Don’t use Geek Squad
As a former unhappy employee of Geek Squad I wanted to provide a list of reasons why you shouldn’t bring your computer to them for any kind of service.
1. Most of the employees that are hired do not know that much about computer repair. Geeks Squad’s philosophy on fixing a computer was to tell the customer they needed to wipe it clean and reinstall windows. Countless times this was how computers were fixed behind the bench at the place where I worked. I even had one co-worker asked me how to unplug the hard drive.
2. Geek Squad overcharges for jobs that anyone with a little bit of technical know-how could accomplish. Would you have someone come over to boil some water for you? Or have them vacuum your carpet and then pay them? Well it may seem silly but that’s the equivalent of having Geek Squad install software for you. And they charge a fee from $20 – $50 depending on the software ( I haven’t worked there in a few years so the price may be different).
3. The “technicians” are more like salesman. Everyone behind the counter is told to push certain products with every service they ring up. I will agree with them 
that you need anti virus and anti spyware, but you don’t need to pay for the software they sell because you can get really good software for free online.
4. If one of the Geek Squad technicians messes up, they will just wipe your computer and blame it on a virus. There were times that some of the workers ran software that wasn’t part of the approved list of software and ruined people’s computers. Then when the customer asked what the status of the repair was, the worker would tell them they had a virus and needed their PC to be wiped clean and have the OS reinstalled.
5. All your personal pictures were taken off the PC for personal use. A lot of Geek Squad work station are behind the counter where customers can’t watch the technicians work on the computers. Most of the time the first thing the technician would do is search for personal pictures of the person who owned the computer. If any pictures were found they would be downloaded onto a thumb drive and taken home at the end of the day.
Here are 2 links that contain confessions from a Geek Squad and Firedog technician. Confessions of a Firedog employee, Geek Squad confession.
I hope this has shown you that Geek Squad should be your last resort for PC repair. Next time you need some computer work done, ask around your workplace to see if someone can help you out. Even your companies IT department would be a better place to ask questions.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
You pretty well covered the rip-off Geek Squad (and similar “tech repair” businesses) really are. Geek Squad et al are notorious for using readily available open source and freeware (free software) for their profit making purposes. Such software usually comes with a very simple and very fair request – that it be used only for non-commercial purposes. Using free programs for profit amounts to theft. Geek Squad and the megalithic companies that float their boat (like Best Buy) profit from the use of freeware while its authors’ efforts, knowledge and generosity go unrewarded.
Here in northern California, Geek Squad charges a minimum of $200.00 to make a “house call”. With no guarantee they’ll successfully fix your ailing computer. Instead of lining their dishonest coffers, try contacting your local high schools and universities. Often they give tech students extra credit for computer repair and for very low fees, even free, simply in exchange for the experience.
The bonus is that, often, these students make house calls and, bigger bonus, if they’re unable to fix your computer they have access to instructors and fellow students who can help them. Win/win for all involved!
May 6th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I’ve heard similar stories from others. While I’ve never used them – I don’t have any personal experience with them.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Thank you so much for this article. I have always hated Geek Squad. They are the McDonalds of tech support. I have had many decently technical friends sign up and immediately leave. I now run my own tech support business, and a good portion of my clients are horror stories from Geek Squad. This is the perfect reference. Feel free to check out my blog, http://www.rickatnight11.com or my tech support website http://www.techdocrx.com
May 6th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
As a current Geek Squad Agent I agree with some of this but there are parts that are not true.
There are people that do get hired there that shouldn’t have been but otherwise most have cisco certifications A certifications as well as many others
Just because at the place you worked doesn’t mean its the same everywhere
I agree the prices are steep for certain things but for installing the software and getting it to preform better should be worth the price but to remove a virus it can seem simply far to expensive but at a flat rate what do you expect? There is no labor.
They make us push so much because of deals we have with certain companies its like everywhere else… free online software isn’t the best though
On the resources list Avast is decent but not good enough to get the job done throughly Ad aware is a good one keep that there but spy bot is an ultimate no no.
If you do really want a good Anti Virus program Kaspersky/NOD32 Anti Spyware? Webroot hands down.
At my precinct we don’t mess up and just format their computer but if we can’t remove the virus or fix the issue we will format
This last one I completely disagree on… thats a breach of privacy at my store we get like quarterly checks from district on our backup stations if data is found and if we are found with a pen drive that has customer information we get in trouble and the one taking data is fired on the spot.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
My cousin works at Best Buy. She says at least once a day a customer comes in fiery mad that their hard drive has been erased and they lost all of their files.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
That is exactly what what happened to me. They wiped the disk Lucky I had backed up My disk and could recover the personal info. THey told me the memory was failing, it was under guarintee so It was covered.\\
dave
May 6th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I guess you could generalize about your experience with you Geek Squad precinct, but maybe, just maybe these are not as common as you think. I could say never eat at pizza hut, because the one I worked at as a teen they spit in someones pizza once, blah, blah, blah. The point is sorry you had a certain experience, but please don’t tout it as fact. 2 and 3 are pretty accurate though. Yes they are often like salesmen, especially when many of them come from off the floor as a salesman.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
… wow … that’s some scary stuff, man
May 6th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
I’m a Staples EasyTech and I can’t really complain about what we do and offer. I have had some customer in such bad shape that they were buying their first computer and didn’t even know how to turn it on. Its these situations that software installations ($30 in store) make sense.
