BestBuy Strikes Again!

[W3WN]

Thanks to BestBuy, I just blew three hours working on a laptop. Long story follows...

So the boss comes home from her church choir's holiday party and tells me a tale of woe about one of the older ladies in the choir. Seems she bought a new laptop from BestBuy, and can't get it to work on NetZero (some of you already know where this is going). GeekSquad, despite promises made to her at time of purchase, have told her that she'll have to pay $$$ for them to look at it.

Now she was supposed to drop it off before choir practice tonight and let me work on it. Practice got cancelled due to weather, so instead, she visited with the boss.

Very nice Lenovo laptop was purchased in August. August! And they strung her along for months trying to get her to pay for service. Add in her getting telephone "help" from her sons in Florida... ugly situation. And I get to step right into the middle of it.

First thing I do is put the laptop on the home network. Found McAfee on it, wouldn't authenticate or verify or whatever the hell it does, ditched it and put Avast! on it. Clean scan. Also installed Office 2010 for her... seems it came with a trial, which expired, and part of their "help" was to sell her a new copy at full retail. Nice.

Now... time to look over the modem to find out why she can't dial into NetZero. Yes, I said modem and dial. She doesn't have Internet access at her home any other way.

Guess yet what the problem is? Yup. No modem. Gee... no WONDER she couldn't dial in. And the GeekSquad was going to charge her in advance to configure something that wasn't there?

She thought she had a modem, see, there's a phone jack on the side! Yeah, only it's an RJ-45 ethernet jack. But the sales schmuck told her... never mind. Clearly she got taken.

Can I give her a modem out of my stash? If only. No serial port. No PCMCIA slot. Only two --TWO -- USB ports. Great.

Quick trip to BB. Different sales schmuck tries to talk us out of a USB modem... "You mean for DIAL UP?" I gave him a dirty look. Told him what happened; he told me that it wasn't possible that BB wouldn't sell a modem or a laptop w/o one to someone on dial-up. Sure. But could he get us a discount on the $49.94 ones that had? You can quit laughing now.

Well, she took off a little while ago. Modem works, she can dial in to get her email... she's been paying NetZero's monthly fee for FOUR MONTHS and no access, lovely. She's happy.

I did try to explain that she can get DSL service from Verizon (she's retired and on a tight budget) for less than she's probably paying NZ. She's thinking about it.

I also asked her if she knew any of her neighbors. The machine has wireless built in (detected my LAN with no problem), so I figure that if she can get permission, she can just piggyback on another LAN in her building. Turns out... she doesn't know a soul amongst the other dozen or so condo owners. Sad.

Makes you really wonder, though, about some of these sales bozos. How can you be told that someone uses dial-up to access their email, and then sell them a laptop without a modem? Or at least make sure she has a modem to go? How can you then not only fail to provide any support promised, but have your people tell her sight unseen that it will cost $$$ to configure a NON EXISTENT modem? How can you do all this... and look in the mirror or sleep at night?

But... all's well. She's set up, the boss is happy, and I've done my good deed for the day. Who needs to work DX anyway?

[KG4CGC]

SELL SELL SELL! Get your numbers and worry about the fallout later because usually they just say, You're Phuct!

[KJ3N]

I also asked her if she knew any of her neighbors. The machine has wireless built in (detected my LAN with no problem), so I figure that if she can get permission, she can just piggyback on another LAN in her building. Turns out... she doesn't know a soul amongst the other dozen or so condo owners. Sad.

I'm willing to bet at least one person in the condo has their wireless completely open. ;)

[N8YX]

I'm willing to bet at least one person in the condo has their wireless completely open. ;)

The access of which could lead to federal felony charges in certain circumstances.

We recently picked up a couple of Gateway desktops for a ham friend at our area BB. Told the kids to stay out of the way and let the adults handle the purchasing. Even though we weren't hassled to any great degree, the next time we need something I think it'll be ordered online.

[KJ3N]

I'm willing to bet at least one person in the condo has their wireless completely open. ;)

The access of which could lead to federal felony charges in certain circumstances.

Which I have issues with. If you leave your shit open, you've got no right to complain, IMHO.

About 2 years ago I did an experiment where I set up my laptop in the car to scan for access points and drove to work. I found no less than 15 out of 50-60 wireless routers that had no security enabled at all.

"Stupid is as stupid does, Lt. Dan."

[W3WN]

I'm willing to bet at least one person in the condo has their wireless completely open. ;)

So would I, or a nearby neighbor, but I'd have to venture over there to find out.

That said, I can't ethically advocate piggybacking. She should at least ask. (Just because you leave your front door unlocked doesn't mean that I have your permission to enter your home and rob you blind, after all... if you get my drift)

[W3WN]

< snip >
We recently picked up a couple of Gateway desktops for a ham friend at our area BB. Told the kids to stay out of the way and let the adults handle the purchasing. Even though we weren't hassled to any great degree, the next time we need something I think it'll be ordered online.

Had I been aware of the circumstances at the time of purchase, I would have gladly accompanied this nice lady to BB and made sure she got the right system. Gratis; it's worth it to avoid this very kind of hassle.

I think I can say that almost everyone on the Island would be able to do the same, but we are a heck of a lot more technically savant than the average user, let alone the average BB salesweenie.

[W3WN]

Which I have issues with. If you leave your shit open, you've got no right to complain, IMHO.

About 2 years ago I did an experiment where I set up my laptop in the car to scan for access points and drove to work. I found no less than 15 out of 50-60 wireless routers that had no security enabled at all.

"Stupid is as stupid does, Lt. Dan."

Which doesn't make it right.

I see your point, and for those who know better, I have little sympathy. I'm finding out, though, that at least locally, when Verizon or Comcast... excuse me, Xfinity, what a asinine brand name... techs are hooking people's computers/LAN's to their networks, most or all of the routers/switches in use have wireless access, and that the techs are leaving them enabled by default. With no password protection.

So if someone has an older system w/out WiFi or other wireless access, and doesn't know to say something to the tech, they may have no clue that their LAN is being exposed to the world.

Almost makes you wonder if it's by design -- not of the companies, but of the techs.

[KJ3N]

Which doesn't make it right.

Probably not.

I see your point, and for those who know better, I have little sympathy.

And I have little sympathy for those who don't know better. What's the phrase they'll use on you in court? "Ignorance of the law is no excuse"? Well, ignorance of proper security is no excuse, either, IMHO.

How many PCs have you had to disinfect because of ignorance? Do you ever get tired of it? I do. I've also run out of sympathy for those people too. It's plastered all over the 'net and TV that there are nasties out there. Why would you not educate yourself as to the proper steps to take? My answer? You're an idiot.

I'm finding out, though, that at least locally, when Verizon or Comcast... excuse me, Xfinity, what a asinine brand name... techs are hooking people's computers/LAN's to their networks, most or all of the routers/switches in use have wireless access, and that the techs are leaving them enabled by default. With no password protection.

So if someone has an older system w/out WiFi or other wireless access, and doesn't know to say something to the tech, they may have no clue that their LAN is being exposed to the world.

Almost makes you wonder if it's by design -- not of the companies, but of the techs.

Never attribute to malice that which can easily be attributed to stupidity. My experiences in dealing with most installation techs is that they're not terribly bright in the first place.

[n2ize]

There are at least 2 or 3 open networks in my area and on a few occasions my laptop picked up on them and automatically connected to them instead of my secure router. I didn't even realize it until I noticed the connection was unusually slower than normal and I couldn't see other parts of my network.