Tuesday 16 June 2009

On installing a hard drive

I realize that brick and mortar retail stores make money from selling services, not products. Still, there is no reason why two different sales people --- different stores --- with the same retail chain, tried selling the wrong cable for my internal hard drive.

What I needed was a SATA cable. To make thing simple for dummies --- like the MCSEs techs used by that retail chain --- they are color coded. Specifically, red with black ends. They are not gray. They are not silver. They are not six feet long. The power cord is sold in a different package.

Next door to that "superior computer service" big box retailer, was a big box office retailer, whose customer service has typically been only slightly better than that provided by TicketMaster. Not only did Office Depot have the SATA cord, but two reps apologised for not having the power cord that is needed. (Management is stupid to think that somebody that needs a SATA device cable, doesn't also need the SATA power cord.)

I ended up buying the power cord from a place that repairs computers. Typically, it doesnt' sell parts. A US$10.00 sale is a ten dollar sale. Furthermore, their thinking is that when I need to take a computer to be fixed, they will be the ones who fix it.

With a motto of "If we can't fix your computer, we will buy it", that repair shop might be promising customers more than they can deliver. On second thoughts, most software issues can be fixed by migrating to Linux, and using the FLOSS equivalent.

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