Geek Squad

Recent comments

Well you can't judge Geek Squad based on your one personal experience with them. Every Best Buy store is different. I used to be in computer sales there and I personally hate that store and everything the company stands for.

However, I'm going to have to play devil's advocate here. The fact is, there are a lot of highly-qualified techs on GS. There are also a lot of really sucky ones too.

I do agree that the whole Best Buy culture is McDonald-izing the tech industry. This is a bad thing because Big Blue is notorious for incredibly low standards for its employees. Turnaround is ultra-high, if you wait six months and go back into the store, you will recognize almost no one. The unfortunate consequence is an atmosphere of unaccountability. Sales staff's number one responsibility is their department's "numbers." Customer service is almost officially second to store profits. The company's attitude is if you return something or don't buy any of the high-margin extras, they would rather have you shop with their competitors and ruin their margins instead. Besides, what motivation is there to give one person a deal on something when there are 50 people in line behind him willing to pay full price?

Anyway, back on track, sorry about the rant. Geek Squad "Agents" are more salespeople than techs. To the lady who had the positive experience, I'm glad for you, but the guy wasn't doing his job according to company policy. Company policy is to have you buy as much useless junk as possible; things like cables, surge protectors, UPS power supplies, service plans, blank media, Digital subscriptions (or D-subs for short), and God knows what else. These items have markups ranging from 500-3000% A $30 USB cable for example costs BB less than $1!

Here is a good tip for buying things at Best Buy:

Try to limit purchases to low-margin items such as
* Media-software, games, music, movies, etc.
* Computers and laptops
* Printers and basic computer hardware
* Appliances

Stay away from high-margin items like
* TVs - you can shop for prices, just go to ABC Warehouse afterwards and they'll give you a way better deal, salesman there can actually adjust prices
* Cables - you can get them much cheaper at places like newegg.com, like around $2 instead of $30. Monster cables are a ripoff too, don't get suckered into anything from them. They 'seem' better because of the price, but the store actually pays around the same for monster brand as other brands, the markup is just higher.
* Blank Media - ditto
* Service Plans - these things aren't worth the paper they're written on. a salesman will regail you with tall tales, possibly tell you it even covers intentional damage, don't believe a word of it. most BB drones will say anything to get you to buy it, the ones that don't really don't know and are just parroting what their supervisors told them. one interesting fact they'll never tell you is that if you use the service plan, it becomes null and void, even if you have time left on it, and in order to keep it in effect, you have to buy ANOTHER service plan.
* Surge protectors/UPS power supplies - I sit typing this on a Compaq Presario 5420 from 2001. This computer model is *notorious* for unreliability. I use a cheap surge protector and have NEVER used a UPS (uninterruptable power supply). It has been through several power outages and no power surge has EVER harmed it. Buy a UPS if you're using it in an office setting and have critical data on the machine. If you're still worried about power surges, then you can simply UNPLUG the thing from the wall when the power goes out, it's a lot cheaper than a service plan or expensive accessory. Brian on Mar 12, 2006

yes because all computers need to be fixed by a bloated overpriced overqualified tech. That will solve the problem. You passed a couple multiple choice tests and think your better than anyone in the IT service industry - and you probably provide freeware programs for your customers. WHOOP-TEE-F#$%@#$-DOOOO ..

MD Freeman STFU on Mar 2, 2006