Next time you need PC help try posting (from a working computer) on Craigslist. You'll most likely find a qualified techie that would charge a fraction of what geek squad (spit) charges. Something like backing up the drive w/ a corrupted OS and reinstalling windows is time consuming but not difficult.

If you played with a credit card, please chargeback the cost immediately. This "service" was incompetent and did not perform contracted responsibilities.

Two things:

I had to laugh when I read they charged you $69 to diagnose the "Blue Screen of Death"...that diagnosis would have consisted of turning on the computer with a fried HD.

Secondly, I had Vista corrupt my external HD...this sucked because it was lots of music, photos, and other stuff that is hard to get back. I used "GetDataBack" successfully to get it all back...nice, simple to use program. Formatted the external drive, and now it's back to working again. Total cost to me: $0. Much preferred over the "Geek Squad".

When I worked there as a Rep for a company, the geek squad services had to be sold or the employee would be fired.

Also I had a friend work there, and he said that they are required to do such things. Like tell you your hard drive is bad, so they can profit more money. If they don't do things like that. They are required to lie to you at times so they can hit their #'s.

He said that many times their #'s would be low, so the manager would tell them to do things such as above.

Most geek squad agents don't know much, yet they are not even A+ certified most times. They are college kids that get paid above average to $10 - 11/hour to sit their and lie.

Dont' believe me, go in there and try it out for yourself. They will always make you get the databackup and they never back it up because they know its not needed.

Your 10 minutes, $50 repair will be a 10 days $300.

Did anyone try to boot up to the OS disc and run the repair option?

Anyway pulling a laptop hard drive out and plugging it into a desktop and accessing the drive from a working OS should be one of the first things to try.

Computer repair is the new car repair.

My coworker was telling me about how one Honda dealership was trying to screw him into replacing his timing belt saying that it needed to be replaced at 50k miles, while the manual and another dealer told him that it is at 120k miles. Thing is, you'll find incompetent and crooked repair shops for anything.

I'd agree with the getting a knowledgeable friend or coworker to look at it, but there are some caveats. First off, we really don't like to spend our free time fixing someone else's computer, we do it all day at work, it gets tiresome. Second, make sure you "tip" appropriately. Nothing is worse than having to blow a whole weekend trying to rid someone else's computer of spyware and viruses and not get anything in compensation. Third, make sure you get the right person for the right job. I'm a UNIX admin, and while I can fix problems in Windows, I'd rather not, and it's likely that it will take me much longer to do it than a Windows guy. Oh, and finally, LISTEN TO WHAT THEY SAY! Nothing will piss off someone who is willing to fix your computer if you bring it back to them with the exact same problem that you fixed last time, especially if it's user-generated. If I was to rid someone's computer of spyware and say "don't go to these sites, don't activate this or that, and run this program from time to time," they should do that if they want to keep getting help from me.

This has to be the biggest scam I've ever seen. It's bad enough the customer had to jump through hoops to get the work done but to charge nearly 300$ for what is basically no work...

"Price to diagnose was $69.00"

69$ when they reported the problem incorrectly? The hard drive was fine. There was no "blue screen of death problem" but rather a virus or bad sector.

"OS Install $129.00"

Let's ignore the fact that 129$ to let windows auto install is a rip off for a second. If the hard drive was "not working" how did they install the OS? Even her tech friend found out the install was corrupt. So how can they charge for this?

"Back up transfer $99.00, NO Guarantee."

Did they even make an try to backup the files? I mean how much experience does it take to swap the hard drive into another machine to pull out the data.

This just sickens me. I've been holding off posting for a while but this one takes the cake. 300$ for them to look at the computer and tell her there's a problem. I'd seriously fight this or attempt a charge back if the payment was by credit card. The work hasn't been done.

Sigh... I have to get in on this. I'll install a hard drive and windows for 20$. Beat that Geek Squad. :P

The Geek Squad needs to be run out of business. They have completely screwed up and/or overcharged many friends and neighbors of mine.

Friends don't let friends go to the Geek Squad.

