11 More Confessions Of A Circuit City Firedog Tech
Yet another valiant former Firedog writes in to share insider info that will help you successfully navigate the rough waters of big box computer repair. The most important takeaway—Don't let them "preinstall" anything on your new computer. According to our tipster, it's both expensive and pointless. Lots of good stuff inside.
1. Every Saturday night we would be forced to "preinstall" half of our laptop inventory for Sunday, which would be the beginning of our new sales week. We would have to preinstall maybe 20-30 laptops in one night. When customer come in on Sunday looking for a laptop, the sales associate is trained to only offer "preinstall" laptops even though we have new ones still in the box. This is what consists of preinstall: Open up the laptop box, power up the laptop, and go through the Windows installation screens, once the desktop loads, install all the critical windows updates, and your done. Firedog charges $100 for this service on top of the cost of the laptop. They say that the laptop has been "optimized and ready to go". And i'd say half the customers fall for this tactic.
2. We would have to help the sales associates put out new price tags for laptops and desktops every Saturday night, the price that is listed online and in the flier gets hidden behind "B Tags". "B Tags" are the same as the original price tags, but the price is jacked way up. The laptop is offered with an Full In Home Installation option. For example if a laptop costs $800, the $800 would get you the laptop and your out the door, no firedog installations, no warranty, no nothing. The "B Tag" would list the same laptop for $1149 with the "everything installed firedog package", and it would be covering the original price tag. Consumers who did not research the laptop or did not look in flier are tricked into paying more. If consumer did not want any Firedog installation, the sales associate would tell them that Circuit City was all out of stock.
3. Firedog techs are deprived of the correct tools to get the job done, we do not get supplied with soldering irons, screwdrivers, glue guns, we get nothing, we would have to bring all the tools from home, as far as software tools, you may be fired because it is against policy to use any kind of software that is not provided by Circuit City directly. All they supplied us with was a trail version of Spyware Doctor and CCleaner. If you were caught by a District Manager using different tools you were fired. I personally used my own arsenal of tools, but the other guys that I worked with used the ones supplied by the Circuit City, all I can say is we had alot of customers come back for re-work because their computer still did not work. We are not provided with any data recovery tools incase your harddrive is malfunctioning, our store had to use a BestBuy Diagnostic CD that we found in a customers computer. How sad it that?
5. Once the customer signs the Firedog work order, they sign their computer away, on the back of the work order are the legal terms, basically telling the consumer that if Firedog lose or damage your laptop or desktop, Firedog is not responsible, if any data gets lost, Firedog is also not responsible.
6. If a computer is left at Circuit City for more than 60 days, it is considered abandoned and by the legal terms, it becomes Circuit City property, the firedog technicians do not keep their promises when they tell consumers that the computer will be ready by such and such a time. 8. Average turn around time for a computer is 1-2 weeks, 2 weeks especially if the Firedog technician does not know how to fix the problem, maybe even more. Firedog had computers from 6 months ago.
7. Circuit City will hire anyone to be a Firedog Technician, the Hiring Managers dont know anything about building/repairing computer hardware or software, if a person of the street came in and made stuff up and sounded like they knew what they were doing, they would be hired by the clueless hiring manager.
8. 95% of the work done by Firedog Technicians is Windows Operating System reinstalls, HP supplies us quarterly with recovery disks for every laptop/desktop system that we sell. If a consumer comes in with a simple problem, the computer is reformatted. Firedog offers data backup for $100, plus another $100 for the reformat. What is so hard about putting factory supplied restore disks in a computer? If a consumer does not have a recovery disk available, Firedog will install a retail copy of Windows thus resulting in the loss of all OEM software.
