On Mon, 2005-11-28 at 08:03 +0000, Adam Bower wrote:
They then told him that the fee didn't include getting updates and drivers etc. and that he would have to put all his data back on the machine! They hadn't even taken an image of the drive before they started! (these are the kind of "shamen" that Ten is reffering too I think)
Actually I have an entirely different word for those sort of people, but there are a few ladies on this list so I shall refrain from using it. :-)
It's true what Ted said in a latter post though, that the industry is destined to get the same reputation as cowboy plumbers and dodgy mechanics. Hence why I twitched in my last post (probably a bit too much)
The situation isn't too bad at the moment, of all the places a user could go to in my home town to get advice or service I can only think of one (plus PC World, but I am not even counting them for the moment) that I wouldn't gladly recommend.
The main problem is that because the underlying workings of a computer are a complete mystery to 80% of IT users (a made up statistic but I bet it's not far out) most of them haven't got any way to judge whether they are being taken for a ride or not. This of course is a big incentive to the less than honest players out there to make an easy buck.
The problem with the big boys (like PC World) is that it is too expensive for them to employ truly knowledgeable people on the sales floor. I am not sure what happens in the repair centre but I guess it is all procedure based work done from a script (again to allow them to employ at a lower skill level). I also think that the larger retailers suffer a bit because they are trying to sell PC's like they are an appliance and to be honest they are nowhere near user friendly enough for that.
Perhaps what we need is a guild or something....