It is Wednesday today, the middle of the working week. It is also the day I had my big meeting with a very important possible client that, by the way, went well…but so far, no word on whether we are in …So, understandably, I am in a horrid mood. All this uncertainty is bad for my health and I am finding it hard to remain positive…Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, I have decided to start a new tradition on our computer repairs blog. Wednesday is now a computer repairs horror story day. Here is where I will share with you some of the horrors experienced by Mobile Geeks (All names and identifying details removed, of course!). Here is also where I will share the experience of our colleagues in Australia and other countries. To start us off is a computer repairs horror story from the UK (I am working with the visit by Prince William here.)
Not long ago, Sky News in the UK ran a covert operation to investigate local computer repairs shops. The journalists intentionally disabled a honeypot machine by loosening one of the RAM chips and proceeded to take it to different computer repairs shops for service. The machine had “private” data on it, like photos and documents. The computer also had spyware on it, and not the kind you get from browsing the internet, but the kind that people intentionally install to spy on people using your machine. Yes, yes, you guessed it. This was actually done to spy on the computer repairs people.
The deal was very simple: take the broken computer to local repair shops, come home, take a seat and watch what happens.
The majority of computer repairs shops did not or could not diagnose the issue correctly and offered detailed and expensive motherboard replacements as the fix. (In fairness to them it must be said that, when the owner says, that he/she did not open the computer up and loosen the motherboard connections…us, computer repairs geeks, must believe that.)
SkyNews also found a disturbing number of computer repair shop technicians snooping through the personal photos and documents. In a couple of cases, some of the photos were even copied off to USB drives. This problem with some corner stores is not new. About a year ago, a PC repair technician in Florida was, in fact, arrested for installing spyware on women’s laptops and snooping on them using their laptops’ built-in cameras. What do you think of that?!
Personally, I would never take my computer to a corner shop computer repair store and I would certainly not leave my machine with anyone without a proper website and an online presence. It takes a lot of money to set up a good website and that means the company is investing into its future and with that much at stake it is not about to damage its credibility by hiring unprofessional technicians. At Mobile Geeks, all our computer repairs technicians have long term industry experience and credibility. All of the Geeks are trained and regularly monitored to ensure that their standards are always high. Mobile Geeks, also mainly deliverservices onsite that is without parting you from your machine. The onsite service offers extra security. Sometimes, if time is of the essence, and/or the computer repairs problem is particularly complex, the computer needs to be taken to the lab.
Mobile Geeks’ lab is a ‘protected environment’. Firstly, no one but company staff enters the premises. Secondly, special software monitors the actions of computer technicians and records what they access on different machines, without accessing the actual data. Thirdly, the boss or his right hand man – Jon, are mostly on the premises and they both are tough to handle, so everyone is on their best behaviour. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, your computer is in good hands when it is being fixed by Mobile Geeks.
Over and out (Wha ha ha ha ha …I think I need to work on my evil laugh…)
MobileGeekette
