Is GeekSquad a Sham?

Hell, I think BestBuy is a sham. They still owe me a replacement laptop and a steamcleaner, both of which we paid to have covered under their service plan, and neither of which will they cover now. I am partciularly pissed about the laptop because the hinge broke within days of buying the computer, and was a known issue with this model, and yet they claim that the damage isn’t covered under their NEW service plan, which isn’t the service plan we signed and paid for.

/gratuitous rant

Hell, I think BestBuy is a sham. They still owe me a replacement laptop and a steamcleaner, both of which we paid to have covered under their service plan, and neither of which will they cover now. I am partciularly pissed about the laptop because the hinge broke within days of buying the computer, and was a known issue with this model, and yet they claim that the damage isn’t covered under their NEW service plan, which isn’t the service plan we signed and paid for.

/gratuitous rant

I have used them once (to completely clean up an nastily infected computer and re-install the operating system, drivers, and major software). They did it in a day at a reasonable cost and I didn’t have to hassle with anything or anyone. I would give them a B+ or mayber better.

And no, I don’t work there or know anyone who does. I was going to ask one of the IT guys at my work to help me, but the couple of times I’ve done that, it’s taken weeks to get results, and it always comes with an hour or so of geek-talk explanations I have no interest in. I’d rather pay my fee and go home.

I have used them once (to completely clean up an nastily infected computer and re-install the operating system, drivers, and major software). They did it in a day at a reasonable cost and I didn’t have to hassle with anything or anyone. I would give them a B+ or mayber better.

And no, I don’t work there or know anyone who does. I was going to ask one of the IT guys at my work to help me, but the couple of times I’ve done that, it’s taken weeks to get results, and it always comes with an hour or so of geek-talk explanations I have no interest in. I’d rather pay my fee and go home.

looked @ the geeksquad webpage; lowest cost is 150$. This for people who don’t (necessarily) know what they’re doing?? Oh Gr8!!

looked @ the geeksquad webpage; lowest cost is 150$. This for people who don’t (necessarily) know what they’re doing?? Oh Gr8!!

This is just my own opinion, but the South Des Moines Best Buy techs (before Geek Squad) knew less than I did. That troubled me, since I thought I knew just enough to mess up my computer pretty good! I think I would rather wait until one of my techie friends can help me out rather than shell out the kind of money Geek Squad wants. Assuming I can even get online, there are just too many chat rooms and billboards out there that can help me out. I remember when I had 98 still, being able to allow remote access to a friend across town that fixed something for me from his own home. Is that still possible in XP or Vista?

In late 2005 I purchased a genuine SONY/BMG audio-cd from a Borders store. While tracking down what a ROOTKIT was I went to a BLOG of Mark Russinovich (WinInternals) and found more than I wanted to know. A POX ON SONY AND THEIR COPY-PERVERSION SCHEMES.

I also noted this reference to Best Buy’s Geeks. This is the top few lines from the part of the blog referring to to the suit. the 3 url’s still work, but many of their internal references went arwry when Microsoft acquired WinInternals.
[]
Friday, April 21, 2006
Why Winternals Sued Best Buy

This post I’m taking a break from my standard technical postings to discuss a
disturbing discovery regarding a large corporation’s unauthorized software
usage. By now many of you have heard via

Slashdot- yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/13/1958231&from=rss
arstechnica- arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060413-6596.html
Digg- http://www.digg.com/software/Winternals_gathering_info_to_take_down_Best_Buy_s_Geek_Squad

or your local newspaper that ‘Winternals Software’ http://www.winternals.com the
company I co-founded with Bryce Cogswell in 1996, filed suit
http://www.winternals.com/legal/ in Federal court against Geek Squad and Best Buy for
illegal use of the Administrator’s Pak.
[]

[...] Article from: http://chris.pirillo.com/media/2007/07/18/is-geeksquad-a-sham/ [...]

[...] Article from: http://chris.pirillo.com/media/2007/07/18/is-geeksquad-a-sham/ [...]

