Best Buy has recently come under fire for selling people “restoration cds” at the ridiculous price of $29 dollars. PC World caught 3 of 5 Best Buy salespeople insisting that consumers couldn’t make the recovery discs themselves and would either need to buy them from Best Buy or the manufacturer (for more than Best Buy charges.) This just simply isn’t true.
repair
Upgrade Or Repair Your Home With Eco-Friendly Products
By 10.10.07
Despite all the media attention, buying well-made, affordable products that are also environmentally sound is still a difficult task. Kiplinger’s “Shopping Guide to Eco-Friendly Products” offers several suggestions to help you buy green and get a solid deal on major appliances, lawn care, building supplies, and home maintenance.
iPhone Defective? That'll Be $29 For A Loaner
By 8.22.07
Reader Jonathan’s iPhone just keeps breaking. The second time, rather than replacing it, they decided it would need to be repaired—and tried to charge him $30 for a rental phone.
"Planned Obsolescence" Is A Waste: Where To Repair Your Electronics
By 8.12.07
The consumer electronics industry doesn’t want us to know this (especially Apple, considering how frequently they update their iPod product line), but with care and a little maintenance, you can make your recent electronics purchases last longer than a couple of years. We should know: in the past five years, we’ve had large scale malfunctions (all out of warranty) with an iPod, a Tivo, a laptop hard drive, and an Xbox. Here is a short list of some places that can help you get your product back in working condition, so that you don’t just toss it out and buy a new one unnecessarily.
Verizon CSR Gives Fake "Callback" Number That Rings A Dating Hotline
By 8.7.07
Ariel’s phone and DSL inexplicably stopped working and Verizon told her that it would cost her $91 to have it fixed. She agreed and reluctantly took a day off work to wait for the Verizon tech, who, shockingly, never showed.
Insurers Cut Out The Middleman, Open Own Repair Shops
By 5.27.07
Insurance companies are opening their own in-house repair shops to avoid haggling with your local mechanic. Local mechanics consistently complain that insurance companies are cheapskates that would rather save a buck than authorize the repairs needed to safely return a car to the road. By opening their own shops, insurers have found the corporate equivalent of sticking your finger in your ear while mouthing “I can’t hear you!”
Rather than putting the onus on customers to find a body shop, get an estimate and arrange a rental car, Progressive, Geico and others are setting up one-stop service centers to handle every aspect of the claim.
Progressive and Geico guarantee their repairs for life, though it’s difficult to trust someone who has a direct interest in keeping the repair bill low. Two customers interviewed by the Times found obvious defects in the insurance companies’ workmanship. Still, the customers left happy, not because their cars worked, but because they were treated well by smiling insurance company representatives. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
InFocus Wants $125 To Replace Plastic Part Smaller Than A Quarter
By 5.14.07
Outrage!
Are leveling feet made of some rare plastic that only grows in the foothills of the Himalayas? —MEGHANN MARCO
Great Customer Service From IBM (Lenovo)?
By 4.30.07
Dubner over at Freakonomics was distraught at the idea of sending his beloved laptop away to IBM for warranty repair, but since neither Geek Squad nor any of the IBM recommended vendors were up to the task, he reluctantly agreed.
Court Transcript Of "Peek Squad" Agent's No-Contest Plea
By 4.23.07
We just received the court transcript detailing former Geek Squad Agent Hao Kuo Chi “no-contest” plea in the case of his alleged setting up a cameraphone while on call in a customer’s house and recording a young woman taking a shower.
Geek Squad Peeker Plead "No Contest" To Privacy Invasion
By 4.14.07
When former Geek Squad Agent Hao Kuo Chi appeared in court on April 3rd, 2007, he plead “no contest” to one count of unlawful invasion of privacy, according to the LA County DA’s office. He received this sentence:
"Peek Squadder" Beloved By Customers, Colleagues
By 4.13.07
Though he stands accused of a disgusting act, secretly recording a customer taking a shower, Geek Squad Agent Hao Kuo Chi was held in high esteem by customers and among his fellow employees.
The Kind Of Cellphone Geek Squad Might've Taped Showering Customer With
By 4.13.07
If Hao Kuo Chi really did tape the 22-year-old daughter of a customer taking a shower, the phone propped up in the bathroom might have been a PPC-6700. These PocketPC phones are standard-issue to the Geek Squad techs who perform in-home repairs — known as “DA’s” or “Double Agents” in Geek Squad parlance.
UPDATE: Apple: No, You Can't Have Your Data Back, We're Keeping It
By 4.10.07
Perhaps you recall Chris who had the “unrecoverable” hard drive that Apple wouldn’t let him keep? Chris was concerned that Apple was incorrect, and that the disk might in fact be recoverable by someone, and so he wanted it back. He asked nicely. He offered money. Sadly, nothing worked. Apple’s policy was to keep the disc. Chris could either get his new hard drive or his old one, but not both.
How To: Sew A Button On The Right Way
By 4.2.07
It’s simultaneously easier and more difficult that our previous method of stitching madly through the button holes. Men in particular should watch this video and stop asking us females to sew buttons on your shirt. Many of us don’t have secret button knowledge. We just fake it so you’ll think we’re smart. —MEGHANN MARCO
Don't Get Your Oil Changed At Walmart
By 4.2.07
The employees and their manager spent most the time spraying each other with air hoses and windshield fluid. 3 hours later, after seeing other folks come and go, we were told our vehicles were ready. We paid and left quickly, trying to avoid any other confrontation that would delay us even more. Flash forward to last week, my wife told me that her check engine light came on while going to work and the same on the way home.
We have to admit we didn’t know there was such a thing as a Walmart oil change before this letter.
Squirrels 1, Comcast 0: Comcast Would Rather Let You Cancel Than Investigate Damage
By 3.28.07
I’ve told them either they are throttling the bandwidth for my neighborhood or it’s a problem on the pole going to my house. They had found a problem there previously; apparently it looked like squirrels chewed through the box and severed components. Squirrels are apparently bad-asses when it comes to taking down infrastructures.
We suppose Comcast could have kept Rex as a customer if they’d bothered to just take a look at his potential squirrel damage. Comcast even promised that they would. They didn’t. Now Rex has Speakeasy. Sadly, when we told him that they’d just been purchased by Best Buy he said a word that nice ladies don’t type on the internet.
Why Does It Take Microsoft 6 Weeks (And Counting) To Send A Mailer For An XBOX?
By 2.28.07
… another week goes by (4 weeks).
Comcast Does Away With “All Day” Waiting
By 1.25.07
Comcast has begun narrowing the window of time customers have to wait for technicians, says the Wall Street Journal.