I look at it as being no different than getting my oil changed. I know how. I just may not have the time or inclination to deal with it.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I’ve been saying the same thing for years, but nobody seems to believe me. Then, they get their harddrive wiped and realize I was right…
I would like to know more about this “Stealing your pictures” bit, though…
May 6th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Which is why, if you need any service done, you should take it to a local shop or someone you know. The only chain I’d let near my PC is Micro Center.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
The same things occurred when I worked as a computer tech at a small computer sales / repair shop. I agree with the advice – ask a friend or relative to help you out before taking it to a “professional”. Also, ask your friend to teach you so you can do it yourself next time.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:45 am
As a current GeekSquad employee in the UK, I would disagree with the above statement. although I have not seen exactly how things operate in the States, so I can’t really comment. we do have a company in the UK that matches everything you have said though, operating under the name ‘The Tech Guys’. It would probably be down to individuals as opposed to the company as a whole though.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
If this were true, people would be lining up to sue them. This would be a one way ticket to bankruptcy for them. Privacy issues and laws would prevent this. A company is big as Best Buy would have some kind of big brother system in place to make sure this would not happen, atleast as frequently as you mention. There is bound to be a few underpaid overqualified retail working techs, that steal your info, but not rampant abuse, as you suggest.
I have used there service a couple times, and was very satisfied, and I don’t really believe any of my information would have been very valuable to them.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:06 am
These Geek Squad guys charge too much for what they do and bilk unknowing people into spending money on shit they don’t need. The Best Buy in Green Bay, Wisconsin tells all it’s customers buying computers on Black Friday that they have to buy their special service package for new computers or they “are guaranteed to get a virus the second the computer gets on the internet.” “Even if you go right to Microsoft Update you are still guaranteed to get a virus if you don’t buy our service.” $100 for Best Buy to go to Microsoft Update for you and install Webroot anti-spyware.
To make a long story shorter I ended up with 3 computers that had all their special service package pre-done becuase they couldn’t sell them. They were the Black Friday add computers for $199 or $300(I can’t remember the price exactly but they were the super cheap front page ones). One comp had the tech’s script they use to update by proxy, registry tweaks, and whatnot left on the desktop. I peeked, laughed, and filed it away in the back of my mind. Months later one of the comps owners called family geek squad(me) to fix one of these new computers because it had turned very slow. I get there and it had viruses and spyware up the ying yang. I remove all the badlies and then proceed to go to Microsoft Update. It won’t update. I cannot get it to update no matter what. Finally after googling to see if anybody ever had the same problem. I checked the Microsoft Update log hidden on every computer to get the exact error message that told me why this comp would not update. I figured out that a service had been turned off that needed to be on for Microsoft Update to work. Best Buy turned it off with their script. The log clearly stated that the last date the computer successfully updated was a day before Black Friday. Do not trust these bastards.
For pretty much any problem you have with a computer there is some geek somewhere who has had and has fixed this problem. Here’s the best part though….they always post about it online somewhere. Google it.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I am a geek squad agent and these are my replies to your statements.
1. LOL? Sorry, but our philosophy is not to wipe it clean and reinstall windows. That is a last option if all else fails.
2. If they want to do it themselves, that is fine. We ‘offer’ it, we don’t force it down their throats. Some people are not comfortable doing it themselves, so that is why it is offered.
3. A company isn’t supposed to try to make budget? What kind of world are you living in, cause you need to come back to earth.
4. Never seen it happen. If it did happen, they would give you a free data backup and transfer it to your hard drive after they reloaded the operating system.
5. If agents are caught doing that they get fired on the spot. By the way, the majority of consumerist articles are questionable on multiple levels.
This article is a failure on so many levels.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I would not recommend Data Doctors for computer repair either. I had to take my computer to them to have my motherboard replaced, video card upgraded and memory upgraded. They also had to do a full backup of my files on my hard drive since my computer crashed last year. It took them a whole day just to get to backing up my files because someone forgot to do it.
Less than a year later, my computer crashed again so they gave me a new motherboard after I brought it back to complain and they had a 1 yr warranty. However, they stole my old video card, which was actually better than the one they put in!
My computer screen never looked right again after they changed my video card. Then they would not just give me my money back for the motherboard cause I didn’t want the same brand installed again and that was all they carried.
May 8th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Wow, Anonymus, you’re a regular company man.
This is interesting. Apparently a Geek Squad employee lives about two blocks from me and every time I go by his place his little Geek Squad VW Beetle is always parked in front. Looks like it’s never moved.
Are those V-dubs a company perk? If so, I might apply for a job
)
May 8th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Liz,
In regards to your comment about having a high school or college student come fix your computer. Out of curiosity…do any of them provide a service warranty on any of there work?
And this “Free Software” that we use for our repairs that you seem to think we are stealing. Truth of the matter is a few years back Geek Squad actually started getting written consent from every owner of any tool that we use to repair a computer. If we do not have the consent the tool is not available to be used, period. Any employee caught using a tool that is not on an approved list is usually removed from Geek Squad all together.
I respect your opinions, but it would serve them better if you approached them as just that.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:35 am
They’re all the same.
Don’t let them steal your data….
May 9th, 2008 at 9:42 am
I think you could say the university and high school do offer not just a time limited warranty but an iron clad guarantee. Either the work is completed to the customer’s satisfaction or they flunk.
It’s good to know Geek Squad has discontinued the use of unauthorized freeware. They never should have allowed this practice in the first place.
