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What Do Geek Squad Technicians Actually Do?
Zenitram asks: "I am a lead technician at a company that repairs computers for various vendors. Many of our systems are from Best Buy's Geek Squad. Based on the systems Geek Squad sends us, it makes me wonder what, if anything, do they actually do? We get systems that have issues that we simply shouldn't have to work on, like: installing device drivers, OS reloads, and reseting CRUs (Customer Removable Units). Additionally, we get systems that are misdiagnosed such as: bad hard drive when a system has faulty RAM; no POST when it simply won't boot into Windows; or no boot when it won't power on at all. So, what is the scope of technical repair that Geek Squad techs do?"
Some people need that kind of support.
How we know is more important than what we know.
They are paying you, right? Who gives a leap about what they do and don't do.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
they make you sign a waver saying they arnt responsible for lost information,
then wipe the hard drive and re-install windows, if they can.
We know they use Winternals software. :)
Not much. Seriously. I know a few Geek Squad techs, and a lot of them are not real bright.
people more clueless than themselves. Maybe they should go to Apple's Genius Bar to get actual help with their PC:)
Actually, I suspect, based on your summary, that they find it cheaper to contract out to you guys than having knowleable people on their staff. Best Buy just charges the customer anyway (a premium) so it's not like it's coming out of their pocket. If they knew what was wrong with it in the first place, like a faulty harddrive, wouldn't they just replace it themselves? It's not like they don't have the parts.
Seems like I remember that they (used to?) pirate tons of software, but other than that, they seem to be a serious rip-off in the actual system maintenance and repair.
Shiny. Let's be bad guys.
Maybe they just put down any BS answer they can so they get to ship the system off to your company under some "too difficult" escape clause. As long as what you charge Best Buy is less than what the customer pays Best Buy, they'll continue to offload work to you. It might even be more profitable for them.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Haven't you seen their ads? They wear ties. You know, 'cause all geeks wear ties! (Just look in the mirror, fellow /. readers!) And if they wear ties they have to be computer experts!
'nuff said.
... I can only hope they don't actually dress like on the ads, and that they actually no a lot of computer stuff. But I am pretty sure they don't walk around with a Knoppix cd.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
I havn't started training yet but from the managers explanation of the work, it seems pretty ridiculous. Ie: returned products must be tested, and when we say it simply wont boot up, it will get back we have to be more specific and say what wont boot up like windows or the hard drive. I guess it just goes to show you gotta do what you gotta do, at least when you have to pay rent.
Honestly, I think they're a step up from "I roll my poo into balls".
God help you if they ever make you speak to one to explain what's wrong with something purchased there.
I can't help it - I'm a 19D.
Don't forget the Rocket Packs!
... they are people who couldn't hack it as level 1 tech support, mainly because their reading level was too low to follow the script.
Please, no angry mails from current or past Geek Squaders, I did say in _MY_ experience; I am sure there are _some_ Geek Squaders with IQs above room temperature.
"Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead." A. Huxley
i used to work for nerds on site, the original tech group in beatles, anyways one of our guys decided to call the geek squad one day to see what they were like. he showed up and had to reformat a drive and install windows. seemed simple enough, however they never installed any drivers or updates for windows, that was extra per driver/update, and so was resetting up the basic networking features of the computer, not share drives just the basics, yup it cost extra, any extra software, yup more money.
now comes the time for the bill, now being a "geek" you figure they would do it via the internet with auto-adjusting price based on the services ordered, something nerds on site has had for a while, no they did not have this. since our man was paying by credit card, the geek squad guy had to pull out one of those old credit card slider things. now in order to calculate price he had to use a calculator.
now i don't know if they've improved recently but you would think a large tech based company would use some basic stuff that a geek friendly company should already be using, personally why go with an imitation, go with the original nerd in a bug, http://www.nerdsonsite.com/ and yes they are world wide and constantly growing
my question is what the 'repair' centers do. i had to send a laptop out to have the power jack replaced. laptop came back with scratches and superglue and a 'new DVD drive that didnt work and was covered in glue (my previous drive worked). i then sent it out to have a fan replaced. i used geek squad again because they said thye would replace the DVD with one that works and wasnt covered in glue. computer came back with new drive, scratches and note that says 'unit overheats and shuts down after two minutes. needs fan.' (that took 2 weeks) i sent it back out to have the fan replaced (again). laptop came back after another two weeks with more scratches and missing rubber feet. fan works.
during this time i wrote a few letters. it only took 2.5 months to get back my working, yet cosmetically damaged, laptop back. the only good thing is that all 'repairs' were free, a stack of DVD-R's and a 200$ refund on my only big purchase at best buy.
apparantly geek squad is building their own repair center.
lastly the guy there stated that when it comes to notebooks, geek squad is a glorified shipping center. they also just write down the symptoms that the customer tells them. so the customer could be wrong
always mosh clockwise
I took this awful management class and they talked about Geek Squad like its some sort of Business miracle. We even had to watch a video where they talk about the company and its structure. Aside from their marketing they are really nothing special and time will tell on that as well. Geek Squad is just one of many essentially empty shell IT service organizations that charge a high rate to the end users who go to them because they have established a recognizable brand and then contract most if not all of the actual work out to others.
If you want to see even more disturbing examples of this trend sign up as a provider at onforce.com where a so-called free market for IT services is little more than a way for these empty shell providers to route low paying service calls to "independent contractors" except that marketplace is deliberately skewed so that the providers don't get to enforce their own rates but rather find themselves racing to accept low paying work orders from companies that are nothing more than a catchy name and a 800 number. One of the lowest paying of these companies suspiciously operates out of the same building as Onforce.com (formerly ComputerRepair.com) while routinely violating even the weak rules Onforce setup to guard against abuses, such as requiring that clients pay contractors at least 1 hours time and paying a fee for customer no-shows.
Jetpacks.
They hired nerds, not geeks - stupid, stupid, stupid!
I work for a first-line repair center analogous to GeekSquad.
We offer warranty support under our own brand and for several manufacturers. Some vendors let us obtain parts and do authorized warranty work. Others require us to ship the computers to them or to independent authorized repair centers. When we are the middle-man we still find a way to make money.
There are some problems we don't have the skill or equipment to repair on-site. When we can't do the job right we subcontract that work out to someone who can. Our customers expect quality results and that's what we deliver.
This should explain some of the reasons you get machines from Geek-Squad. As for the misdiagnosed computers you'll have to ask Geek-Squad about that.
They're kinda like buying milk for your restaurant from 7-11. You get no selection for an exceptionally high price. What the geeksquad does is advertise to the ignorant and rake in the unproductive profits. Note: I am a technical consultant who does everything geeksquad claims to do and much more for reasonable prices so this is just their competitions opinion. Seriously though, using them is like buying an iplod because you think it's the only portable media device in existance.
-Tim Louden
I really depends on the store and it's staff. There are some that are filled with very bright and knowledgable people. Then there are some filled with idiots. I think it depends a lot on the IT industry in your area. If your area has a booming IT trade there are less of the smart, just out of college, but smart people to work a low rung job like Geek Squad. However, if you work in an IT deadzone, what you will find a lot of times in those Geek Squads is very talented *geeks* who are working there as their first IT job because there aren't that many opportunites for IT in their area. Just my 2 cents --Former GeekSquad'er
about 2 months before geek squad partnered with best buy when you actually needed to know what you were doing and they got the cool cars, I applied for a job with them and was told "We don't want you. You have no idea when it comes to anything technical, why don't you go and get a job at best buy like all the other posers out there"**.
I still get a smug sense of satisfaction when ever I see a best buy ad.
** I have an A+ and MSCE certifications a BS in CS, and have worked in various techfields my whole life
Really, we do. They bring us soooo much business it's funny.
We have determined that the Geek Squad geeks are people hired off the street the day before, and are instructed to look at the computer, and recommend that they buy a new computer. (from Best Buy, of course!)
Every attempt that we are aware of that they have actually tried to fix something, we see it a week later to fix what was wrong, and to fix what the geek broke while trying to fix it.
Some of the latest episodes:
- geek browsed customer's computer to a nasty web site and got it infected with spyware and viruses (two weeks ago)
- geek took laptop apart and failed to reconnect cardbus slot connector (that one was today)
- geek told customer he needed a new computer when he needed a new power supply (this happens somewhat frequently)
- geek told customer he needed a new computer because this one is slow, was actually rampant with spyware and viruses (happens all the time)
- geek sold customer another copy of XP because this one was showing it was no longer registerd
The list just goes on and on... funny thing too, we are quite expensive for on-site service compared to others in our area, (we're expensive, but we're good) but the Geek Squad actually is more expensive than we are. I don't see how they get any business, they must have a killer marketing campaign.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I think it's pretty obvious they're here to repair our poor fashion sense! Remember, dressing like an extra from Revenge of the Nerds is the first step towards mastering your computer!
They ship things to you.
I've sent electronics out for "replacement" and gotten the exact same machine back, months later, with nothing fixed. I've sent machines out for "repair" and been returned the wrong machine.
My question, sir, is What do YOU do?
The whole PC service business is corrupt from Geek Squad and up. If I cant fix it myself, or RMA it for a brand new piece of equipment, it's junk. Even the masses have picked up on this. I claimed a PC on it's way to the trash a week ago, with nothing wrong except being clogged with malware. I've been told that it had been sent to both Best Buy and to the manufacturer, and that it couldn't be repaired.
So the story ends with me owning a fancy new (to me) 2.0ghz Celeron box, which makes a fine media server for the home.
Every "technician" is an idiot and a constant frustration for people who actually use and understand computers. They couldn't hack it in real computer science, so they fall back on their skills with "inserting PCI cards facing the right way" as their claim to geek status. This is true whether they "lead" or follow.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Geek Squad: Well, look, I already told you. I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don't have to!! I have people skills!! I am good at dealing with people!!! Can't you understand that?!? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!!!!!!!
Clearly state in proper English "Do you have an A+ certification from Comptia?"
If they answer "Yes"
Make them show it to you - if they won't, presume they don't have it and skip to below. Otherwise, congratulations, you've found a reputable maintinence tech.
If they answer "No"
1. Walk away without saying anything more.
If they boisterously laughed or asked you what A+ certification is, pelt them in the abdomen with your right knee, then proceed to step one above.
Skilled computer techs who will do residential site visits are hard to find, so instead people default to a choice that they believe will insulate them from the worst-case scenarios. Most non-geek users have trouble assessing whether or not a computer consultant is capable or will muck up their machine even worse. Rather than taking the risk that they'll hire some dimwit or crook, they go to Best Buy (or CompUSA) and pay extra for their service in the belief that this gives them options if the repair goes badly. The crooked consultant can disappear with their money before the "fixed" computer blows up. It's not that easy to move the Best Buy store, so the guy is likely to return and demand satisfaction.
RichM
Data Center Knowledge
You're a dumbass.
See Systm Episode 6: Maker Faire.
Captcha = Attest
(lol)
-jX
Don't you just love politics? It's like a comedy of errors.
They tell the customer it will take two weeks no matter what the problem, and charge them a (high) minimum fee. After that, the data is typically erased and Windows is reloaded using whatever recovery CD the system needs. Thats one thing I personally think is nice about Geek Squad, they seem to have access to every system recovery CD for all manufacturers and are able to install fully legal copies. Most customers of mine lose their CDs, or their HDD went back & lost the recovery partition. A lot of customers come to me simply because they can't wait two weeks or don't want their data lost.
I worked in the Geek Squad at Best Buy for a little while back when they first took up the name. A few fun things I noticed while working there.
-In changing over from being a computer sales person to a tech, absolutely no form of test was administered to assess my proficiency before putting me to work formatting people's computers (I could have literally not known how to do this before being assigned to this job.)
-The only training that was administered to me upon transfer to the department was an abysmal program that failed to teach me the ins and outs of the database I would be using (and there were gaps in my knowledge about computer tech work that needed addressing at the time).
-Almost without exception the only thing done by Geek Squad members to computers which were brought in was a reformat and reinstall of the OS. If that didn't work the computer was almost always sent out of the store for weeks on end for repair.
-My boss spent over half of his time at work in various hiding places yakking on his cell phone. He was never held accountable for this.
Eventually my complete disgust with our lack of service, outright hatred of all levels of management and just general dislike of being forced to con people into buying things they don't need drove me to leave. I now work quite happily (at a dollar less an hour) at a locally owned supermarket while I finish me degree. Of every part time job I've ever had (high school included) this was by far the worst.
I could go on about all kinds of other things about Best Buy outside of the context of the Geek Squad but I'll stay on topic. Also, it should be noted that these are only my own experiences working in one store.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
I do agree, to a point... A+ is far too simple to get. I have had this since I was 16 (yes from CompTia+). It is sad that the good technicians out there, the ones that have a passion and a knack for computing, get a bad rap from customers who have been subjected to these no talent jokers. I have found out that the only way to get respect from the Human Resource department is to have vendor certifications. IBM Certified Tech, CCNA, and MCSE are good ones to get right now. Good luck on getting hired,
It was initially a good idea with good intent, but since it was purchased by Best Buy, it has become little more than their technical marketing arm. Competence aside, the "geek squad" image gives Best Buy a degree of legitimacy in the eyes of vulnerable customers. Even though it "generates revenue," that's about all it does.
...I'd guess that they post to Slashdot.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
german vokenvagons looking like desperate nail biting middle age out-of-work-for-a-year leftovers that were sold a bill of goods during the .com boom. What they do, not much but drive them VWs around and pick up machines, log them into their system, subcontract out to folks that are likely not more qualified but have a bench and diag tools. GeekSquad is front line support, basically the same as a service writer at a car dealership. They give a quick and easy diag, get the product out of the customers face and into some part swapping monkey in the back (or in some other part of the city/country) who will use 'years of experience' to fix the problem. 99% of the world doesn't even know what a device driver does, let alone how to install it or even care about the above. GeekSquad techs serve a purpose to the aging @home boomer set that doesn't want to spend retirement ratcheting a commodity to death.
Does the name "Geek Squad" kind of offend anyone besides me, even just a little bit?
Username taken, please choose another one.
I took this awful management class and they talked about Geek Squad like its some sort of Business miracle. We even had to watch a video where they talk about the company and its structure. Aside from their marketing they are really nothing special and time will tell on that as well. Geek Squad is just one of many essentially empty shell IT service organizations that charge a high rate to the end users who go to them because they have established a recognizable brand and then contract most if not all of the actual work out to others.
Sounds like a good business case to me. The company does nothing, contracts out the real work, and focuses on building the brand among the clueless masses.
What is value of Coca-cola? What does Coca-cola do? They sell sugar & water, and license others to sell sugar & water. Is there any real difference between coke, pepsi, and all the others? Not really.
The real value in Coca-Cola is that red & white logo. The brand. It's recogizable around the world and it's worth billions.
I remember a now-defunct white box computer shop some years back (think K6 era), where I overheard a tech talk about "warezing" (he pronounced it like the English rendition of "Juarez") software.
:) when there's Linux?"
Meanwhile I was thinking, "why go to Mexico for software
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
I'd quote them a price to fix whatever they say needs fixing, then fix that. If they did a good job of troubleshooting it, they get a good deal and you get business. No problem. If that wasn't the cause, ask them if they'd like further troubleshooting for additional cost. Then ask if they want to pay you to really fix it. Otherwise, they should be agreeing to have you troubleshoot the system to begin with, then fix it. Of course, I haven't been in the retail business of PC repair for years so I don't know how the billing works nowadays but if they are being paid for troubleshooting it, you should trust their word or else be paid to troubleshoot it for them.
But why is the rum gone?
Actually, they were somewhat highly regarded in the twin cities area until their post best buy implosion/sale.
-- dieman - Scott Dier
While it is true that any technician who doesn't know what the A+ cert is should probabally be laughed at, that does not mean that it is worth anything. Sure, it's all nice that I know that the little black thing in a floppy disk is called a mylar, but that has nothing to do with actually making a computer work.
The only way to really know what you're getting in a tech is to talk to his (or occastionally her) previous customers and find out:
1. Is he willing to be patient with explaining what he is doing before, during, and after the job?
2. Does he charge a fair price for his skill level?
3. Is he a nice person in general?
4. Does he actually know what he is doing?
Which gets me on another topic entirely. Even the most basic of newbies can do well in the support world if they are willing to treat their customers right. Back when I was a 7th grade hot shot who knew how to replace a stick of RAM in under 2 hours, people would still hire me, and even pay me more than my asking price because I fit categories 1,2, and 3, even if I still had to grown in number 4.
They get to drive around in this way-cool VW Beetle with the words "Geek Squad" on the side. That's soooo l33t.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
I'm a computer consultant myself, and every time I've had a client whose system had been looked at by Geek Squad, they had inevitably done nothing but bought a lot of shiny new Best Buy(TM) equipment. Like the woman whose computer-savvy husband had died, leaving her six computers in various states around the house, and she needed to get her ducks in a row. They bought her a powerful, expensive wireless router and the external USB bridges to get every computer connected to it.
Geek Squad is really just a front-end for Best Buy's sales division.
You dont really need to be A+ Certified, A+ Cerification is a worthless piece of paper prove that they good at it.
So, yeah, they're good for that.
DT
Is this thing on? Hello?
The Geek Squad CD was on usenet a couple weeks ago, if you have sufficient retention grab it and see.
:)
I didn't, of course, that would be wrong
-
Karma=bad
I care=no
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
Here is the heirarchy of social imptitude and intelligence Nerds,Geeks,Dweebs. In College. we refered to Physics/math majors as Nerds, Chemistry majors as Geeks, and Biology majors as dweebs. It was very true, in the physics dept, not a single one of us had a girlfriend. Chemistry majors dated occasionaly, and Biolgy majors were ... well lets just say they were well versed in human anatomy.
I've heard that sometimes they have an issue with a vendor, so they'll make a post claiming that their service sucks and they don't know what they're doing online, and almost insultingly pretend it's a serious question they want help with. Can anyone help me understand why they do this?
God, I hate you.
This is in no way a defense of Geek Squad--I've never done business with them. But please. If you're going to try and flame someone in public, don't pretend it's something else. And, please--if you're a Slashdot editor, don't be stupid enough to post this.
Worked for best buy last year. And geek squad is essentially there to install SpySweeper, Norton, etc. Generally they're supposed to be A+ certified, but they tend to have a lot of computers come in. The guys in our store were generally pretty knowledgable. They tended to have to wipe a lot of HDs. That's essentially their job. I was kinda like the subsititue geek whenever Macs came in. It's stand back and tell them what to do because they recognized I knew far more than they did about them, but of course it was their job and I was a sales guy.
i always seem to read comments such as these after blowing my mod points -_-
There is nothing with Geek Squad, in the same way there is nothing wrong with Taco Bell. Both provide a low quality product for a low cost. If you want excellent service, you have to pay a premium... just like if you want excellent food, you have to pay a premium (or learn how to cook). For many cheap computer systems, paying a premium for a highly skilled technician just doesn't make a lot of sense... especially when, in many cases, the problem can be solved by any marginally computer literate person.
Now, there are some people who might say that Geek Squad is overpriced. I don't know what the going rate for tech support is, but it seems to me that Geek Squad is far from a monopoly on tech support, and that people are either happy with the service, or prefer the one-stop Best Buy concept than to open a phone book and look for a place themselves.
So, what is the scope of technical repair that Geek Squad techs do?
:)
Here's my guess:
- Look good.
- Dress nice.
- Talk nice.
- Send computer to someone who won't break it.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
It all is a matter of who is working, some of my coworkers at the time really knew what they were doing, and some didn't. For instance if there was no post on the screen at boot time some employees would immediately send it out as a bad unit, whereas me and a few other employee's would cover all the grounds, video card, video cable, test power supply voltages, check for distended capacitors, check the current through the capacitors, make sure cpu, memory, etc was seated properly. Truth of the matter I worked with people who would send computers out for overheating problems, when they failed to notice that the fan was so full of dust it was barely spinning and there was 90%+ CPU utilization because of adware. For Best Buy they don't care who they hire as long as they can train the person to go through computer, and they can get through the computer fast so they have a quick turnover for the customer. Just my two cents from being on the other side of the counter. It is definately a Buyer beware situation though.
It's never to late to start the day over...
As with any service, Geek Squad is a per store basis. Sometimes you'll find a few Gems in their various locations, but often you're doomed to seeing something rather horrid, and abysmal. I once worked for the Geek Squad, a member of it for almost a year. I was the only one in my entire 'Squad' that knew a Sata Drive from an IDE drive. Their interview process focused on asking questions about ways to format a computer, I kid you not! There were five correct answers; your pay was based on knowing them all, initially speaking of course.
Many of the Precincts don't even bother attempting to save customer's data. They are just a number. I don't know if many of you know this, but Geek Squad takes their cash up front, before working on a machine. Unless you fork out the full payment before any service is rendered, they'll ask you to leave. If you are unsatisfied with the work? Labor is nonrefundable, understandable to an extent, but when you realize that Best Buy hardly pays each 'Geek' 10 dollars, most of the lesser 'Geeks' were raking in a whopping 7 dollars an hour, things become quiet shady. It takes around an hour to do a full Operating system install on a machine that's outside of a year or two old. So that's 20 dollars of labor right there, yet they charge...
- Nonrefundable $59 Diagnostic Fee. This is NOT applied to work done on machine. It's just, paying for them to run a Drive Fitness Test, and a Memory Scan.
