Computer Store Fraud and Other Things Rant

[cbman]

Hey all...

This is my own personal rant.. if you want to read this go right ahead.

My rant starts with some illicet practices I have been noticing in my area of residence.

There are a few people (Independants) who claim they are computer experts, amongst other things... and here are just two of the things they have done.


One lady (older maybe 55 or so) brought in a computer saying that her scanner wouldn't work.. I checked it out and noticed that there was an add in USB PCI card (Star Tech model PCI.. of which I am using in my 133 for the usb mouse)and tape over the hole for the onboard ports

She said that they put that in because her scanner wouldn't work with her ports on her board. They were going to charged her over 200 dollars to fix it... after a week it stopped working so she came into the shop where I occasionally help out with tech.

This is what had been done.

They had put duct tape over the USB onboard ports.
They had installed the USB card. Charging her triple the cost of the card for installation.

Here is what I found out after about half an hour of playing around.

Whoever worked on it just deleted the onboard USB in windows and disabled it in the BIOS.. they threw in the add on PCI card and then charged her the cost of the card plus three hours installation labour charges (It only should take a few minutes)

When I was working on it I took out the Startech card re-enabled the onboard USB hooked in the scanner and it wouldn't work... I checked and the incorrect drivers had been installed in the first place.. put in the right ones and sure enough it worked fine. (Took me about 20 minutes)

This really pissed me off... it is especially hard to tell someone they wasted over 200 dollars on something that could have been fixed in half an hour for alot less.

Another person that I work with at my crappy print factory job was telling me about how her friend who owns a computer store fixed her system when it got a virus and it cost her 260 dollars. When I asked why it was so much (I only charge at most 40 bucks unless there are serious complications) she said that the "worm" she got put on 21 viruses and destroyed her video card. She also says that the lady said they had to shock her motherboard to kill the virus...

I asked her the name of the virus and although I can't remember the name of it all it does is rename some files and sends itself through the e-mail.

Now I was kinda taken aback and asked her if she had paid for it.. she said no... but she was going in the next day...

When she paid for it and got her computer back, I got her to get the old video card (They weren't going to give it back to her) and I got her to get all the recipts.

Next week I am going over to run some tests... and if what I think has happened is true.. well there is going to be some **** going down for sure.

This trend it really starting to piss me off... Anyone can get a stupid certificate saying they are qualified PC tech's and its starting to bring me no end of grief... if you have enough money you can go to this place near where I live and for 14,000 dollars you can take a "6 month" course and be a certified PC Tech...

I don't know about how good the course is but two people that have taken the course have more certifications than me and they still don't know squat... the real killer is that they graduated with honors!!!

Its things like those that really get my back up and make me regret even going to school "College" for PC Technologist as since they have more "Certificates"they could get the same job and be consided for it before me.

There is so much more I could rant over but I won't... (Ala Shadetree PC experts et al.)

I have never claimed to know everthing and I never will...

Time for another beer.

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Canadian... Hell Ya!!!

[This message has been edited by cbman (edited 22 April 2001).]

[Bursar]

I know where you are coming from with this rant.

I haven't actually experienced anything so bad, but I used to work for a computer manufacturer in the UK.

On the odd occaision we would hike the price of a job up simply because we didn't fancy doing it. If the customer was still prepared to pay, then we did it. We figured the extra they were paying made it worth the hassle. But we never over charged for more standard jobs.

I have had the 'have qualifications, but idea what to do' experience as well.

At the same manufacturer, we employed a recently graduted person from a computer degree course. Unfortunately, most his knowledge was theoretical, and none of it was based in the real world. We still had to teach him everything!

[Jammrock]

I worked in a college town computer shop for 2 months and hated it! Many of the people that run those shops are bastards. In this case, the guy had the shop because his daddy wanted to keep him out of trouble. He did a lot of really crappy things to paying customers, so eventually I got myself fired (on purpose so I could get severence).

