Last week, we told you about Best Buy sending a cease and desist letter to Newegg.com over its use of the word “geek” on shirts and other marketing materials and Newegg’s ad featuring someone that looks like a Best Buy employee. Well, over the weekend, Newegg posted its response to big blue’s allegations. [More]
Newegg Respectfully Disagrees With Best Buy's Claims To "Geek" Trademark
By June 13, 2011
9 Confessions Of A Former Geek Squad Geek
By June 10, 2011
Consumerist reader K. recently ended his 4.5 year tenure as a Geek Squad member at Best Buy. And while he says that he considers his time there to be “generally a positive experience,” K. did feel that there is some backstage info the public might want to know. [More]
Best Buy Issues Cease & Desist Over Newegg.com's Use Of The Word "Geek"
By June 9, 2011
The folks at Best Buy are none too happy with electronics e-tailer Newegg.com. The boys in blue believe that their online competitor stepped over a trademarked line by using the word “geek” and by making fun of inept Best Buy staffers in a TV ad. [More]
It Shouldn't Take A Manager's Help To Buy A Computer From Best Buy
By March 31, 2011
David and his wife recently visited Best Buy to purchase a laptop for his wife. Theoretically, this isn’t a bad idea: she knew more or less what she wanted, and could walk out of the store with a computer in hand. This still isn’t so simple at Best Buy, though. There were no computers left that weren’t currently being optimized by the Geek Squad. That day’s task was creating boot disks for the computers, for an extra $100 or so. “It’s been a while since I made a boot disk,” David notes, “but as I recall it takes a blank dvd and about ten minutes.” Well, yes, there’s that. They eventually needed a manager’s help to accomplish what they visited the store to do: buy a computer. [More]
Best Buy Changes Geek Squad Tech Support From Covering All Your Computers To Three
By March 10, 2011
Earlier this week, we told you about Best Buy’s latest scheme: Geek Squad Tech Support, a program that, for a cost of around $200/year, would allow computer purchasers access to unlimited Geek Squad service not just on the item they bought, but on all computers they own. It looks like the electronics retailer has finally realized how much they were opening themselves up to possible abuse, because they’ve now trimmed “all computers” to “three.” [More]
Best Buy To Sell Unlimited Geek Squad Service Plans
By March 8, 2011
UPDATE: Best Buy has already changed the program from covering “all computers you own” to “three.” [More]
Geek Squad Will Hold My EVO Hostage For Up To 30 Days
By March 1, 2011
You’ve heard it from us before, but we can’t remind our readers too many times: extended warranties are usually not such a wise investment. Here’s an excellent case study. Ryan pays $9.99 per month for a Geek Squad Black Tie service contract on his HTC EVO. For that much money, he logically assumed that when his phone malfunctioned, he would not be left phoneless for 30 days or more. He was incorrect. That may actually be worse than getting a replacement or repair under the normal manufacturer’s warranty. [More]
Best Buy To Shut Down Nearly Half Its Geek Squad Service Centers
By January 10, 2011
Best Buy is reportedly snipping the white ties of hundreds of agents, shutting down seven of its 16 Geek Squad service centers. [More]
Best Buy Stuck Me With $63 Worth Of Subscriptions I Didn't Want (Updated)
By December 22, 2010
Paul checked his email to find Best Buy had thanked him for two purchases he didn’t realize he’d made — subscriptions to Kaspersky antivirus and Geek Squad’s “Ask an Agent” service. [More]
Is "Geek Squad Buy Back" How Best Buy Plans On Revolutionizing Retail?
By December 20, 2010
A few weeks ago, we wrote about Best Buy’s claim that whatever news it was going to announce during its Super Bowl ad would “revolutionize retailing.” Many of you took a guess at what that could possibly mean, and now we think me might have the answer. [More]
GameStop Pushed Me Out Because I Refused To Upsell
By October 29, 2010
You can’t walk into a GameStop without having to fend off requests to sign up for a membership and preorder games. A former manager says he refused to take part in the often irritating environment, faced a demotion due to poor upselling numbers and lost his house as a result. [More]
Helpful Best Buy Employees Recycle Van Full Of Computers, Delight Customer
By October 7, 2010
Mindy writes that she had all of the elements for a disastrous morning lined up: she visited Best Buy with a preschool child, an infant, and a van full of old electronics for recycling. However, she found herself in a parallel universe full of helpful Best Buy and Geek Squad employees willing to accept more electronics than the usual limit and give helpful advice. [More]
Geek Squad Tries To Fix Computer With Glue Gun
By September 30, 2010
An anonymous tipster has a complaint against Best Buy’s Geek Squad, which wouldn’t be abnormal except for the fact that the complainer is also a Geek Squad agent. The tipster sent a computer floor model to a Geek Squad service center for repair, and as you can see from the picture, the service tech’s attempt at gluing the keyboard down didn’t work out so well. [More]
Netgear Tech Support: Pay Geek Squad $139 To Troubleshoot Your $79 Router
By September 29, 2010
What should you do when you have trouble with your Internet connection? N. tells Consumerist that his combination DSL modem and wireless router from Netgear simply won’t work. According to the ever-helpful technical support team at Netgear, there’s nothing left that they can do, and his only option left is to call the Geek Squad to perform a house call. If it didn’t require a $139 house call to troubleshoot a $79 device, N. might go along with this plan. [More]
Best Buy Repairs Laptop With Fried Motherboard By Replacing Hard Drive, Removing Operating System
By September 20, 2010
The Geek Squad service timeline for Stephen’s $1300 Asus laptop went something like this: ship it off for repairs, get it back in an even more broken state and missing all data, be forced to buy a $35 disk from Asus to prove to Best Buy that the problem is their responsibility, then finally find that something went missing during the first repair. Stephen eventually just asked for his money back on his ruined laptop, but the best he could get was store credit. [More]
Geek Squad Gets Some Sweet New Wheels
By September 3, 2010
Sick and tired of seeing Geek Squadders rolling in those tired old VW Beetles? Then you’re in luck. Ford says they just made a deal to deliver around 1,000 new vans for use by the Best Buy nerd herd. [More]
My Computer Has Vanished Into The Best Buy Black Hole
By August 20, 2010
Rebecca has some sort of Geek Squad protection plan for her computer, so when it needed some fixing, she brought it in for repair. Little did she know when she dropped of her computer that fateful day, that she might never see her PC alive again. [More]
Where Do You Stand On The Geek Squad vs. God Squad Debate?
By August 17, 2010
For at least two years, a priest in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, had been rolling the streets of his town in a VW Beetle with the words “God Squad” stenciled on its door in a design reminiscent of the logo seen on Best Buy’s Geek Squad vehicles. Now the priest’s car is unadorned after the retail chain got wind of his wheels and issued a cease and desist order. [More]
