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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.
... yeah. Not surprised at all. The encouragement to flat-out lie to meet unrealistic sales goals (for the extended warranties and services) is about 90% of the reason I quit back when they started offering these services.
Yes they have malware.
That's part of the package that comes on every new computer.
And that is not counting Win 10 - the king of malware.
= completely blameless theft for mega corps. Gotta love it. Don't forget kiddos, coffee is for closers.
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"The only problem? The computers were out of the box new."
That's not a guarantee they were malware free. There are many reports of Malware being installed on new systems - even on Slashdot!
"A second test by a unaffiliated computer security firm found no symptoms of malware and no needs for repair."
But that's proper proof!
They would not have to resort to this type of behavior if government would just lift the shackle of burdensome regulations. I foresee a whole new era of prosperity ahead!
I'm pretty sure cheating-to-reach-sales-goals is quite common and inflicts lots of industries. The techniques, psychology, and practices used by Wells Fargo and Office Depot are common to corporations.
Ghost services and their fees have "accidentally" been added to our telecom bills on multiple occasions, for example.
I've even worked for companies that have paid me to lie to clients (not consumers). The body language of managers pushing to do such suggested it was common and expected. It was either really good acting to convince me it's normal and risk-free, or it is indeed common and expected to them. Either of those scenarios is evil.
It's one reason why talk of deregulation makes me nervous. It's not just trickle-down, but slime-down.
Table-ized A.I.
workers forced into this type of a situation by management would say "F___ you" and walk out. Maybe get a job in manufacturing.
Except we don't have a sane job market, manufacturing jobs have been decimated in the name of profit (management calls it "globalism" and "free trade"). Other manual jobs are equally hard to come by, due to the large scale importation of low-cost laborers (management calls it "open borders" and "dreamers").
Let's be honest here, sales associates at Office Depot or Wells Fargo aren't exactly MIT material. They can't retrain and become doctors or aerospace engineers. Manufacturing used to be one place where non-rocket scientists could go and make a decent living, and now that''s gone.
If these tools (the dumb techs, not the software) are anything like geek squad, then they define "malware" to include tracking cookies and other mundane data.
Wow- again?
The problem is that people think these places have qualified techs. They don't (in my opinion). And they are not forced to have qualified techs because the customer has no idea how their appliances work. So they can get away with it, mostly, and not get caught unless someone actually looks.
The other (big) problem is that these companies engage in price competition so viciously that they cannot make money on what they sell- they have to make money on selling services that are essentially useless.
I saw this going on in the early 90s when CompUSA was petrified that Best Buy would be coming into their markets. First it was price match. Then it was sales goals (for non commissioned employees). Then it was selling extended service. Then is was in-house CompUSA credit.... Then PDAs... and right before they closed- phones....
Of course it didn't work. If you give up the profit on the main thing you sell, you cannot make it up with add-ons. So the company failed.
Best Buy took it to a new art form. Extended warranty, art of the up-sell, credit card sales in the isles, and finally the "Geek Squad". Best Buy is still limping along... not for long. I wonder if they are still doing jumping jacks before the store opening?
And Office Depot.... taking advantage of customers with fictitious computer problems and viruses. I bet they only arrived there after the extended warranty, in house credit-card, in-house tech services failed to make them a profit.
These kinds of happenings are rife in the brick and mortar retail tech industry. There are exceptions... but if all they do is compete on price- eventually add-ons fail to save the company.
Then the company puts pressure on it's staff.... then corruption starts.....it's predictable.
Another consultant who stuck it out.
"We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
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.
You've got questions? We've got cellphones.
Honestly ANYONE foolish enough to take their computer to an office supply is pretty touched. Do you take your car to get fixed at the Sandwich shop?
Daves auto repair and hair salon! Get your oil changes and a new hairdoo!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
This is retail in general, the upper management wants sales on high margin crap, so they spin it like the employees are doing a disservice to their customers when they don't push it. For a responsible consumer extended warranties are the worst offender. Most of the time it's just free money for the seller because the product lasts longer than the warranty anyways, but if it does happen to break down while covered they make you jump through hoops to actually take advantage of the damn thing.
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Of course they're doing this. I'd be more surprised if it turned out that they weren't.
And of course Best Buy's Geek Squad is famous (or should it be "infamous"?) for doing this too.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I get all the tech support I need from helpful services that call me whenever my computer has a virus. Somehow they know! Sure, it's expensive, but all I have to do is answer the phone and follow simple directions. A bunch of smart people with foreign accents take care of everything!
I love Micro Center, and have received excellent help from its sales people.
Having said that, it is possible to find an occasional idiot sales person in any store.
BUT - at Micro Center, you can always peel off the sticker when the jerk walks away.
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.
FutureShop was like that in Canada. BestBuy bought them out, same shit different logo.
The only problem? The computers were out of the box new.
Okay, so maybe neither the tech nor the "PC Health Check" software knew the difference between a virus and the crapware that's on the system "out of the box" (and no, I don't mean the bare-bones Windows 10, I mean all the slow-your-system-down add-ons the manufacturers put on there). Why am I not surprised.
More likely, the software was dumb and the tech was pretending to be dumb to meet quota.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The computers were out of the box new.
