You call yourself a tech?

**arch0nmyc0n** · November 9th, 2004, 01:32 PM

A lady just came into my shop like 15 minutes ago and she was rather upset. Apparently her computer is infected with the Sasser virus and she was looking to buy a new one. When I asked why the drastic measure of buying a completely new one she told me she had taken her computer in 3 times to Business Depot (where she bought it from) and each time they said they removed the virus and she brought it home and it still came up with the shut down screen. She ended up asking me to call there and speak to them on her behalf, I was moderately interested in hearing what they had to say about what happened. So I call them up and ask for the computer technician and I get a guy we'll call Bob. So I introduce myself and the company I work for and I bring up the customers name and they guy says, "oh her". And I asked him what happened and he was all like "Well we removed the virus and she keeps reinfecting herself." And so I asked if they had updated windows to help prevent infection by closing security holes. He said no that doesn't work. I told him I realized that it didn't completely protect the computer but it would be a good step in the direction. He told me that the woman asked to have the virus removed and they did what she asked. And I replied with, and you should have realized by the second time she came back that she didn't have a firewall. And he was perplexed about why a firewall would help. I burst out laughing and he got all defensive talking about how it would have cost her a lot of money and more time. And I laughed out, you right click the connection and got check a box on the advanced tab, how hard could that be! And I laughed even harder. The guy got even more defensive and started saying something about that the woman had told them she didn't want a firewall. I asked her if she'd ever been asked about firewall and she said she'd never heard the term until just then. So I turned back to the guy on the phone, "So you're a bad technican AND a liar. No wonder my business has been picking up a lot lately." The chuckled a bit more then asked for the senior technician and he said he was it. The was dead silence for about 5 seconds then I burst out laughing again and he hung up on me... lol DAMN... they might as well put up a sign "Please bring your computer in and spend lotsa money for us to fix the problem, but we won't solve the situation."

PS And don't get me started about Future Shop.... I went in there and asked a guy if he was a technician so I figured I'd get a semi-intelligent person. He said he was and we chatted about him taking computer programming at the local college and a few other minor things.... I ask him to show me his favourite Router.... he passed me a network card... I gave him the benefit of the doubt and corrected him saying that's a NIC not a router... he was like OH right... and then passed me a wireless NIC... I stared at him and he just didn't get the idea about what was going on so I pointed to the routers on the wall and he passes me a dumb hub... I stared at him for about 10 seconds smiled and just walked out of the store....

**jitBob** · November 9th, 2004, 02:39 PM

Went into a CompUSA and asked what the refresh rate was on a flatscreen monitor, got told that there was no such thing. I just shook my head and as I was in the check out line I heard him asking another worker if he knew what I was talking about.

**arch0nmyc0n** · November 9th, 2004, 04:14 PM

LOL that's why I normally ask for a technical person so I can talk to someone who knows what they're talking about... Salesmperson can rarely answer any technical questions... The tech might not know prices or return policies or whatever but NORMALLY they give you the answers you seek...

**rgharper** · November 9th, 2004, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by arch0nmyc0n

So I introduce myself and the company I work for and I bring up the customers name and they guy says, "oh her". And I asked him what happened and he was all like "Well we removed the virus and she keeps reinfecting herself." And so I asked if they had updated windows to help prevent infection by closing security holes. He said no that doesn't work. I told him I realized that it didn't completely protect the computer but it would be a good step in the direction.

Both Sasser and Blaster can be prevented from re-infecting a PC by applying the appropriate patches after cleaning the PC ... but of course you already know that.

Me, I don't shop computer stores any more; I mail-order everything unless it's an emergency and I need it now. I hate it when I have to explain or justify my choices to a tech who knows less than I do. When I went shopping for my 64-bit AMD processor and motherboard the tech tried to talk me out of buying them because "You'll have to run Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 on them and they'll actually be slower on the 64-bit platform until Microsoft supports it with their 64-bit releases."

I don't have to wait for any release, since I can run pre-release versions of both versions of Windows now, or any of the Linux builds that have 64-bit support already.

**BOB IROC** · November 9th, 2004, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by arch0nmyc0n

So I call them up and ask for the computer technician and I get a guy we'll call Bob....

Hey My name is Bob and I am a quite good technician.

