at me like I had three heads. So I told him that I would be returning these hard drives and would be replacing them with the 2TB Seagate external hard drives. He had no problem and he said that he would refund my money for the hard drives and the Pro Connect.

I decided to go see the sales representative who sold me the home theatre system. First off, he had admitted that he forgot to charge me for the TV Stand, that he picked out and still charged me for the setup of the surround sound after all this! He apologized and said that he would talk with the manager and see what discounts they would give me for this whole mix up. He left and then, me and my buddy were walking around for a little over an hour and a half. So I went to the customer service desk and asked what was going on. They had no idea because the sales representative, instead of going to the manager to talk about the discounts, went to make sales! The girl had no idea what I was doing there. When I turned around to go find the sales representative, he came running over and was talking to one of the managers. After twenty minutes at the cash, I got my new hard drives, my refunds, located my home theatre and my TV stand and got a nice voucher for my troubles.

But in the end, the service I got was disgusting. I will never be shopping at Futureshop again, unless the Sony Store and BestBuy burn to the ground, lol. Also, my friend said he had never seen service like that ever; the service at Ralph's apparently is better. I recommend when you have $10,000 in cash to spend and you're a real techie like me, don't go to Futureshop, please go elsewhere.

Copy of email that I have sent to an online customer service representative:

My name is Julian ** and I have recently had some issues with a product that I had purchased at Future shop and I wanted to discuss the problem with someone at the core. I had purchased a battery for my MacBook on Saturday, December 4th at the South Keys Future Shop in Ottawa, Ontario (B1 - 2210 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1V 1J5). It had a security magnetic strap around the box, which was removed by the cashier at cash number 2. I left with the box and went to install it into my laptop at my home. I pulled it out of the package and noticed that it was in horrible condition. Red scrap on the unit, scuffs and scratches all over and when installed, it could not hold a charge according to my computer's "profiler program". I returned to the Future Shop location in South Keys to exchange the unit for a "new" model the next morning (Sunday, December 5th).

The first thing I had pointed out when the customer service representative came to assist me was that the serial number on the battery did not match the one on the packaging and that the battery was clearly used and had obvious wear and tear on it. This representative immediately went to find the floor manager to assist me with my problem. Ramala ** was the floor manager that day and she would not spend more than one minute with me to explain that she would not take it back and that she did not have time for me. Ramala: "I have a million things to do and no time for this". She then walked away and left me with the sales representative who could not do anything for me as her superior had advised her not to.

I asked the customer representative when the GM was going to be in the store so that I could discuss this issue with him. She said "Tuesday and Friday". I was away on business until the Thursday so the Friday was my only option. When I arrived on Friday at 9:55AM, I waited for the store to open and immediately went to the customer service section to discuss with the GM my issue. Justin was the fellow who was working the desk that morning. He spoke to a manager that was at the store that morning right away after I explained the above story to him. This manager (I failed to get his name) had sympathy for me and immediately went to get me a new battery unit and apologized for the trouble. He returned with a battery and Justin began the exchange process. Only moments into the process, a "Regional Operations Manager" named Damian ** ran from the backroom saying "do not give him the battery".

This was when he pulled out his Blackberry and read to me an email that Ramala ** had sent to him stating: "A guy came into the store on Friday the 3rd trying to bring back a battery and then repeatedly attempted to exchange the battery at that same location as well as other locations in the Ottawa area". She then had supposedly quoted me "I will try to return this at other locations". This is false and entirely fabricated. I came to the store once on Sunday, attempt number one, and then the next time on Friday the 10th to speak to a manager. I do not understand how I could have attempted to return a product on Friday the 3rd when I had only purchased it on the 4th. Damian ** at least spent some time with me and listened to my story as I truthfully tried to reason with him and have him understand that I honestly left that store on the preceding Saturday with a used product.

Regardless of the truth, he was unable to provide me with an exchange as policy would state that it would be simply "impossible" for me to have left the building with an open box nor to have even picked it up off the shelf in that condition. I asked him to please review the security cameras to see that in fact, the box had no plastic wrap on it when I made my purchase. Only a magnetic security wrap. He refused to do this as he felt the video evidence would be "inconclusive". I then left and assured him that I would no longer shop at Future Shop. He was not bothered by this at all.

I am writing this email for two reasons: 1) I am obviously upset that the supposedly "new" product I had purchased from Future Shop turned out to be used and essentially, I wasted $192.00 on an empty box. 2) I am outraged that a floor manager would fabricate a false event to this degree based on absolutely no evidence or theory. I hope to receive a reply from a more experienced customer representative as well as a review of the staff members at this location. This was not the proper way to deal with a client and I do feel that Ramala ** will tarnish the public appearance of Future Shop with this sort of behavior. All my contact info is below. Please feel free to review my recorded file by last name to see that I am a loyal customer of Future Shop and until now, spoke nothing but good things of the products and services offered.

