The Warring States of NPF

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-   -   Life on the Squad (http://www.nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?t=38631)

BitVyper 08-27-2010 08:22 AM

Pretty much computer fixer guys in general are ripoffs. A guy charged my dad almost two hundred dollars and all he did was format the hard drive. It's just that so many people know jack shit about computers that it makes those guys like ancient and powerful wizards to them.

krogothwolf 08-27-2010 08:29 AM

The Geek Squad guys around where I live aren't even qualified to fix the computers. Sure they're nerdy and geeky but they don't really have the education to back up what they actually are supposed to do.

Geek Squad usually = overpriced for poor labour.

No Offence to you Bit. Just the Geek Squad here is really piss poor.

Nikose Tyris 08-27-2010 08:43 AM

For Canadians, I actually do reccommend FutureShop. The extended warranty is a bit steep, but they'll fix just about anything. They'll service all the original hardware in your computer, regardless of additions or changes to the setup.

I added more RAM and swapped the Hard Drive on my box, and the video crapped out. I brought it in, without the receipt, and said that I had bought the warranty- he looked up my name in the computer, found the warranty still had 3 months left on it, took my box, opened it up.

He proceeded to take out the extra stick of RAM and Hard drive, set them on the counter, and spent the next 60 minutes fixing my computer. Video card was fried, and they didn't have the same model, so he grabbed an 'equivelent' model off the shelf (actually a 1 GB card instead of the 512 card I had), put the Extra Ram and Hard Drive back in, threw in the drivers, handed it back to me and told me "have a great day."

Didn't cost me a cent past the original warranty I paid for. >.> $250 bucks. I've brought it in every 4 months to get the case/interior dusted out and parts doublechecked, and I've seen 1 CPU replacement, 1 Video card replacement, and two wireless card replacements on that warranty.

Overall, I can reccommend FutureShop for not fuckin' me around.

[Although my mom had a rough time with them, and I had to go in and play "Dismiss the snarky shithead for a competent employee] a couple of times.



@BitVyper: Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad. Skunkworks in Barrie was terrible; Backup data and reinstall Windows was $430 bucks. Fucking ripoff, that. "The Computer Guys" by my mom's place, flat $30 to format the hard drive, and reinstalled windows complimentary using her disk. Skunkworks is out of business, Computer Guys are still going strong, so, there you go?

Professor Smarmiarty 08-27-2010 09:10 AM

Man all that shit is ridiculous. $100 to transfer files? A crossover cable costs 10 cents. Gabula

krogothwolf 08-27-2010 09:31 AM

Well I would assume Geek Squad pays something akin to $15/h so, for 5 minutes of work, then lets say, 1 hour of time the computer runs for.

Thats like $.50 for materials required.

So yep, totally a rip off.

Professor Smarmiarty 08-27-2010 09:44 AM

You don't have to watch the computer the whole time... You totally can't charge for that.
And evne then surely its $85 for materials ($100-$15 for 1 hour work)

krogothwolf 08-27-2010 09:50 AM

I was agreeing with you it was a total rip off! I wasn't being sarcastic.

I work in IT, I do the shit Geek Squad does as part of my every day(Get paid much more for it though :D). Transferring files is simple, easy and quick. Minus the time it takes the files to transfer of course. So yeah the Geek Squad is a rip off. Though I do get offered to do computer shit who work here all the time but I tell em no. My time off is for having fun with PC's not working on em.

Pretty much is $5.50 for parts and labour and $94.50 profit!!

synkr0nized 08-27-2010 12:03 PM

Hang in there, Bob!
 
I'm always amused -- not at anyone in particular -- at the pairing of terrible customer stories (oh, and they exist; there are TONS of stupid and ignorant customers) and horrible tech bench stories (of course equally plentiful).

At the very least, it's an argument in favour of treating individual encounters as they come and based on the person. I don't envy anyone who has this kind of job (working retail during summers was more motivation to get a degree and become a professional), but I also don't envy folks who, for whatever reason, are stuck with going to a Best Buy for service.


Unfortunately, you never can find online the stories of great service and easy going customers, etc.

Nikose Tyris 08-27-2010 02:48 PM

Oh ho ho, au contraire, Synk.
 
http://consumerist.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt...eyond&limit=20

Above and Beyond stories, where companies kick-ass and take names.

synkr0nized 08-27-2010 03:53 PM

:PPPPPPPPPP
 
Thanks. I am having a delightful time reading these.


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