Gook squad
 

I don't know how many people I have had come to me that had already been to
Best Buy and their "geek squad". Although I am retired and not officially
in business, I do work on a few computers as a pastime.
Here are a couple of examples that really stand out to me.
A lady had a computer that wouldn't start up. The "geek squad" told her it
was the motherboard and were going to charge her 80 some dollars just to
send it to the factory for her; not counting what the factory would charge.
In about five minutes of process elimination I took her modem out and it
booted right up. She didn't use dialup anyway so I put a slot cover in
place of it and sent her home happy for $10.
Just today another lady brought me one with Vista that wouldn't boot past
the Microsoft Windows logo at the bottom. They told her it was the hard
drive and that it would cost between 300 and 400 dollars to fix it. I took
the drive out and slaved it to one of my computers to see if I could
retrieve her data. Checkdisk wanted to run on it when I booted it so I let
it. Her stuff was there. I put the drive back in her computer and all was
well. Checkdisk (chkdsk) had fixed it.
I realize this post is inappropriate but I felt the need to vent.
The people are ripoff artists!

--
--- Everybody has a right to my opinion. ---

Gook squad
 

"Li'l Abner" wrote in message
news:Xns9DEB9C0E628B1butter@wefb973cbe498...
I don't know how many people I have had come to me that had already been to
Best Buy and their "geek squad". Although I am retired and not officially
in business, I do work on a few computers as a pastime.
Here are a couple of examples that really stand out to me.
A lady had a computer that wouldn't start up. The "geek squad" told her it
was the motherboard and were going to charge her 80 some dollars just to
send it to the factory for her; not counting what the factory would
charge.
In about five minutes of process elimination I took her modem out and it
booted right up. She didn't use dialup anyway so I put a slot cover in
place of it and sent her home happy for $10.
Just today another lady brought me one with Vista that wouldn't boot past
the Microsoft Windows logo at the bottom. They told her it was the hard
drive and that it would cost between 300 and 400 dollars to fix it. I took
the drive out and slaved it to one of my computers to see if I could
retrieve her data. Checkdisk wanted to run on it when I booted it so I let
it. Her stuff was there. I put the drive back in her computer and all was
well. Checkdisk (chkdsk) had fixed it.
I realize this post is inappropriate but I felt the need to vent.
The people are ripoff artists!

Most places hire people with very little knowledge, so "send it off" or
"replace ..." is about all they can do. Shame, but its the case in most
technical support operations, there are the odd people who really know what
they are doing but most don't have much of a clue and just follow a script.
I suspect smaller one-man-bands are probably better in the main.

FWIW: Re the lady who was told the problem was with the hard drive (you
probably did this anyway) but if you suspect the drive then its probably
best to copy any recoverable data off it first before running chkdsk. If the
drive is failing then running chkdsk could make it unrecoverable - but I
appreciate that this depends on the failure mode of the drive.
--
Brian Cryer
http://www.cryer.co.uk/brian

Gook squad
 

Li'l Abner wrote:
I don't know how many people I have had come to me that had
already
been to Best Buy and their "geek squad". Although I am retired
and
not officially in business, I do work on a few computers as a
pastime.
Here are a couple of examples that really stand out to me.
A lady had a computer that wouldn't start up. The "geek squad"
told
her it was the motherboard and were going to charge her 80 some
dollars just to send it to the factory for her; not counting
what the
factory would charge. In about five minutes of process
elimination I
took her modem out and it booted right up. She didn't use
dialup
anyway so I put a slot cover in place of it and sent her home
happy
for $10.
Just today another lady brought me one with Vista that wouldn't
boot
past the Microsoft Windows logo at the bottom. They told her it
was
the hard drive and that it would cost between 300 and 400
dollars to
fix it. I took the drive out and slaved it to one of my
computers to
see if I could retrieve her data. Checkdisk wanted to run on it
when
I booted it so I let it. Her stuff was there. I put the drive
back in
her computer and all was well. Checkdisk (chkdsk) had fixed it.
I realize this post is inappropriate but I felt the need to
vent.
The people are ripoff artists!

I don't disagree with your assessment of such "experts". But to
be fair, some problems *and* their owners just don't lend
themselves well to solutions from a distance. In forums, people
often describe problems that I'm sure I could diagnose in a few
minutes if I were to sit down in front of the computer in person,
but guiding an inexperienced user through the process of
diagnosis and eventual solution is often too big a hassle.

Gook squad
 

Li'l Abner wrote:

I don't know how many people I have had come to me that had already been to
Best Buy and their "geek squad". Although I am retired and not officially
in business, I do work on a few computers as a pastime.
Here are a couple of examples that really stand out to me.

A lady had a computer that wouldn't start up. The "geek squad" told her it
was the motherboard and were going to charge her 80 some dollars just to
send it to the factory for her; not counting what the factory would charge.
In about five minutes of process elimination I took her modem out and it
booted right up. She didn't use dialup anyway so I put a slot cover in
place of it and sent her home happy for $10.

Just today another lady brought me one with Vista that wouldn't boot past
the Microsoft Windows logo at the bottom. They told her it was the hard
drive and that it would cost between 300 and 400 dollars to fix it. I took
the drive out and slaved it to one of my computers to see if I could
retrieve her data. Checkdisk wanted to run on it when I booted it so I let
it. Her stuff was there. I put the drive back in her computer and all was
well. Checkdisk (chkdsk) had fixed it.

I realize this post is inappropriate but I felt the need to vent.

Have you seen the Geek Squad training manuals, specifically the DA
Handbook (DA = Double Agent)? To quote:

"The Geek Squad is a way of life; you live it and represent
it anytime and anywhere. We aren’t out to make a fast
buck at the expense of the client. We give clients honest,
straightforward answers and advice."

And under "Useful phrases", they recommend these snappy answers:

Q: ”I’ve never used the Geek Squad before”
A: “Then today is your lucky day”

Q: “Do you fix computers?”
A: “Better than anybody”

The CIA Techncial Handbook is actually useful but assumes that the
"technician" has absolutely no prior knowledge of computers or
electronics, and it contains only basic information.

The only qualified Geek Squad technician:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4083/...7ee41b4cae.jpg

Gook squad
 

"larry moe 'n curly" wrote in news:997565f1-
:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4083/...7ee41b4cae.jpg

:-)



--
--- Everybody has a right to my opinion. ---