Investigation about Currys sellers

whellman1030

I was there to buy a new laptop and they tried to sell me the KnowHow cloud service 500GB for one year and norton antivirus by 49euro. I don't need norton and I don't like norton. My question is that if KnowHow is a good cloud service because I'm finding too cheap.

Also maybe I'll buy the insurance that costs around 12 euro per month (standard) and that I can quit at any time, but I don't know if I can trust that insurance...

edit: part of my answer may be here: http://www.iainsmithcoaching.co.uk/my-knowhow-livedrive-cloud-fiasco/

Torqay

You know what they say about offers that seem to good to be true*, no?

* especially those from Currys/PC World

whellman1030

Torqay wrote: »

You know what they say about offers that seem to good to be true*, no?

* especially those from Currys/PC World

Yes but I would like to have good reasons to not want this cloud service or the insurance, not just what they say...

Specially if Curry's is that bad do you recommend buying it elsewhere?

Torqay

Currys/PC World are overpricing their products. They rarely have good deals.

Did you shop around around for other insurances?

The KnowHow service seems to be awful in every respect.

If you don't want/like Norton then why would you want to pay for it?

whellman1030

Torqay wrote: »

Currys/PC World are overpricing their products. They rarely have good deals.

Did you shop around around for other insurances?

The KnowHow service seems to be awful in every respect.

If you don't want/like Norton then why would you want to pay for it?

You posted reviews from knowhow products like washing machines and seems the customer service is bad. This has nothing to do with the cloud service, which is based on livedrive btw.

To be honest I read bad things about this service in the web like corrupted files and speed, seem to be the major issues, but maybe someone has some experience with it...

About the overpricing, if you know other shop in ireland very trusworthy that sells cheaper be free to suggest because I didn't find any.

And still no one told me anything about the monthly insurance...

johneire31

I would consider currys/PC world to be among the cheapest in Ireland on a spec per € basis, I have even seen them sell machines cheaper than amazon and other so called low cost sellers bear in mind that you become victim on VAT on external sourced machines.

You have 12 month warranty with PC world from date of purchase so on break downs and manu faults your covered, you can surely source out thief insurance or non negligence insurance cheaper then €12 a month which sounds incredible expensive to me, that would mean your paying €144 per year. they are not insuring for the risk of damage or thief but indeed are charging you for the absolute certainty that they will have to payout, that to me is not a calculated risk by then based on statistics. 144 x 4 = 576 with 4 being the average life of a laptop. No insurance company can get your data back weather you computer is stolen or destroyed, so basically you are insuring a machine that is depreciation on an annual basis but your insurance per month stays the same. Also to think about is if you made a claim in 3 years time, you will only get the market value (book value) at that time for a machine equivalent to your lost machine, which in 3 years time would probably be worth very little. Maybe you have some cover already on your house insurance or motor policy that will pick up the tab if it gets stolen/ destroyed.

On the Cloud offer, do you need 500gb of cloud storage? cloud is great for important documents for work, college or school that you really can't do without. If you computer ever needed repairs or is damaged, stolen, destroyed or has a hard drive failure, then you will be able to access these docs with little effort from another pc. Is it really necessary to upload movies, programs, games,music or unimportant photos to the cloud, is it the end of the world to loose these if something bad goes wrong? most if not all of these are easily got again for download with little effort or stress in your own time. in regards to games and software, these are constantly updated so by the time you will seek them in the cloud you will realise that newer better versions are available for download.

Dropbox offer a free cloud solution which gives you 2 GB of storage and that can hold a huge amount of documents, spreadsheets, work and school related work, more than most will ever need. It will also hold quite a lot of important non replaceable photos. And its probably one of the best cloud solutions out there and syncs with android and apple phones and is worth a look.