What sort of dimwit thinks that a minimum-wage Best Buy employee turns into a computer genius because he has a different color polo shirt?

Geek Squad fees are a stupid tax, and stupid taxes aren't refundable.

Please do not waste your money on Geek Squad. Their prices are ridiculous and they do not guarantee their work.
Please shop around if you do not feel comfortable enough to service your own computer, Best Buy will only rip you off.

Odd that they say they wouldn't guarantee it. They claim to on their official site. If he is still inside the time limit of 30 days he can go get his full refund.

http://www.geeksquad.com/commonquestions/index.php#guarant...

I will say it sounds like they just tried to boot the machine to transfer the files, and when that of course failed said "Goody free money".

@matto:
It isn't the consumer's fault that they believe the Fortune 500 company when it says they can fix your electronics.
Most people are intimidated by electronics and computers. They have no idea how complicated or simple fixing them might be. Best Buy is preying on their ignorance/fear. They are a despicable company, their customers are just uninformed.

ALWAYS ask your friends before taking your computer to any repair shop. Most times, your geek buddy knows more than the average Geek Squad troll.

Matto wins the thread.

My wife started up a computer repair company when I was in college, for all the townies and non-techie students who needed quick fixes. At first, she wanted to charge for what things were worth... $5 for virus removal, $5 for spyware, $25 to reinstall Windows, that sort of thing. But I suggested she pick up a Geek Squad flier and just cut all the prices by 25%.

She felt guilty for charging $60 to install video cards for a while, but people were THRILLED that they could get a discount off the Best Buy Ripoff price.

.....I love my little Maddog USB drive enclosure. It's great for putting suspect drives in for analysis on a good computer. (Make sure you've disabled autoplay, in case that sucker is malware-infested!) A shocking number of computers are now sold with system-restore disks (or restore partitions) that can't deal with a borked Partition Table/FAT at all.

.....As to using "system disks" to fix it, be wary. Most of these things now wipe the drive and write an image back on it. You'll have the computer back to where it was when you first bought it, with your data overwritten. Yeah, I know, data should be stored on a separate drive, or at least a different partition, but if the end-user can accomplish that, they're unlikely to be taking problems to Geek Squad...

@Echodork: Brilliant idea!

I've been fixing my family's and friends' computers for a long time. I usually do the labor for free, mainly because I don't know what to charge. To me anything over $0 feels like a ripoff, but the response from my friend is as though I performed a miracle, so there's obviously some value to it.

Geek Squad-25% sounds like a great starting point.

As someone who has worked professional level tech support I have personally seen (and had to fix) Geek Squad's screw-ups. Never use Geek Squad. Find someone local whom you trust.

If this idiot had bought a Macintosh, it would have been fixed immediately, and at no charge. It never ceases to amaze me how people can be so stupid as to buy the cheapest thing they can find, and then spend X times that to get it constantly fixed. Geek Squad? Best Buy?

Right. You're better off buying from Rubber Chickens.com

@Jaideepg: You say "not even A+ certified" like that's a bad thing. All of the people I've ever met who were A+ certified didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground. All of the worst techs that I've had work for me were all A+ certified and bragging. I no longer have any respect for the A+ certification because of these people.

If you really want to get your geek friends to fix your computer, show up with some beer, a few bucks and a good attitude.

I've fixed a couple 'dead according to geek squad' systems... in less than 2 hours usually. they're morons.

Gee, this sounds familiar. Just before my truck driving hubby came home my laptop went into an infernal boot loop and in mid-bootup, would turn off, on and restart the boot.

I took MINE to CompUSA and they backed up my files for $99. In FACT, the tech was really NICE and did one extra DVD to backup something I'd forgotten to ask for the first time.

Then he showed me an external housing that I coulde put the drive into if I wished to try to retrieve any further files MYSELF. Well, I've given up my techie talents by lack of practice since my hubby is SOooo good at the tech end of the computer.

