"The beatings will continue until morale improves!"

Never works. The whole REASON Geek Squaders steal porn etc. is that they feel unimportant to the company, and so they figure they'll at least get something out of it.

Try paying them more, respecting their abilities, hiring actual professional techs instead of sales people, etc. etc.

@dbeahn: Yeah, but I'm sure that the people making these decisions don't see that. They just see unimportant people that can be fired. :(

I fear they will find their scapegoats soon enough and end it at that without addressing the problem properly.

Whether or not it will solve the problem, I have no sympathy for those who invade our privacy and snoop in things they have no right to snoop in, and commit crimes while they are at it (there IS a law against computer trespass). They deserved to be fired.

I do hope that this problem is solved the right way, but if you can't do your job with integrity, get the hell out and yield to someone who can.

@dbeahn: I thought they stole porn because its porn. But hey, maybe I'm wrong.

People do stuff out of spite would steal from bestbuy, not from the customers directly.

Honestly, I -hope- that they try and sue their ex-employees in regards to this, because they deserve the ridiculously large PR backlash that trying to sue a whistle-blower would cause.

Best Buy, wake up, before someone puts a stake in you.

@dbeahn: Wrong. They do it because they know they are not likely to suffer the consequences.

About time some of these people found themselves kicked out. If only it were possible to determine how many times they did this and dock their pay...

@Buran: Computer trespass when they have been given access in the first place is a stretch of Stretch Armstrong proportions.

@dbeahn:
Is that quote from something other then the KMFDM song?

Also, I've heard from people that worked at best buy that they want to hire sales people because it's easier to train a good salesman to be a mediocre tech, then to teach a good tech to be a good salesman. And since this is a corporate tech shop, mediocre is the best you should expect while going there.

I work for an independently owned tech business and we do good, reliable work but we get payed more then retail employees, and also charge more. It's a trade-off for the customer, you can pay cheap prices and get crap for work and possibly have your info stolen, or pay slightly more for a computer fixed correctly and also keep your info safe.

they weren't given access to rummage through personal files. they deserve what they are getting. The only computer repair man i trust is myself.

So by consumerist pointing the finger only at geek squad and not the entire industry, where this is rampant, they have managed to have at least 2 people fired now, and likely counting. Keep up the attack, lets get them all fired, that'll teach them...err...no it won't.

I think all your reasonings coulf be right, no one is ever going to know or, admit it anyway. Either that, or no none will ever enjoy the truth as fact.

Either way, Best Buy should not even have a squad for anything. Stick to selling overpriced junk to people who dont know they can get it cheaper off of eBay.

This Post Never Happened! Shhh...

@Dan25:
Technically, when you sign in a computer, you sign a paper that says something along the lines of: "Best Buy is not responsible for anything that happens to any of the data on my computer". Of course, it isn't right to rummage through someones computer files, but you really shouldn't trust some retail HS kid who is making $7-8/hr and possibly working his first real job, with your important data.

All it really comes down to is how the company treats their employees and how much they make. If you are going to any retail store, there's a 90% chance their employees are on the brink of working slave labor and making pure crap (don't forget, that the goal of most retail stores is to take as much money from the customer before they leave) while doing so. What that means is that there's a 90% chance you shouldn't trust the people who are going to be working on it. Sure, there are independent shops that have unsavory employees but there is a much better chance of getting the computer fixed correctly and reliably.

Who actually STORES porn anyway? There's so much of it out there, I never feel the need to stockpile it away for a rainy day. :D

@Cowboys_fan: They were fired for breaking the law. BB and GS got singled out because they are one of the biggest retail chains. Just like McDonalds gets singled out when theres issues with fast food. These people deserve to lose their jobs. Its NEVER okay to do what they did. They didn't have any business need to go through those files. They did it on their own fee will and then distributed it among themselves and got busted. Thats what happens when you're shady.

So let me get this straight. Best Buy advocates their Geek Squad employees to steal porn and punishes those that have let everyone know that they do it?

Huh? Please tell me your better suggestion for Best Buy to impress upon its employees that copying customer files is unacceptable than for the company to say "do it, and you're fired!"

This doesn't just impact the people at that one store - it's designed so that staff at other stores say "dude, I wouldn't do that, those folks in California got fired for that."

Also, by firing the supervisor, the company makes it clear that tolerating this behavior will get you canned too.

Sounds like EXACTLY what Best Buy should be doing!

Also, criticizing Best Buy for NOT firing the employee who stole your files is more than a little bit hypocritical, since you REFUSE to tell them who it was!

@JustAGuy2: Was that comment directed at me?

@havok154: kmfdm lyric came to me off the bat too, i was like hey, "free your hate" heh.

@y2julio:

Nope, at the original post. Although, I can't see any evidence that Best Buy was _advocating_ that their employees steal porn, merely that it had become a common practice that management was either unaware of, or hadn't cracked down on.

@krztov: @Havok154:

"The beatings will continue until morale improves" is rumored to be a sign found on a WWII Japanese sub. Although that was a direct translation of the Japanese print, it is suspected that it wasn't actually meant to be taken that way.

