Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Sounds like standard upselling using, "The customer isn't going to know either way."

Ask them for proof; ask which tests they ran that indicated the failure(s), ask to see print outs, error codes (so you can google the damned things), etc...if they balk at it or refuse, take your machine back as is, pay for what was done on it, and either keep using it the way it is or take it to a different shop for a second opinion.

...just don't take it to Geek Squad. Ever. This ex-GS employee can give you pages and pages of reasons why. :D

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That's what I was worried about, yeah.

Good idea on the print outs! I'll ask for those.

Thanks!

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As an aside, it's not uncommon for them to try and upsell like that at any computer shop.

The worst thing you can do is go in being obvious that you know very little about your computer, it brings dollar signs up in their eyes.

Same thing happens with auto mechanics. :D

Once you start questioning them and at least sound like you know what you're talking about, it's amazing how a story (and the price) can change.

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Yeah, I'm afraid that's exactly how I looked to them.

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Yeah, whenever you're dealing with any sort of repair service, get everything in writing, get screenshots, print outs, ask to see the test run if possible (most vram and system board tests don't take terribly long), ask which tests they're using, what the EXACT errors they got were, all that fun stuff.

Seriously, one of the local hack jobs here told one of our students that her system board was "likely failing" because she had a bad hard drive.

...not to mention he busted her LCD bezel and inverter board trying to "reseat it" to stop flickering (and never minding, on that model, the type of flickering present is always, 100% of the time, a bad PANEL, not cable)...so...yeah.

I don't trust other computer techs not to lie to me because, quite frankly, I know the lies we tell to make sales. It's not necessarily that we WANT to, but most places (especially the bigger stores) will cut the shit out of your hours if you don't make sales numbers.

They might be classified as repair, but if it's a business, there's also a sales element there.

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XD At the very least, ALWAYS clean your computer before bringing it in.

Nothing screams "EASY MARK" better than a filthy computer, since it's such a basic thing. ;)

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Ha, yeah, when I pulled mine out from under the desk, it had a layer of dust so closely woven that I pulled it off like a blanket. I can't imagine how dusty it was inside!

When I get it back, I'm going to leave it on top of my desk instead of under, so it'll stay cleaner and be easier to clean (needing to crawl under my desk to unhook it = I never want to!).

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Reminds me that I need to clean mine. It's awful, it picks up fur, crumbs, feathers, and god knows what else.

On the awesome side, I can bring it in to work and use the building's air compression goodness to blast it clean.

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Yeah, fur is another thing. On top of the desk there will be more risk of crumbs, but should be a lot less risk of fur! (I live alone, I'm totally free to eat at my computer... and I do!)

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veloxe.livejournal.com

Of course it's breaking, everything starts breaking when you go get it checked out! If it comes down to it, just tell them the computer is rather old and you are going to do a complete upgrade soon anyways. Even if it's a lie if they think you are going to be getting a new machine anyways it might get them to screw off with the upselling, at least a tad.

As a cynic, my advice is to not believe anything they say. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Pretty much everything is in the process of failing. From the instant you buy a computer part or accessory it's in the process of failing. The question is how long until they fail.

Look at it this way: Lets say it's true and your motherboard and graphics card are failing and die before the end of the month. I bet that this place you sent the computer to doesn't exactly have the cheapest prices in terms of hardware. And if you do go to them for that (assuming it does fail) I can see exactly how it will happen, you'll get to play the upsell game on every part that attaches to the motherboard (See: Everything).

When it comes to these places, know exactly what you want and stick to it. Go in knowing "I want this done, that's it." If you have to go back later cause it fails that's fine, it's not like it will cost you anything more by going back then if you had them do it right now. Making decisions on the spot is the worst thing you can do, since it will ALWAYS result in paying more then you should have.

My suggestion: Go in, get the computer back, worry about fixing any hardware failure that may (or may not) occur once you notice the impact. Although don't get paranoid that "Oh my god they said it was failing and that pixel is 3 points over from where it used to be!" cause that's just jumping at shadows.

