Re:Best Buy Geek Squad employees report mass layoffs
by gregmac on Sunday April 07, 2024 @09:56AM
(#39960796)
Yeah, this is just a continuation of the demise of tv repair shops.
Consider from the perspective of an average, non-technical person - someone who has never installed an OS or opened the case.
Their $900, 3-year old system "breaks". It'll cost $100 to diagnose, and anywhere from tens to hundreds to fix. Is it worth it? They're going to consider just buying a new $900 system, which will be faster and back under warranty again.
While a broken tv could be a $0.50 capacitor, the shame is a huge number of "broken" computers are purely software problems: sometimes malware, sometimes fixed by updating a driver, or even just changing a setting (And of course also "fixed" by paving over and installing a new OS).
This isn't hard to learn, but understandably people don't have the time or desire. And the value-risk-cost balance is off when compared to buying new. So perfectly good hardware becomes e-waste.
Consider from the perspective of an average, non-technical person - someone who has never installed an OS or opened the case.
Their $900, 3-year old system "breaks". It'll cost $100 to diagnose, and anywhere from tens to hundreds to fix. Is it worth it? They're going to consider just buying a new $900 system, which will be faster and back under warranty again.
While a broken tv could be a $0.50 capacitor, the shame is a huge number of "broken" computers are purely software problems: sometimes malware, sometimes fixed by updating a driver, or even just changing a setting (And of course also "fixed" by paving over and installing a new OS).
This isn't hard to learn, but understandably people don't have the time or desire. And the value-risk-cost balance is off when compared to buying new. So perfectly good hardware becomes e-waste.