"The more you know!"

@quagmire0: You're assuming that their porn is the same porn you're finding and not the porn they're making themselves. :)

The problem here is a systemic one. Best Buy pretty much outsources the candidate screening process through a third-party service, and it's not even that hard to get past. So you end up with hiring candidates who probably don't have the moral fiber you'd want from someone who will be going to client sites (and when I say "client sites", I means CUSTOMER HOMES). Couple that with the low-pay and you're going to attract the exact kinds of people who would probably consider stealing customer data a "perk" of the job.

Fix the problem. Fire the offendees (because they deserve it), and then fix the hiring practices that put them there to being with. And if you can't profitably do that, then you have no business being in that business.

@Buran: OK, you're a moron. When you give the machine over, you are giving them implied permission to access the data on the drive. That is, after all, where the OS is installed. Ergo, there is no "trespass" even if they go "snooping". This is an ethical question, not a legal one.

They've ALREADY paid the consequences - having to work in a shit job, knowing that they're getting paid next to nothing for something the company is charging $200 an hour for.

But then, you probably think teachers, police officers and firemen are overpaid, too.

This is actually rather entertaining.

Honestly, in an age where homemade and professional porn can be so easily saved on a customer's private computer, what else do you expect the self-labeled geeks to do?

Geeks like porn for one reason or the other. You can come up with your own reasons for that one. Give them somebody's private computer, is like opening the door to strangers and letting them look around. Additionally, with the ability to easily save gigabytes of data effortlessly on very cheap mediums, it's a perfect storm.

BB is obviously on a witch hunt here, but it's going to be like the lawyers playing whack-a-mole with internet pirates.

@Hawk07: Exactly. Plus there's the whole problem of nothing being stolen per se. A copy is made, and there's an argument about intellectual property, but then you have to prove damages etc. for there to be a court case, and that would be civil, not criminal.

@dbeahn: No, they steal the porn because they are kids (or childish adults) with no professional ethics. Good lord, I can't wait for there to be some kind of union or professional association to regulate this industry like other professional trades have.

When you turn a computer over to be fixed, you give them authority to access only what is required to fix the problem. You give the plumber access to the bathroom to fix the pipes, that doesn't mean he should be rooting around the medicine cabinet.

Is this a legal issue? Probably not. But it IS a type of trespassing- you are accessing an area that was not authorized.

Ok, so they are sending out a threat to all their employees that they are goinig to fire them if they speak out..

Well what are they going to do when you get a employee to pist at the company, that he is going to speak out and then he will be fired, and be happy forever and be freed from hell... Whatcha gona do then..

I am sure they have a huge turn over, I mean com'on it's WORST BUY!!!

@homerjay:
Thanks for the history lesson. I actually like to know the real origins of stuff like that so I don't have to look like a tool that thinks everything is a music quote. (I only look like that every now and then...like now) =)

this is not about punishing the actual pilfering, but rather punishing the fact the pilfering was made public. it's like the godfather - you just don't take sides against the family. ever.

About that disclaimer argument, i.e. Best Buy forces you to sign a waiver regarding their protection of the data on your machine. Courts will not enforce waivers of liability that allow companies to engage in illegal activities. The exception of course is if the waiver is considered consent for the activity and hear it clearly does not. When you sign those waivers you are only assuming that Best Buy is waiving liability for loss of your personal data, NOT THEFT of your personal data.

@swalve:
I don't find the medicine cabinet analogy accurate. I think it's more like calling the plumber to fix the toilet and he finds that pound of coke you stashed in the toilet tank and takes half of it.

Well, I'm glad you guys finally stopped this epidemic once and for all, and that it'll never ever happen again, under any cirumstances. Gone are the days when people should take responsibility for their own data around a third party, as Geek Squad is hunting down the terrorists, er perverts, and making sure that horny 20somethings are never able to be employed ever again!

Lets all celebrate by removing our passwords and unencrypting all our files! Oh, what's that? Nobody's ever been advocating passwords an encryption? Well, that's just too bad, more fun for me!

@cde: They were given permission to access what they needed to make the repairs. Accessing personal files that are not related at ALL to the problem at hand IS crossing the line.

I guess you don't mind if I rifle through your personal file cabinet if you invite me over to your house, and copy down your financial data, do you?

@dbeahn: See comment above. This is wrong, end of story.

And weren't we all told to leave the personal attacks at the door just the other day? So lay off.

@dbeahn and @cde: : What you are ignoring is the fact that many states (including California, where Santa Clarita is located) makes unauthorized copying of data a crime in and of itself, and without regard to intellectual propery issues. What these GS jokers did seems to fit the bill.

As a Geek Squad Supervisor, I'm upset that some employees (the ones that performed the acts of stealing porn, not the ones that outed them) have, through their disrespect for our rules and culture, shed such a bad light on Geek Squad and Best Buy.

At my current precinct and my old one, I was surrounded by competent agents that respected our rules, our customer, and their data. In my 3 years with Best Buy, I have no knowledge of this ever happening at my stores. If this ever happened at my precinct, I would see that the responsible agent was fired.

