I had recently installed windows tab on my desktop computer at home, and was having difficulty getting it to print anything out of my hp printer. Both of these devices are in prime shape, and i am a power user and web designer. Having tried several fixes myself, i went on the internet looking for hp support. As usual, there were a number of private companies other than hp which turned up in the initial google search. I carefully selected one which looked very much to be an hp support website. When there, i was offered the option of a live chat with a tech support person. During the live chat it also asked for her phone number so that person could call me back to discuss my issue.
A fellow with an indian accent returned the call, which is not unusual as many tech-support people are from that part of the world. He then asked if he could have remote access to my computer in order to help diagnose the problem. Reluctantly i complied, and he began looking in the usual places for out of date drivers etc.
Then he started saying "oh my god, oh my god, you have got serious problems with your network security." this seemed a little odd, as this is a home pc and is not really networked with anything else other than a few peripherals around the house. "not a problem" he said, and ask if i could hold on a minute while he spoke with the supervisor. After no more than 15 seconds, he came back and said that they could install software to take care of my network security issues for $140.
At this point, it became fairly obvious to me as a pretty astute amateur techie that this was a ripoff. I said that i would take care of the issue here and that i had very good local tech-support. The poor fellow seemed absolutely astounded and hurt that i would not pay to have them take care of the problem. He said that all they needed to do was install some software on my machine to project the network from viruses. Against this ongoing and vigorous objections i hung up.
I then began working the problem myself, and determined that it was a fairly minor spooling issue with the printer which i took care of myself. Of course, i ran a fairly serious security and mal ware scan which turned up nothing.
While writing this message i got another call back from this distraught technician who said i really needed to have them install their security software.
Tech Support Expert Reviews
I had recently installed windows tab on my desktop computer at home, and was having difficulty getting it to print anything out of my hp printer. Both of these devices are in prime shape, and i am a power user and web designer. Having tried several fixes myself, i went on the internet looking for hp support. As usual, there were a number of private companies other than hp which turned up in the initial google search. I carefully selected one which looked very much to be an hp support website. When there, i was offered the option of a live chat with a tech support person. During the live chat it also asked for her phone number so that person could call me back to discuss my issue.
A fellow with an indian accent returned the call, which is not unusual as many tech-support people are from that part of the world. He then asked if he could have remote access to my computer in order to help diagnose the problem. Reluctantly i complied, and he began looking in the usual places for out of date drivers etc.
Then he started saying "oh my god, oh my god, you have got serious problems with your network security." this seemed a little odd, as this is a home pc and is not really networked with anything else other than a few peripherals around the house. "not a problem" he said, and ask if i could hold on a minute while he spoke with the supervisor. After no more than 15 seconds, he came back and said that they could install software to take care of my network security issues for $140.
At this point, it became fairly obvious to me as a pretty astute amateur techie that this was a ripoff. I said that i would take care of the issue here and that i had very good local tech-support. The poor fellow seemed absolutely astounded and hurt that i would not pay to have them take care of the problem. He said that all they needed to do was install some software on my machine to project the network from viruses. Against this ongoing and vigorous objections i hung up.
I then began working the problem myself, and determined that it was a fairly minor spooling issue with the printer which i took care of myself. Of course, i ran a fairly serious security and mal ware scan which turned up nothing.
While writing this message i got another call back from this distraught technician who said i really needed to have them install their security software.