Just my 0.02
May 9th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Often they give tech students extra credit for computer repair and for very low fees, even free, simply in exchange for the experience. -Liz
I think you could say the university and high school do offer not just a time limited warranty but an iron clad guarantee. Either the work is completed to the customer’s satisfaction or they flunk. -Liz
I have never flunked out of school for attempting extra credit, but I also don’t live in backwards world.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I work for a new home builder and the Geek Squad showed up one day to install surround sound speakers for one of my new homeowners. Two vans showed up with 2 dumbfounded Geek Squad members. They messed around for an hour try to find the prewire. Did they bring a toner, no. Would I let them use mine, absolutely not. I did show them what one looked like and they asked , how does that work? A week later two more vans showed up and 4 Geek Squads showed up. This time they had a recently purchased toner. Did they know how to use it, no. I gave they a quick summary on how to use one and they were on their way. 4 hours later they were done, but not without excessive cutting of the drywall. Reluctantly, I opted to fix the drywall without back charging Best Buy. I should of though, because I have been on their receiving end of their wonderful policy for returns, “The customer is never right”. Ignorance is bliss.
May 10th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
to the current geek squad agents who’ve commented, I never said that this happens at all stores, nor did I say that everyone does it. I’ve never taken anything from someone’s computer that I’ve worked on. I was merely providing a first hand account of things that I saw while working at my precinct. There are people who work there that know their stuff but whenever a retail chain gets a hold of a private company, things go down the drain as far as quality goes. It could happen with any service.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I own a consulting business in direct competition with GeekSquad, and I would have to say half of my clients are former GeekSquad clients, and all of them had the exact same things to say. I have even had some customers sign up on contract status because of there experience with GeekSquad.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Ok guys and girls, Geek Squad is a service, just like 100% of all other businesses out there. Nobody likes paying the freakin 3.90 a gallon for gas. But, it is a service. If you have biodesiel and can make your own gas then you are set. If you have the computer know how that you can setup your computer and have it work to your liking then this can seem like high prices. You take your car to a mechanic to diagnose and repair many issues don’t you? Now the people who are car savvy can see that installing brake pads is really cheap when you do it yourself, but how come it is so expensive when done by a professional who many times does a half assed job? Ok, so geek squad might take your pictures off your computer completely violating your privacy. This, of course, is a serious issue that I know for a fact that geek squads and firedogs are trying VERY hard to stomp out. When you pay a financial advisor to look over your portfolio and get you the best deal, he sees your information and who is to say he isn’t corrupt? Granted these two levels are different but when you pay for a service you are letting somebody into a pretty personal part of your life. Yes, they use free software and maybe force products on you. But when you go to napa or any other car store or even garage they have people that sell them products and they charge you for those products, REGARDLESS of what is the cheapest. My cousin is a drug rep (pharmaceutical salesman) and even your doctors sell you products based on what the salesmen kick back to them. So you potentially might not get the best deals on your meds (meaning best price) but you are also at the mercy of this service. Some people need to realize not everybody is as tech savvy as a lot of us. My uncle for example has some decent money. He does not really want to fuss all that much with setting up is new gadgets, he would much rather have somebody come in and set them up. He would also rather drop his computer off, have somebody fix it up, and then pick it up on his way home from work. Are there more financially cheaper ways to have this done? Of course! But, sometimes these things have a longer waiting period. So, please stop complaining about the prices, software, and techs. They are doing there job (some corrupt EVEN JUST LIKE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS). If you pay for the service odds are you don’t even care either way.
May 18th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
[...] Don’t use Geek Squad [...]
May 19th, 2008 at 2:59 am
My ex wife took her pentium 4 desktop in there because the power switch had become intermittent. (one of the ears holding it in place had pulled out of the case)They told her the computer was worthless and she needed a new one.
I took the old one home and in 15 minutes I had the power switch working again. They had removed her old hard drive, and put it in her new case as a way of transfering her files, but they neglected to put a shortcut to that drive or even tell her that her old music and documents could still be available to her.
After a reinstall of windows on an old spare hard drive, and a memory upgrade her p4 desktop is being used by my daughter.
A reinstall of itunes and a small tutorial and the ex’s new computer is fine.
The moral of this story….
If Geek Squad actually fixed computers, instead of selling you new ones, my child support money for the month could have actually benefitted my kids and not gone towards a new computer for my ex wife. I have no respect for anyone that makes me have to spend that much time with crazy ex wife.
May 19th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Every IT-support firm works like this, its not a big deal, its just how it is.
The fastest (and often, cheapest depending on how the support firm works) is to just reinstall windows. Troubleshooting takes time, time = money. Ive tried doing it the right way so many times, and so many times ive been nagged at by customers that its taking to long and is costing them to much.
I mean, think about it. How long does it take to backup all the personal data, put in a windows cd, format, installing windows and then reinstalling software ? 1-3 hours.
How long does it take to do a virus scan, Spyware scan, removal (which ofcourse differs from diffrent viruses/bots, whatnot). Or troubleshooting some weird runtime error?
