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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.
of the new Virus.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"preinstalled on most PCs, except Dell and HP"
Wonder if they are going to install it on Macs.
Dave Barnes 9 breweries within walking distance of my house
Other than needing a router, cable or something else on an emergency basis, you get what you pay for at BB. I watch in amazement when I hear someone purchasing a computer and the blue shirt drone is trying to force them into buying all the extra crap.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Um, my guess would be millions. For a lot of people, Best Buy is the only physical retailer selling computers that have decent specs at a decent price. Yeah, some people will buy things online, but many times you can find pre-built systems cheaper at Best Buy than at any other retailer online or otherwise. It is really, really hard to beat a $300 laptop that does everything an average person wants while having a decent sized screen (15 inch) and decent sized keyboard.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
The margins on PCs are ridiculously thin.
That's why manufacturers have resorted to bundling crapware, and now apparently retailers as well.
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".
Geek Squad employee here, I read an internal document that said the complete opposite. I thought about making a copy for myself and taking it home, but I'm not quite that ballsy.
From that memo, it seems that Best Buy admits that there's not much of a speed boost in it, certainly not $40 worth, but they still justify it as a time-saving procedure. That is, if you're some CEO and have a shitload of money but little time, then you don't want to waste it uninstalling trials of NetZero and Microsoft Works (which we don't actually uninstall anymore, we just prevent it from starting up automatically, since some customers complained that their new computers came without the great software trials that HP/Sony/Toshiba advertised).
It didn't seem like they wanted to stop the service, although they DID remind everyone that optimizing more computers than are likely to be sold and then making customers pay for them even if they don't want it is illegal and a bait-and-switch. Which is great, because the managers here in a central North Carolina store were seriously considering optimizing 90% of stock and trying to get rich that way. Bastards.
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!
Yeah, no kidding they dropped the program. This type of fraud is called "bait and switch", and it is ILLEGAL.
I'm a 2000 man.
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
The summary is incorrect. As we learned in the previous Slashdot story, Best Buy's "optimization" service DID NOT delete the trialware for you. They just hid the shortcuts so that the 30-day Norton would still nag you to buy it when the time was up.
If these changes from BB mean trial trash is actually NOT installed, but rather a Best Buy app that links to the trial download, then this is absolutely a step in the right direction - especially if you can get your hands on your parents computer to uninstall the BB app before they try any of the "helpful" suggestions. Bestbuy still gets their software industry kickback to subsidize the system's low price and mom and dad's new PCs don't run like shit.
From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc
Former GS employee here:
The whole "pre-setup" thing was a crock from the get-go. It was SUPPOSEDLY so people who wanted the service could get a computer faster, but it just ended up being wasted labor. Myself and MANY other employees railed against this practice from the start, and of course management refused to listen.
What would happen is we would get the ads for the next week a few days early. Of the notebooks in the ad, a certain percentage of each we got in were to have the pre-installed garbage done to it. This started out fairly low, but soon we were being pushed to have 40% of each model done this way. And of course the people on the sales floor were told to push the HELL out of these systems. Why? Because technically, if the customer truly did not want the service, we were to restore it back to factory, or simply not charge them for it. Obviously this becomes a problem when a lot of customers don't want the service and they end up getting it for free. This is where they stopped having the in-store people do said service because it was wasted labor to do something for free, and also wasted labor to remove something the customer didn't want. The solution? A heavy internal push to have all of this done by the much-hated "Agent Jonny Utah".
Who is "Agent Jonny Utah", you might ask (other than a crappy Point Break reference)? It's nothing more than Geek Squad Outsourcing. They hook the computer up to the network, and use a customized version of LogMeIn to let someone in Bangalore or wherever do their job for them. Only half the time they don't do anywhere NEAR what a store employee would do. For example, when performing the service upon request, we would remove ALL trialware, make sure ALL updates were applied, and run a few scripts to generally make things a bit quicker and less resource-hungry. I could do about 5-8 computers at a time and have them all done inside of an hour. Agent Outsource? It would be up to 2 hours before they would even TOUCH the system, and then they would proceed to install the updates and give it a GWB-esque "Mission Complete." This meant we STILL had to do work to the computer when they were done, because they didn't really do anything to begin with.
