GuruNews, Volume 8 Number 33, 9-11-08

Thu Sep 11 20:31:38 EDT 2008

Welcome to GuruNews

Brought to you each week by the PC Gurus, a loose collection of volunteers from around the Kentuckiana region.

You can interact with the PC Guru team via our Web site, located at http://www.thepcgurus.com.  On our site you can post your computer questions, comments and rants on the forums, e-mail the PC Guru

team members and chat one on one in our nightly IRC chat beginning around 8:00 PM EDT.  You can also subscribe to our RSS feeds so you can get the latest news and forum updates from the PC Guru Web site directly on your computer.

If you're new to the Newsletter you can read back issues at Team member JP Durbin's website at http://www.jpdurbin.net.  There are links to all the old 84 Online issues as well as the new GuruNews missives.

The WHAS Crusade for Children provides year round support for needy children throughout the Kentuckiana region.  Visit http://www.whascrusade.org to make donations online.

USS Rover's list of streaming computer shows is now available for download in Excel, Open Office and Linux ready formats from http://sheet.zoho.com/public/ussrover/shows. 

To subscribe to this newsletter just drop by www.thepcgurus.com and sign up!

Vol. 8, No. 33                 

9-11-08

1 Another Blue Hippo      

2 Snake Oil  

3 LHC now online, AOL makes (ahem) improvements, Yahoo iPhone, new Opera, Volt pics like greased lightning

4 Uninstall cleanup

5 SP3 revisited

Several years ago we took on the notorious "No Credit Check!" computer reseller Blue Hippo.  They were at the time advertising through Insight and offering low-end computers, which you fully paid for before they were shipped to you, then continued to charge you weekly payments for another 39 weeks because they "extended you credit" without a check.  Victims paid between $1500-$2000 for a $400 computer.

Unfortunately, Blue Hippo is still in business and still advertising on WDRB, but no longer on Insight.  Also unfortunately they have been replaced by yet another group of scam artists called Guaranteed Consumer Credit.  This bunch is even more brazen, bragging on their website (http://www.gcf4all.com/) that they actually SAVE you money over Rent-to-Own or credit cards.

They even provide a handy chart (http://www.gcf4all.com/faqs.html) that gives details.  Of course they list a year of payments for their systems vs. five years on a credit card, and to my knowledge nobody has ever suggested that RTO was a good plan.

You'll note they don't give an APR or any information on the amount "financed" in that chart.  You should smell a rat right there, but let's look at what they have for the quoted $29.99/wk payment.

At http://www.gcf4all.com/desktops.html this is their "Best Seller".  It looks like a Dell to me, and they claim they sell top-of-the-line Dell and HP "Business" computers but they conveniently forget to mention the model.

They specs on this screaming beast are listed as:

"Intel 2.0 GHZ processor (256.2) 

17" Flat panel LCD monitor 

1 Gig DDR2 Memory 

80GB Hard Drive 

48X32 CDRW/DVD Combo 

V.92 PCI Data Fax controllerless modem 

Integrated 10/110 Networking 

104 Key Keyboard 

Two Button USB Scroll Mouse 

Microsoft Windows Windows Vista Home 

2 Stereo Speakers 

Microsoft Works 8.5 

Business Productivity software pack 

3 Year Ltd Warranty, On-site Service"

The description has all kinds of problems.  Such as an Intel WHAT processor?  Celeron?  P4?  Core2Duo?  And what exactly does 256.2 mean?   

Vista Home WHAT?  Basic or Premium?  Regardless, 1 GB of RAM is about half what is needed for Vista to run anywhere near as well as XP on 512 MB. And the 80 GB hard drive and CD-RW/DVD drive are both very basic and usually included in an entry-level system.

And do they hire people with no English skills whatsoever to write these specs?  What the heck is Microsoft Windows Windows?  And what exactly is a 10/110 network adapter?  Last time I checked, and I work with networks every day, they came in speeds of 10/100/1000.

MS Works is an inexpensive Office alternative that costs around $20 with a new PC and the "Business Productivity software pack" is one of the OEM packages of crap that can be added for about $3.  Think of all the garbage programs pre-loaded on new "Brand Name" machines that feature all of those programs you never use. 

Since I had no model number to use I just went to Dell.com to configure one as close as I could to the quoted specs.  Here it is:

Intel® Celeron ® Processor 440 (2.00GHz, 800 FSB) 

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic Service Pack 1

17 inch SE178WFP Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs 

250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst CacheT 

16X DVD+/-RW Drive 

Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 

7.1 Channel Audio 

Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse 

56K PCI Data Fax Modem 

Integrated 10/100 Ethernet

Stereo Speakers

Microsoft Works 9.0 Office Software

3 yr In-home Service; 24/7 Technical Support

Add in $3 for that "Productivity" software and this package comes to $753.  Shipping would likely be around $30, so let's just round up and say $800.  Notice how the hard drive is a 250 GB instead of an 80 and the optical drive is a DVD-RW instead of a combo.  And the warranty is three years, not two.

This is not a system I would buy since I know Dell and the quality of their low-end parts, but it's close to the under-powered system listed on the website for $1569.  Ah, but there's more.

The Better Business Bureau obviously gives this company an Unsatisfactory rating but the review at http://www.dc.bbb.org/report.html?national=Y&compid=013335705 includes this little gem:

"According to information in BBB records, consumers who order products through the company agree to a non-refundable activation fee of $99 to set up a layaway account. If the purchase/layaway agreement is cancelled by the customer prior to completion or if the company terminates the agreement, an early Termination Fee of $175 is due. Funds paid to the layaway account prior to full payment would be forfeit if the account is terminated. As always, the BBB advises consumers to read and understand the terms of any contract or purchase agreement before signing the agreement."

