Geek Squad, Firedog Scam Consumer On Hidden Camera

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: fierydemise
I think I would have caught the error, although it was a poor test. Sure an average person could change something in the bias but the chances of that happening are really low and while the CC and BB techs should have caught the problem the conclusions they came too were not unreasonable without knowing exactly what they were told. There was a better test done by the BBC IIRC, they scraped off part of the contact on a piece of RAM and of the 6 companies tested 4 got it wrong and the 2 that got it right tried to charge $100 for a 256MB piece of RAM.

well it would not be unreasonable if they were simply some gamer dude friend trying to fix the pc. but they are supposed to be trained techs which is quite different. you are supposed to systematically eliminate possible problems based on the symptoms, not what joe customer tells you or doesn't tell you..since they know jacksquat which is why they are at geek squad in the first place. aren't these techs supposed to be atleast a++ certified?

 

[mcmilljb]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

aren't these techs supposed to be atleast a++ certified?

:laugh:
Good one!

 

[BUTCH1]

Any troubleshooting flowchart would include a BIOS check to see if the drive is
being autodetected, even if you missed the boot order change you would need to
check the drive w/maxblaster or similar utility's to see if any data can be recovered
from it. Once it checks out good your looking for a BIOS/controller issue right there.
Not as easy to find as the TV station made it look but one that should have been found
by any tech...

 

[Penth]

Originally posted by: CZroe
By not answering truthfully and saying that they were messing around in the BIOS, there's no way it would take 30 seconds to fix because that WOULDN'T be the most likely cause. Being coy is not a good thing for a customer that wants it fixed.

Obviously, if it spontaneously gave that error, then it would most likely be a hardware failure or corruption. One easy way to test is trying it in another system, exactly like they did. If it clicked and locked up on another system with a known-good adapter then I, too, would believe the case to be "closed" and not worth charging the customer more hours to look for an alternate problem that DOESN'T explain the click and freeze. It would be dishonest of me to do that just to run up their bill. Dead hard drives click, lock-up, and cause the BIOS to report "No Operating System Found," but the deal-sealer is that dead drives do it spontaneously. BIOS settings don't spontaneously change themselves.

Their IT guy clearly gets off on asserting himself over them... that 30-second quote just proves it. It would take 30-seconds if you stupidly went straight to the BIOS to see if a customer changed something they just stated they did not change (they would know if they did as they would have directly attributed the inability to boot to the last thing they did). It's the same attitude half the people in this thread are giving off. It's just not logical troubleshooting without the customer admitting that they were in the CMOS/BIOS/"Strange Menu," etc. Hindsight is 20/20, so don't pretend that makes you "smarter."

Granted, I recently had a personal laptop that wouldn't boot right after a forced hibernation (battery died) and deleting the restore data would cause it to hang on the Windows XP logo with the animation pausing and stuttering and never progressing (oddly, pressing the power button repeatedly would make the animation progress one frame per press... weird!). Setting CMOS defaults didn't help. I've had that happen on many dieing hard drives, and it HAD been making a terrible noise for almost a year... the heads sound like they "drop and bounce" as if the accelerometer triggered them to do an emergency head park (spontaneously and often). It was still readable in an adapter and I had another SATA 2.5" HDD of the same capacity (120GB found on clearance for $23.99!). I had intended to migrate to it all along as a precaution due to the "scary noise" exhibited by the original drive, so I cloned it and encountered the same thing problem when booting up. I knew that that was likely in the event of corruption, and I had my CD ready to install XP again. It wasn't until I got a crash when trying to reinstall Windows XP on a brand new drive that I realized something else was the matter. With no option to clear CMOS, I reset defaults again, tested alternate settings, reseated memory, removed un-needed hardware, and held in the power button for 30-seconds with the battery and power disconnected, but nothing worked short of a full CMOS clearing by removing the CMOS battery. Bingo! Something corrupted in the CMOS when it had last hibernated and I simply had to go to more extremes than I should have had to go through (what happened to simple "reset" holes?). I had to use a toothpick to remove the CMOS battery's connector and the connector shroud shattered, so I had to use tweezers to connect the pins themselves.

This is a similar scenario in so many ways, but I followed a proper troubleshooting process.

I think for the price they are charging they should have found it. I've gotten laptops with less explanation on what is wrong than that and fixed them without new parts. If the OS isn't found you check the bios because like that tech said it take 30 seconds. If everything checks out there then you move on and check the actual drive.

Of course the techs are making $10/hour or whatever so it's not like they care anyway. They don't pull in $250 for setting htem up with a new HD.

Edit: I also thought the two best parts were the screen of blue death and him saying there are multiple ways to get into the bios and screw it up. Maybe he meant there are various ways (del, f2, f12, f10 etc.) but not on one computer. He probably thought he was so clever changing that in the bios.

 

[kt]

I blame the computer for giving cryptic and sometime vague messages at best.

 

[theeedude]

Coming next week: We inject one of our reporters with flesh eating bacteria and see which HMO's doctors correctly diagnose him. Now back to you in the studio.