Just because a computer is out-of-the-box new, doesn't mean it can't contain malware -- and in fact a lot of people here will tell you that many new computers come with malware embedded at the OS level. Before it was limited to certain countries or companies, like a recent case where the manufacturer installed malware to intercept ads and replace them with their own, and to forge security certificates so they could do it with secure websites. Now the OS itself shows symptoms of malware, which will make it much harder to identify non-OS malware.
Of course, and anti-virus won't remove that, and providing fake services to people who don't know any better is a nasty thing to do. And with the blessing of the managers and CEO too, although they'd never admit it (they're just pushing hard and rewarding success).
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Yep. I worked briefly at FutureShop. I got flack for telling people it's fine, offer free suggestions. Even a few customers had legitimate issues but couldn't afford the outlandish prices to repair. I'd refer them to an online ad that fixes comps (my own) then fix it for them at what they could afford.
stayed for the former employee stories.
Yet another example of misaligned incentives - short term profits over long term brand value
It's been more than a decade since I've frequented that store, so maybe it's changed for the worse. It was always nice to visit back when I lived near there. Never saw anything like that. I do miss that place, though. I'm probably 300 miles from a decent electronics store now.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Office Depot, Best Buy, Staples, etc. are all guilty of this. I walk in with a system just to test them. 95% of the time, they get caught in an outright lie.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I worked at a place where a clerk in accounting manipulated the bills to trick customers to send refunds to her own bank. The clerk got away with about $10k (in current dollars) before caught. She lost about the same in pension when fired, but was NOT turned over to law enforcement.
She seemed like a nice person, but grew quiet during the period she was cheating.
A similar crime happened about 2 years later by somebody else in the same accounting department. That's what happens when they are not jailed: you send a message that the risk is small.
It would hurt company stock and reputation to prosecute, so they don't do anything about it. The company deserved the 2nd one.
Table-ized A.I.
I did not read all the posts regarding Office Depot but some would say the Windows operating system itself is Malware.
Just because a computer is new out of the box from the retailer doesn't mean it wasn't shipped with malware. I'm looking at you, Microsoft and Lenovo!
"Looks like you got the 'We11sFar60' virus. It'll be $200 to remove it."
Table-ized A.I.
I was under the impression everyone knew office depot ( and just about every other computer shop out there ) pulled this. The temptation to upsell is just too good when you have truly ignorant clients. This was previously ( and currently ) seen in the automotive repair industry.
I'd say that's just the tip of the iceberg too. Let's face it, normal customers are dirt poor, so you gotta scam a bunch of them to turn a penny. No, the real money is in the b2b sales; where you can fleece an entire company for a king's ransom. Having sat in on more than my fair share of vendor meetings, I know damn well this happens.
Some of the biggest names in tech are only as large as they are because of it, really. Oracle. Cisco. Microsoft. They took advantage of the ignorance of people, only in their cases those people were C level execs.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
machine likely ran worse than if there really was a virus, what with three separate on-access scanners running, and three packet sniffers slowing down internet traffic...
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
RadioShack was: "You've got questions, we've got blank stares".
*sigh* They used to be a good company, even if a bit expensive, for components and such. I remember having their "free battery of the month club" cards and going to different stores with different cards to get enough batteries for my projects.
Then they abandoned the hobbiest market. Went out of business shortly thereafter.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
this is what happens when you put people in charge of gov't that don't believe gov't can do anything. Christ, it's like people don't even know what NASA and the Post Office are or the miracles they represent.
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Consumers should be able to backup their data and software settings and perform a complete operating system reinstall with relative, low-levels of knowledge and skills necessary. They should also be reminded to do so every 6 months. It's the safest and cheapest way to keep your PC clean. Until this becomes a reality, consumers will continue to be scammed by PC health checks and PC software repair specialists.
Orifice De Pot doesn't read the news I see. Otherwise they'd know what happened to Wells Fargo when they pulled the same crap. On the other hand, why on earth would anyone trust Office Depot with a computer? They didn't fill my paper order correctly so I stopped using them. Hey, if you can't get paper right, why on earth would you expect me to believe you can get a computer right?
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
The hobbyist market most places is too dispersed for the catchment area of a physical store.
...the majority of "viruses" aren't.
They're just crap-ware accidentally installed by the user.
The biggest offender is Anti-Virus applications that interrupt system functions and slow the machine to a halt.
I haven't used anti-virus since Windows NT 3.51, and have yet to get a virus. Of course, I don't run as Administrator either.
Wells Fargo and Office depot decide to merge
They cite 'cultural compatibility' as a reason.
Back before it went out of business, I called it CompOoza. It wasn't only that CompUSA management intended to be abusive, in my opinion, CompUSA was amazingly badly managed in other ways.
Years ago my Sister in Law wanted me to look at her laptop that was running slow. She had taken it in to a Mom and Pop computer store after the hard drive died. I noticed that they had 2 AV programs loaded, the laptop ran great after I removed one of the AV programs.
I used to work for a big name dsl, I was constantly seeing two or more anti-virus suites installed. They would let one subscription expire and install a new anti-virus without removing the old one instead of just renewing it.
Customers could advise and ask for criminal action against store employee and all store directors in UK if this was to push sales targets. However it would need a witness and the technical proof as recorded. Better to have new computer tested first , approach shop for help get their result and then test again. Thus incompetence or deliberate fraud.
Regards Eion MacDonald
Office Depot now no different from Mark Johnson at Windows Technical Department.