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from the who-knew-Office-Depot-was-still-around? dept.
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
Office Depot and a partner company tricked customers into buying unneeded tech support services by offering PC scans that gave fake results, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Consumers paid up to $300 each for unnecessary services.
The FTC yesterday announced that Office Depot and its software supplier, Support.com, have agreed to pay a total of $35 million in settlements with the agency. Office Depot agreed to pay $25 million while Support.com will pay the other $10 million. The FTC said it intends to use the money to provide refunds to wronged consumers.
Between 2009 and 2016, Office Depot and OfficeMax offered computer scans inside their stores using a "PC Health Check" software application created and licensed by Support.com.
"Defendants bilked unsuspecting consumers out of tens of millions of dollars from their use of the PC Health Check program to sell costly diagnostic and repair services," the FTC alleged in a complaint that accuses both companies of violating the FTC Act's prohibition against deceptive practices. As part of the settlements, neither company admitted or denied the FTC's allegations.
The FTC filed its complaint against the companies in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, while at the same time unveiling the settlements with each company.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 30 2019, @01:29AM (6 children)
Oh man - let me elaborate on that a little bit.
Graduating sixth grade, we went on a field trip to Pittsburgh, to the Carnegie-Melon Institute. We got to see a "modern" computer. We walked into a large public room, which had windows along one wall, through which we could see a working computer. Punch cards being prepared, people feeding punch cards to the machine, der blinkenlights as the computer digested the data fed to it. And we were told that this computer was one of the two most modern and powerful computers in the state of Pennsylvania.
None of us had any reason to suspect that we might ever own our own computers. Scientific calculators were something new and awesome, and Texas Instruments seemed like something far off and exotic.
Yet, here I am today, a member of SN, where I can engage in semi-intelligent conversations about computers.
I'll stick with my theory that people have chosen to be lazy, and allow Microsoft to brainwash and coerce them. "Computers are hard, you can't learn Unix, you can't learn how computers work, so just sit back, relax, and TRUST US!" People who trust car salesmen and horse traders pay a price for their misplaced trust.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Saturday March 30 2019, @02:53AM (5 children)
OTOH, it's quite possible that one of your classmates is currently looking into someone's abdomen removing an appendix before it ruptures. Are you qualified to do that or were you just too lazy to learn a dead-ass simple surgical procedure?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 30 2019, @12:08PM
Probably parents were too poor to afford medical school.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 30 2019, @01:20PM (3 children)
LOL - some of my classmates were more successful than others - but none of them became surgeons. Almost all of my male classmates became competent to keep an automobile running pretty smoothly. If one can avoid the Microsoft nonsense, and all the brainwashing about licensing of software, and avoid the educational system brainwashing - keeping a computer running is hardly any more difficult than keeping a car running. Your comparison to surgery just doesn't cut it. Unless, of course, you're talking about rocket surgery.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Saturday March 30 2019, @05:41PM (2 children)
So if it's something YOU learned, everyone should have if they're not lazy or stupid. And if they didn't, they deserve to be ripped off. If it's NOT something you learned, it's perfectly understandable and I presume you'd like some regulatory body to keep you from getting ripped off?
If somebody did devote their time to learning surgery, are they excused from auto mechanics or computer maintenance?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 31 2019, @01:58AM (1 child)
I'd have to consider that on a case-by-case basis. Of course, most surgeons are driving new cars, or collector cars, and they have high dollar, reputable garages working on those cars. They don't drive into the shop on the grungy side of town, which serves as a chop shop part of the time.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday March 31 2019, @03:11AM
And they're taking their computer to Office Depot or Geek Squad...
If they're doing their internship, they aren't driving expensive high end cars yet.
But the question remains, where is the market and it's miracle solution that doesn't involve the bad ol' government enforcing those pesky laws?