Re: Excessive spam all of a sudden

Karen C in California wrote:

You mean the guys who F-ed up both my computers last year have moved to NOLA?

The first one came back with a virus program that didn't play well with the one AOL provides free, other unwanted software/upgrades, and the CD/DVD burner still didn't work (he showed me that it played before I took it out of the shop, but it didn't burn when I got it home).

The second one came back with multiple programs removed, essential program component files removed -- even had to re-install AOL because they assumed the dial-up files were unnecessary, "everyone uses wi-fi now". Took me 6 hours just to get to the point that I could check to see if any clients had sent me any work and do the work. To this day, I'm still finding things that don't work properly because some essential subfile was removed. Oh, yeah, and they made some adjustment to the "mouse buttons" so that the set that I prefer to use, you need to hit with a sledgehammer to get them to click -- seriously, full pressure from both thumbs with the laptop set on a solid/hard surface; doesn't work on a soft lap where most people put their laptop. Fortunately, this laptop has two sets of mouse buttons, and the other set still works. Again, when he showed me the computer worked before I took it out of the shop, he didn't show me the part that didn't work. "Oh, the mouse buttons aren't responding because McAfee is loading", and since I was on a tight schedule, I didn't want to wait several minutes for the full boot-up to complete, and didn't realize that the problem was not just McAfee until I got it home, and at that point, would've had to pay another $80 minimum to have them fix it.

Well, one of them did, and has a shop on Magazine Street.

I took the laptop in because it was running painfully slowly, and as I have pretty good virus protection I figured it was the registry too full and needed to be cleaned out. When I opened it up, there was all kinds of stuff all wanting to start up immediately, and if I had painfully checked each one out through Google it would have taken hours. This was a very busy week for me, the week before Holy Week and we had been conned into doing too many thngs at church, plus I was trying to get my new outfit made, all between the asthma bouts.

I specifically asked if he could simply clean out the registry, leaving only those programs which really needed to open as soon as I booted up. Not disturb my other programs, just simply clean the registry.

When I went back, the #@$%^&* had wiped the hard drive, and then loaded on HIS Windows XP Office, instead of my Windows XP Home. He had saved My Documents, and not a blamed thing else!!!!!!!!! Mind you, he had put on some nice pretty pictures for wallpaper, just as a special favor!! I told him in short order to get that thing off. I only boot up when I am going to use the computer, and I don't need that stuff, a grey screen with just a dozen icons is quite enough for me. I asked about AOL and he said "you might have to reload that". Then I asked about the pattern drafting programs. And the nutrition analysis program. And........... You guessed it. Unfortunately, he had already swiped my VISA card.

I ended up having to CALL att to find out how to reconnect my broadband, something on there was stopping it. Likewise I had to call aol to find out how to undo whatever it was that was blocking my dial-up. Fortunately, I am hyper about saving the cd s for other programs, and the ones which I downloaded and paid for I have the i.d. numbers .

The only thing I have not been able to get back into order is Motzarella, so I just use that downstairs on the desktop. I do need to call them to find out how to fix things there.

It wasn't until I was ready to leave the shop that I noticed something which, had I seen it before, would have given me pause. A serving army major (in uniform) came in, was greeted "Hi, major, what's wrong this week?" and, right afterwards, two young women came in and were also greeted the same way. Obviously, this charlatan is doing just enough to their computers to make them work for only a week and have to be brought back again. And they are fool enough to fall for it instead of finding someone competent or learning to do it themselves.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.


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