- OS Reinstall $59.
- $29 a driver! Yup, they don't even install the drivers for you. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't lower myself to charge someone for drivers I could get in a whole five seconds off of a Vendors website. Many a customer received free services from me.
- $29 dollars for Windows Updates! Hey wait a second; doesn't Windows do that, automatically? Woops...
So great, you've just spent around $150 bucks, and that's hoping you didn't miss any drivers. The average machine is missing around two or drivers, easily. So at $200 dollars, you think you're finally in the clear. A working computer right?
- $110 Virus and Spyware Protection, a fine choice between Norton and Mcafee, Trend Micro if you're lucky, and Spysweeper. So for the slim cost of $310 dollars you've suddenly reached a rationalization.
"Damn, I wish I had made those recovery CDs."
On a side note, the Best Buy I worked at had a rather strange policy. No employee could have the same schedule every week. If you were in college or school, you were unable to plan study time, or recreational time. The main idea behind this insidious scheduling was, they didn't want anyone to be recognized or caught by a recurring customer. Best Buy doesn't want you to come see Tim, they want you to come see Best Buy.
Geeksquad is a joke, They promote how they are non commision based. What they fail to tell the public is that most stores require there sales associates and Geeksquad agents to keep whats called a "Sales Tracker". The Sales people and Geeksquad agents write down all the stuff they sell you, and turn it into management at the end of there shift. If they dont sell enough stuff , they arent given hours the next week , or are repremanded. Also Geeksquad Requires NO CERTIFICATIONS. You are basically entrusting your computer to someone who could have been flipping burgers at Mc Donalds the week before. Do you want to see what the Geeksquad Agents Use to fix your computer? . Its basically a bunch of FREE TOOLS that are easily aquired off the internet. Google "Geeksquad MRI BDE".....The tools are laughable at best. Most Agents are gonna recommend a System Restore on the unit ,instead of investing time to fix your machine ,Because most of these Agents are just Glorified Sales People ,They have to Ring out New PC Packages , Check Returned Units , Send Out Service Items , Sell Geeksquad Services ....and they just dont have the time to properly remove viruses ,So do yourself a Favor ,Take your computer somewhere that will fix it properly, Trust me, I work for Geeksquad, If i dont show a "Sales Tracker" each day to my manager ,My hours are cut for the next week, Only the people who get $200-$350 out of each PC repair taken in, get hours the following week, Now how is this better then CompUSA with commision?
Hiding at Magic Castle
First, I agree that many Geek Squad Agents aren't too bright. However, many are. Where do you think some of the future whatever-you-are's work in high school and college? Yeah, these types of jobs.
I'm lucky that I can say at my store I was surrounded by several other smart guys, and some not so smart guys. Now, occasionally a dumb guy would try to fix something, call it fixed, and mess things up. However, that was an exception rather than the norm. Often the dumb guys would leave stuff in the back with notes on them to have someone smarter look at it :)
You have to really understand the situation these guys are in. On the one hand they've got a stream of customers who (rightly) want their computers fixed. On the other hand they've got managers who don't know anything about fixing computers, and would rather have the Geek Squad guys sell more add-on products than fix things. The managers only care about the bottom line. And only in the short-term.
So often they either have to hurry though something because they're not being "productive" (e.g. not selling enough Norton to people), or don't have the tools / replacement parts to fix things that are broken.
The way replacing parts works is this: If the best buy store sells a comparable part, and the repair is covered under warranty or service plan, then the Geek Squad Agent can pull the part off the shelf, install it, and send the customer home. This only works in a very few cases, unfortunately. Anything else has to go to a vendor for repair. The Agent just diagnoses which part is bad, boxes it up, and sends it out. Again, this isn't because the Agent is incompetant, it's because he's not allowed to fix it.
Now, all software-related problems (drivers, spyware, etc.) are done in-store. They don't ship that stuff out to vendors.
Oh, a note about fixing stuff. It's a common joke to say all that they do is just reinstall windows. In my experience, that's just not the case. However, if you really think about it, often it really is the fastest way to do something. If you're on a tight budget for time, would you rather spend a few hours or days carefully researching and repairing some asinine spyware infestation that's so embedded that no spyware cleaners will remove it, or just spend a couple hours backing up, installing windows, and restoring personal data? It just makes good sense in some cases.
In summary: Geek Squad agents, the smart ones, at least, realize the situation they're in, and try to do the best job they can despite the obstacles thrown in their way by Best Buy and their managers. Before I'm flamed by some Geek Squad employees: I admit that my info is a bit dated. I'm sure some things are done differently now. This is my own experience.
Before I'm flamed by some Best Buy haters: I'm not saying Geek Squad is great, or it's the right thing for everybody. In fact, if you're reading /. and actually reading the comments, then Geek Squad is not a product aimed at you. Bitching about Geek Squad (and services like it) on Slashdot is like a Formula 1 pit crew lead telling an 85 year old lady to change her own oil because Jiffy Lube is a rip off. You entirely miss the point.
I recently had a fix a laptop for a friend that had initially taken it to Best Buy for the Geek Squad to fix. The problem was simply the center pin on the power connecter had broken off and fell into the laptop. After waiting two weeks she got the laptop back and was told it couldn't be fixed. When she told me that I told her no problem just give it to me I'll have it fixed tomorrow.
After opening the laptop I was not surprised to find they had never opened it. This was obvious since all the screws were still secured with their factor thread lock. Also the pin that broke loose was still inside the laptop! 5 minutes worth of soldering and a few screws being put back and the laptop was a good as new.
This is a repair that in my opinion ANY repair service should be able to repair. But since they seem to only hire mouth breathers Best Buy just took her money and when the Idiot Squad couldn't fix it they tried to sell her a new laptop.
I would never shop there based on past customer service (or lack there of) but now they lost of few more customers due to their money grab "repair service"
I killed 3 men and 2 cats to get this sig?
I almost got in a fist fight with a Best Buy employee who was wearing a Geek Squad shirt once, years ago. The guy was hard selling one of the HP Journadas on some old duffer who kept repeatedly asking to look at one of the Palm m500 series...the salesman tried to tell the old guy that all Palm had were "games" on it. Needless to say, I couldn't go back to that particular Best Buy store for awhile.
I work for a colelge Help Desk. One of the collges on my campus requires laptops. A friend of mine and a few people that have come to help desk come up there after bringing their laptop to geek squad for hardware work since they didn't buy the machine from my school For my friend some reason they replaced the hard drive even though that wasn't the problem. The problem was there logic board for a power issue. They damage it even more when they returned it to her by some how frying the battery and breaking the keyboard and touchpad. Luckly she had a 3 year warrenty that covered that When they reutned it to her finally fixed it only had SP1 installed on the machine and half the drivers weren't even installed on the machine. This was one of many machines that have come from geek squad that was partially fixed or not even fixed yet.
I have a buddy that use to work with me, but ended up getting a higher paying job with geek squad. He likes the job becuase it pays better and gets the big best buy discount. But some of the policies that I heard from him make no senese, they charge extra for anything you want fixed correctly.
We've gotten systems from people who had the Geek Squad "repair" their computer. It's never a pretty sight. I bet that you only need a GED to work for em anyway.
I work on the Geek Squad, and I'm gonna tell you like it is. 1. You don't need any certs to work on the Geek Squad (except for the higher positions such as supervisor or in-home tech) 2. Most "agents" are more than capable of doing (and do) all the things mentioned in the original post. We do OS Restores/Installs, We diagnose CORRECTLY, etc. Any thing that is misdagnosed, speak to the coders of GS's software. 3. We deal with REALLY, REALLY, REALLY stupid people all day long. Many of them barely know how to turn a computer on. So if we mess up, we're sorry. 4. Many "agents" are actually quite bright, contrary to opinions mentioned earlier. You can't base you're opinion of a group of people on your opinions about a few. Besides, opinions are just that: opinions. 5. Most Geek Squad employees are college students, trying to make a buck (close to what they pay us) and learn more about computers at the same time. 6. We are so bogged down by corporate BS that half of the time were not allowed to fix certain problems, even if we know how. 7. And finally, the software that we are allowed to use is CRAP. No, we don't use winternals anymore, we're not allowed to. But the GS "branded" software, is just terrible. I am speaking of the diagnostic software in particular. And as for the software we use to catalouge customer incidences, well, lets just say that I've seen better software written. In HTML. It might be more efficient to use a chisel and stone slab. But most of all...before you get insulted that we're giving "geeks" a bad name, remember that we work in retail, and we provide services geared to those with IQs of 90 and under. So anyone who associates "geeks" with crappy service is probably an ignorant technophobe. After all, being called a "geek" has never been a compliment out side of teh technologically inclined subculture. Cheers. If the spelling in this post is inccorect or the english doesn't flow, my apologies. I just spent 10hrs at best buy, and I'm not feeling overly intelligent right now.
(Random quote from some sci-fi movie or TV show)
I've met tons of people with A+ certs and most of them could not fix a computer. Sure, I have met some that could fix a computer but the majority of people I've met with A+ certs don't really know a whole lot. A+ is just a piece of paper, it doesn't prove anything. I met one lady that had an A+ and a Network+, and.... She couldn't fix a computer and couldn't apply any of her network knowledge. And yes I saw the Comptia certifications the lady had, so I know for a fact she had her certs.
Almost makes you wonder if it's ethical to slash the tires of a Geek Squad "Bug" (complete form over function there, and not at all reliable or priced competitively), as they're a bunch of rip-off con artists and software thieves. I don't know anyone in tech that doesn't see them as worthless scum.
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
Actually, if they don't "boisterously laugh" at the mention of A+ certification, you may call them "reputable" but I won't call them "competent."
My ex girlfriend managed to get A+ certified, and she couldn't even install a NIC.
I have a good friend that works for Geek Squad. Your hired based on what you actually know. GS dosent have any actuall training for comptuer repair. So this guy who supposedly work for this company needs to know that every GS employee is different and may not perfectly diagnose a problem with a computer.
I'm about to be on my way out of the Geek Squad, so I'll share some of my experiences with them. First of all, I do want to say that there actually some people there who know what they are talking about. With that being said, for every person who knows what they are doing, there are 10 people who have no business being within 25 feet of a computer keyboard. For example, here some questions I have been asked by other "agents":
- Why do jumpers matter on a HDD?
- What are drivers?
- What's the difference between a quick format and a full format? Aren't they the same thing?
- Huh, this graphics card has what looks like the power connector on a HDD/CD-ROM drive. What is that doing there?
And my personal favorite:
- (Pointing to a packaged ethernet cable) How long is a 25'[sic] ethernet cable?
Let me make it painfully clear (in case it isn't already) that there ARE ABSOLUTELY NO MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS TO WORK THERE! None. One guy we hired came directly from working part time at McDonalds. I wish I was making that up. What they are SIGNIFICANTLY more concerned with is how much you can sell, for reasons already discussed in many an anti-Best Buy post. They could care less if you actually fixed anything. With recent price hikes ($59 to install MICROSOFT OFFICE!!!!), hopefully it won't be too much longer until Geek Squad is nothing but a footnote in the annals of tech infamy.
If you really know the hardware, and I mean REALLY, you probably aren't working as a PC Technician and doing something more interesting or profitable. I can, with almost cero knowledge entitle myself "PC Technician" and get a LOT of work ... that doesn't mean that I can actually do it, and do it well. Is that simple.
i know i'll probably get flamed for this, but w/e.
i am a member of the geeksquad; I've worked there for a little less than a year, and from my experience, here's what we do.
Essentially, the in-store people do low level work. I'm constantly bored because I'm doing virus removal after virus removal from people who have messed up their computers and no longer know how to get on the internet. The job is redundant and menial and it gets old pretty quickly.
We actually do have a data backup that we try to convince people to do, but generally speaking, they opt out because, yes, our prices are too high. If i could change them, i would, so don't bitch at me.
The main brunt of work that we do though is basic setup (i.e. av install and antispyware install). it's menial dull and boring, and more than half of my time during the day is spent sitting watching little trackbars scrolling across a screen despite the fact that i have an 8 port KVM running full of machines.
From my experience, there are two types of "agents" who work in store as we're forced by SOP to call each other. there are the fairly smart ones, who know what's going on for the most part and can figure out just about anything wrong with a system. then there are the ones who are good with customers. they know nothing about computers, but often they think that they can fix problems. i don't trust them. most of the good agents that i work with also don't trust them, and as such they don't work on computers very often. in the stores which are understaffed, however, there is not this luxury. This is why the geeksquad has such a bad reputation among the ivory tower of computer intellectuals.
In-home and in-office technicians are a bit of a different case; they're at least required to have A+ cert for in-home working, and i'm fairly certain (but don't quote me on this) that the in-office are required to be MCSE. It may not be the same as having a masters or just being an all around badass, but they're at least generally qualified. Some people slide through the cracks in the system, though, and still give the organization a bad name.
I wish the geek squad would have more openings for people like me, though. I'm not certified, but i definately know my way around a system better than anyone I work with. I'm also the youngest at my store by far; I'm just now going to college next year. Basically the deal is that the people I work with are older and don't care as much about making an impression, which I believe is a fatal flaw. They don't want to ensure that management likes them as much because they have become disillusioned with the way the world works.
That's my 2 cents, sorry for the long comment.
As stated here. geek squad job advertisment
Do you have the skills?
DOS, Windows 9x/ME/2000/XP or Apple MacOS
Troubleshooting of Operating Systems and Internet connection issues
Knowledge of computer hardware diagnostic and troubleshooting
Software installations and upgrading
Can install / troubleshoot all computer-related devices (video, sound, modem, printer, scanner, camera, etcetera.)
Have the ability to research online and work through problems
Explain computer-related sales and service options to people shopping Best Buy and over the phone
Geek Squad Agents will work in a fast paced retail environment performing computer-related installations and technical support. Although sales will not be your primary function, let's just face it, when our customers spot a sharp technical mind dressed like an Agent, they can't help but ask a few technology questions. Geek Squad Agents should have the ability to interact with customers while showing respect, courtesy and professionalism. A+ Certification is a plus.
Agent opportunities: Agent must develop customers as they perform on-site repairs, setups and networking, both in homes and businesses, and will assist customers in Best Buy when not on-site. This very responsible person is provided a "Geekmobile" and a parts inventory. Excellent driving record required.
-William
God is everything science has yet to explain.
I have to say I currently work at the local Geek Squad to earn my way through school. It comes down t a few things. First and foremost it comes down to which location you go to and whom you talk to when you're there. I like to think we're one of the better shops in our area, as we get a lot of people who flat out refuse to go to the others due to poor services rendered. I have seen them leave out drivers when reloading OSs and completely botch things up, etc. and fixed them the CORRECT WAY. Second is the fact that we work for Best Buy. We can't fix a lot of the things we'd like to in house because they won't let us. Anything that's a hardware problem that isn't some card or drive or something you can buy off the shelf is sent out because we don't have the parts to fix it and have no way of getting them. Thirdly most of the people we get through who literally have no clue what they're doing. People get pissed at us when they buy their $2000 system and then call me and have no idea how to move files into separate folders. I literally walked a guy through dragging and dropping his pictures into a folder over the phone. If you can't do that why did you even buy the thing? Lastly is the fact that when we do send things to our service centers half the time they come back and have been worked on by complete idiots and have notes like "cleaned fan and tested bench ok" and can't do anything about it but send it back.
-=Curtis=-
I've been in many support organizations, and you'd be amazed at the level of incompetence that FLOWS into the call center, and the repair team. Some who can spell "PC" are given the job. As head of a support group that billed $120/hr I can say that there are a fair number of very talented and capable technicians. The problem is that the organizations don't value the knowledge of those employees and they're often frustrated to the point of quitting to find employment that appreciates their talent. I'm speaking for myself and several talented programmers/technicians that I know. You won't find good techs working at Best Buy, or Frys, or CompUSA......
I know a few who will gladly bill $120 - $175 / hour to fix your systems. How much is your data worth? It's certainly not worth $12.50/hr to me or anyone I know.
"Lame" - Galaxar
As a former tech at CompUSA I cant count the amount of times that people brought in a system that had "been fixed" by the Geeksquad only to work even worse than it did before. My favorite example is a gentleman who brought a computer to Best Buy to have spyware removed. Apparently not only did they wipe his drive, but the high school kid (his words) who worked on it didn't tell him of their policy regarding liability for lost data. So, they went ahead and formatted it. Thankfully he was one of the customers who knows the value of bitching until you get monetary compensation and they ended up giving him $50 more than he had paid for the service just to get him to leave the store. He brought it to us to have a brand new video card installed courtesy of Best Buy's generous hush money.
I hope you don't work at DEX (aka Data Exchange Corporation), because if you do, I have the same questions about you.
about the soi-disant distinction between nerds, geeks and dweebs.
Is that in Centigrade or Celcius?
I cried real tears when Li Mu Bai died.
Computer nerds think other computer nerds are clueless.
In tomorrow's news, 90% of people think they are better than average drivers.
Help me take back Slashdot. When did 'News for Nerds' become 'FUD and Conspiracy Theories for Extremist Nutjobs'?
Every comment here is posting about how shitty geeksquad is, and how they are complete morons. They get modded up. You do the same thing and mention that ipods are overpriced crap, and you get smacked with the big biased mod stick. Gotta love slashdot's horribly broken mod system.
Is the article actually suggesting that a company might be based more on clever marketing than delivery of good product?
In the *computer industry*???!!!!
In *tech support*??!!!!!
I agree with you completely. Although, I used to work for a company where a tie was mandatory. People would always buy me computer ties as gifts and I had about 100 of them. So, one day I am doing some service work at a company I had never visited when one of the owners strolled in. He gestured at me and I introduced myself. He then stated that he thought for the money paid he would have a more conservative, business-minded computer person building out his network and told me to never wear the tie I had on or even one like it in his building. So, I left. I told my boss about it and he told me I had to return and where a non-geeky computer tie (I think I had on a tie with a 3-D computer mouse). So, on the way over, I stopped at a thrift shop and bought a god-awful, really wide, nasty-colored tie. Needless to say, I always made sure I wore a crummy tie while at his office from then on out.
Click here or here.
First off I would like to say that I did work for Best Buy until I finally bought my soul back from satan. I am not sure who said it, but it was accurate to say that BB pays crap (unless you manuplate the system like I did...muhahaha), but so does most small tech companys. It seems that a lot of them think a trained monkey can be a good tech and Best Buy is no exception. I will tell you a secret, which is not a secret really...Best Buy is there to make money..period..thats it...if they could find a way to convince people that they have a problem with a yard gnome and that they could fix it, they would...and try to get you to sign up for internet because it would "make it work better". It is a bit unfair to group all techs who work or have worked for a company like Best Buy in the same catagory because some markets (like the one I was in) there are not a lot of choices. I would say at my store (this was several years ago before geek squad) there was a 50/50 split. They guys who had a clue and those who weasled into the job thinking it would be easy. You would not believe some of the people who get hired and who actually gets turned away...its retarded. In an envirnment like Best Buy it is not about your product knowledge or technical prowess...it is how good you are at selling stuff and how much colon licking you do (yes, even worst than brown nosing). Just for example..We had a tech who went on to work for a local hospital (though he had a lot of experience and BB was just for extra cash on a part time deal). And another who is a good friend of mine is now a tech at a local company who services a lot of business networks in his area. Now on the other side of the coin, we had a woman who was hired because she had an A+ cert. She had gone to a staffing place and studied and taken the test. My favorite quote her first week. "How do you install a modem?"
The Geek Squad, as far as I can tell, is an advertising gimick. Take a lot of pretty pictures of guys in thin black ties. Requisition a series of cars that look really cool but are probably bottom of the line cheap under all that paint. Pay a bunch of teenagers just above minimum wage to wear those ties and drive those cars, and throw a few technical manuals at them hoping that your "Geek Squad" catches on to that incomprehensible tech thing that, despite the marketer's inability to understand it, couldn't possibly be that complicated.
Or at least that they catch on before the customers catch on that the whole thing is a big gimick.
Wake up - the future is arriving faster than you think.
But I work at Staples. Yes, we do offer computer repair. I'm a high-school student, and to be fair, Best Buy won't even hire me. (You need to be 18, and I'm a year too young.) However, I've fixed computers for a long time, and I was fixing computers even before I worked at Staples. I do not know everything there is to know about computers, and nobody here does. However, everyone here does know at least a bit about computers. I'd say that about 50% of people who do paid tech work actually know anything about computers. Geek Squad is a waste, yes, but sometimes it's just best to bring it to a store where they fix computers and just let them fix it for you.
n/t
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
I do have to agree with what some of the other people have said on here that have previously worked for Geek Squad. It depends on the location. I'm sure there are stores with freaking morons working behind the counter just like there are stores that are staffed with people who know what the hell they are doing.
To respond to the original question posted, does it honestly surprise you that there are morons filling out those service orders sometimes? You have to understand our side of the picture too. The same service centers that you work for fsck up just as much as some of the stores you receive product from. Our service centers screw up at least five to six things a week at our store. Things get sent out for obvious problems (i.e. lcd backlights not working) and get sent back "no fault found", however when we turn the LCD on when it comes back from shipping...it is still hosed. Half the time I'm standing there thinking...did you guys really even freaking look at this thing?
