Skunk-a-what?

Those of you in the Fairfield / Hamilton / Middletown areas of Ohio are probably familiar with a computer shop by the name of Skunk-a-Rific Computers. A friend of mine recently had a laptop serviced there, and after being charged approximately $75, was told that his laptop was "a lost cause."

In utter disbelief I examined his laptop, and what I found was: not only were they dead wrong, they caused an ID10-T error. Now, granted, my friend uses Winblows, the only real problems I noticed during my initial examination were that not all of the drivers had been installed, and that the driver for the NIC was incompatible with it. I took an audit with the already-installed Bellarc Advisor, and discovered also that the Windows key used to install did not match the COA on the machine. It was no surprise that I found an anti-WPA crack in C:\skunk\tools.

Skunk-a-Rific also installs a default background image which I can't stop laughing at (click to see the full image, and take note of the text in the lower-left corner):



Your software warranty is void if you load any software without our approval. This includes: Windows Updates, drivers for anything, all software loaded from the internet, internet access discs, store-bought software, or anything that modifies Windows. Do not use Internet Explorer to browse the internet, use Mozilla Firefox instead. Do not use AOL for internet access. It is not approved by Microsoft or us. If you normally use Outlook Express for e-mail, use Mozilla Thunderbird instead. You will get hacked if you ignore these instructions, and this is not covered under our warranty.

What kind of fear tactics are these idiots trying to pull here? Sounds like a mandate from a fascist regime. One should need their approval to install something? That's absolutely rediculous!

Thus, I went down into my dark chambers, and began the process of reinstalling Winblows. After an hour or two, I still had not had any problems (the laptop is supposedly "a lost cause" right?) My friend had told me he only really wanted the machine to play World of Warcraft, so I installed the trial, and it ran smoothly.

Now, the fact that the technician at Skunk-a-Rific completely lied to my friend wasn't my chief concern, their unprofessional nature speaks for itself. It was more the fact that they would have installed several different pieces of software on his machine, without his approval, and then proceed to chastise him. I found several OEM versions of softwares such as AHead's Nero CD-recording suite, for which my friend did not pay, nor have a license; again, installed behind his back.

Now, let's run through a check list:

1. Did they properly assess his needs? -- No
2. Did they have a professional attitude toward their service? -- No
3. Did they do what he originally asked (Reinstall Windows)? -- Partially
4. Did the customer pay for an unsatisfactory job? -- Yes
5. Are they even CompTIA A+ Certified? -- More than likely not.

That says it all. Even on their website, are several examples of unprofessional conduct by their employees. For Christ's sake, their website is one big sales pitch from the late 90's. It's not even informative, except for bashing this and that, selling this and that. Their company MySpace page feels more personal than professional. They seem to love to push Linux and Open Source software, but they are exactly the kind that give the Linux & OSS communities a bad name. As much as they seem to hate Windows -- their website and their offices are run on Windows servers. Quite a bit of irony, eh?

If you're in the Cincinnati area and need computer repair, contact me for a quote. I'm a real CompTIA A+ Certified Technician and a professional to boot.