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Vent: The new tech repair kiosk at the mall is giving people really bad advice

I was at the Westgate Mall yesterday and saw their new 'Fix-It Fast' kiosk, where the guy told a customer with a blue screen that a full Windows reinstall was the only fix, which would cost $150. He didn't even run a memory test or check the minidump files first, just jumped straight to the nuclear option. How many of these quick-stop places are pushing unnecessary work because the staff isn't actually trained?
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3 Comments
julia_carter61
My old laptop got the blue screen last year and I fixed it in 20 minutes by checking the error code. It was just a bad driver update. These kiosks always go for the most expensive fix because they know most people won't question it. You can find the exact error online and usually get a free fix. I would never trust a mall spot with anything more than a screen protector.
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aaron880
aaron88022d agoProlific Poster
Yeah, it's crazy how much you can fix yourself with a quick search. A lot of those places bank on people feeling too scared or rushed to even look it up. I mean, they might even make the problem sound way worse than it is to justify the big price tag. It's a shame because it just makes people distrust any kind of tech repair.
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nina_taylor
They probably get commission for big jobs.
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