How do YOU feel about Geek Squad? And why do they get so much hate.

[hightechrex]

I'm just curious because nowadays it seems like the "cool thing to do" to hate on Geek Squad. As far as I can see they're just as "bad" as all the other corporate companies out there. If anyone expects a international retailer to hire trained, educated, and experience techs for 10-15 dollars an hour you've got another thing coming. Do you go to McDonalds and expect gourmet cuisine? Geek Squad should be seen as just that, the fast food of computer repair. As much as we all want to deny it, BIG businesses are here to make money... and that's what they do. There not going to take good care of you like the smaller companies will and that's why we're here.

 

[FoolishTech]

While I could almost agree with you, you're wrong in comparing them to cheap fast food that gives you the runs... (sure it is crappy service by inexperienced dolts) but they aren't fast, and they cost more than gourmet cuisine.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

I love them. When Geeksquad first came out I was really scared. Then their prices were so high that I raised my prices and when anyone complained I would ust tell them I am 25% less than geeksquad but I have 10 years more experience than their managers. It helped my business model greatly.

I agree with you unrealistic expectations is what makes Geeksquad the company to hate. They do hire only A+ only techs which is higher quality than what most do. I hire guys and train them in my way of doing things. I think their policies and procedures are ok most of the time but they are not allowed to deviate and this could cause a problem, also motivation is another problem sometimes.

it is hard to do things through employees. When we had 16 employees you wouldn't believe the number of screw ups, bad customer contacts and everything that comes with that. Yes, everyone thinks its easy to set policies and enforce them but you cannot be everywhere at once and once you let that get away from you, you are in hurt city.

I have a great deal of respect for the large companies that do a good job. Part art, part science of management I guess.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Do you go to McDonalds and expect gourmet cuisine? Geek Squad should be seen as just that, the fast food of computer repair.

That's pretty much the way to look at them.
I enjoy fancy steak houses...where you go and spend 75 bucks on a big cowboy steak or 50 bucks on a huge NY Strip. Pretty much never go to McDonalds or any other fast food place to eat half fake greasy paper thin burgers.

But yeah..that's pretty much the way to look at 'em.

Similar to how "real" Doctors are talking about (and ragging on) that new service that CVS Pharmacies are rolling out across the country. You can walk into a participating CVS Pharmacy....and they'll have a "Doctor" there which can see you and diagnose you in 1 minute...for small things like a sinus infection or a flu, or other minor things. And you get your 'script right there. Most real doctors are scoffing at this....and don't look at those new CVS doctors are real doctors.

 

[FlogelTechServices]

It's more like going to McDonalds, getting cheap food, but getting charged for steak and lobster.

 

[brock029]

But they charge gourmet prices for there fast food ;-) they charge more for their terrible service then what any of us charge. It makes no sense.

 

[hightechrex]

While I could almost agree with you, you're wrong in comparing them to cheap fast food that gives you the runs... (sure it is crappy service by inexperienced dolts) but they aren't fast, and they cost more than gourmet cuisine.

lmao. I could agree with you if fast food was actually "cheap." Fast food adds up lol. A meal that would actually fill you up cost about $8-10. Say you ate out for breakfast and lunch everyday for a week. That's already $100 a week and $400 a month on crappy food lol.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

But they charge gourmet prices for there fast food ;-) they charge more for their terrible service then what any of us charge. It makes no sense.

The only gourmet food I know of that is priced about what a Bigmac meal costs comes from the freezer Isle at the grocery store.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

They give me entertainment on the roads. When I'm on the highway and I see their little VW Beetles or vans out there...I love flying by them and letting them experience the rumble of my Hemi coming out my dual exhausts. Or the bigger rumble from my Harley! And then leave 'em in my dust.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I'm just curious because nowadays it seems like the "cool thing to do" to hate on Geek Squad. As far as I can see they're just as "bad" as all the other corporate companies out there. If anyone expects a international retailer to hire trained, educated, and experience techs for 10-15 dollars an hour you've got another thing coming. Do you go to McDonalds and expect gourmet cuisine? Geek Squad should be seen as just that, the fast food of computer repair. As much as we all want to deny it, BIG businesses are here to make money... and that's what they do. There not going to take good care of you like the smaller companies will and that's why we're here.

Who ever said we don't hate those corporate companies too?

People act like you can't get decent techs out there for 10-15 dollars an hour. From age 18 to like 25-26 I made less than 9 dollars an hour. I applied at geek squad and never even got a call back. Here in SC decent techs can be found for that pay pretty easily. I also blame companies like geeksquad and CompTIA for tech jobs even existing at that pay.

Look at support.com...im not sure what they are paying people now but it use to be like 13 dollars an hour and they actually test applicants. Is it an awesome test? no but I am sad to say that out of every IT interview i've been on it was the best test an employer has presented. Is support.com awesome? I hear they were decent at one point but moved some stuff to india and now not so much.

I hate other corps just as much...know what I hate the most? when you call an ISP and the tech support doesn't even understand the basic concept of a trace route. I have been doing customer service for like 11 years and they can make me RAGE.

 

[hightechrex]

hmm

The OLD Geek Squad was expensive. The new one is actually really cheap. They actually have a plan now that they charge $199 for unlimited support (i.e. virus removals, tune-ups, windows installs, hardware installs, updates, etc etc) It's called "Tech Support" and it covers three machines. Their quality of work still sucks of course, but they are NOWHERE near as expensive as they used to be.

