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Computer Buying Experiences at B&M Stores
bob gnosh writes "The team over at [H] Consumer go into Best Buy, Fry's, CompUSA, and Circuit City and buy a computer at each store. They relate exactly what happened at each store, talk about warranties, and what to do to protect yourself or your friends when buying at these places." From the article: "Navigating these retail stores isn't for the faint of heart or those not armed with the right knowledge beforehand. As much as you'd like to go to your closest strip mall, have a salesperson discern your hardware needs, and walk out with a shiny new computer that does everything but load your dishwasher, such an experience is just not going to happen. Most retail sales people are simply not going to possess the necessary knowledge to correctly recommend or explain every nuance of a piece of hardware."
Don't waste your time reading it. It contains statements like this:
After flagging down a second Best Buy representative and asking about upgrading the memory in the particular system, he explained we could upgrade the memory, but he didnt know the price. He told us he would find out, and promptly left. He never returned with the information.
But he did, in fact, return later:
At this time, the second representative we asked about upgraded memory pricing returned with an answer.
Obviously nobody took him seriously, because he was a 12-year old child, judging by his writing.
The only decent advice of the article, is that when you have a technical question, ask for a technician. You need to consider that most people on the floor are salespeople, and aren't experts in any particular field. A real expert in IT would be working somewhere that would pay a lot more. Especially when you look at the state of technology these days, with DDR, DDR2, PCI-X...etc Why would someone with no interest in computers be expected to know this, when they are also selling a range of other items.
I heard one guy trying to sell a warranty on a router, saying that's he's had 3 break down in the last year and a half, and that the warranty would be a really good idea. When in reality I don't think I've ever heard of a router failing. I really wanted to tell them that he was lying, but in the end didn't. I'm not one to confront people.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
OK, I'm going to try and help you out:
when we open the box (for a functionality check) don't have install media. They either have a restore partition, or bug you on first startup to make DVDs. I've always thought that when I'm testing it out (I can't do the media burn unless the customer pays for that), and I click "not right now", it would ask again
It doesn't ask again. The user has to go into the utility and start it. Usually located in Start menu under Programs->CD Burner/*BrandName* Utilities->Create Restore Disks. They provided this instead of media because of problems with people losing the media. This way they have a handy copy anytime they want (unfortunately, when they need it the system is usually too hosed to make them).
The Geek Squad doesn't charge "more" (per SOP and where I work) if you don't have install discs, we just insist that you have legal install media - we don't care where/how you get them. Our fee to install an OS is the same in any situation.
This is just plain dumb. The media is secondary (even in cases where other software exists on the media). What is primary is a legit license key. Use most any freakin media you want to, MS won't care as long as your key is unique, valid and pasted on the outside of the tower. Drivers can be downloaded from the manu's website or third-party websites with little trouble when you use a generic OS install CD. Granted some of the extra software that came bundled might be left behind, but this generally can be replaced with free downloads. Even anti-virus software can be replaced if they have their registration info, not to mention the free options like AVG. Replace the essentials, most EU's wont notice all the extra bulky crap that got left out, and will sing your praises when the system runs faster than it did out of the box.
What we CAN NOT do is pull a CD from the back, slap in your install code and go to town, Activation, and probably legal issues make this a non-starter. Seems someone in your management doesn't realize how the Windows activation works. As long as your key is unique and fits the system id tags, you are golden using whatever media you want. Hell, you can even make drastic changes to the hardware and still install legally (expect a manual call to MS to activate, a matter of about 5 minutes). Provided you have a valid license label, most shops will even make you a copy of the software so you can reinstall it.
As for the GeekSquad fees, you guys are extortionists. The last repair shop I worked in would throw a hard drive in your tower for the cost of the drive. The fees for GeekSquad are typically two to three times as high as anywhere else, and I wouldn't trust your work anyway.
If I can proffer some advice, get the hell out of the DeathSquad and get a job at a real shop. You might actually learn something.
Don't use the Troll mod just because you disagree with me.