First off they do not give you coffee breaks, They expect you to work an eight hour shift with only a lunch to break it up. 

The Belleville Future Shop has the worst management over any other company I have ever been part of (worse then Wal-Mart).  The store manager is A lazy over weight, over tempered meanie thats blames all his life problems on his employees.  He is constantly yelling at his employees at morning meetings.  During meetings customers will pile up at the front of store before it is open and he will sometimes make fun of them standing there.  I find everyone in the store to be immature and childish.

 The Ops Manager is even worse! She is the most lazy east indian I have ever met! She sits in the office all day on her ass watching the cameras then actually has the nerve to tell people they are not doing there jobs! This is going on at all Future Shops accross the globe tho.  I tried eatting breakfast in the warehouse one day and she flipped on me, Meanwhile she was eatting her breakfast watching me on the cameras.  She was a hypocrite.  I got anything I wanted out of that place if you follow what I mean. They treated me like shit there so I had to get them back and I did!!I encourage anybody that reads this to go there and F the place up. FUTURE SHOP SUCKS!

2 weeks later, on the Thursday of that week, I called back and was
told he had to look at it and would call me back in half an hour
or less cause he had to check if the hard drive was installed yet.
2 hours later, I figure “Hey, it’s not nagging if I’ve waited 2
hours right?”. I’m told the guy that was on shift when the computer
came in hadn’t been in and the part hadn’t been ordered, and that
the guy was running a ~8 hour diagnostic to check if the hard drive
was the problem.

I told the techie that I, and the technician before had
already verified that and asked why he didn’t just order it
now because that’s another business day of shipping lost,
and he said that he had to make sure. I thought that was
stupid, but the next day I called back and was told that
it’d be in in 2 – 3 business days and that it’d be done in
5 days or so.

Shitty, yes. But I’m one to hope for the best
in people. Not sure what day it was, but around that time later
I called back, and the part wasn’t in yet. Alright, that’s ok I
guess, not their fault. I waited another week or so to call back,
and when I did they gave me some bullshit about it being in but
not installed yet, and so I started calling back every couple days
to check. This is where it gets bad.

Calling back, I’m fed a line about the hard drive being installed and
the operating system going to be installed the next day, every time. It’s
already BEEN 3 and a half weeks by now, a little haste would go a long way.
This was what I was repeatedly told until about week 4, when I was told directly
that they were having trouble setting up the drivers, and it’d be done tomorrow.

Ever. Single. Day. Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow.

This Monday came, and I called and was told their technician supervisor
or some obviously worthless job title would be in tomorrow to look at it
because they were having trouble getting the drivers done properly, as they
had to get drivers on the hard drive, to install the OS onto the hard drive,
or some bullshit like that. I figured alright, that sounds a bit not right, but
Dad said he’d go into Futureshop with me tomorrow if they didn’t have it fixed and have some words with the people there. The next day, they told me it wasn’t fixed but that they’d call us the next day because it would be, and lo and behold, the next day, for the FIRST time EVER, they kept their promise and called back.

Now, good news. It’s fixed. I went out, and expected my CD RW back as the techie said there was no need to take it out at the store if I didn’t need it right away because they’d give it back after, because he was too lazy to hook it up and eject it I assume. I was told by whichever douchebag who has the nerve to call himself a techie, that he couldn’t find it. I asked if I could have one to replace it, as I don’t have many CD RW’s (try three, two now) and he said he didn’t know if they had any but he’d check. He brought
back 2 cd-r’s, which had paper printed on to the faces of them. Told me there you go. I looked at the backs, and saw that it looked like a CD-R, not the CD-RW’s I’d seen. He noticed, and after a pause, said ‘I think they’re CD-RW’s anyways, they could possibly be CD-R’s, I’m not sure. I corrected him, noting his shady trying to pass one off on me, I told him you can even see CD-R written on inside ring of the disc, and that the color wasn’t
even right. He went in and brought me out 2 new discs, I looked at it and thought thank god, finally.

No. The inside ring: DVD-R. I told him and he said something like “Oh, yeah we don’t use CD-RW’s here I guess.” Bull fucking shit. I’m pissed, but I just pick up my computer to go and take the 4 discs, and lifting the computer up, the FRONT FELL OFF. No fucking joke. These model Acers have a front plate that clips on, and it FELL OFF. Hanging by the power button cord. I lift it up and try to put it on and repeatedly push in one corner,
trying to make it clasp but it kept clicking and looking fixed, but not being fixed at all. The tech guy got fed up I guess, and asked to try it. He did the exact same as me, and called it fixed. I said no, look, as I poked it to make it fall off again. He put on a big show of re-fixing it, testing its stability, and returned it to me. Again, not fixed. He asked if it was always like that, and so I told him not until I gave it to you guys. He said the clasps must be coming loose. Anyways, after another effort, we got it, and I
took my shit to the Customer Service department.

