Kinkos/Computer Rental and Printing

I went in to the Kinkos on East Houston Street in NYC to print a few

maps for a trip. I had sent the linked maps to an email address and the

links worked fine on my Mac at home.

Upon entering the Kinkos in question, I chose a Mac and put in my card.

A little window that keeps track of the time popped up and I okayed it.

I had to pay for the computer to start up. (first strike) When I looked

in the dock there was no icon for Firefox, which is the only bowser

that works for Macs on most sites. I had to use Safari. The other

choice was Netscape, which any Mac user knows is a joke because it

hasn't been updated forever.

I tried clicking on my links and they didn't work in Safari. They

worked great in Firefox. So I copied it and opened another window.

Kinkos has their homepage set to some Kinkos page, which I doubt ANY

user would want to go to, so I had to stop this page from loading and

paste in my link. (These computers are SUPER slow!) The map loaded in

Google Maps and I clicked the print button in Google Maps to get the

directions to come on to one page. It worked and after okaying a couple

of more pop-ups from Kinkos it started to print.

I had four different sets of direction to print. I copied another link

and pasted it in, after stopping Kinkos bookmark from opening, and

tried to click the print setting in Google Maps for this one. It didn't

work. So I tried again and again. It still wouldn't work. I got up and

asked if anyone could alert me as to why this wasn't working. (These

machines are theirs, they should have an idea about their

idiosyncrasies.) An employee came over and moved my windows to look and

see if it popped under, which it hadn't. It's Google, not some lousy

amateur site. Obviously, I know much more about Macs than the "techs"

at Kinkos.

After another couple of tries I just signed off. My total for one lousy

black-and-white print? Over five dollars. I complained and they offered

to take "a couple minutes off". I told them that I'd just never come

back and tell everyone I knew not to use them. The employee shrugged

her shoulders. No explanation, no apologies. Nothing.

This is the FINAL time I will ever go to Kinkos. Every time I go there

something is wrong with the experience. I would use them to print if

they got their act together as the location is convenient. I had high

hopes when I saw that they were becoming affiliated with FedEx, but

even that has not managed to rescue Kinkos. Everything is wrong. From

the poorly trained staff that is borderline rude to the

poorly-maintained computers with old software and unneeded settings.

Kinkos will not be around in another ten years. People are getting fed

up with poor service and bad business practices. I vote with my

dollars.