Slashdot Mirror
PC Superstore Admits Linux Hinge Repair Mistake
Erris writes "PC Superstore says their store manager was wrong to turn away a client with a broken hinge whose machine should have been repaired. 'El Reg put a call in to the DSGi-owned retail giant to get some clarification on PC World's Linux support policy. A spokesman told us that there had simply been a misunderstanding at the store and that, in fact, the normal procedure would be for the Tech Guys to provide a fix. [PC World] will provide a full repair once the firm has made contact with Tikka.'
that the manager didn't get the news.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
as twitter , just like the other ones. Avoid people who game Slashdot with multiple sockpuppets and open proxies.
We'd like to apologize for getting an unexpectedly large backlash due to our usual behavior of being dicks to the linux users. In the future we will strive to continue our inexcusable treatment of our linux based customers without attracting such public negative PR in the process. Thank you for your support in these difficult times!
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
And the question on everyone's mind is "Would this have happened had the plight not been so well discussed on the internet?"
Also, how many other people have already been turned away for hardware warranty repairs based on what software was on their machine?
The moral of this story is to stay away from PC World. They over price all their components and the machines they sell are crap by and large. They exist to take money from the ignorant and their attitude when their product inevitably breaks is dreadful. The anti-linux attitude is old news as I experienced similar treatment at the PC World in Edinburgh when I had a keyboard fail on my laptop with Linux installed. Fortunately I had XP on it too and was able to prove that the fault wasn't due to Linux.
Sadly, PC World has also put a lot of the good little computer stores out of business which is why they can behave so badly.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
So PC World pissed off a geek. He told all his geek buddies. Word got around and now PC World has either changed their mind, or announced their mistake as loud as they can for fear of reprisal from tons of geeks. Why am I not surprised? I'm sure they want to stay in business, and even if that was their policy, i'm sure it changed VERY quickly because the community they target is the same community that's now talking bad about them. Change their policy or risk going out of business? Slashdot wins! PC World - 0 Slashdot - 1
Also, this is evidence that Linux systems are gaining ground -- issues like this are "growing pains."
Palm trees and 8
A mistake, that's it.
And I'm sure that there was some policy that they can quote to back up that "misunderstanding" and it was a totally isolated event.
Pretty cut and dry denial of warranty of hardware based on software. If the manager denies service it's not a misunderstanding it's policy. Unless they can show the documents that the manager specifically didn't follow, it's a case of consumer backlash changing a companies operating practices.
I'll believe the "misunderstanding" cop out for the responsibility when they can show policy documents that state that the OS doesn't matter in cases of obvious hardware defect. If they've got that on file, if it was a misunderstanding and every higher level employee involved in that case goes back through basic training for service repair qualification, I'll believe it.
) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
A junior employee or contractor made an error that is against our policy.
Translated:
A local store manager is foolishly given broad discretion to run the local store and making ass-pulled risk estimates such as "this guy can't possibly escalate his complaint from porch-seat grumbling to global public-relations catastrophe."
[
Once more it pays to be well connected in the online community. Now if only this would work with the IRS and DMV.
For every present, there is a past
This is an interesting story, but must it come from "Erris"? He's the owner of the "twitter" account, and a known troll. The editors should be on the lookout for these things.
It was simply an excuse to turn away a customer so that one less laptop would have to be worked on .
Laziness at work.
Someone, please, tell me that PC World is not that stupid. Tell me that web page belongs to someone other than the AC that submitted the original story and was latter identified only as "Tikka". It violates their own store policy. Their PR people told The Register they would take care of it. Tell me the video was taken days ago. I'd really rather hear anything other than some self important moron is making life difficult for a Linux user, against store policy, common decency and half the internet's outrage. No?
Poor Mr. Tank.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
His name shouldn't be G. Tank.. it should be Tommy Tank
(english rhyming slang for you yanks)
but i'm certain linux caused this cracking of the hinge. if the user had continued to run windows, it would have actually gone the way of Christine, the Stephen King novel car character, and repaired itself magically.
As Jerry A. Taylor found out, the Internet means that asmall public abuse power and or stupidity can result in you looking like fool on a planetary scale.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I used to be a blastocyst, you insensitive clod!
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
He's (Tank) lucky that his email address wasn't included in the post. Give me a few minutes...
Someone needs to explain to PC world that their bad service is the 8th highest story on digg.
How many people read digg?
Take a crowbar and a fish. Pry the broken hinge open so as to free the penguin, then toss the fish to give the penguin an incentive to get out of the laptop. You may need to clean out the accumulated penguin filth.
Then take the laptop to a replacement window specialist to put windows back in the laptop. Once that is done, take the laptop to have the hinge serviced. Tada! all is well.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
The issue at hand is with PC World. Not PC Superstore.
Dear PC Superstore Customer,
Our bad.
Sincerely,
The Management
The game.
Since when the fook is a hinge anything but a hardware issue, not requiring powering the machine up (other than near the end to confirm all jacks got plugged before turning all screws)?
