Not all Geek Squad technicians are ex-Domino’s delivery guys trying to siphon porn from your computer, some of them actually have a heart. This guy gal does, and it keeps breaking over and over again as he she sees clueless consumers queuing up to pay for service for mundane computer issues they could have prevented with just a teensy bit of know-how. Perhaps that is why she no longer works there. In any event, he she sent us a list of 7 different money-saving tips he she wished every computer owner knew. Most Consumerist readers probably know them, and most Best Buy customers don’t, so send this on to your Aunt Gretchen and lose Geek Squad some business:
The Geek Squad guy writes:
I work with the geek squad and have tips on how consumers can SAVE MONEY when it comes to their computers. This is what all computer owners should know by now:1) Keep all your data backed up.
Put it on a disc, external HDD, upload it to a data safe website, another computer, somewhere! One place is NO GOOD, two places is OK, but once one fails, you need to create another second spot! This will save you from 99 to 149 dollars when you bring your computer in to Geek Squad right off the bat. NO manufacturer warranty covers your data, you need to do it yourself. Back up your pictures, contacts, documents, taxes, music and ANY business information you have.
2) Have recovery discs for each computer you have.
This is your licensed copy of your OS. These are specific to your computer’s guts (processor, mother board, sound and graphics cards) They have the drivers needed for your computer to use itself. Burn them right away when you get your computer on to DVDs and put them somewhere safe. It will take from 1-3 hours to do. If you loose them you can order them from your manufacturer for between 15 and 50 dollars, depending on the brand. HP is usually cheaper, Sony is wicked expensive. They take about 2 or 3 weeks to get in if you end up needing them when you replace a hard drive or need to fix windows. If you don’t get them that way, you can purchase a full copy of snow leopard for about 30 dollars, or windows 7 for about 200.
3) One antivirus at a time, please.
Two at a time is like pushing fat pigs through a dog door, neither can get inside correctly and they block each other from functioning properly. They can tear nasty holes in your operating system depending on which ones you’re trying to combine (seen it!) or at least SLOW YOU DOWN TO A CRAWL because two systems are trying to scan your every move as well as each other’s moves. More than one is usually LESS protection than one good one. Remove the old ones, even if they’re expired they’ll get in the way. YOUR COMPUTER CAME WITH A TRIAL OF SOMETHING, take it off if that’s not the one you’re gonna use! Most antivirus is 40 dollars for a year, but if you buy 2 or 3 licenses you usually get a deal.
4) Don’t install tool bars, they’re bloatware that will slow down your internet speeds.
You don’t need 5 of them, they take up most of the screen and will end up effecting performance.
5) “Free” stuff can be expensive:
Free games, movies, music taken from torrent sites, as well as pornography sites and even free social networking sites are riddled with viruses. Virus removal is 129-199. Be safe and smart on the internet. If you got a virus, it’s your own fault. Viruses are a software issue, and are considered private data, not covered by any warranties.
6) Computers don’t like liquids.
This includes water, coke, beer, soup, bodily fluids and excessive cleaners. Don’t spray screen cleaner directly on your screen, spray it on your cleaning cloth and then wipe. A stream of any liquid can cause damage. Computers also don’t like gravity or being punched. This will probably cause lots more damage and not fix a speed issue.
7) No computer is immortal.
Technology changes at an extremely fast rate. Average computer life span is 2-3 years for a laptop or closer to 4 for a desktop. This makes sense, because laptops undergo more stress: movement, impact, temperature changes, and are prone to overheating on a lap. Your computer takes electricity, and circulates through lots of things and gets hot. They burn out sometimes, but if you have your data backed up, you’ll be up and ready on a new one in no time.
You wouldn’t get mad at your mechanic because you don’t know how to change your oil, or your vet because you didn’t know how to take care of your dog. BE POLLITE to people in the service industry. They touch your grimy nasty computers full of skin, nicotine, pet hair, dust bunnies… and fix them if you can’t.
