Slashdot Mirror
Best Buy Abandoning "Optimization" Service?
ddillman writes "According to The Consumerist, Best Buy is apparently dropping some of its 'optimization' services, and will instead provide the 'Best Buy Software Installer,' a new tool that the company says will 'radically simplify how you set up and customize your new PC or upgrade an existing one.' Translation: instead of you paying Best Buy to delete trialware from your new PC, Best Buy will get paid by software makers to try to get you to install it. A page on the Best Buy web site states that the new installation tool will be available January 17th, and 'gives you choices and options to configure your computer, and saves you time by making it easy to discover new software, then download and install with a single click.' According to an alleged internal Best Buy document obtained by a technology blog, Best Buy stands to make an extra $5 per PC just by including BBSI."
Great chance for noobs to try removing crap until something breaks, and then see if they got a usable "recovery disc" with their OS. That's how I got started with computers.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
There's not a big enough emergency in the world to get me to pay $79.95 for an HDMI cable at Best Buy. For emergency routers, external hard drives and such, I go to the 24-hour Wal-Mart SuperCenter. Always funny going up to the cashier at 3AM with milk, eggs and hard drives...
Having worked for Geek Squad one summer while in college, I can say that the services they offer are overpriced and not a good value. Management told me time and time again to sell more of their 300 dollar advanced diagnostics tests to people that were suffering from simple issues. They try to package everything into ridiculously priced "package deals". Meanwhile, we werent given the tools to solve many of the problems they claimed we could do, and also encouraged us to try to fix. Its a simple problem of idiotic management, over-zealous marketing, and crappy tools. Don't use Geek Squad, and dont use this stupid utility they are trying to push on everyone. I would bet its just another attem
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
well thats the thing and always has been. there is no profit in computer sales. i worked at BB for three years and learned that every time i sold a computer. it was always about the accessories and services. One time i got dragged back into in office and given a warning about my salesmanship because I helped a customer make their computer package better. They had bought $2000 worth of computer and $2500 of accessories (printers, cables, ink...all kinds of stuff). however i got yelled at because i swapped a piece of "learning place" software for a router, they had the same dollar value, but of course the router was less profit. But that wasn't the issue the REAL problem was that it lowered our stores daily sales numbers when applied to other Best Buy stores in the area (not against competing stores).
I was instructed time and time again to "walk" customers if they weren't getting additional accessories or services, and at least once a day i did. So even though we weren't "on commission", something we were told to tell every customer, that didnt matter because we treated everyone like we were.
i know these stories are told every time an article about Best Buy pops up, i just wish more people could hear them. It has never been about providing "exceptional products and services in a user friendly environment", it has ALWAYS been about the fact that BB loses money when they sell computers without attachments.
they say it is often more relevant then the comment above, all we know is its called the Sig!
For example, I am typing this on a Best Buy bought Toshiba that I picked up for $300, for a 15 inch screen, Celeron 900 CPU (at 2.2 ghz), 2 gigs of DDR2, a 160 GB HDD and 100% Linux compatability,
My son has that exact same one. Bought in August. It's in for a new HD right now.
The GeekSquad dude was surprisingly non-pushy about extra services and crap. When he asked about backups and reinstallation, "Nope, I just need a functioning hard drive". 'OK, come back Tuesday'.
I bought my last laptop from Best Buy. It wasn't for me, it was for my wife. She's perfectly happy with all the crapware that's installed. I shudder at it. The computer I purchased for myself came from a military base and was too (probably) loaded with junk. I wouldn't know. I had wiped it before I even had a chance to read the Vista license agreement. Now that said system dual boots Windows 7 and Ubuntu. Not a single bit of crapware in sight on either one.
Oh, as for my wife's system, the only thing I did when she wasn't looking was remove Norton and put in Microsoft Security Essentials. She hasn't noticed a thing.
I run Ubuntu skinned to look like a Mac on a PC. Go figure.
The problem with that is the laptop will be a smoldering hunk of plastic two minutes after the warranty expires, which kinda kills the savings. Working PC repair I have had to deal with MANY Worst Buy and Staples "$300 specials" and a good 7 out of 10 on the desktop and probably closer to 9 out of 10 on the laptops I have to tell the customer their best course of action is to shitcan it.
Why is that? Let me count the ways they bone you on those "$300 specials": Laptops- often they will use desktop chips in the laptops, and while Intel has thankfully killed the Netburst (although as late as last year I saw a Staples special with a netburst Pentium in a laptop) even the core desktop chips are WAY too hot for the small plastic laptop cases with those pissy little fans, which equal burnt chips, melted wires, just a mess. Speaking of fans, they screw you hard on the fans for both the desktop and laptop. Shitty fans that don't cool in badly designed cases is a recipe for disaster. Again fried chips, cooked HDDs, just nasty. Shitty plastic and substandard parts. I don't even have to explain what is wrong with that. Shitty heatsinks, again no explanation needed. Starving the OS, ala "Vista Capable". Thrashed drives, overheating, sluggish performance, and that is without the crapware.
