thoughtcrumbs

Gestapo geek squad

NPR had a story this morning on "geek squads" deployed by consumer electronics retailers to do in-home installations. For a lot of people (and I'm thinking of my parents here), paying someone do the initial setup and give some training provides a much-needed measure of comfort and confidence not instilled by the product manual. However, one woman's comments shocked me: a college student taking network administration courses was basically bullied into the service at Best Buy. "I didn't think I could do it by myself. They kept saying how someone would hack into my credit card." Intimidating customers and reducing their technological confidence should not be part of the package.