Generally speaking, I don’t buy my equipment from your typical big box store if it can be helped just on basic principle, and because you don’t have as much flexibility when doing that. But I’ve been known to on occasion. This might just change my mind. Staples has been slapped by Canada’s privacy watchdog after not completely whiping computer and external hard drives of personal data before reselling them. This leads to such wonders as having folks’ social insurance numbers, banking info, tax crap still stored on the drive when it goes out the door. Now, somebody’s gonna apply the common sense argument of “What the hell is your social insurance number doing on your external hard drive anyway?”. Good question. But regardless to what it’s doing there, or what else didn’t get removed from the drive before Staples resold it, somebody’s not doing it right. I guess I know where I’m not getting my next drive from. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go format one of mine–just in case I want to sell it.
One response to “Reason number 8792 why not to buy your electronics at Staples.”
[…] She, her boyfriend, her friends, and even her colleagues at Mojo Radio believe this to be unacceptable. None of us can afford to buy her said computer, but we figure perhaps if we put our heads and wallets together, maybe we can help this amazing lady on her way to success. We’re not shooting for luxury here, we’d just like something that’s not dead on arrival, or a week after purchase. Anything we purchase will be purchased direct from the factory, and include an on-site service warranty, including parts and labor. This is of course what she should have gotten when the state purchased her current machine, but that didn’t happen. After reading this, big-box stores make us a little nervous. […]