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[deals99]

Originally posted by: Chebago

Originally posted by: XNice
hahah you people are hilarious, bring out the soapboxes! Noble is whatever you make it to be. But back on topic..... i asked someone from the geek squad when i was in best buy in philly, pa about the new xreative x-fi cards they had out. I didnt even know they made it to retail and I also didnt know they came out with an audigy 4. So i asked a guy from geek squad if he knew anything about creatives new card and why the pricing was so cheap ($130). At the time i didnt know the diff versions of the new X-Fi chip. That dude just looked at me blankly after every question and just said, i dunno. Not to make sweeping assumptions here, but in my experiences the geek squad is pretty clueless.

Not knocking your post, but I would consider myself above average about fixing and diagnosing computer problems, and I know absolutely nothing about creative cards either, so you can't deem the guy completely clueless simply because he is not well versed in creative's new line of cards...

There also different types of people out there. One will BS the crap out of you, the person just doesnt care or is trying to make a sale. Another will tell you the truth, that he/she doesnt know.

 

[shoRunner]

blah blah blah best buy sucks blah blah blah

 

[intogamer]

-.- it was more like a joke

get the geeksquad fawked with a old celeron or something

 

[dwelve]

They were running ads to setup a 2-PC home network for over a $100 recently. I think that price is a little high.

 

[snooby]

Rather than taking in a hopelessly bad computer, how about taking in a perfectly good computer and seeing if they tell you that you need to buy something. I'm thinking: an up to date processor, plenty of RAM and HHD space, near new OS installation, no spyware, etc.

 

[yukichigai]

For those of us (damn near all of us I'm sure) who have been assigned the unpaid job of fixing all our friends'/family members' computers this isn't a bad deal. Let someone who's paid to do it handle the problem for once.

I'd be interested to see what they'd say about my system if I brought it in. Except for better speakers and maybe a little more RAM there's nothing they could really say I need.

 

[Paktu]

Originally posted by: dew042

Originally posted by: KuJaX

Originally posted by: dakata24
is this like taking your car to a shady mechanic.. they'll tell you you'll need this and that...

Shady Mechanic? Was the "SHADY" neccessary? I just thought the meaning and definition of "mechanic" had shady already in it.

Frankly -- I don't think suggesting that a client remove virii and spyware, and get spyware/virus protection software to prevent reinfection in the future is particularly "shady". Nor do I think that suggesting that an Emachine Celeron that came with 128mb of ram and Windows XP could use more memory is particularly "shady" either. Furthermore if someone comes in a with a computer with onboard video who is having trouble playing games, a suggestion of a better video card is certainly in their best interest isn't it?

Granted -- most of the folks around here have a good grasp on managing these issues and making good technology decisions -- BUT MOST people do not. Most people are scared by technically minded folks precisely because of the attitude -- "I'm smarter than you and you are stupid because you doesn't already know the answer." Most folks don't have the skills or knowledge to fix their own computer probelms.

A Geek Squad Diagnosistic will:
Check internal components for issues (bad caps, etc)
Run a HDD diag
Run a memory diag
Run a virus scan
Run a spyware scan
Diagnose any additional issues the client may have in addition to these things

Then the client gets and overview of what the diagnostic found, and what Geek Squad can do to resolve the probelm, and what is recomended to prevent the probelm in the future. If an upgrade is going to improve a client's customer experiece -- like ram -- then that would be recomended. Finally education is key to making sure the client understands the scope of what happened, what was done to fix it and how they can protect themselves in the future.

Are any of those things something you wouldn't recomend to your own family and friends? So in the end -- this can be a great value for a lot of people, perhaps not you.

I know this is a big secret, so shhhhhhhhhhhh: Best Buy and Geek Squad are businesses that are designed to serve their customer's AND make money. Keep that on the down low, okay? I love the prevailing attitude around here that if anybody is making money they are taking advantage of you and are evil. If businesses don't make money, they don't exist. Period. If businesses don't fulfill their customer's needs, they will fail as well.

As you can probably gather - I work for Geek Squad at the flagship Best Buy store in the shadow of the Best Buy corporate offices. I've been a part of Geek Squad since its inception into Best Buy nearly 2 years ago. I know most of the people at the core of the Geek Squad organization and the Geek Squad mission is certainly noble. But as with most large organizations -- success and quality can be very hard to expand and maintain across 700 stores and 7000 agents in the course of a year. Speaking for my store I assure you our standards are extremely high.

dew.