There, I explained the long, painful struggle I’d endured all this way, and how I’d been fed bullshit, bullshit and more bullshit the whole way through, to ask for a CD-RW, or I hinted, maybe a pack to make up for the bad service. Nope. She said if he didn’t find em, they mustn’t use them, and she doesn’t work there so he’s the best word on it. I asked ok but what about one off the shelves? It didn’t seem too ludicrous to request that after
such infinite quantities of bullshit, and she said “Oh no, we can’t do that. Store use stock is different from inventory, we can’t give that away.” I asked why they couldn’t just make an exception considering how much they’d dicked me around (in politer terms), and GET THIS.

It’s store policy that once your computer is in for services, it’s your responsibility to back up your own things, and to remove all removable stuff you may have, so they can’t be held liable for it. It was then that I lost absolutely all faith not only in the tech department, but in customer care WHAT SO EVER, of Futureshop.

Side notes of Pain:
-forwarded to tech room, 5 minutes later a guy accidentally answers the phone
and tells me ‘the tech room is pretty backed up, so I’ll just send you on
to a general manager’, which was what I’d requested at first. General manager
got on the phone, and told me she’d forward me to the tech room. I told her
about what just happened, and she said she ‘just wanted to see’. So after another
lengthy wait, I hung up, giving up for the day.
-had been told progress was made, and that next work was being done on it, when
in reality it had not changed at all, as affirmed by the next days call
-tech room hangs up instead of answering when directed to being put on hold for them
from front store
-tech room answers by accident, says he meant to be on another call because he was
needed there, put on hold, and never picked up again

There was much more, but I honestly can’t remember it all. But I guarantee you that no way, unless you’ve had to deal with them yourselves, could you EVER ascertain ANY idea of the pain and suffering endured throughout this ordeal by reading this post.

Don’t make the mistake of buying at Futureshop, they’ve got the products you want but none of the customer care you’ll need once you’ve got them. For the price-to-pain ratio, you’d be better off building a much better PC yourself and googling to learn how to fix it every time something goes wrong. Even self-teaching + fixing it, I’d put my money on you to finish before I’d put it on them.

When I came back from vacation to office on Sep,09, it was found out the two UPSs were defective items:
opened boxes and I evaluated they must be defective and returned items reboxed and delivered to me.
I immediately called and emailed Future Shop for return.

I was told I will receive the mailing label for free return to my email that day (Sep 10).
It was never mailed to me and I emailed and called altogether 10 times for it and never got it.

Last time (Sep 22) I talked to Stephen, your customer service agent on your 1800 phone line, he said he saw no record
of related “free mail return label” arrangement for the defective items I got, which I was told many times it will be mailed to me.
Stephen said someone will call my office phone number to discuss within 48 hours (which that I was also told many many times)
but never happened.

This is substandard service and very bad business.

Would you please let me know if that’s Future Shop way of forcing customers to keep defective items by
ignoring their complaints, and by using delaying tactics so that it was way over the return period and must keep those defective items?

Very angry customer,

They just ended up routing me to different extensions where no one would pick up the phone… I actually let the phone ring for quite a while as I was still browsing the website – eventually someone picked up without saying anything – and then it was like I was on hold or something.

I don’t know if anyone else has ever experienced this kind of thing.. doesn’t leave me too motivated to buy from them.

This was a location near Mavis and 401 in Mississauga (can’t say all of them are the same).

I went into FutureShop to buy a 26″ Flat Screen LCD t.v. (I was renting my old one, and wanted to get out of renting my electronics).

I went into the local FutureShop at 3:30pm, picked the t.v. and went to the counter to pay for it.

My M/C was swiped and which type the P.O.S (Point of Sale) machine accepted the payment, but for whatever reason their computer didn’t.  At that time, the salesperson (who was actually quite nice) tried to figure out a way to get the sale through.

I was then told that my credit card company would have to provide a copy that it has been charged, at which point they would be able to put through the purchase.  My cc company told me that could take upto 48hrs.  Which was illogical, but anyway.  We putted around for about 2 hrs. trying to figure out what was going on, at last I talked to the Operations Mgr.  (who again was nice), he assured me that if I could get a print off or an email from them showing my statement where I had been charged, he would run the order, since I had been charged.