Antivirus is probably one of the biggest marketing hypes out there, again credible free solutions exist for protecting you online. The free version of AVG will do the trick for most folk, get a decent FREE firewall to add to it or use the windows one already on your system. Antivirus just like insurance works by painting the worst case scenario to people who are risk adverse to start with. There is never a good reason to part with money easily, so yes you have so far done the right thing which is called research before you buy

I hope some of this is of some help to you

J

Galway Laptop Surgery

whellman1030

johneire31 wrote: »

I would consider currys/PC world to be among the cheapest in Ireland on a spec per € basis, I have even seen them sell machines cheaper than amazon and other so called low cost sellers bear in mind that you become victim on VAT on external sourced machines.

You have 12 month warranty with PC world from date of purchase so on break downs and manu faults your covered, you can surely source out thief insurance or non negligence insurance cheaper then €12 a month which sounds incredible expensive to me, that would mean your paying €144 per year. they are not insuring for the risk of damage or thief but indeed are charging you for the absolute certainty that they will have to payout, that to me is not a calculated risk by then based on statistics. 144 x 4 = 576 with 4 being the average life of a laptop. No insurance company can get your data back weather you computer is stolen or destroyed, so basically you are insuring a machine that is depreciation on an annual basis but your insurance per month stays the same. Also to think about is if you made a claim in 3 years time, you will only get the market value (book value) at that time for a machine equivalent to your lost machine, which in 3 years time would probably be worth very little. Maybe you have some cover already on your house insurance or motor policy that will pick up the tab if it gets stolen/ destroyed.

On the Cloud offer, do you need 500gb of cloud storage? cloud is great for important documents for work, college or school that you really can't do without. If you computer ever needed repairs or is damaged, stolen, destroyed or has a hard drive failure, then you will be able to access these docs with little effort from another pc. Is it really necessary to upload movies, programs, games,music or unimportant photos to the cloud, is it the end of the world to loose these if something bad goes wrong? most if not all of these are easily got again for download with little effort or stress in your own time. in regards to games and software, these are constantly updated so by the time you will seek them in the cloud you will realise that newer better versions are available for download.

Dropbox offer a free cloud solution which gives you 2 GB of storage and that can hold a huge amount of documents, spreadsheets, work and school related work, more than most will ever need. It will also hold quite a lot of important non replaceable photos. And its probably one of the best cloud solutions out there and syncs with android and apple phones and is worth a look.

Antivirus is probably one of the biggest marketing hypes out there, again credible free solutions exist for protecting you online. The free version of AVG will do the trick for most folk, get a decent FREE firewall to add to it or use the windows one already on your system. Antivirus just like insurance works by painting the worst case scenario to people who are risk adverse to start with. There is never a good reason to part with money easily, so yes you have so far done the right thing which is called research before you buy

I hope some of this is of some help to you

J

Galway Laptop Surgery

Good answer johneire31.

About the insurance I'm going to make one with chill which is about 6euro per month and I can quit at any time: http://www.chill.ie/products/gadget-insurance/laptop/

About the anti-virus I use Microsoft Security Essentials, it found many virus on my PC from things I download and takes very little CPU speed, not like Norton that makes your computer slow.

About the cloud I'm going to buy Curry's cloud because YES I need to backup all my photos that I've been taking for 7 years, and all my music (would be a pain in the ass to collect all my 7 years old playlist again). Also I need to upload my work projects (some of them occupy 4 GB), so I need at least 200GB of online storage.

KnowHow is a reseller of Live Drive and the reviews are good:
http://cloudstoragebillboard.com/livedrive-review/

Anyway in Curry's they told me if I'm not happy with the Cloud Service, in 3 months I can return it and have my 49euro back.

Allyall

whellman1030 wrote: »

About the cloud I'm going to buy Curry's cloud because YES I need to backup all my photos that I've been taking for 7 years...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/08/25/top-12-sites-for-free-cloud-computing-enterprise-software-research/

http://vivil.free.fr/backup.htm

whellman1030

Allyall wrote: »

http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/08/25/top-12-sites-for-free-cloud-computing-enterprise-software-research/

http://vivil.free.fr/backup.htm

I really don't know what to say about your post....

