Another run in with the Geek Squad.

[Vince]

I don't see the point of complaining and getting all worked up about how terrible Geek Squad is.
Customers seldom value good work until they get shafted once or twice.
Caring about your clients is one thing, but are they really your clients if they drag their PC into Best Buy?
They will always come back if you are doing good work at fair prices, and who needs them if they don't?

Nicely said!

 

[vickie thivierge]

I had something like this happen to me....and yes it's very irritating when it happens. What I told him was I get paid by the hour and if he wants me to explain what I'm doing to someone else...sure, not a problem, but I'm charging you the time that it takes me to explain it to him.

...and no, I didn't get the work. He decided to take the work to his friend instead.

 

[tekgeek]

Most of everyone here has read this before http://consumerist.com/2007/03/09/geek-squad-insider-speaks-out/ one of the things he mentions is that they outsource the repairs (someone from India remotes in and does all the work) I have a friend whom finally got a job and it was with Staples as an Easy Tech and he said the same thing. If there is a virus or something difficult on the computer they just plug it into the network and let some guy fix it.

 

[Digital Micro]

Most of everyone here has read this before http://consumerist.com/2007/03/09/geek-squad-insider-speaks-out/ one of the things he mentions is that they outsource the repairs (someone from India remotes in and does all the work) I have a friend whom finally got a job and it was with Staples as an Easy Tech and he said the same thing. If there is a virus or something difficult on the computer they just plug it into the network and let some guy fix it.

At our local OfficeMax / Office Depot the cashiers do virus removals. They have customers computers right behind the checkout all the time running Malwarebytes.

 

[glennd]

At our local OfficeMax / Office Depot the cashiers do virus removals. They have customers computer right behind the checkout all the time running Malwarevytes.

 

[altrenda]

At our local OfficeMax / Office Depot the cashiers do virus removals. They have customers computer right behind the checkout all the time running Malwarevytes.

Really, how much skill and knowledge does it take to run a Malwarebytes scan? They advertise on places like NPR for consumers to use it.

 

[Poetik92]

Bleh gonna go ahead and come out of the closet xD, my daytime job is GeekSquad, for now it pays the bills until either my business grows enough to sustain me or until i get offered a higher IT position on base at our local naval base. The base here LOVES hiring bestbuy employees. I normally dont talk about it on here or at my business as I dont wanna get lumped in with all the rest of the "Techs" or associated with the bad experiences had at GS

That being said I made do an AMA (on a tech eyes only part of forum)

 

[JoeTech]

For the most part all my best buy stories are bad. I Just found out yesterday from my mom that my aunt fell for a tech support scam and thought her entire computer was toast. She went to best buy and bought a new pc and then later called back to have the geek squad come help her set it up. The guy came over and she explained what happened and he asked to take a look at the pc.

He told her that her old computer is actually fine and there is no reason that she would actually need a new pc. He offered to take the new pc back since it was still unopened and not out of the box yet. He also said they would refund her the money and didn't charge for coming out either. Of course this could be him just trying to be nice and not follow corporate policy for once since taking away a sale like this would be frowned upon usually at best buy.

 

[Markverhyden]

Bleh gonna go ahead and come out of the closet xD, my daytime job is GeekSquad, for now it pays the bills until either my business grows enough to sustain me or until i get offered a higher IT position on base at our local naval base. The base here LOVES hiring bestbuy employees. I normally dont talk about it on here or at my business as I dont wanna get lumped in with all the rest of the "Techs" or associated with the bad experiences had at GS

That being said I made do an AMA (on a tech eyes only part of forum)

No big deal. I worked at CompUSA when it was alive. In spite of the big box reputations there are good techs within them. But they usually do not last since big boxes are all about retail sales. They see service as lead in to sales on the floor.

 

[Ashley Hathaway]

funny how i just watched this video on youtube

before reading this thread...

its six years old and they still cant get it right... oh well keeps me in business

 

[Poetik92]

That actually hurt to watch. I noticed someone mention that most of the decent geeksquad agents transfer into the remote support position so they can work for home, I'll have to look into this, would be so much easier to run my business with an arangement like this.
Also it would help me forget the fact that - Often when a client turns down repair due to costs or us not being able to do repairs but still wants to know where they can go to get it fixed we recommend them to a nearby shop that has basically become a pawn store or tell them to search online. I of course cannot recommend my own business so saying "search online" is my only chance at securing the client without losing my day job.

