[rescue] Repairing Sun Exx00 Node Boards

[jwb-tech at picarefy.com]

> I've not been impressed with Fry's any time I've gone, both to the
> relatively new one here in the Seattle area

I go to this one frequently and feel compelled to say that I've had
completely different experiences there than Mr. Ganger. Your mileage will
probably be somewhere in between.

> The staff are rude and ignorant,

Never had one be rude to me. Ignorant, yeah. That's normal for an
electronics store -- anybody who isn't ignorant can get a better job than
working retail. I would never recommend that anybody go to Fry's, or
CompUSA, or any other retail store, unless they know what they want or
they know how to read the boxes and figure it out themselves.

> they never carry enough stock on hand for their special deals by even
> the most pessimistic standard

Haven't had a problem with this.

> returns are a nightmare

I've returned three things there so far. I walk in, here's the item,
here's the receipt, here's my money back, no questions asked. Elapsed
time, under five minutes. I've never had an easier time returning stuff.

> and the idiot
> shoppers who throng there make the store (and the parking lot) a hazard
> to navigate. And don't even get me started about advertising a "final"
> price that depends on 30 million mail-in rebates, most of which you will
> never actually see even if you step through all the paperwork hoops.

It's somewhat crowded, but I can't say I've ever had real difficulty
getting through. And yes, you need to actually need to look at the shelf
tags carefully to figure out the real price. It's still a step up from
CompUSA, where most things either don't have a price at all or it's wrong.

> Feh. Give me mail order any time; even factoring in shipping, I can show
> hard savings every time. I save visits to stores for when I have an
> emergency and can't wait for overnight or 2-day.

I do mail order for expensive stuff, or large batches, but if I need a
single $20 or $30 part, I'll just go get it. The bulk of my purchases at
Fry's consist of small random commodity bits.

--James B.