More From Consumerist
-
Best Buy Layoffs Larger Than Expected; 1,700 Additional Employees To Get The Axe
-
Geek Squad Expands To Target And eBay
-
No, Best Buy Employee, I Won’t Come To Your House To Get My Stolen Racy Photos Back
-
Layoffs To Leave Best Buy’s Geek Squad Short Several Hundred Geeks
-
This Amateurish Sign Pretty Much Sums Up All Of Best Buy's Problems
I love how the first few comments are directed at how awful Best Buy is, rather than acknowledging that these are sensible statements.
Now, I know that the first 3 posters must be IT geniuses, because obviously by their comments on an anonymous message board they know more than anyone employed by Geek Squad ever.
Did it ever occur to you that this site is a joke? If you were so intelligent, you might realize that Best Buy provides a service that MOST people don’t have the time or inclination to do themselves. You are deluding yourselves into thinking your comments actually affect an electronics giant like Best Buy.
While you spend your time reading and commenting on biased “stories” on a third rate website, your local Best Buy is taking in more money in one day than most of you will make all year, let alone what they do as a company.
Decent tips, especially for those who don’t know much about computers.
Also, I might just be lucky, but my local Geek Squad is actually friendly, helpful, and prevents me from spending money I don’t need. I took my laptop over because the fan was clogged really badly and it needed a cleaning. I was fine with paying the $30 they list for a cleaning fee, because I needed it done quickly, but the guy just took about a minute to clean it with compressed air. He got all the dust out, gave it back to me, didn’t charge me a cent.
I second all this. There are so many things GS wouldn’t have to do if people followed those rules.
A major problem right now is people clicking on those phony antivirus warnings. Antivirus 2009 is a good example. Social networking sites seem to be big offenders with regards to virus transmission as well as file sharing site.
My favorite aspect of computers is that I dont need to buy Malpractice Insurance unlike my primary job. I dont care if I kill a computer but try and do anything to a human and my malpractice will have to get involved.
Worst aspect, someone trying to rush me on a surgery so that they can get tech support.
Remember back in the day when the companies would give you a recovery disc. Now they require you to burn it yourself. I understand not everyone has the knowledge to look for drivers on their own and all, but I just find download a copy of the OS and use the registration key that came with my computer. That way I don’t have all the damn bloatware either.
I also find it amusing that this person is pushing virus removal and how you can get a deal if you get multiple licenses.
If they really were trying to save themselves a headache they’d mention that there are some very good FREE antivirus suites out there. Microsoft makes a VERY good one itself.
I fix computers too. Mostly for old geezers. 99% of the problem is viruses and root kits and they all come from pr0n sites…and every single geezer tells me “I never look at that stuff!” Ha! Also I don’t think the geek is 14; He uses too many words correctly.
Honestly, I kinda cringe inside every time someone who I consider to be for the most part intelligent fail to grasp the very basics of owning a computer…and while I scoff at the notion of paying for basic stuff like what’s in this guy’s list…there are a lot of people who either just can’t learn or vehemently refuse to…
How about a list that computer users wish the Geek Squad “techs” knew? I think that would be even better!
Considering I see as least one to two machines a week to the above problems I can agree with this 110%. Backup your data- That’s not hard, nor should that be difficult. Hard drives fail, they are not prone to immortality. Recovery disks- My reload price is $50 if you have the recovery disks $75 if you do not, recovery partitions don’t count! Recovery “partitions” are a waste and if the MBR has to go, so does the chance of being able to do a successful recovery. The disks help because the software is already on media that can’t be infected, or damaged by viruses. Toolbars, myspace, and facebook apps- I have yet to see any of these people explain to me why they need that “free crap”. Yea it’s free… for a price, and your computer is the one that pays the bill! Liquids is just common sense folks- you get it wet, it no worky… that’s not that difficult of a concept. Go drop your iPhone/iPad in a pool and see what happens. What do you think your laptop or computer is going to do when you spill liquid on it?
I used to this kind of job before. I have seen lots of people that are not only clueless about PC maintenance but get total “brain-lock” on anything you show them on a PC. All of their knowledge about complex machines, like cars, is steadfastly not even applied to PCs because “computers are hard”.