9. Firedog works strictly on Windows platforms, no Mac or Linux
10. Warranty work is done though a third party. If consumers buy a Circuit City warranty, their best bet is to take care of it themselves by calling the Circuit City repair service. If a customer brings in a laptop for hardware warranty repair, Firedog is not authorized to fix it, it must be fixed by the third party, even if a key fell off a keyboard, if the customer wants us to send it out for them, we have to put a claim with the service provider, the warranty company would have to review it, send us a prepaid box, we recieve the box, ship it back to the warranty service and then we get it back supposedly fixed, Firedog had a couple that came back still broken, customers are looking at a minimum wait time of atleast 4 weeks for laptop warranty repair.
11. Firedog services are not refundable, if a consumer brought their computer in for a diagnostic, and the Firedog technician told the consumer what they already know, they will not get a refund.
For more Firedog confessions, click here. Wanna play Firedog tech for free? You can download CCleaner here. It's a nice little program, and the new version is thumb drive portable so you can take it over to grandma's house and delete her cookies while you're eating her cookies.
(Photo:wingless girl)
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Hit return! or some
s, yo!
(that is html breaks)
12. I skipped English class (to play Doom, no less) the day the teacher talked about paragraph structure and writing mechanics.
Who knew James Joyce was a Firedog tech?
That's still pretty sad that there are no tools or software provided to fix a computer. What a scam.
I often think I could open up a little repair shop on the side, sort of an only-in-my-neighborhood, after-work thing, but then I hear horror stories of mom & pop techs everywhere and it seems like the whole biz is just not worth it.
You really should not be using a soldering iron or hot glue gun on computers, these days most manufacturers recommend replacement of the broken part. It takes alot of skill to reliably solder stuff, I know, I do it for a living.
Grammar would be nice too.
cliffs: you're better off searching for help on google
stupid people who bring their stuff into CC deserve what they get, though.
I think there is already too much punctuation up there. That block of text is LITTERED with periods and spaces and commas. What more do you animals want!! LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE
Now how do I convince my older parents that just because a service has a cool, flashy name (firedog or geek squad) that it's not a total scam?
Damn CC doesn't even provide spell-checker, paragraph-inserter, or bullet-number-counter to its employees!
I'm not one who normally complains about length or clarity on this site, but this one is just out of hand.
Wow, major wall of text. I can't read that.
They sound like dogs all right.
Wow, they suck.
I have to personally thank Firedog for making my job as a tech support guy THAT much harder. You guys really know how to screw stuff up.
i can't read this until its been formatted. is the editor slipping on his editing duties?
I'm no longer surprised by information like this. It does make me glad to know that I supply my college student workers with better tools that Firedog.
Can we also not attack the e-mail's format it is a "wall of text"? It could very well be that the e-mail clients of the sender/recipient didn't play well together and thus caused the wall of text.
I love it. They were using a Best Buy diagnostic CD. So who is worse. Geek Squad or Fire Dog using Geek Squad software.
lol
Darwin strikes again!!! Evolution is true. Humans evolved from Firedog Techs. Hooray for Trained Monkeys!!!!
There is no #4 in the list, but if there were I would add it based on this gem of a quote: "our store had to use a BestBuy Diagnostic CD that we found in a customers computer."
#4: Firedog technicians steal CDs from your computer and keep them.
I bought a laptop from Best Buy last year, and while not CC, I still experienced the same type of bs about anti-virus crap. I had the guy behind the counter tell me I needed to get PCillian and I explained to him I already use an AV client. When asked which one I replied "AVG". At this moment another guy behind the counter chimed in "Oh, those free ones aren't good and wont work well with Vista" to which I replied "I've been working with computer for the past 7 years, I think I will be fine". His response was "Well Vista is different". At this moment I was felt compelled to inform the guy he was going to lose a sale because of his coworker but refrained.
@Sean Et Cetera: "Can we also not attack the e-mail's format it is a "wall of text"? It could very well be that the e-mail clients of the sender/recipient didn't play well together and thus caused the wall of text."
