Did anyone see ...?

[Taffycat]

Did anyone see the "House of Horrors" programme on ITV1? (Tuesday at 3:30 pm here in S. Wales, but different in other regions I suspect.) For anyone who doesn't know, it is a programme which "sets-up" rogue traders and films them as they rip-off their victims.

In tonight's programme there was a bloke who "repaired" PCs..... not! A high-spec PC was specially built by a guy from one of the computer mags. The parts were all tip-top, but he had deliberately left the graphics card loosened.... so a blank monitor. PC repair-man needed.............

Enter the rogue trader. He took off the side of the box and fiddled for a minute or two, then told the young woman "owner" that ...tut tut... he would need to take the PC away for further examination. But he suspected a problem with the RAM and possibly the graphics card...

Cutting the story short... he ended up removing the graphics card and replacing it with an inferior one: next, he removed one of the sticks of RAM, instantly downgrading the machine, but not happy with that, he also removed and replaced the PSU (again with an inferior substitute!) Effectively, he had removed what was (on the programme) estimated to be about £200 worth of perfect parts, and then charged the young woman £328 for the priviledge!

When then programme makers wanted to confront him, they discovered that his address was fake, so they organized another set-up. As the fellow began to examine the (same) PC at a different address, he became aware that he'd recently "worked" on it and decided to leg it as he was confronted. That's when a bit of justice came his way...... in his haste to escape in his very nice BMW........ he hit a wall and removed about a third of his front bumper.

Isn't it grim when people are prepared to rip-off others like this? We all know that they're about, but people who are not experts in these matters are so vulnerable. Makes me really mad!

 

[V_R]

just finishing on ITV here now, missed the pc bit... ah well itv repeat everything 20 times so it'll be on again.

 

[michael 118]

hm that doesn't surprise me.

Actually that sounds familiar. Very familiar.

My partners pc was doing the exact same thing, except instead of a loosened card it was just a bust GPU. (My thread on it is somewhere in the General hardware section).

The bloke then removed the RAM and replaced it with an inferior card! It was my own RAM that i put in, and he never even gave it back! The swine!

Hope he has been brought to justice.

 

[Anon_F]

The best bit was ripping his bumper off, that will cost a few £££££

 

[psd99]

well summed up taffycat

I saw it yesterday on ITV 2

that program is always worth a watch
but I have never seen a pc fraud on there before it is normally builders...


But damn right what an idiotic twat this person is.
That was so naughty of him to take out the good parts and stick in poor and slower parts.

I bet this happens a lot.
It is sad for sure to see this happening but I bet people like him try to trick people who they think are vunerable.

I loved it when his BMW 7 Series got damaged that was pretty funny
I think probably the damage was around 3-400 quid.

good program I reccomend it