Customer Service: JR at Fry's in Concord

A big Thank You to JR - head of service - at Fry's in Concord, California.

One of my computers crashed on Monday. (At first I thought it was an earthquake or that a car had hit the house. Nope, just my C: drive crashing.)

I thought it was no big deal because I have several other computers, and all my client data is backed up both on external drives and DVDs. However, I hadn't backed up the system, so I couldn't restore it - I've learned my lesson.

At Fry's I bought a floor model of a pre-built Fry's computer. I set it up in my office, fired it up, and on a scale of 1 to 10, it didn't work very well.

I drove back out to Fry's (half an hour each way, at least) where JR, the head of service, immediately saw that I had a lemon and set a full refund in motion.

And, he took me by the hand, and I speak metaphorically here, as the store was closing, and picked out the components for a screaming fast (again with the metaphor) computer.

If you have ever met JR, you will never forget him! He is like the most likable character you would ever want to meet in a movie: He's expressive, fast on the uptake, knowledgeable, and eager to be on the customer's side when Corporate isn't. I told him, "When you get married, I'm going to photograph your wedding!"

In my mind, he rescued Fry's reputation: Fry's is not a soulless clot of dissipated losers posing as sales reps, but an oasis in the wilderness of contemporary American merchandising.

So:
1) THANK YOU to JR at Concord, CA, Fry's
2) I'm gonna have a durn-fast (sorry for the technical jargon) computer
3) If I ever make a movie, I'm going to make sure that there is a JR character in it to help our hero.