As for the pricing, hell yes it is way overpriced. I think everyone that works at Geek Squad would agree also. Our pricing scale went up last week and some of the prices we charge for some services now is f'ing crazy. There are very very few services that we provide that are priced at what I would see as fair if I was someone running my own business. Unfortunately for some customers, places like the Geek Squad are the only pc repair places worth trusting. Some are more willing to pay the extra money than to take their pc to Mr. Shady McShaderton down the block, or the emo kid with painted fingernails who lives next door.
And if you want an honest answer to the original answer posted, the people working at Geek Squad aren't always the best and brightest because of liability reasons. There are times when we are not even allowed to change RAM in a computer...yes RAM...due to liability reasons. Someone, at some point in time, brought had a computer fried and sued Best Buy or Geek Squad over the issue and now we're not allowed to do it. A lot of the Geek Squad agents aren't given normal "geek" knowledge by the company just because they don't need it to do their job. If you start taking all the interesting and challenging problems out of the stores and putting it into the hands of the service centers, you're obviously not going to train the people in the stores on how to fix it. It would be a waste of time and money. There are times when I can't even use a program, even though I know it works better than something I'm currently using, for the simple fact that the said company could file a lawsuit on our store.
I dunno, I don't agree with the pricing and I for damned sure know there are idiots out there. But every company like us has their idiots...not just Geek Squad. And maybe I'm just lucky to be surrounded by a ton of people who happen to know alot about pc repair...but remember not every store is full idiots, some actually have the knowledge to help take care of you.
Also for those that have said it earlier in the posts, Geek Squad is NOT part of Best Buy. We are not Best Buy's Geek Squad...we merely have a partnership with Best Buy. Think about the coffee shops and fast food places inside stores like Target and Walmart.
I once declined to charge a customer my diagnosis fee after a geek of said squad had attepted to replace a broken Socket A retainer clip with three tubes of Arctic Silver. After my shop was closed, his manager did not hire me because I was overqualified. Somewhere around here, I have the pictures of the mounds of compound on the poor little Socket A chip.
FairTax baby!
These guys can't figure that out. I had a friend take a system to them and misdiagnose as a bad hard drive. It had an obvious damaged windows installation. Geek Squad? Bah....How dare they even use the word.
They could not figure out that it could be reformated.
Fight Spammers!
Its the people who bust out laughing at your idiotic question that you want. Anyone who has an A+ cert is clearly a moron, and trying to make up for that by getting the only cert more meaningless than an MCP. Those who realize how meaningless an A+ cert are likely to have more than 2 brain cells, so you want them. And they are the ones that will find your ignorance so funny.
Why do you think that Dilbert's tie turns up at the end?
Fight Spammers!
... most technical support folks don't know a lot the technical stuff. It is no surprise that GeekSquad is the same. They just follow instructions (like scripts), run tools that they learned from trainings (e.g., use a CD to run an antivirus to scan and clean; not run registry editors to find out keys to remove, analyze, etc.), etc.
If people really want serious fixing with good jobs, then they need to look for the correct people. I have seen and met teenagers who know decently on computers even at a fair cost.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Typically, I go and do the research and go looking for brick and mortars like Fry's to buy the stuff.
Yes. Fry's. And, if it's not Fry's, it's out of a local wholesaler- I've got a DBA and all anyhow.
Why? Because the places I buy from have a return policy that while it's obnoxious at times to use,
it's still there.
With the online stuff, you may/may not get a return policy, and it's even MORE obnoxious to use it
(when it's available) if something doesn't work QUITE as intended, they changed the damn chipsets
on you and it doesn't work with Linux like the earlier models did (WiFi cards are a GOOD example
of THAT one...), etc.
I don't do the asking of anyone except another geek like myself- they wouldn't know and largely
don't give a damn anyhow. Now, I question his geekiness, for other reasons- I mean, Best Buy,
really... They honestly haven't had a decent price in that place for computer gear in years
and I've seen what they think of their customers.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
"Well, my car is easy to use, but I wouldn't want to fix it myself. I'll leave car repair to the car geeks, and most people should leave computer repair to the computer geeks."
So one should leave sex to the professionals then?
get fired.
I was a highly qualified technician working for geek squad. they hired someone who didn`t know what safe mode was to replace me. apparently, fixing computers qickly, efficiently, and correctly THE FIRST TIME, being honest to repeat customers, and being an actual GEEK is no longer a requirement.
now that the bonus-driven best buy retail managers are running the place, all anyone cares about is selling overpriced in-home service (even if the customer returns it a day later).
another great idea killed by best buy.
I work at a Best Buy precinct in Geek Squad. I am not an Agent though, I am a Counter Ops. I do, however, deal with a lot of units that come in from our repair center, so I guess I might have a pretty good idea of what we send down and what happens to it.
As far as competency, it all depends on where you're getting it from, it seems to me. Depending on who works at the store, the Agents could be amazingly good at fixing computers or, well, not so experienced. My own store is in many ways a good store(and improving because of some new management we have gotten), but I have heard some rather nasty reports about other stores. So it does unfortunately vary.
I don't know what company you work for, as at the moment I can't recall any repair center we send computers to that is not Best Buy only. But that's a moot point.
As for the scope of our work, as far as I know we are supposed to fully diagnose every computer we think we can fix with certain software. This software is being improved but is NOT always accurate and actually has many issues and false positives with certain brands of notebooks.
Now, we do not do many hardware repairs for notebooks. My own precinct typically only works with a notebook's RAM and harddrive. Thus, if we suspect that the problem doesn't have anything to do with those things and that it is hardware related, we typically send the unit straight to a repair center to save the customer type(our own repair center takes about 2-4 weeks to repair units).
As for CPUs, we can do everything except motherboard replacements. I don't see many CPUs we send down having anything else done to them, although it does happen rarely(most likely due to a problematic diag).
As far as having to repair software, we are definitely supposed to do that. You guys having to do it instead may actually be a result of pressure from a customer. Because of certain policies we have reguarding our Performance Service Plan, an Agent may agree to send down a unit without diag even if he suspects a software issue because of insistence from the customer. This may or may not be a good thing, but not all our Agents are experts in customer service as well as computer repair; in addition, in most cases we must honor what the customers wishes us to, even if we don't think it's a good idea.
Of course there are also clerical mistakes, communication problems and inexperience on part of individual Agents that contributes to this kind of thing.
That should explain all the computers you get that probably could have been repaired in store. Hopefully I covered everything. But, try to remember next time you get a computer that only needed a restore or was misdiagnosed, that it goes both ways. Many times we have to send computers back to the repair center right after a repair was performed there, sometimes multiple times. I have sent a computer down specifically noting that a restore would not work(because current internal hardware did not match the original) and got them back with the technician writing that I should do a restore. Many times it feels as if they don't even read our notes at all, and although we may misdiagnose some machines, we have had more interaction with the owner of the product and thus possibly more information. And, well, having to tell a customer that we have to send their computer back down for another 2 to 4 weeks is no walk in the park.
Hope I answered your question, although I'm sure many other people have already!
PS: Because of branding, some of the terms I used might be confusing. Just to make sure things are clear, when I say Agents I mean technicians, when I say Counter Ops I mean.. administrative assistants(secretaries?), and when I say precinct I mean the Geek Squad part of any Best Buy store.
But there aren't many industries that are completely disintermediated, with absolutely no middlemen between the ultimate producer and the ultimate consumer. True, when too many layers exist, or when a particular layer takes too much of the value chain, opportunities arise for newer, more efficient business models (disintermediation or other forms of reorganization).
Yes, theoretically, you could market directly to Geek Squad's customers. Got ad budget? There's a big value in successful brand strategy, and Geek Squad's got it right now in this niche. For every genius who knows the guy who only charges $75, there are a dozen "idiots" who know guys who charge $300 for the same "service" and don't know any better. It's not a commodity business, by any means, so it's not surprising that prices (and quality) vary more for this than for 5-pound bags of refined sugar.
Whether or not it's good or bad at repair, Geek Squad is successful because it
- lowers consumer search costs
- provides a (perceived) uniformity of quality, much like McDonald's
- at (perceived) reasonable/low prices
Almost nobody thinks McDonald's burgers are the best in the world, or anything close. Likewise, most of us know a "better" place even for cheap, fast food. But most of us eat at McDonald's at least on occasion for one of the above reasons.You want a two-year warranty or fries with that new hard drive?
Is that why you dumped her?
emt 377 emt 4
The really interesting thing i've seen here is that so many people refer to geek squad subcontracting out the work. that doesn't happen everywhere (some cities with best buys have no options for subcontracting pc work because the only other pc repair business in town is geek squad's direct competition). the result seems to be that geek squad allways finds the lowest common denominator for level of service. and yes, all their success hinges on the marketing campaign (did you know that symantec and linksys tech support phone lines directly link you to the 800 number for geek squad as an option for support?)
I currently work as a Geek Squad agent part-time and I agree with you that there are bright people at Geek Squad.
I don't know about other stores, but a whole lot more than 'reinstall windows' goes on at the tech-bench, like the parent suggests. We have some pretty neat utilities (fully licensed or freeware from all that I've seen, by the way) that do take some of the tediousness out of cleaning a windows box, but i've never seen a reinstallation of windows done unless the hard-drive itself was completely toast. If a problem and solution does not present itself through any of our utilities, we do research the issue and try to manually care for it. As for hardware issues, we have a series of diagnostics we run to confirm issues, and we go from there. I don't see how a Geek Squad agent would determine a faulty hard-drive if the ram was bad instead, unless this was a case of grand error or incompetence. The issues with misdiagnosing POST and boot problems was probably made in a rush.
There are some sticky issues with laptop hardware where we are required to send back to vendor, but real work is done on the machines that we can work on, usually collectively by multiple 'agents' over a span of days.
I don't understand all the rampant hostility towards Geek Squad. The services they provide are not geared towards the power users, but to the average person who is not used to maintaining and repairing their computer. Geek Squad simply fills a niche. Most of the attacks here against the store and its employees seem rather off base and simply ignorant.
She probably wasn't very good at handling a hard disk either...
...having been doing computer repair for an outsourced IT company for the past several years, they don't do anything good.. I have had many clients tell me that they had originally had Geek Squad try to fix their system and were unsuccessfull. Some having spent several hours trying to fix it. I go in, fix the problem in much less time, or with much greater ease, and the client is just dumbfounded. They can't believe it. I still can't believe it. If you are a major national chain offering these services, wouldn't you want to provide the best possible service? It seems to me like these companies are just playing the numbers.
Technology is invading more and more of the average persons life, even families considered in the "poverty" level of income have computers, cell phones, and more. The population of the US is breaking 300 million, even if only 10% (30m) of them utilize their services just once, at say a cost of $100/hour for just one hour, that's $3 billion of revenue. They can make their money and get out when the going gets tough.
Being national does give them this advantage. Pay the techs a low salary because they don't need to hire the more experienced people who demand higher salaries, and it just means more profit. And to make it worse, even if those people who used their services and won't ever use their services again, most will still continue to buy their technoloy needs from these places because it is easy, convenient, and economical.
As a small, local IT company, the company I work for would be bankrupt in a short time having earned a bad reputation for doing such a bad job... The small guys HAVE to be better in order to survive, but the big guys can do what they want because there is always someone else, far away they can swindle..
-- FireStorm --
There was a time, pre-Best Buy, when Geek Squad was an awesome service. You paid a premium for service that came to you, but no more than you would pay a plumber, for example. There were about 40 guys in the whole company, all of them really cool, good people who really cared about their customers and their work and really, really knew their stuff. There were a couple of cats who knew everything who were always on call if you ran into a problem, and we all had each other's backs if we got into an area -- say, some weird server problem -- that we were unfamiliar with. Generally, we would be, and it was policy to be, completely and totally honest with our customers. That was rule #1. (Well, no, fix their problem so their machine worked as well as or better than it ever did before, was rule #1.) If I didn't know something and needed to dial up an associate who did, I explained it to my customer. No hidden fees, clear explanation of all prices. Personally, I always assessed what the customer's interest level was in the work being done. You get all kinds of customers; some want to understand what you're doing and learn, and at the other end of the spectrum there are people of the "just make it work again!" variety. I would always try to accomodate my customers, train them a little, and give them the tools to better deal with their computers. If a customer ever had a complaint or a problem, unless they were totally psycho and out of line, which actually never happened, I made absolutely certain their concerns addressed and literally never left a customer with a beef. I know this sounds like total bullsh!t but it is true and 90% of the cats in GS when it was still a cool little company based in Minneapolis were the same way. Naturally there were some schmucks too but in the main they were dealt with harshly because our boss and founder took no crap in this dept. Satisfying the customer and preserving our good name was our number one job at all times. Most of us I think took pride in being this small group of guys who knew their sh!t and could rely on each other and really took it to heart, wanted to make each other look great. Above all, I can say honestly that every single guy I knew in the Geek Squad pre-Best Buy was a decent, hard-working, conscientous guy. Then the Best Buy thing came along. For a while we had a "test station" in a Best Buy and it seemed we might do something permanent with them, and then the bomb dropped: the company was sold to Best Buy. Now, I am sure there are today many fine people wearing the Geek Squad uniform and working for Best Buy. But things were never the same after that. Too many things started to go a little wrong; personally the Best Buy people seemed to recognize the gimmick of the brand but unsurprisingly did not have a clue that the brand truly stood for something -- that the stand-up guy, Dragnet image was something that we all actually took seriously, and our customers did too, that the outfit and cars were only part of the brand -- that when the customers actually got us in their home, they realized it was kind of for real. That realization was a huge thing for the brand and most of the reason the company grew and grew for years with almost no advertising. It was all word of mouth, and that was by design. Anyway, fast forward a few years. I no longer work for the GS but I fondly remember the friends I made there and the many many very happy customers I had. But now it seems like litle more than some big conglomerate's gimmick. I hope the reactions and cmments here from other techs do not reflect what the GS is like today. That is a very sad thing. Surprise, big corporation buys really cool small company and completely ruins it. That never happens, does it?
Many companies that hire computer technicians merely require an A+ Certification in order for an applicant to be considered competent and eligible for the job. The problems with that is A+ Certification by itself isn't enough because
1) It doesn't take much to pass. The A+ test consists of two sections (Core hardware and OS technologies), and you really only need a score of 500 to pass for each section to become A+ Certified (which really amounts to getting roughly 50-60 percent of the whole exam correct, a pitiful score). Whether or not you score the bare minimum or got above an 800 on each section, companies only see your certificate, so really you don't know whether the A+ monkey you've hired actually knows much. Hell, I even got A+ certified when I was 15 (I'm 17 now) and managed to get a job as a salesman at Micro Center, and I didn't even get any hands-on practice (bought a 60-dollar Sybex book and crammed). The concepts are way too basic, and the objectives are messed up. A+ requires you to have knowledge of rarely-implemented concepts such as old motherbboard sockets and the features of really old CPU's (I'm talking 386 here). What the test should concentrate more on is detail on newer material instead of trying to create a catch-all for everything that has happened in IT in the past 20 years.
2) The test is only updated about every 3 years. Since newer computer hardware comes out about every 2 months, people usually have to resort to extra homework-research in order to catch up. Stores like Frys and Best Buy don't really give much training to new material. Only this year did COMPTIA update the certification objectives to cover new topics such as dual-core processors, which were released 2 years ago.
3) The test has no hands-on material whatsoever. I didn't even know how to use brass standoffs in order to mount a motherboard into a case when I passed this test. When I really got into computers and started doing hands-on stuff by myself (i.e repairing PC's for friends and building PC's), I realized how much I missed out even with the certification. Many certifications today (especially the ones by COMPTIA such as Network+, Linux+, and Security+) don't have much, if any, hands-on objectives during testing. I don't care if you have memorized how many transistors each processor that has been developed in the past two decades have, but if you don't know how to correctly mount a motherboard/ground yourself/RAID multiple hard drives by hand, then you don't know jack shit.
Even with other certifications that broaden their knowledge like Network+ and maybe CCNA, the most important thing is hands-on experience, something that takes a lot more background than cramming a couple of books.
My roommate just bought her first computer, and where she chose to buy it was Best Buy. Unfortunately for her, she had no idea she was being ripped off by being charged $126.00 for Geek Squad to "set up" her $750.00 computer. All they did was install SpySweeper and some generic anti-virus program. The next day we had to trade in the cable modem they sold her... she needed a wiireless router. I went with her and the salesman told her that she HAD to have Geek Squad come set up the router for $150.00. When I said that I could do it, I was asked whether I had done it before because "it takes an hour and a half and is about as complicated as taking apart a car engine." Preying on people who know nothing about computers (or whatever product they're buying) is nothing new, but I was shocked how far Best Buy took it.
They wear cute outfits and drive a giant advertising sign, while making soccer mom's feel all warm and fuzzy.
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius
It's the other way around. Mormons dress like the Geek Squad. Before the Geek Squad, Mormons used to dress like Rastafarians. (The still wore the ceremonial secret funny underwear, though.)
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
The way I see it, they have too much overhead and not enough competence in a lot of cases I've heard. Why pay for gas and a tech to spend time coming out to re-install the OS when you can do it over the phone with someone that can walk you through the correct steps. I've previously worked for a local ISP that is all about service and hand holding if need be. They hired quality techs. As far as I know, when geeksquad was smaller and more local, they rocked. I think quality went down considerably once BB bought them. What is interesting is that you can skip the companys with large overhead nowdays and call places like 888geekhelp and get geeks to tech your stuff over the phone. Granted, it won't work for everyone- but they are filling a need that is out there because people can't get good support and don't know who to call. I wonder how long before GS will have to provide an actual value other than giving naked factory OS recoveries as solutions. Hmmmm....I wonder if they even do OS updates after that. ...before I get flamed...I'm just going off of what I've heard from clients and friends....when in doubt- re-install.
Didnt help that she kept calling it a floppy.
emt 377 emt 4
"Bitching about Geek Squad (and services like it) on Slashdot is like a Formula 1 pit crew lead telling an 85 year old lady to change her own oil because Jiffy Lube is a rip off. You entirely miss the point."
I used to work a similar job but rarely did we actually bring in the systems themselves. Our tech support was antivirus-only in theory but we wound up occassionally working to repair Windows or diagnose hardware problems. Similarly to the Geek Squad, the talent pool ran from the very shallow end to the very deep end (some people even off the deep end in every sense of the phrase). Also similarly to the Geek Squad, your level of service was dependent upon internal policies and "lowest-common-denominator" technical capacities rather than advanced training or thorough testing.
Of course, being my family's only geek, I'm often called upon to diagnose and repair problems over the phone and it makes me glad that I didn't take the job with the Geek Squad because nobody's breathing down my neck chanting "upsell, upsell, upsell..." Apple's advertising campaigns are getting more effective though because I'm hearing, "well, if this happens again, I should just get a Mac, shouldn't I?" with increasing frequency. I imagine the only reason the Geek Squad doesn't answer "yes" to that is because Best Buy doesn't sell Macs...
http://forums.techguy.org/reviews/396958-geek-squa d-incompetent-40.html#post3736186
There are also hundreds of replies to this "Geek Squad Incompetent?" thread.
You aren't the only one who has noticed this pervasive problem.
the geeg squad is crap. my friend used to work for them and during his time there they went from actually making an attempt to diagnose problems and fix them properly to (get this) reformatting and reinstalling windows to solve just about everything. oh and if you wanted to keep your data, they charged you $90 for the backup before formatting.
he does not regret leaving there.
I've never really picked up on some of the US slang - it wasn't that long ago that I found out that gimp isn't just a graphics program and that a pastie is not just a tasty folded pie.
I haven't been a Geek Squad agent for very long (approx. four months) but I may be able to shed some light on the situation.
As a previous member posted, and as a general principle of life, in any group of individuals you will inevitably encounter the lazy, incompetent or otherwise inept, and Geek Squad is no exception. Many GS agents are attracted to the job because of the generous discount at Best Buy, and/or have little or no passion for computers and information technology. Many agents are lazy and would simply rather ship the unit off to service and have you guys deal with it.
But just as the same previous member posted, most--if not the majority--of GS agents are very passionate about IT, are very knowledgeable about computer diagnosis and repair, and deal with problems as per SOP and don't pass off petty issues to service. You also have to consider that when we're dealing face-to-face with oftentimes clueless customers, time is a huge factor. When a customer is sitting there at the counter in front of a long line of other customers asking me why sound isn't coming out of his laptop's speakers, I'll probably check the device manager, volume control, and run a few audio apps to generate sound. If I play with it for 5 or 10 minutes (10 minutes is an eternity when there is a huge line) and still can't figure it out, then I'll probably send it to service. You guys get the laptop at the service center and it turns out there was a hardware volume control I didn't notice that was turned all the way down. You turn it up, it works, you call me a moron, the cycle continues.
It may also amuse you to know, Zenitram, that many Geek Squad Agents are quick to blame the service center for similar incompetence. I'm always sending back units to service because the original problem was not solved properly, or the service tech did not read/understand my notes. It's also very frustrating for the customer, and thus myself, when a unit goes out for an issue utterly unrelated to the hard drive (such as no audio) and it comes back with a formatted HDD with a nice little note saying basically "your audio works but oh, by the way, you lost all your shit. sorry. reinstall windows with your OEM discs. thanks for using best buy service!" It goes both ways.
-austinI'm a Dork, you insensitive clod!!
(Also, I'm amazed you got through college without knowing how to spell "classic" or "propaganda"! =))
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Better to have a Guru Crew where The Bearded One would nochalantly strut near the recalcitrant hardware, lay a hand above it and suddenly, All Is Right within the world.