HP and Amazon are giving storage for free? I don't think so, if you research better.

About the other link of these "unknown" hosting providers, do you know that at any time they can disappear leaving you with no backup?

Allyall

whellman1030 wrote: »

I really don't know what to say about your post....

HP and Amazon are giving storage for free? I don't think so, if you research better.

About the other link of these "unknown" hosting providers, do you know that at any time they can disappear leaving you with no backup?

I was showing you alternatives. Maybe you should read both properly.
It's unlikely any of them are going to disappear leaving you with no backup. Just because they are unknown to you, does not make them "unknown". If you read it properly it's an ongoing project that explains which ones are better and why.

Wuala, one of the best out there, even after seagate bought them they still provide no backdoor entry for anyone, and everything is encrypted before it is uploaded, not even they themselves can decrypt it after you have uploaded it. But you cannot forget/lose your password ever.
They don't adhere to the US laws which allows backdoors into your cloud, making your privacy, well, not very private.
They are operating under EU law, meaning you have full privacy.


I have done plenty of research, it is you, that needs to research more, if you are considering using Currys/PC World cloud.

As for the "FREE". nearly all provide free for 1GB or 5GB etc... That's not what i was directing your attention to. I thought most people would know they all provide limited free services.

I was providing "reviews" about alternative services. I use Wuala myself, and in my opinion, it is the best.
They have ongoing promotions that allow you extra storage for lower prices also.
I paid €4.99 a month for my first year for 100GB of storage.
I have since lowered that, and moved many files to my server and use KeepItSafe to back it all up.

computer44

Might seem to be going off the thread but basically I am sick of being ripped off by certain repair shops,

My little Asus netbook needed to be rebooted 100 euro and its still in warranty.

I have a dell inspiron same problem needs reboot another 100 euro,

Is this right, the repair shop in question is at Fairview corner,

Did not even get a view from the tech that repaired it as the manager
was only looking for the fee,

getting really tired of these shops.

Allyall

computer44 wrote: »

Might seem to be going off the thread but basically I am sick of being ripped off by certain repair shops,

My little Asus netbook needed to be rebooted 100 euro and its still in warranty.

I have a dell inspiron same problem needs reboot another 100 euro,

Is this right, the repair shop in question is at Fairview corner,

Did not even get a view from the tech that repaired it as the manager
was only looking for the fee,

getting really tired of these shops.

As with anything, it is better to search around for quotes (Price and quality of service.).
I don't know what you mean by saying they "rebooted" it.
It does sound expensive, but if you haven't looked around, they know they can charge it if you'll pay it.

If it's still in warranty then you shouldn't have to pay for anything, unless maybe, it's a problem that you have caused.


As for the Cloud services, you should find one that suits you.
I personally, wouldn't be keen to use livedrive. They are cheap, which may be a good thing, but apparently their customer service is brutal. Also i would question their security and many other things.
To me, security and reliability are paramount.

AlmightyCushion

Allyall wrote: »

As with anything, it is better to search around for quotes (Price and quality of service.).
I don't know what you mean by saying they "rebooted" it.
It does sound expensive, but if you haven't looked around, they know they can charge it if you'll pay it.

If it's still in warranty then you shouldn't have to pay for anything, unless maybe, it's a problem that you have caused..

I assume it means some software issue like Windows becoming slow/unresponsive/frequently crashing or viruses or something along those lines and they are talking about an OS re-install. That usually isn't covered under the guarantee.

Allyall

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I assume it means some software issue like Windows becoming slow/unresponsive/frequently crashing or viruses or something along those lines and they are talking about an OS re-install. That usually isn't covered under the guarantee.

Yeah, i was half thinking it could be viruses or something like that. But €100 seems expensive for a reinstall, especially considering the licence is free/already paid for, and they probably just did a backup and factory reset. It may not be, i don't know how much a repair shop would charge for that.

