If you’re looking for something to brighten your Monday, and you’ve always wanted to learn more about the actual people and businesses behind the robocalls that plague your phone, here’s just the thing. It’s a world-spanning epic that began with a tech support robocaller that happened to dial the number of the wrong bored podcast host. [More]
tech support
Tech Support Scammer Must Surrender Assets, Banned From Running Tech Support Companies
By 6.21.16
The company name “OMG Tech Help” is so great and so evocative, it’s really a shame that a tech support scam operation used it. That’s one of the brands that a company out of Florida used for a phony tech support scheme that the state of Florida and the Federal Trade Commission busted up in 2014. Now the company has been ordered to surrender the assets that it has left, and its owner can’t run any tech support businesses. [More]
Washington Attorney General Sues Tech Support Company For Scamming Customers
By 12.17.15
When your work computer goes wonky, you call IT. That’s easy enough. When it’s your home computer, though, the choices are a lot murkier. There are thousands of sources for tech support out there, from one-person operations to giant call centers. But if you don’t have enough technical know-how, it can be hard to tell which ones are actually helping, and which ones are just out to scam a quick buck. [More]
FTC Shuts Down Two Tech Support Schemes That Bilked $120M From Consumers
By 11.20.14
Sometimes when you can’t fix your computer yourself you turn to the experts. Unfortunately, some of those tech wizards are only out to help themselves. That appears to be the case for two Florida-based companies that allegedly conned tens of thousands of consumers – many of whom were senior citizens – out of $120 million by deceptively marketing computer software and tech support. [More]
That Guy On The Phone Offering A Tech Support Refund Is Probably A Scammer
By 1.3.14
We’ve written before about scam artists taking advantage of consumers’ unease with technology to trick them into handing over sensitive personal info, and now there are scammers hoping to prey upon consumers’ general dissatisfaction with customer service and tech support (and their general love of refunds). [More]
Net10 Cuts Off My Access, Won’t Pick Up The Phone
By 6.5.13
Andrew is worried about his mobile carrier, Net10. He was very happy with the company’s “bring your own device” service on AT&T’s network until he learned that he wasn’t able to send picture messages. Well, no problem: tech support should be able to resolve that easily. Right? [More]
Time For Your 7 A.M. Reminder Of Your Nonexistent Time Warner Cable Appointment
By 3.5.13
It’s 8 A.M on the East Coast as this post goes up, and James’ wife has been up for an hour. That’s because she’s getting a 7 A.M. wakeup call on her mobile phone every day from Time Warner Cable. No, this isn’t an exciting new Digital Phone service they’re offering: for some people, a wakeup call would actually be useful. No, their cable has already been installed and everything is fine. Everything is fine except for the 7 A.M. phone call that comes to remind Mrs. James of an appointment with the cable guy that doesn’t exist. [More]
Epson Sells Me Paper That Jams My Smudgy Printer, Hangs Up On Me
By 1.4.13
John bought his new Epson printer just a few months ago. He’s now attempted to use it to print photos twice, and neither attempt was successful. He found tech support discouraging: they hung up on him twice, then referred him to another office. Then, mysteriously, he was unable to log in to his Epson.com account: the site told him that it didn’t exist. At this point, he’d rather be rid of the printer entirely. [More]
Dell Tech Support Really More Of An Upsell Trap
By 8.16.12
Congratulations, Dell customer! You might have won! Won what, you ask? The opportunity to hand more money over to Dell for an extended warranty that you don’t necessarily need! During three calls to Dell technical support, Laptop Magazine found that technical support representatives offered a hardware warranty for a software problem, a software warranty for a hardware issue, and told a caller that he had won a mysterious daily drawing for the opportunity to buy a four-year extended warranty from Dell for the low, low price of $317. That sounds like the most boring sweepstakes ever. [More]
It Took Dish Network Months To Figure Out Their HDMI Cables Are Crap
By 7.31.12
