Office Depot Allegedly Diagnosing Computers With Nonexistent Viruses

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Crap like this is the reason friends don't let friends (or family members) take their computers in to a retail store to be "fixed." This is also the reason all of us are going to be super busy fixing everyone's broken ass computers over the holidays. ;)

According to KIRO-TV in Seattle, employees of the office supply retailer allege that pressure to sell protection plans and other services has led store staffers to misdiagnose computers with viruses. “The PC Health Check doesn’t compute,” the employee says. “If they actually did what they said and cared about customers they wouldn’t have started this program. Customers are unaware they are being taken advantage of.”
 
Meh, we did this at bestbuy at district managements demands. Computer/automotive/hvac repair are all scams for the most part.


Run some stupid spyware scanner... "oh see that tracking cookie, that's a virus. We can fix that for 250 bucks(and a free trial of MSN network) kthx"
 
mjz_5 said:
I wish i never told people that i fix computers. It never ends and people take advantage of ones good will
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Charge....Allot. It will shut up many, and the others at least you get something out of it.

I use to do this all the time until I noticed people get the idea if you work on it once, you are now supporting the device for the rest of its life. Getting calls a year, yes, a YEAR after fixing something and their reasoning is "yeah, but you were the last one to work on it"....Yeah, and your husband was the last one to go to a porn site on it, whats your point? I didn't miss a virus and it sat there for a year before it decided to start up. Oh you know some 12yo who will fix it for $20? Go right ahead, I will not lose sleep over it.
 
Heh, they probably go to a virus-laden website during their diagnosis and then proclaim to the customer that they need to buy anti-virus protection.
 
Car mechanics have been fucking over mechanically-ignorant customers since the first horseless carriage was cobbled together. It is oh-so-much easier to pull a fast one with PCs.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Charge....Allot. It will shut up many, and the others at least you get something out of it.
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I'll give out the occasional free advise like "run Malwarebytes on it", or don't keep restarting it while it's trying to run updates.

However, if They want me to actually work on it, then I give them the friend/coworker discount price of $50/hour.
Actually a good price considering the scammers out there.
 
Shotglass01 said:
They're learning from the best- Geeksquad. :)
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Oh God...the horror stories my mom has told me. Their solution to everything seems to always be adding an additional paid anti-virus...even if there are already others installed.
 
amddragonpc said:
Heh, they probably go to a virus-laden website during their diagnosis and then proclaim to the customer that they need to buy anti-virus protection.
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That's not even necessary when it comes to the type of people that would take a PC in for service. Simply tell them there are viruses and they'll have no choice but to trust the 'expert'.
 
Applicant: "I can make web pages and I know all the command shortcuts for World of Warcraft so I MUST be a good PC technician."

Office Depot: "You're Hired!!"
 
Customer: Hi, do you fix Linux machines?

Office depot Employee: (deer in headlights look)

Customer: Have nice day!
 
I would be more upset if this wasn't pretty much the American way with all services.

Edit: I had to fix my gf's 2006 Honda Civic AC after she took it to both Jiffy Lube (didn't know what's wrong) and the Honda dealership (wanted $1200 for new A/C compressor clutch). I bought a new clutch on Amazon for $160 with parts and installed it my damn self within a day. The car also needed freon, but after that, it works fine.
 
acidrain97 said:
Customer: Hi, do you fix Linux machines?

Office depot Employee: (deer in headlights look)

Customer: Have nice day!
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Considering you how computer savvy you have to be to run Linux and how many distro's there are, I would give you a deer in headlights look also.
 
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DigitalGriffin said:
Considering you how computer savvy you have to be to run Linux and how many distro's there are, I would give you a dear in headlights look also.
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He doesn't even mention if it's a hardware or software issue. Be damned if I troubleshoot someone's homebrewed Gentoo system if it isn't something obvious.
 
DocSavage said:
I would be more upset if this wasn't pretty much the American way with all services.

Edit: I had to fix my gf's 2006 Honda Civic AC after she took it to both Jiffy Lube (didn't know what's wrong) and the Honda dealership (wanted $1200 for new A/C compressor clutch). I bought a new clutch on Amazon for $160 with parts and installed it my damn self within a day. The car also needed freon, but after that, it works fine.
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Well that was silly of them, why did they even tell her the correct cause of the car's issue? Should have said <insert complex issue here> will cost 1200$ to repair, so that you buy the wrong thing and nothing happens and you have to either diagnose it yourself or just take it back to them and fork over the 1200$.

