Geek Squad gets an F

Goosemaster

Lifer
Apr 10, 2001
48,775
3
81
Sadly pcs are such complex animals due to the sheer variety that unless you have a benefit of a seasoned technician, they will make the mistake of thinking they know everything and charge you for their arrogance.

also bb sux
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
59,391
9,919
126
Originally posted by: Goosemaster
Sadly pcs are such complex animals due to the sheer variety that unless you have a benefit of a seasoned technician, they will make the mistake of thinking they know everything and charge you for their arrogance.

also bb sux

Really? HDs have been standardized since the early 90s at least; That was outright fraud. It's also curious that they found a virus on a "broken" HD :^S
 
May 16, 2000
13,522
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The two parts which are unforgivable are:

a) encouraging them to buy a new computer instead, that they'll be happy to sell them (at the RIDICULOUS Best Buy prices)

b) that corporate had the bbb ratings merged so that Oregon Best Buys are no longer exposed as the fraudulent bastards they are.
 

TridenT

Lifer
Sep 4, 2006
16,800
45
91
This would not happen at a BB I would work at. ;)

I am pretty sure most people on AT are way better at computers than the people in any BB.
 

Reckoner

Lifer
Jun 11, 2004
10,851
1
81
That news story is kind've worthless. You're always going to have one bad egg, considering most of those stores passed with flying colors.
 

Goosemaster

Lifer
Apr 10, 2001
48,775
3
81
Originally posted by: lxskllr
Originally posted by: Goosemaster
Sadly pcs are such complex animals due to the sheer variety that unless you have a benefit of a seasoned technician, they will make the mistake of thinking they know everything and charge you for their arrogance.

also bb sux

Really? HDs have been standardized since the early 90s at least; That was outright fraud. It's also curious that they found a virus on a "broken" HD :^S

My point is that arrogance can lead to not even looking at the machine unless they really are trying to scam people.
 

TridenT

Lifer
Sep 4, 2006
16,800
45
91
Originally posted by: Reckoner
That news story is kind've worthless. You're always going to have one bad egg, considering most of those stores passed with flying colors.

Well geeks squad is known for being shit...
 

OUCaptain

Golden Member
Nov 21, 2007
1,522
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My favorite part was BB trying to get the BBB to lump Portland into the home office region. Now that's business management right there.
 

OUCaptain

Golden Member
Nov 21, 2007
1,522
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0
Originally posted by: Reckoner
That news story is kind've worthless. You're always going to have one bad egg, considering most of those stores passed with flying colors.

Seriously?!?!?! It's acceptable to you for someone who claims to their customers they are computer experts, to mis-diagnose a virus for an unplugged hard drive? WTF?
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
19
81
After listening to that woman for awhile, I'd welcome a nice monotone narrator. Geeeeeez.
There's such a thing as too much inflection.

 

deftron

Lifer
Nov 17, 2000
10,868
1
0
That's why is pretty smart to learn how to do stuff yourself or at least be knowledgeable..... think about if they can do this with something as simple as a computer, what kind of rip offs
you could get from mechanics or contractors or even doctors .... most people make the assumption that "well if I'm paying him, he must know what he's talking about"
 

thescreensavers

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2005
9,916
2
81
theres another news channel did this at some other city, geek squad fail to find the issue. lol, same shit HD unpluged
 

SketchMaster

Diamond Member
Feb 23, 2005
3,100
149
116
Originally posted by: OUCaptain
Originally posted by: Reckoner
That news story is kind've worthless. You're always going to have one bad egg, considering most of those stores passed with flying colors.

Seriously?!?!?! It's acceptable to you for someone who claims to their customers they are computer experts, to mis-diagnose a virus for an unplugged hard drive? WTF?

Best part was that at least two people looked at it if it was checked in and neither one of them found it.