The same can probably be said about most service professions. People want results, fast and “cheap”, USUALLY not thoroughly, slow and with an intact system at the end. Since it will cost you more. Yes, some IT-support probably go overboard on the amount of times they wipe a harddrive and reinstall, but thats just how it is.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:30 am
anonymous –
perhaps if i had spoken to you or another tech so impassioned my results would have turned out for the better. Unfortunately, my Gettysburg began with the first tech (whose attitude was similar to someone watching paint dry) i spoke to. She listened, rather impatiently to what i had done in order to repair my son’s personal computer. She then put me on hold for approximately 30 seconds, came back online and without any diagnosis whatsoever, told me the only way to fix the problem was to reformat and reload the OS a “full system restore” as she called it..Being somewhat PC savvy, i know that a constant reboot can also be caused by a hardware issue, yet, she steadfast refused to chant anything but the mantra of reformat/reload the OS…seeing this was going nowhere, i then scheduled a tech to arrive at my house, however, in the time between, i found a small ma/pa store that i trusted and took my pc in for repair. I then began the battle to cancel my appointment. I first was received by a representative of Geek Squad who spoke, not only with an incredibly heavy Asian accent, but in broken english as well. What should have been a 10 minute conversation stretched into a taxing 20 minutes when i was told that the system was down and i would have to call back. This rep then did the incredible..he told me that when i called back, and if the wait was too long, i could just put the call on “speaker” and go about my business..like i have or anyone else has the time to put a call to the Geek Squad on speakerphone…when i asked him where he was located in case i had to call back i could ask for him, he told me he was in a “super secret location”..
anyway, and in a saving grace, i called back 30 minutes later and was received by an extremely nice and concerned representative who went the extra step and told me that the system was still down, but that she would cancel my appointment and call me back when it was done…i know that my experience is not what everyone goes thru, but it is most certainly an experience that has made me regret EVER even considering purchasing your “protection” plan..you know, perhaps, if you would forego the insulting IVRU menu and stop referring to your locations as “command centers”, and having your techs shored away in “super secret” locations, and just offer reliable repair service, it would be far less insulting that having to sit thru an automated voice speaking as if you have just dialed into NORAD…because in the end, no one gives a rats ass how fancy you make it sound, they just want help with their computers…
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Best Buy has a lot of problems but some times they actually fix the computer, however my experience with Best Buy is when they fix the computer takes too long like one to two weeks.
I work in a computer repair company and we usually fix in one or two days the computer. And a friend of mine last month bought a new computer at Best Buy and after 1 week the computer was not ready yet so we took the computer and I installed anti-virus, Anti-Spyware, pop up blocker and etc. in like 2 hours the computer was ready. PS Best Buy would bill her $157 for install this and clean the crap ware that they installed in the first place.
June 8th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Listen not to point out the obvious, but to become a member of Geek Squad a test is required. Also if you didn’t take the test that is on you and the services manager. Second, formatting is only a last resort option, but if you come in and demand your computer back in five minutes they will reinstall the operating system so you can be on your merry way. Third, there services are optional. I am sorry when I starting working on PCs in 1995 everyone who did anything on them knew quite a bit about them. This service is an option for those who don’t have the means to fix it themselves. And on the lighter note when I worked in Geek Squad appartently everyone and there brother knows a guy, who knows a guy, who is a network admin at like Microsoft. Please Joe Shmoe customer come up with a better lie. There are like three guys in our town that could be concidered network admins and we LAN together on the weekends. And trust me we have talked about it, they do not want to take time from the 80k job to fix your beat up pron box. So you can polish chrome this weekend, just a little opinion. And once again if you don’t like it don’t go there moron.
June 9th, 2008 at 4:22 am
I’m a former Geek Squad employee, also. I would say that your post is pretty much correct. Using “free for personal use” software at a corporation was quite prolific (though I would say that the higher ups at Geek Squad wouldn’t have approved). I can’t recall anyone taking pictures/video from someone’s computer, but I wasn’t there open-close every day for the 1.5 years I worked there. The services offered were quite overpriced and I felt too often like I was ripping people off to have to charge them for what I needed to do to help them. Life is much better now without having to work there.
June 9th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Brilliant, Anonymus! We morons won’t use Geek Squad, they’ll go (mercifully) out of business, you’ll go on welfare, LAN more with your genius co-workers and have more time to learn to communicate. Baby angels will sing :0
June 9th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
A few “Morons” that choose not to use Geeksquad will not put it out of business. Last time I checked Bestbuy and Geeksquad as a whole is still a fortune 500 company and only has been growing every year…..must be doing something right otherwise it would be bankrupt don’t you think.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Wow Liz it really speaks well of your character wishing people to go on welfare. By the way if you would of fully understood my post you could of inferred I no longer work at Geek Squad. It was a very good job while I was in school. I understand the services are expensive. I’ve not even contested that. By the way those who wish ill on others have a tendency to have karma catch up with them. Have a nice day.
June 10th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Alas, rhetoric is too often lost on the vapid.
June 10th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
@ Anonymous #2
“…..must be doing something right otherwise it would be bankrupt don’t you think.”
Yes, they are doing a great job advertising for a service which is nowhere near as professional or powerful as they would have customers believe.
Unfortunately most customers don’t realize this. With a car it’s pretty easy to tell if the mechanic is competent and has done a good job because the car won’t run correctly. It’s more difficult to tell with a computer because most people don’t know what to look for. Yes there are parallels, and yes many companies from both industries do this, but that doesn’t make it any more right or acceptable. This particular article happens to be commenting on GeekSquad. I’m sure that other “McDonaldized” tech support corporations such as FireDog do the same thing in many of their stores, and I’m sure it goes on in smaller local shops.