It doesn't matter how it was composed, sent, or received; the editor can very easily insert a paragraph break between each numbered item before posting it on the site. Not too hard. Pretty silly not to. Then we could actually be discussing the content instead of collectively rubbing our eyes.
How about a #12. Don't buy anything from Circuit City.
Anyone notice the numbering pattern going 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11? I guess they really do hire anybody.
The best service they offer sounds like its part of point 8:
"If a consumer does not have a recovery disk available, Firedog will install a retail copy of Windows thus resulting in the loss of all OEM software"
Getting rid of OEM crapware is always a good thing to me.
This is why it is important to release software as freeware for non commercial use only. It's disgusting that circuit city is making a ton of money off of someone else's work.
@savvy9999: Are we talking about young or old James Joyce. If it were written in the Ulysses manner, each confession would be written in a new style. :)
Instead of inserting paragraphs, remove all capitalisation and punctuation from the original post.
Wow. Talk about a bitter employee. Get another job man. It's really that easy. As far as opening the computers, I don't know if I buy into that. I've never seen/heard of it happening. The vendors/manufacturers wouldn't allow this. I wouldn't buy ANYTHING with a broken factory seal. I'd just go some place else. I just bought the laptop I'm typing this on at Circuit City. I got a hell of deal too. It was it TWO factory sealed boxes when I got it. I'm calling some bullshit on this dude...
In all reality, what part of computer repair involves a soldering iron? Nobody does board level repairs, it's a complete waste of money and time. Fixing a computer isn't like fixing a radio, they're incredibly complex circuits. It requires very specialized equipment and knowledge to do that sort of repair.
I'm not sure whether I should be more horrified by a firedog tech working on a computer with a soldering iron, or a glue gun.
Paragraph breaks? Formatting? Anyone?
I would think being an editor means you, ya know, edit?
What a scam.
What can someone take from this website on a regular basis? Don't do any business with Best Buy or Circuit City. Both exploit ignorance to rip people off.
What happened to number 4? it goes from 3 then to 5.
@COELACANTH: I was thinking Ulysses, but it's been 20+ years since I battled Joyce so maybe the post resembles Finnegan more? Dunno.
At least they're aptly named. It sounds like the same service you would get if you let a dog who was on fire run around with your computer.
It wouldn't get fixed, it would smell funny, and there would be charred shit all over it.
I'd never bring my computer anywhere for repair. They are so damn simple. How can people be so clueless as to pay $100 for free windows upgrades?
I should get a part time job as a fire dog tech. I'd mess stuff up and when customers got pissed I'd just shrug my sholders.
words words words
Here's a novel idea: A person called an "editor" could "edit" confessions to make them readable!
"3. Firedog techs are deprived of the correct tools to get the job done, we do not get supplied with soldering irons, screwdrivers, glue guns, we get nothing, we would have to bring all the tools from home, as far as software tools, you may be fired because it is against policy to use any kind of software that is not provided by Circuit City directly."
HOLY SHEI*, I can't believe they have people trained at CC/FD to SOLDER ANYTHING! Damn, our local Geek Squad sends out anything that needs "soldering", or "gluing" to an authorized service center. While we do have authorized Mac techs that can service all aspects of Apple problems, we leave the PC stuff to the higher paid guys. Damn if I took my computer to a CC or BBY and someone whipped out a soldering iron I'd get the HELL OUT!
As for software tools, yeah, you should only use software you are licensed/have permission to use. Geek Squad has a phone line, if you know a tool will fix a problem that were not authorized to use, a phone call usually grants us permission and a higher up deals with the logistics of licensing the program for use.
These confession emails are all, "Well, no duaa."
I remember when Firedog first opened we went in to "Check it out", they were using the Geek Squad software (MRI), was hilarious.
All the sales stuff mentioned BTW, when I got my job I was told it was a tech/sales job, and we do the pre-load stuff. As well. People buy it, it makes sense to pre-load it so when they buy it they don't have to wait to get it. At least thanks to this site most people know you don't HAVE to buy it if you don't want it, and you could end up with free software if they don't have any non-pre-loaded versions of the computer you want.
