Wal-Mart to offer own PC repair squad: The SS
Walmart is to trial an in-store PC and electronics repair service called "Solution Station." It will commence in 15 Dallas-area stores, competing against Geek Squad, Firedog and the like.
Tell your friends and family not to report their computers to the SS. Wal-Mart's no good for anything in this sort of service arena. These guys did $150 worth of damage to my car's undercarriage the one time I went there for an oil change. I'll be damned if I ever let them near a computer.
How quickly will it become known for inflicting further damage on its customers' machines, just like HP's repair division? Support your local certified IT freelancers instead. Why pay to have minimum wagers run scans they don't understand, then send your machine off to the manufacturer for 6 weeks when their magic thumbdrives can't fix the problem?
Wal-Mart Using Dell to Provide 'Solution Stations' [PC Magazine via Consumerist]
the latest
latest episodes
"Wal-Mart's no good for anything in this sort of service arena."
Are you implying that Wal-Mart is good for something then? I am not aware of any positive or redeeming qualities of that organization.
I wonder what color the uniforms will be. Brown or black? Since it's wal-mart is say brown.
SS? What an unfortunate choice....
"These guys did $150 worth of damage to my car's undercarriage the one time I went there for an oil change. I'll be damned if I ever let them near a computer."
Well, one anecdote is certainly an airtight case against them, all right.
Seriously, I'm sure they'll be as bad as any other corporate storefront computer technicians, but your sneering hipsterism is showing.
I know that the actual "technicians" in the store will most likely NOT be Dell direct employees (just like they have outside contractors for the onsite repairs people). The in-store techs will prob. be from some third party company just wearing Dell branding.
They'll just copy your hard drive and blackmail you with the information they find.
People who barely make minimum wage and don't have healthcare have to make money somehow.
I can see it now.
WAL*MART EMPLOYEE: Something wrong with your laptop, Captain?
CUSTOMER: Yes, we couldn't boot it up.
EMPLOYEE: Karl! Fix Captain von Trapp's laptop so that it will boot.
KARL: [presses the power button]
EMPLOYEE: Excellent, Karl.
Just another reason to teach basic computer repair along with the utilization skills they (attempt to) teach in schools today. I helped our pre-teen neighbor build his first computer from scratch and now, only a couple of years later, he's the local troubleshooter. This is in rural Nebraska, mind you.
Right. The article doesn't say anything about wages paid to Solution Station employees, but they're "minimum wagers" because they work at Wal-Mart, and they "don't understand" because they work at Wal-Mart. Automatically.
I'd call you a snob, but you're probably the kind of masochistic son-of-a-bitch who would take that as a compliment. I mean, fuck, I took issue with your comments about Wal-Mart, so I MUST be a "minimum wager" myself, and, if a minimum wager calls you a snob, that's validation.
All I can say is this: You people make me sick. Stop being jackasses. Start writing about tech. This site needs less BoingBoing and more Gadgets.
I...how is it possible to make jokes about this and not invoke Godwin's law?
Hernadez' Corollary:
"As the discussion thread on a gadget blog post about Wal-Mart grows longer, the probability that someone will wonder if the whole thing counts as intrinsically Godwinian approaches one."
:)