Informal Survey

Which one would you reccomend/pick?

  • Total voters
    40
S

sKum

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
256
This is a quick informal survey I’m conducting for work

Many of you are very experienced with computers, enough so that paying someone to install memory, or a program seems ludicrous to you, but millions of dollars a year are spent on “tech support” by millions of Americans.

With that said, I propose a hypothetical question to you.

If you had a close friend who you cared for and would only give an honest answer, which of the four companies would you recommend they take their PC to be serviced by, and why (assume it’s a problem you can’t fix, and neither can they)


If you only want to say “because so and so sucks” that’s fine, but I’d like to get a detailed answer if you’re up to it. Nothing long, just a paragraph or so.


Thanks :)
 
I vote local computer shop. They're usually more experienced with computers, and more of their reputation is riding on whether or not they do a good job at a good price. Local shops do not have the luxury of corporate advertising, they mainly rely on word of mouth. The employees also tend to be more permanent than a place like Best Buy or Circuit City who can hire any old college kid to replace their employees.

This is all just my opinion though.
 
I can not make a proper statement as I have never used any of those services.

I would probably choose a local shop.

Big warehouse type or wide vendor stores typically know nothing about the products that they sell.

The way one of those stores fixes a computer is put on a anti esd handstrap, reboot the comp, and say oh its a manufacturer thing. Then they send it away for 6 months to be fixed.

Finally, I would come to a place like this and ask for help if I couldn't fix it myself and I would probably have an answer very shortly and with the word "Duh" after it. then the computer would work
 
I guess local computer shop out of those. I read once that Geeksquad charged $300 just to plug in an IDE cable. Also not only do they overcharge, they are really just salesmen, and would rather sell you a new computer then fix your current one.
 
none of the above.

i would do it myself, i know a lot more than some store computer guys.
 
I voted for local shop because there was no "none of the above". All the local people I've dealt with around here are jerkoffs.
 
MjrStryker said:
I vote local computer shop. They're usually more experienced with computers, and more of their reputation is riding on whether or not they do a good job at a good price. Local shops do not have the luxury of corporate advertising, they mainly rely on word of mouth. The employees also tend to be more permanent than a place like Best Buy or Circuit City who can hire any old college kid to replace their employees.

This is all just my opinion though.
Click to expand...

QFT
 
MjrStryker said:
I vote local computer shop. They're usually more experienced with computers, and more of their reputation is riding on whether or not they do a good job at a good price. Local shops do not have the luxury of corporate advertising, they mainly rely on word of mouth. The employees also tend to be more permanent than a place like Best Buy or Circuit City who can hire any old college kid to replace their employees.

This is all just my opinion though.
Click to expand...

Out of the above yea I would say local shop. Can't comment on staples easy tech but really don't see them being any better the cc, bb, or compusa. With any of them you still need to be carefull though. Personaly I know of only one local shop I would really consider recomending though.
 
Local shop because none of the above wasn't there. I'd rather spend hours upon hours troubleshooting my PC rather than let some strange violate it in some inhumane ways.:eek:
 
I would never take my system to a local chain store, these are people who sometimes dont know anything related to fixing, upgrading or building from scratch more often than not its someone off the street who frankly doesnt give a rats patootie if your box comes out of there running or not.

When I was younger and learning if I had a problem I would take it to a local shop because sometimes if they know your interested in learning they will help you to learn and if they do work on a pc their reputation is on the line, like someone said earlier they get buisness from word of mouth.
 
The prices the big corporate computer fixers charge are ludicrous. $50 for a hard drive installation? No thanks. If the problem is a simple one, the guys at a local computer shop might at least give you free advice. But I really would have chosen none of the above like someone said earlier. I would make him take it to me and if I couldn't figure it out, I would post on [H]ardForum :)
 
I picked the local shop. Just the other week me and the wife went to Best Buy to just browse around and pick up a movie or something. While there I figured I'd look at PC cases since I'm building a new PC soon. So the first conversation with an employee goes like this "I'm looking for computer cases." "oh they're right there *points to carrying cases for laptops." "no, I mean computer cases, like the box you put the parts in" *confused look* then another employee over hearing this conversation knows what I'm talking about and takes me over to where they are, unfortunately they only had 1 out of the 3 that they carry out so she took us over to where they had them up top in storage and got the other 2 down. While looking at an Antec 900 ($159 there) a third employee walks up to my wife and asks her what I'm looking at, and has to explain to him that not all PC boxes come with the parts already in them. I know this wasn't their geek squad, just their normal employees, but damn, these were the people WORKING in the PC section. As an extra bonus I got to listen to someone looking at the pre-builts talking on his phone to his friend saying "oh yeah this computer looks good, yeah, yeah, oh wait its an AMD I hear those overheat A LOT."
 
yea i know what you mean. the odd time its fun asking some relatively simple questions for anyone that would be decent with computers and the guys at futureshop/bestbuy/london drugs are pretty much clueless with. for some of them if it didn't show up in the training manual they usualy have no idea. but there are some and i mean SOME that do know their stuff but it's hard to find them at the big chains they're usually at the local shops
 
I work for the Geek Squad, so I have to recommend them. Some very knowledgeable people working with me there. I've been ripped off by local shops in the past when I was a n00b..
 
bump for more answers. Thanks for all those who have responded so far. Going to change alot of things hopefully haha
 
Given the options, I would say local shop. However, the shop in my area is staffed with greedy individuals who know nothing about computers and fix every computer problem with a system reformat and reinstall. The computers they build fail after about 6 months use!
 
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