It's true though, finding good honest people in the service industry has been getting harder and harder. They tend to overcharge and underperform. The people who don't underperform might start charging even more because they realize they can get away with it.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
Well that was silly of them, why did they even tell her the correct cause of the car's issue? Should have said <insert complex issue here> will cost 1200$ to repair, so that you buy the wrong thing and nothing happens and you have to either diagnose it yourself or just take it back to them and fork over the 1200$.

It's true though, finding good honest people in the service industry has been getting harder and harder. They tend to overcharge and underperform. The people who don't underperform might start charging even more because they realize they can get away with it.
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You know what? I didn't even check the freon level before replacing the clutch. I may have done that work for nothing... :D I just assumed two different locations that do AC work would at least be able to diagnose low freon?
 
I used to work at a Staples 6 years ago and I wouldn't say I was pressured to diagnose issues as viruses but I was pressured to sell Total Repair packages for $180-300 where we would just wipe the PC and reload Windows and software. I didn't do it though, I was making them enough money through honest means that they left me be until I called some co-op kid a "fucking idiot" and they fired me. Best Buy offered me a job multiple times and I have A+ plus experience but always for part time hours so I have always declined.
 
dark_reign said:
I tried getting a job there several years ago. If you have an A+ cert and experience they won't hire you. I'm glad they turned me down.
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I work at a locally owned competitor to Geek Squad/Best Buy. It's absolutely amazing to me how many customers come to our store and say "Geek Squad did (whatever they did) and my computer is still messed up." I knew they were bad, but we get it several times a week.
 
ryno9100 said:
I work at a locally owned competitor to Geek Squad/Best Buy. It's absolutely amazing to me how many customers come to our store and say "Geek Squad did (whatever they did) and my computer is still messed up." I knew they were bad, but we get it several times a week.
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Same here. I get people all the time who come in saying Best Buy charged them well into the triple digits, still didn't fix their system and ended up with $50+ worth of shit software installed. I think it was usually some Webroot crap. I am glad I don't know any of the employees there, would be hard to keep my composure around them, esp. if they start talking tech. :cautious:
 
ryno9100 said:
I work at a locally owned competitor to Geek Squad/Best Buy. It's absolutely amazing to me how many customers come to our store and say "Geek Squad did (whatever they did) and my computer is still messed up." I knew they were bad, but we get it several times a week.
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Yup. We saw a lot of that when I worked at a mom and pop repair shop. Unplugged connectors and systems that gave a BSOD on boot were pretty common. Simple fixes but must have been too much of a challenge for Geek Squad. Funny thing is I was at my local BB a few months ago and it was a ghost town. I remember that place being a zoo 10 years ago.
 
Simmonz said:
I used to work at a Staples 6 years ago
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I was an "Easy Tech" at Staples as well, around the same time. You were definitely pressured into upselling services that weren't even needed.

But I got to play with computers all day, rather than stocking shelves, so it was a win for me. And their grey uniforms were cooler I guess.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
Car mechanics have been fucking over mechanically-ignorant customers since the first horseless carriage was cobbled together. It is oh-so-much easier to pull a fast one with PCs.
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Honestly this is a problem with any professional service. People just notice it more with PCs as you get them fixed far more often. Plumber, HVAC, mechanic.... they all are going to try to convince you that things are far worse than they are and you need to replace more than you really need. Then of course for breaks they do the reverse. Take a car in for new break pads, oh your pads are fine they are currently at 15% so you don't need to change them now. You can get another 10K+ miles out of those before you need to change them. Sure you can drive them down to the bare metal and then screw up the rotors so that you have to replace those also. They kind of forget to mention the end result of that extra 10K miles. With a car or anything else people are less likely to question it though since so few people know any better. Computer are easier to pick up on the scams.

DocSavage said:
He doesn't even mention if it's a hardware or software issue. Be damned if I troubleshoot someone's homebrewed Gentoo system if it isn't something obvious.
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fucking hell. I didn't know Gentoo was even still around. I just got a headache from the thought of having to deal with that POS after reading your post.
 
