Geek Squad $19.95 Per Month Unlimited Support

[myPCTechs]

This has been partially covered here on the forums in the past. See this thread. Also see a candid review of the service at this link.

I'm bringing it up here again since Geek Squad has rolled out a national pay-per-click campaign on Google. A search for computer repair in almost any major city reveals a Geed Squad unlimited tech support ad at the #1 spot in the rankings for the majority of the day. It's clear they're trying trap as many people as they possibly can into this monthly fee.

First, let's do the math. An expert level technician is going to require at least a $3,000 per month salary. Add in marketing and misc. expenses and it means Geek Squad needs to sell about 200 poor schmoes into their monthly service just to cover the wages and benefits of one technician.

How could this end up anything other than bad for them? We already know about the unreliable service and horror stories from Geek Squad customers (described en mass) on this forum. This was BEFORE they started over extending and undercharging. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Anyone have any other reviews of this unlimited Geek Squad tech support service can you send my way? What's included? What's not included? How are they going to try and upsell you after you've paid the $20 with things that "aren't covered under the plan". I'd like to have some detailed information to speak to and an informed analysis of what the competition is offering when asked by clients.

 

[PaulRome]

I wonder if its going to be the actual "Geek Squad" providing support or are they going to do what most of the other big box's do and use support dot com to provide this service.

 

[callthatgirl]

From what I heard, all virus removals and software repair is done via India. So clients bring it in a store and the employees connect India in. This is not verfied, just what I heard. So I will guess that their India support would do the unlimited support.

Just guessing, and I would bet there are limitations, upsells and other stuff to make it a $50 a month plan. $600 a year, is 1/5th of the way to a FT tech if I did my math right.

 

[gikstar]

I suspect just like anything else they do, they will not care one way or another about the customer, whether they sign back up or if they are happy or not.

I suppose that they will sign you up for a minimum of 1 year. Then as you call in and can't get anything resolved (maybe because of the language barrier - heck, I have trouble understanding anybody who talks fast, but that's my problem) you just give up and try to cancel. CANCEL - you can do it, but probably only after your 1 year paid-up-front service is up. It will probably be as hard to get out of that contract as it was trying to cancel AOL.

Customer Service is not Best Buys strong point.

I dropped into Best Buy a few weeks ago and was surprised by the lack of computer parts that they now carry. They seem to carry about the same about of stuff that the Costco's do, but at a higher price. Fortunately about a half mile away is a Fry's store which carries a lot of consumer computer parts (I use them if I have a 'need it now' situation).

 

[Benchtech]

From what I heard, all virus removals and software repair is done via India. So clients bring it in a store and the employees connect India in. This is not verfied, just what I heard. So I will guess that their India support would do the unlimited support.

Just guessing, and I would bet there are limitations, upsells and other stuff to make it a $50 a month plan. $600 a year, is 1/5th of the way to a FT tech if I did my math right.

I can confirm this as they have been doing it for years, right around the first iteration of their MRI software. When a local tech could not solve a problem they would VPN/RDP a "special agent" I forget the actual code name they used back then.

I find their Disc's all the time in my customers machines, it's kind of fun playing around with "geek tools" (before the flaming begins or info about calling home or copyright, or water marking I know all about it).