There was one time a Radio Shack district manager gave me the "Oh, we don't support Apples" song and dance when the item I came in to purchase was a DB9-to-DB25 serial cable off the shelf for my external modem.
And then there was the time I actually had to say to a salesperson, "Okay, let's forget I mentioned what kind of machine this is for, shall we... Now: how much does an external 56k modem cost at your store?"
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
if the owner of the Storm Botnet read /. and if we can convince him/her to launch a DDoS against PC World...
If I owned a store... I wouldn't worry about it at all.
3 words : word of mouth
Us Linux users are the ones that friends/relatives/etc. turn to when they need computer advise. If they piss us off, guess who we aren't recommended to those friends/relatives/etc.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
at this point.. simply repairing the laptop is not enough.
If you go to their web site and follow the 'For careers at PC World click here' link, it takes you to another company called DSGi plc :
You might then also notice on the 'Job Opportunities' menu references to Currys and Dixons. They are other high street tech stores in the UK.
I can't help but wonder if Curry's and Dixons' customer support is equally poor.
Max.
Step 4. reinstall windows oem and bring it back to the store and say it was a theme you idiot.
This was a UK incident, and the customer in the UK is pretty well protected against this sort of nonsense (caveat: as demonstrated, they will still have to put effort in - retailers still don't seem to care enough not to piss off their customers). The shop effectively broke the law by refusing to repair the laptop (but why did the guy not contact the manufacturer directly instead?).
I specifically state 'UK' here because that's the only country I know this for sure of. It's pretty reasonable to assume this sort of protection is available elsewhere as well. What you suggest would amount to an override of local law which is impossible. You can't even get rid of such a law in small print in the contract as it will be found invalid in court - not that everyone + dog in business doesn't try..
I had Dolphin Kitchens try to pull a fast one on me that way, all the way to a 'regional manager' telling me that I signed and it was thus valid. I spoke to Trading Standards and approximately 15 minutes after they had a little chat with the company I got a phone call claiming a 'trainee manager' error. The moment I hear that excuse the company's off my list. If they can't even be upfront and tell me they screwed up I can't invest any trust in them.
The incident response of "it was a mistake" is total and utter BS. I'm pretty sure that the customer will have asked for a manager to discuss this, and said manager will have told him the same which suggest it's company policy (not store, COMPANY policy) rather than "a mistake".
I think the only mistake they feel they will have made is not even the public relations hit because it's mainly on geek sites and sufficiently 'geeky' customers avoid that shop anyway unless it's something simple. No, the mistake they feel they have made is attracting Trading Standards and Consumer Direct's attention to the store - no store likes to be picked over by a Government department proving they're needed, especially if the validity of the complaint is well above doubt.
So, if you want to do anything I would suggest telling you NON-geek friends. See if your local newspaper wants to carry the story..
Insert
I used to be a 2 year old!
ZOMG AN EX 2 YEAR OLD PROGRAMMING C++!!!!!11!11
Great Intellect...
funny Now why did /. say I had posted 16 seconds ago when it's been a couple of hours? Clock running slow?
Could you take this lovers spat somewhere else?
I really could do without watching some AC flirting with the guy he likes.
It's been a long time.
If he's a manager at PC World, I find it very unlikely that he would have an e-mail address, or know how to connect to it if it existed.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
Shouldn't it read:
Day 2: Got a job at PC World.
Day 3: I've been promoted to manager.
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
Why the obvious troll?
What's wrong is that it has absolutely nothing to do with PC World's ability or otherwise to fix broken laptops, or about tech matters in general.
If I had mod points at the moment, I would be giving out a few -1 offtopis here.
There is no such thing as an "admin". In windows everyone has administrator rights.
Anonymous user
It's amateurish, the people there seem not to get the concept of using a computer (you switch it on) and even if you take something in because the paint's peeled off, they'll install their 'performance measuring application' (bloatware) on your machine and drop a few PC World adverts on the desktop.
And they seem to think that 80gB is 'massive' by today's standards.
Those using pirated Tinysoft signatures(TM) are a real threat to society and should all be thrown in jail.
When I heard about a store suddenly making and about-face and deciding to provide better service to a customer named "Tikka," I could only assume it was a corporate account.
In the dim distant past I applied for a job for PC-World (I didn't get it). The store managers reason was, you know too much about computers, and might scare people away when they most need advice. They were interested in sales people and not people that could give the correct advice and make a sale.
Just try it out, go into their stores and ask them a basic question (if you can ever find anyone) and see how far they get with it. Usually you'll get the "I'll just go check for the answer", and the sales rep runs away to the stock room until you've given up and left (to order gadget online instead).
The store is good for getting emergency supplies like ink, paper or DVD's etc., although not particular cheap.
Take Nobody's Word For It.
In the US, a warrantor can say the whole warranty is nullified if you hang fuzzy dice off the corner of your screen. The only thing they need to do is state so in plain terms. Read the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, if you want to know.
