Gee, makes me wonder what the letter of referal would look like.

i guess they don't have to worry about courtesy's when the place is doomed.

I gotta say, I do miss my local Compusa. Of course they are over priced compaired to online stores, but when you are in a pinch for an external HDD case, 15' VGA cable, or generic 5.1 surround sound cards, or bulk CD-Rs, that is the place to go. Best Buy and Circuit City don't have the same selection, and Radio Shack is WAY too over priced.

@DSaddict: Im sure he doesnt care, while the company is going under, the HR guy likely will still have a job for a year or so. What I am shocked about is the HR guy is the one who sent it out. Usually when your closing shop like this, your CEO is the one who sends out a letter thanking people for their service. Even the GM layoff letters they had here at the Linden Plant where warm and fuzzy compared to this.

Well, look at it this way...at least they won't get a letter talking about exciting new opportunities to rejoin the workforce, ala Best Buy

@AlteredBeast: hooray for microcenter

The letter continues:

"In lieu of a job, we would hope you would simply go in the back storage rooms and help yourself. As Vice President Cheney seems to think, many Americans today finance their lives by using auction sites such as EBay. Nobody's looking, go ahead, grab a Wii or three"

--Ed Coder

@HeyThereKiller: Yeah, if you live close enough to a MicroCenter... According to their website they only have 21 stores nationwide. Only one in all of Massachusetts where I live. I used to live and work within a short distance of 3 CompUSA stores in MA, and I know there were at least a handful of others.

@HeyThereKiller: The closest one to me is an hour and a half away. :(

Oh well, with newegg and monoprice, I'm all set. I'm just an impatient shopper, and will often spend $10 - $20 extra for an item to have it right then and there.

He's a warm hearted chap, isn't he?

Hard work? How hard could it have possibly been to work at CompUSA.

@DemolitionMan: Just a note...that was Circuit City.

"...We're very excited to announce the CompUSA unemployment warrantee program, where if you sign up for only three years at an amazing $149.99, CompUSA will guarantee that it will attempt to send you several more condolence letters thanking you for your service."

Too lazy to even use mail merge in word (which would've added the names to each letter).

@Falconfire: This is pretty clearly something written up by the compliance department (which is usually either combined with or in close contact with the HR office in large organizations).

Certainly it's cold, but it does get all the information in there that CompUSA legally needs to give its employees. That's why it went out, not to thank them, but to inform them.

@AlteredBeast: NewEgg.com

Seriously, what's with the snark? I'm sure employees would have been sooooo much happier with an overly warm letter praising everyone's absolutely tremendous work ethic and fawning language about how everyone will be sorely, sorely missed.

The amount of people receiving these letters who personally know Ed Coder is probably 0.002%. Would you rather receive a plain, to the point, letter from the company about the termination, or an over-the-top, insincere, BS form letter about your contributions to the company. You're still out of a job. A ridiculous letter would just be adding insult to the injury.

I almost never go to the CompUSA near me. I would drive miles to go to Fry's Electronics, or to MicroCenter. Then they opened a Fry's about 1 block away from the CompUSA. CompUSA who?

@Beerad: The snark is because the letter shows a complete lack of respect for employees. A little bit of kindness costs nothing yet they did not give even that.

hey at least they got a letter. When the company I worked for went belly up in April we didn't know till they wheeled a cart full of boxes out. As we were packing up they were already moving the desks and servers etc. out so they wouldn't have to pay rent for the next month. All I got was my last check and a thanks for coming buh-bye. My boss found out about 5 min before I did and literally just ran out the door. He didn't want to have to face us, especially the ones who were upset and crying.

That's better then what I got when I worked for a camp company that died. I had my last direct deposit paycheck removed from my bank account. At least I wasn't one of the poor souls at camps that hadn't closed yet or the ones who were waiting to cash their checks at the end of summer.

Ed Coder is losing his job also, so he probably isn't very rosy right now.

@AlteredBeast: When my HDD gave up the ghost 3 years ago, the HDD recovery company I went to referred me to the San Rafael CompUSA, mainly because I would've had to drive across the Bay (again) to get to Fry's.

@Papa Midnight: NewEgg is great, if you have the luxury of a couple of days' wait for the parts to arrive, hopefully intact.

Crappy right up until the lights go out. At least they're consistent.

This is crazy tiger direct will take over many of these stores and show them how it is done. Tiger direct has higher prices than newegg but at least it isnt overpriced like compusa.

Sad to see them lose jobs but you would think a man worth 40 billion would have better business economics
volume volume volume not trying to sell a $5 pc cable for 19.99 we arent stupid

I've never met an HR person that had an ounce of people skills. A bit ironic huh? I mean they do work with HUMAN resources.

@Asterchild: Eh, evil = evil ;)

The letter must meet legal requirements for information presentation. There is not a lot of room for fluff, and if fluff had been present, it would have taken approval by others (including state and fed government). Ed was doing what he was told to do. I don;t know Ed, but I know people like Ed who have been told to perform this task. Lighten up, Ed was doing his job.

I would take that letter straight to the unemployment office. CompUSA had to pay unemployment insurance tax for every employee.

@SarcasticDwarf: What's he supposed to say? "Dude, you're totally fired?"

He was being professional and business-like.

I like how the employment termination notice is addressed to their "team members". They could possibly only be more tactless by handwriting "FORMER" above it before mass photocopying.
I haven't set foot in a CompUSA since about 2003 when, eager to plunk down for a new Powerbook, couldn't find anyone with the intelligence north of a grimace to answer a few simple questions. Since then it's been like watching a hilarious, slowmo trainwreck. Go team!!
I'm acquiring a taste for this now--I want to a wireless provider go next.

I personally prefer Micro Center for the expanded Computer merchandise, and the CD-R DVD R are always priced better than everywhere except Costco. Although Micro center has a bigger selection.

Ah well..they carried way more Apple software and products than my nearest Apple store..which certainly has the room for it but would rather opt for wasting prime real estate on open polished wood and steel floor plans and 50 models each of itouch, iphone, imac, macbook and macbook pro with a corner reserved for bags, ipod peripherals and software and about 5 employees per customer. That is one company that knows how to show how much of a successful behemoth it has become.

@comopuedeser: My sister-in-law works in HR, and the director of HR at her company is a friend of the family. They appear to believe that most HR people are so tired from dealing with the backbiting, immaturity, and petty politics within the HR department itself that they don't have a drop of consideration left for the employees.

This is a joke, sort of. Things really are that bad within their department. However, they try hard for their people, and the HR department where I work tries hard for us. Really. Credit where credit is due, and all that.