Sorry to be rude, but are you on crack? I assume that you are referring to the Richfield store in your post. A substantial number of my high school classmates (I'd say close to 10%) worked at this store at one point or another. Most of them didn't know crap about technology (or customer service for that matter). One person, in particular, used to brag about how much he could lie to customers and get away with it. I don't know what you are talking about in regards to "high standards", they seemed to routinely get the bottom of the barrel when it came to employees.

 

[Maus]

Originally posted by: dew042
Somehow doubling the size of Geek Squad in the next year doesn't say to me that the organization is failing their clients as a whole does it? In the next year the Geek Squad will become the largest department in the Best Buy store I work out of -- that shows a real commitment on the part of Best Buy and a realization that accessible, quality service for our clients is vital to the future of this company. The market is changing and Geek Squad in on the pioneering lines of those changes

[/b]Or it makes a better profit than reselling fifty cent cables for twenty bucks.

On a more personal note - I think most of you would be surprized by the quality of Geek Squad in Minnnesota since it is the home base. As a team I would put our diagnosis/repair skills up against anybody. We are extremely good at what we do and the services we offer.

We're not questioning the quality of Best Buy in their headquarters, we're questioning it countrywide (though we already know the answer to this from previous and current experience with best buy.)

 

[wetcat007]

Originally posted by: Jtrav

Originally posted by: sflahavin

Originally posted by: Jtrav
Any establishment that charges $60 to diagnose a problem isn't a a noble establishment.

So when a doctor "charges" $150 to diagnose a problem, is that noble, not noble, or a class of its own......

Apples and oranges. A pc is not a life or death thing. The doctor is fixing your body, the pc is just a piece of plastic and metal. After geeksquad finishes with your pc, you're usually paying more or almost as much as the pc is worth to repair it. Tell me thats not a ripoff.

i cant wait til i can just buy a new body for less than going to the doc, that'd rule... but not happening.

 

[Dan2]

I work for the Geek Squad, too... home of the bad technicans who don't know jack!
Nah it's cool, I was skeptical too. Then I used to personally fix 20-30 computers daily (100% start to finish including diagnostics) when I worked in the store before being promoted. As you can imagine, it builds some impressive experience.

Today for example... my first service call had a corrupted install of NIS2005 (wanted it functional for some reason but no CD which I had to hand fix, tons of spyware that required removal, a wireless sewing machine they wanted to add to their Netgear firewall/print server-powered network (Geek Squad secured from a year ago, still functional) and use it on a hard-wired media center desktop (which refused to see My Network Places when I arrived) with some security dongle that doesn't have XP drivers. Oh, and the machine was locking up intermittently (turned out it was bad memory) and had numerous other problems that required attention.

I fixed every problem in their house (network, sewing machine, printers, PCs) including security, a 30-day warranty, a 1-800-number to call if something acts up, tons of documentation on what I did including detailed job notes, and the backing of the biggest electronics retailer in the US. That was for $228. That's not bad considering most places in town would charge minimum $200 for the two hours it'd take to complete everything I did while I was there, IF they could figure it out. FWIW I've never had an upset customer that wasn't calmed after explaing the situation and fixing their problems, I've never overcharged a customer and I don't work on commission so there'd be no point.

Some days I go to houses that had local shops fix their computers only to still have major problems. The techs almost never secure the wireless networks they install, nor do they remove all the spyware/viruses, error messages, and startup problems. This happens very frequently from most of our so-called competition. Our customers don't call someone else if things aren't perfect. They call us back out and we fix it the next day.

I love my job. I have a company car. It's a VW, but guess what, it's free and so's the gas that powers it. I take it home after work too. I have a brand new HP 1331se w/ 1.25 GB ram that I didn't pay a cent for, with a GPS and every cool toy/tool I need. I have a free phone, that I use thousands of minutes per month on. Oh and I get paid well with stock plans/401K, full insurance, a great discount at Best Buy, and flexible hours. My job is DAMN fun and every day is a different story, requiring extremely creative and technical fixes, and a very strong background in PC repair.

I used to make fun of the Geek Squad. I figured the local shops were much better and I was positive I was a better technician than anyone on their team. I'd say 1/20 people you know that claims to be good at fixing computers could even cut it on my team.

The techs you're making fun of read (and run) sites like Anandtech, HardOCP, etc., fix and upgrade their own PCs, overclock their CPU/video cards, and play PC games.

SO QUIT HATIN'.

 

[Steven the Leech]

Originally posted by: Dan2
I work for the Geek Squad, too... home of the bad technicans who don't know jack!
Nah it's cool, I was skeptical too. Then I used to personally fix 20-30 computers daily (100% start to finish including diagnostics) when I worked in the store before being promoted. As you can imagine, it builds some impressive experience.

