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Office Depot Allegedly Diagnosing Computers With Nonexistent Viruses To Meet Sales Goals (consumerist.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Consumerist: A new report claims that some Office Depot employees are falsely claiming computers are infected with viruses in order to meet sales goals. 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. To investigate the claims, the station took six computers to various Office Depot stores in Washington and Oregon for PC Health Checks. There technicians determined that four out of the six computers showed symptoms of malware. To fix the issues, the employees attempted to sell services costing up to $200. The only problem? The computers were out of the box new. A second test by a unaffiliated computer security firm found no symptoms of malware and no needs for repair. The employee tells KIRO that workers selling the services are just following corporate mandates. To make matters worse, he says, the company posts sales goals and current employee sales in the break room for all to see. This, he claims, creates more aggressive associates to push harder when selling the protection plans for nonexistent programs.
When I am forced to take my car for service, I take it to my mechanic friend. If he is busy, he will make time to come with me to the shop/dealer while dropping off and picking up. This keeps them a little bit honest, as he can call bullshit in a language I don't speak.
When my mechanic friend needs PC help he brings his computer to me, if I am to busy, I make time to go with him to the repair guys. I can call bullshit in a language he don't speak..
I live in a Seattle suburb. I actually saw this story on the local news a few days ago, we all got a big laugh out of it. My 11 year old boy laughed the loudest, he's been repairing neighborhood computers for the elderly for about a year. I'ts crazy that computer repair houses are still a thing. Your local teen can likely perform basic PC repair service in exchange for a couple of bucks, or a day off of chores. If not, he knows a guy that can.
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
With automation becoming common place we're soon going to enter a world where there simply won't be jobs for 'non-rocket scientists'. globalization or no. It's why we need to seriously consider UBI.
In a bit of shameless internet panhandling, I accept Litecoin Donations at Lbd2oH9QsthD1GfuUXPyka12YxvWJYnBVf
My step-father frequently thinks he has a virus... most of the time it's not. Last time it was yet another anti-virus that best buy up sold to him telling him that his subscription was about to expire and yes they installed it for him even though he already had a current subscription to symantec that they sold him when he bought the thing. His dsl subscription also came with a subscription to Mcafee and he had all three installed.
They are basically all the same, with some worse than others but still in the same range.
Seriously, would you go to Office Depot to get your computer "fixed" ?
I still buy from such stores if the price is good and I know the product I am buying.
-never buy extended warranty
-don't go there if you experience problems except catastrophic failure which luckily never occurred to me yet.
Basically, I consider myself more or less on my own.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.