I found out that my cc card does have an online option, so I registered and logged in and printed off my transactions sheet, which clearly showed that FutureShop took their money and included the store number, amount, etc.

I went in this morning to provide the information that was asked for and I was told that they would have to do a chargeback onto my credit card, since the computer didn’t register the sale, (which would take until Monday or Tuesday, which this being Saturday).  At this point I was furious, cause my girlfriend was coming over, I have my kids this weekend, etc.  At this point I told them that I want compensation for something that was their computer’s fault.  The sales person I dealt with was not the same one as yesterday, and did really seem sympathetic.

Anyway, I’m just sitting in my quiet apartment with no t.v. and totally disgusted which the way all this went down.

I replaced one projector lamp ($345) after the first year, unusual said the tech that I spoke to at Sony, but because it was a floor model it could be that it was on for extended periods of time which lessened the life of the lamp.  In any event this past week the color started to go weird so I called the 1 800 number for service and a tech from an independent company that does Sony warranty work came out and after looking the TV over told me that he would submit the repair estimate to Future Shop and that I should hear something in the next 10 days.

Before that time had elapsed I received a call from the warranty folks at Future Shop telling me that they were not going to repair the TV, and that I should go to the store closest to me and get a brand new TV.

I figured that the sales would start and they would try to upsell me to something that I did not want, well surprised was I when I went to the store and was told that not only would I get a new TV but because Sony doesn’t make that particular type of TV anymore that I would be given a 52″  LCD TV instead, free delivery and removal of the old TV.

The only thing that I would have to purchase was another warranty for the new TV, did I buy the extended warranty, you bet I did, it was the best $369 I have ever spent, wouldn’t be without it on a purchase that big.

Advicewanted

In regards to customers

1. The associate who is helping you is on commission. This means that the associate is going to do two things. #1 the associate is going to want to close the sale(common sense, no sale no commission)#2 get you the right product that you are happy with at the right price(commission works both ways, if you return within your return policy, the associate losses that commission, if you find it cheaper and come in for the difference, the associate loses commission)

LET ME BE CLEAR, IT IS IN THE ASSOCIATES BEST INTEREST TO DO THE JOB RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!

Expect to be approached by an associate, expect the associate to recommend more than the core product, a printer needs ink, a car stereo needs a dash kit and a wiring harness, washer needs hoses (many manufactures do not provide these any more) would you rather get home and find out you still need these products?

Product service plans, product replacement plans, product exchange plans.

Consider this, every retailer offers some version of this. Walmart, Costco, Staples, Brick, Sears,etc.. Why?

The manufacture of these products offer the bare minimum of service and most retailers have compensated for that by offering “plans.” Now yes everyone makes a profit, and not every service plan gets used, but for the people who do have to use it, it is a life saver, why I think it is important? the amount of customers that I have seen screwed by both the manufacture and retailer because there item is 1.5years old and has stopped working is ridiculous, there is value there, and it is your choice to purchase or decline, but if you do decline, then don’t expect the service for free, and don’t expect service outside the manufacture warranty, if you do purchase, READ THE PAMPHLET! ASK QUESTIONS, HAVE A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT YOU ARE PURCHASING, DON’T BELIEVE”EVERYTHING IS COVERED” THAT IS EXTREMELY VAGUE.

Future shop employees are normal everyday people trying to make a living, they are not rip off artists trying to get every dollar from you, many customers are friends and family and many stores are in small markets and if that store gets a bad rep, its not good for anyone there.

To anyone who has experienced one of these horror stories I have read, I am truly sorry and disappointed to know this has happened and the lack of attention to these issues is unacceptable.

To the employees and ex employees

First ex employees:

You are being extremely misleading and even though you think you are doing a service by bashing future shop, I have not seen one true example in these posts to anything being said, if you feel that strongly get the facts! presently there are none.

Employees:

Again, present all the facts and try to help the customers on this site, don’t argue with the guy who used to work at FS, some of these customers have real problems, and you should spend your time on this site trying to help them.

futureshopcares.ca is the company website for feed back. It is every receipt. Comments left on the site go to the head office, the store, and read out in morning and afternoon store meetings and posted in the store, good or bad, some store will have them at customer service and some in the employee lunchroom, no one wants a bad comment with there name on it. If you want action go on this site, you will be heard.