Most agents I know are professional, good at what they do, and better compensated that suggested by another poster (minimum for agents is $10/hr, the highest in the store for a full time non management employee).

While not agents are experts on computer repair (as to be expected with the pay rate which is below industry standards), we recognize this, and zone our agents accordingly. In my precinct, we zone our agents based on their abilities. Our newest agents that are not as experienced in repair are trained and zoned on new PC setups. Our best salespeople are trained and zoned on the counter helping customers, and our agents that are well versed in repair perform all our work on old PCs. Of course there is some overlap, but no one repairs computers until the are approved and fully trained. Collectively, we have over 20 years of repair experience in my precinct, and are very good at what we do.

In closing, please don't judge the Geek Squad in it's entirety for the actions of some irresponsible agents with no sense of professional duties. Most of us care about our job and the customers we serve.

justaguy2,

Hmmm. How can you call something stealing when most likely the person who placed it ont he computer did so 'free'? One of the concepts associated with theft is that there was a loss of monetary value. If something is given away to you that is not theft be it the original downloader or the GS guy?

The GS guys problem is they don't know what was paid for and what was not.

I had the opportunity to work at BBY HQ for about five months during a consulting gig in a former life. The current witch hunt being undertaken by the strong arm of the inner sanctum against the GS whistle blowers as well as anyone they can ostensibly tie to porn pilfering is really not at all surprising. The people who rise to the top of this organization are adroit at winner-take-all business operations. Actually, they share the same "talent pool" as Target, Northwest Airlines, Wells Fargo and US Bank... all of whom have graced the pages of this fine publication on more than one occasion.

BBY HQ is all about the team; working together to dominate all opponents. This is a bare knuckle business model that has no tolerance for incompetence (the supervisors who allowed this to happen), unethical behavior (the GSAs who created this mess in the first place) or traitors (the people who went public instead of "keeping it within proper channels".) Their goal is to WIN and anyone who gets in the way of this will be dealt with.

By my read of this situation, BBY is really not concerned about the "PR Impact" of their witch hunt. What they really want to do is get the GS structure back under control and set an example for any other would-be whistle blowers. They have undoubtedly made a very calculated decision that their legal department and flush bank accounts will outlast any potential lawsuit shenanigans from "former agents" who wish to test the tort waters.

Alas, I believe they only really care about what happens on these pages insofar as it makes it into the "mainstream media." Otherwise, they know all too well who their customers are and how little they really pay attention to these sort of "fringe stories".

@Buran: You are absolutely right. There is no business need for them to go through personal files, and especialy to copy them.

@JohnMc:

Fair point - stealing wasn't the best word. Taking, then. In any case, copying the files of customers for one's own use is unacceptable behavior.

Simple Solution!

On their application add a multiple choice question that outlines a typical scenario and have the answers be:
a) search their computer for porn and steal it
b) search their computer for porn but not copy it
c) do not search their computer for porn

this should weed out applicants nicely!

Poor Geek Squad agents, let me hand you a Kleenex....Oh I see you already have one.

@Buran:

@nequam:

And that is exactly what I'm trying to say. In the eyes of the law, and trespassing/unauthorized access of a computer system, it is either all or none. You can't be selective of tresspassing. They have your permission or not. Now, the unauthorized copy is a seperate offense, which I'm sure there is a federal stature for as well (Which would supersede the state one). But come to think of it, how many people will testify saying that the porn, which as evidence would need to be shown, is theirs (as in porn that they made)?

@guroth: That's about as usefull as Target's "Do you like to play with fire or fire starting tools?" is to weed out pyros.

@Buran: I never said it wasn't wrong. I never said it didn't violate laws. It isn't, however, a criminal issue.

You did say it was a criminal issue. You were wrong. I notice that even after insinuating that these guys don't have honor or integrity because they look for porn on other people's PC, you don't seem to have the honor or integrity to admit that you made a moronic statement in asserting that it was a criminal act of computer trespass for them to snoop. Clearly it is not.

Hey! With your ethics you'd probably make a great Geek Squad agent. At least you'd get some porn out of it...

@nequam: "What you are ignoring is the fact that many states (including California, where Santa Clarita is located) makes unauthorized copying of data a crime in and of itself, and without regard to intellectual propery issues. What these GS jokers did seems to fit the bill."

I'd be interested to see that statute. Whether or not this sort of thing would be covered would depend on what the statute says.

@dbeahn: Funny how you call BURAN wrong for saying its a criminal issue, but then reveal in your reply to my comment that you aren't sure.

Check out Cal. Penal Code sec. 502(c)(2).

what is ironic is that I applied for Geek Squad once. What can I say I was curious and work was slow. their application process asks a little too much and I canceled out before it was done. I mean, you dont need my SSN unless I am hired. you really dont need to know my mothers maiden name or any of that stuff. If you cant background check me with my name address and phone number than you are lazy.

@cde: I can give you permission to look at one thing and not another. If you look at both, you're still guilty of trespass. Go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not cllect $200.