I'm never setting foot in Comp U$A again. (1 Viewer)

[AllenD]

99.99% of my hardware (3 PCs) are bought via the internet. I neglected to order an IDE and CD-ROM audio cable for the OEM drives I ordered on-line. *DOH!* So I think to myself "Self, just go down to Comp USA for the cables. It's right around the corner and I'm sure they'll have plenty in stock." So I hop in my car, zip down, my street and make one turn and VOILA!, I'm at Comp USA. *humming* I find what I need, look on the packaging for a price, all I see is "Professional Grade this and Professional Grade that" and no price. I find the tags I'm looking for, [rant]HOLY COW! $50 for an IDE and CD-ROM audio cable![/rant] I put the cables back, walked out feeling violated and I didn't even pay for the overpriced cables. So I drove around a few miles and found a PC store. 8 bucks I spend on the cables I need. 8 stinkin' bucks! Who pays Comp U$As prices and how do they stay in business!?!?!?!

 

[Rob Gillespie]

A 'professional grade' IDE cable?

 

[Jay H]

Wow, that's worse than the $25 1.5m Toslink cable from Radio Shack! When I got a CD-RW at work, it came with an IDE cable with it, perhaps I should setup a stand outside my local CompUSA and hawk it for $30?

Jay

 

[Roy C.]

Jay,

that's one of the differences between OEM and Retail drives. OEM components as a whole come plain, with nothing whatsoever, and retail ones come with cables, software, longer warranty, etc. That's also why there is a price difference between the two.

Later,

Roy C.

 

[Kelley_B]

Thats a reason many computer people call it KompUSSR.

 

[Steve Owen]

A while ago the company I work for had an employee discount deal with CompUSA... everything was 10% over cost. There usually wasn't much savings (if any) on software, and most hardware... but cables and connectors were completely different. I'd take a $20 cable to the service desk to check the discount price and was very often told, "That'll be $2.78" or something like that. The mark-up was incredibly high on cables.

-Steve

 

[Keith Mickunas]

If I'm not mistaken, Monster now makes phone and USB cables for PCs. Perhaps they got into the IDE cable market also?