Originally posted by: RebateMonger
An "investigative report" on computer repair shops, including BestBuy and CompUSA, and what happened when they were handed a PC with the hard drive IDE cable disconnected.
This video, or something similar has made the rounds before.
IMO they could investigate any repair/service industry and find the same range of results. They actually made the "fraud" problem seem worse than it is, starting with the big stores that misdiagnosed and ending with that small shop that tried to pull one over. The shop that fixed it for free they barely mentioned - guess if it isn't bad news, it isn't worthy. The other places that properly diagnosed it but charged for it, they made it sound really terrible that they were charged. So what? If a company policy said $X was the minimum charge, that amount will get charged. Doesn't matter if the minimum is $20, $60 or $150 and doesn't matter if the repair was really easy or not. It almost sounded like "theyfixedit, BUT CHARGED US!!!111!!" Also the place that fixed it but said it was a jumper issue may have been just been a miscommunication issue. For instance if tech A fixed it and wrote down "HDD needed setup" to indicate cable needed plugging in, then customer comes in and tech B who didn't work on it looked at the service records, he could have tried being helpful by giving more info, thinking "HDD setup, oh probably jumpers."
Anyways, I would consider their results to be 50%. That's about par with my experience with computer repair places, auto repair places, motorcycle repair places and appliance repair places. Seems like there are people who know what they are doing and people who don't (but are in the business because that's what they want to do or they just needed a job). There are also places that charge very little and places that charge very much. The places and people may or may not overlap.
One thing I want to note is that I met a guy who shows up to some of the same LAN parties that I go to. He used to work at GeekSquad. He told us that Best Buy management would have meetings with employees and tell them to not let any customer leave without trying to separate more money from them with whatever means necessary. Guess they have to pad the corporate coffers.
Want to find a good computer repair shop? Don't just pick a random place. You have to research it just like you would research any other time you have to potentially pay a few hundred dollars. You don't buy car insurance without comparison shopping, do you? What about buying a computer part like a video card? Heck, people even comparison shop to save a few pennies on gasoline. Why not comparison shop for computer repair? It's not too difficult. Ask people you know in RL. Ask people at businesses that sell (but does not repair) computer related stuff. Ask on message boards that have other members who live near you. Ask, ask, ask. If one repair shop name comes up multiple times then that would probably be a good place to start.
Indeed that's how I sold the computer shop I used to own. The buyers went around the whole county asking people who they'd recommend for computer repairs... at Staples, Radio Shack, realtors, insurance agents... seemingly anywhere and everywhere they happened to be they would just go, "oh by the way, where should I go to get my computer repaired?" Apparently our name came up pretty much all the time so we were approached.
Facebook
Twitter