Of course, for the privilege of the visit, several hundred green ones would flow from one bank account to another.
No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
I supervise a fry's services department; in the last 3 months alone the department has had a 70% turnover rate (started with 10 techs, lost 5, gained 7). Out of the 4 techs that left, 1 quit out of spit, and 2 transferred, and the last hasn't shown up in weeks. One guy just gave his 2 weeks; he's quitting because he's done dealing with customers who are lied to by salesman.
I was promoted from a tech because I was in the right spot, with competancy, at the right time.
Our department isn't horridly staffed with idiots, but we do, on occasion, send out units we could probably diagnose and fix in-house for convenience. We ship them out because either they're under service contract or warranty and we can't touch em' because of some corporate idiocy, or they're a laptop or apple that we can't fix because it's under service contract and we haven't the equipment or expertise to fix it. I'v done things like completly disassembled laptops, had my department manager solder the dc input jack back on, and reassemble it for customers before, all while they wait. We COULD order parts for a sony laptop under service contract and fix it, but for some reason, we're to send it out...
In any case, why do you get such junk being sent to you?
1: Because the guy running the shop can't pick out decent new hires who know what they're doing.
2: Because the guy running the shop doesn't have the money and benefits to offer a competant technician a compeditive wage.
3: Because the guy running the shop has his hands tied by someone higher up on the food chain who knows nothing about computers or happens to have a good reason for making the policy.
4: Because the guy running the shop thinks any idiot that can state stupidity with confidence is infact, competant.
Where I work, none of these are the issue. The issue is turnaround.
Right now in my department, I'v been deputised to teach all the new hires and deal with the shit from customers while the other supervisors scramble to pull their heads out of their asses and take care of out-of-department issues; out of the entire store in the past 3 months, my department manager is the only one to have stuck around, so I run the department. Sometimes it's unberable; sometimes it isn't. I don't exactly have pride in my work; I have "thank god I can crawl into my bed and sleep tonight!". I have lost weight in the last few month; I can now proudly pull a 1 inch long pinch of skin off of one of my flabby arms.
For the most part, the team of supervisors I work with know what they're doing but I make the new hires jobs bearable by making sure they know when I'm around that they are both appreciated and cared about and because of this, they care about me; when I'm near nervous breakdown state, they pick up on it and try to figure something out themselves. It isn't uncommon for me to buy a round of pop after hours as a way of saying good job, and to joke about using customers laptops as frizbee's, or spraying a sheet of paper solid and watching it defrost or even opening a case up, farting inside and closing it up as a way of thanking a difficult customer for their business.
One of the guys asked me me the other day what to do with a laptop that is to be shipped out and had all the paperwork with it but was on a desk (which, apparently, had some significance I didn't understand, but anyway. he's responsable for wrapping everything in 20 layers of bubblewrap and making sure it gets signed and sent out.)
"What should I do with this then?"
"Frizbee"
"I'm actually going to use it as a frizbee the next time you say frizbee, ok?. What should I do with it?"
"Disk vault"
He had a good laugh, then I told him wrap it up and ship it. Some people say I'm being an asshole; in reality, I'm encouraging him to use his head and think about what's going on.
One new hire came upto me, said a customer wanted to talk to a supervisor (I'm the only supervisor in the department, obviously, and this is goi
To correctly diagnose a computer problem, no matter how insignificant takes is not just knowledge but a keen insightfulness to the complexities of the object in question. I suggest that just because you work for a third party repair location and Best Buy sends you misdiagnosed repairs that they do not provide a service. Should we not talk about the repairs that come from such repair locations the you work for that have come back the masking tape I put on them that indicate the I tested it and determined it was bad. It is a moot point to nitpick about specific instances of mistakes, the discussion is the quality of workers each company attracts, hires, and the tools each is provided to do their jobs. The Geek Squad demands us to be an expert at every product that Best Buy sells, from washers and dryers to ipods, because every return or repair goes through us. Not every employee Best Buy hires is going to be competent at performing that task, the pay doesn't encourage competition and nor does it provide security. This creates a high turn over rate; I can count eleven employees in ten months that tried their hand at the Geek Squad. The budget that corporate sets only allows for five positions out of twenty that pay well, the rest get the shaft. To answer what if anything we do it tends to be like any job, a great deal has to do with management and how much pride you have in your job no matter how meaningful. I don't lose any sleep charging the prices we do, why did I spend all that time on forums looking for a shred of insight, usually I figure it out myself. We are hindered in the fact that there are a select few software titles at our disposal and repairs that we can attempt. I read about how we only do wipe\restores, that is Microsoft's solution to file corruption, I wished 'sfc' really worked. It is the vender that forces ugly installations upon the consumer, and we fix that. Can you tell me if a SMART failure is the end of a hard drive, or can you rely on sector repair? My point is it takes time and patients to learn it all, and nobody's perfect.
But - for the space of a week - I did work for the Circuit City IQ Crew or whatever they're called now (new name is imminent I believe). I can't fathom how you're supposed to work on someone's computer while trying to upsell and getting pulled off your work onto the floor every minute to demonstrate a product, coming back and seeing some moron started playing with your mouse while you were gone. Charging $250 to "set up" someone's new PC, install Norton suite and Webroot, all while getting paid a measly $12 an hour? No fucking way. I'd rather charge $100, install AVG or Avast and Firefox and OpenOffice and Spybot, neuter the startup and tray with MSconfig, toast the bloatware, run updates, spending an hour and a half at most, and pocket the money myself. I just switched over to warehouse instead and did the shit in my spare time for extra cash by advertising locally. Paid better, I did a better job, and had the satisfaction that the customers aren't getting ripped a new one.
Bestbuy hires like any hack off the street for geeksquad. I've asked them questions in the past about mundane PC stuff and they'd blurt off random incorrect stuff. What gives?
I KNOW there is at least one very very good windows tech in a local Geek Squad;
his/her day job pays more but not enough for a growing family. Although she/he works in
a techie-town she/he lives in the high unemployment boonies hence "Geek Squad" on
weekends/nights.
It beat pushing a broom all to heck although aspects of BestBuy can be rather
frustrating.
Well I wanted to work as a Geek Squad member, and I actualy know how to work on computers, I bet some of the people working there do to, they just have really bad policies. Also, as a customer, I don't want to be paying one company to fix my computer when it just goes and pays another company a little less to fix it and profits; I'd rather just find the second company in the first place.
Actually, before Best Buy sunk its venomous teeth into it, Geek Squad really was. It was started in Minneapolis almost 15 years ago by a guy (Robert Stephens) on a bike. The cars, the image, the attitude of the company was all Robert's ideas. They were doing flat-rate pricing before practically everyone and they had Agents whose technical skills would eat the lunches of everyone on Slashdot. The main Minneapolis newspaper retired the "Best Computer Support" category from their annual "Best Of" issue because Geek Squad destroyed the competition every single year. They were supporting the Rolling Stones, Ice Cube, and scores of Hollywood stars because of the phenomenal service they provided and the general counter-cultural "cool" they oozed (this was before Geeks were vogue). They really were a fine lesson in branding and customer service back then.
I had the great fortune of being one of the first Agents hired after Best Buy purchased the company. My badge number gets awed looks from other Agents as the latest hires are in the 3600s and mine is in the mid 100s. We only had about 70 Agents nationwide at that point (Agent badge numbers are never reused) and the 800-number was still staffed by technically compentent people who actually knew computer repair. I had to go through a difficult technical interview and three personal interviews before I got the job. So did everyone else at that time. No one knew who we were and we had to work fucking hard to prove ourselves to the customers. I worked with brilliant and dedicated people and only answered to the higher-ups in Geek Squad.
Fast forward 4 years to the present. Best Buy had done what every soulless corporation does with a great idea. They commodomized the shit out of it, dilluted the quality with shoddy hiring practices, and drove away the best talent by only looking at the bottom line.
They gave all the jag-offs in the store the Geek Squad uniform and made the old Tech Benches into Geek Squad precincts, even though they were staffed with the same underpaid, uneducated, and lazy "techs" that gave Best Buy such a horrible reputation for computer repair. Us old-schoolers screamed bloody murder we they made this decision 2 years ago because we knew what would happen - our great reputation would be pulled into the mud by these knuckle-draggers. Guess what? IT WAS.
I can fix just about anything, set-up any consumer electronic device to work with any computer, and expertly train anyone on about two dozen diffent software titles. Instead of doing that, I spend most of my time fixing other Agent's fuck-ups and soothing angry customers for "Customer Loyalty". Why? Because I can fix shit properly and I'm good with people. Nowadays, Best Buy store managers hire the on-site Agents and generally look for people who will do their bidding, rather than those who know computers or have demonstrable customer service skills. Most of these new guys won't spend the time to improve their skills or learn new technologies. They either restore or have me do the "hard jobs". And God forbid they should download demo software to learn so they can provide trainings.
Best Buy management has had the worst affect on Agent morale and employee retention. They focus only on scorecards, holding Agents responsible for missed budgets even though the in-store sales team is expected to generate 70% of the revenue, rewarding Agents who unnecessarily rape their customers with preposterous upselling, and generally ignore technically skilled Agents or those who provide outstanding customer service. At the corporate level, overhiring has led to hour slashing that has wiped out my last three pay raises. I'
We want some answers and all that we get
Some kind of shit about a terrorist threat
- Ministry
1) A customer brought an IBM tower to Best Buy to have viruses/spyware removed. The customer was charged $200, had all of his personal data erased, and the system was still infected. He brought it to us (we're a resonably large, long-standing independent shop), I took pity on him, and then fixed it for free (it was a slow day, and his parents bought me a coffee from next door afterwards :) ).
2) A customer brought in a Compaq desktop that had been repaired at Future Shop (Canadian equivalent of Best Buy, actually burchased by Best Buy a few years ago), complaining that it still wasn't working right. We opened-up the case to find a stack of rubber bands and a very large screwdriver lying across the motherboard (this was a flat desktop system)... Yeah, good times.
A long long time ago in a Galaxy far far away... I worked for a retail chain that had an 'upgrades and repair counter' long before Best Buy had "geek squad". 486 66s / 30 Pinn Memory / 850mb hard drives / 2x CD Burners OH MY! While everyone who worked at the coutner was capable of handling many hardware issues the problem occured at the management level. What problems don't? We weren't allowed to work on anything that would take more than 20/30 minutes or anything that would require in-depth troubleshooting or many parts. Geek Squad, I am sure is a marketing gimmick put on Best Buy. Fast answers and solutions to make the brand look beter with maximum efficiency. Their true function is not to fix computers so that customers trust Best Buy and come back. Geek Squad probably and unfortunately not known by the geeks that work there is a high level marketing concept to push and promote extended warranty programs. The Idea: "OMG If Geek Squad can't fix it and has to send it in then it must be serious and its going to cost XXXX, Judas I should have bought the extended warranty or atleast if I have to buy a new computer I will buy the warranty then..." I am sure that the computers that the original poster is recieving are not computers that have an extended warranty program purchased with the system. I am also sure that Geek Squad gladly fixes 'serious' problems when the machine does have the warranty, what do geek squadders get paid? Lastly, the Best Buy stores in rural Iowa probably have a better Geek Squad track record that the stores located in busy/crazy environments like LA or NY. My $0.02
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Like most of us here, I am the computer repairman of my family. When I was asked to go help my step-mom with connection issues I attempted first to VNC into the computer. Nothing. Next I tried connecting to the router. Nothing. So I finally figure I have to drive over 40 minutes to do on-site repair. What do I see when I get there... A new computer. Apparently Geek Squad charged her $159 dollars to hook up the new computer. To any decent technician this would require plugging the computer into the router.... AND THAT'S IT! They told her that they needed to set up the router and make sure it was secure... Wait, the router I had a password on? So I try connecting to the router. My password doesn't work.. Guess what did? Yup! admin/admin. VERY secure indeed. Odd, the menu doesn't look the same... Wait a minute, the firmware is ancient!!! Security exploits wazoo! Where's the WPA2 I had set up? This firmware doesn't have it. Replaced with WEP... 64 bit WEP! Yeah, they really "secured" it. Now to find out the connection issues... What's this? 10 entries in the DHCP table? They only own 2 desktops now and 1 laptop. Yup, heavy traffic issues.
I gave Geek Squad a call and they had no clue what was going on. They didn't even know if it was their work or something they contracted out. Yup, the Geek Squad is the equivalent of the Matag Repairman for computers.
One good thing to come of this is that through word of mouth through my step-mom, I'm getting a lot more work. The bad news is she is more likely to ask for help now, and I'm expected to work for free. =/
You'd be surprised where else you won't find good techs.
E.g., for the last 4 years I've been sorta a permanent consultant/contractor at a big corporation. You'd think that they could afford competent people, right? I mean, when you have tens of thousands of PCs (quite literally), it pays to have them well set up at least, right?
Well, wrong. PCs always routinely came with some stupidly wrong image installed.
E.g., the batch mine was in came with the wrong IDE drivers. Thank goodness Windows didn't use those, but performance was _abysmal_. You wouldn't believe how slow a fairly modern HDD is with NT 4.0's default drivers in PIO mode. Even stuff like switching between applications took seconds. (I assume that NT swapped some of the old app out, or something.)
E.g., they came with Matrox drivers installed... even though they had Nvidia cards.
Now being crazy enough to do the non-standard thing, I did download the right drivers off the internet and got our boss to give us the admin password to install them. But, you know, (A) I shouldn't have to. Wtf is the IT department for, if I have to do that. And (B) I wonder how many peons in other departments just gnash their teeth and put up with a system that performs like a lobotomized 486.
But let's delve a bit further into this madness...
So at some point it was decided to finally upgrade our RAM. So they send two IT drones to open the PCs and replace the RAM sticks. Easy job, right? I mean, right? Well, you wouldn't believe the uphill struggle that it was on every single PC. The problem? The RAM timings on the new sticks were different. So on every single PC, out of a batch of identical PCs, it was starting again from scratch digging into the BIOS and randomly changing stuff until it worked. You'd think they'd at least be able to remember what they did to the first half a dozen PCs by the time they get to the next one.
One coleague was left with a PC which was proclaimed to work after passing POST. Except it froze when trying to load Windows.
It gets better. They couldn't make one PC work at all, so they took it with them. It came back without the extra RAM, but freshly formatted and reinstalled. They fucking deleted that guy's 2 years worth of work instead of installing the RAM, and didn't even do a backup first. (Well, at least the sources were in CVS, but everything else, e.g., emails, documents he's downloaded, etc, wasn't.) How _does_ one end up formatting the hard drive instead of replacing the RAM? I mean, seriously, at which point are they similar or related enough to accidentally do one instead of the other?
And if you thought that the PC drones are the only ones without half a brain, let's just say that we actually have the whole flying circus. We have DBAs who don't know how to admin a database, and have to be told exactly what commands to run on it. (And occasionally do stupid stuff on their own, like disabling XA transactions on a productive Oracle database, because they thought it just takes up memory and doesn't do anything.) We have Unix admins who don't actually know jack about Unix. And I don't mean as in "not experts." I mean they probably haven't even _seen_ a Unix prompt before, and aren't going to start learning now. Etc.
*sigh* Methinks cost cutting is good and fine, but sometimes people should know when to stop. At the point where such clueless monkeys are hired just because they're very cheap... maybe it's already too much.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
you were going to be a systems administrator for best buy for what they were willing to pay you when you took the job? If so, you should be getting a check from the state for being extremely slow, because I doubt that you can perform day to day operations on yourself, such as wiping your own ass. Its best buy, if you thought you were working for the DoD on mission critical work for even as much as $15 per hour, you my friend, are severely retarded.
Sure, there's no return call, but there's no repeat business.
No sig for you! Come back one year!
The A+(or any cert) is certainly not a guarantee of competence.
But take the pool of A+ qualified people.
Take the pool of non A+ qualified people.
Chances are, the A+ crowd has a higher percentage of actually competent people than the non A+. Sure, there are probably more non A+ people who are competent in raw numbers, but you are still taking a somewhat greater chance that way. A+ certainly cannot be the only way you judge, but it can be useful as a quick pre-qualification check to get the choices to a number you can actually spare the time to properly consider.
Of course, what you say about checking with previous employers/clients is still a good idea.
That was a perfectly good excuse.
but recently all managers attending meetings must wear ties at my location. It was described as giving a more professional appearance which would translate into a more profressional environment which will tranlate into...
You get the drift?
Professionalism does not begin with dress. Those who use this method of operation are trying to compensate for defienciencies.
Some see ties as the proverbial red flag, meaning if they are wearing one they need to be handled with kid gloves. Nothing is more dangerous than an idiot with resources.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I can't imagine a PC having a problem that I haven't seen 100 times already.
Of course being a SysAdmin for 20 years, you see the good, the bad and the utterly stoopid (and that is just the users).
I hated having vendors out on my site doing anything. They would usually send a kid in a bad tie and I would have to show them what to do. It was either that or clean up after them. I seriously considered billing some of those companies for my time spent training their cherries.
There really is no substitute for knowing what you are doing. It comes in real handy.
Is that a SCSI connector or are you just glad to see me?
is not to get Linux-friendly goods but so that, if this particular one doesn't support Linux, you get to return it as "unsuitable for required use".
This can be very useful. E.g. wireless chipsets or webcams. Some of these don't *say* what chip they use, and the chip will change based on random sourcing issues, so you cannot rely on the hardware compatability list.
So tell them you want to use it under Linux and if this particular one doesn't, you can return it for a full refund.
I'm having trouble figuring out why this topic made the main page...I guess it could be that this is a sincere question but it seems more like another bid for support in bashing the Geek Squad.
Scope of repairs for Geek Squad agents consists of all software issues and hard drive, RAM, Video Card, PSU, & CD/DVD drive replacement. Basically if it is available in the store it can be replaced or installed on paid services. For service plan repairs the majority of hardware can not be replaced in-store due to inventory limitations and in the event that a system restore is required; if a customer does not have their restore CD/DVD, the restore partition has been corrupted, or the HDD neededs replacement (obviously this leaves no restore partition) then the unit is shipped to the vendor in the event it is under mfg warranty or to DEX if under service plan warranty only.
On another note, I can tell you from the CONSTANT issues I dealt with on a day to day basis that the blame goes back and forth between 3rd party repair centers and store techs. I'm assuming that the original poster works for a company called DEX (Data Exchange Corporation) as they are the primary 3rd party center used for issues beyond the scope of in-store repairs. Literally 25% of the computers shipped to DEX returned unrepaired, misrepaired, misdiagnosed, and some didn't even return at all. Between 3 and 8 hours every single day I was sending emails, calling DEX, checking tracking numbers, and dealing with upset customers because of these problems. When you say that the Geek Squad sends you issues that you shouldn't have to work on I'd really like to know a percentage here. If you can honestly tell me that over 25% of the computers you receive have these minor issues, I'll lay down the flaming sword here. And if you want to talk about spelling, I've probably seen around six to seven THOUSAND service tags from DEX and around 500 of them had proper spelling...don't EVEN get me started there.
Unfortunately, however, all the anti-Geek Squad sentiment out there isn't all that unfounded any more. I have a pretty good idea of why (I did work there for quite some time) but don't go any further if you don't like to read.
One of the primary focuses of Best Buy training is sales. When 'agents' are hired they are expected to have a high level of technical knowledge and all other training focuses on processes and sales. Being that Best Buy is a non-comission sales environment the training is not nearly as viscious as some other comission sales jobs, but it actually works better. What the training actually encompasses is gaining the ability to relate the knowledge you have to the customer. During my entire time at Best Buy I was never once encouraged to do anything unethical or take advantage of customers' lack of knowledge. I was lucky to be at a decent store...the problem lies in the fact that a lot of the management staff at a lot of stores does not take this approach and typically force employees to sell more and most expensive or get out.
Another glaring problem is the fact that Best Buy's original service techs were largely incompetent and extremely underpaid. Before the Geek Squad was unleashed, Best Buy lost money from services every single year. Upon Geek Squad's roll-out, a lot of the original service techs were given immediate promotions or transferred directly across to supervisory positions because of the need to get/keep bodies behind the counter. The good came from the fact that more positions were available and largely at a higher pay rate. Because this was a new venture into the services sector, customers with previous experience with Best Buy services were largely suspicious and still retained a good amount of hatred for anything related to Best Buy and service. Business began to pick up, but was still rather slow in relation to the number of positions filled and available. During this time, qualifications and technical knowledge were fairly strict requirements because of the overflow of applicatio
Lets say I buy a cheapo pci network card, whether from meatspace, ebay or online, and I plug it into a PC installed with cutting-edge-latest-drivers linux. There are three scenarios
Now, here's the crunch: if I got it working, some time later I buy another card, of the same make and apparently an identical card. But the manufacturer is using a slightly later chipset, or even a totally different chipset, so there's no guarantee that the card will work.
There's a particular supplier in the UK called Ebuyer whose cheapo network cards can be a random selection from SiS900, Realtek [of at least three different types], TI, VIA and ADMTek chipsets. Even two cards ordered at the same time, arriving in identical boxes, can be different. Some have WOL, some not.
At least with VGA cards, they announce the chipset, and there's reasonable continuity of supply... but as for modems, wifi pci cards, usb wifi adaptors, bluetooth and ordinary 802.3 it's a random guess as to whats inside. So unless they're prepared to break the seal in the store and tell you the chipset, and let you look at the linux compatibility pages online, it's pure luck what you get!
