PC World Health Check

[nffc]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

I was showing my ingenuity not that im a bodge it and leg it type

I knew that. Novel if nothing else.

[maxtoralias]

My brother-in-law bought a PC from PC world and due to a hardware failure of a component on the motherboard (the network adapter died) this caused the machine boot problems.

He rang the PC world's advice line and was told to run the restore function (this is basically a packard bell PC using an NEC software restore function stored on a FAT32 partition of the hard drive).
However, the machine refused to boot into the restore partition and although he could log into windows using my XP Pro CD, there appeared to be a lot of file corruption and no means of effectively repairing it. The machine was using XP Home.
As a consequence of this boot failure, he was instructed to format the hard drive, thereby removing the entire drive contents and no means of restoring the software as Packard Bell did not supply software on CD and you are therefore totally reliant on the restore partition. Had my brother-in-law been a little more tech savvy, he could have used the DVD writer to back up his system, but as he is not, he is now totally reliant on the restore CD's being sent from Belgium.
This is before the hardware problem can be 'formally' diagnosed as having no means of loading windows, further diagnosis is extremely difficult.
However, it is also evident that without the warranty, people like my brother-in-law may be stuffed as they are totally reliant on the support that the vendor offers.

[MadGamer]

One thing i will say,

PC World = bunch of Ametuers

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by Wayne A

One thing i will say,

PC World = bunch of Ametuers

harsh , my local store did me no harm , good and bad in all things

[dilli-theclaw]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

harsh , my local store did me no harm , good and bad in all things

Quite - I think it depends what store you go to as well.

I'm more or less in between Bedford and Stevenage stores.....

I'd NEVER go back to the Bedford store again as they really were less than useless. But Stevenage on the other hand wasn't bad at all.

MMMmmm

[Strzelecki]

This is typical of some people, while I'm not defending the apparent actions of some staff at some PC World stores, there are some good people working for the company, it's all to easy to say everyone who works there is crap. I work as a technician there to earn money to pay my way through university and I always try to give good service and have never had a complaint against me. I have to do 3 or 4 'healthchecks' ever day I'm at work so I can tell you exactly what they involve. What annoys me is customers who have no idea how to use or protect their machine complaining because we've recommended they do a reinstall after our virus scanner has deleted half of windows! It's your responsibility to keep a data backup, not ours and infact you sign some paperwork when you bring it in that says this. In roverts case it may have well been a technicians blunder but it could also have been the new Healthcheck software we have to use, this includes special verions of Webroots SpySweeper and Norton Antivirus which install themselves when the healthcheck is being done and then are removed when finished. On very rare occasions it has been know that if the machine has already got either of these pieces of software installed then their registry entries may be effected when the healtheck versions are removed (presumably because they use the same entries or something), the people who produce the software have been informed of this. I'm not defending this particular store but if you're not happy then try speaking to the store manager, if they're decent enough they may offer you something in the way of compensation. Also you should have received a report back with the machine, take that with you as it should have the name of the technician who carried out the healthcheck on it.

[swoop101]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

I use old macarno if theres no spare drive bay

Nah, use the tried and trusted IT bloke method of cable ties and blue-tack (sorry - highly adhesive, impact absorbing packing paste )

[dilli-theclaw]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

I use old macarno if theres no spare drive bay

Looks like someone stole your idea.....

http://www.internetreadypcs.co.uk/ca...roducts_id=379

I did consider getting some and doing a case at one point - but I can't trust my boy not to poke his fingers inside

Dagnamit

[NitroNutter]

You get what you pay for and most companies cannot afford to honour their initial warranties in a proper manor either.
This is because most demand cheepness to quality.

£50 for a health check will buy you 1-2 hours servicing. A full and complete health check depending on the pc spec can take from several hours to days.

[rovert]

I forgot to mention in my original post that no written report had been given to me when I collected the pc, let alone the one-to-one consultation with a technician which they claim happens.

When I booked my pc in I was told that the healthcheck might take up to 2 days to complete. I was therefore surprised to get a call to say it was ready early afternoon on the day I had taken it in at nine. Further investigation showed that the pc had been turned on at 11.30 meaning that the whole process took just over 2 hours.

[AndrewJ]

There is a new name for PCworld's techincal staff.

Ogit Bodgit and Scarper.

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by AndrewJames

There is a new name for PCworld's techincal staff.

Ogit Bodgit and Scarper.

here we go again , you cant tar them all with the same brush , like i said before , good and bad in all

[ZrByte]

The problem with PC world is that 90% of the staff have no background in IT and as such have to follow written instructions (and we all know how often they work out dont we).
I know 3 people who work for PC world and every single one of them asks me for help because they are computer novices, infact 2 of them only have PC's because of staff discount apparently.

Strzelecki seems to be the exception to the rule, you can always tell when someone like him has dealt with your machine as it normally works when you get it back
I also agree with whats been said about store locations, the store near me is terrible, not one staff member who seems to know how to use a PC properly. There are three groups of staff at this store...... The know nothings, The know nearly nothings and the infamous "I play games on my PC so how hard can the rest of it be"
Now if your willing to make the 30 minute drive to Aintree from my house thier store is fantastic, or at least it was last time I went there (about 3 years ago). There is still the fair share of know nothings etc but I would have said that half of thier techs actually know what they are doing.

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

here we go again , you cant tar them all with the same brush , like i said before , good and bad in all

You many not be able to tar each member of staff but you can have a bad opinion of a company. I certainly do.