Today for example... my first service call had a corrupted install of NIS2005 (wanted it functional for some reason but no CD which I had to hand fix, tons of spyware that required removal, a wireless sewing machine they wanted to add to their Netgear firewall/print server-powered network (Geek Squad secured from a year ago, still functional) and use it on a hard-wired media center desktop (which refused to see My Network Places when I arrived) with some security dongle that doesn't have XP drivers. Oh, and the machine was locking up intermittently (turned out it was bad memory) and had numerous other problems that required attention.

I fixed every problem in their house (network, sewing machine, printers, PCs) including security, a 30-day warranty, a 1-800-number to call if something acts up, tons of documentation on what I did including detailed job notes, and the backing of the biggest electronics retailer in the US. That was for $228. That's not bad considering most places in town would charge minimum $200 for the two hours it'd take to complete everything I did while I was there, IF they could figure it out. FWIW I've never had an upset customer that wasn't calmed after explaing the situation and fixing their problems, I've never overcharged a customer and I don't work on commission so there'd be no point.

Some days I go to houses that had local shops fix their computers only to still have major problems. The techs almost never secure the wireless networks they install, nor do they remove all the spyware/viruses, error messages, and startup problems. This happens very frequently from most of our so-called competition. Our customers don't call someone else if things aren't perfect. They call us back out and we fix it the next day.

I love my job. I have a company car. It's a VW, but guess what, it's free and so's the gas that powers it. I take it home after work too. I have a brand new HP 1331se w/ 1.25 GB ram that I didn't pay a cent for, with a GPS and every cool toy/tool I need. I have a free phone, that I use thousands of minutes per month on. Oh and I get paid well with stock plans/401K, full insurance, a great discount at Best Buy, and flexible hours. My job is DAMN fun and every day is a different story, requiring extremely creative and technical fixes, and a very strong background in PC repair.

I used to make fun of the Geek Squad. I figured the local shops were much better and I was positive I was a better technician than anyone on their team. I'd say 1/20 people you know that claims to be good at fixing computers could even cut it on my team.

The techs you're making fun of read (and run) sites like Anandtech, HardOCP, etc., fix and upgrade their own PCs, overclock their CPU/video cards, and play PC games.

SO QUIT HATIN'.

Well said

 

[Daniel]

Seriously, it's a service that many people need. If you think you can do a much better job for much cheaper and make a great living then go ahead and capitalize on the opportunity and clean up, otherwise why bother complaining?

 

[stuartkahler]

Oddly enough, I failed the personality profiling test 3 times when I was applying at Best Buy. They said they couldn't even look at my app without me scoring "green" on both sections and that the computer would automatically delete it. I even had my gf watching me the 3rd time I took it and we agreed on all the answers.

BBY's pre-interview test actually requires you to make some unintuitive answers to questions. They're looking for truthful answers, not good ones, and assume that you're lying if you say you've never stolen something small from an amployer (like paper, pens or postit notes). The most important thing they measure is your response time to the questions. When they ask if you would be tempted to steal a laptop you found lying on the loading dock out back, immediately answering 'no' means that you haven't even taken the time to think through your answer.

Between the PITA computer screening, drug testing, moronic mangers, lousy pay and the fact that your only real job is to sell service plans and installations, working at best buy is horrible job.

 

[gnubea]

Originally posted by: sflahavin

Originally posted by: Jtrav
Any establishment that charges $60 to diagnose a problem isn't a a noble establishment.

So when a doctor "charges" $150 to diagnose a problem, is that noble, not noble, or a class of its own......

In Korea, it costs you $3 to get diagnosed. If you need some special tests, it might cost extra though. In summary, if you are sick, it might cost less if you fly to Korea, Hmm South Korea, that is.

 

[dew042]

I vote for letting this thread die.

Its like beating a dead horse.

dew.

 

[HarvardAce]

Originally posted by: intogamer

Originally posted by: robby69
The "geek squad" in my town travel around in VW bugs on their "geek squad" runs with "geek squad" plastered
all over it. Need I say more?:roll:

Punch Buggie Geek Squad

Good to know I'm not the only one who does this.

 

[Pakman]

Not to knock on the Geek Squad people, but your outfits make me LOL. When I first saw a real person get out of one of those VW Geek Squad cars with the white shirt and black tie, I almost died laughing. I didn't know you guys actually wore that. I thought it was just something on TV ads. hahahahaha... But yeah, Geek Squad is a good service to those that don't know anyone in the PC repair field. That's probably who I would call if I didn't know a thing about computers... Too bad I do..

 

[dabuddha]

http://www.bestbuysux.org

Now tell me how wonderful Worst Buy really is

Not saying there are good employees but they're so damned rare! And they end up getting stifled by upper management.