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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.
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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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!
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.
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.