It's not surprising though, I worked at GS a while back and they will hire anyone that is able to run the daig CD. First day on the job the boss had me look at a computer that wouldn't boot, as soon as I turned the computer on I new it was a head crash from the ticking sound I heard and told my boss,

?Ouch! Head crash, do we have any spare drive to test with??

?Don't bother opening the case, just run the CD.?

?...Why? I know this is a dead drive.?

?Just run the CD.?

They don't want people that know what they are doing because that means they have to pay them what they are worth and not $9.50hr, they want kids that play WoW and know how to boot a computer to a CD.
 

thescreensavers

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2005
9,916
2
81
Originally posted by: SketchMaster
Originally posted by: OUCaptain
Originally posted by: Reckoner
That news story is kind've worthless. You're always going to have one bad egg, considering most of those stores passed with flying colors.

Seriously?!?!?! It's acceptable to you for someone who claims to their customers they are computer experts, to mis-diagnose a virus for an unplugged hard drive? WTF?

Best part was that at least two people looked at it if it was checked in and neither one of them found it.

It's not surprising though, I worked at GS a while back and they will hire anyone that is able to run the daig CD. First day on the job the boss had me look at a computer that wouldn't boot, as soon as I turned the computer on I new it was a head crash from the ticking sound I heard and told my boss,

?Ouch! Head crash, do we have any spare drive to test with??

?Don't bother opening the case, just run the CD.?

?...Why? I know this is a dead drive.?

?Just run the CD.?

They don't want people that know what they are doing because that means they have to pay them what they are worth and not $9.50hr, they want kids that play WoW and know how to boot a computer to a CD.

I cant just lie to someones face like that, like if there Hard Drives broken i'll tell them, I would be like dead with that job if I had to lie lol.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
How ironic, I just solved this same problem on a laptop a user brought me this morning. Guy brought the laptop to my desk and stated it wouldn't load Windows, I powered it on and saw the error message. Restarted it, entered the bios, saw it wasn't detecting the hard drive. Powered it off and flipped it over, saw the hard drive was slightly disconnected because the hard drive compartment wasn't screwed it. Reconnected, powered on, booted without issue. Grabbed some screws and secured the bay. Total time, bought 6 minutes.

A disconnected hard drive is something that anyone with even a basic knowledge of trouble shooting should pick up. Check the connections first. They should have introduced a more complicated problem to the machine and let them diagnose that, see how many suggest a reformat.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
there was a real undercover investigation by some news channel on firedog/geek squad etc a while back.
and yea they aren't paid to be competent. the pay/work conditions garrantees they will be incompetent really, not to mention the profit motive where an incompetent/ethics free tech makes the company far more money selling more services/parts than necessary.
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
857
126
Though it seemed to work out mostly in this case, this type of "test" is flawed to begin with. People don't forget that the last thing they did was unplug the HDD (or "something" inside), meaning that these tests require the test customer to misinform the tech. A tech would suspect a bad HDD before looking inside if led to believe that it spontaneously did that and the user insisted that they did not open/unplug it. Furthermore, most will not open your computer until you have agreed to diagnosis (and thus, a fee)... an understandable requirement.

Remember, this was not a laptop with a loosened drive bay. ;)
 

TruePaige

Diamond Member
Oct 22, 2006
9,874
2
0
I worked at one of these because I needed money when I moved to Maine.

We never lied or did anything that shady, but we were encouraged (VERY strongly) to push for new PC sales with software packages (Anti-virus, set up packages, etc..)

Also, even though I did actual IT work I wasn't allowed to touch a PC that had any OS issues while I was there, OS restores were for the more "senior" employees.

Only 2 of our 14 employees (11 of which were 32 hour or less, so they didn't have to pay benefits) could do OS restores / backups / virus cleaning)

Place is a joke. 0.o
 

tboo

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2000
7,626
1
81
Originally posted by: tboo
Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
WTF! $580 is replace a HDD???

This

The outrage isnt that they missed the HDD being unplugged. The outrage is what they are charging to replace it with a new one.