Best Buy and Circuit City , Computer Fraud

[stev]

I can relate to what Bio mentioned about these places taking older folks to the cleaners on upgrades or a new system. Being on a tight fixed income is a matter of eating or not.

Recently I helped an older retired couple in our church by fixing their computer. It was a Pakard-Bell Intel 75Mhz, 8-ram, 14.4 machine. The modem had died. They only use it for e-mail; keeping in touch with their children and grandchildren.

With some extra older spare parts I had around, it became a 166MMX, 40-Ram and 33.6 modem.

Helping those who have a real need matters. Helping those who have a want and can live without are better off without or doing the work themselves.

[R3N3G4D3]

Nothing new, I knew for ages about this. 3 years ago the heatsink-mounting tray on my motherboard had one of the 4 hooks snap off, so I went around stores and repair shops in the area asking them if I could just buy the new tray (piece of plastic, should be around $5 max), most stores told me I would have to buy new motherboard instead and couldn't buy the tray alone, repair shops told me that they can't sell the part separately but if I let them "diagnose the problem" for me for $50 (which I already diagnosed myself), they will then repair it for me and charge me for the part and repair time (my guess is another $50 at least). Eventually I found the part on ebay for $7 with shipping, replaced it and my pc worked like new again.

By the way, same is true about car repair shops. If you go to the official repair, they charge you $100 or more and half of them will "accidently" break something else during repair, offering to fix it for you for an additional price. That's why I go to a friend mechanic instead.

[odie2190]

yeah i got tired of me and my dad getting ripped off for bs things like buying hardware from the local stores and the repair prices... so i said and went on he internet and started to read.. now i fix/build pc for all my friends, free of charge and usually there parents will take me to the dinner place i wanna go or to the movies for my work..

i hate how they ry to squeeze money out of people...

my friend had a psu burn out and they went to best buy...best buy toldem that they dont make that psu anymore. so they ended up buying a whole new pc...i just about slapped my friend..

[ladmo70]

My grandparents got ripped by a Best Buy in Phoenix. She was having problems staying connected to AT&T online. Since she bought the PC at Best Buy, she called the Geek Squad. They came out, fiddled with the machine, deleted her temp files, installed a NIC card, told her the problem was fixed, and charged her close to $300. Well, the problem persisted, so I came over, looked at the bill for the work, and couldn't help but laugh. The Geek installed a NIC card on a machine that not only had an on-board NIC, but he installed it on a machine that was on dialup to AT&T. No NIC needed for that! Turns out, she had a setting in Outlook Express that disconnected her as soon as the mail-check was done.

Ugh. I got a free lunch and a new NIC card out of the deal, but they still lost 300 clams.

[Schwarz]

I got screwed in the past and of course a bit of knowledge is always the best thing but sometimes some people don't have time for that and have other occupations.
As far as saying that every Best Buys are rip offs.
Maybe not but just byt he answer they gave the medias you know that its a comon practice from best buy.
"Sometimes its hard to pin point hardware problems"
Yes ok maybe, but if the ide cable was disconnected the PC was still turning on, then why try to sell the person a PSU ?
2 options here.

1. Best Buy hires people that don't know much about computers"
Wich is a reason you should not get it fixed by best buy.

2.The wanted to screw an honnest customer.
Wich is another reason you should not buy from Best Buy.

There are no other reasons.
Best buy is on commision so of course any employees there will try to force you into buying something.They'll make money out of it.
I have an old friend that worked at best buy and it is common practice that is why I am so offended.
I just recently talked to him to ask him if it was only done in a few best buys after seeing this video but it seems his was also screwing people around.

[road]

On stores and PC sales/repair practices:
On of the 3 major US office supply stores I visited uses barely PC literate employees (often service desk cashiers and receiving staff) to "check out" returned computer systems, then reseal and sell them full price.

You guessed it, they'd come right back after being sold the 2nd time, often with more detailed complaints this time around. Parts are missing, equipment is busted, legit problems with software that most likely existed from the manufacturer or were cause by a thief who returned it the first time. Past 30 days, the store would send them on their way to pound sand. It's easy to get jaded when some business are complete rackets.

On being the nice "computer guy":
It feels good to save someone a few hundred in repairs or even more money from tossing a perfectly good machine to buy a new one to fark up. Everyone will probably agree you only do stuff free for family, or friends that offer something in trade; beers or brake jobs.

I should make a thread on the good repair guy getting screwed. I'll save myself the anguish of detailing the times when my FREE help to acquaintances was rewarded with unending support requests and even an accusation of theft of some ancient, useless memory. Try explaining to someone that onboard video uses system memory, and that their crusty old memory didn't go anywhere when they have an "expert" in the family telling them otherwise...