AlmightyCushion

Allyall wrote: »

Yeah, i was half thinking it could be viruses or something like that. But €100 seems expensive for a reinstall, especially considering the licence is free/already paid for, and they probably just did a backup and factory reset. It may not be, i don't know how much a repair shop would charge for that.

It depends really. That could include backing up data which could be a lot or re-istalling software or hardware like printers. It could just be a straight re-install. But maybe they have no recovery partition or recovery disks so it means have to find and re-install all the drivers manually. Not too bad on most newer computers, especially when Windows will find most if not all for you but on some computers (especially older ones) drivers can be a nightmare to get.

If it's XP then getting the right disk can be a nightmare as a dell license key needed a dell XP disk, I think it was even specific to the service pack so an XP SP1 license key wouldn't work on an XP SP2 disk. Thankfully, they got rid of that with Vista. Also, there could be a problem with the hard drive and the €100 includes a new one. Basically depending on exactly what needs doing, it could be a rip off or a bargain.

Torqay

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

If it's XP then getting the right disk can be a nightmare as a dell license key needed a dell XP disk, I think it was even specific to the service pack so an XP SP1 license key wouldn't work on an XP SP2 disk. Thankfully, they got rid of that with Vista.

A Dell XP OEM license activates just fine with with any Windows XP OEM disk, regardless the service pack. They did that for a while with Windows 98, when Dell disks would only work on Dell computers (but non-Dell disks would work on Dell computers).

AFAIK, only HP pulled this stunt with XP. Circumvention required a BIOS editor/Tattoo utility.

computer44

I will get on to the tech today that actually repaired it.

Most warranties do exclude software problems.

Reboot meaning that start up repair or diagnostics did not work.

I am running win 7,

Thanks

whellman1030

Allyall wrote: »

I was showing you alternatives. Maybe you should read both properly.
It's unlikely any of them are going to disappear leaving you with no backup. Just because they are unknown to you, does not make them "unknown". If you read it properly it's an ongoing project that explains which ones are better and why.

Wuala, one of the best out there, even after seagate bought them they still provide no backdoor entry for anyone, and everything is encrypted before it is uploaded, not even they themselves can decrypt it after you have uploaded it. But you cannot forget/lose your password ever.
They don't adhere to the US laws which allows backdoors into your cloud, making your privacy, well, not very private.
They are operating under EU law, meaning you have full privacy.


I have done plenty of research, it is you, that needs to research more, if you are considering using Currys/PC World cloud.

As for the "FREE". nearly all provide free for 1GB or 5GB etc... That's not what i was directing your attention to. I thought most people would know they all provide limited free services.

I was providing "reviews" about alternative services. I use Wuala myself, and in my opinion, it is the best.
They have ongoing promotions that allow you extra storage for lower prices also.
I paid €4.99 a month for my first year for 100GB of storage.
I have since lowered that, and moved many files to my server and use KeepItSafe to back it all up.

Thanks I'll research about Wuala.

One question: For that price why don't you go with Google Drive (9.99$ per month for 200GB)? I guess its because it complains to US laws like backdoors for the government.

You know but privacy is not my main concern. I really could show those files to anyone. So maybe should be better for me to go for a known solution like Google Drive, but I'll take a look a Wuala.

computer44

A 100 euro for a reinstall and that's the going rate give or take 10 euro. A virus probably crashed the netbook but the tech did good work. I know these businesses pay for rent and overheads etc. but 100 euro for a netbook that's worth 250 euro is a bit steep.

Regards

whellman1030

whellman1030 wrote: »

Thanks I'll research about Wuala.

One question: For that price why don't you go with Google Drive (9.99$ per month for 200GB)? I guess its because it complains to US laws like backdoors for the government.

You know but privacy is not my main concern. I really could show those files to anyone. So maybe should be better for me to go for a known solution like Google Drive, but I'll take a look a Wuala.

