Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) [LWN.net]

Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge)

Posted Jan 22, 2005 20:03 UTC (Sat) by gte223j (guest, #6492)
In reply to: Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge) by ssavitzky
Parent article: Retail geeks aren't geeky enough (NewsForge)

"My guess is that, at the factory, the first thing they do is swap in their diagnostic disk and run that. They probably don't even try to boot *your* disk unless the trouble ticket says you're having problems with it."

That is not how the tech service centers of best buy do it. When you send a box out that is under warranty for hardware problems depending on the problem they generally boot into the os unless that is not possible. they do use diag tools to assess and verify the initial findings of the "bench monkey". they do that first, however they do boot into the os and monkey around with it for sure no matter what the problem may be. would you replace a mb or proc and not try to boot into something!!???

I say this becasue I heard of guy who bought a laptop and put freebsd on it and couldn't burn a cd. The technician at the service center (remote shipped location) sent it back becasue freebsd was not supported!!! I gasped when my fellow bench monkeys told me. I thought that the stupid service center guy would have a spare laptop hd with a known good os on it. how lame.

these retail chains do not hire people capable of dealing with different operating systems. the tools provided are also limited. there are many shortcuts taken and many dissatisfied people.

As a side note though this story was from before i started working there. towards the end before I quit some of them used knoppix!!! it was really cool to see that on the ticket. i myself would use it to differentiate between hardware and software problems in addition to the diag tools. it was great for showing the customer that their nic really did work. it was an easy 20 bucks for the driver reinstall!!

later

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