Wouldn't it by ironic if the dust and cobwebs were actually holding the computer together and allowing it to function properly?

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Thank you! This is going to be my plan (and requesting printouts of the tests). :D

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doxxxicle.livejournal.com

If it's just dirty, you should be able to go to any reasonable computer hardware store and buy a can of compressed air for like $8. I just got one the other day to clean out my computer.

The cleaning process is pretty simple. Unplug the computer entirely, take off the side off the case and then use the compressed air to blow out all the dust and crap in the fans and various nooks and crannies. Close everything up, plug it back in and you're in business.

We had to do it to lokyst's computer because all the dust was making her computer overheat and randomly power-off.

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veloxe.livejournal.com

And for the love of all things holy keep the can in the upright position!

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voidmagus.livejournal.com

Yea, I wouldn't let them upgrade anything. Use it til it breaks, then order replacement bits. Haven't you replaced your graphics card yourself, Thistle? I could swear you've said you did that yourself once. If you haven't, just replacing gfx card is super easy.

I'd advise against letting a shop like that do things to your computer. Your security concerns are entirely valid, and it is isn't unheard of to have them break a piece of hardware and try to bill you for replacing it.

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Oh god, the GS completely screwed over my mother on a laptop. Neither of us will ever buy or patronize Best Buy ever again.

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ani-mama.livejournal.com

I say do not get any hardware upgrades from them. Switching out a graphics card is actually pretty simple. A computer savvy pal could switch it out for you in 15 minutes, if/when you need it done.

I have to dust my computer completely every 3 months or so because of the cat hairs. It really is not that hard as the others have said.

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Seriously, I worked there for 3 years and quit because my job became more "in home sales" than "in home repair".

Things managers would say at meetings (but deny to customers) included:

- "Use the customer's ignorance against them."

- "Purposely leave off services and items that would make a complete package so the DAs (double agents, the in home people) have something to upsell on site." <-- that one caused me to get yelled at by customers SO OFTEN. >_O

- "Sell like you're on commission." BBY employes are NOT commissioned, but there's a catch: If you don't meet your numbers consistently, you get your hours cut significantly or, if you're only part time, you get fired.

- "Try to push replacing the computer with a full security package over repair, we make more on that." - Less turn time, high margin on everything but the computer itself (those are sold almost at cost, they make their profit on services and accessories. Service is pure margin, accessories & cables are marked up several hundred % from cost). Granted, sometimes it is cheaper to replace than repair, like in the case of a 6 year old machine that needs significant levels of repair to be functional again, but usually it was just a turn time thing. Selling and setting up a new system was faster and more profitable than fixing an old unit.

I got hired before Best Buy actually bought Geek Squad and, at that time, it was really great, it WAS a service/repair company and we had actual techs. When I started, we weren't allowed to use the scripts for anything until we could do all of the registry and config edits from memory and could explain what they did and why we do them.

We had to know how to remove spyware/viruses, replace parts, diagnose parts, etc..and we had to be A+ certified (which, let's be honest, is a monkey cert. If you can't pass that you don't deserve to work at repairing computers.) and all of that.

Then Best Buy bought the company and turned it into a sales arm.

Almost everything is outsourced.
Repairs, unless they're just HDDs or memory (desktop only), get shipped out for repair.
Spyware is removed via a vlan to outsourced "agent jonny utah" (yes, that's spelled right), that's really just a center in the Philippines. Backups are done by just copying to an external store drive and burning; if you're lucky, they delete your data afterward and actually check that they burned the data (and not the shortcuts) prior to deletion.

Really...

...Best Buy ruined what was once a pretty awesome company.

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LOL also!

http://consumerist.com/2008/03/leaks-best-buys-internal-customer-profiling-document.html

I remember going through that training. We had to come in on a Saturday AND on a Sunday and it was this whole day of playing shitty games, watching shitty training videos and "roleplaying".

