I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess. Wrapping up a terrible experience with the cheapskates at Geeks.com. Here's the story.

I took advantage of one of Geek.com's recent Christmas specials...a basic inexpensive laptop for my mother. All she needs is a simple basic computer to start learning how to get around on the internet. Hey, not a bad Christmas present, right? Only thing is it arrived with the keyboard broken. I walked her through the return process and she sent it back to Geeks, of course at her own expense. I knew being Christmas time this process would probably take longer than usual, but after a week or so I started logging in to my account and keeping an eye on the support process. When I requested the RMA from the support guy on the phone I specifically asked that they replace the unit - if it was a different brand or config no problem. As long as it matches the same basic specs I would be happy. Over the next few days I saw the notes being written that testing had confirmed the keyboard was busted, and I start looking out for an email with a tracking number for the next unit.

Whoops! Turns out they’re not making good on the purchase. Apparently a company that specializes in shipping in and reselling inexpensive laptop computers and other electronics is instead claims they don't have any others handy and are giving me a credit...the exact opposite of what I asked for. The notes in the credit item claim I said it was a-ok, too. How interesting!

Best of all, I get the email with their decision. Literally 1 minute later I get their daily email offering laptops at twice the price I paid for my mother's Christmas present! Gee, what bargains!

They get in laptop shipments of all varieties, and all the time. All I wanted was for them to make good on the purchase and provide me the item I paid for instead of being miserly or lazy or whatever is keeping them from providing good customer service.

Why am I a glutton for punishment? This is my 4th purchase with them, and strangely enough, my 4th defective item. The laptop is the only one I’ve bothered to send back, though. With me footing the return shipping bill it wasn’t worth it for the other far less expensive items. I guess at this rate I was asking to be jipped. Whatever. Let this be a warning to my blogger and social networking friends and especially my IT peers to avoid Geeks.com like the plague! It's like taking a road trip to Rip-off City...