Espionage!?!?

[Three Dog Net]

So yesterday a customer dropped off their machine after picking it up from Best Buy. He had a disk error upon boot up, they told him the hard drive was bad, sold him a 320gb for $150. Two weeks later, same error. The geeks warrantied out the HD, didn't fix the problem. Called the customer and told him his GPU was bad and that he needed to add a graphics card....another $150. They put it in, ran tests and called the guy back and told him the mobo was bad and they wanted to sell him a new computer. He called me, I told him to tell them to keep the vid card, and get his machine to me.

Well, his mobo was bad, the SATA controllers couldn't see any hard drive at all, however, both his new and original hard drives were perfectly fine. Long story short, we sold him a new computer and he's returning the HD to Best Buy to raise hell.

Point of my post is....the techs at BB...well, they left their Geek Squad diagnostic boot CD in the machine.

Should I be the good Samaritan and return it to my biggest competitor?

or should I be bad? lol

 

[Martyn]

So yesterday a customer dropped off their machine after picking it up from Best Buy. He had a disk error upon boot up, they told him the hard drive was bad, sold him a 320gb for $150. Two weeks later, same error. The geeks warrantied out the HD, didn't fix the problem. Called the customer and told him his GPU was bad and that he needed to add a graphics card....another $150. They put it in, ran tests and called the guy back and told him the mobo was bad and they wanted to sell him a new computer. He called me, I told him to tell them to keep the vid card, and get his machine to me.

Well, his mobo was bad, the SATA controllers couldn't see any hard drive at all, however, both his new and original hard drives were perfectly fine. Long story short, we sold him a new computer and he's returning the HD to Best Buy to raise hell.

Point of my post is....the techs at BB...well, they left their Geek Squad diagnostic boot CD in the machine.

Should I be the good Samaritan and return it to my biggest competitor?

or should I be bad? lol

Not before dishing what's on there

 

[Three Dog Net]

lol...well its already been copied a couple times and an ISO put on the file server...just in case they come looking for it

we're going to dive into it today sometime...

 

[14049752]

There's nothing especially great about their MRI disc. I've come across several different copies across the years and they're basically just a bunch of things that we all have access to, some of it just automated a little more than it probably should be.

Honestly, I just throw them away. I think my BartPE build is better, anyway.

 

[edgepcs]

Aren't they just completely automated tools? Choose what you want it to do and it runs a range of tools one after the other.
I would steer clear, nothing beats a check in between each step to make sure that nothing has gone wrong.
Plus the legal issues, wouldn't it be against the license terms just to use it as you don't work for BB?

 

[NeutronTech]

Make copies of it and sell them. Run an ad campaign about how the customers can buy the tools Geek Squad uses. Sell it for half the price Geek Squad charges. A Geek Squad Do it yourself kit!

 

[ATTech]

Make a copy, then return it. But when you return it, be pompous about it. Ask for the Geek Squad manager and tell him "Hey, you guys left this in one of my client's computers. He was pretty irate about you guys trying to sell him parts he didn't need, so I figured I'd bring this by myself to save you guys the hassle of the hell he would have raised."

 

[parker.casey]

... or just return it like a decent person, and don't give us all a bad name for being arrogant!

 

[Elemdee]

I would guess that it wouldn't really matter to BB if you return it or not..they probably just make new copies of it if they misplace them anyway.

 

[Three Dog Net]

The disc they left was a sharpie'd copy anyway. Just thought I'd share a humorous story this morning, didn't think I'd start an ethical discussion.

The disc is basically a boot disc full of component tests and scanning tools, nothing special. I'm not going to sell it or distribute it. We just thought it was hilarious that they'd forget like that. I would assume that since this is a copy anyway, they have a pile of them lying around, so we're just going to throw it in our pile....might come in handy one day.

 

[Pc Fixed Right]

you will have legal problems as the MRI discs always phone home

 

[Puff]

So yesterday a customer dropped off their machine after picking it up from Best Buy. He had a disk error upon boot up, they told him the hard drive was bad, sold him a 320gb for $150. Two weeks later, same error. The geeks warrantied out the HD, didn't fix the problem. Called the customer and told him his GPU was bad and that he needed to add a graphics card....another $150. They put it in, ran tests and called the guy back and told him the mobo was bad and they wanted to sell him a new computer. He called me, I told him to tell them to keep the vid card, and get his machine to me.

Well, his mobo was bad, the SATA controllers couldn't see any hard drive at all, however, both his new and original hard drives were perfectly fine. Long story short, we sold him a new computer and he's returning the HD to Best Buy to raise hell.

Point of my post is....the techs at BB...well, they left their Geek Squad diagnostic boot CD in the machine.

