Beware compusa/koolance

Living Room
#1

I just thought I should give you guys some warning about a problem I have been having. Compusa is selling several koolance brand products. Many are on clearance and some are pretty cheap but some are pretty close to regular price. I got a water cooling case from a store that was closing (but also got other koolance products from stores that were not closing). So the water pump unit started leeking about a month after I got it. I contacted koolance as all koolance products have a 1 year warranty. They said, compusa has not been an authorized dealer in years, and the stuff they are selling is old stock, much of which hasn’t even been manufactured in years. Further, there is no warranty!!! They also said that they have been getting a lot of calls about stuff from compusa recently, and were sorry but there was no warranty for items purchased from them (but the same item from an authorized dealer would have a warranty). Since the case was bought at a store that was closing, and there were signs all over the place saying all manufactures warranty’s are in effect, I contacted compusa. to make a long story short, after the runaround for about a month, having talked to several people (no one ever called me back, I had to keep calling pestering them), they said there was nothing they could do about a warranty repair. They did say they were going to send me a 35$ gift card (at first it was 25$ but they upped it when I kept complaining). The pump cost 40$ plus shipping from koolance. I asked about them special ordering the pump so that I could use the gift card for the repair before it was all over, and they said that I would have to deal with one of the local stores for that. I cannot believe that their cooperate office cannot deal with that but a store can. So now I’m stuck spending even more time trying to deal with a store. I think I’ll contact the district manager, explain the situation and try to get it further resolved that way.

Some of the parts are cheap enough, who cares if there is a warranty, but some are not so cheap, so beware. I strongly suspect that they gave me the runaround with the hopes that I would just go away. Luckily I did get the case quite cheap, after asking several employees on different visits while they were closing. It wasn’t in their system so they just made up prices (one guy tried telling me 800$. lol).

#2

Doesn’t the US have Trade Practices Legislation that supersedes any manufacturer voiding warranties before their time due to their imposition of silly conditions or avoidance passages in warranty statements such as the one you have stated above? Australia does. Over here if an item fails during or even a little after a warranty expires then Consumer Affairs would rule that the product did not perform for a reasonable length of time and did not perform to a reasonable level of expectation. They would then ask the company concerned to repair or replace the faulty unit. Check with your local Consumer Advice Bureau in your State…I bet you’ll find similar laws apply in your situation, too. Good luck. :slight_smile:

#3

I’m sure that there is some legal recourse available. I have found out new information when I called koolance trying to find the pump part number. It would seem that compusa has had their tech departments piecing together systems and such from used/display and or odd parts etc. and that is part of why they are not warrantying their stuff. They may have been piecing together systems from returns too (according to koolance). Regardless, I would think that compusa is defanatlly liable. A local store referred me to cooperate sales to try to order the pump and I’m waiting for them to call back. Apparently, the adapter plate to make the new pump work is no longer available (and they have dropped the price as they clearancing all these old discontinued parts). There is no doubt that this is a giant mess.
On a side note, if I were to try to take action against compusa, does anyone know who I would contact (in Texas)? I was thinking the district attorneys office as this would seem to be fraud? With the prices dropping on parts though, I might be able to get upgraded parts for the same dollar value that I am getting from the compusa gift card though, so I may just let it be and order parts myself, I’m really not sure.