**joeace1** · November 10th, 2004, 12:41 AM

Originally Posted by arch0nmyc0n

A lady just came into my shop like 15 minutes ago and she was rather upset. Apparently her computer is infected with the Sasser virus and she was looking to buy a new one. When I asked why the drastic measure of buying a completely new one she told me she had taken her computer in 3 times to Business Depot (where she bought it from) and each time they said they removed the virus and she brought it home and it still came up with the shut down screen. She ended up asking me to call there and speak to them on her behalf, I was moderately interested in hearing what they had to say about what happened. So I call them up and ask for the computer technician and I get a guy we'll call Bob. So I introduce myself and the company I work for and I bring up the customers name and they guy says, "oh her". And I asked him what happened and he was all like "Well we removed the virus and she keeps reinfecting herself." And so I asked if they had updated windows to help prevent infection by closing security holes. He said no that doesn't work. I told him I realized that it didn't completely protect the computer but it would be a good step in the direction. He told me that the woman asked to have the virus removed and they did what she asked. And I replied with, and you should have realized by the second time she came back that she didn't have a firewall. And he was perplexed about why a firewall would help. I burst out laughing and he got all defensive talking about how it would have cost her a lot of money and more time. And I laughed out, you right click the connection and got check a box on the advanced tab, how hard could that be! And I laughed even harder. The guy got even more defensive and started saying something about that the woman had told them she didn't want a firewall. I asked her if she'd ever been asked about firewall and she said she'd never heard the term until just then. So I turned back to the guy on the phone, "So you're a bad technican AND a liar. No wonder my business has been picking up a lot lately." The chuckled a bit more then asked for the senior technician and he said he was it. The was dead silence for about 5 seconds then I burst out laughing again and he hung up on me... lol DAMN... they might as well put up a sign "Please bring your computer in and spend lotsa money for us to fix the problem, but we won't solve the situation."

PS And don't get me started about Future Shop.... I went in there and asked a guy if he was a technician so I figured I'd get a semi-intelligent person. He said he was and we chatted about him taking computer programming at the local college and a few other minor things.... I ask him to show me his favourite Router.... he passed me a network card... I gave him the benefit of the doubt and corrected him saying that's a NIC not a router... he was like OH right... and then passed me a wireless NIC... I stared at him and he just didn't get the idea about what was going on so I pointed to the routers on the wall and he passes me a dumb hub... I stared at him for about 10 seconds smiled and just walked out of the store....

I can relate to that I have had many of tech who claim they know hardware and couldnt tell me what an IRQ was. This so called tech "bob" isnt a surprise but I look at this way for every bad tech their are a few good ones

**hogman** · November 10th, 2004, 04:17 AM

Over here in lil ol England we have something similar - PC World.

Basically they rip people of by selling kit at way inflated prices. (40 cdr's at $35!!) and so on.

They also offer a "Service" where they will "Service" your pc etc.

A friend recently took her pc in and asked for a firewall and antivirus software to be installed (a step in the right direction!!) so they installed a Norton product - NO AV and the firewall was really badly set up - IE was blocked!!! (Is that a good thing? LOL)

They had not done any windows updates and yet they charged her for "OS - Security Updates" oh well!!

I also went in with a mate, we were both repairing "PATRIOT" pc's at the time and asked if we could purchase one of the SFF models with a Voodoo 3/3500 installed. The "Tech" said "Sure - no problems, give me 15 minutes and you can take it away" around 60 minutes later he came back, "Sorry - the SFF does not have an AGP slot, so we can't put the 3500 in for you!" Now, I am pretty sure I would not have taken 60 minutes to figure out that the pc on my bench did not have an AGP slot, plus the fact that the 3500 was over twice the height of the SFF!!

Oh well, thats why I charge £30 an hour, and they are glad to pay me!!

**Andy Roberts** · November 10th, 2004, 06:47 AM

Originally Posted by hogman

Over here in lil ol England we have something similar - PC World.

Say no more than that!!!

**peterpam** · November 10th, 2004, 07:54 AM

Same thing exists in Portugal: if you go to a store, most probably you will find tech people that doesn't know nothing about what they are selling.
But ther's a reason: in Portugal there was a 'fury' of open a lot of computer shops, and then there was no consumers for everyone.
In an attempt to react, most of this stores beguin to offer (free costs) instalation of OS, upgrade of OS, instalation of extra cards, etc..
In reality, they began to offer what can bee a significant part of post-sell incomes for sucvh a business.
To bee able to do that, they bbegan to employ 'tech people' that can work for... minimum wage...
In the end, they already beguin to stop offering this kind of services, but the tech people remain the same: non educated, ignorant tech people.... Its not really the tech fault, but the owner of the shop...
thats wy I agree with what has been said in this forum: computers and components shoul always bee bought and mounted by a friend, not in the store, cause there you will probably bee robed (its usual in here to sell, for ex., a Radeon 9600 as if it was a 9600 Pro or even a 9600 XT...).

