Why I Quit Staples Easy Tech
Sick of seeing customers screwed over and billed for unnecessary repairs by undertrained technicians, a Staples tech writes in to tell the incident that made him quit. See this picture? This is the floor model computer where he was told to copy all of a customer's hard drive data as part of their diagnostic process, then he had to leave the area and leave all the data up on the screen for any customer to see or snag with a thumb drive. The full story, inside...
A customer brought his desktop tower computer in for service, Microsoft Windows XP Home, will not post boot and rolls at start up at the XP GUI screen. The head technician without having run any diagnostics determines “it’s a virus that infected the hard drive and caused it to fail”. The instructions I received were as follows. Do not diagnose the issue, just remove the hard drive from the tower and connect it to a USB to PATA adapter, then take the 3.5 inch internal drive and adapter over to a floor display model, and connect it as we do not have a service computer. Transfer all the files and data from My Documents to the desktop, and “clean” the customers hard drive up. Now that the drive is powered and sitting in a static filled environment, on top of a metal display rack on a carpeted base for all to see, I was instructed to complete the next step.
Now that the customers documents are left on a floor model laptop for all to see, I am forced to leave the area and go to another part of the store and then reinstall the hard drive back into the case, and run the staples diagnostic utility, leaving this persons personal information for all to copy to a thumb drive. Having now altered the properties of the drive, and having changed administrator rights and privileges the data and drive comes back corrupt in the Staples antiquated diagnostic program.
The customer is then contacted and told that the 3 year old machine’s hard drive is dead, and that it’s not under warranty, and we have a replacement drive and can repair the computer while it’s apart and since it was a “good and expensive machine” it’s worth repairing. Now having left the customer with no option and not properly informing them about what to do the customer is really left with no choice but to repair it seeing as it is in pieces and we have the only copy of their data and school is starting to begin. The Easy Tech manager wrings up the bill, 1 charge service entry, 1 charge diagnostic fee, 1 hard drive service charge, 1 back up and restore charge, 1 format and restore, 1 copy of windows totaling around $480.00 if not more as I did not see the final receipt, which is the cost of a brand new Acer laptop that far surpasses the antiquated desktop.After hearing what the head tech did to the customer and having put me in a position that compromised my integrity, I quit and told the customer all about it, and now I am airing it out for all to see and hear.
Apparently, when you push the Easy Button in front of a Staples Easy Tech, it activates one of those hinged arms with a white glove and it pulls cash from your wallet.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam malesuada commodo erat et molestie. Duis pellentesque aliquam bibendum. Suspendisse venenatis lobortis eleifend. Mauris id est sed lectus convallis aliquam.
Post a comment
Comments:
Always get a second opinion...
cars,
doctors,
computer techs,
If you can't fix it yourself, or don't have the slightest idea where to start, you could at least be the smart consumer and do your homework first. One good google search (in this case, use a friend's computer since yours is dead) will get you farther, and you won't be wasting $500 on needless "repairs".
Sorry you had to do your detail in Staples. Hope you find a more reputable company to do support for.
Local computer repair shops are plentiful and historically won't rip you off.
They made him pay for another copy of Windows?
Gee, that was easy!
Easy Button = White Gloved, no lube, fisting up the pooper.
I've always hated store technicians and this is why. I know what they are doing, I am not stupid. I've had Best Buy diagnose my computer once and then I had another technician look at it and write up a report that said Best Buy was wrong. Needless to say I got my money back for their bogus diagnostics. I always fix computers by myself... save money and Google things when you have a problem.
Bravo to the OP for having the integrity (and the resources) to quit.
How many people are locked into jobs without the financial ability or support to move on and are forced to perform tasks or give advice that they are fully aware is (choose all that apply): wrong / unethical / stupid / ignore common sense / are not cost effective for the business?
Computer repair companies that survive on word of mouth and don't advertise are almost always a safe bet...until they get bought out by a larger company and service is sacrificed for profit.
I too was once told they were going to charge me for Windows too. I was completely outraged at this seeing as I already have multiple copies!
