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Best Buy $39.95 "Optimization" At Best a Waste of Money
DCFC writes "The Consumerist deconstructs the appalling 'optimization service' that Best Buy has been pushing on consumers in recent weeks. The retailer charges 40 bucks to give you a slower PC, and make bizarre claims that it makes it go 200% faster. 'We ran the 3DMark 2003 graphics benchmark on each laptop, comparing optimized and non-optimized settings. For two of our samples, the Gateway and Toshiba, performance changes were negligible. On the Asus laptop, however, optimized tests actually scored about 32% worse than the non-optimized setup. We have been unable to isolate the source of this performance change. On none of the three tested laptops did the optimized settings give a performance boost in our test.'"
When she asked if she could install anti-virus software herself instead of paying Geek Squad to do it, she was told installing software yourself, "negates the vendor's warranty."
Heh. I *love* that part!
Now, whenever someone tells me that Linux can't work on the desktop because "off-the-shelf" Windows software doesn't work on it, I can tell them that you can't do it on Windows without voiding the warranty!
Some lawyer will file a class action suit against Best Buy for this practice.
Best Buy will ignore it until the moment it looks like they will really go to court, then Best Buy will settle.
The settlement will be for $48 million. The lawyers will get $45 million, and the other $3 million will be in the form of "certificates" awarded to the plaintiffs good for 1 free "optimization" on a computer purchase at Best Buy within the next 12 months.
That's how it works.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
...especially if they don't want to be tech support for the rest of the friendship ;)
Which certainly won't last long with friendly advice like that!
+1 Disagree
I like it! Did you know you can also do that with dresses? Wear it to a party! As long as you don't get food or jizz on it just return it and say you accidentally bought the wrong size or that it doesn't match your panties or whatever.
Yeah, I use the, "it don't match my panties," excuse every time I return a dress for my wife. The clerks never ask further questions.
"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most." ~Ozzy Osborne
How am I supposed to touch stuff before I buy it from Amazon?
My favorite is setting the home page of all the computers to MonoPrice cables.