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Best Buy $39.95 "Optimization" At Best a Waste of Money

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the hooray-for-corporate-scams dept.

DCFC writes "The Consumerist deconstructs the appalling 'optimization service' that Best Buy has been pushing on consumers in recent weeks. The retailer charges 40 bucks to give you a slower PC, and make bizarre claims that it makes it go 200% faster. 'We ran the 3DMark 2003 graphics benchmark on each laptop, comparing optimized and non-optimized settings. For two of our samples, the Gateway and Toshiba, performance changes were negligible. On the Asus laptop, however, optimized tests actually scored about 32% worse than the non-optimized setup. We have been unable to isolate the source of this performance change. On none of the three tested laptops did the optimized settings give a performance boost in our test.'"

3 of 504 comments (clear)

  1. Who buys a computer from best buy? by Locke2005 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Anybody who buys a computer from Best Buy instead of going to Newegg or TigerDirect probably deserves exactly what they get.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  2. Geek Squad (CIA) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Hello!

                    My name is Daryl and I work as a (CIA)Counter Inteligence Agent (Get it?) for a Geek Squad location in Texas. I would like to clarify any ill-informed notions posted on this forum. Our Optimization Service (or opti) is a service we perform for customers who just want to take their computer home and have it ready to plug in/turn on as soon as they get it in the door. Our Service consists of:

    1) Agent Tweaks: We perform tweaks to the computer to allow it to boot up quicker while removing trials of software you may not want such as (Google Desktop).
    2) Windows Critical Update: We perform critical updates that would normally take 3-4 hours to do and we perform that in easily half the time or less.
    3) Regular Maintenance: Misc things like Defragmentation etc.

    Beleive me when i say there is value to the service, especially to those who are not as computer savvy as the majority of you all. Its especially good for someone who's time is valuable. Besides a service is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and as people come to us everyday for their everyday computer needs, i doubt that we are scamming anyone. I hope this has enlightened some of you, and that you will consider our services in the future. Thank you.

  3. Re:Credit limit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    If you can't buy a computer with cash up-front, you shouldn't be buying that computer.