Just after I got the backup, my husband had to come home to have a major overhaul on his truck engine. The end result was he played with my drive till he found out that the o/s was corrupt for unknown reasons. I'd had hints something was coming that I ignored. He and I BOTH did virus and trojan checks on the drive and it was CLEAN! He found the o/s was corrupt somewhere and for once, the repair CD WORKED RIGHT! So, while Samsung offered to replace this new drive, and CompUSA DID recover my files, I don't need a new hard drive and I DO have my files that I had NOT backed up as I KNOW I SHOULD HAVE DONE! (slap slap - BAD girl) ...
I have my files ! I got GOOD service from CompUSA and I'm actually quite SHOCKED at the poor service rendered by the Geek Squad. I won't give THEM any of MY business!!!!!

While I agree that businesses in general should be brought to task for unfair, or unethical business practices, I take issue with the current attitude of the online community mob tactics to get what you want, even if you are in the wrong (not saying this is the case here, but it's a growing trend I see).

An unbelievable effect of living in a free market is the ability to choose where you take your business. Not doing research on business practices of companies is just irresponsible if you plan on entrusting something as important as your laptop, or personal data to them.

That being said I'd like to clarify a few things people may not be aware of. The $69 dollar diagnostic fee is not just to turn on a laptop and say "Gee, that's a BSOD", it applies to any issues with the laptop that may be uncovered, related to the hard drive or not. While the issue was not diagnosed properly (nor handled by their management fairly), the fee seems reasonable to me. Also take into account that they do not charge hourly, it's a flat fee to find any issues, no matter how long it takes.

Secondly, the next time I blow a tire, or throw a rod in my car, I'll remember to tell the mechanic, "$1200! Why my uncle Jimmy can do that for half the price!". To which the most likely answer would be "Well if you don't like the price, I suggest you have your uncle do it." Again going back to the freedom of choice thing I mentioned earlier. The fact of the matter is Geek Squad exists for the same reason car mechanics, contractors, or any other service type industry does... Because you, as a consumer do not want to do the work yourself, or you do not have the technical experience. Not only that, you have an entire company to take to task if they don't do something to your satisfaction. As it is in this case.

As far as the data recovery. Well, it's a best effort service. Just like your DSL or cable. There is no guarantee that your data is intact. That's just a fact. There is nothing Geek Squad can do to ensure that your data is recoverable. It is in my opinion however that he should at the very least receive compensation in some form, from the misdiagnoses of his laptop.

I guess what I'm really trying to say in all this is yes they screwed up. Yes the customer was not informed as he should have been. Are these stories we all see on Digg indicative of the total level of service that the Geek Squad provides? Not in my opinion. How many happy customers do you think they have on a daily basis?

Best Buy, Geek Squad.. any businesses ultimate goal is to make money. Plain and simple. How much money do you think they'll make with unhappy customers? Isn't it in their best interest to provide exactly what the customer wants?

Always seek out the "friend at work" before going to Rip-off Squad. A lot of IT guys will be happy to do a little freelance repair work for you on the side. Just don't expect them to repair your stuff for free, and don't expect them to repair your personal equipment on company time. You will almost always come out better this way, and won't be stuck without your laptop for two weeks.

well for one thing, he was ripped off.. i used to work for the GS. the 129 for the OS install has the Diagnostic fee included.. its policy that theu do a diag on every computer that is checked in. when i worked there, if we couldnt do the service then we would refund the customer the money they paid. though if we did anything to the machine we wouldnt refund the diag fee of 69. i was working in one of the rare GS locations that everyone was very knowledgeable about anything computers. we could fix almost anything. the problem was that we couldnt use our own tools, we had to use only Geeksquad approved tools.