The table at the end of this page is very usefull: http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/24/2954960/google-drive-dropbox-skydrive-sugarsync-cloud-storage-competition

whellman1030

whellman1030 wrote: »

The table at the end of this page is very usefull: http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/24/2954960/google-drive-dropbox-skydrive-sugarsync-cloud-storage-competition

After comparing I think I'm going for skydrive because it's the cheaper, can see the files on my iphone and can edit the office files in the browser. With google drive you can edit in the browser, but I've tested that and google docs format is always different from microsoft office format (which is what everyone uses).

The 2gb limit per file is not a problem for me.

johneire31

When you say reinstall it sounds like you just press a button and done.

Firstly, any tech will try and remove a boot sector virus, check the disks, this takes time
A reinstall is an absolute last resort but if it needs to be done then it goes like this:

Full system back up on to external storage, this can take an hour or more depending on your disk size

Full disk analysis scan, again this takes time to complete

Full format of hard drive

Partitioning the hard drive

Reinstalling windows

Updating the windows operating system

Reinstalling machine specific drivers and locating these at times can be a nightmare

Setting up your recovery partition on your hard drive

Reinstalling your applications, programs, antivirus etc

moving your backed up files back on to your system

Full system check to see if all is ok

So it does take a bit of time and it does tie up resources in a shop while it is being done.

In some cases you can image the hard drive but you will also image the problem in your case it would be unwise to image as it sounds like a potential virus problem in the boot sector.

The whole process can take about 3 to 4 hours on a new fast machine to complete, longer on slower machines

While the tech does not have to stand over it continuously while its going on, he still has to be on top of what is happening all the time.

However €70 is enough for this and then add the VAT of €16 and you get a total of €86

If seems like a simple instant task but it is very time consuming and takes up valuable resources in the shop. Most shops will only do this as a totally last resort as we hate doing it as much as you hate paying for it.

j

Galway Laptop Surgery

computer44

Your right,

Nobody complains when they bring their car in for a service,

Its the same with your computer things go wrong,

That guy was really Pro, put MS security essentials on my netbook and resolved the issue.

Regards

Torqay

johneire31 wrote: »

Firstly, any tech will try and remove a boot sector virus, check the disks, this takes time
A reinstall is an absolute last resort

Well, that is debatable. If someone's willing to pay me to clean a system of viruses, trojans, mal- and adware regardless the costs (which takes a lot of time as you will have to run a variety of scans not only once but twice) so be it, I'll happily oblige. If the alternative is a new installation at a fixed rate most people I know opt for the latter. Not only is it guaranteed virus-free, it is also as fast and responsive as it was when it came out of the box, probably better since it is also bloatware-free.

If the customer have their files backed up (ultimately, their files are their responsibility) they should be charged less. If you discard the time for a surface check (an unattended task), a proper job is done in 2 hrs, give or take (depending on additional software installation or driver sourcing).

johneire31

Torqay wrote: »

Well, that is debatable. If someone's willing to pay me to clean a system of viruses, trojans, mal- and adware regardless the costs (which takes a lot of time as you will have to run a variety of scans not only once but twice) so be it, I'll happily oblige. If the alternative is a new installation at a fixed rate most people I know opt for the latter. Not only is it guaranteed virus-free, it is also as fast and responsive as it was when it came out of the box, probably better since it is also bloatware-free.

If the customer have their files backed up (ultimately, their files are their responsibility) they should be charged less. If you discard the time for a surface check (an unattended task), a proper job is done in 2 hrs, give or take (depending on additional software installation or driver sourcing).

Im referring to any tech working for me, Its not a viable days work to spend fresh installing windows. 2 hours?, I wish. A lot of win vista and 7 machines don't have the product ID in place by the time they get a problem so nobody is willing to pay for a new licence key. Updating using the windows update can take several hours alone depending on operating system after a fresh install. surface scans are basic and don't tell anything other than the obvious. A proper scan of a disk using professional software can take a few hours and there is the small matter of reading the log files of the scan which I can assure you is not an unattended process.

It is the techs responsibility to ensure that data on the machine is backed up, the customer is asking for the system to be put back to the way it was prior to a boot problem. To assume that the customer has a backup made is irresponsible.

