Slashdot Mirror
Big Box Store Reps Push Unnecessary Recovery Discs
Ed Albro, PC World writes "At PC World, we've got a story today on salespeople at Best Buy and Circuit City pushing consumers to pay the stores' technicians to create recovery discs for their new laptops. Recovery discs are important to have, of course, but the fact is that they're easy to make yourself. Or you can get them from the manufacturer of your PC, often for half of what Best Buy and Circuit City charge you. The salespeople often tell you that you can buy from the manufacturer — but they claim you'll pay twice as much as the stores charge."
Pretty sure that anyone who knows how to make a recovery disk either won't get suckered in, or will purchase it just so they don't have to do it themselves.
The real retail rape is extended warranty.
Never play chicken with a passive aggressive.
Given that the people who will buy these disks would almost certainly not make their own, let alone request one from the maker, the question is whether the store price is worth the difference between having and not having one. I'd say it is.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
...if you are buying such a disk from them, then you probably don't know how to get one easier/cheaper, so I guess I don't see a problem here. Those with less knowledge in a given domain generally pay more, and are sometimes happy to do so out of convenience.
I was flipping bits on an abacus, newb.
Selling computers without a recovery disk is just not smart IMO. Once you have sufficient problem to warrant restoring the computer, you're already pissed that its broken. Maybe your not pissed at the manufacturer of the PC at that point, because its not necessarily their fault.
But once you find out that its now NOT fixable because they were too cheap to give you a 25 cent to make recovery disk with your $400+ PC you WILL be pissed at them.
Its just bad business practice to me.
IANAA (apologist) but I don't see it as screwing over, in exchange for some of my time to perform for you a service you deem to have value you give me some of your cash in proportion to the value you perceive. The fact that you see no value in buying the disks because you are educated enough to make them for yourself and you have the time/interest to doesn't mean that everyone else is. One can easily change the oil in their car and I often encourage/train friends how to but I don't see places that offer to change it for you in exchange for a fee as ripping you off.
Yah, and software used to come with handy instruction manuals too, but now you're lucky if you get a scrap of paper with a website address on it. It's all about squeezing every last cent of profit out of your product. It's no longer about how you can make the best product for your customers, it's about how many corners you can cut before people just stop buying from you. As it turns out, consumers will put up with a lot of garbage like this before they'll even consider not buying.
If the salesman refuses, raise hell with his manager. Purchaser gets the disks for free, salesman gets reprimanded (or fired).
You forget the managers job. His job is to ensure his staff have the tools and pliable morals to sell you things. He won't be reprimanded or fired instead he's be "coached" on how to sell it to you without getting you angry. Perhaps he'll be told a better lie to use.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
I respond, "So what you're saying is, this product is a piece of shit and I shouldn't buy it. Check." -SNIP- Half the time I never intended to anyway
Somehow, I get the feeling from the content of this post, that you've never done this, but wish you had. Especially for a high-ticket item that you can't, in reality, afford.
I call shenanigans!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Yeah, for those of us who know what we are doing a recovery disk is not needed. But that's only about 5-10% of the computer buying population. Most users haven't a clue how to fix even the simplest computer problem and they need that two step process to fix their computer because that's about as much as they can handle:
Step 1) Insert "Magic Computer Fixing" Restore Disk
Step 2) Turn on computer and hope it works
Granted restore disks aren't a cure all, but for most users its the one and only shot they have to fix it themselves.
You assume too much:
1. That the manager will give them to you for free.
2. That just because you complain, a salesman who is following company policy will get reprimanded or fired?
While I agree that you should get OS installation media at no charge with your computer (and refuse to buy one that doesn't come with any) why do you think you are entitled to demand it? You are not. Your recourses are: buy it, haggle or don't buy it.
You may end up getting the media for free, however more than likely the salesman and his manager will talk later on that day about that "whacko customer" they had earlier.
The problem is you are not entitled to have it if it is not an agreed upon part of the sale.
And if you stick to your guns, you'll either have free recovery discs, or be certain they didn't rip you off (and get a computer elsewhere, along with spreading bad word-of-mouth about their practices).
I would love to discuss the mindset trend in North America where people think it is OK to "get free stuff" by creating complete asses of themselves. The very notion that if one were to act childishly and annoying enough that people will just throw stuff at them to make them go away seems completely crazy to me. Why and how do you think this trend started? More importantly do you think this trend can be reversed before our populace is filled with hyper selfish middle agers with an inflated sense of entitlement who refuse to work? This could very well be our empires lead poisoning.
They're just following orders from higher-up, and if they don't have any moral qualms with it, they're assholes, so who cares what they say amongst themselves?
How about the moral qualm of working for a living? Feeding your family? Supporting yourself? The way I see it is this: they are offering goods and services for a price. You do not have to buy it. What is immoral about that? As long as they are up front with you, tell you "yes, you can make the discs yourself" then there is no problem. I am always wary of someone who invokes "morals" but insists that anyone who doesn't agree with him is wrong. Because you belive it to be "immoral" you are willing to make an asshole of yourself in an attempt to get items you did not pay for? Remember, the cost of those recovery CDs are not included with the price of the computer. Who is the asshole now?
Okay, let me get this straight. You think that not providing someone with a copy of the software that was licensed to them when they bought the computer, and in fact, trying to get them to pay for it *again* is not as bad or worse than someone raising hell to get the CD that they should have been given in the first place?
There are a few things you must understand: you can create the recovery discs yourself, and the cost of the recovery media is not included in the price of the PC.
On top of that, things change. What you believe "should be given in the first place" is not fact. Simply because you believe that to be so, does not mean others have to abide by it.
That being said, your statement "that they should have been given in the first place" denotes that they accepted the terms of sale already, in which case, as long as the sellers were up front about what was being sold, and did not use any form of deceit, then yes, I believe it is not as bad as someone "raising hell" to get recovery discs for free.
They can make their own discs, discs were not part of the sale agreement nor included in the price, and "raising hell" to get what you want for free is something a child does, not something an adult does.
It's not that severe of an issue, but it's still trying to take away the right to have a copy of what you paid for (and no, most sellers won't tell you that you can make a copy yourself, nor should you have to. The software was part of the purchase price).
It is not a "right", and the copy that you purchased is on the hard drive. The copy that you purchased also has built in capabilities to duplicate itself for backup purposes. If you bothered to RTFA you'll notice that most sellers DID inform the buyers that they can make the backup themselves.
Again, if you don't like the terms of sale, don't buy it. You do not have some magical "right" to a recovery disc.
Personal responsibility, where art thou?