I lived in North Hollywood, I worked at Burbank and drove to Antelope Valley daily

Responsible to perform full customer support by phone, email and in person to any one of the 600 laptops that a teacher or student received.

Responsible to perform full repair and troubleshooting support to the 600 laptops

Responsible to drive to each high school location for pickup and delivery service

Instructed and guided new teachers, students and parents on "out of box" events that session three hours of instruction on laptop information.

Taught new laptop students a "basic training" laptop instruction during summer school

Was involved in every aspect of the laptop program infancy stages

A+ Certified technician trained

The original pay contract was at fifteen an hour, but was told that only eight an hour would be possible during the three month probation period and would be invoked immediately after- it never happened, and I was told I should of got the information in writing

I had to pass a nation wide certification within a few days, I never received training or chance to study.  Passing this certification would guarantee my job and raise my income - I passed the test only because of my own skills, the increase in pay never came and the threat of not passing was a nightmare.

Driving from North Hollywood to Burbank took a half-hour, at Burbank I had to check in for any relevant information before driving to Antelope Valley which was an hour drive.  I was not allowed to use the company van but had to arrive using my own vehicle.

Once at Antelope Valley, I had to report to the district to get my assignments for the day then visit each of the seven high school campuses.  A feat which took four hours in driving time itself out of a eight hour work day.  This was still with my personal vehicle and not the districts.

Because of the above and that during the time from twelve until district close of business at four thirty.  This was the time for tech support and standby issues, I only got to repair computer after close of business when no one was around to interrupt.  I put in twelve to sixteen hours daily with weekends once a month.  All overtime was never paid yet CompUSA wanted to maintain a three day turnaround for repairs, though I did receive a pat on the back and CompUSA was commended for excellent services.

I was promised that all trips and expenses would be paid in full, six thousand dollars of accumulation later and I was told that I never got authorization to do so or mileage was handled by corporate in Texas.  Calling Texas was opposite, they were not doing anything until approved by Burbank.  The catch twenty-two was that during these delays, after thirty days mileage was disqualified and I was told it was too late!

No office, no tools and no equipment was provided even after constant request.  working with what I had and improvising did this job not to mention buying from my own pocket.  My office was my car and paperwork was a vital documental task that was extremely important to CompUSA yet did nothing to help.

During the out of box and summer school lectures, it was vital that CompUSA played a major role not just in selling computer but educating.  I got involved because when the "real" instructor paid at a much higher salary did not show up on one occasion as he was not paid for the previous event.  I took charge and did it myself, saving the day and saving CompUSA from paying me for this extra duty from that point on are two different things.  CompUSA figured why should they pay someone else when I can do it (though at a district with high school students this was illegal but a recourse was found as the District was told I was trained and background checks were already performed).

I had to work with four supervisors, each with their own motive to reap from the District and use me as their pawn.  These supervisors were superior in accounting for making money for CompUSA and themselves, but failed miserably at the simple task of accounting for their personnel.

CompUSA used the time card method, clock in and out for accountability.  Most of the time I had to report very early to Antelope Valley and arrive their first, or I would come home after CompUSA itself had already closed.  When I eventually moved to Antelope Valley to remove my driving times, I could never clock in or out.  This all caused the already eight dollar wage to a monthly check of anywhere from fifty to a couple of hundred dollars a month.  Catch up payments took months, and supervisors attempt to find a solution by clocking in for me resulted in "I'm sorry I forgot".

My wife and newborn were struggling with basic necessities of food, bills to pay, etc.  Moving to Antelope Valley solved the driving problem but created many others, employment for my wife was hard to come by and what I earned was never enough.  We essentially lost a van that was repossessed, bad credit for late payments on many items and rent problems.  CompUSA answer was that they are working on it and that my personal abilities or lack there of was not their problem.  I survived on "instant noodles" for lunch when I had the time at that.

I was supposed to be issued medical benefits after my probation, yet the paper never came to me as they forgot this minor detail during my enrollment and later forgot to inform me of renewals.  My family and I were lucky that nothing happened to us for that year, most workers are after medical benefits more than pay.....so much for me insuring that we would be covered if I took the job.

CompUSA was after only the money aspect of the deal with the district.  They neglected any customer that had a software problem over a hardware problem as only the manufactures would pay CompUSA to repair any faulty parts and not software issues that accounted for eight five percent of the eight hundred repairs I performed during the year.  Turn around times for computer were over weeks sometimes stretching to months as parts were not arriving or being approved by them, a school that relies on a computer that is not around defeats the purpose.  I was guided over to defy and cheat the district by putting in claims for repairs when they were never performed, this resulted in one of the biggest money making caches for the repair department.  CompUSA was slowing starting to pull me out more often in hopes to get the district to purchase additional support for their contract, this resulted in a war that caught me in the middle.

When at the Burbank location to pickup parts and other work criteria, I was pulled to other tasks and set aside my own.  I was sent to drive to other city locations for repairs or sent to help out in the customer isle sections, this was to keep me from paying to much attention to the Antelope Valley contract so they can prove that I was needed elsewhere in hopes to cripple the district and force them to buy additional contracts.