The majority of customers want the laptop working and looking the way it was prior to being infected. Why virus scan a disk if its known that the virus in the boot sector, or the virus is of a known type a good tech should be able to isolate it without software, and know exactly its characteristic and like residing places in the file system... Its only when the boot sector is repairable and other system files are damaged beyond repair that a reinstall is needed.

You are referring to a slow system which is a different problem, sure an fresh install will help this but at great expense, I'm referring in my previous post to a system that won't boot. 2 very different things. Why do surgery when antibiotics will work and do the job.

Nobody will thank you for causing them more expense than what is actually needed.

J
Galway Laptop Surgery

whellman1030

Already bought the latptop without any extra Curry's package

The sellers should be brought to justice by how many lies the guy told me...

for example I told him I use MSE and the guy says it never tells you that you have a virus and that's why it looks good. I must say its a lie. Of course MSE found many virus on my pc and uses very little resources compared to norton.

And he told me that if I install a free antivirus the warranty doesn't cover it....That's new for me: if my blu-ray drive breaks , or the screen blanks, or the power button stops working, it was obviously a BAD VIRUS FROM INTERNET!!!!!

Also he wanted me to buy an Insurance that costs 399euro!!!! The one from chill will be my option: http://www.chill.ie/products/gadget-insurance/laptop/

Not to speak about the Cloud investigation that lead me that currys use live drive cloud which is very bad!!!!

Someone should go there with an audio recorder pretending to buy a laptop and report those bastards to the Police!!!!

Torqay

johneire31 wrote: »

A proper scan of a disk using professional software can take a few hours and there is the small matter of reading the log files of the scan which I can assure you is not an unattended process.

And I can assure you, a surface scan has nothing to with virus romval. It is a hardware test, performed before a good tech installs the oprating system. Installing something on a broken hard disk (unfortunately bad sectors are quite a common occurance with laptops) is rather pointless, wouldn't you agree?

johneire31

Torqay, I don't really think I would be agreeing with much you have to say to be honest, your first couple of posts on this thread were not all that helpful, in fact they did not help at all as the OP correctly pointed out to you. You policy of attack all posters rather than try and help as the poster requested is simply annoying and at this stage a little boring. If you can't offer creditable help or alternatives then why post at all.

J

Galway Laptop Surgery

johneire31

whellman1030 wrote: »

Already bought the latptop without any extra Curry's package

The sellers should be brought to justice by how many lies the guy told me...

for example I told him I use MSE and the guy says it never tells you that you have a virus and that's why it looks good. I must say its a lie. Of course MSE found many virus on my pc and uses very little resources compared to norton.

And he told me that if I install a free antivirus the warranty doesn't cover it....That's new for me: if my blu-ray drive breaks , or the screen blanks, or the power button stops working, it was obviously a BAD VIRUS FROM INTERNET!!!!!

Also he wanted me to buy an Insurance that costs 399euro!!!! The one from chill will be my option: http://www.chill.ie/products/gadget-insurance/laptop/

Not to speak about the Cloud investigation that lead me that currys use live drive cloud which is very bad!!!!

Someone should go there with an audio recorder pretending to buy a laptop and report those bastards to the Police!!!!

You should post your experience in the PC World thread on Boards.ie, they have reps there that you can drive crazy.

Installing a free antivirus does not void your warranty, and that is 100% certainty. Anyways, happy new computing. Enjoy!

J
Galway Laptop Surgery

whellman1030

johneire31 wrote: »

You should post your experience in the PC World thread on Boards.ie, they have reps there that you can drive crazy.

Installing a free antivirus does not void your warranty, and that is 100% certainty. Anyways, happy new computing. Enjoy!

J
Galway Laptop Surgery

Can you point me to that thread since I couldn't find it?

johneire31

whellman1030 wrote: »

Can you point me to that thread since I couldn't find it?

It think this link brings you there, if not just type PC World Boards.ie into google and your straight in.

J

Galway Laptop Surgery