Dude... Enjoy what ya got.
I'm in no way defending Circuit City here, but rather most repair shops:
It isn't "paying for Windows updates," but rather paying someone else to handle the downloading and installation.
That's like asking how people can be so clueless as to pay someone to mow the lawn, plant some bushes, re-shingle the house, or paint a room.
Then, of course, there's the "it isn't FOR you" factor. If you can fix your own PC, a PC repair shop isn't for you. Knowing how to change your own oil means you don't need to go pay Jiffy Lube to do it, but I don't see you yelling about that.
Have you EVER not been capable of repairing something? If so, well, you must be clueless, because the repair guy usually finds it pretty easy.
@wackyvorlon:
I have to agree, a glue gun??? I am sorry but these places are just big scams and it has been known for awhile. People should just avoid them all together.
"3. Firedog techs are deprived of the correct tools to get the job done, we do not get supplied with soldering irons, screwdrivers, glue guns, we get nothing, we would have to bring all the tools from home"
This actually could qualify you for a different rate of pay, assuming you're in California! The DLSE has set standards for how to properly pay employees who are required to furnish their own tools needed to complete the job.
As a current firedog employee, this guy was clearly not doing his job. The Pre-OP procedures are indeed stupid, but are more than just installing updates. Plus, a store cannot force you to buy a preoptimized laptop, only a net saleable one. So if you're lucky enough to be one of the last few buying a model and only the preopt ones are left, you're just getting some work done for free if you flat out refuse to pay for services.
My current problem with firedog is that alot of the newer technicians (after the massive layoff, which I managed to survive) are lazy and stupid. Firedog as a whole is leaps and bounds better than the competition but it's always on a case to case basis, just like any other corporate chain. Most firedog technicians are MCP certified and A+ certified, which means they may be able to handle most minor computer problems. I currently work at CC part time only because the pay is decent (better than Wal*Mart) and the management is laid back at my store. I'm doing this to pay for school, not as a career.
People are often to jump on the whole on the act of one retarded member (see CC destroys shitty Honda) and act like its a systemic problem. This is a problem in the computer repair industry as a whole.
@grayskies: People are often to jump on the whole on the act of one retarded member (see CC destroys shitty Honda) and act like its a systemic problem.
And yet it is a systemic problem, but it's not a problem of isolated acts. It's a problem that looks like this, at least in America:
People are undereducated and do not receive meaningful training in their jobs. They don't have the tools to do their jobs properly. They are brow-beaten and threatened by incompetent managers for merely trying to do the job properly. They are unmotivated because they are underpaid, untrained, under-resourced, have no job security, and are abused on the job. They have no integrity as they are forced to lie about things in order to take money unfairly from customers, which has a way of killing your soul. These things are true in many different work situations these days--Firedog, fast-food, engineer, public defender, social worker, acoustics engineer, or call center agent.
Your burrito is dropped on the floor, and firedog can't fix your computer, which they then drop on the floor, charging you $300 for the privilege. Child protection takes your babies and can't give them back because nobody knows where they are. Your bridges fall down because nobody was paying attention. You call 911 and all they say is, "Did I provide you with outstanding service today?" And you desperately want to sue somebody, but it seems like everybody is laying face-down in a puddle of their own fail.
Have a nice day!
The whole time I worked with CC/Firedog it was not like this. Then again, this was when Firedog had just launched. I'm not surprised at all that they do these things now.
Our main problem was that sales associates kept promising that the computer could be ready at x time without checking with the firedog technicians first.
Firedog technicial is sounding more and more like an excellent summer job.
Wall of Text FTL. Still, interesting article.
"You can take it over to grandma's house and delete her cookies while you're eating her cookies."
Classic comedy!
Paragraphs would be nice.