Best Buy and Circuit City , Computer Fraud

Schwarz · Post by **Schwarz** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:51 pm

Check this video that got played on the news.
You guys might have seen it before if not.
Don't buy from Best Buy or any shops that promotes those kinds of rips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxqx4hgeKgQ&mode

lprz · Post by **lprz** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:19 pm

Creepy,

I often try to help people not to waste their money on these big
computer stores. I can tell you horror stories of people who thought they were being helped, but were getting ripped off.

bubba · Post by **bubba** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:25 am

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.

Post by **Apoptosis** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:13 am

bubba wrote: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.

pym · Post by **pym** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:18 am

I hear you, people.
Also got myself into that mess and didn't know how to get out of it.
People I haven't seen nor spoke to for ages turned to me and asked for help with their PC crashing etc...

Didn't know what to do until I started charging per hour, and believe me, my goal was NOT making money...

Worked like a charm...

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:29 am

I still fix little things for free out here where I live and even larger repares are cheap when you look at what a shop charges.
Most of what I do only runs like $20 or so or maybe trade for something that I've been wanting.
Just week I replaced modem in a system along with a OS upgrade and I ended up with a new leather computer chair............

pym · Post by **pym** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:47 am

Wow, pretty nice deal ther, bio.
Good to "see" you, by the way... ;)

Nuxil1 · Post by **Nuxil1** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:53 am

I love it when they go back and throw it the dudes face and he totally denies it. Can you say backpedalling.

slugbug · Post by **slugbug** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:24 am

We have stores like that in Canada too. They're called MDG

Schwarz · Post by **Schwarz** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:29 am

OMG MDG ARGH...
Discusting.
But I have to tell you where I am in quebec its even worst for these kind of rip offs.
My friend got all his pieces changed I mean literally every onecept the motherboard.
Sound card videocard ram PSU monitor cd drive ect.
One day he asked me man wtf is going on why does it work sometimes then crashes really hard and wont post anymore.
I took his comp looked around didn't see anything wrong but the board was bended a bit, thats where the little light bulb appeared.
The board was grounded...
He had screwed it too hard and the board was touching the case...
Anyways I stay away from those kind of stores.
They are there to make money not help you you always have to remember that.
They don't give a *&*& aout you.

bigblockmatt · Post by **bigblockmatt** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:48 pm

ive been known to help people out with there comp problems. ive done some antivirus stuff, driver updating, and some other hardware stuff. i will do it for free, usually the people come back and say "what do i owe you" and i saw nothing. they usually end up getting me something unexpected (ie, case of beer, gift cert. or something). id rather help the people out then screw them out of money.

that video makes ( i think it was) compUSA and circuit city look really bad. they didnt lie to the people about the problem, but they charged them the minimum charge. big stores like that, its just kinda the way it is. people should know that going in.

The people who lie to the customers and over charge is just messed up. i would hope those are more isolated cases, but they probably are not.

cyberneticimplant · Post by **cyberneticimplant** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:25 pm

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****.

Bigedmond · Post by **Bigedmond** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:48 pm

Well i just helped a co-worker get the internet at his house for the first time. I got a free Pentium 2 system, and wanted to go online to check mail, and do research. No games, or anything demanding. Embark wanted 150 bucks for a guy to come out and find out why the Ethernet cable wouldn't fit the card. Then when i told him he needed a NIC card, they wanted 40 for the card, and a 100 to install it.

I went over with a spare NIC card, plugged it in, turned it on, got it online in 8 minutes and did it for free.

Schwarz · Post by **Schwarz** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:14 pm

The worst in all this is that they offered to change the PSU.
I mean they could have made their fraud a little less obvious.
I mean the geek squad not knowing what it does when you turn on a PC without a PSU.
IT DOESN"T TURN ON.
I mean this is obviously a fraud.
I mean best buy saying sometimes its hard to pin point hardware failure.
Ok maybe a soundcard or a videocard but a PSU man.
Thats the worst excuse ever.
This kinda crap will get me to tell people i fix computers for and personnal friend and so on to never go to best buy.
Don't buy there, don't go there and don't speak their names.

toolegit2quit · Post by **toolegit2quit** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 8:14 am

The problem here lies in a public that, by and large, is uneducated when it comes to personal computers and have to "depend" on someone else for help.

And unfortunately that dependence opens the door for shoddy business practices and fraud.

But we are preaching to the choir in here because most people in this forum, I would imagine, are learned users and wouldn't fall for this crap.

It is those other users that need to take the time to use a forum like this and investigate and learn about their system. So all you folks that aren't reading this because you don't know about the value of a hardware forum start educating yourself! Now!

I feel much better.

Schwarz · Post by **Schwarz** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 8:55 am

I don't agree.
I mean we all like computers here right.
How about literature ?
How about mechanics.
I know a little of mechanics to get around but I could probably get screwed over.
I mean look at it this way.
I spend my free times talking and reading about computers while others do something else like build up their cars to go at the track.
I don't think people should get educated because some other benefit and rip off some innocent ocmputer users.
I mean if you go in a small computer shop then you can expect this but all this comming from Best Buy...
Like I said I will never touch anything from best buy not that I did in the past but after seeing this I am sure that everyone that I know will see this video.

toolegit2quit · Post by **toolegit2quit** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:25 am

I am not suggesting that peoples lack of knowledge gives anyone the right to defraud anyone. It is obviously wrong and they should be punished and / or prosecuted.

But does this video make all best buys bad or would it suggest that there are good eggs and bad eggs in all professions?

Now since I'm at work I cannot view the video until I get home but that does not mean that people ought not to get as knowledgable as the can be. Even in mechanics, as you have suggested, it would be wise to consult someone you know or a friend that knows a friend for advice before trusting a new mechanic on your car for example. Human nature is what it is unfortunately.

wyatt` · Post by **wyatt`** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:31 am

Nothing wrong with knowing a little bit about everything. I thought it was a well known fact that you shoudl never trust big chain stores for anything.

moon111 · Post by **moon111** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:43 am

I personally check out other things, msconfig, maybe download Spybot etc. ..and show them how to use the programs. These friends and family don't bother me as much now unless there's a serious hardware problem now.

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:46 am

Lots of folks out there don't have a clue about big chains..........

A lot of smaller computer shops rip people off just as bad and sometimes worse. There's one out here where I live that tries it all the time with older folks that just don't know any better.

I had a customer/friend that wanted to get a older laptop fixed a while back and took it to Best Buy (I think) and they said that it couldn't be repaired and it needed to be replaced, so he ended up buying a new one (for his daughter in school). They even tried talking him into leaving the old laptop there with them so they could dispose of it properly, but he told them that he'll take it home and mess with it himself. To make a long story short, I was asked if I could do anything with the system to fix it and as it turned out all that was the matter with it was a virus that kept it from booting. I wiped the HD and installed a new OS and it was like new..........

Moral of the story, don't trust anyone that trying to sell you something new, always get a second opinion.

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Best Buy and Circuit City , Computer Fraud

Best Buy and Circuit City , Computer Fraud

Computer fraud