I, Being a Geek Squad Agent, am shocked. Mostly because of the idiotic people replying to this post. First off, "The Nature Boy" stating ""Blue Screen of Death"...that diagnosis would have consisted of turning on the computer with a fried HD." All technicians know that a Blue Screen of Death is not always a hard drive problem. Secondly, The customer signs a "terms and conditions" paper stating that we are never responsible for data loss nor is there a guarantee that our attempts at Data Backups are going to work. Also, that particular Geek Squad may not be aware that a corrupted hard drive is still capable of retrieving information from it. And also to "Echodork", your wife should feel bad for charging $60 to install a video card, we charge $39 for all hardware installs. And lastly to "Jaideepg", I am completely convinced you are a liar. I have NEVER heard of this and I know for SURE my store would NEVER lie to a customer about their computer repairs. We do not get penalized for not meeting our "numbers" we just get fussed at, which usually isn't too bad. I can't speak for every Best Buy store, but that just sounds completely absurd. hah, thanks for the laugh, idiots :)

I do this sort of thing for a living, professionally.

1) A+ is a certification that says someone has about 6 months of experience in the computer hardware repair biz. Nothing great. BUT there aren't any greater standards or certifications for being able to "fix Windows" or anything like that. If someone is good, the move up the food chain to some other role in IT.

2) I'm not sure I blame the Geek Squad completely this time. This user seems to know nothing about what a computer is, how it works or anything. My guess is that they just left it with the tech and said "fix it". The ability of clueless users to completely destroy an OS is legendary. I wouldn't be surprised if it in fact was better to reinstall the OS.

3) That said, the tech sounds like a moron. Who would ever think that a business called the Geek Squad would be reliable? And who thinks that someone willing to be called a geek for $10 an hour is going to good at anything?

4) re the Apple fanboy: Are you kidding? Didn't this site just run a story on how to get through Apple's terrible service labyrinth? I'm pretty sure the "Geniuses" are just as unqualified as the Geeks.

5) She brought the computer in, they told her the charge, they told her there was no guarantee. I would have left. But she said "ok go ahead with the work". What's her beef?

I agree- tax on the stupid.

I got the blue screen of death this past weekend. I looked at geek squad but it seemed a little pricey. I went on craigslist and found a poor computer science major who came by, picked up my laptop and took it home with him, reinstalled all my software and then returned it to me when he was done. $120.

It's the same everywhere. Before I got hired at Microsoft I worked on a website for a Plumber, and at Blockbuster. In every case, where there was an opportunity to drive up the price - it was done. Blockbuster tries to sell you stuff that you can get for free elsewhere, and harrasses customers to buy more. Employees are fired if they don't sell 20% non-video merchandise, meet target rentals, and sell X number of subscriptions per week. This is just like a boilerroom sales job. The plumber? Much much worse. Even if nothing is wrong, they'll sell you a water heater, or as much as they think you'll pay for.

Consumer Beware. Corporations are not your friend. They are not punished for lying to you. You are only as desirable as the amount of money you'll spend on their services.

I worked at CompUSA for about six months and, sadly, this is (pretty much) protocol. It takes time and expertise to fix something like this, so it's much easier to tell a customer that their hard drive has crashed and then reinstall everything on a new drive. It's right up there with being a crooked auto mechanic -- maybe worse.

@swalve: The tech absolutely gets blamed for trying to sell a new hard drive to a user who needed at most a clean OS reinstall -- not to mention charging for running a backup and not actually being able to restore any data.

Claiming that a new hard drive was needed when it clearly was not is more than a warranty disclaimer can bear. If they don't make it right, I'd go to small claims.

I wonder what would happen if I hosed a *NIX box and took it into geek squad? That would be hilarious!

I really wish some TV investigative crew would do a "Jiffy Lube" on Best Buy and their Geek Squad.

Bastards!

Yea, a Geek Squad thread! LOL

My story:
Did a windows update.
system crashed. (I am not techy enough to fix it)
Take to GS. Told them this. Also told them that a quick web search showed this was not uncommon.
GS told me the motherboard is bad and cheaper to get new computer.
Trusting them, I bought a new laptop.
I ran the repair/reinstall discs for kicks.
The old computer is running fine now.

Fool me once, shame on me.
Fool me once, I tell everyone I know :)

Having quit about a year ago....

