Geek Squad Charges $415 to replace a harddrive, doesnt retrieve data.

First off I think 7 days before they even touched the thing is rediculous I have never heard of such slow service. When they have given such a delay most places I know offer an option to purchase a priorty service at an extra cost so that it will be looked at quicker. I will say I might not have tried plugging the drive to a Linux box but it works out and food for thought in my future efforts. I would know if the drive was workable to the point it could be re-used it should still be visible to the point you can delete partitions and reformat. I do understand that the recovery fee is non-refundable and that data may not be recovered. I do believe that prior to offering that they should warn that if the drive is not workable then they will have no way to recover it with out added cost. I have never looked into data recovery but I have heard cost ranging from $300 to $1500 for such services. Given that state of it this should have been mentioned that for a higher form of recovery while aviable is incredibly pricy.

On a final note I never have liked them they drive those ugly VW Bugs, mostly the paint job witht he ugly insignia. They wear those incredibly dorky outfits and carry a badge. To me its just a sad attempt to make it seem like a place full of cool dorks. Im ranting here I just hate thier look thier attitude and the fact they are not part of Bestbuy.
 
From what I have heard of them they dont seem to be that great!

415 dollars is a rip off.

Over here in England you can get a new PC or Laptop for 400 pound!
 
Geek squad only exists because of Best buy

But in some sense I have to admit that people are comforted by Brand recognition (well known franchises) and that they are afraid to get ripped off by some unknown computer repair guy!

The funny part is that at the end of the day, they still get ripped off.
 
I think it comes down to one basic thing as far as any technology issue. While it does seem that a lot of people have a fear of learning some basics on computers, there are virtually thousand ways that any layman can get the basic intro into hardware side. I've seen community colleges and some private schools offering introductory courses which can be a stepping stone into higher level of learning and understanding. There are many ebooks which can only assist in further learning. The first step is the hardest. And that $415for their crappy troubleshooting can pay for other things.
 
This is not a one time thing. It happens everywhere. We have a local shop here that charged one of my new customers $250 for a reinstall. In this same shop i actually overheard one of the "techs" tell a customer that he needed windows reinstalled because the fonts were too small. Almost every customer I have had in the past 4 years has had a bad run in with these types of shops.
 
Talk about over priced. Wow. Maybe we're under priced, but wouldn't be $415 thats for sure. This would be our process to this, we do this pretty regularly for walk in customers.

Customer gives us description saying it won't boot, we notice i's having some problems, maybe the dreaded hard drive knocking, and then..

Run Diagnostic on Hard Drive. - This returns as bad, dying hard drive, can't repair.

Now, can we recover files? - Basic recovery of files, advanced is extra.

Replace the hard drive and reload.

We'd end up charging for a walk in person:

$69 - Diagnosis/Rolled into labor if we can fix it.

$69 - Reload of OS (labor)

$xx - Hard Drive

End cost would be $69 (labor) + Hard Drive in this scenerio. Basically you'd get a free diagnosis if we can fix it. Under $200.

Curious to what others are doing??
 
That is very similiar to what we charge.

$30 diagnostic fee

$70 Labor

$30 labor goes towards the $70 labor charge if you choose to get it fixed.

$35 charge for data backup over 1 gb, anything under 1gb is included in labor fee

so $70 + cost of part + data backup if needed


rurbaniak said:
Talk about over priced. Wow. Maybe we're under priced, but wouldn't be $415 thats for sure. This would be our process to this, we do this pretty regularly for walk in customers.

Customer gives us description saying it won't boot, we notice i's having some problems, maybe the dreaded hard drive knocking, and then..

Run Diagnostic on Hard Drive. - This returns as bad, dying hard drive, can't repair.

Now, can we recover files? - Basic recovery of files, advanced is extra.

Replace the hard drive and reload.

We'd end up charging for a walk in person:

$69 - Diagnosis/Rolled into labor if we can fix it.

$69 - Reload of OS (labor)

$xx - Hard Drive

End cost would be $69 (labor) + Hard Drive in this scenerio. Basically you'd get a free diagnosis if we can fix it. Under $200.

Curious to what others are doing??
Click to expand...
 
You guys are lucky to have low overhead...

$100/hr, $50 visit fee for coming on site. Minimum 1 hour charge. Charges after 1 hour broken up into 15 minute increments of $25.

No flat rates for any services yet. It is something I have been thinking a lot about lately, just havent actually gone forward with anything.
 
greggh said:
You guys are lucky to have low overhead...

$100/hr, $50 visit fee for coming on site. Minimum 1 hour charge. Charges after 1 hour broken up into 15 minute increments of $25.

No flat rates for any services yet. It is something I have been thinking a lot about lately, just havent actually gone forward with anything.
Click to expand...

What I quoted was for walk in customers. Otherwise were $105/hr, minimum 1 hr, 15 minute increments after, and travel charge.
 
I have almost no overhead, plus at $70 for labor your only looking at maybe 2 hours (depending on the amount of data you have to back up). I also don't charge if I can't fix the problem. This has put me under a few times but i more than make up for it in volume of customers because of it. People get sick of paying $50-$100 an hour only to find out that a problem will cost as much as a new system to fix. They end up with a large bill and a computer shaped paper weight.
 
in my country you can get your PC fixed for $15....yes...sometimes it's free.....:D that's how cheap labor is here.....:mad:
 
Drop-off to my office service.
$55/per hour with 2-hr. max. charge. /per computer

On-site service
$55/per hour
out of area - $55/per hour + $55 road service charge

Remote On-line Assistance
$55/per hour with 2-hr. max. charge. /per computer
 
You have to remember those squad most of them are not A+ certified, according to employee site, "You lucky if your HR knows what is A+ means"
they all get paid $10-$13/hour.
And they dont charge, there supervisor does.

It's funny how much people will pay for service.
 
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