Should I be the good Samaritan and return it to my biggest competitor?

or should I be bad? lol

It's at least worth a look to see what tools they use. You might find something of value that you might be able to integrate into your own PE disc.

My PE discs contain a few commercial applications that are licensed to me and I would hate for it to fall into the hands of my competitors which is why I have nice little reminders stuck all over the place reminding me to check the drives.

 

[NeutronTech]

... or just return it like a decent person, and don't give us all a bad name for being arrogant!

You mean like how they give us a bad name by not actually diagnosing a computer, and selling customers new parts to replace perfectly working parts?

Please. I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. It honestly should be illegal what they do. Just because the techs there aren't allowed to use any tool other than MRI, doesn't make it right that they call a part bad because MRI can't fix it. When a customer takes a computer to a tech to be repaired, they expect a tech to work on it, not a salesman popping in a cd and calling it good. Especially at those prices. Normally you'd say you get what you pay for, but for what they charge, you should be getting the best tech company in existence.

 

[tankman1989]

I say it would be a good idea to make a bit-for-bit copy of the disc and find a place to upload it. I'll host it on my server and then make a torrent of it.

I don't even want to disc to use for diagnostics because I see how ****** of a job it does. I want it to to show customers how unreliable it is and how they are going to be ripped off of their time and money by using this unreliable service. There is no comparison to a skilled tech for diagnosis until they come up with some super AI machine that can learn and adapt to everything that happens in the IT world in real time, THEN, and only then will human IT workers be out dated.

Do us all a favor and copy the disc and upload it somewhere.

 

[NeutronTech]

I say it would be a good idea to make a bit-for-bit copy of the disc and find a place to upload it. I'll host it on my server and then make a torrent of it.

I don't even want to disc to use for diagnostics because I see how ****** of a job it does. I want it to to show customers how unreliable it is and how they are going to be ripped off of their time and money by using this unreliable service. There is no comparison to a skilled tech for diagnosis until they come up with some super AI machine that can learn and adapt to everything that happens in the IT world in real time, THEN, and only then will human IT workers be out dated.

Do us all a favor and copy the disc and upload it somewhere.

This disc is already available as a torrent online. However, an article about the difference between the big box automated repair vs the manual repair of an experienced technician would be nice to see released to the media.

It would be nice to see a major national news program run a story on what people get for their money when taking their computers in for repair. Have an explanation of the repair process that GS uses along with an explanation of the process used by local tech shops. Maybe a little education on a national scale might make people think twice about where they take their machine, as well as let people know about the scams of the big box stores. I say 'scams' because they tell people their hardware is bad just because their auto-fix-it disc can't resolve their issue.

Just a thought.....

 

[Three Dog Net]

It would be nice to see a major national news program run a story on what people get for their money when taking their computers in for repair. Have an explanation of the repair process that GS uses along with an explanation of the process used by local tech shops. Maybe a little education on a national scale might make people think twice about where they take their machine, as well as let people know about the scams of the big box stores. I say 'scams' because they tell people their hardware is bad just because their auto-fix-it disc can't resolve their issue.

Just a thought.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmNrm9vHBHs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru7YASyMKwE

I like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZq4UnkgZQI

There's so many of these on youtube, if I don't stop I won't get anything done today lol.

 

[BostonGeek1]

i don't know why you guys take so much time to s*** on the geek sq_ad. It really seems like 'little man's syndrome to me. Such insecurity veiled as elitism......some of you are so excited to point out their failures and see them fail, that every step is watched and mocked at the slightest error. Quite honestly you sound like 'the ugly girl' that thinks she's smarter than the prom queen, who makes fun of her when she trips over something in public. if you're a real professional, jeez learn scripting and automate your own cd, put malwarebytes, ccleaner, smitrem, etc etc, on it, silent install, silent update, auto remove, etc etc. It would take you all of 1 day. Put a branded logo on it, using ms paint.....how hard IS THIS STUFF, you call yourselves professionals...........sorry for the rant its just depressing to me to listen to this stuff. Obviously Geek Squad is a large corporation that leverages its marketing to charge more to send less qualified people.....WE GET IT. Move on.....go make some money.......this feel good stuff reminds me of sitting on someone's basement in high school talking smack about the popular kids.

