Oh Those Deceitful Local Computer Service Stores.
If you look at a computer stores website and it talks about their certifications. degrees etc... , take it with a grain of salt. The plain fact is that people or places lie just to get your money. Yes that is the unfortunate truth and customers get sucked in.
One computer company I worked for would take all our certifications, certificates and degrees, to mount them on the wall right where the customers would stand so they could see them and know we did not lie. Now I am not saying everyone was perfect and did not lie. Yes some sales people thought it was their job to lie to a customer to make a sale.
The deceitful things companies will do is to use the products they have in sales, is to let the technicians use them in the troubleshooting of repairs. Yes they let us use motherboards, microprocessors, memory, video cards, sound cards, Ethernet cards, coin batteries and more. We would take it back in service, use it and then put it back on the shelf in sales to sell as new. Make sure you are buying a new computer.
The problem I always saw was the mishandling of these various components. I saw quite a few times when an unsuspecting customer would purchase the item, only to have it fail or damage their computer. Now they were back and angry. Now you lose money and business.
One of the other tricks was to replace a new motherboard that failed with a motherboard that came back from the manufacturer. This was a component that failed, was sent in for warranty repair. Most of the time these would fail and then the customer was really angry as their new computer still failed to function.
I can remember when they were installed into a brand new computer build. This kind of thing happened with other components as well. One of their other tricks was to take parts that came in for recycling and use them in repairs or sell them as refurbished parts. It seemed as if the deceitfulness never stopped.
Another crooked thing was to take a new laptop and pull the sata or ssd drive out of the machine. Then they would have us clone it to a bigger drive and install that in the laptop. They would also add memory to the laptop. This was done to increase the cost of the laptop, so the customer would pay more. The problem was that the company was not warranty authorized and this would void the warranty. If there was a problem, they would the customer bring it in, so they could remove the added parts, reinstall the original parts and they call the manufacturer. All done so they did not get caught.
One of the worst things I saw was the removing of the Microsoft Product License Key Sticker with a heat gun. It was then adhered to the new computer. This was done so they could use the customers operating system or they and install the customers hard drive into the new machine and try to activate it. This was illegal, because the license key had to stay with the machine it was sold with.
There were other things that went on, that I do not care to mention.
Okay so what is a customer to do before they do business with a local computer service center ? Well I would make them show you the certifications, warranty certifications and any college degrees. I would also ask for a tour of the entire company. Pay attention to how components are handled in repair, sales and building of computers. Have them show you a motherboard and see if the seal was removed.
If you see any of these things going on, leave and go somewhere else. I would also tell your friends not to go there. Report them to Microsoft for their illegal practices.