My new job at Geek Choice.

[greggh]

All those phoney forum posts have been made since you joined the company to clean up their act. Will you also be employing the same degree of tenacity addressing the theft of customers computers or the sub-contracting of criminal techs?

What sort of position do you hold within GeekChoice? According to Dun & Bradstreet they have an annual turnover of $49,000 and have a single employee.

When you joined Technibble in 2007 you said you then worked for "Computer House Calls" who coincidentally same the same administrative contact address and phone number as GeekChoice:

Computer House Calls
35 Myrtle Street
Boston, MA 02114
(617)263-0077

Geek Choice
(617) 263-0077
35 Myrtle St
Boston, MA 02114

No I worked for Geek Housecalls. Not "Computer House Calls". As stated quite clearly in my intro thread here: http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=975. If your going to attack someone who is attempting to solve some problems and get things going on the right track. At least get the facts right

As for "Will you also be employing the same degree of tenacity addressing the theft of customers computers or the sub-contracting of criminal techs?"

ABSOLUTELY. I have to yell that one. That was basically two of the employees whose positions I sort of take over. Nothing like that will be happening here again. In fact, even in questionable cases where we might be in the right I am still recommending we work out a deal and give some of the money back. Simply to make sure the customer is happier with the situation.

Technically that problem exploded way out of proportion. It was a huge mess but one of the employees tried to fix it and get everything right the first day it happened. The other two stepped right over him and caused that mess. He was in no position to do anything about it, so it happened.

It wont be happening on my watch. I never let anything like that happen at the last company, and wont be letting it happen here. This will just be on a bigger scale for me. I think I can get all of this cleaned up.

You really need to calm down. I expected some push back. But I am actually attempting to fix all of these problems. I am not the cause of them, I am not the bad guy in this scenario. Could you maybe stop the attack and be constructive?

 

[greggh]

Sorry, I'm calling bs on this guy, nothing of what he's trying to spin out adds up.

Call bs all you want. I have a solid rep here, have been here for years and have always done good work.

 

[cmonova]

I am not calling BS on anything....Greggh has been upfront on these forums since i've been here...read back thru some post you find nothing negative at all from him.

 

[greggh]

So much to figure out and fix.

What sort of position do you hold within GeekChoice? According to Dun & Bradstreet they have an annual turnover of $49,000 and have a single employee.

My title is Technician Manager. But for now I am handling a lot more than just that. Once things are cleaned up and running smoothly then we will probably hire on some more people to spread the load a little. For now its 12-16 hour days for me. Mostly because I just dont trust anyone else out there to fix all of these problems but myself.

Just checked up on Dun & Bradstreet. I cant actually see much of the data without paying. I'll pull a report tomorrow from work. I have personally never gotten a report from dnb. Reading the site it seems like I can just setup an account and do it. So I will get the report and then try and figure out why it says what you say it says. And see what it takes to get that fixed. If it is wrong then that is something that needs to be added to my "list of dumb **** that should be fixed." Or as I have been calling it the last week my "WTF LIST."

 

[iptech]

LOL That forum didn't last long!

Why delete the link if there's nothing untoward? And why is the administrator who only joined himself on 14-September 09 now hastily editing the thing?

Edit: Even although the link has been removed from the parent site, new members are still apparently joining and posting!

This has less credibility than GeeksMobileUSA.

 

[gunslinger]

@iptech

Not sure what the problem is but greggh has been making quality posts on these forums for far longer than most have been members. We joined right around the same time and I have heard nothing from him but good, helpful advice.



Your post that you hope his business fails was uncalled for and very unprofessional.

 

[greggh]

LOL That forum didn't last long!

Why delete the link if there's nothing untoward? And why is the administrator who only joined himself on 14-September 09 now hastily editing the thing?

I emailed the web designer and asked for it to be removed. The Administrator account on that thing is always logged in for some reason. I dont think I have ever seen it not logged in. Its still linked from the bottom, ugh. Emailing again.

One part of this I dont think you are getting is that I literally just got here. I have been here a month and already gotten rid of more than half of the employees. Forums being done by some SEO guy has been somewhat on the bottom of my list of things to figure out. I honestly care more about making sure we get enough good testimonials from the customers. Hopefully I will have the time to go over all the survey results this weekend and deal with that problem (1194 results are going to take me a bit to go over.)