1. Most of Geeksquad's customers are at the lowest common denominator when it comes to any tech knowledge (IE. customer returns brand new desktop 4 times all because he was destroying his registry trying to install an elmo game meant for Windows 95, while denying he was trying to install anything, until we booted it up and the disk popped out "Well, that's just a game for my daughter....")

2. A+ (or the lack there of) means nothing -- working with a paper MCSE will make you want to shoot yourself -- ditto x8 for A+.

3. The location I worked at had mostly amazing guys (tech wise) while I worked there, mostly over qualified and underpaid (most no longer work there, and have moved on to real jobs).

4. Just because a tech gives you a blank look doesn't mean he is an idiot. Even the smartest tech can fumble around when you ask them if we can install a "holder thing" and mean a hardrive, or ask them to install a new harddrive so you can have better graphics.

5. When I worked there, we were constantly being gotten onto for helping people "too much" during the free 5 min diag. From what I understand, there is a new policy that forces all customers to pay for a full diag if a computer needs to be brought in for anything other than a software install. (Customer used to DEMAND that we just "REINSTALL windows OK!" but then if harddrive was bad, then they would demand a refund even though we 5 min diag'ed it and told them something deeper was wrong, so all in all its a fair rule)

6. 8 Ipod's a day, at least. Over half (after 4th gen) had no problem. Talk about a man hour drain. Same thing that killed the genius bar.

7. We always ran the $69 diag first, this included checking to see if we could pull data off a hard drive, if everything was toast we would refund anything else that was billed and they would only owe $69. Very fair.

8. With a few notable exceptions every Geeksquad guy I worked with just wanted to help the customer, during my time there we all knew quite a few customers by name. We had a lot of repeat business from the elderly because we would take the time to listen and actually help them ("selling" to an octogenarian on a fixed income is just stupid). Being a tech friend was what Geeksquad was originally all about.

9. The quality of every BBY depends on the whim of the stores General Manager. As a result, some stores are excellent, and some cause all involved to slowly lose the will to live.

9. Best Buy is notorious for screwing everyone to get to the bottom line. No matter what they say, Geeksquad IS NOT a separate company and by and large it has taken on the value system of BBY. This is primarily because in-store GS people are usually hired by BBY managers that no nothing about computers, and work under / report to BBY managers. If the management hierarchy had a greater degree of separation between Geeksquad and BBY then many of these problems would be solved.

10. Bestbuy has so many loss leaders that they squeeze profit out of any segment that turns a profit(appliances, home theatre, GS). GS is 80% profit, the only other segment that beats it is accessories/cables.

11. Bestbuy has policies in place that attract the meanest/worst possible shoppers and reward them for bad behavior, part of their high employee dissatisfaction and poor overall service.

12. To sum up: Some GS locations are awesome, but most now hire 12yr olds that can't tell SATA from IDE. If you bring a computer in, have them do a $69 dollar diagnostic. Then if they are incompetent and bungle things you can say "You lied about the diagnostic results and solicited more work under false pretense, screw you."

Why are some people so toward those who don't know how to maintain their computers? I don't see nearly this level of vitriol toward people who get ripped off by shady mechanics, doctors, lawyers, and accountants.

Do they deserve it, too?

Oh, and swalve? 1) The lady in the article is a DUDE, and 2) you do "this sort of thing" for a living, and you think your customers deserve to pay a 'stupid tax' for relying on you? Nice.

Swalve... $10 an hour? Try $7.

Ex-Best Buy tech, pre-Geek-Squad takeover. They take forever with the systems and they will screw you over every way they can. They wanted me to charge a customer $20 per program to reinstall all his stuff after we wiped his hard drive.

Geek squad is a joke, at least in my experience. Your better off searching on forums on the internet.

First, I am not defending Best Buy or the Geek Squad and while they probably did diagnose the problem poorly and charged them for some fees they shouldn't have. The overall amount is right about dead on where it should be.

There is nothing worse than spending 3 to 6 hours reinstalling an OS, downloading drivers, running updates, loading an end users software, restoring settings, restoring emails and getting all of their setting just right, for the third time and then not getting compensated properly for your effort.