I have had communication since and I can provide all copies of discussion. However, I have not had communication from them in 9 days and the discussions that we had in result of my email above were very impersonal and unhelpful. Essentially, they have asked me to go back to the store to resolve the issue. Again, if you would like to see the other emails, please let me know.

I just bought a new computer and decide to have Windows 2007 to get up to date. To my surprise, the version Office Famille et Tudiant 2010, doesn't come with Outlook included. How cheap is that? I'm not asking for much, but the product I used to have, Windows XP, has Outlook included. Instead of going forward, it went backward, and now I don't have Outlook to keep in contact with friends. I can't understand why this is not included in a basic package. It's very sad. I am a very unhappy customer.

Purchased a 50" LG TV, the sales men were rude. I saw 2 boxes, one looked new and another looked dirty. I wanted to pick the newer one but they said, "No, it's sold." I got the TV in my card, drove 30 minutes home, turned it on and there's a line on the screen. Also some mounting screws were missing. I really suspect it's open box but they sell it as brand new. Because this was the last unit, I brought it back to another Futureshop store, they said no, I had to take it back to original store. I did, waited few days. I wanted to test the TV because I didn't want to go back and forth if there's a problem. The sales men said, "No.". I asked "What if there's problem again? I don't want to drive 30 minutes to return it". He said "Then it's your bad luck". I also think they should offer free delivery.

The dishwasher was to be delivered between 12:00 and 6:00 (a rather wide window, requiring some planning on our part to make sure that one of us would be home). It never showed up, and no one called so I contacted their help desk. The confused fellow there indicated that someone named 'Lori' had signed for it (no one in my family is named Lori), that it was at the store location in Ottawa, that it wasn't in Ottawa, and then that he really wasn't sure.

Ultimately, he gave up and said that I should just call the store because he had no authority to investigate or to try to track the item down anyway. When I went to the store to cancel the order, I was told that the warehouse was closed and that, consequently, they would not cancel my order. So, they have my $1,000, they have my dishwasher, they have wasted about 4 hours of my life, and they will take no action to remedy the situation. I'll try again tomorrow, but am also drafting my letter to the President of Future Shop in another window. Always remember and never forget: never buy anything at Future Shop!

On Friday July 9, 2010, my husband and I bought a 12000 BTU portable air conditioner and an 8000BTU window air conditioner (we also got the service plan for both units as well) at the Futureshop at 325 Yonge Street Toronto , Ontario. After taking them home that night, (since he works in the downtown core we met for dinner then got our units down there and took them home to North York) since it was later in the evening, we decided to set them up the next day.

Saturday afternoon, we finally opened the window unit up to find it was used. There were parts missing, a dent in the top of the unit which prevented the vent from being opened and scratches on the bottom where it was obviously slid into a window and it was also dirty. Now, like a lot of city people we don't have a car, not much of a need for one so we looked up where the closest Futureshop was and then verified online that we could exchange or return an item at any store.

We took the window unit to the Futureshop in North York and were helped by an associate called Ali at service and returns. We told him we would like to exchange (not return) this unit. Ali took one look at the box (which we taped for transport) and asked if we had opened it. We replied that yes we had opened it to install it and had found it in this condition and would like a unit that was brand new (like we paid for). He excused himself (with our receipt) and we waited about 10 minutes for his return. He handed us back our receipt and said he checked and all units come in factory fresh condition so he can't help us because there is no way we got the unit in this shape. Excuse me!

We re-stated that this was how we had received the unit and that all we wanted was what we paid for. His response was there was nothing he could do and told us to take it to the original store of purchase and maybe they would know what happened. When my husband asked why we would have to go to another store when it was clearly stated that we could exchange or return to any Futureshop, he simply said go to store #67. He would not answer anything and other then stating over again that we couldn't possibly have received the unit as it was go to store #67. Well we were ******! Off into a cab and back down to Yonge St to the original store.

Now we decided after 60 bucks in cab fare and being treated like crap that we no longer wanted to exchange but return the unit (we even decided if we got the same treatment at the other store that we would return both units and be done with Futureshop). We walked into Futureshop downtown and were helped within a few minutes by Shaun and Raoul they were very understanding and offered to exchange the unit and pay for our service plan. After telling them that we wanted to just return it as we were not happy, they returned our unit with no problem and told us that we should have been able to do exactly that at the other store in the first place. They then gave us the name of their manager and pointed him out to us so that we could tell him what happened.

The managers name is Dave and he took the time to listen to our complaint (which wasn't even about his store) and said he would talk to the manager of the previous store we were at. So as much as we aren't Futureshop fans (only time we have bought anything there in about 10 years, lol go figure) at least the store downtown made a concerted effort to correct the rude and uncooperative behavior of Ali at the North York store. I still recommend staying away from Futureshop since overall it is still a questionable chain in regards to how they treat their customers.

