Confessions of an ex-PC technician
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Join Date: Jan 2001
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Confessions of an ex-PC technician
Just thought I would give you guys an insight into the world of a large (one of the biggest) consumer and business computer manufacturers in the U.K and more specifically the job of a technician…however obviously I can’t tell you which company. Actually I guess I best set a disclaimer: This information is all false; a work of fiction. Don’t believe it. It is purely for your entertainment??
Technicians in general had no formal training; we just had to prove we could tell someone how to reinstall a driver in a number of O.S.s without looking at a screen. When we put customers on hold to ‘look into something,’ often we are swearing ‘like a trooper’ to let off some steam to avoid calling the customer stupid. And yes, I know a technician who missed the hold button and called a customer a f*king ignorant tw*t. I worked in R&D for a bit, and I never failed a product…although I could not get some of them to work. The management said because we need the item to sell, you have to pass it. The world of R&D and PC magazine review is a corrupt one from what I can tell. I have built computers that have been reviewed by some well-known newsagents stocked magazines that I used to read. They came back missing monitors, memory, CPU, anything really. I quickly went to the management to report of the first theft that I saw. They told me that is was common practice, take the PC apart, and return the parts to stock. We always got good reviews. The review machines are also generally not representative of the actual product - the download and sometimes memory spec. etc. were different. We sold PC’s that had components in that did not work with the motherboard. We sold them, and strung customers out until the money back period expired. I was sent to fix business servers that I have never seen before, or even knew how to take apart. I had to work it all out on the spot while the company looses all use of computers. There was a lot of theft in the company. Even to the extent that customers PC sent in for repair could ‘loose’ parts. People’s credit card numbers were available for anyone in the company to see (thousands of people) including the underworld of the PC builders (joking). Management pressure was all towards call numbers not fixing the problems. You were asked to get rid of the customer ASAP…e.g. OK, I will leave you while that drivers installs, please call back (wait in big queue..) Oh yeah, a final word of warning. PC sales staff are on commission, so obviously if you ask ‘does this product work with this PC’ they will say yes. However on the whole we tried our best to help customers out, to the extent of often annoying management for staying on the phone too much. Please excuse the ugly structure of this post.
Technicians in general had no formal training; we just had to prove we could tell someone how to reinstall a driver in a number of O.S.s without looking at a screen. When we put customers on hold to ‘look into something,’ often we are swearing ‘like a trooper’ to let off some steam to avoid calling the customer stupid. And yes, I know a technician who missed the hold button and called a customer a f*king ignorant tw*t. I worked in R&D for a bit, and I never failed a product…although I could not get some of them to work. The management said because we need the item to sell, you have to pass it. The world of R&D and PC magazine review is a corrupt one from what I can tell. I have built computers that have been reviewed by some well-known newsagents stocked magazines that I used to read. They came back missing monitors, memory, CPU, anything really. I quickly went to the management to report of the first theft that I saw. They told me that is was common practice, take the PC apart, and return the parts to stock. We always got good reviews. The review machines are also generally not representative of the actual product - the download and sometimes memory spec. etc. were different. We sold PC’s that had components in that did not work with the motherboard. We sold them, and strung customers out until the money back period expired. I was sent to fix business servers that I have never seen before, or even knew how to take apart. I had to work it all out on the spot while the company looses all use of computers. There was a lot of theft in the company. Even to the extent that customers PC sent in for repair could ‘loose’ parts. People’s credit card numbers were available for anyone in the company to see (thousands of people) including the underworld of the PC builders (joking). Management pressure was all towards call numbers not fixing the problems. You were asked to get rid of the customer ASAP…e.g. OK, I will leave you while that drivers installs, please call back (wait in big queue..) Oh yeah, a final word of warning. PC sales staff are on commission, so obviously if you ask ‘does this product work with this PC’ they will say yes. However on the whole we tried our best to help customers out, to the extent of often annoying management for staying on the phone too much. Please excuse the ugly structure of this post.
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Brighton. UK. (Via Liverpool).
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Thats pretty honest of you to write something like that, thanks for confirming something i have thought for a while.
I need to upgrade soon. Is it Time to do it all together or should i do it bit by Tiny bit?
I need to upgrade soon. Is it Time to do it all together or should i do it bit by Tiny bit?