My fiance just got back from Iraq. Prior to going over he had good faith in getting a computer and warrenty from Best Buy and therefor therough Geek Squad. Well by the time he got back it was in major need of TLC. So off to Geek squad the laptop went. It had a DVD drive problem and a wi-fi card problem and was running a bet sluggish.

He told them that if the memory had to be earase for them to back it up. yeah yeah yeah sure what ever was their response but no paper work on that aspect just noting what was “wrong.” How long will this take? a week they say.

Well today is two and half weeks later. Go pick it up. they wiped the memory basically a new hard drive… oh you don’t ahve the back up CD’s oh dud well fix you up with XP and the basic drivers it came with. Grump.

So the DVD and wi-fi stilld ont’ work THERE IS NO MEMORY. he had done some basic backing up of files while he was over seas but no backing up of pictures or journaling he had done. He is mad. he is upset. and his trust with Best Buy is demished severely.

He now has to overprice giant paper weight. He was hoping all week long to getting his laptop back. To make matters worse we are now having to reallocate money to get him a new one before the beginning of next year since he’s beening sent far far away. So he is extermly unhappy. and being that he’s unhappy i’m very annoyied.

So as he is sending letters of complaint out tomorrow. I’ll be sending my own batch of letters giving heads up on problems and flaws i see in the system. I however still have some faith in it, I know my own local one is a very very good batch. However like I was warned by friends early one not all Geek Squads are equal. And apparently the one he uses four states away sucks.

Do your research. If they say yeah sure to anything make sure it’s notated. espeically somethign as important as memory back up. granted they should haven’t been anywhere near the memory so watch out be careful. and well hopefully you wont have nothing will happen. and if anything happens it wont compell you to pratice writing complaint letters.

Hi, I’d like to comment and explore some of the things people have mentioned about Geek Squad. As a former employee of theirs, I was one of those people who you spoke to over the phone, and not one of those “double agents” who made the house calls. We were given monthly quotas for sales, basically 25 percent of all calls had to be a sale we made, whether or not the customer genuinely would need it.

I would say on a scale of 1 to 10, I would probably rate a 7 or 8 with technical knowledge when it comes to computers, being able to resolve issues on my own without having to call somebody up or calling up technical support from the hardware manufacturers. However, because I was just one of the “mission controllers”, I was consequently unable to give away “free” advice even though I knew the simple answers. It was against company policy to help customers out even if it was just to instruct them how to properly turn off a computer because some program would hang and not allow them to shut it down. That kind of problem would be considered a $249 problem called an advanced diagnostic and repair service for in home services or $129 for covert ops, telephone support.

I’m no longer with the company as I have moved on because I found a better paying job with honest work. Sometimes during my breaks in between calls, I would listen to my fellow coworkers convince that they need this or that just to get the sale. They are no better than the salesman at Best Buy who sell customers those PSP, performance service plans, and say just to call Geek Squad if they ever have problems. Little do they know that the PSP they paid a few hundred dollars for only covers hardware and no software related issues. Also, they don’t mention that any help received from Geek Squad is a paid service.

Oh, and complaining to the corporate headquarters won’t do much. They’ll probably just send you an apology letter and say go to the store for assistance. Good luck in getting anyone to answer the phones at the store, I know I never had any luck in reaching them.

18 Nov 07

Amex gave me a year extension on the warranty of a broken Asus portable. Nice. But they wanted something to verify the problem / cost of repair. Asus was great and told me just what the problem was (burned out mother board) but still needed a hands-on opinion. So off to the Geek Squad.
Short story: they lost the computer. Took two months to find. Turned out it had never loft the PBG, FL store! Would they then give me the $39 estimate free? Nope. So off the the C-word store. Expensive, but it worked. Now have a rebuilt Asus. And a deadly dislike of BestBuy and Geek Squad. Use Sparingly!