June 11th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Liz you are so correct … rhetoric is lost on the vapid… Anonymus… I see you must have dropped out of school… your spelling is atrocious and you grammar is… well 3rd.. maybe 4th grade level… the proper phrasing would be “if you would have fully” and “you could have inferred”. You see, of, is a preposition while have is a verb…
As for the Geek Squad… horrible folks there that will up-sell just about anything they can. My 70 year old neighbors were told they had to buy some cheap software to protect their new computer… lucky for them I saw it before they opened the box and I had them return it…
Oh and my credentials… 30 years in data networking… first computer I owned was an 8088 processor and the first I built was a 386. The Geek squad are just a bunch of high-schoolers with no sense.
Have a nice day
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I have created my own business charging exactly 50% of what these guys charge for repairs, upgrades and installs. Their prices are the best marketing tool that I have (and ever will) come across. Keep it up!
July 6th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Look at the first fact that spawned the whole thing….. says that he or she hasn’t worked there in a few years….
GS officially rolled out roughly 3.5 yers ago.
Basis for the thread is a lie.
July 6th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
@Matt, a little Geek Squad history
geek squad officially started in 1994, and Bestbuy acquired them in 2002, so they’ve been around for longer than 3.5 years.
I worked at a geek squad in NY in 2005, and i based my article on things i saw in my store.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:28 pm
I worked for Geeksquad for 4 years! After i quit i started my own laptop repair company because geeksquad charges way to much. http://speedylaptoprepair.com laptop repair done cheap!
July 27th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
This is the most inane pile of literary garbage I have ever Stumbled. Sounds like a disgruntled employee. Of course Geek Squad would want to make a budget off of very simple things; how the fuck do you expect to get a paycheck? You could run around making free house calls and installing countless software package after another for free, then cash in your brownie points and eat dreams in your imaginary house. Have fun with that. I personally love working for Geek Squad, and wouldn’t want to work at any other computer repair center. Granted I work at Geek Squad City and not the in-store joke of a repair center. At Geek Squad City, everyone who can’t cut it as a CIA, is either moved to Parts, Reclamation, or a Best Buy store to work at the GS counter. Hmm, wonder why? I can’t think of a single instance in which an agent would FUBAR a repair, that could be saved with an OS restore? Instant re-do, which is not a good thing at all for the agent. Anyone going into a massive warehouse sales store can honestly not be surprised to hear sales pitch after sales pitch, even though Best Buy is pretty laid back. How hard is it to say ‘No’ when you don’t want something? Also, I have never even looked in a customer’s My Pictures or Documents folder the entire time I’ve been employed there. Why would I? What the hell good does it do me to have 350 pictures of some random family? And if it were such a rampant offense, way to stand by and do nothing. Very admirable of you. Any one seen doing any navigation on the desktop, other than Control Panel and various other technical locations, is either written up at the event, unless it is more severe at which point they are fired. I have seen it happen personally to the dumb ass new guy working next to me. But at the end of the day, a job is a job. If you didn’t need the money, you wouldn’t do it. I also work for a small home town business, not corporate, and it has so few perks that I decided to work for a corporation due to its many benefits. Five percent over cost discount!
August 1st, 2008 at 6:07 am
I once applied to work for Geek Squad as a second kind of fun money job (and you get the store discounts!). I have over 15years experience in IT from Computer Tech at Staples and Office Max to 5 years experience as a systems admin for a University and they told me they preferred to hire Geek Squad members from within the store…..why in the hell would you want to hire from your sales floor full of high school kids and college student who aren’t technical enough to get real tech jobs while in school, instead of a real tech..oh because it’s not a tech business its a sales group. Your technical expertise only need to exceed that of a 95yrs old grandma who thinks the monitor is her “computer”.
Geek squad is a poor company that had striven to be great originally only to sell out and then get squandered into a group of shitty sales people acting like technicians. How anyone trusts BestBuy to do their repair work is beyond me.
August 16th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Thats why CedarPC in Chantilly, VA is awesome
August 31st, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Its amazing to me when someone can have 1 bad experience and all of a sudden, the company must be horible. Geek
Squad is one of the largest international Service providers and they are growing because of the importance they
put on customer satisfaction. But there are over 10,000 agents( growing every day) and I can’t say that the store
didn’t hire the best candidate for the position but overall the company is heading in the right direction and it
doesn’t matter how many smaller companies pop up, competition is good and Geek Squad will continue to thrive no
matter what.
Also as far as freeware usage, all software they use is licensed to the company and also, as of recent updates,
has been completly made exspecially for Agents. More programs are being used but these version have been
speacially created by that manufacturer for Geek Squad. They are very serious about using un-authorized sofware
and I can say, from personal experience that most tech companies out there use whatever they want to do there work
and that is one thing that seperates Geek Squad above the rest. This is only my opinion but I hope that those who
have had bad experiences try and give Geek Squad another shot before throwing in the towel for good.