What the heck... a USB to IDE converter? I had no idea such a thing existed.
It's not just Staples. Most computer repair places would much rather just replace the problem hardware than actually fix it simply because it's easier and saves more time that way. He should be so lucky to actually save whatever is on the harddrive. Usually they either 1) reformat or 2) replace it with a whole new harddrive with nothing on it.
Easy Button = Screwing over the customer.
Will not post boot and rolls at the gui? If it won't post, how is it getting to the gui?
Also, how does copying the My Documents folder "alter the properties" of the drive? Not trying to insult/blame the op here, just not sure what he means.
@timmus: Yeah, I have one. The one pictured is actually us to SATA/IDE and will work for laptop hard drives as well. One of those things you hardly ever need, but comes in EXTREMELY handy when you do need it.
This is why I always make friends with at least one IT person at work. If I can't fix it, ask them who they would take it to or if they would like some extra $ off the clock. Some will take your $, some will send to you a reputable place.
I can see that the particular Staples location the OP refers to is definitely working on earning the "Easy" part of their service name. I hate seeing people get ripped off by anyone...let alone a service industry.
Kudos to the OP for having the chutzpah to follow the more difficult (but ethically sound) path.
@dianabanana: And rightly so. If you are billing by the hour it is usually not worth it to spend 3+ hours trying to get all the adware/spyware/viruses off a system when you can format and install in one.
@SkokieGuy: I had a job where I was required to be unethical -- I wanted to quit but owed them money (for my training -- bunch of bastards) if I did. They fired me four months in and, much to my surprise (since I was pretty much destitute), I said, "Okay, bye," and walked out. I was ecstatic. And I got a newer, better job two weeks later.
I really, really sympathize with people who get stuck, because it's toxic to the soul and ruins the rest of your life along with.
@Burgandy: At least you offer some kind of compensation. At the company I work for, everyone thinks because I support their office workstations that they are entitled to free support for their home systems. On a weekly basis someone shows up with a personal laptop complaining that they or their dumb kids installed some spyware on it and we should fix it.
I think for computer problems you might be better off going to a mom and pop place instead of a large chain. The large chains have a time crunch and probably have many customers so they might not go that extra mile to really diagnose the problem or fix it. I also can't believe places actually charge for and keep pc's for hours/days just to install memory. it takes longer to open the case than to plug memory in.
Ring, not wring. (Okay, start the tomato flinging.)
But good for the OP. Thankfully I can do my own computer work, so I don't have to trust these places.
My main problem with this is that they state they charged him for a second copy of windows. considering he was buying a new HDD along with it, I hope they sold him an OEM copy rather than a retail one. Shoddy tech work, and pretty crappy salesmanship too.
For the record, to qualify for an OEM copy it must be purchased (i.e. on the same reciept) with either a HDD, or a processor and motherboard.
He charged for a new copy of Windows? The original license certainly permits re-installing on the same system, even on a new HD. Even if the old activation key didn't work on the new drive, you can call MS and get a new one.
But selling him a new copy really just sounds like piling on to me...
Bah, ninja'd
@timmus:
IDE/SATA to USB adapters are a tech's (possibly best) friend. I actually have 3 of them (1 in my car, 2 in my "go" bag). It's a shame companies force employees to do dishonest work like this (spending 3+ hours repairing an obsolete PC when a current-gen computer under warranty would cost as much/less than the repair itself would)
@AlexTheSane: My IT guys always love me, I am always bringing in stuff. Homemade cookies, copies of movies before they hit the theaters (you should have seen the crowd in the IT room when I brought in Revenge of the Sith a month before it hit theaters) homegrown veggies, breakfast casseroles. That and I never call unless a)I am locked out of the system or b) I have tried everything I know and give them a rundown of the steps I have taken. Saves everyone alot of time.
I would also assume that Staples broke some marketing rules with HP by using the demo laptop for tech work. Not to classy Staples. I hope you get seriously smacked down by the BBB and HP.
