Add CompUSA to "The List," And A Poker Story, Part 1

- Well, I can add CompUSA to my list of horrible customer service experiences.

Background: I bought a copy of Kaspersky Antivirus 6.0 back in November 2006, advertised with a $60 and a $40 rebate. The $60 rebate went through OK, but the $40 rebate disappeared. When I inquired about the $40, I was told that the rebate was posted in error, and that it would not be honored.

I was aware that some people got the rebate honored anyway, so I pressed forward. I filed complaints with the BBB, and later, my state attorney general. In March of 2007, I got a letter from Mr. Kevin Hain, Escalations Supervisor of CompUSA. He said that the rebate was posted in error, but he would see to it that I would get the $40 rebate as an "accomodation."

I heard nothing from CompUSA again, so I filed a second complaint with my state AG. I got another letter from Mr. Hain yesterday, saying that I would not get the rebate after all; the letter claimed that my purchase was made outside the original dates of the promo. This was not true, by the way; the original promo dates were 11/5-11/11, and I had placed the order online--for in store pickup--on 11/5, and picked up the item on 11/11 (this becomes important later on).

I phone Mr. Hain's office, and got my call returned this morning. He told me that the date in which I picked up the item was my true order date. Had I known that this was CompUSA's policy, I would have picked up the item on that day (I know, I know; ignorance is not an excuse). He also said that the true promotion dates were 11/5-11/6, and 12/2-12/3, regardless of what my receipt said.

I explained to him that I was unaware of that policy, and began searching through CompUSA.com for similar language. I wanted to inquire as to why I was sent a letter back in March, saying that I was going to get the rebate as an accomodation, and why the valid promotion dates on my rebate receipt said "11/5-11/11." Before I had a chance to do this, though, Mr. Hain began speaking in a menacing tone. He explained that I had already filed three separate complaints, and that I could continue to file complaints if I wanted to, but CompUSA was not going to pay me the $40. He then said "Thank you" and quickly hung up.

I guess his returning my phone call caused him to be late to his tee time at the local golf course.

Congrats, CompUSSR, for shooting up to second place of my list, which now reads:

1. Time Warner
2. CompUSSR
3. Buy.com (thanks Krunk)
   
4. ...
5. (tie) Parago/USPS/etc.

(As bad as this latest fiasco was, it pales in comparison to the way Time Warner has jerked me around in recent months.)

Non-poker players, feel free to stop reading here.

- So I played in a No Limit Hold'em poker online tournament yesterday, with a buy-in of $5+$0.50 ($5 goes into the prize pool, and $0.50 goes to the site as an administrative fee). A little over 100 players took part in the tournament, and there was a special prize for first place: not only did the winner earn the biggest piece of the prize pool (~$200), but he would also win $1,000 to spend on tickets to an NFL game, transportation, hotel, and spending cash! Second place would get only ~ $100, a slight drop-off. Fifteen places paid out, starting at $11 for 15th-11th place, but with such a big top prize, most players were gunning for the win. In fact, the bubble--the part of the tournament where just a couple more eliminations need to happen before everyone left earns money--lasted all of two hands; sometimes, the bubble could last 20-30 hands, if not longer.

I should preface my story by mentioning that not only have I never won a big online poker tournament before, I have never even made the final table (usually, the final 10 players). In the early stages of this tournament, it didn't look like I'd come close to sniffing the final table; I had 62, 82, 82, and T2 as the first four hands of the tournament. In fact, it was several hands before I actually played a pot. I had AQo and won a nice pot when I made a pair on the flop. A few hands later, I picked up QQ and beat a guy who had 22, getting all of his chips in the process. At that point, I had about 2200 chips--we started with 1500--and I was slightly ahead of the average chip stack.

A few hands later, I picked up AKs, and raised. A guy re-raised me all-in--he had more chips than I did--and I was thinking about calling, when something weird happened. For some reason, my hand got folded! Usually, in an online tournament, you are given 15 seconds to make a decision. Should you exceed that, you start using extra time from a "time bank," which usually has 60 seconds in it. For some reason, though, my time bank didn't kick in, and my hand was folded. I lost 25% of my chips due to that mistake!

I won a couple small pots to stay afloat, as the blinds got huge really quickly. I also reluctantly folded a couple of hands that I could have logically raised with. In both cases, I got really lucky, as my opponents had hands that had me in big trouble! However, I was soon left with 1300 chips and blinds at 100/200 with a 25 chip ante.

(Anybody will tell you that if you're down to less than 10 big blinds--in this case, 10x200 = 2000--you're in real trouble).

After a guy with 400 chips went all-in, I reraised all-in myself, and got very quickly called! I figured I was in big trouble, but the two guys showed A-x (where x is less than ten) and Q-x. I was the favorite to win the hand, but was deflated when the flop had a queen in it. Needing an ace to survive, a third heart hit on the turn, giving me the only flush draw--I had the ten of hearts. When the Jack of hearts hit the river, I knew I got lucky, but I reminded myself that I had the best hand before the flop.

(As you will see, this will be a recurring theme throughout the tournament.)

I went from 1300 in chips to 3000, a much more comfortable position at that stage in the tournament.

I'll finish up the story tomorrow. Until next time!