Hi,

I would be interested to hear people's views on the following matter. Recently I took my laptop in to an independent PC repair shop. There was a problem with overheating and the fan bearings had gone. Anyway, eventually they managed to sort the problem out. So I went and collected it, took it home and booted it up.

Lo and behold, there were new directories on my hard drive, and they had installed Ad-aware. I looked in add / remove programs, and noticed about 15 Windows SP2 XP hotfix updates had been added. The reason I was looking in there was I noticed my machine was running much much slower than what is was before I took it in to get fixed.

So i phoned them up, asked them exactly what they installed and why they did it without asking me first. Their response was that it was company policy to update machines with the latest windows patches, as this often sorts out a lot of problems. I said, well, I don't think the problem with my machine has anything to do with a windows security update or patch, and besides why was I not informed that this was company policy.

To the first point they said : well, we had to work the machine to see how much it was overheating, so by downloading and installing the updates we are working the processor, RAM and hard drive. I said, could you not just run defrag or a virus scan instead? No response.

To the point about not being informed about this company policy, they said : well no one has complained about this before.

So i am asking,
(a) Is this common practice amongst repair shops?
(b) Do you think this practice is correct?
(c) Do I have any sort of legal rights about what they can and cannot put on my machine, as I noticed that some of the items they installed contained EULA's which they have "accepted" on my behalf.

Thanks for taking the time to read this rather lengthy post.

a)no idea
b)no
c)not sure

To the first point they said : well, we had to work the machine to see how much it was overheating, so by downloading and installing the updates we are working the processor, RAM and hard drive. I said, could you not just run defrag or a virus scan instead? No response.

That is Bo**ocks. I can see their point about some updates may fix software problems, but if it was hardware related I cant see why on earth they would do that, and secondly theres much better things to 'stress' the system than downloading and installing some programs.

I would have thought there would be some privacy rights about what can and cant be put on peoples systems without the customer agreeing.

I would press the matter and ask to see this 'company policy'. Is it a big firm, or small business up the road kind of thing? Id be tempted to take it back and tell them to get rid of everything they put on.

Why they should install ad-aware is beyond me, at the end of the day, if you choose to run spyware, then its up to you. It bothers some people and not others.

Time to give them a ring or go and see the manager. Dont send emails cos you dont get to speak or see a face. I think you would get a better response face to face.

Id be annoyed if it were me.

It is lengthy, but absolutely correct. And I am concern too.

This is very common practice but the same should not be carried out without giving prior notice to the customer. You might loose your valuable data/ backup, etc. if the patching fails. It is completely wrong on their part to do it without asking for your permission. If everything goes well; they take credit of it and if it fails they will simply say any rotten thing.... like they are saying about Company Policy and what not.

I don't know the legality in your part of the world.... One thing is sure that its simply nothing but similar to intruding your privacy.

Well I uninstalled all the windows hotfix patches and updates....(a nightmare when you have to restart after removing each one)...and I think they had installed that notorious patch which slows your machine down badly (i asked them if they had installed that one and they said yes, the patch had been fixed to solve that problem.....hmm)...uninstalled Ad-aware and ran spybot SD and now it is running smooth.

I daren't dare take it back to them and get them to uninstall it, I'd rather not let them touch it again. The reason I used them was because they were a husband/wife shop and much easier to open a dialogue with them than if i took it to Best Buy etc...

Still pi**ed off that they went ahead and put things on without my permission. What gets me more than anything is the "this is company policy to install the latest updates" , yet not once was I told that such a policy existed.

Thanks for listening to the whinge

I 'd have been whining to. Guess the moral of the story is to ask pc shops if they plan on installing any additional software/ updates while your pc is there. God knows, I've never asked :rolleyes:

Answers

So i am asking,
(a) Is this common practice amongst repair shops?
(b) Do you think this practice is correct?
(c) Do I have any sort of legal rights about what they can and cannot put on my machine, as I noticed that some of the items they installed contained EULA's which they have "accepted" on my behalf.

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(a) no it is leglislation to get the permission of the user to install new software doing it without consent is against the data protection act and a breech of software privacy

(b) i would if i were you spread the word about them by mouth. Word of mouth can make or break a business or report them

(c) They cannot put software on your machine without your permission doing so is illegal. You could have a field day in court.

All the above is already been said... why you are re-posting Parahandy?

Saying about court is "Gentleman never walks over the court steps." He hasn't lost any of his data, no spyware was installed, etc. On what basis the case will stand against the Repairing Company?