Don is a relatively new Dish Network customer, and he’s annoyed. Not because he’s lost his favorite channels in a carriage fee dispute, or his rates are higher than indicated. No, his problem is a little stranger than that. Pausing or fast-forwarding any programming would make his TV’s audio go out. He describes “dozens” of calls to Dish and quite a few service calls, replacing the DVR, the Dish-supplied cables…everything. The issue went all the way up to Executive Escalations. After all of this effort and nonsense explanations that solved nothing, one tech happened to hook up component cables instead of HDMI. Hey, look at that–the audio didn’t drop out anymore! The tradeoff for this, however, is no more high-definition programming. [More]
NetZero Locks Me Out Of My Account, Charges By The Minute To Get It Back
By 7.13.12
Matt has an issue with NetZero’s e-mail technical support. “Wait,” you might be saying. “People still use NetZero?” Well, Matt does. His e-mail address on the service is very old, but he just hasn’t got around to changing the places where it’s his e-mail of record. So he keeps paying for it, year after year, importing the messages into Gmail. At least, he did until he was locked out of his account, and couldn’t reset the password. NetZero charges by the minute for tech support, but Matt was assured that he wouldn’t be charged for a simple password reset. This was incorrect. [More]
Break Tiny Part Of Logitech Gaming Wheel, Throw The Whole Thing Out
By 6.22.12
Here’s the problem with gadgets made of tiny pieces of plastic: tiny pieces of plastic break. They fall off and disappear. Their absence means that those gadgets no longer work Nikeros owns the Logitech G-27 racing wheel, a cool-looking gaming accessory that
currently retails for more than $200. A small part of the wheel broke, rendering the whole thing unusable. Figuring that the part would be easily replaced, he checked with Logitech for a parts list. There are no extra parts for sale to consumers: it’s buy a new wheel, or nothing. [More]
Linksys: Where A 1-Year Warranty Sort Of Isn't A 1-Year Warranty
By 5.9.12
Yes, Linksys products ostensibly have a one-year warranty, but there’s a catch. When Cody tried to contact them to replace a router, he learned that in order to actually use that original warranty, you need to pay extra. Specifically, after the first 90 days, you need to pay for either phone or chat support to talk to a real person who can authorize the return of your defective router. [More]
How To Lose A Customer Forever With Just One Faulty Router
By 4.19.12
Jessica is a network engineer, so she has some idea of when a piece of networking equipment isn’t working properly. Her Netgear router isn’t working properly, so she called up their tech support. She patiently sat through all of the normal troubleshooting procedures that are used for people who can barely tell a router from a toaster. Then she learned that they weren’t going to accept the router for repair or replacement after only eight months. So she did the only sensible thing: went out and bought a router made by a different company after being loyal to Netgear for more than a decade. [More]
HP Pretends Linux Voids Netbook Hardware Warranty
By 2.11.11
Installing a different operating system on a computer does not change its hardware. This is a simple enough concept…unless you work in technical support for HP. Their phone tech support have joined their Geek Squad brethren in insisting that a Linux-infested laptop was no longer under warranty.
Kyle didn’t want to put Windows back on his netbook just so his problem would fit phone support’s standard script. He tried to make tech support see logic…and eventually they did. (Or gave him a new battery so he would go away, but the end result is the same.)
My "Blackberry" Isn't Working, Man Tells Fruit Vendor
By 12.23.10
Good for a laugh, here’s a sketch from the BBC “The One Ronnie” show with a man seeking tech support from a fruit vendor for his “blackberry” which is “frozen.” A series of fruit and gadget puns ensue and it’s worth sticking around for when it gets a little saucy. One thing that you should know before watching the clip is that “Orange” is a cellular network in Great Britain. Yes, you can see where this is going… [More]
Laptop Borked By Dell Tech Gets Replaced After Consumerist Post
By 12.15.10
Angel is happy to report that after his story went up on Consumerist, Dell reached out to him and will be replacing his laptop. [More]
"On-Call" Dell Tech Takes Over 7 Hours To Screw Up Your Laptop, Makes You Miss Your Date
By 12.14.10
Angel’s patience was worn down to the quick after waiting for a on-call Dell tech to come and fix his high-end laptop, only to have the guy bungle the repair, screw up his hardware, and make him miss his date. [More]