 

[NeutronTech]

i don't know why you guys take so much time to s*** on the geek sq_ad. It really seems like 'little man's syndrome to me. Such insecurity veiled as elitism......some of you are so excited to point out their failures and see them fail, that every step is watched and mocked at the slightest error. Quite honestly you sound like 'the ugly girl' that thinks she's smarter than the prom queen, who makes fun of her when she trips over something in public. if you're a real professional, jeez learn scripting and automate your own cd, put malwarebytes, ccleaner, smitrem, etc etc, on it, silent install, silent update, auto remove, etc etc. It would take you all of 1 day. Put a branded logo on it, using ms paint.....how hard IS THIS STUFF, you call yourselves professionals...........sorry for the rant its just depressing to me to listen to this stuff. Obviously Geek Squad is a large corporation that leverages its marketing to charge more to send less qualified people.....WE GET IT. Move on.....go make some money.......this feel good stuff reminds me of sitting on someone's basement in high school talking smack about the popular kids.

I think your misunderstanding the point here. It has nothing to do with the MRI cd. It has to do with the fact that the MRI cd is the end all be all for them. Your right, almost any one of us can write up our own version of the same thing. But the difference is when we come into something that the cd won't fix, we don't just BS the customer into buying new hardware.

The MRI disk should be used as a tool, and nothing more. GS uses the disk as a replacement for knowledge and experience. Then they charge an insane amount of money to run it. My issue with them is just that they screw the customers so darn bad, it makes me sick. If they would just run their CD, then if it didn't fix it, do some manual diagnosing, I would have no problem with them at all.

Your also right that they are a huge company. That's even more of a reason for them to be doing things right. They have the resources available to them to be the best, instead they just want to push sales. Pushing sales isn't a bad thing, but advertising as computer technicians when they really aren't is wrong. I know there are some good techs there, but corporate limits what they are able to do. They are so big that their poor service reflects on the whole industry.

Don't accuse me of being a whinny girl. Personally, like I've said, I don't even try to compete with anyone. I don't care what the other companies do. However, computer industry or not, I hate seeing uninformed people get screwed on such a large scale.

 

[ATTech]

i don't know why you guys take so much time to s*** on the geek sq_ad. It really seems like 'little man's syndrome to me. Such insecurity veiled as elitism......some of you are so excited to point out their failures and see them fail, that every step is watched and mocked at the slightest error. Quite honestly you sound like 'the ugly girl' that thinks she's smarter than the prom queen, who makes fun of her when she trips over something in public. if you're a real professional, jeez learn scripting and automate your own cd, put malwarebytes, ccleaner, smitrem, etc etc, on it, silent install, silent update, auto remove, etc etc. It would take you all of 1 day. Put a branded logo on it, using ms paint.....how hard IS THIS STUFF, you call yourselves professionals...........sorry for the rant its just depressing to me to listen to this stuff. Obviously Geek Squad is a large corporation that leverages its marketing to charge more to send less qualified people.....WE GET IT. Move on.....go make some money.......this feel good stuff reminds me of sitting on someone's basement in high school talking smack about the popular kids.

I'm sorry you had such a poor experience in high school, I really am, but I think you're overreacting. We're not sitting here on www.geeksquadsucks.com posting non-stop about how much we hate them, and about how bad they are at repairing computers. Once in a while, a thread will appear that highlights the faults of geek squad. A handful of people take some quick jabs, because, well this is this internet, and that's what people do. Nobody is obsessing over them, at least not as much as you are about your high school experience.

 

[NeutronTech]

.... if you're a real professional, jeez learn scripting and automate your own cd, ....

Ummm, you don't have to know scripting to be a professional. Scripting is programming. This is usually done by programmers, in which many don't know how to fix their own computers. Although there are many of us here that do know how to do some scripting, our specialty is in repair. Your family doctor isn't going to perform brain surgery on you in his office, is he? No, it's another field within the same industry. Just because your a doctor doesn't mean you know how to do everything with the body. Just like being a tech doesn't mean you know how to do every different specialty in the industry.

Perhaps it would be a good idea for you to go and read the threads about GS and..... well every thread. Each one of us has a specialty. Most of us do more, and a few do much much more. This doesn't make someone more or less of a professional just because they specialize in one field. For the record, the GS threads here mostly discuss their corporate policies vs the individual tech.

Geek Squads practices are something that the public should be aware of before taking in their computers. Best Buy needs to decide if they want a repair department or dump it all together. If they want the repair dept, then they should actually let the technicians work their magic. MRI is a joke and nothing more than a product of corporate bureaucracy. Corporate thinks that this disc should fix it all and requires consistency throughout the company. They don't know and don't care about what life is really like at the bench. But, rules are rules, and if MRI fails, sell em a new computer. Or, if the guy running the MRI disc is just a salesman, he'll likely make up a part to be bad and sell the repair. Of course, the part replaced was likely in perfect working order.


Guys, sorry for the rant here. I really do hate to see people get taken like this. If GS would actually hire all techs and no sales people, and if the techs were allowed to use their skills, then they would certainly be a major force to reckon with.

// RANT