Your stories are shocking and disturbing. Your average counter Agent makes $9-12 an hour, how scared are you now? If a laptop has a major repair that is needed it has to be sent out to service and a data backup should be offered even if it is not going to be sent out. That will set you back $99. If it is over 9.4GB then it will cost you $159. After it comes back from service, 2-6 weeks sometimes, you may get an automated call letting you know that it is back from service. I’m a part-time Agent working a crappy job until I get my degree. Some of the full time guys look to me for troubleshooting because I am an uber geek. This is what I enjoy doing, it is what I study. Find the Alpha Nerd in the herd. Ask him the important questions, and he will solve your problems. Some Precinct’s are sketchy, not a whole lot I can do about them. Good luck to you and remember to backup your data!

Geek Squad/BB replaced a 250GB harddrive with a 32GB one. How could that happen???

Purchased a PSP for 2 26″ Samsung TV. What a mistake. On 9/13/09 called the Geek Squad for service/ tv had a grey screen with multi colored lines running down the sides. After approx. 5 mins tv picture would appear. 9/17/09 David Z came; took back off tv pushed on cables & told me that heat expansion caused the cables to become loose & that now it should be ok. 9/20/09– called GS again– same problem. Dale C. came out on 9/22/09 & said the tv needed a new circuit board & power source. Appt made for 9/3009, Dale C came- wrong part sent. New appt- 10/08/09– WRONG PART sent again! Next available appt. 10/19/09 !! Called GEEK SQUAD- spoke to GREG in consumer relations. He listened & passed the phone to Renee who was very apologetic, however, she was just an appt clerk. Renee then passed me to her supervisor MARY who told me that we do not qualify for a new tv because the parts that were ordered were not correct & they still need to try to fix the tv. I explained to her that “4 visits to my house & they have still not repaired the tv should qualify” Obviously they do not know what they are doing– they cannot even order the correct part.” I called BEST BUY & was told by the manager YOLANDA that she was sorry, but the visits didn’t qualify for a new tv since they had not really had the chance to fix because the parts were incorrect, Well duh– whose fault is that ????? They are passing the buck. I’m filing a complaint with California Consumer Affairs Dept & will call my local tv stations to see if I can get this resolved. I also asked ow long it takes to get a part shipped to them & was told 5 to 7 days. I told them I want the set fixed by then. Guess the next step is to sit in front of the store with my lemon tv & let the population in Stockton, CA know what kind of nonsense they can expect to deal with.

J E Tran,
First of all I’d like to apologize to you and your poor experience with that store, just know that it’s not all like that. For example, by policy our Accidental Damage & Handling plans cover all Accidental Damage during ‘normal’ use intended by the manufacturer on a daily basis. This does not include taking it out of country, submerging it fully, running it over, hitting it with a hammer, bombing it, lighting it on fire, etc.

Well, we sold a laptop with the ADH plan and he got last minute shipped out to cover for his brothers trip because his brother was getting married and having a kid, nice guy! However while he was on patrol(Thank god) His fire base got bombed, guess what was there? His laptop =’( ADH, DOES NOT cover, 1) Leaving the country, 2) Malicious destruction.

However, at our store we support our troops and our customers. We ate the $1,000.00 laptop and the $250.00 plan and gave him a new one with a new plan. We do things like this on a lesser scale often and not just for troops.

Ex-Agent Utah,
While you are fairly knowledgeable about the services, you fail to mention a few things.
No our Black Tie Protection plans do not cover software, BUT they do save you $70.00 off of the $200.00 for a Diagnostic and repair.
Also, we do offer a Vi-Spy protection plan for only $30.00 if we install and set-up the anti-virus for you. This covers FOUR Diagnostic and Repairs + Optimizations for 1-year so long as the anti-virus remains active and up-to-date on definitions, you can save upto $700.00 if you spend $100.00 on some anti-virus, us to install it and Vi-Spy, we also offer Vi-Spy in 2 and 3 year programs.

Everyone,
It all depends on your local population and store. The people who hire the Geeks are simple non-tech skilled Best Buy Managers. Rarely does the DCI or Counter Intelligence Sr. sit in on the interviews, they are to busy fixing screw-ups of the failed employees hired by the unskilled managers. lol.

Also over times are prices have vastly improved, prices have dropped over 30-40% in the last two years.