Let me make it painfully clear (in case it isn't already) that there ARE ABSOLUTELY NO MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS TO WORK THERE!
I've read most of the thread, and I find this oft-repeated comment enormously insulting. I applied for an Agent position(I would like to make it clear that I was NOT qualified, although I have learned much since from studying for A+ certification) and was rejected and sent to an administrative(secretarial) position instead, where I do absolutely no technical work whatsoever. The assertion that they accept any moron who knows the difference between a tower and a monitor is completely inaccurate, and I am proof of that, so if people could please stop saying that I would appreciate it.:D
Seriously though... as other people have stated, it depends on the management.
Honestly, I'm surprised to find that the majority of posters at/. are so mean spirited. Slashing the cars' tires? Wishing for a company's death? We actually HAVE had our cars vandalized in our own parking lot, and maybe I'm just not geeky enough but I don't think destruction of property and hate towards an entire company because of a few experiences is appropriate, even to joke about. Even I recognize that companies are comprised of individuals, that experiences vary widely, and that big franchises aren't going to have spotless records; so why do I see so many comments that reflect ignorance of those facts?
By the way, MrPaco, most of this post isn't directed at you, sorry. I kinda started ranting after addressing your one comment, which is really the only part of your post I didn't like. No offense meant.
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.
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I've read most of the thread, and I find this oft-repeated comment enormously insulting. I applied for an Agent position(I would like to make it clear that I was NOT qualified, although I have learned much since from studying for A+ certification) and was rejected and sent to an administrative(secretarial) position instead, where I do absolutely no technical work whatsoever. The assertion that they accept any moron who knows the difference between a tower and a monitor is completely inaccurate, and I am proof of that, so if people could please stop saying that I would appreciate it. :D
Seriously though... as other people have stated, it depends on the management.
Honestly, I'm surprised to find that the majority of posters at /. are so mean spirited. Slashing the cars' tires? Wishing for a company's death? We actually HAVE had our cars vandalized in our own parking lot, and maybe I'm just not geeky enough but I don't think destruction of property and hate towards an entire company because of a few experiences is appropriate, even to joke about. Even I recognize that companies are comprised of individuals, that experiences vary widely, and that big franchises aren't going to have spotless records; so why do I see so many comments that reflect ignorance of those facts?
By the way, MrPaco, most of this post isn't directed at you, sorry. I kinda started ranting after addressing your one comment, which is really the only part of your post I didn't like. No offense meant.
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.