Office Depot caught selling 'fixes' for non-existent PC problems

in legal on 2016-11-23 01:00 (#22MG4)

Seattle-based KIRO 7 news team recently took a pile of brand-new computers to six Office Depot locations around Portland, Ore. Technicians at four shops claimed the PCs showed "symptoms of malware," and offered to sell repair and protection services for up to $180.

Sister station FOX25 in Boston recently ran a similar undercover report, bringing three out-of-the-box PCs to Office Max, an Office Depot Inc. affiliate. Techs at two locations suggested signs of "poor performance," recommending a fix between $149 and $199; a third store found no problems. Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell last week requested that the Federal Trade Commission investigate Office Depot Inc. for deceptive or unfair marketing practices related to these allegations.

http://www.pcmag.com/news/349821/office-depot-caught-selling-fixes-for-non-existent-pc-prob

Nothing new under the sun (Score: 1)

by ticho@pipedot.org on 2016-11-23 06:58 (#22N9C)

There have always been con men, selling snake oil to unwary victims. I bet that when the idea of mutually beneficial exchange of goods or services was first conceived, the very next thought in their heads was "how can I use this to gain something without giving something away".

good techie (Score: 1, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-11-27 07:25 (#233HC)

I would find symptoms of malware (nagging screens, unwarranted leakage of personal data to malware controllers' server) in all WIN 10 installations too.
Maybe I would charge less for wiping windows and installing linux, which is the fix. OTOH they have made booting into linux increasingly difficult nowadays with all that UEFI and filling internal hd partitions.