- Joined
- Dec 27, 2008
A customer of mine called me wanting help with SPAM issues and what she thought were infections on her computer. Several years ago I built her a Windows desktop so I thought that was the machine she was referring to. I asked her to disconnect the computer and bring it to me so I could go through it. Turns out the machine was actually a Chromebook she had purchased since my last contact with her. Here's how the story unfolded:
1. Her daughter had been trying to get this lady's HP printer to work with the Chromebook without success. Of course, I'm sure neither of them realized that Chromebooks use cloud printing services.
2. Frustrated, the daughter calls HP support for help but they were unable to walk her through the printer setup. But the daughter asks the HP tech for a referral for someone who could help them with their infection and SPAM problems. The HP support person gave them the name of an outfit that sells online maintenance service packages (do you smell "SCAM"?).
3. So my customer bought into this maintenance service fro $188 per year. She said they supposedly did a couple things remotely that did not solve the problems. She calls them back sometime later for more help and was informed that the package she purchased did not cover what she now needed done but for another $179 she could add that to the contract. And by the way, "Brad" who sold her the original plan was no longer with the company. Of course.
4. At this point the alarm bells wen off in the daughter's head and they called me. I had to explain to them that Chromebooks are very unlikely candidates for infections since it is cloud-based computing and nothing is really added to the machine itself and that there was nothing for a maintenance plan to fix on a Chromebook. They were still worried so I used the Power Eraser function in Settings to restore the unit to factory condition and helped her create some new web mail accounts to deal with the SPAM problem.
What a boondoggle. It was like being sold capture sacks for a snipe hunt. And do you suppose the HP support person had connections to the maintenance support scam? A little kickback there maybe or moonlighting going on?
1. Her daughter had been trying to get this lady's HP printer to work with the Chromebook without success. Of course, I'm sure neither of them realized that Chromebooks use cloud printing services.
2. Frustrated, the daughter calls HP support for help but they were unable to walk her through the printer setup. But the daughter asks the HP tech for a referral for someone who could help them with their infection and SPAM problems. The HP support person gave them the name of an outfit that sells online maintenance service packages (do you smell "SCAM"?).
3. So my customer bought into this maintenance service fro $188 per year. She said they supposedly did a couple things remotely that did not solve the problems. She calls them back sometime later for more help and was informed that the package she purchased did not cover what she now needed done but for another $179 she could add that to the contract. And by the way, "Brad" who sold her the original plan was no longer with the company. Of course.
4. At this point the alarm bells wen off in the daughter's head and they called me. I had to explain to them that Chromebooks are very unlikely candidates for infections since it is cloud-based computing and nothing is really added to the machine itself and that there was nothing for a maintenance plan to fix on a Chromebook. They were still worried so I used the Power Eraser function in Settings to restore the unit to factory condition and helped her create some new web mail accounts to deal with the SPAM problem.
What a boondoggle. It was like being sold capture sacks for a snipe hunt. And do you suppose the HP support person had connections to the maintenance support scam? A little kickback there maybe or moonlighting going on?
