Why not to buy a PC from “The Computer Shop”
Posted: June 20th, 2004 | 9 Comments »Most techies in the UK still know The Computer Shop
by its old name, Time Computers. They have the biggest ads of any
computer vendor in this country, and they’re always on the back pages
of major newspaper supplements, not just computer magazines. They’ve
never had a great reputation, but sometimes the deals look just too
good to be true, especially given that there’s a fair amount of
name-brand hardware in there (such as decent ATI-based graphics cards).
However, it was only recently that I discovered (through a friend,
whose office had bought several of these machines) where a chunk of the
scam lies. Here’s a clue from the ad:
- Modem : Dedicated high speed Supanet optimised 56K modem
- Internet Access : Supanet Internet Access Preloaded
The machine comes pre-configured to access a particular ISP. This is
nothing particularly unusual. It gets a bit more awkward when you try
and delete the Supanet dial-up from the machine – apparently it can
only be done with some registry hacking, though you’re still at liberty
to add other dial-up connections. But they won’t work, because the modem is firmware-locked to Supanet access numbers and can’t dial anything else. (That’s what it means by “Supanet optimised”) The Computer Shop will help you get around this, as long as you call their £1 per minute support line (no, there’s no email address for support) and then pay £60 to have them send you a CD with unlocking software on it (oh, and the installable copy of Windows they fail to give you).
So it gives me great pleasure to tell any poor TCS customer who’s
wandered this way via Google that they can “unoptimise” their modem for
free, like this. In the meantime… Trading Standards Authority, anyone?
Please help me!! My friend and I mistakenly bought two Tiny pc’s and have the usual headache of not being able to connect to aol. I did call someone, somewhere(!) and they kindly talked me through the whole process and I wrote it all down. Now, having had a clear up my friend wants to deoptimise Supanet for aol access and I can’t find the bloody paperwork I had kept. Aaaaaaaaaah. Can you send me the deoptimising instructions please. We will love you forever! Ta
can you please send me deoptimising instructions for supanet,i bought a laptop from computer shop and cannot connect to internet through my telewest line. please help
I wrote a note on the other website about Tiny. I was thinking about buying one until I read the small print at the bottom of their ads. It stinks!
I also bought a time heap of crap for over £700.It has crashed every day since I got it and the only advice I got from time after calling the £1 per min helpline was to buy a Windows disc and reinstall windows,and take out a further 2 year warranty.When I pointed out that the manufacturers warranty was no good so why should I pay them for an extra warranty they could only insist that I take the windows disc at about £30 and re-install,with no attempt to honour their warranty.Needless to say when I bought my laptop I did not go to the computer shop.After my experience with Time I would not buy a 5 amp fuse from the computer shop and to the man from cust service who called my wife to ask if I was happy with my purchase,and who said he would call me personally after being told the problems,thank you for being so good at you job that you did not bother to to call back.
hi my modems is ,locked by supanet so i cant not use other isp proivied
please unlocked my modems for free
Go to http://www.tiny.com/deopt and follow the instructions – Bam! Unlocked modem for free!! Enter any old name and don’t bother with the order no – they don’t matter
I made a big mistake in buying a Time Traveller laptop. It broke down after a few weeks. I took it back to the shop and the manager and assistant were very rude to me. Because I didn’t buy their after service warranty (even though it has a one year warranty after purchase) they did not want to know. I wanted my money back and they refused to give it. They also said I had to phone their expensive helpline. I was told I could take it to another branch as they had an engineer instore. He didn’t know how to fix it and I eventually persuaded him to let me use their phone to call the helpline. They just told me to reboot. A day after it developed the same problem. I phoned customer services and they told me that I would have to phone their expensive helpline. I said it wasn’t worth it because I did that the other day and it got me nowhere. The woman said there was no record of me phoning the helpline. I wrote to Trading Standards. I then had to phone the helpline to arrange for them to come and collect it for repair and even then the man on the phone tried desperately to sell me their extra warranty cover. It has broken down again,and even a few of the keys have fallen off but I have just consigned it to the scrap heap. I don’t want anything to do with Time Computers and was very happy today when I read on Sky News that the company that makes them is in trouble and has had to close all its shops. Hope its true so that nobody else has to face such a bad experience of buying from them.
tiny website not running how can deopt modem without website
i have deoptimised my modem 10 times now. Its locked again and i cant get on the tiny website is there another way. I have such a bloody headache. Thanks