Scammers are out in FORCE right now!

[Kirby]

Yesterday I had a computer on the bench that keeps getting fake tech support warning pages. While working on that, I got a call from a lady with a fake tech support page. After that, a guy brought in his computer with, you guessed it, a fake tech support page up. And while I was going over that for him I got a call from ANOTHER customer who got a fake tech support page AND THEN a phone call within an hour and just wanted to double check and make sure it was a scam and all was good.

I live in a town of 6,000 people with 2 other computers stores in town. 5 reports in one day is HUGE here. Vote Me for president! I'll figure out where they're coming from and push the **** out of that shiny red button! That button will feel cheap and dirty when I'm done with it!

 

[cypress]

Whoah that is quite a hit for a small town. Good for business though and hopefully turns into repeat customers for you.

 

[Kirby]

Mostly it's just the web site and it's 5 or so minutes of free tech support because the customer cannot handle 5 steps without hand holding.

1) Unplug the router
2) Restart the computer
3) Open your browser
4) Close your browser
5) Plug your router back in

I have a truly insane number of customers ask me what the router is, which one is the power plug (This one is annoyingly extremely common for me. Have you seriously never seen a DC power plug before???), what their browser is (Their "browser" is usually "Google". Sometimes it's "Yahoo") and, the most common and my personal favorite, just ask me each step over and over again until after their computer has rebooted and they've done them all. When it's all completely done, THEN they understand these 5 simple steps and can hang up the phone.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Mostly it's just the web site and it's 5 or so minutes of free tech support because the customer cannot handle 5 steps without hand holding.

1) Unplug the router
2) Restart the computer
3) Open your browser
4) Close your browser
5) Plug your router back in

I have a truly insane number of customers ask me what the router is, which one is the power plug (This one is annoyingly extremely common for me. Have you seriously never seen a DC power plug before???), what their browser is (Their "browser" is usually "Google". Sometimes it's "Yahoo") and, the most common and my personal favorite, just ask me each step over and over again until after their computer has rebooted and they've done them all. When it's all completely done, THEN they understand these 5 simple steps and can hang up the phone.

Free? Theses are all upsells to our Complete Internet Security package.

 

[Kirby]

Hey, if you want to take over all the stupid tech support calls in my town, be my guest. I once spent 20 minutes explaining to a customer which cord in the back of the computer was the power cord. I had another customer one time want me to stay on the phone while he reinstalled Windows (98) to make sure I was right there in case he had a question. That one did not happen. And, frankly, I'm a little tired of being the front-line tech support for HP, Dell, Mediacom, Centurylink, Linksys, Netgear, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Mozilla, Facebook, Sage, Intuit, Asus, Apple and "the Internet".

Seriously, I wish I got just $10 every time I had to explain why I can't magic away a change Yahoo made in their email interface or Harry Potter a 15 year old software into working in Windows 10. Just today it was a customer who used Outlook.com not sure what a "Microsoft Account" was and pressing me for information on how their email will be different from now on. I work with Microsoft software, I don't oversee the production.