September 17th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
listen up im an agent and a damn good one at that. at precinct we dont sell services that the client does not need. ok so this upselling sell whatever costs the most is bull shit, that comment about G.S being the equivalent of Mickey Ds- F.U. is that why i get customers EVERY DAY complaining about that small time shop that “fixed” there board and 2 weeks later the unit wont boot. or the client who goes in with 2 gigs of ram and leaves with 512. i always get units in with stupid EZ tech stickers on the bottom and every time the client says the same thing , they made my problem worse. my store hits budget regardless, do you want to know why, because geeksquad is popular our client base is huge. you dont become popular buy breaking more than you fix, what world do u people live in. MOST if not all agents are cisco & a certified those who are not, have experience in IT. i have seen some perma techs that are like 19 year old and consider themselves pros because they know what ms config is.. eat me. the competition will always bash you when they cant beat you. that whole data theft thing does NOT happen anymore YES years ago it did happen in a few times guess what happen to every idiot who played that game FIRED. did u guys know that all these small time shops use nothing BUT freeware they even include shit like AVG and ad aware and cc cleaner as there security set up and if u want proof ill email u a letter from a client of mine who was ripped off buy buying software she had no idea was FREE. we have APRROVED and very effieciant tools. were backed by a lot of software companies from webroot to opera to freakin symantec. I nor anyone in my G.S precinct restore or format machines as a time saver or quick fix solution we actually fix almost all os issues unless its extremely corrupt registry wise. and we do it within 3 days. my store has the fastest turn around time in the state. ALSO if a client needs a restore and they have the disks. my answer is simple. sir or mam you might as well restore it yourself its not difficult just boot from disk format and install. if you dont have the disk then 129 dollars is justifiable. manually installing a generic os and gathering all the drivers (digitally signed and scanned) for a multitude of diff pc and L.T is not the easiest or the fastest thing to do. but we do it very effieciantly and again within 3 days. and finally YES we get alot of angry customers BUT there always upset about that camera or ipod or laptop that has been out at a best buy service center for way to long…THATS NOT OUR PROBLEM i will only account for the work that WE do, not shabby service center regulations. rarely and i mean rarely do we get complaints about OUR WORK -OUR SERVICE-OUR KNOWLEDGE. and by the way author. the geek squad u knew is dead. the time for games has passed, that geek squad sorority b s is over. we are good at what we do. and do it better than our competitors thats why were on top–like it or not.
teks
ps micro center is great, there not a chain yet, there small time right now. but i have nothing but good things to say. they hire older experienced certified techs ALL THE TIME. there pretty good –much respect–
December 6th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
LOL can’t stop laughing!!!!!!!
Just FYI, Best Buy FIRED more than 30 agents in the Bay area in California because some employees did NOT use the proper computers for data backup and customer’s files were AT RISK.
Specifically, there was no firewall protecting these PC’s with customers data.
THAT’S how Best Buy as a corporation is SERIOUS about integrity. They will fire anyone, anyplace if they do shady stuff.
Oh and btw, Best Buy is a profit driven organization not non-profit, if you wanna warm and fuzzy stuff and installs at $15 or less, find a volunteer.
And ur Firedog is just a poor poor imitation of GS, that’s why they were where they are now.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Couldn’t agree more, past summer i thought I had a virus and did everything i could do do remove it, but I couldn’t find it. So, in a last ditch effort I took it in to geeksquad to run the diagnostics. they called a week later and said that my hard drive was definately bad. So, I bought a new one and installed vista on it. I was still upset that my hard drive was dead, because I had so much music and school documents on it. So, i hooked it up to my friends computer, and it booted up perfectly and was running fine. Few days later I figure out it was a faulty saitek keyboard!! Though I should’ve figured this out way before I was still angry that Geek Squad lied to me and told me by telling me that my hard drive was bad! After this experience with Geek Squad I vow never to use any of their services again! HUGE RIPOFF!
February 17th, 2009 at 9:01 am
WoW. I love posts from disgruntled employees…
For the record, whenever something involving a large corporation goes different from the way the consumer wants someone is always ready to yell “ITS A SCAM!” because naturally “The Man” is always against you.
This is the type of thing geeksquad agents are up against every single day. Will I say they never mess up? No of course not, they are human… but bet your ass that they will fix it for you. This is why Geek Squad guarantees their services. Are they a little pricey? No doubt! But then again, you’re paying for technical knowledge, not a candy bar. If I knew how to change my oil you can bet i’d rather not pay 30 dollars to some grease ball for his service (and the 3 dollars for the actual oil) but I do because when it comes to cars I’m clueless! Many clients feel the same way about using geeksquad. Now I’m not going to say that every single person that works there is 100 percent qualified… but the ones that aren’t are weeded out.
Basically what I’m saying is the doubters and haters (for lack of a better word) will always exist, and the media will always be ready to jump down a corporations throat. But trust me, as a DCI (thats G.S. lingo for Supervisor) there are agents who legitimately care and you can bet your ass your issue will be resolved. This is why best buy and geek squad have consumer relations. Now, had you been in a mom and pop store and had an issue… you’d be up a creak without a paddle.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I didn’t say I was disgruntled, merely unhappy. And I was speaking from experience from my own store, where we hired people who didn’t know the first thing about fixing computers. I’m sure there are decent precincts out there because otherwise Geek Squad wouldn’t still be in business.
