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.

[wbill]

You're doing an excellent job of thinking out of the box. Unfortunately, that thermal fix paper won't work in my copier (don't ask how I know....).

BTW, my mouse is at the edge of my desk. Any suggestions on how to fix it?

[Xenalyte]

Instant gratification is the only reason I hit Best Buy these days. I don’t want to wait a whole DAY to get my World of Warcraft expansion pack!

[Xenalyte]

You’ll need to call your help desk and tell them you need a mouse with an extension cord.

[wbill]

THREE HOURS of “Okay, now you see that green X? Double-click on that, and . . . “

Been in seminars like that. (worked for a global consulting firm that specialized -as far as its employees were concerned - in BS presentations). You should've asked if you could fast forward about 2 hours into the presentation. That line just about got one of my co-workers fired at my old job.

And just think, that session represented your training budget for the year. And, maybe a raise, too.....

[wbill]

I tried that already. They told me that I needed to move my desk. The mouse cord extender was too expensive.

[tarheelswamprat]

OEM’s tend to include a lot of useless crap in their installs.... stuff that you’ll never use, eats up resources and can be difficult to remove cleanly.

Check out a free utility called "PC DeCrapifier". It inventories your new computer for all that OEM bloatware, lets you select what to remove and then uninstalls it. I believe the link is just www.pcdecrapifier.com

[Still Thinking]

Well, did you send her one?

[Recovering Hermit]

If you want a fast and complete recovery of your entire hard disk, get an external hard drive and Symantec Ghost.

It's worth the investment, especially if you think that your time, data, and sanity are valuable.

[Greystoke]

"This will make you cry, that same person voting."

I feel that way about most of the electorate...

[Greystoke]

How did you refrain from choking her to death? ;-)

[Greystoke]

Sweet, I usually just remove the crap before creating my ghost images by hand, will take a look.

[Greystoke]

No, I explained to her how to create her own.
I also had a user lately that called to tell me that her PC had gone crazy. I went to her office only to find she had installed a new keyboard extender and had the numpad 'Enter' key clamped down with one of the keyboard extender clamps. Duh..........

[unixfox]

I worked for a bank from late 1999 to late 2003. When I left in 2003 they were still using DOS for thier core system!

I work on a lot of banks stuff, most have converted over to windows apps but a lot still use the green screen apps as well. However, Washington Mutual still uses (hold your breath) OS/2 Warp for some of it's apps.

You want me to work on that?

[amigatec]

The last New PC I bought was an Amiga 4000/040. :-)

[Still Thinking]

I love it! Or ask about a Centronics port!

[Still Thinking]

I think he means that anyone still there after six months is either emotionally impaired enough to be satisfied with the job, or lacks the skills to get hired anywhere else, in either case making him unfit to touch your computer.

[Still Thinking]

Lift your mouse up off the desk surfece and temporarily support it on skyhooks. Move the desk 6” or so to the right. Lower the mouse back to the desk surface. There, all fixed!

[holymoly]

The last New PC I bought was an Amiga 4000/040. :-)

I think I still have a copy of "Compute!s Gazette" (somewhere), with an article about Amiga 2000s, with the Video Toaster, being used to create the special effects in "Babylon 5".

It made me want one, but by then I'd already moved from my C=128 to a 286 (I think).

[Phantom Lord]

Look at it from my perspective. The last time I had used a computer was an Apple II in high school!

What is this DOS stuff?

[TC Rider]

I hope they bought Monster Cables with that.