Introduction

Questionable Suggestions

Today, a man came into my store.

He had a Packard Bell mouse with him, along with a small bag from my store. The day before, he had bought a PS/2 to serial mouse adapter, a PS/2 to AT Adapter and a few other items. He had come in to ask me if he could credit the mouse adapter and purchase a new serial mouse instead.

Ok, no problem at all. I simply explained that not all PS/2 mice could function as serial mice unless they were specifically designed for it, but the fact that he already had a PS/2 mouse made me wonder. I asked him why he needed a serial mouse if he already had a PS/2 mouse, because PS/2 is better.

He proceeded to tell me that he recently had his computer upgraded and that the new motherboard did not have a PS/2 port. This puzzled me even more -there is no reason at all that a new motherboard shouldn't have come with a PS/2 port, regardless of whether it is an AT or ATX.

Further digging revealed that he had brought his upgrade at a less than reputable Mom and Pop shop on Long Island, (I will not state names to prevent getting possibly sued for slander. We have three such stores specifically here that I can think of by name that are known for their less that reputable business practices.)

The Customer's Plight

He told me that when he first brought the system in for an upgrade (A Packard Bell Desktop), he was initially told by the salesperson that the price to upgrade to a K6-2/450 with 64MB SDRAM and a new motherboard and case would be under $200. Then the salesperson apparently got greedy and started tossing in extra, unneeded items.

Things get a bit sketchy here since there are certain issues that come into play when upgrading a machine like a Packard Bell. PB machines use a great deal of proprietary software and hardware, items such as the Packard Bell Restore CD and PB combo modem/sound. These items will work only with a PB machine. I can understand if the salesman offered a new modem and sound card along those lines, but when the customer told me that the salesman also pressed on a new CD-ROM and floppy drive, and hard disk, which drove the cost to above $600 with labor, my suspicions of bad business were becoming clear. All of those items didn't need to be replaced.