Getting Gouged by Geeks 581
dottyslashdottydot writes "CBC Marketplace recently ran a sting operation and discovered that most home computer repair technicians failed miserably at diagnosing a simple RAM failure. Many techs tried to sell unneccessary software or upgrades. (or even a new computer!) However, the worst offender was one guy who claimed that the hard drive had failed, and that the only remedy was to pay $2,000 to have a special facility with a clean room recover the data."
Re:I blame windows (Score:2, Interesting)
True. Unless the hard drive has been through a fire or has otherwise suffered significant physical damage, clean-room recovery shouldn't cost more than $1000 or so.
Re:getting gouged by whom? (Score:4, Interesting)
I also don't know what you mean about companies peddling geeks on the cheap. Geek Squad, for example, are not cheap. If you want cheap, in my area, you go to the Mom & Pop store (we actually are lucky enough to have a genuine independently run computer sales & service store, run by a genuine mom and pop) and they fix stuff on the cheap. They solder and go way, way down into the physical layer...when was the last time geeks.com checked your power supply with a multimeter? They also do great training, which you'd think would torpedo their business, but no.
Oddly enough, they don't consider themselves "geeks." They are retirees and grandparents who like to tinker. Weird, but true.
Re:Depends... (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course if it wasn't talking to the network and wasn't showing up in the device manager, I would have popped out the NIC to replace it (thinking it was bad) and when I saw the scotch tape on it, I probably would have whacked someone over the head with it.
Re:getting gouged by whom? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's useful. Canadian Tire finished last one year and they improved a LOT after that. Not that I'd take a car to Canadian Tire anyway, but still.
I just did a job on a few laptops (Score:5, Interesting)
Laptop #2 is a Dell. The hard drive started acting up. I diagnosed it as a bad HDD.
She purchased a new hdd through Dell and had it shipped to her. She brought me the laptop and the drive.
The new drive refused to install, the mobo insisted the drive was password locked.
I spent about 4 hours on the phone with dell (someone reading a que card in India) and after much agony it was determined that the mobo was bad.
I called the lady and asked her what she wanted to do. She said that was it, end of the line, trash the PC she wasn't going to spend another penny on it and was buying a new desktop. She asked me how much she owed me for what work I had done.
I told her "No charge. I didn't repair it so there's no charge. You pay for what you get and nothing more."
She was flabbergasted and insisted on paying me for my time and trouble. I told her no, don't worry about it.
She insisted though and after almost getting into an argument with her I told her that if she felt she had to pay me then she could pay me a gratuity in whatever amount made her happy. Her husband suggested $25. She asked me if that was enough. I told her it was more than enough so she wrote me a check for $25.
I treat people fairly and honestly. I'm not out to get rich and you will never get anywhere by screwing people over. I have a small circle of loyal customers that like me because I treat them well, I treat them with respect and I always deliver on my promises. I LIKE my customers. And I think they like me. I assume they do because they keep calling me back over and over.
Treat people the way you would want to be treated.
Re:getting gouged by whom? (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I find that their parts are 1/2 the price of the competition and just as good, and the quality of work has about the same mean and variance as elsewhere. I like the service manager at my local franchise and any time I've had problems with the work they have fixed it with no hassle and no charge.
That said, I prefer to fix my car and my computer myself. It is less hassle, cheaper, and usually quicker.
Re:getting gouged by whom? (Score:5, Interesting)
It isn't just mechanics who do it... I've seen electricians, plumbers, computer geeks, home improvement store employees, etc try to swindle people. It seems like almost anyone who works on commission (or something similar like staying employed based on how many extended warranties they sell) will try to BS you into something you don't need. Now, I don't think all commissioned people do it. I know that I didn't when I used to work in a home improvement store - I'd sell the product that would best suit the customer's needs rather than what might line my (or the store I worked at) pockets a little more. Building honesty and trust are important to me and I believe they are vital to the long term health of your business/work. Much like CEOs though, a lot of people just care about what puts money in their pocket today and I don't think you can tie those type of people to (or from) any given profession.
PS - that alignment? Six or seven months later, I had to get it redone since the inside edges of my tires were wearing unevenly. Needless to say, I took it to a different place and that one didn't get pushy about what I wanted done. At least I know where I won't be taking my vehicle in the future if I need similar work.
Re:getting gouged by whom? (Score:1, Interesting)
Are you sure? Near as I can tell, a bunch of right-wing bloggers (at least some of whom had close ties to the Republican party) raised all sorts of questions about one document produced to support the story that George W Bush did not complete his military commitment.
To my knowledge, nobody ever *proved* the documents to be false. But under question of their veracity, and dealing with an awkward story that indicted a incumbent presidential candidate, CBS fell on its sword.
Interestingly, even if the documents had been forged (which was not established), the fact of the story remained: young George W Bush did not complete his military service. He went AWOL. Unfortunately, the story got so muddled (in part thanks to a subservient press that was nowhere as critical of the Swift Boat Veterans smear campaign) that it never got traction with the public.
Salon has an update, focused on Dan Rather's case against CBS, which seeks to restore his reputation: http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/09/27/dan_rather_suit/index.html?source=rss&aim=yahoo-salon [salon.com]
If there's one thing the last ten years of American politics have taught us, it's that conventional wisdom is an ass, manipulated by unscrupulous people with destructive agendas and parroted by the ill-informed.
Re:getting gouged by whom? (Score:4, Interesting)
My brother and I, or my father usualy do the maintenance work on here car so when she got back, she told us she couldn't believe how much stuff was wrong with her car. The got here for a rear end fluid change (in a front wheel drive car), told her the air cleaner was bad/dirty (it had less then 1000 miles on it), and flushed the automatic transmission fluid for here because it looked burnt (in a standard). There was a few other things like a coolant flush and fill (with the green ethyl glycol antifreeze instead of the 150,000 mile organic acid tech sealed system stuff that came with it).
All in all, her $20 oil change and lube coupon trip turned into a $250 excursion. They kept saying "this is bad, do you want it fixed" and she kept saying "I don't want to break down somewhere so you better fix it". And when we went back to question them about it, they claimed our invoice must have gotten mixed up with someone else's. They assured us that nothing was done that didn't need to be done but couldn't find the invoice detailing a $250 expense for her car. They eventually refunded the differenced to a $20 fee plus tax. Lol.. Yep, there are people like that.
Absolutely right (Score:3, Interesting)
The situations in the article may be extreme, but balancing those situations with the idea that "geeks often provide free / cheap resources" (quoted from several posts above, not parent's) also leads to problems. Performing work for low costs just ends up with your customers undervaluing your time/effort.
It's the same dissociation from technology that leads to a user being gouged, that also leads to the same user undervaluing their local geek's time/effort/skillset - it's that the user has a complete disconnect from the technology and neither understands nor cares about the situation. It's also unfortunate that the only way the user is going to be able to assess the amount of work that is necessary is if they start to understand their machines.
Any home-based stuff that is charged at a reasonable rate (reasonable to us as informed
For the record, I talked to the bloke that elicited the earlier post, explained the situation, and asked that he find someone else to sort out his problems. It didn't work, and six months later I was still receiving calls from the guy asking for tech support help. In the end I had to break out the cluebat +4 of derision before he finally got the message. I'm still doing sideline work, but it's been a whole lot more on my own terms recently.