A FireDog Technician writes in with the following confessions.
Who is the mysterious dog— and why, oh why, is he on fire?
10. The hiring process doesn’t actually have any qualifications required beyond you saying you know what you’re doing. Most techs that are hired know little more than the basics, and learn as they go. You can’t really have an experienced tech work on your machine, because once you leave, it may sit there for a few days, and who knows who will work on it then. I was required to take my Microsoft Certified Professional exam, but when I failed the first time, that was okay too. I never went back to take it again, and no one said a word.
9. “FD COURTESYCHECK” isn’t a real SKU, it means the customer was good looking, and the tech should check to see if they have any “personal” pictures worth keeping. One customer was a professional nude model, over 2,000 images got backed up on to the tech work machine.
8.Nothing they will offer you for installation is worth it. The standard package includes Norton Internet Security, Webroot Spysweeper, and Microsoft Office Home and Student as well as the creation of recovery DVDs and an “optimization”. Norton isn’t as good as AVG Anti-Virus, available for free. Webroot isn’t as good as Spybot Search and Destroy, which is also available for free. The recovery DVDs are made in a few clicks, and could be done by a three year old. Optimization consists of uninstalling some junk programs, and deleting icons off of your desktop. All of this takes about 45 minutes to an hour, and could be done just as easily by you, at home.
7.Protection plans don’t always cover anything special. Batteries, for example, are covered by most manufacturers warranties, but are often used as part of the sales pitch when buying a laptop. “If your battery goes out, we cover that too – all you need to do is bring it in and we will replace it free of charge.” Often times, this process can take a month and is generally faster to just order it through the manufacturer.
6.Your computer may well sit around for days without anyone looking at it. If we were low on computers to work on, we would often drag repairs out for days past when they should be done, just so we looked busy. If we weren’t working on a machine, we would have to go help out on the sales floor. I’ve seen machines sit for as long as three weeks because of a lack of customers
5.Don’t always expect a new part if you try to rush them on a repair. Sometimes, when we had a customer that kept bugging us because a part on his computer was taking forever to come in, we would just swap the part out with one off of a display computer to “expedite things”. When the new part would come in, we would just return it as used.
4.Don’t expect a call back. The techs don’t care about your repair, and it’s rare that they will call you for much of anything but to pick it up when it’s done. If you want status updates or anything else, even if they tell you they will call, they more than likely won’t. Call the store and ask for the tech on duty, you don’t need to talk to the one that you turned it in to – they won’t necessarily work on it anyway. Also, it’s company policy to have a tech on duty, so if someone tells you that they aren’t there, chances are they’re lying.
3.99% of all software repairs can be completed in a day. There is next to no reason that your repair will take a week, and if you ask for it to get it rushed, they will charge you an extra $20 or more, and put it in line with everything else. Unless you demand same day service, you won’t see any special treatment. Even then, it’s unlikely to be done the same day.
2.The salesmen know absolutely jack about the computers they sell. Most of them are just high school or college kids that may or may not have any interest in computers at all. A few of they may not even own a machine. The sales training that Circuit City requires everyone to take is 100% about how to pitch things, and 0% how things work or what they do. Do all your homework before you make your purchase, and don’t listen to anything they have to say. Many of them will say anything they have to to get you to buy whatever it is they want you to buy. One of the worst I ever heard is that if one woman didn’t buy the protection plan the salesman was offering, she wouldn’t be able to get any updates for her software. Another man didn’t want to buy our anti- virus software, and the salesman told him that he would contract a virus as soon as he plugged it in to the internet if he didn’t install one first.
1.Circuit City takes no responsibility for your data. If somehow a tech magically wipes your entire harddrive, the waiver that you sign when you check it in clears them of any wrongdoing. They could quite literally just reformat for the fun of it, give it back to you, and there is nothing you could do about it. Always back up your data before taking it in.
(Photo:wingless girl)
More From Consumerist
-
The Last Vestiges Of Circuit City To Disappear On Dec. 31
-
The First Mobile Phone Call Was Made 40 Years Ago Today
-
How To Get Good Service At A Chronically Understaffed Walmart
-
Toyota Announces Recall Of 750K Corollas & 270K Lexus IS Vehicles
-
Court To TSA: It's About Time You Held Those Hearings On Nude Body Scanners, Don't Ya Think?