I could have waited another couple months to post this I guess. But I just wanted to get it out there. I like having a new job and having tons of work to do. Its nice to feel useful and like you are really fixing something. If I had waited a lot more of that would have already been cleaned up.

 

[iptech]

@iptech

Not sure what the problem is but greggh has been making quality posts on these forums for far longer than most have been members. We joined right around the same time and I have heard nothing from him but good, helpful advice.



Your post that you hope his business fails was uncalled for and very unprofessional.

Do you not see where all the problems are with that site? It's GeeksMobileUSA repeated.

 

[Bryce W]

iptech, you have pointed out some intresting things. However, very early in this thread greggh said he just got there and he was in there to fix things up. As he said, there were two dodgy technicians there who have since been replaced by him. I am not particually trusting of nationals either, I have heard heaps of horror stories.

ggreggh has mad respect here, he is very experienced in both the technicial side and the business side. He is one of those people who will do computer repair correctly every time and will work for free if he makes a mistake so he can make it right.

Its like you joining Geeksquad and everyone jumping on you citing all the past things Geeksquad has done wrong. greggh just got there and he said he has a lot to do. That company seems to be getting things together (getting rid of two crappy techs to hire a good one), give them time.

Look at cmonovas feedback, and look at greggh's response. Thats the way to get things done. comonvas feedback was totally valid, greggh saw the issue and did something about it (much of it seems to have existed before he got there). As he said before, he has been brought in to fix up that company. He has brought this before us to ask for feedback so you can point out issues like this (like cmonova is doing). Dont fire the gun first and ask questions later.

This post covers pretty much everything I just said.

 

[Bryce W]

Do you not see where all the problems are with that site?

I hear what you are saying iptech, thats why he brought it before us. He was looking for feedback, he wanted us to find what was wrong. He didnt say "Hey guys, this is the final version. We are awesome, take a look". You obviously seem to have a keen eye for spotting these things, help the man out.

 

[iptech]

iptech, you have pointed out some intresting things. However, very early in this thread greggh said he just got there and he was in there to fix things up. As he said, there were two dodgy technicians there who have since been replaced by him. I am not particually trusting of nationals either, I have heard heaps of horror stories.

The dodgy things have been going on since he joined to clean up the act. There are still people apparently joining that forum with posts copy & pasted from elsewhere, even in the past few minutes.

I spotted things wrong within 30 seconds of looking at that forum, considering the whole thing only started since greggh's arrival I'm surprised he hasn't too.

 

[greggh]

The dodgy things have been going on since he joined to clean up the act. There are still people apparently joining that forum with posts copy & pasted from elsewhere, even in the past few minutes.

I spotted things wrong within 30 seconds of looking at that forum, considering the whole thing only started since greggh's arrival I'm surprised he hasn't too.

Oh god no, I have. I didnt say I agree with or am happy with the forum in any way. Its some sort of SEO trick so customers find the site. People that I didnt want working at the company were still working there all the way up until a week ago. I couldnt just clean every last thing up overnight. Just to get where we are has taken me working 12-16 hour days. Which means I work a good 8 hour day at the office and go home and hop on the VPN. I am at least happy with the employees now. And I am actually very happy with the amount of progress made so far.

I have a LONG ways to go. I posted this in hopes of getting exactly the type of feedback cmonova gave. You have however, in your own way, brought forward a few others that really seem to need immediate attention. One of the big problems is that this place had huge employee turnover rate. Only a few people seemed to stick around, and not the ones I would have wanted. They are gone now, but it left an interesting mess. Even figuring out login details for certain things like our yellowpages.com account ended up taking a support call to them to get sorted.

I have had to prioritize what I get done. Some other things, especially internal policy on customer support, were way more important.

Because the forums seem to be such a huge deal to you I emailed the web designers and asked that it be removed. I just hadnt bothered either way with it since it was set up. It was not even close to a priority. You seem to think it should be.

Also, wow I was not expecting to be at page 4 already.

I have actually gotten a lot from your posts though iptech. I would only ask that you be a bit more constructive and less on the attack. You brought up the forums, I got the links removed. As for the forums themselves, I dont actually have the logins to any of that crap. Its hosted at the same hosting company but on a different account. I have to search for the info and hope that its actually logged somewhere in a file on the network (so I dont have to go calling people I dont want to talk to.) It is 11pm at this point and I am getting close to sleep.