Hell I could go on all day probably, but you get the picture. Those "$300 specials" are the most bottom of the barrel scraping junk they can throw together and frankly if it lasts 90 days past the warranty it is a miracle. I would recommend an off lease box before I would recommend a Worst Buy or Staples "$300 special" as they are 90% of the time anything but. Once in a blue moon you can a good deal on last year's model when it comes time to roll out the next one, but even then you would probably get a better deal just buying directly from the manufacturer. Just about every PC I have seen from Staples and Worst Buy that was a "$300 special" was nothing but E-waste.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
The problem with the Geek Squad is that Best Buy managers are often so far removed from what the Geek Squad is and how it should work that it becomes a poorly managed mess in many stores. This is the crux of the issues many people have with the Geek Squad.
The truth is that the optimization service is a good one for many people. Best Buy creates the specifics of the optimization service based on feedback from their customers and from the Geek Squad Agents who work on their computers. You must realize that for the majority of the Geek Squad's customers, a computer (tower) is a "router," Toshiba is "Toshibia," Linksys is "Linksky," Windows 7 is "Windows Veesta 7," and that's only if they know the difference between Windows and MS Office (which MANY do not). We're not talking about people with even passing computer knowledge. For these people, not having an icon for Internet Explorer or My Computer on their desktop (as is the case in many freshly-purchased machines) is akin to having a car with no steering wheel or pedals. The optimization service is designed to maximize the usability of a new computer for those customers who need it.
The optimization service takes some time (30 minutes to an hour) to complete. To save customers some time, the Geek Squad will "pre-optimize" a small percentage of their computers. In doing this, they are not violating any laws provided they leave any minimum available quantity (if stated in the weekly ad) unopened. If you attempt to purchase a computer and all they have left are pre-optimized units, they are required to sell you the computer at the normal retail price. They can not force you to pay the optimization fee. They do have the option, however, to restore the computer to factory defaults before they allow you to leave with it, and they do not have to give you an open-box discount. If employees are breaking these rules (laws) it is because of the poor management I referred to earlier, but it is certainly not company policy.
The real villains here are Microsoft and the computer manufacturers for not providing a consistent and customer-friendly experience for new computer buyers. Some of it comes from simply economics and marketing: manufacturers can reduce selling cost by including loads of trial software, not including MS Office and antivirus software, etc. The savings are then (misleadingly) passed to the customer. (I am sure, though, that Best Buy's enormous purchasing power has some say in what the manufacturers do, though.)
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -Douglas Adams, THHGTTG
When I buy a new car, I add words to the contract that state: "Dealer shall affix no decals and will remove any dealer markings that are on the car. Dealer agrees to pay all costs of removal."
One car I bought had to go into the body shop so they could the holes created by the screw-on decal.
Dave Barnes 9 breweries within walking distance of my house
This information comes straight out of the mouth of three Best Buy (store 483, Rego Park, NY, US) employees, a blue shirt sales guy, a white shirt manager, and a black shirt Geek Squad guy, on exactly 2009-08-30 and it was said front of myself, my wife, and my mother. Some of the quotes I am paraphrasing from memory since I did not record the conversation, this time around.
That day I went to purchase a HP-Laptop with AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor - Model G60-445DX (SKU: 9377104) for $529.99 USD for my mother to replace her old Dell. I wanted the laptop without any optimization package, pre-installed software, or warranty service since I am a senior server admin with experience and certifications for the Microsoft OSes and also laptop hardware certifications (including HP ASP) for the HP laptop hardware and I have access to HP's part replacement system for my own repairs.
We walked out of the store after wasting almost a full hour arguing with employees and managers to buy the laptop. I did not give up but instead used my HTC Mogul web phone to get on the Internet and I placed the order for the laptop on the Best Buy web site for a pick-up in the same store 483 for the original price of $529.99 USD + $47.04 tax for a total of $577.03 without any optimization charges. We paid by credit card on the web site. Magically the order was accepted, and a few minutes later as we were shopping in the mall I got the "Your order is ready for pick-up" e-mail on my phone.
All three of us stormed into the store and walked straight to the Customer Service counter on the right side. We told them we want the pick-up the order number and they went and got the laptop. The white shirt manager who was arguing and refusing to sell us the laptop half an hour past was the one who brought it over to customer service and he did a double-take to see us again. He looked at the order information and my mother's name taped to the laptop and noticed that the total price was $529.99 without the optimization charge. He walked over to the Customer Service girl and told her to hold the laptop while he want to talk to the store manager to verify that he can actually give and sell us the laptop