One of my managers was in a mouse costume for some part of it. He looked like he wanted to die of embarrassment.

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Strangely, you CAN actually fry a computer by blowing it out if there's a lot of dust and it's very dry.

The dust being blown about can generate static electricity and shock the HELL out of electronics.

Another reason to just keep it clean in the first place.

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Yeah, I have some computer knowledge myself (I built my own system) and Mum was absolutely insistent she get a laptop rather than let me build her a PC or at least buy her one from a trusted source.

So she went to BB against my advice and got a laptop. It was fine for about six months. Then everything went to shit. We took it back in for 3 physical repairs. The third time they should have just given the money back or replaced it. But the guy convinced her to just take it back.

I talked to a manager about it, but soon realized it was just not worth it. Mum spilled coffee on said laptop after that and that was the end.

I was pretty disgusted with how we were treated. And I don't know laptops that well, but I am not stupid and everything the rep told me smelled very fishy. Even the manager tried to stonewall me.

So Mum is barred from every buying from them again and letting me handle her computer purchases and upgrades.

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So basically if you're easily duped you're good, if you have a modicum of common sense you're bad. Ha.

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Problem is, the managers probably had no other recourse.

Dealing with corporate is a BITCH if you can even get them to pick up or return a call, and half the time they lose our tickets, forget what it's about or just flat out say, "Sorry, can't do anything, sucks to be you HAHAHAHA!"

Knowing how the service plans work, they're really a shit deal for 99% of customers.

I DID make my parents get one on their laptop when they bought it 5 years ago as they take that thing out camping in Colorado, to our cabin, and really to places laptops shouldn't go. They actually had to use it about 4 times for damages related to "took laptop camping". XD

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Yeah, more or less. When I thought I could get away with it, I'd be all, "Sorry, I know this sounds asinine, I have to say/do it or I get written up..."

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Yeah. I kinda feel sorry for Best Buy workers now. The few times I went through there and they offered me a magazine I'd ask, do you get in trouble if I say no? They'd usually nod. 'Ok, give me the magazine.'

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Mum still has a laptop. This one is Dell, she's had it 3 years now and it's still functioning just fine.

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Even one of my friends who, once he got bumped to a GS senior/manager position, was one of the weirdly loyal employees has turned completely around after they just screwed him over in every possible way.

It's funny to see him mocking Geek Squad's shitty service on facebook. XD

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I figure I'll shove my parents toward HP this time, since I'm authorized to order parts and replace shit on those. :D

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Thanks, I went with all of this!

And nope, I've never done it myself (yet!).

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Thanks! I think I even have a can of air already!

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I went with this plan! And intend to do the cleaning on a regular basis, too.

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teaandfailure.livejournal.com

To be fair, this is exactly what was happening to my computer several years ago, and I didn't know because at the time, I didn't even know graphics cards HAD fans.

However, my card was NOT performing fine, WoW was running slower and slower and Dalaran was becoming a trial. When I gave the computer to my friend to see what was wrong, he was all OH GOD YOUR GRAPHICS CARD IS ABOUT TO DIE AND NEEDS FOOD BADLY. But, he replaced it for me, lord knows what people trying to get money out of you would do.

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Apparently my card's fan didn't work at all, it was that clogged with dust and such. So it's possible the extra heat/fan effort did damage it...

Timing! I'm currently lagging like mad in game, which is rare for me.

I'm going to sit and wait for now. If it dies, I won't be surprised. If it continues on fine, well then good!

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firebyrd.livejournal.com

Actually, with it getting noisier while playing WoW, I'd say there's a very good likelihood there is something wrong with your graphics card. It's getting loud because it's struggling with something. And if the fan on the GPU wasn't running? Yep, the card is pretty screwed. Just because some places are out to get you doesn't mean they all are. Remember that you took your computer in because it was doing something funny - i.e. something wasn't usual, thus likely something going wrong.

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