Since my last experience with Best Buy, I urge others to check the return policy for "restocking fees" before purchasing a major component like a Pc. When I bought a laptop from Best Buy, everything seemed to function properly, but I discovered I could not successfully ghost an image of the hard drive. Using the modest diagnostic software at my disposal, I finally narrowed the problem down to a possible faulty ram chip. So I returned the laptop and discovered Best Buy wanted to charge me a 15% restocking fee.

When I protested on the grounds the laptop was defective, I was forced to wait while a "geek" squad member ran diagnostic tests. Fortunately, at that time, the diagnostics were conducted in an area where the customer could observe the testing process. After 3 hours of standing at the counter and watching the laptop pass test after test, errors in the ram began to show up and the diagnostic software finally halted itself while still displaying those errors. Of course, I still had to stand at the counter for quite a bit longer waiting for a manager to officially concede the laptop was indeed defective and no restocking fee would be required.

I finally bought a comparable laptop from Walmart simply because of their more lenient return policy if I encountered a similar problem. By the way, I am currently tempted to buy an eMachines ET1331G-03w ($398) I recently saw at Walmart.

JBlatz