So that $1569 is actually $1668, or more than twice the price of the actual unit.  Even if you didn't pay for it outright but put it on a credit card with an ungodly 28% APR you would only pay $1024 if you knocked it out in a year.

Even worse given the pitiful BBB rating, Guaranteed Credit Funding offers an excuse from http://www.gcf4all.com/disclaimer.html:

"Our status with the BBB varies from "Satisfactory" to "Unsatisfactory" depending upon when you view our company's standing. The BBB deems a company's status as "Unsatisfactory" if a company has two (2) unresolved consumer complaint cases. Since 99% of the cases filed with the BBB turn out to be false claims, as a company, we do not reward malicious conduct by voluntarily releasing ill intentioned customers from their contractual obligations merely because they file a complaint with the BBB. We will have an "Unsatisfactory" status from time to time due to unresolved customer claims. In all of these instances, we have provided the BBB with irrefutable evidence of the complaining customer's obligations, but the BBB is ill equipped to affectively follow up with the thousands of complaints the BBB receives from consumers against hundreds of companies. The BBB attempts to update our status in a timely matter but some times it is physically impossible with the relative staffing available to the BBB. The BBB also does not accurately report on the size of a company and the number of customers that company has. The number of complaints filed against our company based upon the number of active customer accounts currently equals .0001% of our customer base."

It boils down to this.  Much like Blue Hippo, this company uses misleading advertising and hidden fees to screw the end user and you would do much better to just save for a PC if you can't buy one outright.  You'll have enough money in much less time to just pay it off and until then you can use library computers for free if necessary.  

I only bring this up because I've seen commercials for this group two days running (Tuesday and Wednesday) on G4.  If these are contracted through Insight they really need to review what they advertise.  Not sure if complaining to G4 would do much if it's national but it can't hurt to try.

It certainly seemed to work on Blue Hippo.

Kevin Mefford, Editor

pcguru at microdome.net

Terry Wise

www.ratland.com

Tech News of the Week

Wednesday's successful test run of a massive particle collider is being called "one of the great engineering milestones of mankind." :

http://tinyurl.com/5exk3n

AOL said Wednesday that it is revamping the site to offer increased choice and customization, including access to third-party e-mail addresses:

http://tinyurl.com/46pxvv  

Yahoo on Wednesday rolled out an application for Apple's iPhone that enables users to manage their mobile messaging and social networking contacts with one interface:

http://tinyurl.com/6k4d8e  

Opera, the Rodney Dangerfield of web browsers, has rolled to version 9.6 Beta:

http://tinyurl.com/46elmu  

Wieck Media, a clearinghouse for automakers' pictures, Wednesday posted photos of the production 2011 Chevrolet Volt on a media information Web site for just 12 minutes before taking them down:

http://tinyurl.com/4yxvys 

Copy us on the good stuff!

Matthew Dattilo

thepcgurus at gmail.com 

www.mattstodayinhistory.com

Download of the Week

Revo Uninstaller is a great free program that uninstalls programs and cleans up the mess they tend to leave behind.  What's better than the free Revo Uninstaller? The portable version of the program is better, which doesn't need to be installed (and thus uninstalled) itself. Like Vista's Programs and Features, Revo offers a convenient interface for launching your installed programs own uninstallers. But after Revo does that job, it cleans up the mess that the uninstaller left behind.  Just download the zipped file, unzip it and run revouninstaller.exe.  You can even run it from a portable drive.  It's free here: 

http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html 

Select the portable version.

Carlita Lupino

Cards57 at gmail.com

Email Question of the Week

Q:  I have an icon which says that updates are ready to install. Looks like it is Windows Service Pack 3. I am still using Windows XP and I bought my computer in Dec. of 2006. They gave me the Vista disks but I don't want to load. I have not heard anything about Service Pack 3. 

Can you give me some info?

A:  I would consider it safe to go on and install Windows XP Service Pack 3.  I've not had any issues out of it, and consider that any issues that did come out with it to be taken care of.  The only thing to watch out for is if you have a processor manufactured by AMD, because in some cases, a file that Service Pack 3 puts on the machine can cause an issue until it is taken care of with a patch.  If you have an AMD, processor, get the patch from here: http://tinyurl.com/4f8k94 and run it before you run the SP3 update.

Hope this helps, and let us know if you need assistance,

Daniel A. Williams
daniel at thepcgurus.com

Contact info and legal stuff

If you have tech support questions or ideas and/or submissions for our newsletter please submit them by visiting www.thepcgurus.com and click on the "Email the Team" icon. 

Copyright 2001-2008 The PC Gurus, all rights reserved.  Publication, rebroadcast or storage is prohibited without prior consent, however you may freely forward this publication to friends as long as A) it is forwarded in its entirety and B) no fee is charged.

Information provided in this publication is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied.  Although the information provided is known to work on most systems, it may not work on ALL systems.  Make use of any information supplied at your own risk.

The PC Gurus are a group of volunteers who provide support for the PC, Mac and Linux users in the Kentuckiana region.

To unsubscribe from this newsletter visit http://thepcgurus.com/mailman/listinfo/newsletter_thepcgurus.com or send an email to microdome at seidata.com with the words "unsubscribe newsletter" (without the quotes) at the top of the body of the message.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://thepcgurus.com/pipermail/newsletter_thepcgurus.com/attachments/20080911/03d1627d/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 38828 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://thepcgurus.com/pipermail/newsletter_thepcgurus.com/attachments/20080911/03d1627d/attachment.jpe 