AJU is also the reason you don't take your computer to the store to get it cleaned up. The VAST majority of the time, they will just hook it up remotely (unless it's so infected it can't get an IP, in which case they'll just want to do a restore) and let the remote guys take a whack at it. Surprise, surprise, more often than not they botch the job. And of course when it took 3x as long because of having to re-do the work, customers got upset and WE got the blame. We were NEVER to let the customer even THINK that the machine was worked on by someone other than the people they see behind the counter.
And this is why there is such a backlash anymore. Of the people who were there when I started in GS, only one is left. In my store (not sure about any others), we thought of ourselves as techs first and foremost. Those with that attitude were forced to change or leave, as they don't want techs. They want salesmen wearing a shirt and tie using the perception of knowledge to hock more crap. In the end, all we were there for was to sell services, but not perform them. Software? Have AJU do it. Hardware? Do they have a service plan? Ship it to Louisville. Only a manufacturer warranty? Give them the MFR number.
When I was new to GS, it was a culture of "help the customer, get them what they need, and build lasting relationships." When I left, it had become nothing but "milk as much money out of as many people as you possibly can."
On a final note, if you DO make the mistake of taking your PC to them for service, point blank ask them if THEY will be cleaning it, or if they're just going to hook it up to have some hackjob in Hyderabad run a few scripts and say it's done...
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.
I did a reinstall on a friend's HP Vista laptop, and I was shocked and appalled by the amount of junk on there. The long interactive Flash video that plays when the computer is first booted would also be extremely misleading to a novice, as it appears to be offering software choices, but it's really just a bunch of advertising. This was far worse than any Dell or Sony I have worked on in the past.
The reinstall was needed after I attempted to work on her computer and noticed she didn't even have SP1 for Vista yet. I ran all the MS updates, and ended up with a corrupted NTOSKRNL.EXE and an unbootable Vista at the end of the process. Wiped all that junk and installed a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate. :)
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
CompUSA used to do that ($20), but we'd actually optimize the various settings (all the tweaks that a power user would do to increase performance), remove the crapware, install all the updates, activate Windows (and Office or whatever else was bought/came with the machine), activate and update the AV/AS software, configure the network settings so the machine would go online right out of the box (keep in mind this was back in the day when Windows post-setup would pop up an idiotic list of choices on how to get on the Internet that made little to no sense to the average user, followed by the first time you ran IE, it trying to get you to sign up to AOL or connect to their site to choose an ISP... you know... their older, useless, "sell someone else's Internet service for them" Internet Connection Wizard crap, and so on... and it was never mandatory for the customer.
Wasn't too bad of a deal back then, considering just how difficult it was to even get online for the average user without being suckered into an AOL or Earthlink subscription (especially on the HPs which included their own Internet Wizard and post-install full screen pop-ups that hitting exit would just reload a different variant of them until you did that a couple times or went through the steps).
StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
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
.' Translation: instead of you paying Best Buy to delete trialware from your new PC,
I thought the Best Buy optimization thing only removed the shortcut icons to the trialware, and didn't actually uninstall or delete any of it?
How many people buy just the box when they get a computer?
People who are upgrading from an obsolete computer but already have a decent monitor and accessories? Good LCD monitors have been out long enough to outlive a PC's 18-month built-in obsolescence. My monitors turned 4 last month, no desire to replace them yet. And a 4-year-old printer will probably outlast a new disposable one...
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
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
Since all Vista/Win7 DVDs are the same now, I just download my MSDN image and use our keys to install.
That's true. In fact, it brings up a point where computers and cars are very similar. That is, paying more does not necessarily shield you from bullshit. My parents' friends own a Mercedes, and they hate it. While their car gets great performance, the benefits of that are outweighed by the relative lack of reliability and the high costs of repair. The same applies to "performance" computers sold by major manufacturers. You're paying for a lot of shiny plastic, and the costs of repair are going to be higher with the proprietary cases used.
We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
wow that was kind of an asshole response.
you can assume you didnt read anything else i read, so just STFU.
they say it is often more relevant then the comment above, all we know is its called the Sig!