 

[Bryce W]

Because the forums seem to be such a huge deal to you I emailed the web designers and asked that it be removed. I just hadnt bothered either way with it since it was set up. It was not even close to a priority. You seem to think it should be.

Good idea. Watch out with that keyword linking imbedded in all those posts too. Search engines may see it as keyword stuffing or Google bombing.

 

[NickCat11]

ggreggh has mad respect here, he is very experienced in both the technical side and the business side. He is one of those people who will do computer repair correctly every time and will work for free if he makes a mistake so he can make it right.
This post covers pretty much everything I just said.

+1, I'm not to sure why you came under such attack for this. To me it seems like you are doing all that you can to make things right with this company. It sounds like you have your hands full but it looks like you are making pretty good progress already. Congratulations on your new position and good luck with everything!

 

[iptech]

This is why I don't bother with this site much these days. All-too-readily it seems happy to embrace the sharp practices of the chancers who are doing so much damage to this industry.

IIRC Geeks//Mobile//USA (there's even a swear filter in place for that name now!) also used to make some valid posts re marketing and not-least SEO and too showed a high degree of technical aptitude, yet he was mercilessly crucified on here and eventually banned.

I simply do not accept that all the dishonest practices on that site are the work of past employees (D&B list the company has having only a single employee). All the copied testimonials and forum posts have been put in place in the past few weeks since greggh joined. I notice the copied testimonials still boast proudly on that site even though they've been clearly busted. A company that boasts over 60,000 customers can surely find its own testimonials?

Sorry guys, greggh may be a competent tech, but his involvement with this scam company does himself no favours. If it were based in the UK this company and others like it would be hounded down by the authorities for employing such dishonest practices to market themselves.

 

[NickCat11]

This is why I don't bother with this site much these days. All-too-readily it seems happy to embrace the sharp practices of the chancers who are doing so much damage to this industry.

IIRC Geeks//Mobile//USA (there's even a swear filter in place for that name now!) also used to make some valid posts re marketing and not-least SEO and too showed a high degree of technical aptitude, yet he was mercilessly crucified on here and eventually banned.

I simply do not accept that all the dishonest practices on that site are the work of past employees (D&B list the company has having only a single employee). All the copied testimonials and forum posts have been put in place in the past few weeks since greggh joined. I notice the copied testimonials still boast proudly on that site even though they've been clearly busted. A company that boasts over 60,000 customers can surely find its own testimonials?

Sorry guys, greggh may be a competent tech, but his involvement with this scam company does himself no favours. If it were based in the UK this company and others like it would be hounded down by the authorities for employing such dishonest practices to market themselves.

All your points toward this company may be valid but from what I am gathering Greggh seems to be trying to fix a lot of these things and get everything straight. Isn't that a good thing?

 

[NickCat11]

This is why I don't bother with this site much these days. All-too-readily it seems happy to embrace the sharp practices of the chancers who are doing so much damage to this industry.

I don't know why something like this effects your participation in the site. It's one thing if everyone made suggestions to Greggh on how to better the company and he responded by saying screw off but he didn't. He is making a good effort to correct these things. What has been done in the past is something he can't change. Let's at least help him with his future efforts with the company.

 

[iptech]

All your points toward this company may be valid but from what I am gathering Greggh seems to be trying to fix a lot of these things and get everything straight. Isn't that a good thing?

Sorry I don't agree. Dumb comments like "the administrator is always logged into the forum" and false testimonials "must have slipped the net" is utter bullcrap. He's struggling to come up credible answers to the questions posed as to why this stuff has been generated over the past few weeks since he joined the company.

That site is trying to gather business using false representation, it really wouldn't take much time to fix that if the company has genuine intentions.

 

[iptech]

I don't know why something like this effects your participation in the site. It's one thing if everyone made suggestions to Greggh on how to better the company and he responded by saying screw off but he didn't. He is making a good effort to correct these things. What has been done in the past is something he can't change. Let's at least help him with his future efforts with the company.

It's down to professional standards - something that has been eroded from this site over the past few months. Ultimately this will do none of us any good.

 

[gunslinger]

It's down to professional standards - something that has been eroded from this site over the past few months. Ultimately this will do none of us any good.

I hear ACG has a new site up. Maybe you would be more at home and feel more "professional" there. Just a thought.