On the flip side...I have a college computer degree (Computer Systems Technology) and several certs (A+, Network+ and MCP). I think it's good for people to have them, but many times that doesn't cut it. I also have 4+ years of working (as in getting paid to do it) experience and can fix just about anything computer related. So not all of us edumakated and certified computer techs are stoopid.

Jammrock

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Athlon 650
256 MB PC133 CAS3 from Crucial
87 GB storage from WD & IBM
Matrox G400 (it's not dead yet!)
SB Live! the original full retail, still going strong
Klipsch ProMedia v.2-400, the PC speakers that goes BOOM!
Hope Matrox releases the G800 before rebuild time, becuase the end is near!

[Technoid]

But there is other ways to be nasty if you sell computers...

on of my personal favorite is all of those bastard shops that sell Athlon systems with 200Watt or less PSU's...

install a 40'40'10 mm passive heatsink on pentium 166mmx cpu's ant then brag about how quiet the system is...

selling PC66 memmory and claiming that they are "special" Athlon aproved PC133 memmory

Selling systems that are overclocked so high that they only work 1 hour a day...

The list is long...

But one place was smartest:

A customer asked them if you could download more memmory from the internet.

yes they said, and told her to come back later...

when she returned they claimed that they had t6ried to but the Internet memmory was incompatible whit her mac and told her that the had to install hardware memmory...

They charged her double cost for that 32MB dimm..

wich i later discovered to be an 16mb Dim..

[Taz]

As they say 'a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing', because most people know very little about computers they have to trust the supposed experts they take their PC's to.

On a slightly different note, I work for a support company and most of the companies who have contracts with us have there own IT departments. The people working in these department invariably know very little about PC's and ring us up for the most stupidest of problems. They got the job because the they know a little bit more than the person employing them. These aren't little companies either, one of them is a bank in the City of London!

[Jammrock]

After getting some bad apples at my company, we now have a screening process and aggressive training for our techs. You are given a written test BEFORE you can even interview (and the test is damn hard from what I hear). Then are interviewed by the boss man, then a lead tech, then the boss man again.

Some bad apples still slip through, but we have gotten some really great techs. It's rather interesting reading about what other techs do sometimes. Especailly the stoopid ones

Jammrock

[Reverend Maynard]

I seem to come from a different angle than all of you. I personally have 0 certificates to throw on my resume, and as such I have had no luck finding a job doing anything with computers. I have been working with computers since I was 9, 'bout 10 years now, and yet all I hear is, we'll consider your application but we would suggest becoming at least A+ certified. Aggravating as hell is what it is. One of my best friends recently got a job at a local repair shop. He is A+ certified and going to some fancy computer school here locally, but he has VERY little real world experience. Needless to say, they hired him without hesitation. I'll be the first to admit, there is about a bajillion things I don't know, but I can repair most any rig you put in front of me. Owell, thats my rant for today.

[windigo]

no kidding you guys
its that feeling of being ripped off that tick me off and got me into figuring out how to repair my own machine.

I was looking for a replacement scsi cable and this one store said they couldnt get a cable seperately and I had to buy a card that comes with a cable!!
I said nuts to that went online and and ten minutes later bought a cable from Adaptec for 55$ couldve went for a cheaper Belkin but decided to keep it all adaptec.


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MSI K7TPro2 Duron 750@900
256Ram G400DH32mb
Pioneer SCSI 16xDVD
msn messenger id: mkanashta

[Jammrock]

The IT industry is getting VERY certification oriented. Some places won't even consider your application without at least an A+ cert. On the rare occasion that we hire someone without an A+, they are required to aquire it within 3 months.

The amount of certs you have can also affect how big your promotions are. If I get my MCSE by my review in December I will jump a job and pay grade, which will give me a big juicey raise.

It's just the nature of the beast. The A+ test is a breeze for anyone who has been working in depth with computers for at least 18-24 months. Get a cheap book to study for it and then take it. It costs some cash, but it's worth it in the long run since you never haft to recertify.

Jammrock