The billing rates charged by the Geek Squad are scandalous. It is like your local automobile mechanic charging you $10,000 for a brake job and oil change on a car that originally cost $20,000. The public is being sold a bill of goods if they buy into this service. I am speaking from experience as I run a one man PC repair and service business. I run this business out of my home to keep the overhead to a minimum. I tell my customer base that I can under quote my competition and pass the savings on to them instead. I also do residential and small business on site repair as the situation demands. However, most of my service work takes place in my home/workshop. I quote a fix price plus parts. Most people appreciate the knownledge of what it is going to cost them. I realize that this business model is far different than Best Buy's brick & mortar model. I have to add that I am not a Johnny come Lately to the computer repair business. I have been working on computer since 1970 and am recently retired from an FT 100 company. Treat and charge the public fairly and you will have more work than you can handle.
So I think I've finally puzzled this all out.
1) Wear tie
2) ?????? = boss thinks you are interviewing (I had a formal dinner that evening...)
3) Profit!
Honestly though, the only tech interviews I've worn a tie to were usually very conservative places like large law firms. I wore a sportcoat sans tie to my interview for a position at Miramax Films IT and almost didn't get the job because the boss thought I was too formal. I can't imagine taking a position where I had to wear a tie all day...I'd have ruined dozens by now.
this sig deleted by another sig
Is that why you dumped her? :-)
;)
No, she also had crappy eyesight. She apparently thought any guy who smiled at her was me.
...The Geek Squad was a respected, high end technical company, hiring only computer professionals with certifications to show it. I managed a small computer store that was part chain of franchises. When the franchisee went backrupt they were all looking for work (I had gotten a new job shortly before). I was writing a few letters of recommendation and such and was told that all these good technicians wouldn't even be talked to by the Geek Squad due to only a couple years experience and no certs. Then BestBuy bought them, needed to hire dozens, hell hundreds, of techs, and from reports I have heard, their name is kind of a joke now... That being said, it's been so many years since I have had to bring my computer to a tech I'd probably melt if I ever had to now...
dB Masters
That you're allowed to use the same license over and over, so long as you use the same install set, which it sounds like you did. The trick is the phone home. The activation process can be done three times without an explanation call to MS to verify that you're the owner and that you want to reinstall for reason XYZ. Also, if you change massive amounts of hardware in your system, you have to reverify, but not for simple upgrades (ie, one component at a time in most cases).
t xt0 5/02/22/changes-in-windows-xp-product-activation/
check the following links
http://www.licenturion.com/xp/fully-licensed-wpa.
http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php
and this was interesting
http://www.aviransplace.com/index.php/archives/20
2^3 * 31 * 647
This reminds me of a true story.
When I got married (early 1990s) my wife knew zilch about computers, even though I was a computer technician. (We figured it balanced out our relationship.) Over the years, I showed her a few things about fixing computers: simple stuff like running utilities, what to check in the OS files, etc. She finally got her own computer in the mid-90s and wanted to learn enough to keep her own computer running well.
During the dot-com collapse, we needed some extra cash. Almost as a joke, she applied for a tech support job at a big publishing firm nearby. She passed the entrance exam and was hired. There were four or five techs on the staff already, every one officially certified from Microsoft, A+, Apple or another relevant agency. My wife was not even remotely certified. Nonetheless, within six months they had fired (and replaced) the other techs, while retaining my wife and putting her in charge of two new techs. She was simply able to work faster than the others, and had a better rate of fixing things the first time around. She left the company when the IT director started making sexist (and sometimes lewd) comments.
Anyway, it was a shining example to me that certification is only worth the paper it's printed on, nothing more. A smart person with only self-administered knowledge (admittedly instructed by someone who had been repairing computers since the 1970s -- me) easily surpassed a small fleet of supposedly highly-trained, certified technicians. What the heck are people getting certified in???
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
They are creating job security for the poster of this question.
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
- Both can leak ink; squid does it for defense, geeks just have cheap pens.
- Ability to adapt to work in odd positions; geeks often work in cubicles or are found in odd places doing repairs, squids again do it for defense or to seek food.
- Execelent use of appendixes; squids can assume almost any form to do the work it needs to do, geeks have all the tools (and more) to do the work it need to do.
- Good camuflage; Squids can often change colour to become undetectable, geeks are undetectable by the cloth style, and in some cases their behaviour.
Amazing really, two completely different species, and yet so much in common.
Carbon based humanoid in training.
I do not know about their service, but I would like to chase down the freeway one of those VW bugs with my Humvee service car :)
http//www.geocities.com/konrads3/CIMG0960.JPG
Computer repair is like replacing your car's clutch, it may be better to buy new.
While some of the geek squad people are indeed idiots, some of the work they arn't allowed to do with out having it shipped off. They are not allowed to do os reinstalls, sometimes they are not even allowed to do drive replacements or driver installs based on what kind of service contract the customer does or does not have. While you may be upset that you get a lot of crap from them 80% isn't stuff they want to send you, its stuff they have to send you. Best Buy Corp Office is filled with morons who couldn't find their own...(your word here) with both hands and a map.
"and they had Agents whose technical skills would eat the lunches of everyone on Slashdot."
I doubt it. I am the best. Without question. If you knew me, you'd be kneeling at my feet saying "I'm not worthy".
The thing is, I'm now a director at a fortune 1000 and you couldn't even afford to sit in my car.
The Geek Squad is just a glorified title for an average Joe who thinks he/she knows how to fix a computer. Best Buy forces them to wear a shirt and tie so that they look more professional, because even Best Buy knows they're not worth the $125.00 an hour they charge for on-site jobs. I work for a University tech support group that has to constantly remove spyware/malware and Internet worms from computers that were supposedly cleaned by Best Buy's "elite" Geek Squad. The sad part is that not a single one of them had anything that required more than just dumping temp files in several locations in the system. No registry editing, no pulling services, not even rooting through system32 looking for spyware marked as hidden system files.
Training won't help these people, nor will Best Buy ever hire anyone with the expertise to charge $125 an hour, because Best Buy wouldn't be satisfied with making only 20% profit off of their hard work. You can teach a dog new tricks, but you can't teach him to drive a car and get a job.
I work for a local company that directly competes with Geek Squad as well as al lthe other Geek companies. We get their former customers all the time who just love how we actually fix things the first time. We callthem Geek converts.
I worked at the Best Buy Tech Bench just before they bought Geek Squad. It was another case as described above where I was one of the three among a larger group of Techs who 1) Actually knew what I was doing, and 2) Cared about helping customers.
I absolutely hated the pressure I got from the management to lie to customers to trick them into spending more money. My bosses would literally yell at me if I fixed a computer when they believed the customer was prepared to spend more money. Eventually, if I could fix a computer in a few minutes, I wouldn't charge people and just fixed their computer and rushed them out of the store.
I eventually quit. When they asked why, I said, "To seek an employer who understands what it is to be professional." I don't hate Best Buy (roommate works there and I shop there regularly), and I don't believe every store is like that. However, I know that many of the guys I worked with 4 years ago still work there, and are still doing the same thing. It's just a shame.
Doorstop? Paperweight?
The MacBook is clearly a space heater.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Take all the people who work in the computer industry. Take the subset of people who wave their certifications around like they mean something. I'm willing to bet there's a far higher degree of competence in what's left. Putting a cert on your resume is almost an admission that you don't have any experience worth talking about.
So you're criteria would probably work better if you ask them if they have a cert, and went with them if they laughed and said that certs didn't mean all that much, regardless of whether they had one or not.
Wow, it seems that nobody is here to back Best Buy's Geek Squad...
;-))
They're probably too busy playing Halo and screaming "pwn joo l33t styl3" to read anything about the advancement of technology that actually matters.
To those pre-Best Buy Geek Squad employees...I hope you find a better job before the whole boat tips over. Pretty soon they'll be telling the Mac PowerPC users to install Windows XP, cause Macs can run Windows.... (natively
Understand Best Buy has only entered my pitiful little town directly in the past two years, previously the closest was 20 minutes away... what we got is of a size and inventory that it is known locally as "better buy" or similar... it's weak.
I did actually apply for the Geek Squad, I figured that since I'd been doing that type of work locally for a couple of years, I could probably handle the job quite well. They send you online to fill out the app, it includes a ~90 question personality test, which I answered quite honestly. Inquiring about my app a week later I was pleasantly informed that, in effect, the computer had nixed me on the results of the personality test. Apparently whatever their other requirements may be, "thinks for themself" is not a desirable trait in the BB world.
Anyway, I've continued my local repair work, and I'm starting to see what Geek Squad does do. In one instance a lady called me with a Windows ME machine for which the only hope would be a reinstall (hint, IE6 refused to install, and there had been no working A/V for at least a year from the look of it). Unfortunately she only got to me after spending approximately $150 to have the Geek Squad out. As far as I could tell $150 got her an on-site salesman to sell her a copy of Webroot Spy Sweeper.
Instance #2 was also a home visit from the geek squad, though I never heard the price. In this case it was an XP box; and of course Geek Squad made the sale on Spy Sweeper. The true indicator of their skill is the sale they didn't make, since when I got there the machine still had *No Anti-Virus Software*.
So it would appear the purpose of Geek Squad is to sell the corporate marketing agreement du jour. I've also heard they do home networking, probably with no security on the wireless, like the local cable installers do it. While Spy Sweeper may be reasonably effective at removing spyware (never tried it), I can't imagine that a program that pops up a panicked warning every time a program wants to do something after the next reboot is very reassuring to the average user.
I have an idea.
Fuck Best Buy.
Most of them are $2/hour away from asking if you want fries with that. Geek Squad, warranties, etc are more uneeded shit the people in blue shirts try to sell you.
Buy a system somewhere else and do your research first.
There's really a simple distinction between nerds and geeks.
;-)
A nerd gets his degree through hard work - attending lotsa classes, studying the material and turning in nothing-less-than-stellar work.
A geek gets his degree by hacking into the school's mainframe and awarding himself credit for classes he never took.
Got more questions? Just ask
we see things not as as they are, but as we are.
-- anais nin
Best Buy sells a 3 year extended warranty for $200 or a 3 year extended warranty with accidental damager form $300. In the warranty it clearly states that if the computer is brought in for a 4th repair that Best Buy must replace it with a system of comparable spec. The best part is when they replace the "faulty" laptop the'll sell you another 3 year warranty.
I like-a do-the cha-cha.
I threw a serial mouse at Fedora Core 4 and it couldn't handle it.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
This article is pointless because, as with everything, it depends on the person you deal with and the individual store. I used to work in the Best Buy tech department before it was the geek squad and after that I worked in privately owned computer stores for a while and in both places there were people who knew what they were doing and people who didn't if you are going into one of these places just be careful and talk with the person when you bring it in if they don't know what they are talking about bring it elsewhere, if they do ask them to personally work on your system.
If you are advising someone else to bring their system in then... well there is no great way to go about it. To beat the dead-horse of an analogy, when I bring my car someplace to get fixed I don't really know how to judge if the place is knowledgeable or not. I would rather use a small shop if I had heard they were good because the smaller shops generally have less turnover and higher controls but the big shop will generally completely stand behind their service so It is a little bit of a toss-up.
To sum it up:
It is impossible to talk about the knowledge level of the employees of ~1000 stores as if they are the same person. It is too early in the morning for me to even contemplate putting together an argument about how wrong this is but I think it is rather self evident.
I applied for a job there once. Out of desperation. I don't have a single certification but have 5 years job experience. I was obviously over-qualified.
It's obviouis that most of the negative comments are from people who don't know wtf they are babbling about. #1. I was a high level tech for Compaq/HP before I went to work for Geek Squad, HP shipped my job out of state and finding a replacement wasn't that easy. Don't tell me I work for Geek Squad because I'm not a good/real tech. #2. We ship units to Service because we have a limited amount of in-house components and are also resticted by requirements of the manufactures and provisions of our own Service Plans. Not because we CAN'T fix them. #3. With any orginization that deals in the volume of units we do,there are going to be some bad experiences. We shipped over 200,000 i-pods to service last year. Crap is going to happen. #4. Typical turn-around time for our units shipped to the Service Centers in our region is only about 2-3 weeks.That may seem long, but most of you so called techs don't deal in the sheer volume we do. In-house our target goal is 48 hours. #5. The average customer that comes in for help can turn their computer on, surf the web and check their e-mail. That's about it. We are a lifeline to those people. #6. In our Precinct we ALWAYS tell the customer that a value proposition is involved when paying for an old computer repair. When a whole computer package sells for around $400 and it's going to be $200-$300 to fix theirs, we ADVISE getting a new unit. We aren't on commissions, frankly it makes no difference to us. We try to help the customer. #7.We don't operate in a "closed enviroment" where System Admins set boundaries on what users can do with their units, we see some amazingly stupid crap. We had a guy who spilled Gatorade into his laptop keyboard while it was on and wondered "what the problem was". Jesus. #8. When you make blanket statements about any organization as large as ours,you show yourself to be a self-absorbed idiot anyway. #9. I would like to see you smug, so-called techs try to troubleshoot not just PC's, but TV's, MP3players, Digital Cameras and Camcorders, CD/DVD/VHS players and recorders, Palm Pilots, Cell Phones,Regular Phones, and all of the other crap that customers expect you to be an expert in just because your store sells it. Good luck with that. Most of you would probably just quit. #10. On top of all of the above, you have to be friendly to a fault, actually SELL (we are a business, not a non-profit), and still maintain your temper and your integrity. You guys really think it's that easy? You really think we are all a bunch of incompetent baboons? If so,you make the average end-user look like a genius.
I've stopped going to best buy... too many piss poor customer service experiences.
Geek Squad techs are best buy droids period.
I've been in the support business for almost 20 years and have hired and fired many deskside techs - and IM frequently less than HO there's no reason to format a functioning hard drive unless the drive's been repartitioned.
I've seen many times where it wasn't worth the *time* required to repair a Windows installation but I've never seen a Windows box trashed badly enough that the drive *needed* a reformat. Customer data is valuable to the customer and if a tech can't fix the machine without reinstalling the OS or reformatting the drive then the problem is with that tech's skill level, not with the machine.
Part of the problem is that we as technicians place unreasonable expectations on our customers - that although every tech here knows that computers require periodic maintenance it's not reasonable to assume that our customer knows it - or even to know that all hard drives fail if you run them long enough and that they need to back up their data. If they knew this stuff they wouldn't need us anyway ;-)
Customers are why we as technicians exist - I don't do much deskside support any more, these days my time is spent between ADP R&D and designing enterprise architecture, but one thing I do know is that if a tech tells me my hard drive needs to be reformatted I need to find another tech ;-)
we see things not as as they are, but as we are.
-- anais nin
one time i went into Best Buy with 2 Hard Drives in hand. The guy told me how to interpret the diagrams that told me how to set the HD's to slave instead of Master. Now i have a happily running Ubuntu box with 3 HD's.
Running from the law definitely wasnt as easy as they made it look on the Dukes of Hazzard --Joy, My Name is Earl (2006
Are Best Buy techs even required to be A+ certified?
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
Why did this even make it onto "Ask Slashdot"? Does this actually carry some importants somewhere? This sounds more like a water-cooler joke here at work. Not something I should be wasting work time reading when I could be wasting work time reading something more important like Groklaw bashing SCO...
is the idea that someone would take the time to attempt to draw distinctions between these pejoratives at all. As far as "normals" are concerned it's relatively the equivalent of a Yugo owner and a Chevette owner comparing horsepower and 0-60 times, while they are driving Dodge Vipers
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
..level computer technicians. I'm sure they give them some training and look for people with A-BEST or Devry or whatever "certifications" but lets face it, this is a low end "entry level" computer job. Some people will get helped, others will get minimal help. If you want real help it costs more than the PC is worth. I'm more than $180 an hour -- and if I have to travel at all, its a four hour minimum time. Obviously I don't do pc repair any more. It would be cheaper to buy a new PC. That's the problem. For highly skilled people, you have to pay highly skilled rates.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
They guarantee my company makes money fixing the things they can't, won't or don't have the chops to do.
It's just like Microsoft, their crappy software has kept me employed putting on band-aids and coddling those who ride to work in Ballmers nut-sack everyday..
They can do a bad job SO CONSISTENTLY that an entire industry has been made out of fixing what they do poorly.
Wisest is he who knows he does not know.
People who work for Geek squad are a) kids looking for some extra money, b) genuine computer geeks either at the beginning of their career or in between jobs. The b) category make up the minority and they do a great job. The a) category are either b) wannabes who do their best, or the VAST majority who really couldn't care less. Most entry level computer support jobs are like this. The pay is terrible, so unless you're passionate about the work you're not going to be particularly motivated to do a good job.
I used to work in the computer repair department of Best Buy and I was on my way out as this Geek squad travesty was put in place. You see I like to think of myself as a competent tech, maybe even good. I know other at least competent techs that worked with me, and although the person who hired me was interested in my technical skill this is not what Best Buy wants. Best Buy wants to get you in for a 1 hour diagnostic $60. You dont fix the issue at this point you just find what is wrong. Then depending on what the issue is, most of the time it was spy or addware. You then sell the customer a $40 service to do a spyware scan and removal, using one of the shitty pieces of software that Best Buy carries. During this process you examine the machine for "upgrades" more memory, larger HD, new video card. Even though the issues the customer is having may be totally independent of the hardware they have, but you are still required to "advise" the customer that these upgrades are necesary. Then the poor customer shells out for over priced hardware and another $20 to $40 to install it. Best Buy doesnt want to fix problems they want to sell you services. I found this out as I noticed my hours being cut more and more, it wasnt because I had a slow turnaround time on the machines I took in but because I wasnt "recomending" services to the customer, even though I knew they didnt need more memory, or that they didnt need MSN dialup because they already had DSL, but we are always susposed to offer. This became readily apparent in two situations someone came in their computer would not boot, at that time Best Buy did allow for us to look at a machine for a few minutes at the counter before we tried to fleece the customer. I determined that a restore was needed on the system. I asked him if he had his recovery cd's he said yes and I told him he just needs to do a recovery. He asked me if he could do it himself and I told him he could, and proceded to tell him how. Put the cd in follow the prompts. The new manager for the computer department heard me helping this person and I was later dressed down for giving out technical information. Another time a woman cam in, in tears her laptop crashed and she had her doctoral thesis on it that was due in the morning. I would have just charged the $60 poped the drive in one of our machines and gotten it for her, but since one of the manager's lackey's was around I had to offer the data recovery service which is way expensive and takes a week. So if you like to buy useless services then Best Buy is for you but there are no Geeks there just greasey salesmen. The prices I quoted are from the time I worked there I am sure there has been significant markup since then.
It strikes me as strange and a little disturbing that we could be reaching the point that blatant disinformation is considered an acceptable, or even necessary, component of a salesman's job. I agree with most of what you said, and wouldn't buy much of anything from CompUSA or BestBuy except maybe printer paper. Thats partly because I'm well enough informed to use froogle and other comparison shopping sites, and partly because im the sort of obsessive-compulsive cheapskate that will waste 2 hours to save $10 on a harddrive. But most people don't know how to write a perl script to alert them when the price drops on some product on a particular web page, and don't have time to even if they did know how. I'm sort of of the opinion that whether buying a computer, or a car, or an air conditioner, you should be able to walk into a store and expect the salesman to give an honest account of that the costs and basic features are of the options available. This doesn't require encyclopedic knowledge of every bit of minutia, but at least a familiarity with the product categories. It's not his job to decide for the customer what will best meet his needs, but he should try to be as helpful as he can in helping the customer make that decision.
If I owned a store, thats how I would want my employees to behave. Sooner or later, Joe Shmoe with the Monster Cables is going to figure out that he's been had, and in the future he will do his shopping elsewhere. It seems likely that in the long run, it would be more advantageous to give the customer reason to shop again at my store.
Modded informative? pfffffffft.
I guess it's time for me to pull out my "Certs don't mean jack" story here once again.
Since my sister lives several hundred miles away, I'm saved from most "family tech support issues". Her Win98 computer wasn't running so fast a few years back, so she decided to add more ram to it to speed things up. Her husband took it to his "MCSE & A+ Certified buddy at work(TM)" to get the job done.
"MCSE & A+ Certified buddy at work(TM)" proceeded to drop a screwdriver onto the mobo when it was powered up, toasting it, of course. He had the nerve to charge them for a new motherboard, but at least the ram got installed.
I was visiting a couple of months later when my sister mentioned that she couldn't get any sound when she tried to play a CD. As I was already almost seething when she'd told me about the motherboard, I figured I knew exactly what the deal was. I peered in through the back to, sure enough, see that "MCSE & A+ Certified buddy at work(TM)" hadn't reconnected the CD audio cable and it was just dangling there. I then grabbed a screwdriver to open the case to connect the cable.
Seems "MCSE & A+ Certified buddy at work(TM)" lost the case screws, so "MCSE & A+ Certified buddy at work(TM)" POP-RIVETED THE GOD DAMN CASE SHUT.
Another half hour, a drill, and migraine later, she once again had CD audio working.
So, yes... certs might look good on paper, but they don't mean jack when it comes to knowledge.
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
It is simple, ask Robert Stephens the founder of Geek Squad he'll tell you. Geek squad doesn't really do anything. Best buy banks on the odds that whatever they sell to you won't need fixing at least not until you are ready to buy the next generation version of it. This is the training they have... Hey boy in white shirt and black pants, here is a hammer, treat everything as a nail. They break it, take the consequences but can afford to pay you off need-be. Geek Squad is just a publicity stunt.