 

[frase]

Yes before I do anything with system. I check on current physical state of system. any chips no scratches on display all usb and ports, dvd ejects ok. Good to check screws and base on laptops as well as some may have tried to take it apart - then you get blamed for it. Take photos once back on workbench of system Then once it is in the shop I image immediately, and keep for two weeks and advise this to client. Then I work on the issue - mind you I do this when a Hardware fail is imminent, not just malware etc..

 

[lilcpu]

Crazy good read...

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Bleh gonna go ahead and come out of the closet xD, my daytime job is GeekSquad, for now it pays the bills until either my business grows enough to sustain me or until i get offered a higher IT position on base at our local naval base. The base here LOVES hiring bestbuy employees. I normally dont talk about it on here or at my business as I dont wanna get lumped in with all the rest of the "Techs" or associated with the bad experiences had at GS

That being said I made do an AMA (on a tech eyes only part of forum)

Do they really outsource virus removals in store to people in India? I've never heard that one before and I worked for supportspace for a brief time period which handled some of the online repairs for geek squad.

Edit: What I hated most about doing online repairs for geek squad was the restrictions of what apps i'm allowed to use.

 

[Poetik92]

We are restricted to only approved tools of which there's a decently sized list. Our virus removals are normally straightforward and done in store by the agents in the back. The program (MRI:FACE) has about 5 scanners in it that run in windows P.E.

On occasion they will use AJU (Agent Johnny Utah) which is remote support from somewhere else. but I was under the belief the support was from the remote agents that worked at either geeksquad city or the ones who work from home.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

We are restricted to only approved tools of which there's a decently sized list. Our virus removals are normally straightforward and done in store by the agents in the back. The program (MRI:FACE) has about 5 scanners in it that run in windows P.E.

On occasion they will use AJU (Agent Johnny Utah) which is remote support from somewhere else. but I was under the belief the support was from the remote agents that worked at either geeksquad city or the ones who work from home.

I remember in 2010 at supportspace (3rd party for geeksquad) we had to argue to get tdsskiller approved and that was back when it was very useful. I remember we didnt have access to any CPU/Memory detail application that provides info like memory timings etc. Come to think of it i'm not even sure there was a temp sensor reading application on the approved list.

Edit: on the other hand we didnt have access to official tools made by geeksquad so not sure if they had a cpu/memory or temp app.

 

[Nossy Drelich]

C'mon folks. You know that all of these big-box retail outlets only do one thing - sell new equipment. The GS is a pitiful repair shop and we all know it. But it is their first mission to try to sell the client / customer a newer system or do some sort of high-dollar estimate to try to force a sale! That's why we see so many of those little purple stickers on many of our repairs / scrapped units - for this very reason.

I once had a conversation with a young man from many years back who told me that GS had a training facility that actually taught their associates all about how to go about making a sale rather than doing repairs.

I think the original idea of the "in-house service offerings at the big-box retail locations" were primarily put in place to aid with immediate hardware upgrades (install memory, etc..)

You gotta wonder how many millions of computers are sitting at county landfills and dumps around the country because Geek Squad told a customer a machine could not be repaired or priced it so high the customer decided to junk it. It's sad how often people will go to a small shop only as a last resort to find that their machine can be repaired and often for a fraction of what Geek Squad quoted.

Abosutelly. I wish there was someway to know which landfill to look in and when Or maybe tell other where to throw away their toys

 

[Nossy Drelich]

We are restricted to only approved tools of which there's a decently sized list. Our virus removals are normally straightforward and done in store by the agents in the back. The program (MRI:FACE) has about 5 scanners in it that run in windows P.E.

On occasion they will use AJU (Agent Johnny Utah) which is remote support from somewhere else. but I was under the belief the support was from the remote agents that worked at either geeksquad city or the ones who work from home.

I heard "somewhere else" is India and you know quite well what they do with your cc when it falls into their hands...

 

[Nossy Drelich]

I always cringe when my elderly clients on a budget tell me what they paid for service at GS. I teach computer literacy classes to seniors and we always have to spend time discussing what to look for when getting help. GS doesn't tell them that reinstalling the OS means they lose all their personal files.

thats assuming they do a format as opposed to upgrade, but knowing GS, I wouldnt be surprised

 

[Nossy Drelich]

I've certainly seen my share of box store mess ups, but I've seen just as many, if not more screwed up drives come in from technicians who just just assumed that their client's photos were not worth our data recovery rates.

what do you charge?