Don’t buy anything expensive in a Gigahertz Computer Systems store unless you want to be stuck with defective merchandise that you’ll have to argue at length to return for a refund. Buyer beware. You might buy something cheap like a mouse or muffin fan or USB cable, but don’t buy something that’s expensive.
I have always gotten good service and good prices in the UniCom store aside Session Road in Baguio City. In other stores, such as Laser Marketing and Gigahertz Computer Systems, I have been ignored. When I’ve verbally engaged store staff members, I get poor communication and cooperation. Employees are unfriendly to prospective customers. I wouldn’t have bought a Microtek ScanMaker 3880 from GigaHertz Marketing Systems after being poorly received, but the price was 345 pesos less than that in UniCom. Well, buying from GigaHertz Marketing Systems was a mistake.
I asked more than once to buy a Microtek ScanMaker 3880 that was prominently displayed bearing a price lower than those which I’d seen elsewhere. However, an employee fetched a Microtek ScanMaker 3880 box from the rear of the store.
The box was not sealed with tape. The unsealed box did not contain the Microtek “lightlid included” as the box read. I had to ask for the light lid (transparent media lamp).
One was brought from the back room without any plastic wrap and plopped on the counter. It should have been “included” in the box, in its own niche in the polystyrene foam cradle.
Buying the scanner with a credit card was no picnic. And after the sale, no one would place the light attachment into the box. The cashier gave me a small, blue plastic bag. Wow.
At home, I found that the box did not contain a owner’s manual. The box did not contain a warranty card. The box contained two quick-start guides rather than one.
At home the scanner couldn’t be detected by Adobe Photoshop Elements nor Hamrick VueScan nor Silverfast nor Microtek ScanWizard 5. So no scans could be effected. It was a non-starter.
In ScanWizard 5, when I probed for a connected device, I could see that one device was connected to my Mac, but the description was gibberish; it didn’t read “ScanMaker 3880.” Apple System Profiler showed the same thing.
Yes, I had pulled the plastic plug and slid the unlocking lever in the bottom of the scanner. I don’t know what the problem was. I spent hours trying to discern why the scanner couldn’t be “detected” via USB. I thought that perhaps the new USB cable was defective, though it should have been tested before it left a factory.
Anyway, trying to get GigaHertz Computer Systems to buy back the defective merchandise was a hassle. The surly employees acted as if no one has ever brought back a defective item. They did not want to charge-back to my credit card. One tried to get me to buy an HP scanner/printer combo for 1400 pesos more rather than refunding P2650 to my credit card. After waiting an hour, I was told to return after two weeks.
In the end, I got a cash refund rather than a credit card charge-back, as the employees apparently are too dense to understand that, although I explained the process. So I don’t recommend buying anything expensive from GigaHertz Computer Systems.
