L.A. Computer Center
When I was in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, I received a panic e-mail from Avy, one of my partners in the Cinnamon Art Gallery back on Bonaire - his power supply for his gargantuan Toshiba notebook had blown out and needed a replacement ASAP.
I contact Toshiba’s parts department, but they first did not have my billing zip code in their zip code database to take my order (the zip code was new about 4-5 years ago, but Toshiba had an older zip code database). Once they had worked around that, it turned out they don’t ship to hotels. Thirty minutes of aggravation for no result.
Because time was short until my departure back to Bonaire, I then searched on-line for a California based seller of such power supplies. I stumbled across one - L.A. Computer Center out of Inglewood, California - quite quickly. On CNET they seemed to have a pretty decent reputation, so I gave them a call (800-689-3933).
I ended up on the phone with Chad (x237), and he was great. He located the part I needed in Anaheim, so I agreed to ship the part UPS ground. He followed up with me by phone to indicate the order had gone through.
The next day, disaster struck - the part got shipped from the midwest, contrary to Chad’s request it be shipped from Anaheim, and there was no was it was going to make it to L.A. before I had to fly out.
I left a message for Chad about this, and within a couple of hours I received a call that the package had been upgraded to overnight service and I would have it the next day. Better yet, the next day I received it, along with another call from Chad to verify everything went okay.
With recent Internet shopping problems my wife and I had experienced with folks like Hallmark.com (they shipped a Mother’s Day present the Monday after Mother’s Day even though express shipping was paid for and they guaranteed it would arrive in time, and then had incredibly lousy service on top of all that - 2.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale, and only because they did finally deliver) and Drugstore.com (they shipped a prescription via U.S. mail instead of the paid-for 2-day service, but at least they had better service - 4.5 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale), dealing with Chad and LACC was great.
Sure, the order got screwed up, but Chad was extremely responsive, took responsibility, and remedied the problem - and all this for an $80 part.
L.A. Computer Center gets an 8.5 out of 10 on The Richter Scale. And if you order from them, make sure to ask for Chad - 800-689-3933 x237.