For the average clueless PC owner you can educate them and everybody feels better about that (the customer, me because I get to fix the really hard and expensive problems, their bank account, etc). When you get a customer with total PC “brain-lock”, because they expect learning PCs to be “hard”, expect to be servicing their computer, for peanuts, for the same preventable problems at least four times a year.
BTW, I thought the $199 Dell PC should’ve nearly killed off the Geek Squad. I know I had to close down my business and go into computer networking. Since them life is lots easier.
Wow what a helpful list of things.
Now if only every GeekSquad member was actually useful.
These are arbitrary musings of some guy who is displeased with the ‘morons’ that come in.
Guess what, a computer is an appliance. People want it to work, and sometimes they don’t know enough or they know just enough for their own demise.
Having operated my own computer ctore for 5 years, having fixed over 15,000 computers in my career and hearing the horrible stories of FutureShop and BestBuy service all I can say is that I find this guy’s list a load of crap.
Be polite to people in any industry… that’s just a given.
My biggest problem with this (yeah I’ll stereotype) is that it’s a GS employee. GeekSquad, known for it’s horrible service, untalented workers and schemes to charge every customer as much as possible… yeah a very trustworthy source.
I wonder if his A+ certification is up to date! (what a joke that is. In Canada at least, FutureShop prides itself on A+ certified techs.)
How exactly is this list a load of crap? As an Agent myself, it all seems like very logical things you should have on deck if you own a computer. But, as always, people don’t do the logical thing and they end up having to pay for it one way or another.
What this computer moron wishes every Geek Squad employee should know..
1) It shouldn’t cost $99.99 to install a video card, unlees it’s on the International Space Station.
2) If you don’t know to fix something, be honest, or at least LEAVE IT ALONE!
3) Fixing implies that you made something better, not just different. A faster, defective hard drive is not a suitable replacement for a defective hard drive.
4) You are an employee performing a service, act like one. Just because someone brings in their comuter for you to fix does not mean you are welcome to browse through their personal affairs, perv.
Anyone for number 5? I’m out of time, but not ideas.
Yeah. My mom doesn’t really know how the computer works. But at work she can run a probe over your nut sack or tits and find a tumor. She can biopsy it too, to find out if it’s cancer.
I don’t consider her an idiot because she doesn’t know how to partition the hard drive. She’s good at things, I’m good at things.
If you’re good at something worth being proud of, you won’t have time turn your nose up at people for lacking knowledge about something they can pay somebody else to do.
As a former computer service employee, those of you who haven’t had the “pleasure” of helping the general public with their computer problems have no idea just how stupid the majority of people are. Most customers seem to think that computers are like toasters – they work the same exact way every time. General common sense is thrown out the window.
I’ve never worked for Geek Squad – I worked computers for both CompUSA and Staples – but the comments this guy has made are things that many people just don’t seem to know. Worse yet, when I would tell them, they’d forget it three seconds later. Taking care of your electronics is too much of a hassle. If it breaks, it’s somehow the fault of the people who purchased it.
That being said, I’ll be happy to admit that most companies that do computer service are overcharging their customers. I once had a guy who couldn’t get a USB hub to install on his laptop. I have no clue what he was doing, because when I plugged it in it showed right up.
And he paid $30 for me to do it.
I’m not a spelling nazi, but any person that spells polite incorrectly probably should’nt be working on computers in the first place. Maybe the reason she is’nt working for geek squad anymore has nothing to do with her stated reason…………
Lets see how many of these wishes I broke. I back up my data on a very old Western Digital external HD. I’ve NEVER had recovery disks. I always run 3 anti virus programs at once. (All FREEWARE). I LOVE the Yahoo toolbar. I’m still using the laptop I bought in 2000 with XP on it. 11 years old and going strong! Geek Squad can SUCK IT! Then again, I’m not a computer novice ;P
As someone who works on restoring PC’s….
I agree with numbers 1, 2, 4, 5 6,
I can’t say I have really seen too much of number 3. Number 7 is just technology moving forward.
As of late I have been getting a lot of emachines with failing mainboards.