Best Buy launched a nation-wide internal investigation after we published a video sting op capturing one of their techs stealing porn from our computer. A fired Geek Squad supervisor tells how it all went down…Innocents fired… Liars kept jobs… Store hard drives seized… Pants shat…
The start of the internal Geek Squad investigation began this summer as all of the locations throughout the country were entered through remote connection and scanned for violations. The Geek Squad “precincts” that had bench machines containing serious violations had their hard drives removed and shipped to the corporate office. All of this was done rapidly and under the watchful eye of salary managers who had their jobs threatened if this was not executed properly. My store was lucky enough to have scored well enough on the remote scans to keep our hard drives. I knew at this point that there was serious cause for concern if Best Buy was willing to spend the kind of cash necessary to execute remote scans throughout ALL of its stores in one day.
A couple weeks later, the general manager of Best Buy informed me that the remote scans were phase one of the investigation. Phase two was a physical check of policies and procedures done by corporate geniuses. Phase three was called an “interview” and I will come back to that term in a moment. My general manager volunteered our store to go as soon as possible in the “interview” phase because we had nothing to hide, which we didn’t. For those who are not aware, Geek Squad has received negative media attention for the way they handle customer data, and these events are what I believed triggered this internal investigation.
The “interview” phase was not an interview. The correct word starts with the same letter; it was an interrogation and nothing short of it. There are a couple different corporate interrogators going to stores through the nation. Stores who received bad scores on the remote scans were flagged to be interrogated; the last number I heard was over 300 stores would be interrogated. Many of these interrogations have not yet occurred to date. My interrogator was named Wayne. I was pulled into the Lost Prevention office, which is a small closet sized room normally used for security and interrogating thieves. I immediately voiced my concern for the way my employees had been interrogated before me, and that I did not believe this was ethical practice for our business. Wayne assured me that this event was necessary to repair and clean up the image of Geek Squad. He stated that this “interview” was not to get everyone fired but to gather information critical to correct procedures on the way we handle customer data (entrapment). As Wayne and I talked he informed me he had been interrogating people for years and he would know if I was lying. He stated, “If you begin to lie to me, the mood in this room is going to change very fast”. Wayne made a few other subtle threats throughout our chat. He stated that our store was red flagged before my arrival as supervisor, and this interrogation was going to take place regardless of the results of our remote scans. Wayne called me a liar in our interview and tried to trip me up on my own words. After Wayne left the room, the witness informed me that he also does these interrogations and that his are nothing more than a casual conversation. I had one employee out of town during the interrogations, so when they came back for him, his interrogation was a little different. It was different because I called HR and voiced my serious concern. His interrogation was an interview, it was done in a large meeting room, and where mine lasted almost two hours his lasted thirty minutes. Oh by the way, he kept his job, I didn’t. He admitted to me later that he kept his job because he lied and that he felt bad.
There were three Geek Squad members fired from my store including myself. The first two were fired for burning a non-copyrighted CD for another employee on a non company issued blank CD-R. I admitted in my interrogation that I was aware of this, and that I stopped these events after that occurrence. I was fired for being aware of this non copyrighted CD being copied. To quote, I did not provide the proper example of leadership. Keep in my mind I removed over 100 illegal tools and pirated discs upon my arrival as supervisor, as well as some remnants of an internal porn scandal. I had one Geek Squad employee that had a copy of customer related financial material on his flash drive that was confiscated during the investigation, by the way he kept his job. To back track this investigation was intended to address the way we handle customer data, and the one major infraction went unpunished. Supposedly, these results from the interrogation are plotted on a matrix by the corporate office and assigned the appropriate punishment. If I was fired for knowing about a non-copyright CD being burned, then remaining employees should start looking for a new job. The punishments are just beginning to be handed out throughout the country. One neighboring store lost nine Geek squad employees and two salary managers. To top all of this off, other Best Buy employees knew about my termination before I did. Apparently, my General Manager is not intelligent enough to know how to fire three people with the entire store finding out first.
The three Geek Squad employees were by the book ethical employees. The employees remaining employed remained because they lied. Best Buy believes that by launching this investigation they will repair their image. They have betrayed theirs customers for years, and now they are starting to betray their employees. They are terminating young men because they (Best Buy) lacked the ability to clearly define and structure policies in the beginning.
Regards,
The Betrayed
(Photo: Victor Chiu)
You people have to be old fogies to believe in this day and age if you have a computer that can somehow be accessed either physically on on a LAN that no one is going to merge your directory named ‘Awesome Porn’ into their porn.