Greetings from the country of Sun

**kpataska** · November 10th, 2004, 09:29 AM

Originally Posted by arch0nmyc0n

A lady just came into my shop like 15 minutes ago and she was rather upset. Apparently her computer is infected with the Sasser virus and she was looking to buy a new one. When I asked why the drastic measure of buying a completely new one she told me she had taken her computer in 3 times to Business Depot (where she bought it from) and each time they said they removed the virus and she brought it home and it still came up with the shut down screen. She ended up asking me to call there and speak to them on her behalf, I was moderately interested in hearing what they had to say about what happened. So I call them up and ask for the computer technician and I get a guy we'll call Bob. So I introduce myself and the company I work for and I bring up the customers name and they guy says, "oh her". And I asked him what happened and he was all like "Well we removed the virus and she keeps reinfecting herself." And so I asked if they had updated windows to help prevent infection by closing security holes. He said no that doesn't work. I told him I realized that it didn't completely protect the computer but it would be a good step in the direction. He told me that the woman asked to have the virus removed and they did what she asked. And I replied with, and you should have realized by the second time she came back that she didn't have a firewall. And he was perplexed about why a firewall would help. I burst out laughing and he got all defensive talking about how it would have cost her a lot of money and more time. And I laughed out, you right click the connection and got check a box on the advanced tab, how hard could that be! And I laughed even harder. The guy got even more defensive and started saying something about that the woman had told them she didn't want a firewall. I asked her if she'd ever been asked about firewall and she said she'd never heard the term until just then. So I turned back to the guy on the phone, "So you're a bad technican AND a liar. No wonder my business has been picking up a lot lately." The chuckled a bit more then asked for the senior technician and he said he was it. The was dead silence for about 5 seconds then I burst out laughing again and he hung up on me... lol DAMN... they might as well put up a sign "Please bring your computer in and spend lotsa money for us to fix the problem, but we won't solve the situation."

PS And don't get me started about Future Shop.... I went in there and asked a guy if he was a technician so I figured I'd get a semi-intelligent person. He said he was and we chatted about him taking computer programming at the local college and a few other minor things.... I ask him to show me his favourite Router.... he passed me a network card... I gave him the benefit of the doubt and corrected him saying that's a NIC not a router... he was like OH right... and then passed me a wireless NIC... I stared at him and he just didn't get the idea about what was going on so I pointed to the routers on the wall and he passes me a dumb hub... I stared at him for about 10 seconds smiled and just walked out of the store....

They keep me in beer money!!!

I love walking into Best Buy and having a wannabegeek ask me if they can help me. My standard answer... "I doubt it..."

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s

**Mike2002SC2** · November 10th, 2004, 10:12 AM

I've run into that so much where I am also. Not so much with other computer stores (most of the smaller computer shop's around here are actually fairly competent).

I do, however, get the Best Buy system's in... plastered with 3 or 4 of the stickers they affix to the PC as it's checked in for service. I always feel so sympathetic towards those customers, it's great though... treat them nice and give them a good deal and you'll have a new customer for life.

-Mike

**ADS_Tech** · November 10th, 2004, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by hogman

Over here in lil ol England we have something similar - PC World.

Dont knock PC World. Im their biggest fan.
If it wasnt for them, I wouldnt have any PCs to fix.

**arch0nmyc0n** · November 11th, 2004, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by kpataska

They keep me in beer money!!!

I love walking into Best Buy and having a wannabegeek ask me if they can help me. My standard answer... "I doubt it..."

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s

ROFLMAO, that is awesome I'm gonna use that if oyu don't mind...

I wish I had time to reply to everyone, but some really funny stories! Turned my bad day into a bit better day...

I ended up setting her computer up properly and I didn't charge her anything; told her I felt bad for her situation. She thanked me, just came back in this morning and ordered a system for her son in university...

**kpataska** · November 12th, 2004, 09:50 AM

Originally Posted by arch0nmyc0n

ROFLMAO, that is awesome I'm gonna use that if oyu don't mind...

I wish I had time to reply to everyone, but some really funny stories! Turned my bad day into a bit better day...

I ended up setting her computer up properly and I didn't charge her anything; told her I felt bad for her situation. She thanked me, just came back in this morning and ordered a system for her son in university...

Feel free to use it and abuse it as I do. I'm nicer in other stores - honestly! ;-)

See what being nice gets you? Return business!

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s