-Dickens
... I am a grad student at a Big 10 (11, whatever) university. The woman in charge of computers in our whole building gets about $35k based on her job title. She came into a lab I work in to do some network stuff. She didn't know what RAM is. She "backed up" lab data that was being moved to a new machine (Mac 9 to Mac 10), and she only copied the crap laying around on the desktop and at the root of the HD, not all the stuff in the OS-provided documents folder--in which was everyone's real work. I am an English major. But I've learned to work on my own computer the same way learned to work on brakes after I took my car to a shop and it came back squirting DOT 3 like a geyser. No one really gives a shit about my life and my data the way I do.
I guess the uber tech didn't know that hard drives are sealed .
What kind of qualifications do you need to be on the geek squad? I imagine it's something like:
- Lives with folks
- Can name at least four gaming consoles
- Owns 4+ cats
- Took the short bus to school
- Has at least one black "got root?" t-shirt
I was with my friend when he bought a new computer from Best Buy, and picked up a video card for it as well. He dropped them both off at the Geek Squad desk, and had them install the card. (Keep in mind my friend knew well enough to check the specs and make sure his computer could handle the card.) He got the system home, and in 30 minutes, it overheated, not running any games or such, just from simple program installs. He took the machine back to Geek Squad, and they told him to come back in an hour after they had evaluated it. The response after an hour was "It was fine, you must've been mistaken." My friend insisted it overheated. Geek Squad continued to tell him he was wrong. He asked them to set it up again (it appeared they had never even taken it out of the box to begin with) and they said they would and to come back in another hour. He insisted he would be with them while they tested it. Just the fact that he had to go through that was enough for me to never deal with them. When I worked for a small ISP doing bench repairs, we always made a point of showing the customer exactly what was causing the problem, or at least being honest and saying "we have no clue why you have 38 xxx dialers, ask your husband if he does".
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
If you had actually read the freaken post, you would have read him exclaim that he is a total linux n00b and doesn't really know anything about it... This is exactally what I would expect of a script kiddie. Blah blah blah, windows sucks, linux is super great and does everything windows does better except maybe gaming or except being simple to use or except be simple to install. Lamer.
Twelve years ago or so managers started to realize that they could buy a PC and put Novell on it, and hire a 20 year old with no training to run it. Then Windows 95 and NT 4 Server came out, and they realized they could throw away their mainframe and their VAX and their Suns, buy some PCs, run Windows, and replace their entire staff with 20 year olds with no training. They could also pay them small salaries and make them work 70 hours a week, and since they were untrained and inexperienced they could replace them tomorrow. The future is cheap!
Computer service is not going to get better. Geek Squad is like McDonald's, selling PC service instead of McChicken. The service is just as good. If you need the service of either, you are on a bad place in the food chain.
Geek Squad workers, take heart. I have worked tech support, and I have worked fast food. Keep learning and work hard. Go get some student loans and get that degree. You will get the career you want someday if you stay focused. It will probably take longer than the used car salesman at ITT Tech will tell you. I have a job I want today, and it only took me until I was 34. But I'm probably a little slow...
Columbus, Ohio is one good example of an IT-dead zone. CompuServe was the last good IT company here until AOL got their hands on them. Actually, most of Ohio sucks. Do yourselves a favor and steer clear of Ohio!
Actually, the Mac Genius isn't really for fixing the macs. Several things:
1. Macs are much simpler to configure for a novice user. More importantly, they're more RELIABLE to configure - it's much more rare to get some psychotic configuration behavior in OSX than in Windows, OSX better explains the dialog boxes, and OSX is more likely to prompt you with an appropriate correction. OSX has a better mix of manual and automatic and a better transition between them.
This doesn't mean they never break, but it does mean that you don't need a Geek Squad as much with OSX - in my experience a novice user will need less hand-holding help using OSX than Windows. (Not none, but less)
2. Last I checked, when you take a broken mac to an Apple Store, they only do like kind replacements or simple upgrades of a few of the most common components. It's much more like they do "installs" than real repairs. There are places that do real Apple Service around (I worked at one) but if your problem is actually complex and you bring it to the Apple Store they will overnight your computer to Texas where it will be fixed and overnighted back. To me this is a fine system for making sure you get a well-trained technician for your hard problems.
3. The Genius's real job is to be a consumer consultant. Their job is to talk and be helpful, not fix. (I'm not saying they _can't_ fix - the ones I've dealt with have seemed very competent) They need to be able to answer very open ended questions like "I want to learn video editing. I have no clue. Take my credit card." or "My computer is slow. How do I make it faster, or do I need a new one" and explain to the person what they need in minute detail. Their job is to get them what they actually need. Arguably figuring out what the customer wants is the part that requires being a Genius.
In short the Genius's job is much more about being able to answer a customer question of "what should I do" than about touching Macs - or at least it was last I checked.
Looking for freelance Actionscript (Flash/Flex) or ColdFusion work and/or freelance developers. Email me, put Slashdot
Well, we don't have a Best Buy near where I live, so I don't really see the extinct of what they're doing. I do work in a computer repair store though, so I know how it goes to have a computer come in that someone else has "tuned up." Where they tried to install a Windows 2000 driver on an XP machine (vice-versa), installed memory incorrectly (DIMM slots 2 and 3; bypassing slot 1), think they need a motherboard replacement when they end up having a bad switch, brings in a 200 GB Seagate harddrive with a read-element failure for us to install as a slave... etc. Oh, but when I was in Best Buy a few weeks ago, I saw one of the technicians walking across a carpet, holding a sound card like it was a candy bar.
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
Yeah, sure. I worked as an Installer for a Minneapolis ISP back in the pre BB Geek Squad era. Our worst nightmare was when a new customer opted to have someone from the Geek Squad install their gear instead of us. I don't think I spoke with a single Geek Squad tech that had the first clue about the gear they had told the customer they could install and configure. Nine times out of ten we would end up heading out anyway to fix the fully broken setup that the Geek Squad had put in place.
I think my favorite incident was when a dial-up ISDN customer opted to go the cheaper route and have GS config their Pipeline 50 (ISDN router). To make a long story short, it when downhill rapidly when I asked: "What are your SPIDs?", to which the GS tech responded: "What's a SPID?"
For those not familiar with ISDN, a SPID is a Service Profile ID. The SPID is basically the ISDN Phone number. It's akin to someone offering to configure your router, and then asking what an IP address is.
I work at a computer repair company a few miles away from a Best Buy. The geek squad sends people to us, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes when they "work" on the computer for two weeks, charge $100+, and send computer home without fixing it. Ever since they got caught using pirated software they've started sending more customers to us when they can't fix the computer without their pirated software. Overall I like the Geek Squad to be down the street.
"They have people skills! They are good with people!"
Yup.
I think they do that because it's their way of screwing people who buy cheap USB peripherals. Example: those $30 printers they sell in some cases don't come with cables. Oh, it'll come with an AC adapter, but not a USB (or at least the salesperson will insist that it doesn't). Then they hand you the $30 "MonsterCable" USB cable, in the hopes of recouping their profit margin that they didn't get on the printer. I've seen them do this to people over and over, and it's just painful to watch.
The only reason I go into BestBuy is when there's something free, or at a ridiculously low price (their 'loss leaders'). And then I go into the store, get the one item, and leave.
I can go on PriceWatch and get 6' USB cables for around $1-3 a piece, with shipping, from a no-name Mom-n-Pop. I've yet to have one of them fail, but even if they're not the same quality as Monster's, I feel quite comfortable getting one and having nine backups on hand, for the same price.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Personally, I've concluded that Best Buy has lost their focus on the customer and will soon go the way of dinosaurs. The only thing that is keeping them going is demand for high priced ticket items. With gas prices rising, and inflation on the rise, this could change and could very well dink BB.
My observations/thoughts:
a) I learned from a friend of mine that the secret shoppers they hire are instructed to "buy candy and get a receipt". How in the world does buying candy from BB evaluate a retail organization whose primary market is electronics? I realize buying a $2000 tv is expensive for mystery shoppers. However buying candy doesn't accurately measure them either.
b) At the BB closest to me, I cannot buy a tube TV anymore. They do not stock them. Everything is LCD/Plasma. Those are great items to have but not everyone can afford $1000 or more for a TV. Heck I wouldn't want to put that kinda TV in my kids rooms. So at that BB, people w/o the $ (or willingness to spend the $) for high item TV probably don't even shop there.
c) Sales of computer hardware and software, movies and music simply do not have the margins to sustain them. Music (and increasingly movies) are being bought via electronic channels (aka iTunes etc...).
d) downright aweful customer service included (especially) Geek Squad
These things just makes me think they (aka CEOs and BOD) have just lost touch with how to run a good electronics retailer. Patronizing BB isn't going to help them or hurt them IMO. They are already on the path of failure.
I had a job for about two months at a best buy. the only questions they asked me when they were interview me was: 1. If i hit print on a word doc and the printer isnt printing how would you solve this? and then the best buy question of the year: 2. Tell me how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich step by step like i dont know how to make one... i think that is a reason why the people that work there are so bad.. all they know how to do is make PB&J sandwiches ;) lol
I ended up quiting to go back to web design :)
Inspect all the pr0n in your browser cache.
That's funny.. because when I work on my truck and start to get in over my head I just tell myself "If those idiots in highschool autoshop went on to be auto mechanics then I can deffinitely figure this out." and I haven't been wrong yet.
Auto mechanics are just MUCH better at convincing you they are experts, that is all.
It's also not a salesmens job to lie. This guy was lying. What he should have said was "I don't know"
I'm not sure the salesman was lying. From the sound of it, he was mistaken and just had no clue, which isn't as bad, but makes me wonder what the fuck he's doing selling computers.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
Ok, well besides the fact that I've got 20 years experience, do development and probably get paid 5 times what the kid at geek squad gets...
geek squad charges too much to do what any family nerd can do. install components / software and run malware/virus scans.
I only do this for my parents. Nobody else. I have had friends who come out and want help, and I say sorry, go to the Geek Squad. Or in most cases I just tell them to go buy a new computer for $300, it'll be a lot cheaper.
And most of the time when people come to me asking for help, the computer they have is like a PII-266 and they're complaining about how slow Win98 is. Hello, sorry... buy a new one, it's not worth the time to fix.
I feel sorry for the people who have to take their computers to the Geek Squad, I really do.
It's like I feel sorry for the people who waste their time asking the Best Buy sales reps questions about the stuff in the store. The sales reps don't know any more than you do. Unless the question is, "Where can I find the batteries?", you are wasting your time. Your best bet is to go on the internet and read a review on the product.
My friend does this, I swear just to annoy me. We were in there the other day and he asked the guy about MP3 players and which ones worked with Rhapsody. The Best Buy guy gave him a blank look.
Anyway, I'm glad for things like Geek Squad, because I send people there rather than having them annoy me. If they complain about the cost, I just remind them that I suggested buying a new computer for $300.
if he's got a CS degree, they might not touch him (and yes, I know people with CS Degrees working in tech support, thx to India and Outsourcing. If you get stuck in a town with no programming jobs due to family, housing, etc you're screwed). Companies don't like to hire people like that, since they'll leave the first chance they get (instead of when the company's ready to fire them).
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
bwahahaah - that's funny :D True about the fanboy but that part is still funny.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
I thought I'd point out the possibility strongly suggested by your post.
Maybe the cable was $8 and the $40 extra is because you're a jerk.
Geek Squad is really a company that is run by people that know how to "market" an idea and form relationships with large companies, like Best Buy. It has yet to be proven if they can actually sustain the company and make money in the long term. So, don't lose any sleep over them.
Geek Squad's leaders know the biggest problem is where to find network engineers or computer guys that can actually do the work they are oferring and get it right most of the time without wiping out a customer's system. I've never seen or read their service agreement, but I'd be willing to bet that someplace in there it says, "Customer is responsible for making and keeping a backup of the contents of all information stored on the computer..." so that when the geek-tech wipes out your Quicken database with five years of history, they say, "...it's your own fault! and 'No Refund'"
The bottom line is, who do you think they are actually hiring? It's the guys who went to Dr. PC Professor's DVD-based Crash Course in computer technology, make $75K per year courses you hear about on the radio all the time. These are the guys, who in high school learned how to fdisk and format a hard-drive on their own, and were considered future "Bill Gates" or "Steve Wozniack" geniuses by their PC illerate parents and teachers. And, they are too lazy to get a college degree in IT, so they borrow $12,000 or so and sign on the dotted line to get A+, or Network+ certified or maybe even paper-MCSE certified. The reality is that they graduate from Dr. PC Professor's DVD class with nothing more than a sheet of paper and a new student loan payment of $350 per month for the next 10 years and some friends ready to cash in and make it big with their new-found cerification.
Then, they get a reality check/reconcilation with a person at the school they just "graduated" from who says, "...You are among a select group of 100,000 IT experts who just graudated today!!! And we are here today to help you get a job anywhere in this wonderful field of computers 'if you are willing to do what we say'".
Basically, they are telling them they qualify for the worst entry level positions out there for whatever minimum wage + 10% is in their respective states. So, Geek Squad comes along and partners with these schools and says, "how many [sheep] do you have for us today?". And they hire these guys without even meeting with them.
Then, Geek Squad sends out their "Master Geek" to train the new recruits on how to get a customer to sign an agreement, and process their credit card payment in such a way that they will never need to refund them their money. The last thing they try to do is teach them how to memorize a list of things you should never do on a customer's computer: fdisk, format, deltree, del, ren, xcopy, copy, never touch anything in c:\ and below, do not use regedit or regedt32, and no right-clicking anything, etc. And, when you answer the customer, always use the words "...it should...", "...I can try...", "...it is supposed to...", and lastly, "...the manufacturer says..." instead of anything else they might make the customer think they will be able to solve their problem.
Now their recruit is taught how to dress, shake hands, smile and get their geek mobile washed. Oh, and we can't forget how to put gas in it either. And, "don't break any traffic rules too."
So, if you wonder why us guys at $125 per hour network engineers (take home pay) are booked for five days in advance, with multiple college degrees, with more than 15 years of experience on at least two platforms, live in million dollar gated communities, can work anywhere in the world on any project, own four cars and don't mind paying our $900 Mobil Gas Credit card bills with the cash we carry or keep in the vault at home, then you'll know why we laugh when the "Geek Mobil" is next to us at the traffic light.
Long story short, they teach you nothing. As a guy just out of college it was a great 14$/hr job when I could not get my foot in any software company's door. I know I helped out a lot of people and there were two other guys who knew what they were doing and what needed to be done to systems. I was only there for 3 months but in that time the two other smart guys who had been there a while quickly became the onsite techs. If you were new or knew nothing you were left in the store. The onsite guys never worked inside the store at all. So people who know what is up quickly become the guys that cost $150+ just to get them out to your house.
I had a friend hire Geek Squad to remove adware and vendor-installed software. The technician charged her over $200 to move the vendor-installed desktop icons into a folder called "Miscellaneous Applications." No joke, that's all the tech did.
To start with answering your questions: the PC's-with-wrong-drivers episode happened in August 2002. (Don't ask me why they still used NT 4.0 in 2002. Maybe some beancounter thought he saved money by sticking to it.) The RAM upgrade episode happened two months ago. Yep, in 2006. Formatting a workstation instead of replacing the RAM also happened at that time.
So, nope, I don't have to reach too far back for those examples.
Either way, you're latching onto the irrelevant detail there:
The point is _not_ about the quality of NT 4.0 or its drivers. Yes, as you correctly say, "Supporting workstations today, by comparison, is a much simpler ordeal. Finding drivers on the Internet is commonplace." That's what I did too, back then. I just pointed the browser at the manufacturer's web site, and downloaded the correct drivers. It certainly was no challenge and no great feat of engineering.
The point is about the quality of the _people_ involved. Precisely _because_ it would have been that easy to get the right drivers, I find it just inexcusable incompetence to install the wrong ones. I mean, FFS, not even from the correct manufacturer. The clueless monkeys just had a drive image on a CD, and proceeded to mindlessly install it on all PCs without ever stopping to use their brains. Like, I don't know, find out the hardware configuration first.
_That's_ the point. And it's pretty damn sad.
And let me assure you that it's not just NT 4.0. They're just as clueless under XP. (We did get XP eventually. Keyword: eventually.) The computer they formatted instead of installing RAM was an XP machine. The one where they proclaimed it to work, even though it couldn't actually load Windows, was an XP machine. Fat lot of good that did.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
I myself am I geeksquad agent who deals with the onsite repairs. My clients are very happy with what I do for them and I get the job done right. I do admit there are some bad technicians in GeekSquad right now which I blame entirely on Best Buy. The problem I see is that Managers in Best Buy mostly look for salesmen over actual technicians. Not saying this is the case in every store but I do see this alot. I myself had to pull teeth to get an agent in my store that I knew would do a good job. You guys need to understand that Geeksquad went from a small company to a huge corporation that covers the entire United States and Canada. It is hard to get good agents to fill every spot. I feel that if Best Buy would let actual technicians run this side of the business, it would work out alot better for the company as a hole. All I have to say is before you pass judgement on the Geeksquad, goto other stores and see how the agents are there. We do have alot of great agents who get the job done!
I do a lot of computer repair in my spare time - four days a week in addition to my regular job - and every time I encounter a computer that was "repaired" by the Geek Squad, their work never ceases to underwhelm me. As far as I can tell, Best Buy bought the Geeks on Call franchise and turned it into their own personal commercial army; all I've ever seen the Geek Squad do is overcharge, sell Norton Internet Security (which doesn't even work very well) to home users who didn't need it, and give out incorrect information to clients who don't know better. Someone at a Best Buy store even tried to convince one of my clients that a computer with 256 MB of RAM wouldn't be able to handle DSL; whether he was deliberately lying or just horribly trained, I don't know.
I run a similar style company called Dial-A-Geek (Shut up, when I made the name I thought I was being original...) based in British Columbia Canada. We provide in home and on site computer support. What do my techs do? Exactly the same sort of stuff the normal /.er does in the course of their day. I'm not hired by /.'ers I hire them, assuming they can check their ego at the door.
Honestly, as was already pointed out, basic troubleshooting is necessary for a large segment of the population. Could most people do the reinstalls, upgrades, repairs, virus scans and other tasks that we perform? Sure, but they'd prefer to have a professional do it we have the experience and the tools to ensure backups are performed can find things like drivers quickly. It's not rocket science, but experience makes it quicker and less painful. Just like (oh god incoming car analogy) I could spend my Saturday changing the fluids in my car I'd rather let a mechanic do it.
The reality is that a lot of people are still not very computer savvy and (here's the important point) not interested in becoming savvy. They find our job boring and would rather never think about computer repair and maintenance. They'd rather do the things they enjoy in life. I'm overhearing the conversations of a couple of our frontline people right now. Want to know what they're saying?
"Yes ma'am a reinstall is like resetting your computer back to the day you bought it. Well we save your data, but applications would have to be reinstalled. Like Office. Like Word. Like that blue W you press when you want to type. No it doesn't come with Windows. Yes I'm sure, unless there was a restore CD. A disk that came with your computer, or it would've ask you to burn one when you bought it. You don't remember? Not a problem our technician can look for it when he arrives."
and on and on.
First off, I'm no tech drone, but I'm no noob either. And when I left my last job at a major international finance house, just one year ago, they were only then finally phasing out the last of their NT4 machines. Most of these were indeed servers, but there were also a few unfortunate workstations (shunned, mind you).
Now I fully agree with you that this could be seen as evidence that that company is stuck in the past, but be that as it may, this was one huge-ass organization, with more than a handful of NT4 machines lying around. Note too that the GP poster here never states that all these NT4 machines he had to deal with were workstations -- he merely describes them as "PCs", which in Windowsland sometimes just means "computers that aren't Macs". So between that and what I've seen with my own eyes, I'm willing to give the GP poster the benefit of the doubt here -- and a good bit of sympathy.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Geek Squad time breakdown:
Examining zits - 33%
Popping zits - 38%
Comparing zits - 24%
Recommending customer replace computer with overpriced Bestbuy crap - 5%
// This is not a sig.
The purpose of Geek Squad is not to fix computers, since they do not offer any services that the average semi-literate computer user can't do. Probably the hardest thing a "Geek (TM)" has to do is set up a home network. Overall, they really are a terrible tech service, just read the horror stories at bestbuysux.org, even though there are a few shining stars here and there.
In this country, the buying public has demanded cheap, cheap, cheap. Lower prices over all else is the rule of the day. It's sad, but most people would rather be herded like cattle and thought of as only a revenue source to save $20 on that digital camera. Well, buying public, you are reaping what you have sown. You have voted with your dollars for places like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc to stay open over smaller stores with better service. As a result, no one has any right to complain about poor customer service IMO. Don't like it? Vote with your dollar and shop elsewhere.
