What is your computer worth?
Ewiges — Mon, 02/18/2008 - 06:04
So Recently a lady is sueing Best Buy $54 million on purpose of losing her PC when it went in for a warranty repair.
<Don't dismiss Raelyn Campbell
as a crackpot. Not yet. Listen to her story, and then decide if she's
doing the right thing by asking Best Buy to compensate her to the tune
of $54 million for a laptop that went missing when she took it in to
Best Buy for repair under the store's own extended warranty.
Like many people, Campbell bought an extended warranty
for her laptop when she bought it from Best Buy, and she took advantage
of that when the power button broke off after a year. Best Buy accepted
the machine for repair and said it would be ready in two to six weeks.
But six weeks passed and the computer wasn't ready. After three months
of ruthlessly hounding the company, Best Buy finally admitted it
couldn't find the machine.
Ultimately, Best Buy offered to pay
her $900 for losing the machine... as a gift card. She countered that
it had originally cost over $1,100, not to mention all her data that
was now gone for good. She demanded $2,100, and Best Buy simply ignored
her.
At this point, Campbell was made aware that all her personal
data on the machine could lead to a major identity theft issue, though
Best Buy never filed their legally required notice that she was at
risk. That was the last straw, and she filed suit for $54 million,
representing herself. Best Buy has since upped its offer to a total of
$4,100 if she withdraws the case. She says she doesn't expect to win,
but wants to go to court anyway to force Best Buy to explain how her
laptop was lost.
I have to agree that $54 million seems wildly
optimistic, but it's amazing to hear how smug Best Buy has been
throughout this process. Lowball, "go-away" offers that don't even
value property properly, much less the value of the data inside it, are
frankly embarrassing, and good for Campbell for making an issue out of
it... even if she doesn't ultimately prevail.>
Source: Best Buy Loses Latop: Owner Sues... for $54 Million. http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/72016#see_comments
What is funny about this, is less than a week ago ABC news did an undercover report about 'computer repair places'. They simply loosened a power cord on the inside and took it to several computer repair including Best Buy's Geek Squad and Circuit City's Fire Dog. Most of the smaller places came up with a bunch of fake problems. Circuit City said they had the audio shop replace a fuse. (Fuse in a PC, yeah right). Best Buy was the only one that gave a proper fix AND was the only one that did not look at all the pictures of the hot intern.
Well, I can't find the link to the video, it seems to have disapeared.
So for those unable to fix your own computer, where will you take your PC when it dies?
I fix it myself. I need to
Dikymo — Fri, 02/22/2008 - 22:42I fix it myself. I need to move to washington apparently.
I agree completely with Star
Dufe — Fri, 02/22/2008 - 14:35I agree completely with Star on this one. I have used pre-release versions of every windows release since windows 3.1. There is a common model, I've seen it happen EVERY time:
1. Development of new OS begins. People get excited about it and rumors and expectations build.
2. MS sends alpha releases to other SW devs. They essentially ignore it, but pretend not to.
3. MS uses their internal testing and what little external input they receive to prepare for beta.
4. Betas released. Repeat steps 2 & 3 with a little more external input. Other SW devs continue to pretend that the new OS will never come out and don't prepare.
5. Release Candidates come out. The press goes wild and builds up incredible expectations in the minds of the public. Other SW devs still hiding in their caves.
6. RTM released. SW Devs begin to scrath their heads wondering if they should do something about it while the press continues to wildly hype up the new OS.
7. Retail release. The OS looks and runs great . . . . until you load drivers and third party apps. These break the new OS completely since none of the SW devs in charge of them ever did anything to prepare. The public is disappointed due to this and the fact that the OS had no chance of meeting the press's overhype.
8. Other SW devs finally pull their heads out of the sand ond make drivers/third party apps that work. Windows starts to work fine, but is too late . . . it is already "cool" to hate on the new OS due to the intial problems caused by the third party SW devs.
-6 months later-
9. Service Pack one is released. By this time, the real root of the initial problems have been solved by the third party devs who caused them. Nobody sees this, but rather assumes that service pack 1 was the true fix and that MS initially released a crappy product.
-a year passes-
10. People think Windows <Insert Version Here> is the best thing in the world and everyone uses it.
@Frollo: "Bucket of
starstalker — Fri, 02/22/2008 - 11:07@Frollo: "Bucket of Turds" is what people call vista when they have no real legit complaints about Vista, but want to sound cool by jumping on the vista-sucks bandwagon. =)
But hey, dont let me stop you from using a 7yr old OS that MS has twice now tried to discontinue support for.
For people who have given Vista a legit chance (on hardware that actually supports it), I have yet to hear any valid complaints that amount to anything more than what happened when XP came out and everyone said they were going to stick with 2000.
I've been using 32bit vista for over a year now on 4 pc's in my house, and soon I'll be upgrading to 64bit (and a new shiny motherboard!) on my own machine. Cant wait!
/flings poop at Garreth
sounds delicious alli when
Frollo — Fri, 02/22/2008 - 07:12sounds delicious alli when do i get to fix your box
frollo
"I'm gettn hitched Bitch!"
Since I am in the midst of
Barqz — Tue, 02/19/2008 - 16:52Since I am in the midst of an IT degree in PC hardware, I would take it to me, anything else I bump to garreths post. Yes I will drive to Pulman and have Big G fix it (and by fix i mean Holy Wrath)
to answer the origional
Frollo — Tue, 02/19/2008 - 12:51to answer the origional question it depends on the time in which it was built to now
if you count the monitor and everything as most newbs do it is probably worth 3-3.5k when i first built it now it is probably worth about 1.8-2.2 maybe more depending on labor charges as i suck at charging people anything
i have a dell 24" 1900x1200 monitor (forget the model numbers) but my comp is liquid cooled and the whole shebang contemplating on upgrading to a quad core and about 4-8 gig of ram and vista 64 ultimate but i can't convince myself to convert to that bucket of turds
but yes garreth is correct i tend to do the pc repair for a small army that knows of me
Me working on my computer is
mav — Mon, 02/18/2008 - 19:58Me working on my computer is a site to watch.
Me:
*Starts screwing side back on*
*Side refuses to slide in properly*
Fucking cock shit...
*Pushes power button*
*Cooling system lets out a fire alarm-esque beep meaning it has some clogging issues or something...*
Me: *Screaming over beeping noises*
FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT SHUT THE....
*Incoherant swears*
For yall Dallas area peeps
Grasen — Mon, 02/18/2008 - 18:14For yall Dallas area peeps whle most of yall already know there may be 1 or 2 who dont. Aidin or Jobs can fix damn near anything. And if they cant our buddy Grant can. sure a cheep deal could be worked out if your in need.
My mother's husband worked
Aidin — Mon, 02/18/2008 - 15:24My mother's husband worked at Circuit City for quite some time. If you took in a CD changer because you mag got stuck, or a DVD player, or CD player...anything in which you may have property stuck inside the machinary...write it off, cause you weren't getting it back. It was considered their "Jackpot prize for the day!"
What Garreth said. A GOOD
Shihli — Mon, 02/18/2008 - 12:15What Garreth said.
A GOOD computer repair from Garreth only costs me some pizza and beer.
Or Garreth's repair costs
Allikat — Wed, 02/20/2008 - 10:03Or Garreth's repair costs some homemade sushi and sake...with a side of homemade egg rolls :D
To Garreth, Frollo, Star, or
garreth — Mon, 02/18/2008 - 12:05To Garreth, Frollo, Star, or Dufe, like usual.