@AlexTheSane: I sometimes get requests to fix computers from people when they find out I do helpdesk work. I don't work for free EVER. Just because I work with them all day doesn't mean I want to fix yours on my limited free time. My rates are fair and I've never had a system come back after I'd fixed it..unless the owner broke it.
@valarmorghulis: "For the record, to qualify for an OEM copy it must be purchased (i.e. on the same reciept) with either a HDD, or a processor and motherboard."
Wrong, you can buy a .25 cent power pigtail and get an oem copy of windows. It just needs to be purchased with "hardware", doesnt matter what.
Since it is so fashionable... I wonder if there is a way to blame the OP for this...
Dang it, you should have quit on the first day! Think of how many lives or computers you have ruined by not taking action immediately! Geesh!
Ok, fashionable rant over.
Congrats for standing up for your beliefs. If more people did that, or simple had actual morals or compassion, this world would be a much more sane place.
You might want to file something with the BBB about it.
@Shadowman615: Their logic probably went something like this:
- customer didn't know enough to boot from the laser-etched DVD and try to repair/reinstall themselves so
- they weren't likely to say "Wait, I've got the original DVD & key sticker" so
- charge them for a new Windows and cross your fingers, boys.
This is truly sad - if they customer still had the DVD & code, they could have likely fixed the problem themselves (or got the 12yr old next door to do it.)
@timmus: i think everything has a usb adapter...even for YOUR BRAIN
either way, kudos to the op. i can't help but think about all the old people who have been ripped off because they just don't know anything about computers, and are at the mercy of whatever a staples employee tells them.
They lost me at "we do not have a service computer." There is just no excuse for anyone to attempt to sell services that they don't have the proper equipment to perform. If one of my Techs (I am an IT admin) were to hook a customer's computer up to just any random computer we had sitting around they would not last the day. Who knows what the bloatware on that laptop could have done to the customer's data.
One comment I hate is, "$480.00 .. cost of a brand new Acer laptop". People don't buy sub $500 computers they won't last you 2 years.
@Burgandy:
Yikes, steal much?
@Everyone else
The biggest issue I have is a tech is being so honest that I sometimes push customers away as I frequently tell people, repairing this thing is really not worth it as removing thousands of pieces of spyware can be time consuming. Usually they need help moving data though which puts some cash in my pocket.
I know alot of you folks might think it sounds dumb, but if a computer's so badly messed up with adware and trojans I'll just go grab the recovery media and reformat the thing. I charge strictly by the hour and the customer finds it much cheaper to pay me for an hour and a half doing a backup and reinstall of Windows rather than paying me for 3 or four hours trying to exorcise the demons. I also try to eliminate any hardware issues FIRST since they're usually pretty easy to pin down.
@timmus: Well that's the same idea behind an external HD enclosure really.
How, exactly, was this 480 bucks? Ok, even if you assume jacked up prices for Windows and an HD, that's still 300 tops. How is it that you can be paying someone like 15 bucks an hour (I doubt that's the pay but whatever) and then charging 60 for the work that the exact same person does? What, a 45/hr finders fee? F'ing retarded.
I was a staples tech as well as a member of best buys geek squad, and any company that charges 60$ to install RAM should not be trusted. At staples i was the ONLY certified tech in my area, Most of the time to protect peoples privacy i would break the staples rules and backup ppls data to a laptop that i took off the floor and placed in the back under lock and key, Often i was asked by the managers if i found anything "interesting" (porn) id say with truth "i did not look nor am i going to" Even if i had to do a full backup restore of windows load drivers take a full days work id make sure the person was not charged more than 80-100$ because it only took an hour-2 hours of my time and my side work i would do thats about what i would charge for it. Staples is immoral and money hungry, id urge ppl not to bring there machines to a corporate repair place.