It is not immoral to take the porn you downloaded off the internet. If it is porn of yourself then it is immoral for them to take. The “Wall of Shame” is kind of over the top and ridiculous and most likely borderline immoral especially if it has their names. If it’s just some weird porn that you remember as “some guy that brought his computer in” and its not on public display then most people wouldn’t give two cents.
After reading the bajillionth person to infer that this dude was copying a music cd or something I have come to the conclusion a lot of people have this fanatic anti piracy mood where they’re immediately jumping to conclusions anytime anyone says a key word such as “CD-R, DVD-R, music, files, etc” since obviously these things don’t have legit uses whatsoever. Also, reading comprehension is a good skill to have since it wasn’t even his CD. The employees he watched did it and he just KNEW about it and STOPPED it after it happened.
Although I’m not overly impressed with Best Buy as a company, a great degree of the blame lies on with the people who brought their PCs in for service. If people would take two simple steps, they could avoid risking someone else seeing their files and avoid the outrageous fees services such as Geek Squad and Circuit City’s Firedog charge:
ONE: LOAD BOTH AN ANTI-VIRUS AND ANTI-SPYWARE PROGRAM AND KEEP BOTH UPDATED. Viruses and spyware are by far the #1 reason Windows-based PCs require service!
Don’t screw with programs like Symantec or McAfee that slow down your system and require paid renewals. Go to http://www.zdnet.com, click on downloads and search for “AVG Anti-Virus” and “Spybot”. Both programs are totally FREE to download and use, and both provide excellent protection (www.zdnet.com requires free registration to download; however they are a reputable site without spam or spyware).
TWO: If you don’t wank to risk others seeing your files, STORE THEM ON A REMOVABLE DRIVE!
External hard drives that connect to a USB port start at around $70. Larger units ($200-$300) can hold hundreds of movies or millions of photos. In the event your PC craps out, you leave the drive with your private files AT HOME and away from the prying eyes of the Geek Squad. As an added bonus, using a removable drive on a shared PC allows you to disconnect and hide the drive when you have finished using the PC, thereby eliminating any chance of Junior or your spouse accidentally discovering your fetish for trans-gendered Eskimo midgets (g).
I do PC repair work on the side for friends and co-workers. As a rule, I stay totally out of their “My Documents” folders unless I have to troubleshoot problems with a specific application such as Word, Outlook or an issue with media playback. Short of accidentally stumbling on child porn or a terrorist plot, I’m a firm believer in “don’t ask; don’t tell”.
Staples Easy Tech > Best Buy Geek Squad > Circuit City Firedog
thats the break down
I’m really damn tired of the bullshit that gets bandied about regarding Best Buy employees. Its as though, despite this man’s willingness to tell his story in this public forum, people couldn’t wait to tell him what a life-altering mistake he made working for the retailer.
I’m no Best Buy apologist, but when I hear people discussing the “average best buy employee, I think of the folks I worked with and get a bit peeved. While it is true that some Best Buy employees have the intelligence of a stump, there were a lot of us there that really knew the product and tried hard to do well by the customer.
Next time you think about saying something like that, ask yourself if you’d feel the same way if you said it about a minority. Because what you’re doing is simply unfair sterotyping. Next time you get great service at Best Buy, post it on here.
Dont tell this guy it’s his fault for losing his job. Thats just rude.
Let’s see how long it takes you people to accuse me of working for BBY.
GamerX:
Way to engage in petty theft and call it “a subtle F* You to Best Buy,” Whatever makes you sleep at night.
No matter how much I hate a chain, I’m not going to break the damn law just as an affront to their organiztion.
Oh, wait… thats just how you justify that behavior.
Loss prevention loves to go after the disabled and Hispanics, yes it is the companies fault. If you are feel you have been discriminated against because of race, color, handicap, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age (over 40) or national origin file a charge with the EEOC ASAP! If they accused you of any criminal act and did not provide proof sue them for slander, emotional distress and wrongful termination. We need people to hold corporations responsible by lawsuits, word of mouth, and government enforcement. Also vote in every election because not by doing this that helps America elect a dumbass president Mr. George W Bush aka Muslim Hitler to office. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!! I am just waiting for someone to accuse me of being a “liberal”
Sounds like sour grapes to me. Boo hoo. I feel bad that you lost your job for things you didn’t do, but it happens when you are in a supervisory role.