Firedog makes around 12.50 an hour.
We mostly find people who work on the sales floor.
So does Best Buy.
Almost all Retail Tech Employees work Best Buy > Circuit City > Fry’s
What I call work the Retail Circuit.
Best Buy Pays Way more than Circuit City.
@uricmu: You Can Make Way more. With Best-buy
(i worked there before)
and Circuit City 2 ).. I know of Some Geeks Making pretty ok, money..
.. but in best-buy u kind of have to prove a bit more.. in Circuit City.. honestly.. U can just lie your hole way trough the interview : )
I worked at circuit city for a while… I have a thing for cameras so the manager kept me up in the cameras section most of the time.. at least there I could tell the people the accidental protection plan was worth something on a camera with a straight face. The whole time I was there the “techs” kept dragging me back behind the bench asking me how to fix something or other… by the time I left they were actaully using safemode for virus removal, using the admin tools in xp to clean out startup instead of MS config and knew the difference between not working and not having drivers installed..
I would suggest finding credible sources. This is clearly an employee who was terminated or left to a competitor as most of these things do not occur at a typical Firedog tech bench and if they were the employee would lose their job as this one clearly has.
Read each of these reviews carefully, specifically noting things like “honestly U can just like your hole way trough the interview.” and you judge the credibility of someone who does not know the difference between whole and hole.
Every customer service industry has problems with contacting the customer as regularly as preferred, it is something that is being addressed and I’m sure every customer service field aims to improve.
Yeah, I feel about FireDog the same way I feel about Circuit City’s auto shop. they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing, at least not the jackass who did my install. His shit breaks and all he can do is tell me he didn’t make the mistake, it’s probably a problem with your speakers. Didn’t even check. We did, it was his fucking mistake. Dipshit doesn’t know how to solder. The line output converter he put in was bad too. The install was extremely messy as well. He kept trying to shovel shit on my friend’s subwoofer instal which has not broken once. And he made he box too, all for free. Circuit City’s business is in the shit if something doesn’t happen soon.
I was a firedog tech. I was there when they started performing those services, and quit because of them. Sadly enough, this is pretty much all true. Never heard of the courtesy check before, but it definately sounds like something that would go on.
Well, I can tell you what this guy says is not what is supposed to happen. It sounds like he works at a terrible store with a terrible management staff. The store I work at is great and not one of the things he talks about happens (although the Norton/Webroot/Optimization comment is pretty true). Also, the things he talks about could and does happen at any computer repair facility, whether it be a local mom and pop store, Geek Squad, or even a Firedog Tech bench. It just depends on the quality of individuals in that particular store, not the companies as a whole.
i don’t know what kind of circuit city you’ve been working at, but the one work at isn’t like that, I’m a computer salesman for them but are cool with the technicians,when they say they will call you, they will call you, if we do diagnostics they will even give you a call to tell you whats wrong and if you want to do repairs, about hard drives, we ask if you want to have the data backed up, especially if your having your OS reinstalled, the circuit city i work at also has very knowledgeable people in the departments they are in, my department has very smart people, we of course try to offer people the best computer for their needs, of course thats why we have our buyers guide, but ya some people want something cheap and thats all they’ll take, even if quality suffers, but i believe the services are well worth it if you are clueless about computers, i mean not everyone knows how to reinstall an operating system, or know how to install software, some people just know how to get on the computer and check their email, thats it, so i mean firedog is pretty helpful for some people, and for the tech savy you see it as a rip off because you have to pay for it in general.
I was a technician for Staples a little over a year ago. All this is true for them as well.
Once again a tribute to why Circuit City is dying a slow and miserable death…
@wimpkins: What’s a Firedog? I’m assuming this is to elicit the image of a dog jumping through a flaming ring, like in a circus. As in: we’ll just through hoops for you to fix your problems.