[werewolfdaddy]

I used to just help coworkers fix their PC's, The night one just showed up at my house and handed it to me I started charging 40 bucks, its amazing they started to research how to fix stuff on their own.


It kills me in this day in age that every family doesn't have a PC geek in it or knows one kid that their kids hang out with.

Exactly... When you don't charge anything you start getting my friends girlfriends dad's PC is broken and can you fix it for free. I've been helping people in the neighborhood with their PC's and the free fixes are done.

It doesn't surprise me to see how much stores charge though.

Been there done that.

[Nobahar]

I don't see what the big deal is.

When people are ignorant and don't know the cost of something, they get ripped off. Auto repair industries have been doing it for decades, what makes you think the computer industry wouldn't do something similar?

[Schwarz]

I don't see the problem either.
I'm just sharing my opinion.
Usualy when a car repair shop gets caught and gets shown on tv not long after it will close.
Sadly best buy is big and won't close doors but ripping off consumers.
But Share this video along if you know people that shop and gets stuff done there.
The more knowledge the better right.

[Tim Burton]

I expected that "the motherboard is fried" scam from a small store. However I didn't expect a big store like best buy to try to sell you bull****.

I worked for BBYuck and trust me they do.

During the summer I had an older neighbor pick up a laptop while he was traveling. He called me to ask about the specs. I told him everything was ok, except that he probably should had a stick of RAM into it.

Well, in October he called and asked me to stick a stick of RAM in for me. I told him I could, but it would be about a week and a half or so before I'd get to it.

Well, for some reason he decided to go to BBYucky and get a stick and have them put it in (impatient prick, I would have charged him less than they did). Well, they told him, "We recommend you actually buy a new laptop, that one is just plain too old to fix. The RAM won't help..." Blah Blah Blah....

In a moment of panic he called me. Luckily I picked up the phone. I listened, told him to hand the phone to the BBYuck clerk. He did, I listened, and told him, "What kind of BS are you trying to tell him? Are you trying to tell me that since I looked last week for RAM they quit making DDR-RAM?" He tried to explain that RAM wasn't the problem and the real issue was the laptop was just too plain old to run XP. I asked if he meant Vista, because I have older computers running XP than that laptop.

I finally told the guy he isn't taking the RAM from you, he isn't getting a new laptop....

Since then, the guy has been a happy customer of mine and I charge 40 an hour plus mark up the parts so we split the difference.

[Tim Burton]

My grandparents got ripped by a Best Buy in Phoenix. She was having problems staying connected to AT&T online. Since she bought the PC at Best Buy, she called the Geek Squad. They came out, fiddled with the machine, deleted her temp files, installed a NIC card, told her the problem was fixed, and charged her close to $300. Well, the problem persisted, so I came over, looked at the bill for the work, and couldn't help but laugh. The Geek installed a NIC card on a machine that not only had an on-board NIC, but he installed it on a machine that was on dialup to AT&T. No NIC needed for that! Turns out, she had a setting in Outlook Express that disconnected her as soon as the mail-check was done.

Ugh. I got a free lunch and a new NIC card out of the deal, but they still lost 300 clams.

Sounds like the one I worked at in Phoenix....

[Tim Burton]

On being the nice "computer guy":
It feels good to save someone a few hundred in repairs or even more money from tossing a perfectly good machine to buy a new one to fark up. Everyone will probably agree you only do stuff free for family, or friends that offer something in trade; beers or brake jobs.

Bingo, about the only thing I do for free is when I get a moment about once every three months I stop by (usually they will get me lunch or such) and I'll run virus scan and stuff and do the updates.

They love the fact that I'll do that at basically no cost (and in all honesty it saves me hours of headache, even though I could milk them for money...I'd rather not.)

[Tim Burton]

I don't see the problem either.
I'm just sharing my opinion.
Usualy when a car repair shop gets caught and gets shown on tv not long after it will close.
Sadly best buy is big and won't close doors but ripping off consumers.
But Share this video along if you know people that shop and gets stuff done there.
The more knowledge the better right.

Besides most small shops know that their money isn't in getting things broken, but getting a life-time customer. I know the owners of 4 mechanic shops and all are booked up over a week for work.

[pitumbo]

That is crazy -- they show the computer booting up and then the "geek" from Geek Squad says you need a new PSU? I would rather take my chances fixing my own computer (and learning something in the process) than go to any of those places.

Very cool of the small business owner to fix it for free -- I'm glad he got some free very positive advertising out of it. As a small business owner myself I can appreciate that

[wyatt`]

Still have to watch out with every biz till you get a feel for how they handle everything. It can go either way very quickly...