When I reached home, I powered on the netbook and played with it for about an hour. I left it on for about an hour while doing some chores and the netbook went to sleep mode after a few minutes. When i tried to use the netbook by pressing any keys and the power button, I was irritated to find that the netbook would not turn itself on again. Now everything about the "NO RETURN" and "FINAL SALE" scribbles on my receipt make sense. Futureshop has sold me a defective unit and made it "sure" that I won't be able to return it and that I would have to resort to their crappy product service plan to get my unit working again. At this point, I was fuming mad. I don't understand why I big company would allow their sales associates to resort to trickery to get rid of a defective unit.

On Monday (yesterday), I went to the Futureshop customer service counter in Bridgeport to demand a replacement or a full refund and guess what the customer representative first told me: "This unit was bought under 'NO RETURN' and 'FINAL SALE' condition". This further infuriated me so I demanded to see the sales manager or whoever is in charge to tell him/her directly that I paid for a non-defective unit so I deserve to receive a non-defective unit. The acting manager tried to convince me to have the unit repaired since it has a PSP on it. Of course, that was completely unacceptable to me so I refused and insisted on a replacement or a full refund.

After so much hassle and painful exchange of words, the acting manager decided to give me a full refund.

Second, is the customer service experience. It was really horrible. They really make it feel like Futureshop is out to get me when I tried to return a defective unit. When their own technician has certified that the unit is defective, the manager should have immediately offered an apology and provide a refund or replacement instead of convincing me to have the unit repaired.

Futureshop customers BEWARE!

I purchased a new toshiba laptop to weeks ago from Future Shop. I left the room and came back and my screen was all full of lines. I took it back to Future shop and they would not exchange or fix it, they said that i had to have done it to the screen myself. I only have bought toshiba laptop and i never had a problem, I have sent it away to get it fixed and they told me that i have to pay 300 to have it fixed. Is there anything that i can do to have this charged cleared or what would you need to resolve this problem, again i know that i didnt purposely wreck my new laptop, thank you for your time.,

I purchased $6500 dollars in a home entertainment system. After just over 2 years the 50 inch Samsung plasma TV I bought as part of this system just powered off and won't power on again. I was refused any help from Future Shop and the Electronics tech, they suggested wanted $85 charged to my credit card before he comes to my house. The salesman I talked to on the phone said the plasma TV's power boxes routinely burnout in the first 2 years even though I was told I would get 10 to 15 year of high definition viewing out of the TV. These people say whatever they want to get you to buy their electronics and then say tough luck when you return to them for repairs. Crooks. This means that we have no TV coverage of MLB Baseball or NHL playoffs until I can find a reputable repairman to fix our TV power issues.

I just purchased two (2) Samsung 52" LCD TVs from Future Shop. When I was looking at the TVs, the salesperson told me that with the purchase of a Samsung TV, I would be able to enter into a draw for two (2) free tickets to the 2010 Superbowl. I had also seen this promotion on the Future Shop website. After I purchased the two (2) TVs, my receipt also advised of the promotion and website to enter the promotion.

I tried numerous times to bring up the website that was listed for the draw and received a page advising "The page you are trying to view is either not found, the URL is incorrect or the page may have moved." I sent an email to Future Shop advising this and received a reply, "We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, we are currently experiencing technical difficulties with the page." The email also advised, "Please keep checking back."

I kept trying the site every day without any luck and sent another email asking about it and received an answer on January 26, 2010 stating ,"We sincerely apologize for the delay in repairing the website. I have further escalated this issue to our website technicians and you should expect notification within 72-business hours letting you know the website URL has been repaired. Again, we do apologize for the inconvenience."

I never did receive any notification and as of this date, have not received any answers to my last 3 emails and the site still didn't work. When I was looking at the TVs, the salesperson advised me of the contest. The Superbowl is on February 7, 2010 and it is obvious that there is not and possibly never was a draw for these tickets. I believe I have met all the criteria and Future Shop has not met their end of the contract of promise of promotion.

A year and one week to the date that I originally purchased my iMac it started shutting down. I did not purchase applecare but called them anyway.

The assistance they offered was for me to "contact the place of original purchase."

I get the iMac home and the first thing it does...you guessed it, shut down.

Now I have to take it back to a AASP and pay for another diagnositic and probably a power supply (best case) and maybe a mother board (worst case).

I feel that I have bought a lemon and my first instinct is to box it up and send it back to Apple demanding my money back.

I will definetly recommmend to anyone that you stay away from Apple computers. If you have to buy and extended warranty the product just is not that good.

I had a Dell PC for 6 years and never had a problem. I realize that I should have backed up the music and photos but I never thought that the Mac would fail within a year.