 

[yowolabi]

Originally posted by: TechBoyJK

Originally posted by: bigal40
"There's multiple ways to accidentally get into the BIOS and accidentally change somthing"

like accidently hitting F2, changing some stuff, and hitting f10 to save and exit

Don't forget that there's "multiple" ways.

So I guess your dog could hit f2, change some stuff, and then save and exit.
Maybe your mom too.

 

[smack Down]

Hell there could have been a floppy disc in the drive and the untrained monkeys at best buy would still claim you need a new hard drive and to pay 150 dollars for a windows installation.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I don't need to see a video to know how they work...it's a shame, but at the same time if you're a small business owner you can price gouge them like crazy and still make lots of $$

 

[0roo0roo]

^

 

[mcmilljb]

Originally posted by: senseamp
Coming next week: We inject one of our reporters with flesh eating bacteria and see which HMO's doctors correctly diagnose him. Now back to you in the studio.

I was waiting for someone to mention a doctor. Good call.

 

[Safeway]

"Screen of blue death."

 

[ViviTheMage]

wow, pretty crappy.

 

[tcsenter]

As PC World and other publications that do this kind of test at least once annually for several years now, testing multiple locations throughout the country, it depends on the tech you get, not the business he works for. They have all found that chain PC repair shops have excellent techs and incompetent techs.

e.g. In the same test, Geek Squad in one city might do poorly, while Geek Squad in a different city gets the highest rating. PC repair shops are like a box of chocolates, as Momma Gump always said.

So Micro Center wins this one. Next month, Micro Center might be the loser and Geek Squad saves the day. Lesson for the consumer? Zippo, since good techs and bad techs aren't branded with tatoos on their forehead to tell them apart.

However, as far as averages and probabilities go, you're more likely to have a better experience from a big box or chain company than from a local independent shop. Why?

Because if the shady practices of "Bob's PC Shop" finally catches up with Bob and hurts his business, Bob can move to the next town and nobody there will be any the wiser, or just acrossed town if the metro is big enough.

Geek Squad can't do that. If bad publicity hurts Geek Squad, they have little choice but to address it.

 

[Electric Amish]

My parents moved to Arizona and their computer crashed. I had them take it to Geek Squad. They were charged $90 to do a windows repair and a data backup. I didn't think that was too horrible.

 

[OutHouse]

Originally posted by: bigal40
"There's multiple ways to accidentally get into the BIOS and accidentally change somthing"

yea i picked up on that too.

 

[OutHouse]

Originally posted by: marvdmartian
Yeah, I shook my head at the screen of blue death as well.... :laugh:

Had a co-worker, a few years ago, that took his son's desktop to GeekSquad, and paid for them to install the norton antivirus he'd just bought for it. I asked him how much they charged, and was astounded that he'd paid so much for someone to basically stick in a cd, install a program, then download the updates for it.......something like $50!! My response was pretty much, "Geez, couldn't you handle that yourself??", to which his mumbled reply was something to the effect that they'd "tuned up" the computer while they had it. Yeah......I'm sure they just went through, and cleared out the internet cache, cookies & temporary internet files (3 minutes), then did a check for any known viruses with the antivirus he'd had them install. :roll:

computer "Tune-UP" that just screams scam and is brilliant marketing.

 

[thescreensavers]

Direct Video link

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: CptCrunch
This just in, CC and BB are ripping you off!

:Q

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: mcmilljb
Seriously if the tech is going to say "There's multiple ways to accidentally get into the BIOS and accidentally change somthing," I can't believe they have him hired.

Actually, he is right given it was a notebook.

Many business-oriented notebooks these days are coming with BIOS configuration tools that run in Windows. I recently played with an HP Compaq 6515b business notebook with XP Professional. The HP configuration utility gave access to all BIOS settings from the operating system. You could set BIOS and administrator passwords, enable/disable all devices, the works.

 

[theMan]

wow, this is old as hell. repost.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I'm sorry, but the averager person does not accidentally change setting X deep in the BIOS...most never even see the "Press DEL to Enter Setup" text on boot!

That just was not a "real world" problem they created for those stores to solve IMO.

 

[apac]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
I'm sorry, but the averager person does not accidentally change setting X deep in the BIOS...most never even see the "Press DEL to Enter Setup" text on boot!

That just was not a "real world" problem they created for those stores to solve IMO.

I tend to agree. Most consumers will never get into the BIOS, or if they do they'll freak and hard reset the computer. Aside from the atrocious customer service, the FireDog tech had a reasonable answer (the drive crashed/became unreadable, needed a format). If you corrupt your boot sector

The Geek Squad was full of shit though, all they had to try was booting the drive on a test machine and they'd be able to tell it wasn't dead.

Point being - both of them are terrible options. Find a local repair shop or even some smart kid willing to make a buck and they'll fix your problem cheaper and usually the right way every time.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I'm sorry, but the averager person does not accidentally change setting X deep in the BIOS...most never even see the "Press DEL to Enter Setup" text on boot!

That just was not a "real world" problem they created for those stores to solve IMO.

 

[Exterous]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
I'm sorry, but the averager person does not accidentally change setting X deep in the BIOS...most never even see the "Press DEL to Enter Setup" text on boot!

That just was not a "real world" problem they created for those stores to solve IMO.

Double post 21 min apart?