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.
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42 Responses to “Don’t use Geek Squad”
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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!
I’ve heard similar stories from others. While I’ve never used them - I don’t have any personal experience with them.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
… wow … that’s some scary stuff, man
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 :))
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.
They’re all the same.
Don’t let them steal your data….
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Alas, rhetoric is too often lost on the vapid.
@ 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.
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
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!
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.
@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.