Most of the "they can't do X" crap, like the AC's comment, stems from a misinterpretation of one specific part of the act"The clause is to prevent, say, a vacuum cleaner company from requiring used of their own brand of bags (unless they provide them free). It doesn't mean you can modify your car for more horsepower, and expect the manufacturer to cover the engine under warranty when it breaks. It also doesn't mean a manufacturer can't put a clause in the warranty which says the engine warranty is voided if you hang fuzzy dice from the mirror. It means that they can't put a clause which says "Use of any brand fuzzy dice other than ACME brand fuzzy dice will void the engine warranty."
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Considering the number of /. posters stating that PCWorld sucks and the number of PC World shops in existence, it appears that the bad word of mouth can be overcome by 2 cents off. (or 2p., in this case)
Valid point.
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
It's ridiculous that you have to get on slashdot and raise a fuss just to get a laptop serviced under warranty. I am sure the laptop hinge would still be broke if it wasnt for the swarm of bad press headed to PC World. And as far as not honoring the earranty if linux is loaded on the system, what a joke. If anyhting, they shoudln't warranty and system running windows, as in my experience, winblows is much more likely to fry your hardware than most linux distributions. All I really know is, I will never deal with PC World.
BrickerEnterprises.Com - Innovation at work
> There is no such thing as an "admin". In windows everyone has administrator rights.
I know, my other computer is your windows box.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
You know, AC, you're the actual troll here. You're hiding your identity, following someone around, making accusations against their name without evidence. You're boring. Let it go. Nobody cares if twitter and erris are the same person. You're contributing nothing but grief. Be a man and use an account, or stop wasting everyone's time.
Erris: stop responding to people like this. All they want is to be noticed. It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong: if they think you're paying attention to them, they're getting exactly what they want, and they'll just keep it up. Positive or negative response, doesn't matter - it's a response.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
It's the UK. This would be a small claims track thing. You can't claim legal costs under small claims. But it's fairly informal and would just be a metter of the guy explaining that the hinge broke and the company refused to fix it, and demonstrate that he gave the company a reasonable chance to resolve the situation. PCWorld would then be gven the opportunity to explain that the hinge breaking was clearly a direct result of a different OS being installed, and/or is normal wear and tear or a result of misuse by the customer.
The protection by the Consumer Credit Act is one of the reasons I explicitly try to buy things on credit (with a non-charge period, obviously). I don't need (nor want) the credit, but the extra protection is rather helpful if things fail in the first 30 days and -admittedly unfair to the reseller- you can even just change your mind and they'll have to roll it back. No "restocking charges", no "you can buy something of the same value" - none of that. Money. Back.
..
Having said that, the few times I had to use that protection were interesting. I had a Dixons "manager" tell me point blank that I had it all wrong and that they all had "training" - strangely that didn't last long when I suggested that his only other option was a phone call, with a choice between regional manager or Trading Standards. Maybe my asking for the name of his regional manager to pass on to aformentioned Trading Standards was too close to a "career" limiting move.
Not that I didn't have to cut him short when he tried making remarks like "I'll do this as an exception" (by that time I was getting pretty irritated by his attempt to make me hang on to a defective product) by telling him I didn't need special services, only him following the law and sell me kit that works. Kinda helps if the shop's got other customers
Insert
This is just sad, I hope you manage to get it fixed. "You broke your computer when you installed linux. That's why the construction of the computer failed"
Even if they 'made it right' later, being *this* incompetent up front is worrisome and ill be sure not to purchase from them, ever.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Don't forget that Erris and twitter are clearly trolls themselves. They absolutely adore the negative attention at least as much if not more than the positive attention and have admitted it numerous times.
A well-fed troll is a happy troll. I have to admit I almost feel guilty advocating the open-source software philosophy because of the divisive, alienating attitude in "their" posts. I know it's just a hideous caricature of how advocacy is typically done in the real world, but still...bleah.
I may make you feel, but I can't make you think.
Your definition of day seems to be about as consistent as the Bible's
I don't know them (they're the same person btw.) What I do know is that the anonymous coward to whom I replied is exactly what he's accusing of others.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
This is a win for common sense. Thank goodness.
No you don't.
In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
Trust, me, I know about the second kind too. Maybe you missed where I mentioned that abortion is, in fact, abused. That doesn't mean I'm willing to abandon the legitimate cases, as I also said.
And while these cases may be in the minority (which I see no reason to believe without some evidence or links), they are not so uncommon as to be ignorable.
Walk into the offending PC-WORLD store with PLAN-9 on a bunch of USB keys and proceed to install it on all their demo machines while pretending to look at them. Then exit the store.
They will never figure out what they are looking at. Maybe even pray for Linux.
until this whole debacle happened and was posted about....I had never heard of the PC world store-
...what a bit of bad press can accomplish?
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Do you mind?
--
JimFive
Please stop using the word theory when you mean hypothesis.