Anywho, the REAL purpose of Geek Squad is to provide the store with more "credible" salesmen. A Geek's job is to sell, sell, sell services and confirm what the salesperson said. Best Buy sales staff is some of the most poorly-trained in the world. Instead of improving training modules (which do NOT teach you many important sales techniques, most importantly overcoming objections), the company has decided to hype their tech services, and turn their techs into stealth salesmen. If a salesperson tells you something you don't like, it's a lot easier to assume they're wrong and go on your way. If a tech, a person that supposedly does this for a living, confirms what the salesmen said, then you are more likely to believe the tech. Plus, you might think twice about doubting a Best Buy salesman in the future.
the Geek Squad were sent from the marketing gods to remind us once again that Show>>Go in the mass market. A little song, a little dance and people buy into it; just like snake oil salesmen and I'm sure a thousand other examples throughout history. A lesson that never seems to penetrate the collective skulls of the human race. Sort of like politicians using the excuse "it's for the children" to gain support. If a generation ends up getting wise to the BS, you can just wait 15-20 years for a new crop to work on.
But there's a point where when your friends say "hey can you drive me to the bank real quick?", put on masks, and run in with guns where you have to think "gee, maybe I'm part of the problem".
Your current corporate masters charge a couple of hundred for "setting up and securing your computer." For grins, I asked them what that entailed. It means they'll connect the computer to the internet and turn on the Windows firewall. That's about it.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
The answer is that they probably do more harm on average then good. Having seen the culture from the inside with my attempt to be hired by the company I can only compare it to the culture most Fraternaties have. Not the good kind either. No these are the drunk all the time, never go to class kind of Frats.
So did they actually think they could hire smart people when thier hiring process is similar to that of a Fraternity selection process? Moreover, how are these people who have less brain cells then your average mouse supposed to coordinate training these people to go out and correctly diagnose computers?
I worked at Best buy as a tech for over a year. We basically ran virus scan, spyware scans and when it got too bad we reformatted. We would also install hard drives and run o/s discs on them. Oh and we ran diag software that was useless, oh and it was not licensed either :)
I would often get in trouble for going outside the norm and actually spending time on a computer. I was run out because I refused to sell people extra crap they didnt need. I left because it was a sales job for low end techies who can install a hard drive as well as put in an o/s disk (whoopie that's hard!) The thing they look for the most is the ability to sell sell sell. Its a sales department that can half assed diagnose to sell for stuff. Oh you have spyware, let me sell you spysweeper!
When I worked at Best Buy as a "Counter Intelligence Agent" (yes, I know, high cheese factor), removing viruses and spyware and selling NAV, Spy Sweeper, etc. was probably 90% of my work load. The other 10% consisted of setting up/customizing new computers (i.e. cleaning out crapware from startup/registry, installing service packs and security patches, turning off visual effects), hardware installations, cleaning VCRs and game consoles, and data backups.
Any PC that was checked in was required to have a full diagnostic check run on it first to identify and categorize problems. If you followed those steps to the letter, most of the time the problem was readily apparent. I can see how people would miss things if they weren't being thorough on the diagnostic. It may be boring and repetitive, but you have to test the memory and the hard drive, look for distended capacitors, excess dust, dead mice, corrosion, etc. This rules out simple hardware malfunctions before you get into bad MBRs, corrupt filesystems, spyware, etc. Once spyware was determined to be the main problem, as was usually the case, we usually ended up recommending the old backup/format/restore routine, because it took less time and cost the customer less money.
Of course, we also found time to shoot the cashiers with Nerf guns, launch cds into the HVAC system, and record the rants of customers who yelled at us when we asked them if they went to porn or gambling sites with IE or used P2P programs like Kazaa. They all did, we had the evidence, yet most refused to admit it and were shocked, SHOCKED, that we called them out on it. We also called the police once on a kid who checked in his PC (under his father's name) with a hard drive full of kiddie porn and wanted us to back the thing up to DVD. That was classic.
Nowadays, I just tell people to buy a Mac.
I'm a geek squad agent and while I'll be the first to admit some agents are under-par, it's hard to make wide generalizations about the inherent uselessness of geek squad agents based on the actions of a few. As far as shoddy repairs done, In-Store agents typically deal with software alone, most hardware repairs we don't have the parts for or are not authorized to repair so we're forced to send it to some third-party vendor and we cross our fingers that they'll know how to take care of it. When that vendor fails, we are the ones who look bad and honestly we're just as upset about the careless workmanship as our customers are. My point is, don't generalize. Some of us are good at what we do, and as in everything, some of us are not.
...yet you seem to be unable to create a working link...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
A long time ago I was very similar to you. I had been working with computers since the ripe age of 5, with my father's 8086, installing software, writing code, and maintaining the 286 DOS box, objecting to upgrading from 3.11 to Win95. I knew these machines inside and out; I had completed hardware upgrades (that violated warranty, because back then, looking at a store bought computer voided the warranty) and generally reversed every stupid problem my family did to that machine. But that was years ago.
But then I decided that all of that wasn't worth it anymore. Why should I have to help people keep their computers clean. When I did get paid, it was more that I thought I could ever make in my life; $40/hour to defrag a harddrive and install a ram module was a steal especially when you are 16. Even the certifications looked to be a good idea, and I thought about it, but there was no way I was going to throw down hundreds of dollars for something like that.
And then I realized something, certs like A+, MSCE and Oracle are worthless (at the very least the entry level certs). They really don't get you anything. While friends of mine were getting certified and making $40,000+ a year right out of highschool I knew that a degree was going to do so much more. So the dot com boom busted and they were out of a job, no money, credit card debt, and new cars they couldn't afford. I did what any enterprising young college student would do and I started networking friends, family, teachers and found that my Shakespeare teacher's husband (English Lit is one of my best subjects) was a big shot manager for a global defense contractor. Before I knew it I was a coop intern making more per hour than anyone else I knew. To this day I still work for the company, going on 5+ years.
But my point being is this, people who have walked that path before as a tech just realize that it's just not enjoyable for the long term and decide to just simply pay someone else to do it for them, like an auto mechanic for a car. Second, people need to realize that you get what you pay for. If you want good tech support go to a local college and post an add on the bulletin board and you'll have a few dozen people contacting you for help. Every one of them is looking to build a resume and you can get killer rates for talented individuals. Third, remember that you are expendable. There is always some one out there with more knowledge, experience, certs, better looking, smells better, etc than you; knowing that will help you realize what you do and how you go about doing it. Finally, no matter how qualified you are for a position there is no guarantee that you will get the job. It can go to someone else with less skill than you, or maybe because they are easier on the eyes, tell better stories because building a team is more about how the team works together than individuals in the team.
Sorry... that was a tangent.
Nihilism means nothing to the dancing peasants
Ok...
Slashdot has completely distorted your perception of reality. I'm 22 years old. I can round up 10 early-20-somethings and 10 early-60-somethings. Their knowledge of UNIX will be roughly the same. I promise you; kids/students my age have no idea what the fuck's UNIX. It's impressive when they've heard of Linux.
I got rid of Windows on my sister's computer and replaced it with Linux. She is happily chugging along and I no longer have to make Geek Squad like repairs (i.e. spend 2 hours running Ad-Aware and Spybot, because scheduling them to run never quite works right...). Linux simply works for her, not becuase it's Linux but a proper solution for her. Over half of her friends actively question why she would use Firefox. And her family friends... they don't have a fucking clue how to use her computer, because it's "Linux"... they're just to stupid to realize it's the same point and click interface (well, KDE's running) and it would take them 10 minutes to pick up the different interface. My sister learned KDE without any training from me. She just got it. Only questions she's asked me is "How do I sync my iPod?" but nothing along the lines of "How do I type a paper...". These are 18 year olds...
Yeah, no fucking way 20-somethings "know" UNIX.
Boycott Sony
There is a reason Geek Squad is number one. So you had a bad experience, it happens to the best of us. To say all of Geek Squad is inept due to the actions of one or two people... Within the Geek Squad there are a wide range of people. Yes there are those who have no business working on computers, and then there are the average techs. But there are also those that can match the skills of anyone here. Guess what, its like that industry wide, Geek Squad and ALL competitors.
Based on the last time I browsed the hardware at Best Buy, apparently they recommend gold plated USB cables (never mind that USB was speced specifically to work well with even a mechanically marginal connection).
ha, am i correct in betting this was a turd cavalier or sunfire? i had the same problem with mine and my brother the "tech" couldn't fix it for weeks although i told him what was wrong. to humor him i did all the things he said new computer, plugs, wires, etc. and about 3 ETC sensors. I finally felt bad for laughing at him all along and fixed it myself without telling him what was done. He still thinks it was the last sensor he put in that did the trick :)
BTW for those of you geeks who aren't in to cars this is a common problem on most cavalier and sunfires (basically the sunfire is a cavalier with different body panels).
I am a Geek Squad employee. I work there part time. I do not disagree with what the main post said. Only a few people at my store actually know what they are doing, most of the people know a bit more than the average computer user, and a few people don't know anything except what they've learned since they started. They hired one guy who had some sort of certification, but had never opened a computer in his life. He's been there a little over 6 months, and he knows how to start up computers and install software. Also, there is no training for new programs or hardware. I started there, because I like to work on computers, and I actually want to try to help people who have computer problems, and don't know how to fix them. If it was a minor fix, I'd fix it and send them on there way with no charge. If it was major then I'd charge them and try to get the problem fixed the best I could. At the end of the fiscal year, Bestbuy figured out there is a huge amount of money to be made from services, since most of the money you take in with services is profit. That's true with just about any business. Now people are getting write ups if they do ANY work on someone's computer and don't charge them for it. It used to be about keeping the customers happy after they have bought a product. Now it's turning into just another sales department. I don't know where it's going to go from here, but so far I'm not liking it. P.S. I'm post anonymously because I know some of the Bestbuy people from my store read this site.
only good thing is their 30 day return policy i blew my 450w PSU so i went to best buy picked up a 500w then went home that night and bought a good 600w PSU from tiger direct for only like $10 more so when that one came i returned the other crappyer one to best buy and got my money for that back so i was never computer less when i waited for my part to come :)
Stop by my cube sometime...
I used to work for Best Buy years ago for about 2 months. The truth.
1.) BestBuy does not care about the main system sales. Printers, Computers, etc don't make Best Buy big profits. The numbers they cared about and crammed down the sales people's throats was add-ons. The printers don't come with printer cables. So ofcourse it's our job to sell them the biggest baddest usb cable possible. While your add it, remember the ink cartridge doesn't come 100% full when you buy a printer, they come 50 - 75% full. Paper, remember to take home a box of printer paper. Don't forget about the extended warrenty. I was filling in for a sales guy (i was not typically sales) in the computer section and got chewed out for not selling them an upgrade in RAM, the computer was a top of the line box there already maxed out by the motherboard specs that I looked up before making any suggestions. They wouldn't listen, all they know is they are to sell upgrades, even if it technically isn't possible.
2.) Sales people at Best Buy know 0% about what they are talking about, they recieve no training. It's just a matter of what they put down on their resume. If computers is mentioned they sell computer, if listening to music is a hobby, their in the media section. Watch TV, well you know where they go.
3.) GeekSquad, although is a new thing, is marketting, only marketting, nothing backing it up, other then the same A+ cert guy able to stick in a card in a motherboard and hope windows detects it. Remember Geek is Chic now, and BestBuy wants to look chic.
Oh man I'm so happy someone finally asked this question. I work at Geek Squad. That place is such a rip off. They hire people who have no knowledge whatsoever besides the fact that at one point and time they were A+ certified. My manager operates on that fact alone completely ignoring the fact that everyone under him knows 10 times the amount he does. Financially Geek Squad is a total rip off. It hurts me every time I ring up a person. It really does. Mainly on the fact that these people are paying for things you could google and walk through the solutions yourself. A lot of the times the solutions are along the lines of uninstall and reinstall. I try not to charge for those, but my manager is a hard ass on that sort mindset, mainly because Best Buy is just a sad money oriented place. They operate on who sells what and how many accesories they can attach in order to raise their revenue and GMP. Bottom line Geek Squad associates know nothing, and it's a total rip off. Best Buy is a horrible place to buy things, if you dont work there. Oh yes and the cable discount is ridiculously good.
That is how I explain to people why they should NEVER take their computer to Geek Squad. Do some shopping around, ask for referrals, etc. If you just take it to Geek Squad or somewhere similar, 50% or more of the cost is going to their ads.
Or, in other words, you are paying for them to keep advertising, so you always know where to take your computer. Because it's worth paying $300 instead of $75, instead of, y'know, looking in a fucking phone book for local tech support, or calling up a techy relative or friend.
Let's see:
Explaining the reasons that Geek Squad is successful doesn't excuse the morons who work there or the morons who still take their computers there. Anyone who takes their computer to Geek Squad deserves to never see it again. Anyone who works at Geek Squad deserves some of the BOFH's special treatment.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained -Tom Baker, Doctor Who
It's called Market Basket Analysis. Best Buy hired a big-name consulting firm (I worked with them in a past life, hence the anonymous post) to help improve their margins. Using some very interesting cluster analysis techniques, they are able to identify (1) the the driver in a market basket (2) items with symetrical relationships and (3) the items that get bought in conjuction with (1) and (2). By accepting a lower margin on the basket driver and adjusting their assortment and pricing on the tag-along items, Best Buy is able to increase sales while maintaining or improving overall margins.
Taco bell isn't great, but at least it's edible. If Taco Bell was like Geek Squad, a burrito would cost $300 and be full of glass shards. If Geek Squad was like Taco Bell, they might not do anything more than they do now, but at least they wouldn't make things worse, replace completely random parts rather than what actually needed replacing, etc.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
My buddy worked for Best Buy and offered to buy me some stuff at their employee price. So, he sent me a list of example items which proved that some stuff at Best Buy is an absolute scam. The chief culprit being audio video cables. They make a killing on those items. Below is a partial list from him from October of last year. Now obviously the prices are last year's prices, but the markup on each item is really the interesting part. Pardon the formatting. The slashdot "lameness" filter made me murder the nice formatting I previously had before it would let me post.
Sony 50 widescreen LCD HDTV Model KDFE50A10
Current Best Buy Price 2,375.00 Employee Discount Price 1,771.86
Amount Saved 603.14 Percentage Saved 25
Samsung 56 DLP Model HLR5667W
Current Best Buy Price 2,849.99 Employee Discount Price 2,057.32
Amount Saved 792.67 Percentage Saved 28
DirectTV DVR HDTV Model HR10250
Current Best Buy Price 599.99 Employee Discount Price 328.54
Amount Saved 271.45 Percentage Saved 45
Monster Fiberoptic 600 Model U2 I600 FO
Current Best Buy Price 59.99 Employee Discount Price 21.65
Amount Saved 38.34 Percentage Saved 64
Klipsch 420 watt 10 subwoofer Model SUB10
Current Best Buy Price 407.99 Employee Discount Price 226.38
Amount Saved 181.61 Percentage Saved 45
Klipsch 6 BD 2way bookshelf speaker Model B3
Current Best Buy Price 329.98 Employee Discount Price 186.76
Amount Saved 143.22 Percentage Saved 43
Audio Research 15' subwoofer cable Model PR152
Current Best Buy Price 34.99 Employee Discount Price 8.39
Amount Saved 26.60 Percentage Saved 76
Audio Research AR pro Digital optical cable Model PR180
Current Best Buy Price 27.99 Employee Discount Price 9.64
Amount Saved 18.35 Percentage Saved 66
JBL 8 3 way floor speaker Model E60
Current Best Buy Price 199.99 Employee Discount Price 117.66
Amount Saved 82.33 Percentage Saved 41
Alpine CD Receiver
Current Best Buy Price 179.99 Employee Discount Price 96.07
Amount Saved 83.92 Percentage Saved 47
Pioneer CD receiver Model DEHP4700MP
Current Best Buy Price 178.99 Employee Discount Price 110.36
Amount Saved 68.63 Percentage Saved 38
Sony 19 LCD flat monitor Model SDMHS95P S
Current Best Buy Price 599.99 Employee Discount Price 410.43
Amount Saved 189.56 Percentage Saved 32
Creative labs intrigue 3400 speaker Model 3400
Current Best Buy Price 129.99 Employee Discount Price 81.89
Amount Saved 48.10 Percentage Saved 37
Altec Lansing computer speaker Model VS4121
Current Best Buy Price 83.99 Employee Discount Price 50.47
Amount Saved 33.52 Percentage Saved 40
Yamaha THX 980 receiver Model HTR5890BL
Current Best Buy Price 699.99 Employee Discount Price 439.72
Amount Saved 260.27 Percentage Saved 37
Harmony color screen remote Model 880
Current Best Buy Price 249.99 Employee Discount Price 118.13
Amount Saved 131.86 Percentage Saved 53
Monster component video Model U2 V800 CV
Current Best Buy Price 99.99 Employee Discount Price 36.10
Amount Saved 63.89 Percentage Saved 64
The answer is simple...people ask us to ship things off all the time regardless if we can fix it. The real question is : "Since the advent of motherboard installs and such in-store, what do those bitches at the service center do? And why does everything come back even more damaged than when it went?"
The only reason Best Buy bought Geek Squad was so BB's computer repair would have a brand name attached to it. They figure if people recognize BB's computer support brand they will choose to buy a computer at Best Buy because they perceive they will get better support than from some other retailer.
"...you name it we have seen it. at the stores they ahve maybe 1 out of 10 of the techs know something."
"basically, we know our isht."
I think you need to balance your time with learning how to spell and write properly.
Sorry, total flame.
You create your own reality - Leave mine to me.
Personal Computer Manufacturers Create Incomprehensible Acronyms
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I worked at CompUSA for a bit. As for Apple pricing, yes I did get Apple products at cost. Although the pricing is still a little bit cheaper from Apple using the educational discount. Apple will not sell current products to the general public below the cost that they say. I left CompUSA when they started selling Bose. I could get Bose products at cost too, but we could not sell them to the general public below the price set by Bose. Bose has a huge ass margin, a $1000 system at cost was $560. I sold printers mostly and yes it is true there is really no margin on printers nor computers. I would sell $100 Epson and the margin would be like $8, so addon sales were important to pump that up a bit. A $21.99 USB cable which at cost was $2.35, 4 ink tanks at $11.99 a piece which at cost is $7.89, photo paper and inkjet paper also oh and tap. The reason for this is to cover cost. Where I worked at was a place which had expensive real estate, roughly $30 a sq.ft. per month and the store was 25,000 sq.ft. and there were employee costs at roughly $10 an hour per employee and the store required ~20 employees to work a day with each at an 8 hour shift not including management. Also those flyers in the paper every Sunday cost roughly 1 million dollars per market, so the store has to pay into those too. Retail is expensive to run. I also worked at OD and damn that place was worse on costs, all the supplies from paper to envelopes and pens have a bare minimum increase of 100% from cost if not more.
I've been working at Best Buy since my freshman year of college (I'm only a senior now and gone the second I graduate). I've seen the change from the "PC Tech" department to being an "agent" in the "Geek Squad." While I am in no way a computer god, I've dabbled in a bit of everything and am fairly confident that any problem is relatively easy to diagnose and repair. I am (by far) the most knowledgable tech (agent, but I hate calling it that, as well as being referred to as a 'geek' since the inception of this godforsaken department) at the store. Most other technicians try learning on the job.
I will give credit where credit is due. The Geek Squad IS better than the PC Tech department it used to be, at least in theory. The Geek Squad has brought the concept of "process" into play where previously there was none. While it doesn't help that best buy only wants to pay $12 an hour or less to a tech, the applicants for Geek Squad have an interview with a sales manager to get the job. No technical interview is really in play. Needless to say, alot of clueless dumbasses get let in. With the new processes that are in play, all you need is some knowledge, right? Well, Best Buy looked over that and went ahead and published a "handbook" for techs to use. It includes mundane tasks such as resetting IP addresses, using the task manager, virus scanning, spyware removals, etc.
For the most part, if we gave the guide away, most customers would qualify as "geeks" as far as Best Buy is concerned. Also, corporate has created a few tools and thrown them together on CD. Just looking at it pisses me off- knowing that BestBuy just ripped off and repackaged the UBCD and BartPE with thier own disgusting logos all over the place.
So while I DO take slight offense to those saying that EVERYONE on the Geek Squad is a moron (only because I can't put myself in that category as far as technical ability goes- as for working at BestBuy still, that's a different story), I whole-heartedly agree.
--E
Honestly, I've found the Geek Squad to be on the same level as the sales staff in most large retail chains. That is, they know how to read the label to you, and sell it, but not much more.
At the local Best Buy store, they were having some sale, and they were doing several promotional events. One of the ones that seemed interesting was a "Stump The Geek" booth.
As the first "Geek" put it, you ask them a question, they answer. If they're wrong, you get a free T-shirt or other promotional items. I threw the girl a couple moderately hard questions. After 5 or 6 questions, she got someone more experienced than herself over. He informed me that I had to ask questions from the queue cards. They had a stack of about 100 questions with answers. As it turns out, they were to have taken the cards home and memorized the answers. Not fair.
But hey, in the interest of fairness I offered to have the tables turned. "You guys know the questions and answers. I've only seen the first 5 or 6 cards. Ask me the next 10 questions. If I answer right, I win. If I answer any wrong, I'll leave you guys alone."
I got 8 questions right, and on the 9th, the answer on the card was wrong. I explained to them why it was wrong, and why the correct answer was correct. The 10th question turned out to be just as bogus.
For example, a question was "How can data be sent to a printer." Their answer was USB. They had no clue that parallel, serial, and IR were correct answers too. "We only stock USB printers." I had to explain that there are still a good number of parallel printers in use, and it's very likely that a customer having problems may be using a 5 year old parallel printer.
