We fix computers and computer problems, not Windows.
We consider Windows issues to be an entirely different
class of problems.

And problems running applications or opening a particular
file are not the kind of problem people take to technicians.
Who sends their computer to Best Buy
for a problem with an Office document?

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 09:51:46 -0600, Mike Berger
wrote:


Yeah, and the motophoto clerks never looked at the photos
they were processing or made copies of the ... interesting
ones.

Your equivocation would make Bush proud.


I don't consider testing MS Office to be equivocation. Would you
suggest I open my own test files from a cdrom or network server
instead? Perhaps you also don't look at the list of programs
installed in Add/Remove Software. Maybe you also don't bother to
check what's starting is MSCONFIG. If the disk is rather full, I'm
sure your busy techs don't bother checking what's hogging all the
diskspace. Naturally, you don't bother to test if their email is
functioning. Surly, you would consider checking the virus and spyware
scanner log files for past infections an invasion of privacy. Yeah,
privacy is so important that it justified returning the machine half
fixed and untested.

The problem I have is that I'll get a phone call a few weeks or
sometimes months later asking if I had erased some file of theirs, or
perhaps retained a backup copy.


They have no business looking at the data. End of story.


Well, W2K and XP Pro have EFS (Encrypted File Services).


If they are poking around in customer's files where they
don't belong, why should anybody believe they'd have the
integrity to keep the information to themselves?


The original complaint did not mention anything about disclosure on
the part of the Geek Squad. Did you find any information that
indicates that there had been a disclosure of customers information?


And if
they're sharing with other technicians, they clearly don't.


Assumption again. Got any evidence or examples of disclosure?

I'm not so sure if absolute non-disclosure is possible. If the Geek
Squad finds a file sharing program, with an open DSL connection,
possibly run by a trojan horse program, and the customer is
complaining that their internet connection is slow, it would be
necessary to inform them of the problem and ask if they wanted it
removed or if file sharing was their primary activity. It might be
possible to investigate the problem and remove the programs involved
without looking at what was being downloaded, but I doubt it. When
I've run into such situations, I burn a DVD of the downloaded files
for the customer, and remove the whole mess. If I goofed and they
actually wanted to run a file sharing system, then they can re-install
it themselves. This is fairly mild compared to what some
manufacturers will do with warranty returns. Reformatting the hard
disk and restoring it to original manufacturers condition is quite
common.