Best buy was even worse, there managers would go through every file on every machine and "thumb drive it" I had reported to the GM multiple times and what did i find out, The "good files" the gm got a copy of. When they charged an older woman almost 600 $ for a machine that she spent 400$ not a month prior I had enough, i told the woman it was over priced and to go to another location and to tell everyone that she knows not to return here. She took my advice and thanked me, I followed it up by a letter to the corporate office, Security proof of the indecent acts and immorality of the staff, And my letter of resignation. I have heard nothing back from it in over 2 years. Private tech/shops are much better much more moral quality but always get a second opinion
Robbery aside, why did they just not remove the floor model from its "security bar" to at least keep the customers HDD & data safe? I have heard of improvising but those pictures are just criminal.
@timmus:
Like those posted before me, I have quite a few. They are such useful tools. I use them the most for when I do data rescues for customers or need to check the occasional P/SATA device quickly.
I'm absolutely appalled. No boot in safe mode, no attempt at last know good config, each requiring a single keystroke. Throw the laptop on screen saver with a password, Even without a screen saver, i.e, if he didn't have privileges, he still could've locked the machine. I give him credit for being honest.
Oh and I like how somebody had the forethought to blur out the UPC codes in the last picture :P
@MrEvil: Why would that sound dumb? Most of the time it's quicker and easier, and with particularly aggressive adware, it's hard to be 100% sure it's actually gone. In fact, when I was doing corporate IT, we had a rule: if it takes longer than 30 minutes, reimage.
The only problem you run into when doing that is users that have no clue where they store data or what things they need to back up before you nuke it all. That gets really frustrating.
(I got out of consumer support some years back. Be thankful you don't deal with server admins who don't do backups and don't know where their data is - now that's really scary.)
@BoomerFive: Wrong, you can buy a .25 cent power pigtail and get an oem copy of windows. It just needs to be purchased with "hardware", doesnt matter what.
Not True. MS has a list of "acceptable" hardware that qualifies for an OEM purchase. HDD, CPU, etc are on the list. Search for it, you'll find it.
I was just thinking of writing about Staples Easytech the other day too...
I was a Staples tech for about a year. I actually started when the program was just being restarted as Easy Mobile Tech. From the beginning, it was pretty uphill, but from what I can tell, each store manages their service areas differently.
In my store, we had a service area, computer, and mooched off internet from next door. I barely ever had to use the display computers for backups, though I did a couple times after hours. It's not uncommon for display machines to be used for operations that cannot be completed otherwise. Seriously, the equipment and training for EasyTech is laughable at best.
Display machines are formatted before going out the door though, so at least that helps. Otherwise, getting a manager to take a laptop out of a security bar is a pain. It's a pain in the keister just getting the laptops in those security bars to begin with let alone replacing them constantly.
I think the biggest issue here isn't neccesarily the business practices, though they do suck and EasyTech was created to sell stuff. Different places run things differently, so while the pricing is universal, the stack of charges may not be.
The issue here is how freaking cheap Staples is with the EasyTech program. They aren't up to date, you have access to electricity only, space is limited, the free toolset sucks, the training DVD is the equivalent of a computer repair for dummies book, and internet access has to be improvised because the corporate access is over-monitored and locked down.
Congrats on the tech for leaving.
@timmus: It's basically what's in external hard drives. There's a regular internal drive in the box with one of these usb thingamajiggers.
What is a service entry charge? Seems bogus as it has nothing to do with any services performed. And a backup and restore is the same thing as format and restore. Unless staples is really suggesting they offer a service where they charge you to backup your data and restore it to the same machine while making no changes whatsoever. The charge for a new copy of windows is a total scam since they completely ignored your valid license and forced you to buy a new copy since they now had full control of your data that they wiped out and caused physical damage to the hard drive by handling it like crap.
If I knew someone who was ripped off like this, I would immediately help them take this to a court.
What a great racket staples runs. Double/triple charge for a single service, convince people to repurchase windows despite already owning a copy, and run hard drive diagnostics after you toss the drive around and fry it with static.
I think the guy got fired, then he probably went nuts because he can't find a job and decided to go nuts with staples.
i left staples easy tech as well after like 3 1/2 months... i wanted to do computer work, not sell things. whenever i got a chance to do Computer related tasks they would want me2 help people