Another one was, "What's the fastest WAN connection?". Being that I do network stuff a *LOT*, I had fun with this one. I believe their "right" answer was DSL. I started rattling off some of the OC speeds, and it got blank stares.
They conceeded that I knew their job better than they did. I had time on my hands. I believe the people I was with had gone off to look at movies. I started going through all their cards. I made two stacks. "Right" and "Wrong". The "Right" stack had valid question answer pairs. The "Wrong" were just plain wrong. I tried to discuss these with their senior guy, who drew a blank after I explained a few of the "Wrong" ones. A lot of his answers revolved around "We only stock...."
Trained monkeys with flash cards. If it's not on their flash card, they aren't going to know the answer. It applies through most chain stores though, so don't even hope for the "My store is better than your store" fight. I've spent time giving right answers to customers in stores on many (MANY) occasions.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Sounds like tech may not be your specialty...ever think about social work? Seriously, very strong insight your comment(s) have.
Jeesh, I had no idea.
Sounds like I'm raising my fees for PC repair.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
What does Geek Squad do? Judging from your description, they get the problem fixed for their customer by hiring you and your firm, which is a good thing for you, right? It seems like you're complaining about getting work. A lot of us here should be very, very grateful that computer technology isn't so easy to manage -- it's why we get paid.
Sounds like you're doing a good job if you're catching misdiagnoses. This looks like an overall good situation for everyone concerned, as far as I can tell. Customer goes to one place for help, and that place gets it done behind the scenes.
(Customer base that is...okay, some of them anyway) So does that mean the guy in the geeksquad commerical with Bono that goes to all those concerts, is like the Darth Maul or Count Dukku of their lot(2 their always are...so who's the geek empreror I wonder...)Hey, I operate as a residential PC tech, I am only local. For a minute I thought about trying to get up the scratch to get franchising rights for Geeksquad, but then I realized that I would no longer be a boss but a "paying"(not paid) employee. Fast forward, Geeksquad ends up getting busted using pirated software in their "Geeksquad MRI suite", auspiciously enough, my phone rings more. The only thing these guys are guilty of is warezing the wrong software to batch and run, and being genuine prix to. I love going to Bestbuy, CompUSA, or anywhere that sells computers through a major retail chain; just so I get the chance to "hold service", meaning, schooling the sales team and tech team in plain view of all their prospective customers that would have been swarming them...if I wasn't there. It's sad really, I sell their shite better than THEY do. After I'm done preaching to my newly built "congregation" ,yours truly "the reverend" then commences to explain to all in attendance that these blasphemers, no nothing about bringing god's children to the promised land and that if they follow me, I will show them the glory and providence that is...a working machine. Not one that you "work to fix", but one that "works for you". I digress.
Basically I get a kick out of going into major retail chains and schooling the shit out of the staff in front of perspective buyers to enlighten, and sometimes embolden the purchasing choice(s)that they make just to see the look of maddening perplexity on the faces of those shill techs that give my craft and trade a bad name.
Coming soon to a store near you!
Besy Buy peddling MonsterCable brand USB cables in an effort to make up for the lost margin!?! Are you retarded? There's hardly any real markup on that crap. If BBY really wanted to make a profit, they'd sell you something like a 6ft Dynexor Geek Squad brand. Dynex used to be nothing but junk. The quality has definitely improved as they are now purchased from the same companies outsourced to make cables for, say, Belkin.
Proof?
BBY employee purchase (not called a discount) price = 5% above store cost (not retail stupid)
50ft Geek Squad CAT6 cable = $37.99 (retail, bestbuy.com) less than $10 (employee price)
Sometimes it's a matter of companies wanting to sell off backstock of older devices so they can release a newer model. Instead of putting the "guts" into a sleek black and silver metallic case with the company logo engraved everywhere, they stick them in plain Jane plastic boxes with a tiny Insignia or Dynex sticker. They then sell them to stores like BBY (Dynex/Insignia), Circuit City and Wal-Mart.
More proof?
Insignia > IS-DVD04094 > DVD/VCR Combo = LG
Dynex networking components = DLink (firmware/loader different on router)
Thank you for reading - BBY Employee
I think computer rooms used to look more impressive than they do now.
I've seen the datacenter here at my university (ASU) and it's just a few rows of blade servers. It's powerful, but not that much to look at.
In contrast, I remember when my dad took me to work sometime back in the 80's at Lawson software and there was a TON more machines. The room had much higher security. It was a bigger room with brighter lighting. There were a few terminals with people behind them. Lots of those tape storage systems with the cool spinning action going on. Not to mention the color of those computers and designs were just so cool and retro. There was a lot more to look at.
I just wrote a complaint to Apple, or rather a suggestion, that there be an AppleCare designed for desktop and AirPort users in mind because our systems are not portable---an in-home service plan. I hope Best Buy lights Apple's fire of competition even if they suck. I want to stop being the geek of the house and enjoy reading what i read on the computer rather than pretending to know how or want to fix firmware or who knows what...the point is this is a long time coming.
they told him NOT to fix the computers as good as he could because otherwise "they wouldn't get repeat business". Luckily he had enough morals to quit as this disgusted him. I don't expect them to be around too much longer.
Some people are grateful for the lack of adequate service from the geek squad... I worked in a shop at a strip mall next-door to a best buy and I would say at least 40% of our business was from there lack of skill... the other 60% was from dell.... so at least they are a little better than dell. And they helped pay the bills.
My parents had some Geek Squad people install a wireless network for them, and one time while trying to fix a problem with one of the computers, I noticed that BIOS had a password on it. Since my parents know absolutely nothing about computers, I knew they couldn't have put it on there, and computers don't come with password protected BIOS panels. I fail to see how putting a password on BIOS (or even accessing BIOS at all) has to do with installing a wireless network card and setting up a wireless network, other than forcing people to contact them for the password when they need BIOS access to solve a problem.
I've heard many horror stories from Geek Squad victims. Myself, I've had a few decent experiences with the Apple Genius bar, but far and away the best service I had came from a company called TechRoom. They were competent, quick, and extremely professional. I've referred friends to them and I've never heard anything but praise.
GeekSquad charged my mother $270, and they didn't do anything to it. Unfortunately, it will be difficult for me to argue on her behalf, because I'm 1400 miles away.
Apparantly, they installed some software (Anti-virus, etc.) on it for her. She doesn't have the bill yet (it better be itemized), but she said they charged her about $70 to run the diagnostic, $90 for software, and whatever else lead to a $270 bill. She thought she needed a new power supply. Turns out, she just needed to pay BestBuy money and NOT get a new power supply. What the hell is going on over there at BestBuy? I will no longer endorse their store, not even for DVDs or CDs.
By the way, her computer was purchased last august at a price of $200. So, now she has spent more in repairs than on the machine itself. Thanks a lot BestBuy, you basterds!
So I've been working at BestBuy for a month and I've learned some stuff about geeksquad. First, they just raised their prices :P
Second, geeksquad was its own company before BestBuy aquiered them. Everyone jokes that geeksquad says they bought bestbuy, but thats besides the point.
For the most part, no they aren't the brightest bulbs on the string. I work in computer sales and I've heard geeksquad "cadets" ask the sales ppl what to do when things like their personal videocards are overheating and things like that. As long they as they are just installing antivirus for granny's computer or hooking up a router ( which they charge $159 to do) then ur fine, but I wouldnt go to them for a major problem. Chances are good they will charge you the %70 to look at it and then tell u that you shoudl just buy a new one.
I think generalizing that all geek squad agents are incompetant is wrong. My husband is a geek squad agent, and although he admits that there are some stupid agents I've heard him complain so much about the service centers (the type of place this guy works at) that I'm not even surprised anymore. I'm not saying the guy who wrote the original article is like this, but all it seems like they do is replace the mainboard and send it back. A lot of times they don't even check to see if the problem is fixed, and then the computers have to be sent back to the service center. All I'm saying is that there's stupid people on both sides.
And as for the prices that Best Buy charges, the agents don't think that it's fair either. They don't see a lot of that money. I know recently they upped the prices in our area, but no raises. The agents get no say in the prices because they're just handed down to them from way up higher. Stupid management...
Wrong! You charge $100+ per hour, as the customers will treat the price as a hint of your better knowledge of tech and deeper experience in the business. You geeks REALLY don't know anything about marketing? :-)
Even moderately naive buyers can known that all usb printers take the same cables.
Surely they just say "no thanks, i've already got one" particularly when faced with the high sticker price.
Over time this technique will surely wear off.
You say that, but I don't know anybody who's actually *tried* it. It worked out great for that department store with Santa Claus in that movie...
I also don't know anybody that actually *tried* to ride a motorcycle off a cliff chasing an airplane, climbed in and flown the plane to safety. It worked great for Pierce Brosnan in that movie.
Geek Squad is a seperate company than Best Buy, in fact in some either officemax's or similar chain down south you may begin to see geek squad precincts popping up.
Honestly, the Geek Squad at the Best Buy in my area is a terrible excuse for a computer support/repair specialities group. I will mess with them when I go into Best Buy, and ask them a range of questions from simple stuff like the difference between AGP and PCIE is to what exactly the DPI resolution on a mouse means, and how that will effect me while gaming, and I always like to throw in something about what the specifics are of how NCQ works, and do I need it. It's hilarious, because none of them really know the easy questions, so they are completely lost by the time I'm through with them.
Several replies come to mind, including:
"Nothing more than the 12-year-old kid next door could do better for a few smokes, a six-pack of beer, or a joint."
"Fix things until they are broken; requiring return trips to Best Buy."
"Case your home."
Take a look at
http://geeksquad.com/servicesandpricing/onlinesup
Lots of $99 price tags for vaguely defined "services".
(The only thing I consistently note about the Geek Squad is its total lack of concern for competency and quality...just look at how they butcher the English language on that Web page, then imagine what they will do to your computer if you are crazy enough to pay to give them access to it! One would think that an element of giant corporation that does billions of dollars of sales each year could and would afford to pay a proofreader to go over their Web site, or at least someone who knows how to use a spelling and grammar checker.)
But the work done by the Geek Squad is guaranteed!, right?
This is the description of the Geek Squad "guarantee" I found at
http://geeksquad.com/commonquestions/index.php#gu
Note that no promise is made that the Geek Squad will actually do what a normal person might think they agreed to do. Note also that Best Buy fails to publish their Terms of Service on that page, not even on a linked page...I wonder why? My educated guess is that they might take a second or even a third stab at solving a problem that has them stumped (the possibilities are endless!) and then, if one is extremely persistent, grudgingly refund one's money.
The business model is simple. Overcharge for simple services that people have been fooled into thinking they can't do themselves (FUD). Pay a goofy kid not bright enough to tie a tie to dress funny (clip-on tie) and spew terminology he doesn't understand as he goes through an installation or "repair" with a step-by-step set of instructions a chimp could follow.
In all fairness, Best Buy really doesn't deserve the moniker Worst Buy...not as long as Circuit City exists.
"You're young, you're drunk, you're in bed, you have knives; shit happens." -- Angelina Jolie
A friend of mine's father nearing the retiring age feels that he would get bored with retirement. He used to be an IT guy at some company, and now that he's around 60, he picked up a job at the geek squad! Odd i know, but hey he gets to drive around a tux-style beetle all day. A long time ago i asked him a similar question, and he said most frequently he is installing an OS, setting up a router, or hooking up a Television/Home Theater system. But he also frequently gets problems with cable modems, and other various things people find wrong. For the most part however, the geek squad is for installation of all the electronic equipment that BBY sells. We can all laugh about it at /. but not everyone knows what vim stands for, or even what it means to 'boot' up the computer.
I Bleed Scarlet
Their name says it all. A geek is someone who bites the heads off of chickens. If you want someone who knows something, hire a nerd.
As silly as the PB&J question may have seemed, I can assure you that question was very, very good. I had a stint selling Audio/Video equipment at Circuit City.
I present to you, my side of a typical post-sale telephone call for the connection of a new DVD player to an existing television:
Do you see your dvd player?
Do you see your television?
Are you in a place where you can access the back of both?
Do you see any connectors?
Are they round?
Is one of the connectors yellow?
Okay, acknowledging that they're silver and shiny, are the centers of any of the connectors you see yellow?
Do you see the cables you bought?
Have you opened the package yet?
Open the package.
Just insert your thumbs in the top and pull apart briskly.
Do you see the cable with the yellow band?
Pick up the cable with the yellow band at the connector.
No, it doesn't matter which end.
Yes, you can remove the twist tie from the cable.
I'm not sure, you usually twist it counter-clockwise.
Well, do you have wire cutters?
No! NO! You do not need to cut the wire itself! Just cut the twist tie.
Yes, so plug that wire into the...
The yellow one, yes we're still working with that one.
Plug that wire into your DVD player.
Into the connector that is silver on the outside and yellow on the inside.
Yes.
Okay?
Now, look on the back of the TV.
Do you see a connector that is yellow - in the center?
Okay, plug the connector opposite...
Yes, that means the other end...
Plug that connector into the yellow-centered connector on the back of the tv.
Do you see the other cables that came in the package you bought?
Do you see a white label with black arrows on the wire?
Pick up the cable by the red connector on the end of the wire indicated by the arrow.
No... See the direction the arrow is pointing in?
Fine, pick it up near the arrow label. Following the wire in the direction the arrow is pointing, find the connector with the red band.
On the back of the tv, do you see a connector, near the yellow-centered connector you just used, that has a red center?
Ok, plug into that.
Now, hanging off the same wire, on the same end, is a black connector.
You don't see it?
Well, are there two connectors on the end of the wire?
What color is the other connector?
Yeah, I guess you could call that blue.
Next to the red-centered connector you just used there is a...
No, you're not looking for a blue connector this time.
I know, but you're not likely to even have a blue connector.
You have a blue connector?
And a green connector?
Next to the red connector?
When you were in the store, you told me that you had only composite connections on your tv. That sounds like component.
Well, the component does give a better picture, and may let you enjoy progressive scan, depending on your tv.
I'm not making things complicated. Your tv has different capabilities than you said it had.
Yes, you can get a picture out of those cables.
No, it will still look much better than VHS.
Alright.
So, the red connector, erm, the red-centered connector you plugged the red-banded wire into - that wasn't labelled "R" or "Right" was it?
What was it labelled?
Ah, well, let's look for a red-centered connector that is labelled "Right" or "R", probably close to the yellow connector we used earlier.
Yellow-centered then.
No?
Nothing?
Well, read off the labels of all the red-centered connectors back there.
No.
No.
"Right Audio"? That's your connector. Plug the red-banded wire into there.
No, Don't use the other end of the cable. Unplug the red-banded connector you plugged in elsewhere on the back of the tv. Plug that into the "Right Audio" connection.
Now, the black... sorry, "blue" banded connector.
Yes, on that end.
Yes.
Plug that into the white-centered connector that has to be next to the connector you just used.
Alright, now, to the other end of the cables we just used.
This
On the flip side, I needed a new laptop *fast* (as in ahora mismo - in my grubby little paws right now). I went to WorstBuy and Circuit City. I knew I was going to wipe the OS and install my own (plural), so I just wanted to make sure there was a driver disk (DVD, CD, whatever) - and NOT just a "reimage the whole friggin disk". BestBuy *refused* to open a box for me to see what was included. They *insisted* that it had it (found out later from a friend - it didn't) AND they were pushing hard for the upgrade. So I went to Circuit City where they promptly opened the box when asked and even started sorting through the CDs to help. When I explained what I wanted as far as the actual hardware, they did one half-hearted attempt at upgrade.
Just my $0.02.
This explains far, far too much.
The last time I was at BestBuy was when my parents were shopping for a new computer. We found a decent model and went to get the sales guy, who was sitting in a little booth looking very bored.
We went through the usual sales stuff, "Don't you want a better model?", etc.
Then, he's all like, "Hey, do you have a battery backup?"
Dad: "Yes, yes we do."
Salesman (Disappointed): "Oh... Well, how old is it?"
Dad: "It's about year old."
Salesman: "What sort of computer will this be replacing?"
Dad: "A five year old HP running Windows 98"
Salesman (brightens up): "Oh, well, you see, the battery backup you currently have is not compatible with Windows XP."
Now, this was before battery backups that notified the computer of a power failure and automatically shut it down became big. The model he was trying to see us didn't have this feature. And my dad is not dumb. He worked as an electrical engineer for a while. He used to *build* batteries.
Dad: "..."
Salesman: "So, yeah. Your old APC battery won't work with this thing."
Dad: "It's a BATTERY. The computer doesn't care where the power comes from!"
Salesman: "No, no, no-"
At this point, my mother and I started cracking up. The salesman looked a bit puzzled, unaware of the grave he was digging himself, but my Mom assured him it was fine. He thing continued to tell Dad how wrong he was about this whole battery backup thing, until it was revealed what sort of job my father formally had. A dead silence fell across the room, broken only by the snickers emitting from Mom and myself.
"Shall I ring this PC up for you then?", inquired the salesman (Whose manager had been observing him for the past five minutes, without interference.)
What was really annoying was not just that the salesman was talking complete rot, but the fact that his manager was just standing there letting him try to get away with it. He didn't even apologize when it came out that the salesman was flat out lying.
Needless to say, I haven't been there since.
I can repair all of those (and a hell of a lot more) without reinstalling the OS. You sure you don't work at Best Buy?
The reinstall takes 1 hour. 2 hours if you reinstall the applications as well. The customer leaves with a $200 bill and they are ~happy or satisfied with their now fully functional PC.
Your method of fixing takes upto days long, depending on the problem. That's hundreds or thousands of dollars and a very very very dissatisfied customer who will lecture you about a new PC costing only $300.
The truth of the matter is that a new PC with new software preinstalled costs ~$600-$800. If your repair costs more than half that, the customer will be dissatisfied. This means that you have a maximum total $400 repair limit for the life of the PC. That's cumulative! If they have already paid Best Buy $200 for this PC, even for a different problem, then your budget shrinks accordingly. What? Not fair? Welcome to retail, Cupcake!
You've got less than 4 hours to fix all that the parent poster described. Can you do that? Furthermore, if you can do that, will you be satisfied enough to continue working for the company while being paid $15/hr.?
The corporate world is only slightly different. PCs cost them more to begin with, not to mention the corporate software. But, that's why corporations use images. If the problem takes more than 15 minutes to fix, then the PC gets a new copy of the image and they are back in operation in 30 minutes or less no matter what the problem! You spend days resolving a PC issue at my company and you'll almost certainly get a reprimand. Let it happen a second time and I'll fire your ass personally!
I was a geek squad "agent" for around 14 months, and did a short stint at
one of Best Buy's regional service centers.
From the way I understand things, I assume that Zenitram works with one
of Best Buy's third-party, outside repair vendors. They use them for various
reasons: overflow of work, warranty arrangements with the OEMs,
and simple efficiency. Laptop computers, for example, were almost always
sent out, even for a bad hard drive, because it is obviously not feasible
to train and equip a repair tech in every store.
BTW, I hope your employer is not DEX. We had computers come back from them
with the wrong power supply, no power supply, no battery, the *wrong* battery,
time and time again. I'd have to ask you the same thing!
In the squad's defense, sometimes just the bumpy ride to service makes a machine
behave differently, so you might not be seeing what they saw in the store.
Have no doubt about it, though; there are some really, r e a l l y dumb
shits that work in the geek squad (sic).
One of the "techs" I worked with sent a laptop to the service center for a hard
drive replacement because of a "Non system-disk or disk error" message. Yep,
it came back, "Non-bootable floppy in disk drive." I had a machine come into the
service center because it would "hang when the (PS2) keyboard plug was pulled out
and reinserted."
In fairness, I also have to say that there are some really excellent techs that
work there, and I learned a lot from those guys.
Best Buy's purchase of the Geek Squad name was probably the best marketing moves
ever made, because the organization had an excellent reputation and brand name
recognition through some brilliant marketing of their own. But from what I saw,
it is going to be heavily watered down as Best Buy exploits it in big retail
fashion. They don't, and realize they don't, understand the service business,
and try to run it like the rest of their big box sales organization: you hire
the cheapest unskilled labor you can find.
It's pretty hard to find good techs that will work for $10/hr, so many of them
are high school kids who think they understand computers because they put
together their own gaming system and used lots of wire ties. They vary widely
in their systems, electrical, and mechanical aptitudes, so you are undoubtedly
seeing the product of those who are practically morons on all three fronts.
To directly answer your question, the in-store folks primarily do drive and
memory replacements, spyware removal, software installations, and the occasional
upgraded video card or even power supply replacement. On laptops we only did
software and memory--we usually didn't have notebook hard drives in stock.
There could be many plausible reasons for what you are seeing, Zenitram, but
from what I saw, I'm not surprised you're asking. Geek Squad doesn't stand
for much any more.
Actually, only the supervisors are A+ certified for 'Geek Squad'. The techs need no qualifications / certification...
Be careful! Bears shouldn't consume large furry dogs.
Since you are so knowledgeable, you do realize that there are many many service plan repairs that are REQUIRED to be repaired at the Service Center, NOT in the local Precincts? Also, it is a matter of certain equipment not available in the stores, which are only available in the service centers? As well as a huge reason for send outs is that the parts are either not carried in stores, or if they are, it hits the stores P&L, whereas you guys are specifically stocked for these items and equipped to do these repairs? But of course, you are so smart, you knew this already, right? Oh, and the last time my personnal laptop came back from you guys, it had three loose screws in the Hard drive compartment, and Dorito's crumbs on the keyboard.