Another run in with the Geek Squad.

phaZed said:
Hey everyone,

I would like to make a suggestion. Go talk to the managers at Best Buy, Office Max, Staples, etc. I have done this and I get a BUNCH of referrals right from the store. People are calling me up FROM the store saying "Such and Such told me to call you for this"... and I have them come on down. It's mostly for repairs that would have to be sent away for service (DC Jacks, Data recovery, etc) and it's usually a refusal of the customer in which they are then given my name. Sometimes (in the case of my local OfficeMax) the manager doesn't even think the store prices are fair so he sends anything more than a virus removal to me. They rather have satisfied customers than the revenue, which I find refreshing and honorable. I have literally embraced the people in these places and in turn have added literally 10's of thousands of dollars to my bottom line.
Click to expand...
Wow thats amazing. What do I do, give them a stack of business cards, and wait ? :)
 
Dave the Computer Man said:
I love this stuff. I wish there was a way to get it out to the mainstream so they realize that they need to find a GOOD tech, one that they can rely upon, that will always be there for them.

On occasion, I need a part right away. Best Buy is sometimes a convenient choice. At most BB stores re-sellers have to pay at the geek counter. Once, a GS member was when pulling a laptop off the shelf to give it to the customer in front of me. The GS member, Agent Butterfingers, dropped it. Not good. The screen cracked and the case actually separated. Computer crumbs all over. The manager, who witnessed this happen told the customer that they won't replace the laptop as he did not have the Accidental Damage coverage on the plan. He tried to explain that they only do work under the customers' warranty and are not responsible for damage like this. The customer would have none of that. So, I perked up and I offered my services to the customer. The manager did not like that one bit (hehe) He told me to leave before he called security and had me arrested. I dared him. Security escorted me out of the store.

Sadly, I had to drive a ways to get the part I needed.
Click to expand...

Wonder what the guy did :) Technically, I don't think its illegal to do what you did , so you couldve called 911 and had a showdown :)
 
Nossy Drelich said:
Wow thats amazing. What do I do, give them a stack of business cards, and wait ? :)
Click to expand...
Pretty much! A couple of the places found me on Google and referred the customer to me that way. After getting a few customers I went up to the place and talked to the managers thanking them and offer some business cards (Either for the back room for employees to look at when needed or a bunch for handing out - whichever the manager wants). Some of the Office Max's managers were accepting some were not - so it is hit and miss. I always presented myself as not a threat and the conversation would be something along the lines of:
"Hi, I run X computer repair and have had a few customers come to me that had time-sensitive repairs or repairs that you don't offer in the store, like DC jacks. I'm not here to take your business away from you and I know that Office Max headquarters doesn't condone outsourcing.. but for those customers that walk away, I think we can make good customer outcomes in those situations that would otherwise be seen as negative." - Or similar.

EDIT: Just got a call from a guy, my name given by BB... Guy has an overheating Desktop, Cooler is cool to the touch, running 95-98c at the chip... obvious heatsink/compound issue but BB won't touch it!
 
phaZed said:
Pretty much! A couple of the places found me on Google and referred the customer to me that way. After getting a few customers I went up to the place and talked to the managers thanking them and offer some business cards (Either for the back room for employees to look at when needed or a bunch for handing out - whichever the manager wants). Some of the Office Max's managers were accepting some were not - so it is hit and miss. I always presented myself as not a threat and the conversation would be something along the lines of:
"Hi, I run X computer repair and have had a few customers come to me that had time-sensitive repairs or repairs that you don't offer in the store, like DC jacks. I'm not here to take your business away from you and I know that Office Max headquarters doesn't condone outsourcing.. but for those customers that walk away, I think we can make good customer outcomes in those situations that would otherwise be seen as negative." - Or similar.

EDIT: Just got a call from a guy, my name given by BB... Guy has an overheating Desktop, Cooler is cool to the touch, running 95-98c at the chip... obvious heatsink/compound issue but BB won't touch it!
Click to expand...

You got serious people skills or something because I can't imagine the staff at local places around here caring enough to pass along your information unless they like you.
 
phaZed said:
Pretty much! A couple of the places found me on Google and referred the customer to me that way. After getting a few customers I went up to the place and talked to the managers thanking them and offer some business cards (Either for the back room for employees to look at when needed or a bunch for handing out - whichever the manager wants). Some of the Office Max's managers were accepting some were not - so it is hit and miss. I always presented myself as not a threat and the conversation would be something along the lines of:
"Hi, I run X computer repair and have had a few customers come to me that had time-sensitive repairs or repairs that you don't offer in the store, like DC jacks. I'm not here to take your business away from you and I know that Office Max headquarters doesn't condone outsourcing.. but for those customers that walk away, I think we can make good customer outcomes in those situations that would otherwise be seen as negative." - Or similar.