I’m a FIREDOG in-home tech. i went to RIT for information technology , so i think this article is partially bias. The prices have gone up, and they do sell you norton and spysweeper. But honestly..are they riping you off? they offer you a service in which it is up to you to buy or not. I spend my day teching people how to use remotes and plug simple shit in. People here reading this are usually somewhat “computer savy” but a larger portion of people are clueless. For my store (one of the top in company) it does take a few days to get a computer done..the techs work as fast as they can with what there given. Im sick of people always hacking away at techs “ripping you off” there just trying to do there job. sure circuit city and other big box stores could lower prices..and then what? increase work load..fire off ppl they cant afford to pay..and now im jobless.
Also alot of this varies store-to-store. I’ve worked at CCity for 4 years now and never head of FD COURTESYCHECK nor have i ever looked at personal photos unless necessary for backup.
I do believe the knowledge of the workers is decreasing..CCity does have one of the best E-learning processes with about 20-30 hrs of training.. but honestly what do u expect these guys to know at 7-9/ hr?
so i reiterate what a few people have said..it’s indivdual stores/people not a company as a whole. If you scream “LOWER PRICES” the quality of service, amount of knowledge etc goes down.
@exodus1999:
With the pay rate they pay these guys and geek squad, CC and BB could care less about anything but the bottom line. You aren’t going to get anyone that is knowledgeable if you pay people less than 13 or 14 an hour starting out. The public at large thinks that these people know what they are doing, and it will be done fast; epically for how much they are paying.
Come on, $50 to show someone how to use an iPod? $80 to install Tivo on your network. $160 for on-line Mac training for an hour. This is just wrong.
@llamastar: Can you change the connecting rod in the engine of your car?
Hi, I started working for Firedog call center in Billerica, MA. To be honest, I have never been in a Circuit City store, nor have I been asked to do so. I worked at the call center for several months, and I will tell you, I received not much more than complaints. My job was to schedule installations, and to assist with scheduling online services. The majority of my calls were simply recall for previous installations gone wrong. 9 out of 10 calls were screaming and dissatified installations. I did my best to rectify the problems, and reschedule appointments to fix previous messes. So, long story short, I was discharged, now unemployed, and fighting with them to collect unemployment which I totally deserve. Alas, they have me listed as terminated. So, my collecting of unemployment has since been denied. Anyone else had this experience?????
I’m an (ex) firedog… some of this is true while i feel like I should defend myself on others.
10 is true, but it doesn’t mean that every FD tech is inexperienced… I personally do not have all the certs on paper, but I feel I can troubleshoot most issues, and the rest I had my lead tech to back me up on, who has been in IT for over 15 years. As for the installations, I feel the software can be worth it (Norton 09 is excellent, and you can choose what software to have installed) and some people have NO clue how to install stuff. Its hard to believe it, but there are still people who cannot work around a computer at all, and are willing to pay people to do it…
As for call backs and neglecting computers, it really just depends on if you’re lucky enough to get a good team of techs! My store had a two man team and I was mostly the one doing repairs, but there was never a point where I purposefully neglected a customers PC…
Anyhoo, not that it matters anymore.
Alright, as an ex-firedog, I have a few things to say about this. Call me a troll, but here’s my two cents:
10. This is true.
9. I’ve never heard of this “SKU”, nor have I or any of the other techs I’ve worked with ever copied info off a customer’s system. This is illegal for one thing.
8. Obviously this man was not following SOP for this setup package, nor does he know anything about malware. As an independent malware researcher I would much sooner (and do) trust my machine to Kaspersky or Webroot or Sunbelt VIPRE than to AVG and Spybot S&D. Also, the optimization he is referring to also involves many startup alterations and registry changes that the average person simply cannot do.
7. Um, accidental damage?
6. This is true.
5. This is not true. If we had any “off the shelf” parts we would have had a lot fewer customers upset becuase their new part was taking a long time. The fact is that once an order for a part was made, it would take weeks for us to receive the part through no fault of our own.
4. This is true, although SOP dictated that we were supposed to contact the customer every 48 hours minimum.
3. Not true. Some extended diagnostics would take up to 48 hours to complete, if not longer, especially extended hard drive health checks if they have large or multiple drives.