Hey, owning a computer is a responsibility like owning a car. You need drive your car responsibly, have insurance and when you break the car you have to pay to fix it, so why are computers any different.

You should practice safe computing by not going to shady websites and loading every cool new widget that catches your eye and why wouldn't you have a backup in the first place and not expect to pay to have your computer fixed when it broken.

The internet is not always a friendly, safe or forgiving place -so act accordingly.

KP

I work at Geek Squad.

An in store data backup is for healthy drives only. Backups for unhealthy drives are to be sent to an ontrack specialist or "Geek Squad City" which admittedly is costly, but has a higher chance of success. The agent this guy dealt with did a disservice to this customer by offering an in store backup on a drive he knew was defective. Not only did he waste this customer's time, but also risked damaging his data.

The customer took a risk in using his own methods to get the data off his machine, and it's fortunate that he was successful. Sometimes it's that easy, sometimes not. Sometimes it's as easy as simply running the manufacturer's own utilities, but that's not something we're willing to risk at the store level.

To sum it up:

1) Plug drive into external hard drive casing.
2) Plug casing into store computer.
3) If drive is not recognized by machine, try a second external case, or plug directly into unit.
4a) If drive still isn't recognized, give up. Customer requires higher level data recovery through ontrack certified recovery center or "Geek Squad City".
4b) If drive is recognized and files can be seen, but drive is acting up in any way at all, give up, recommend ontrack or GSC.
4c) If drive can be recognized and gives no hint of a problem, obtain data.
5) If data exceeds 9gb, check to see which level of data backup the customer paid for. The $99 backup recovery has a 9gb limit. Data backups in excess of 9gb is $159.
6) Burn data to CD or DVD.

I have been employed by Geek Squad for the past eight months. I can say that your case does have its issues, but it is not of the norm. Here's the rundown, as far as I can see it (granted, I can only see one side of the story).

1. $69 Diagnostic is the standard fee. No if's and's or but's, a diagnostic is $69. If we found out that you needed to restore the machine, $69. If we found out that you needed to un-select 'mute', $69. Just the same as going to the car dealership. If they find out that you failed to twist your gas cap tight enough, they aren't going to waive the fee. As far as what the diagnostic entails, we use 3 primary hardware tests: Memtest86, Hitachi DFT (or the MFG-supplied hard drive testing suite), and Eurosoft PC-Check.

2. If your hard drive so much as had a bad sector, it MUST be deemed a bad hard drive. Either the MFG-supplied HD test program, or PC-Check flagged your drive as failing SMART, read/read verify, write/write verify, mechanics stress, etc. This is a policy issue.

3. If your hard drive fails a test, we can still attempt a data backup. As long as it isn't mechanically shot, the file/partition table is mostly intact, we can get as many files as possible. Let's assume that you want 10 arbitrary files, totalling 7GB. $99 for all backups under 9.4GB (2 DVD's). Now let's assume that due to the hard drive failure we can only get 9 of the 10 files you want. We have advanced data recovery services through OnTrack Data Recovery that are available (per what O. said, he was offered). We can either send your drive to OnTrack for recovery, give you what files we WERE able to get (for the full fee), or refund your money and give you NO data. Assuming we could only get 1 of the 10 files, and you wanted that one, we would STILL have to charge you the full amount.

4. In regards to being able to load the filesystem under Linux, that does not imply that there are no defects to the drive itself. The defects may have been in free, un-used space (though it's more likely that it was the space the registry hive occupied). I am very glad to hear that you were able to use Linux to back up your data, and it is a HUGE request from the Agents that we would be allowed to do that. However, we have a VERY strict approved-tools listing (per the Wintools [or whatever] fiasco), and Linux is not at our disposal. Once again, a policy issue.

5. There are some (although not very good) explanations for the poor turn-around time that you experienced. The most likely are that the Precinct is simply busy, or does not have a large enough labor budget. At our current precincy, the past few weeks have shown the trend that for every six machines we complete, seven are checked in. As you should be able to infer, this could lead to some pretty big wait times. Ou