Yesterday I purchased another new scanner ... and wanted to pass on the latest scam by a computer tech shop (here at the Jersey shore anyway).

I've been scanning litteraly hundreds of chips over the past month while working on my anticipated completely revised 2003 A.C. Catalog. My scanner tube lights up when I click on my desktop shortcut and the tube travels the scanner bed back and forth, but no preview image appears on the monitor. Doing a test, the information comes back "tests o.k." I've uninstalled and re-installed the software cd to no avail ... so I took my Dell PC and the scanner to a local repair shop here in Brick. To my utter amazement, the tech told me that there is an automatic $30 charge to scan my hard drive for viruses before any work is done on any computer. Needless to say, I left that place very quickly.

Since I had a $20 bonus coupon from Staples that expires on Friday ... and I found a Visioneer scanner on sale with a $30 rebate, I chose to purchase the brand new scanner ($129) minus the $20 coupon and $30 rebate, which brought the final cost down to $79. Probably cheaper than having the other scanner looked at. What are your thoughts on the $30 "virus inspection" charge?