Dude I work at a Small PC store and theirs a Best Buy 1/4th mile up the road. they bring us 50% of our business. They charge double and triple what we do for antivirus and if its not on their MRI disc they cant fix it. the misdiagnosis rate is incredible and most are flat out lies. Bad memory and they try to tell you your mobo is fried and you should buy a top-o-the-line HP with the extended warranty they dont honor.
I learned all my know how about changing parts in computers and my tech know how from being scammed in the past by dishonest computer techs and watching my dad get scammed. Good thing too because now my family only goes to me for computer repairs.
I'd agree with that and also point out that being an 'enthusiast' has very little to do with day to day IT work. General understanding helps both ways but knowing how to OC a quad to 4 point whatever doesn't fix your exchange when the entire company is screaming at you for email.
Tru dat. I learnt that the very hard and fast way when I got my old job as an IT Tech, luckily it was an apprenticeship . If you don't know how to manage servers, active directory, configure email etc you're pretty much screwed - even if you do have an i7 975 with 3 5870's on a quadruple water loop :wanker:
lol, yeah a friend got me a copy of their mri disc, never tried it out though, figured it may come in handy for something someday.
the next time you go into best buy , have fun w/ them by asking very general and basic questions you already know the answers to . followed by acting naive. if the sales person is cool with you though , let it go . it is only fun if they are acting like a 'reach-around-specialist' could even make it a guru3d hidden camera special
haha yeah the first mistake was going into Best Buy. In the US, you should stick to stores like Frys Electronics, MicroCenter, and CompUSA (In that order). I work at Frys Electronics Components department (Irving, TX) and I can tell you my associates know their stuff and I know more then them, but thats only because Im a geek in general and they only stay up to date with products as they come out. I work in the receiving part of my department so, it has gotten to the point where I can tell you the exact specifications of a product just by reading the name or model number. I can tell you what products get returned often for being POS, and obviously I can tell you what products are good. Every so often, if Im on the sales floor, my sales associates will even ask me for my recommendations. Thats another problem with some places is that maybe some sales associates are afraid to look dumb because they dont know the answer to a customers' question...
Man.. I took an IT related class a while ago and passed with alot of work and patience.. It's actually harder then it seems.. Alot of us here know more then the average best buy tech but there are some things on any certification and test that are unbelievable. Really hard stuff sometimes.. Not really the troubleshooting aspect for me as much as it was the history of computers.. every cpu, every hard drive, ram history.. explained from the beginning of time.. I found it interesting.. I'm not going to get a job doing that unless it was just for fun but the class was great and I learned so much!! Mostly because I did'nt have to learn for any specific reason but because I wanted to.
^ i'm betting on Gigabyte, i went through 3 of those pos within 2 years. Fulmtl: POP QUIZ!!! Ok, for the million dollar cookie. off the top of your head, what is the specs for this: Model #: SB5101U you have 10 seconds to answer!! *edit: 5 seconds *edit: 2 seconds *edit: you failed.
ive heard some real corkers in my time, heres a quick roundup 1) when you unplugged the molex you fried your whole system, that will be £450 please - Technician to my grandad 1994 2) This 9800pro has a power connector on because it's hardware powered whereas this one does not because it's software powered - Random Currys shop assistant 2002 3) Im sorry your PSU failed causing your hard drives to fry (the machine booted and i can blatantly see the drives being detected in the BIOS) - PC Shop owner 2003 4) Im sorry but there are no such things as motherboards with Ram built into them - Random PC World shop assistant 2003 5) This is our playground, we can tell people what we want - IT Tech Random PC Shop 2008 6) 99% of people who work for the franchises who sell PC's or components are salespeople, and people who work in small shops are rip off merchants - Faces Of Death 2010
ummm....? Model #: SB5101U is the model number for a replacement rear tyre for the sinclair C5, hardly a computer based question
^ lol. well it was actually a cable modem, copied straight from Newegg. but your 10 seconds was up long ago
most "techs" in stores arent techs, they are salespeople. big humungous difference. and i was in a fairly well known computer store (not fs or bb) and i asked about what displayport monitors they could get...he looked at me weird. said why would you want that. i said eyefinity. he said huh. so i explained it. i think most people behind the counter dont make enough money to buy the good stuff and dont take the time to even read the damn boxes to see what they are selling. i always start laughing when i go into a fs or bb and they ask if they can help me.......lol no thanks.
I don't mean to be mean, but if you go to best buy or something like that, ALWAYS GO TO THE FAT PEOPLE. They know their computers and gaming a lot more than the skinny asses who just go there to get money by annoying customers.
My dad's been working with and fixing computers for years and he actually knows his stuff... Though he's not very up to date with recent developments (i.e. the latest parts, etc.) since he stopped having an interest. But, yeah, 'techs' who don't know what they're selling should be booted. In both ways.
Back hen I was heading IT for a large, very political school district, I had a tech that had "graduated" from a computer technician program at the local community college. Every time she needed to format a disk, she pulled out her notebook and followed the steps she had written down. I think over the time I was there she created at least 4x more work than she actually did. Thank god for politics!