EDIT: Just got a call from a guy, my name given by BB... Guy has an overheating Desktop, Cooler is cool to the touch, running 95-98c at the chip... obvious heatsink/compound issue but BB won't touch it!
Click to expand...

That sounds good. I'll give that a shot. Is there any hope if you work from home because you don't have money for an office though ? :) Also with the heatsink, you keep a bunch in stock or you have to order it?
 
I work at home, no outside office. Haven't seen the cooler job yet, he'll be here at 10am tomorrow (Messing up my voting schedule lol). Don't keep coolers in stock but since it's a desktop I doubt it's more than dried up heatsink grease or the cooler got knocked around somehow and isn't seating correctly. The guy said the fan runs, the cooler is cold but can feel heat coming from under the cooler. We'll see. Just goes to show you though, if BB won't even take a CPU cooler off and apply paste.. gee wiz, wight?
 
As for the people skills, was in sales for a long while (Circuit City Computer salesman, Lowes Washer/Dryer Salesman, Staples Salesperson)...

People Skills? Just like this guy ;)
 
Last edited:
We have a company called Dr PC operating here. They offer services like ram upgrades for $99 + the cost of the ram module!
They offer virus scans for $99 where they uninstall your AV and install Norton Antivirus and charge you extra for it, weather you have an active subscription to another AV or not! They just let Norton run to see what it can find!
You drop your computer off at an OfficeWorks store and leave it for about 2-3 days! Dr PC pick it up from there.
I here so many horror stories from clients who thought that Dr PC would be the end of their problems. How wrong they were!
Virus removals where they reformat the hard drive, without backing up first, customers being told that their "2 year old" computer is not worth repairing, missing or wrong (someone elses!) data on customers computers after reformatting etc.
I look at it this way. While ever Dr PC, Geeks On Call, Jims Computers and many others like this, are charging exorbitant fees for their "services", I will have plenty of business!
 
Barcelona said:
We have a company called Dr PC operating here. They offer services like ram upgrades for $99 + the cost of the ram module!
They offer virus scans for $99 where they uninstall your AV and install Norton Antivirus and charge you extra for it, weather you have an active subscription to another AV or not! They just let Norton run to see what it can find!
You drop your computer off at an OfficeWorks store and leave it for about 2-3 days! Dr PC pick it up from there.
I here so many horror stories from clients who thought that Dr PC would be the end of their problems. How wrong they were!
Virus removals where they reformat the hard drive, without backing up first, customers being told that their "2 year old" computer is not worth repairing, missing or wrong (someone elses!) data on customers computers after reformatting etc.
I look at it this way. While ever Dr PC, Geeks On Call, Jims Computers and many others like this, are charging exorbitant fees for their "services", I will have plenty of business!
Click to expand...
Their web site is sh** too! :confused:
 
trevm999 said:
Yeah, when I was a mac tech, we got lots of a referrals from Best Buy. They sent them all away, so if the customers weren't happy with the wait time they referred them to us.

I recently read an official Microsoft exam guide that recommended using chkdsk and system startup repair for troubleshooting if you need to replace the hard drive...
Click to expand...

I would love to see that exam. How do you get all these referrals? Walk inside a Bestbuy and tell the manager i do this stuff too lol
 
ComputerRepairTech said:
You got serious people skills or something because I can't imagine the staff at local places around here caring enough to pass along your information unless they like you.
Click to expand...
"Unless they like you"... well that's a given. It's been mentioned on here before how some techs get new business, in one case the tech goes around weekly and hands out donuts to a select group of clients he wants to pursue. If you go out every Friday for a month and arive about the same time of day each week, I think they'll be looking forward to seeing you the following week. Doing this weekly and at the same time for each business shows consistency... they will remember you and when they need IT service, "Who They Gonna Call?"...
 
Poetik92 said:
I of course cannot recommend my own business so saying "search online"
Click to expand...

Seems to me you need to get your Yelp rating up... then you can tell them to use Yelp to find a good local tech
In our town we have the best Yelp rating and in the next town we work with the guy who has the highest rating... he's a one man shop and doesn't do managed services or go out on big jobs. He refers business clients to us and refer residential clients to him.
He does it all - soldering etc. We used to take the system computer from the client and then take the computer to him (mostly laptops) and then tack on a charge for our service but we've gotten too busy and if it's something we don't want to take the time to deal with we'll let the client know while they're here and in talking to the client, call our associate and setup an appointment between both of them (he's just a few miles away).
 
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