2. Depends on the salesmen. I have heard some crazy sales pitches in my experience, but for the most part the people I have worked with were very knowledgeable and were always building their knowledge.
1. This is true. But think about it. You aren’t required by law to sign the waiver. All this does is make sure that if some tragic accident occurred that resulted in a loss of data, Circuit City would have been covered. Besides, you shouldn’t just back up because your PC is going in for repairs: you should back up anyway!
I no longer work for Circuit City, as of almost a year ago. I now work for a major competitor, and I can tell you that the poor customer service antics that existed there are not an industry standard. I love my place of work now and am so glad I am no longer a part of Circuit City.
As a Former Circuit City Computer Salesman (My store closed yesterday), I can say, without a doubt, that most of the above is 100% true, and that the part about salespeople not knowng diddly squat is also true.
I’m proof. I didn’t know anything about the products, only how to pitch them.
As an ex-Geek Squad City employee I find this humorous to read as really, the exact same thing goes on there. I can’t speak for the precincts although it seems like 60% or better don’t really know what they are doing either [judging by the "problem comments" they sent them in with like calling a hard drive issue a failing motherboard or simple software issues they couldn't figure out]. Looks like the average joe is pretty much in trouble either way it goes.
These “confessions” are definitely from a store that had NO ethics at all. In our store, there were no FDCOURTESYCHECKS, we were careful with our customers’ data and their machines, we made every effort to do the work quickly and efficiently, and we did stay in touch with the customers after I took over the bench. After my predecessor was fired, I brought our average open orders down to 40 from 100,and after I was promoted to in-home tech, my successor brought that down to around 25, and we made sure we stayed in touch with our customers about their machines. We never dragged jobs out just so we could look busy, and that enabled us to provide quicker and more efficient service. It’s true you could be hired by saying you know what you’re doing, but in order to be able to work on the bench, you still had to pass a “firedog certification”, which wasn’t that difficult, but did make you demonstrate the basic proficiencies needed to do this work. I’m now running a Tech Bench for another retail chain, and if you bring your computer to me, I do my utmost to get it back to you in a reasonable amount of time, and in good order. In my opinion, the guy who wrote these “confessions” is an idiot, to put it lightly, and really makes honest techs look bad.
I know this is a bit old, but I figured I’d respond anyway. Throughout my CCity Career, I was a Firedog Tech, In-Home tech, Tech Supervisor, Dept manager, Sales manager.
10. This is the fault of your hiring managers. In Our store, Nobody was ever hired straight to the Firedog bench w/o prior experience, or working on the sales floor for an amount of time. As far as the test goes, your manager was Lazy. he is the one that confirms that you pass the test. Shame shame.
9. So your bench was prone to breaking the law it seems. Thought this was just a Geek Squad thing.
8. Nothing there is worth it? Those free programs are free for a reason. They are good, but not great. Most Pay for AV is better than AVG and S&D. Maybe a 3 year old CAN do it, but ask some random middle age person if they know how to create a restore disk. Chances are they don’t even know what that is or why they need it. And apparently, you guys weren’t doing your job on the optimization.
7. Factory warranties cover Defects, that is all. the Plans covered much more. Yes, they will replace a defective battery. The protection plans sold by CCity covered a free battery every year regardless of status of said battery.
6. WoW, you guys sucked. If anything took longer than a few days, we really were backed up, or were waiting on parts. Usually had from 5-25 (Up to 8 Laptops) computers being worked on at one time at the bench. (Yea, we customized our setup a bit)
5. We would never use a display, After discussing with the customer, we may pull a new part off the shelf or out of a new Computer, but never one that has been used.
4. Again, you sucked as a tech. I would have fired you on the spot. We did all of our status calls every morning before starting on the work, and every evening.
3. 99% ? maybe if you have nothing else going on and no computers ahead of it. Some repairs can take longer.
2. Again, this shows the fault of your management and yourselves for not properly training.
1. This bit of fine print is on anyone you have work on your computer. even manufacturers. Your HDD goes out? The Manufacturer may replace it IF it is under warranty, but they will not reinstall any software.