March 9th, 2009 at 7:53 am
I really think this guy is real ass. Yes, there has been issues that have been made public and were taken care off. Geeksquad agents and managers were released from there positions. Yet, this guy is giving GeekSquad a bad wrap. Just look at all the work they do. They are the largest chain of repair centers in the world. Not all benches are bad. There are some real goodo one out there. I have found a few and will always go to them. As for the agents who working there, they are knowledgeable, they do do things neccesory to get your machine working. Most people out there are not techs. So where do you go to your friends, family, or you it guy at work. First of all, the IT guy is not getting paid by you to give advise. Also, any of the listed above can easily destroy you system and really cost you money. So why not pay the premium for service. Plus you get a warrenty with the work Geeksquad does. So People who bash companies really are just angry of a issue that they had. We all have issues with something in life. But really they do help people out and the prices are reasonable for what is really being done on your computer. Here is one big thing they can do. Where can you go to recovery lost data from a drive your buddy destroyed(being data). They have a recovery center down in Geeksquad city. So don’t be ignorant of what this guy is saying. Try for yourself and you make the discussion on the company not him.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:49 am
I wish I had did a little more research before getting involved with geek squad. I did not take my PC in for repair. When I called to make an appointment to do that I allowed the sales person Anthony to talk me into using the remote service. He went on about how much more thorough this was & so much faster. If you go to the GS website you will see a list of services, thier cost & what will be done for this cost. For 199.00 tax I choose Diagnostic & Repair ( Virus & Spyware removal). He confirmed everything would be done and transfered me to Agent Scott, Over the next three days I dealt with an Agent Chris Sanchez, then Agent Silvera,Agent Rina, Agent Gordon & A very rude & ignorant little she twit when I finally stated I wanted a supervisor, and was transferred to Supervisor Steve Gregg.
May PC was never fixed. They did nothing more than I had done myself. And after three days I realized that I knew more about PC’s than any of them did. When I tried to get my money back I was informed that their was a $70 nonrefundable diagnostic fee out of my $213.99. And that Agent Anthony should have told me this. So I basically paid these ass $70 to do nothing put talk to me on the phone for three days. Just so you know I am a single mother of five who is unemployed, my unemployment has run out and I need this PC to find a job. I have since taken my PC to a legit repair shop. For $120 they removed 3 viruses that Geek Squad said were not there and my PC is running great. I will be contacting the BBB about Geek Squad and telling everyone that will listen not to use them & why.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:02 am
May I also add to my post that not one of the listed on the website to be done for my $199 tax was actually done.
March 13th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Ok, so I am a business person, a tech, and understand how to make money. Companies like Bestbuy charge what they do for a reason. I large reason their service “costs” so much, is because you get a lot with it. You PAY for something you as the customer does not have the ability to do. I DARE any small company or “tech” explain how they can make money by giving away software, giving away hours of advise and “throwing” in services. If you had a bad experience with a place like Geeksquad it’s because there was a problem in the system somewhere, either by a tech, sales person, or system. Usually it’s because services centers screw things up, which has nothing to do with Geeksquad as a company.
Upset people breads bad news, bad news travels at the speed of light, good news travels at the speed of sound. (media Vs. word of mouth anology)
- – Bad Techs, and a lack of understanding of what your job.
- Most tech are only that, techs, they lack the understanding of what it means to be a good tech and a GOOD EMPLOYEE. People PAY for services because they want something. Companies offer services to customers to make them happy but ultimately MAKE MONEY. You as a tech COST MONEY… There is a difference between being able to fix a computer and provide a complete service to a customer. No offense to techs reading this, but most of very young and don’t really understand what it means to balance cost and benefit.
0—-
As a customer, if you feel the service is a benefit, and the cost is just, then the company is doing its job. And YES assuming nobody is trying to take you to the cleaners with products and services not needed.
You have to realize 99% of your customers need YOU to tell them what they need, they need you to hold their hand and guide them, that is your job to the customer, and your job to the company is turn that into money.
About Geeksquad
- The company didn’t become number one because they ripped people off, they became number one because customer LOVE them, Geeksquad is well organized, just look at how well Firedog failed, they hardly made it off the ground. Becuase there was no organization in services, and pretty much let the employees do what ever. Most “techs” who own their own companies fail, or never make money, because they are that techs, not business people.
March 24th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
do not go to geek squad.
-overpriced
-stolen files and information
-deleted files
April 1st, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Where do you get information like this. I’m all for expressing your opinion and views about a company, but but making accusations with out proof leads me to believe you have no means to back it up.
Please people don’t believe everything you read. If it’s not a legitimate reason, then chances are there isn’t a 100% truth to it.
April 19th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
First off, I am the Easy Resident Tech in a chicagoland Staples Store in the top 30 stores in the country. We are damn good at what we do and we charge the customer only for what they need. We charge a LOT less than geek squad and are better at what we do.
I know people from my high school that went from selling mp3 players on the sales floor at a best buy to trying to install DDR ram into a DDR2 slot at their Geek Squad Center.
I took plenty of certifications with the store before they even let me TOUCH a computer, and I have 6 years of computer experience, as far as building/upgrading/configuring.
We are careful and never do ANY of things listed above.
I have customers come in and I never charge them for installing Mozilla (39.99 value), or for testing power supplies (69.99 diagnostic). The customer is my priority and if I can do a good job on their unit, we’ll establish loyalty and be able to service more computers in the future.
My staples store has made more money this QUARTER in Easy Tech Sales than it has all of 2008.
Fuck Geek Squad, come where people are good at what they do.
April 26th, 2009 at 3:17 am
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Lovely information!
June 21st, 2009 at 7:42 am
One thing you have to realize is that each store is ran by different people. It’s not about the “Geek Squad” it’s about the people running them. I just don’t understand why people lose their humility when they have a bad experience. It happens, it’s not always pleasant, but bottom line, PEOPLE make the difference. Prices are in place to make money AND provide a saught after service, if people didn’t need the services, there wouldn’t be SO many companies that offer them. If Best Buy didn’t make a profit….YOU WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO SHOP THERE!!! Like CIRCUIT CITY!!!! Also, handleing consumers data carries a very large risk, and prices are adjusted to off set the cost to risk ratio.