This crap goes on nearly everywhere that has services to fix things. I had a place spray graphite into my brand new air filters (just replaced them less than an hour before I brought it in for an oil change) to try to sell me new air filters for ten times the shelf price. My parents had a guy try to sell them on termite extermination on a brand new house back in 1976, and we lived in that house for the next 9 years with no signs of termites after that. No industry is immune to it, and no fool ever goes unexploited. That's just humanity.
 
dgingeri said:
This crap goes on nearly everywhere that has services to fix things. I had a place spray graphite into my brand new air filters (just replaced them less than an hour before I brought it in for an oil change) to try to sell me new air filters for ten times the shelf price. My parents had a guy try to sell them on termite extermination on a brand new house back in 1976, and we lived in that house for the next 9 years with no signs of termites after that. No industry is immune to it, and no fool ever goes unexploited. That's just humanity.
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Did they ruin your filters with the graphite? Did you call them out on it, or what happened?
 
Domingo said:
Oh God...the horror stories my mom has told me. Their solution to everything seems to always be adding an additional paid anti-virus...even if there are already others installed.
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Bro, don't you know that you need a good paid anti-Virus for every sector of your hard drive?

If you only have one, you're only protecting the front sector. You're leaving your flanks wide open.
 
DocSavage said:
You know what? I didn't even check the freon level before replacing the clutch. I may have done that work for nothing... :D I just assumed two different locations that do AC work would at least be able to diagnose low freon?
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You can measure the exterior temp of the high-pressure side and low pressure side with an IR gun to make an educated guess, especially if you hear the clutch repeatedly engaging and disengaging. Dual pressure gauge setups are still the way to go if you don't want to chase gremlins.
 
Long ago when I worked at a local hole-in-the-wall computer shop, some woman called asking about problems with her printer. I talked her through getting it to work and she was pleased. I walked back by the boss's office like Aww yeah I am the customer-service Man and the boss chewed me out for it. "How much money did we make from that? Next time tell her to bring it in." I wasn't too sad when they axed me a couple months later.
 
I've always said that most sales people are scum and this just confirms it. Not all.
 
"This is also the reason all of us are going to be super busy fixing everyone's broken ass computers over the holidays"

Fuckin' kill me now.
 
This crap is rampant in so many industries. Part of the problem is that they've done a great job at convincing average Joe that you need an 'expert' for everything. Gets them in the door and away from honest people.

Few years ago a friend had a laptop that wouldn't boot. Took it to staples for a diagnosis. They charged over $100 and said that it could be the mainboard or the hard drive, but they weren't sure. They wanted more money for a more 'in depth' diagnostics. By the way, we really think you should buy a new laptop.

Thankfully this friend asked me for a second opinion. We can all smell the bullshit even just from how they're not sure what the problem is. I fixed it in less than 5 minutes. One of the two ram sticks was dead.

I told her to have a little chat with their manager about this supposed diagnosis that obviously was not done. If there's any trouble, just have the manager call me and we'll talk about something called fraud.

Amazing how quickly she got an apology and new ram installed free of charge.
 
Todd Walter said:
You can measure the exterior temp of the high-pressure side and low pressure side with an IR gun to make an educated guess, especially if you hear the clutch repeatedly engaging and disengaging. Dual pressure gauge setups are still the way to go if you don't want to chase gremlins.
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LOL. Working on family cars, I had to pay $200 for a single freon recharge. Instead, I bought the dual gauge setup and a case of duPont R134a (12 lbs) for about $200. I've since recharged 4 cars, and still have half the case of R134a left. It pays to DIY...if you know what you're doing.

It's as true of cars and houses as it is of computers.
 
rsquared said:
Long ago when I worked at a local hole-in-the-wall computer shop, some woman called asking about problems with her printer. I talked her through getting it to work and she was pleased. I walked back by the boss's office like Aww yeah I am the customer-service Man and the boss chewed me out for it. "How much money did we make from that? Next time tell her to bring it in." I wasn't too sad when they axed me a couple months later.
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This is why best buy sucks. Instead of taking care of the customer they care about overselling. Something I don't personally appreciate.
 
Pringle said:
I was an "Easy Tech" at Staples as well, around the same time. You were definitely pressured into upselling services that weren't even needed.

But I got to play with computers all day, rather than stocking shelves, so it was a win for me. And their grey uniforms were cooler I guess.
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My store gave me a black shirt which combined with black pants being required gave me the nickname Johnny Cash. The upside for me was when walking the floors customers didn't think I worked there since the normal employees wore a red shirt which kept me from being made to help with BS questions as opposed to getting back to work on systems.
 
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