Sales Reps Push Unnecessary Windows Recovery Disks

PC World ^ | August 29, 2007 | Tom Spring

[holymoly]

Some sales reps at brick-and-mortar retailers convince PC purchasers to buy unnecessary store-made backups.

When Ian Griffith of Queens, New York, purchased an HP notebook from a Circuit City store in Brooklyn earlier this year, the salesperson urged him to have the chain's in-store Fire Dog technicians create Windows XP recovery discs in case Griffith needed to reinstall the OS.

[holymoly]

I bought my first, last, and only "new" PC at a Circuit City, some ten-or-so years ago. A Packard Bell (yea, I know) Pentium w. W95. The salesman tried to sell me a bill of goods, including an expensive extended warranty. He said the CPU would "burn up", because it was running at 150F. "Not if, when."

I knew it was BS, and it *really* ticked me off. Last fall was the first time I've been in a Circuit City since, and that was just to look at their DVDs.

Doesn't look like things have changed much.

[Spktyr]

I hate to say this, but it IS really important that you have the restore or reinstallation disks. Many makers, Dell among them, do not include them with new PCs any more - and when you get a virus that eats your recovery partition, or your kid deletes it to make room for a new game, guess what? You’re up a tributary sans propulsive device.

That said, you can make them at home and don’t have to pay the service droid to make them.

[Izzy Dunne]

Doesn't look like things have changed much.

Why would they?

You heard his spiel; you knew it was BS, but you bought from him anyway.

Why should he change it?

[taxcontrol]

I’ve been down this route before. When I told them that I didn’t want the store to do the back up until I had wiped the disk, repartitioned to allow a dual boot with Windows and XP, installed Linux with a shared swap partition with Windows and had installed firewalls and anti-virus and spyware for both systems ... i.e. my basic load

... they kinda backed off.
[grin]

[joebuck]

I am considered the resident computer “geek” by most of my family and friends so they usually ask me to accompany them to CC or Best Buy when they need a new box. I’m constantly amazed by the BS these salepeople try to push on people. I’m sure many on this board have had similar experiences.

[WakeUpAndVote]

“service droid”

Ouch, that hurt. You are one cold person.

[wbill]

10c for the disk, and *maybe* five minutes of a tech's time. That's a pretty good upsell...nearly pure profit.

It is a good idea to have the disks. That reminds me........

[ShadowAce]

[Greystoke]

I am a Network Administrator, and I would have to say I doubt 1/10th (if that!) of the users out there could create a recovery disk, even with a wizard! I have hundreds of users and you simply wouldn’t believe how little people know about the simplest things about PC’s. I had a user email me the other day asking me for a new spreadsheet! That’s right, a new BLANK spreadsheet. I had to laugh.

[Spktyr]

I used to *be* that service droid. Anyone who stays in that position at one of those stores for more than six months or so should never be allowed to work on your computer.

[wbill]

He said the CPU would "burn up", because it was running at 150F. "Not if, when."

Well.....that is pretty hot. Especially if it was one of the original Pentium 60's, those were notorious for that sort of thing.

But, you could've just taken the top off, and put a fan on it. Mission accomplished.

[goldstategop]

You CAN burn your own recovery discs. My HP Slimline 7712n PC has an option that allows you to burn a set of DVDs and store them for an emergency. Sure, you can order them online but you can just as well do it yourself as I did.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[wbill]

I had a user email me the other day asking me for a new spreadsheet! ...that's a good one. You should've told him that you'd fax it over.

[holymoly]

You heard his spiel; you knew it was BS, but you bought from him anyway.

I bought the PC. Not the BS & extended warranty.

[Spktyr]

No, you bought the BS after all - you actually bought the Packard Bell AFTER the stuff about their using used parts in new machines and other nastieness came out.

[Phantom Lord]

I just purchased a new HP machine at Best Buy. It was during our sales tax free back to school weekend. And computers were back to school items and thus tax free. You had to go through a maze to get into the computers and then when you picked what you wanted you had to go to a Geek Squad geek with your ticket for what you wanted. He called it into the back room and while you were waiting for them to bring it out the geek tried to sell you everything under the sun, including the recovery disks spoken of in this article.

I just kept saying no after each item.

To this geeks credit, he basically went through the script of items and left it at that and never objected to my No or pushed me in any way.

He looked like he was enjoying it as much as I was.

[holymoly]

Especially if it was one of the original Pentium 60's, those were notorious for that sort of thing.

IIRC 233mhz Pentium MMX.

[Da Coyote]

Had much the same experience at CC years ago when I made two mistakes: 1) Compac notebook loaded with 2) Windows 95. One thing is for certain, Compac or not, one WILL need a recovery disk for Windows. Reinstalling is a matter of when, not if. Oh, just to chortle; 5+ year old Mac : never crashed or reloaded (upgraded, yes...but Apple upgrades actually work). 4year+ IBOOK: no crashes. No reloads. They both just work. My wife was a Microsoft programming guru. She presently leads our quest to become a MICROSOFT FREE house. Ah, the pleasure of having functional, reliable computers. :-)

[wbill]

BestBuy gave me the hard upsell the last time I was there. Bought a CD or something, and I swear the clerk tried to sell me 1/2 dozen things before I got out the door. Credit offers, warranties, etc.....

I hadn't been there in awhile...it'll be awhile before I go back. If I want to argue with the salesclerk, I'll go to a Tijuana market, at least I'll get them to knock some money off the price.

[BallyBill]

I actually ran into a customer once who did make the backup disks when he got the PC home.

ONCE!