There are Best Buys and Geek Squads out there that do AMAZING work, and fact is, there are others that don’t. ( SAME IS TRUE FOR STAPLES )Find the Best Buy that works for you and shop there. They DO have some amazing people that work for the company, and besides where else can you go and actually talk to someone…….Wal-Mart??????
September 29th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Its excellent how, with little knowledge of real life, with one brush stroke, decide to put down an entire company.
Why? What is your proof? (the average reader would ask themselves.) and it would appear that it comes down to a bad experience and an anonnymous post by what we are supposed to believe is from a GeekSquad agent.
Just replace GeekSquad with any other company name and the story is the same.. I had a bad cheeseburger from Mcdonalds once.. Should I blog that Mcdonalds should be boycotted? Tell everyone how awful they are then make up a story from an anonymous employee that says they all work naked in the back and have orgies with customers? Should I expect everyone to believe its true?
Lets be realistic. every company has poor employees. No one company or person can please everyone. It is not logical to try to boycott an entire company based on these allegations and unproveable letters.
But hey. Bullsh*t sells, truth does not.
September 30th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I’m sorry you feel that I have little knowledge of real life which I don’t know where that came from but I worked for the specific geek squad I mentioned in my post and was talking from experience, not just pulling things from thin air. I am trying to just warn people about a company that will charge $150 to plug in their PS3 or claim that a computer is broken simply because the technician didn’t want to take the time and find out exactly what was wrong on the machine. There are plenty of geek squad horror stories on the internet from customers that go there and this post was simply from an ex employee’s perspective.
October 17th, 2009 at 2:38 am
I agree with Geoffry D. in regards to the many unknown people out there with free time, blogging about a company that they probably never worked for. Im sure this “experience” Doug is referring mainly falls on the customer side of the corner. Im sure Doug went in one day and got taken for a ride and now he feels the need to blog about it but as a “former employee”.
Like Geoffry mentioned, would anyone boycott McDonald’s if you get a bad burger and then blog about it?
Im sure real former disgruntled GeekSquad workers have better things to blog about than how to let others avoid coming to their store… If anything I would blog about the management, angry customers, salary or hanky panky going on with those young female workers and not what everyone copy and pastes.
If in fact you did work for GeekSquad Doug, show proof of any payment stub (block your personal info of course) and put it here for validation purposes.
Thanks.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:49 am
I don’t need prove from any one. And I dealt with several geek squad employees, not just one. My statements were made from my experience. And I made them in hopes that it might help someone else from having to go through what i did. I know people have bad days and make mistakes. But as for what this company did to me there was no excuse for.
December 16th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
When you begin to have a look for methods to speed up your computer and optimize it’s performance, you will come across the option of using a registry cleaner, and with these programs comes many options as well. Maybe you are searching for freeware or perhaps you are OK with spending a couple of dollars to get a quality product, but first you just need to know how to select the top registry cleaner software for your needs. That’s what we’re going to discuss in this article, we’re going to go over the features that you need to be trying to find when selecting a registry cleaning application.
February 7th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
I have to say one thing. I work on computers and networks for a living. No one should ever download your files, and everyone who works on a computer should make a backup of your hard drive if it even looks like there could be data loss, ecpecially if the customer has not made a recent backup, which should be asked before you even touch a machine. Now for those people who gripe about how much is charged. For a simple virus scan or put in a power supply, and then the computer works fine.. a labor charge of 50 dollars should be sufficient. But for people who do have so much spyware or virus’s on their computers that it has done so much damage to the OS. Sometimes it takes less labor to wipe and clean a machine than to spend hours scanning it with different virus or spyware scanners, or using hijack this,. There are many programs out there and not one of them can detect everything. This takes time. so when your hard drive needs wiping. we always ghost your hard drive so abolutely nothing is lost. You will have to install software that you already have, and if you want me to install all of your software and put all your files back exactly where they were and install your printer, put all your playlist, itunes etc.. And even come to your house and rehook it up for you. I have news for ya.. YOU SHOULD BUY ANOTHER COMPUTER. All this takes A LOT OF TIME. so go ahead an trust a “student” in a computer class with your data. It’s true The Geek Squad does hire a lot of people who don’t know how to work on computers. But if you want professionals get ready to pay. I get sick of people griping about how much it will cost to get their computers fixed because a hard drive went out. It cost at least 60 bucks for a 160 gig drive, and then labor to try and get your data, reinstall the OS and everything. Some people say.. I might as well got another computer, and Maybe you should.. sometimes it make a lot of economical sense to do just that. but guess what.. you still need your files., your programs, your songs on that other computer.. Anyone can do this service for you.. yourself included if you knew how to copy files.. some people do it themselves and I’m glad… I need to fix real problems.. I will copy files for people.. I know some people just have not learned and I understand that. but some people are just plain lazy and then they still gripe about their computer service..
March 5th, 2010 at 6:51 am
[..] A bit unrelated, but I quite simply liked this blog post [..]
March 8th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
I liked what you posted here but I must say that it can be improved, although it is good but some more effort can get this blog to the top. And the theme is good.
March 14th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Pretend that we do not exist, that is fine with us. Do not try to explain us though. Do not try to understand where we come from or what motivates us. If you are not one of us, then you will never understand these things. You are welcome to join us. Otherwise, leave us alone.