 

[FoolishTech]

lmao. I could agree with you if fast food was actually "cheap." Fast food adds up lol. A meal that would actually fill you up cost about $8-10. Say you ate out for breakfast and lunch everyday for a week. That's already $100 a week and $400 a month on crappy food lol.

Well yeah, fast food isn't cheap like it used to be - but realistically it's been well over 15 years since you could get a combo meal for $3. That's something I moan about too, but look at sitting down at a decent restaurant in comparison, oh yeah, fast food is still 'cheap' as hell.

The problem is that minimum wage specifically (and any average wage/salary for that matter) hasn't increased in percentage like restaurant food has.

 

[hightechrex]

With the massive cut in pricing it seems that Geek Squad is getting desperate. They used to charge $200-400 at a time, now their settling for $200 a year. Imagine charging your clients $200 to service any 3 computers for a year UNLIMITED, you'd be broke and overworked with people stopping by for every little thing. You'd have people bringing in their cousins, coworkers, nephews and adding them to their plan. If this isn't the signs of a dying company I don't know what is.

Their Model:
1 YR: $199
2 YR: $279
3 YR: $349

So that means in year 2.. they'll service 3 computers UNLIMITED for $80 and in the third year $70. Still think their expensive?

Now their entire model is around upselling on data backups and selling you hard drives whenever you come in. (trust me. I've seen it)

 

[Blue]

It's a love/hate thing I have with them, with more scorn for its parent company than anything. I do love the fact that I get so many customers they've ****** off with their exorbitant prices, turnaround time, or simply not fixing problems completely. Does that whittle my customers down to cheap buffoons with serious problems? NO! Almost all of them are reasonable, decent, and charitable if nothing else. So they're doing me a favor in the long term with their cookbook solutions. We're gearing up to handle a much greater number of clients by the middle of winter, sooner if things go well. That's hopefully just in time to fix all of the issues that inevitably crop up with new machines people received for Christmas, and we're always eager to learn more about the latest and greatest.

That said, it's sort of an 'in-joke' that if one of our members calls us Geek Squad, we cringe and howl...and they owe everyone lunch.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I also blame companies like... and CompTIA for tech jobs even existing at that pay.

Why do you blame CompTIA? They were around way before GeekSquad.

If anything, blame the computer "franchises"....not the certification standards. Now I'm not a big fan of "certs"....I know lots of techs love to get them just to assign all those initials to their signatures and try to look impressive. I'm a fan of "self taught" or "learn under really good experienced techs". But back in the Win9X/NT4 days the company I worked for sent me to a few CompTIA classes and I thought nothing bad of it...and actually am glad I had that opportunity.

But I don't entirely blame franchises for it either. My 2nd job when I moved to the IT field...I worked for a franchise of a big name for almost 10 years. Some people located in the US may have heard of the chain "ComputerLand".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ComputerLand
I worked for the local ones in my area...the owners of that franchise owned 2x locations in my corner of the state. Was a blast working there, I learned a lot, and was able to control what I made quite a bit..but did get raises as I did a few CompTIA courses. So it's an example that all franchises aren't necessarily bad...and that CompTIA isn't bad. But I do think that more modern franchises, like BestBuy...do control wages more. Owners have such a cookie cutter template that they MUST follow. Very little freedom in running your own franchise as you wish..like the people that owned branches of ComputerLan had back when I worked for them.

 

[altrenda]

I have no problem with Geek Squad. They have a client base that is different than mine. They go after people who would actually buy a computer from Best Buy. They have public prices so people can find what the going rate is.

My main issue would be that their techs are more salesmen than techs, but we all do a little upselling. They seem to take the easy way out a lot on repairs and fixes.

The competence of their techs is uneven, I'm sure some are talented and a some aren't. But read some of the comments on the TN forum and you'll see that it isn't unique to Geek Squad.

One thing I noticed is that they don't seem to get a lot of repeat business. I run into a lot of their ex customers who won't go back.

 

[hightechrex]

Well yeah, fast food isn't cheap like it used to be - but realistically it's been well over 15 years since you could get a combo meal for $3. That's something I moan about too, but look at sitting down at a decent restaurant in comparison, oh yeah, fast food is still 'cheap' as hell.

The problem is that minimum wage specifically (and any average wage/salary for that matter) hasn't increased in percentage like restaurant food has.

Kinda random and inappropriate but when I look at your URL the first thing I see is "Fool I ****"

 

[FoolishTech]

Kinda random and inappropriate but when I look at your URL the first thing I see is "Fool I ****"

No, that's how it's supposed to look

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I was mostly referring to A+ and how an intro cert some how became the standard. Some how getting an A+ made people a computer repair technician and yet they were not capable of even resolving some of the easiest issues. I understand its gotten much better since back then but still it didn't prepare people for jack.

 

[hightechrex]

I was mostly referring to A+ and how an intro cert some how became the standard. Some how getting an A+ made people a computer repair technician and yet they were not capable of even resolving some of the easiest issues. I understand its gotten much better since back then but still it didn't prepare people for jack.

Yeah, I got my A+ a couple years back and all it does is teach you basic troubleshooting and trial and error. Big joke, that they make millions and millions by teaching people common sense.