With Circuit City out of business is FireDog dead?

[NYJimbo]

http://www.circuitcity.com/closed.html

As most of you know Circuit City is going out of business immediatly. I noticed if you try to go to FireDog it comes back to the dead Circuit City web page.

Anyone know if FireDog is really dead ?

We have a giant CC a mile from here and nobody else in the area does repairs but me and one other shop.

 

[Heriberto t.]

im not sure, but i hope that it isn't because i always wanted to work at FireDog. (right now im in high school)

 

[MHCG]

Looks like it.... From the link you provided

Will Circuit City offer PC services and repairs at liquidation stores during the closing sale?

* Services already underway at the liquidation stores will be completed promptly, but no additional jobs will be accepted at these stores.

 

[basic]

im not sure, but i hope that it isn't because i always wanted to work at FireDog. (right now im in high school)

There are always opportunities elsewhere. Most likely, you would have ended up a bitter technician after your stay there.

 

[Heriberto t.]

There are always opportunities elsewhere. Most likely, you would have ended up a bitter technician after your stay there.

i guess you guys are right, did you guys go to college to become technicians? can you give me some "words of wisdom"? thanks

 

[basic]

i guess you guys are right, did you guys go to college to become technicians? can you give me some "words of wisdom"? thanks

I'm a software engineer that does computer work on the side....so, in my case, yes I got a degree in computer science. If all you want to do right now is fix computers you can easily do that without any formal secondary education. Since you have no experience and want an entry level technician position I'd say to study for your CompTia A+ certification. Don't bother with the courses, unless it's at a community college, because they will over charge you for a certification that doesn't really mean much once you get a job. Just get a good certification book and have a spare computer to play around with. As for the future beyond that....what you would have to do would depend on where you want to take your IT career.

 

[MHCG]

I don't know about words of wisdom, but you don't have to be hired by a company like Firedog or Geek Squad to become a technician. In fact, if I were asked, I'd recommend against it because you don't learn at places like that. Geek Squad doesn't troubleshoot, they just run through a pre-programmed flowchart of steps, if their flowchart says that the motherboard is bad, they ship the computer to their repair depot. These repairs don't happen at the stores.

As for me, I've always been a technical geek. I ran a BBS in the pre-internet days, then joined the army. My job was an all around jack of all trades where we might be asked to fix pretty much everything from a digital clock to a mainframe computer. Later, I learned networks, learned Windows then taught Windows NT & Solaris Unix software and associated hardware repair to soldiers. Since then that's what I've mainly been doing except for a couple years repairing unmanned aircraft.

 

[MrMille]

i guess you guys are right, did you guys go to college to become technicians? can you give me some "words of wisdom"? thanks

You do not need to spend four years in college getting a degree to fix computers.
You do not even need to leave school at eighteen years of age with a piece of useless paper and some results.

All of the above would help, but aren't essential.

Being good with computers , and having an interest, and actually being able to fix them, is all that's required.

 

[geekhelp4u]

http://www.circuitcity.com/closed.html

As most of you know Circuit City is going out of business immediatly. I noticed if you try to go to FireDog it comes back to the dead Circuit City web page.

Anyone know if FireDog is really dead ?

We have a giant CC a mile from here and nobody else in the area does repairs but me and one other shop.

If they are the workers would be smart to get the peoples address of the computers they fixed. That way the can start their own business and send out flyers to those addresses.

 

[MrMille]

bet they didn't! lol

 

[bsanchez]

We do the remote support for FireDog. We stopped as of a couple weeks ago. Yes, FireDog is done.

 

[jaharris72]

It looks good for techs that have there own business. Take the opportunity while it is present. Does anyone know the financial health of Best Buy? If they go we have to go with New Egg or Tiger Direct to get parts.

 

[NYJimbo]

It looks good for techs that have there own business. Take the opportunity while it is present. Does anyone know the financial health of Best Buy? If they go we have to go with New Egg or Tiger Direct to get parts.

I only buy my gut parts from online shops like NewEgg. I know it can be expensive to stock up on stuff, but if you get some things in advance like ram, medium sized hard drives, a few 430-500 power supplies and so on you can save a ton over buying them from local shops.

Last week I replenished my RAM stock from newegg. 1 gig DDR2 800 (pc2 6400) chips are $12. Other ram is pretty much the same. I dont think this stuff can depreciate all that much. 120gb scorpio laptop drives for $59. $25 DVD burners. 430watt PS units for $40. That kind of stuff. Even if the prices go lower I can still charge clients what I paid months ago and who is going to complain about paying $12 for a ram chip or a $25 DVD burner?

I will never buy parts from a local shop again.