Sad isn't it when the VP scratches his head wondering why some sales $$ are going down and the answer is right under his nose. Ultimately, treating employees like they are disposable comes with a cost, as rewarding bad behavior, crafty salesmen does. The customer/reseller always gets screwed in the end.

honeypot

DJ-FX

Diabolic Preacher

DigitalPhreak

Think of it this way, if it wasn't opened here in the store, that customer would have gotten home and been either confused or pissed.... Either way is not good.

Being pathetic and pissed and writing 10 pages on a topic doesn't make someone an expert... Staying anonymous even when you don't work for the company any more screams FAKE. No one signs NDA's.

This is a FAKE. Prove me wrong...

blahsoaidncvoin

When computers leave the store for repairs, I tell the customer that sometimes in rare situations there is a chance that computers may come back from the Service Center wiped... because that has happened and people do get angry about it. Most people say they'll risk it, a few pay for data backups, and for those who balk at the price, I suggest that they buy a flash drive and do it themselves on the counter. Some customers leave the store and come back later after they have backed up their stuff. These all result in a much happier customer.

If any Agent here were ever, EVER, to pull a computer out of a box that was pre-used and infected with a virus, we would not even approach a manager about it. We would box it up, put in in the DEVO bin to have it sent back and grab another one from the computer department. To "fix" it, in any way, would be unacceptable.

RandomAgent

aplc0r

Geek squad may switch back at some point, as these things tend to be a little cyclical.

Hebi-kai

"the most computer savvy men and women the world has ever known" do not work at a big box retail store fixing broken windows machines for $13/hour. Sorry, but the hyperbole makes it hard to take any of the story seriously.
--
ok, so yes, this comment is a little hyperbolic, but overall this account was convincing in its portrayal of a high-morale, apparently highly-competent organization (even with its creepy/weird job titles--"Double Agent"?) transformed by its association with Best Buy into a horrible, demoralising place to work.

The author is actually a really funny, entertaining writer. This is much better than some of the duller rants I've seen on consumerist. I love this line:

"Keeping with the theme of differences between Geek Squad and a hobo with a thumb drive, let me ask you... what can a Geek Squad agent do better that someone else cannot? If your answer is "charge more", then you are correct, but you missed what I am fishing for. If your answer is "nothing", then you win an all expenses paid trip for your hand to your back for a weekend of patting. Good job!"

Anonymous-writer: you should consider a career in blogging :)

schmerd

beholdbojangles

At that time when I worked for Best Buy part time in the GS, I was in the Air Force, having spent years as a systems administrator. Needless to say, I wasn't learning anything computer related at Best Buy. When the GS guy came to talk to us, we were already using pirated copies of winternals superutil. I tried talking to the guy about current happenings int he computer world (XP SP2 was just released at the time) and the guy didn't seem to be very current, though he claimed to just be "one of us". He seemed very condescending, and at that point my 3 weeks on the job gave me the impression that it was already a sinking ship.

I have to validate one of the author's main points: there were 2 guys I worked with that were really fun to work with and made the time worth while. Other employees were OK, and one of them had no reason to ever be around computers, ever. But the other 2 guys were really fun, particularly in the area of behind-the-back insults of customers who just dropped off their computer. These guys were both competent, sharp, and interesting people. We were just 3 of 8 employees, and did most of the work. None of us work for Best Buy anymore.

The worst thing Best Buy ever did was think they could both be a national (international if you count their Canadian brand) retail electronics store in the era of wal-mart while at the same time being a top tier service provider. If the business deal was a merger and Geek Squad was able to retain autonomy, like it was in the beginning, Best Buy would probably have retained significant credibility as a retailer while Geek Squad did the same.

Simply put, good service sells itself, making it available gets the word out, but selling something that doesn't exist got us the dot com crash. Apparently Best Buy executives slept through the end of the 90's.

to KBKSP: You aren't helping your argument when the OP never even mentioned the specific virus/malware by name. Plenty of viruses and malware have well documented vectors and full removal procedures, and not all are self-morphing encrypted rootkits.

thedude42

Robert Stephens is gone. The age of Mike Sherwood is now.

Le Roi est Mort. Viva Le Roi!

Neritha

JJRamzilla

Geek Squad USED to be a crack team of 30-40 techs in Minneapolis, with agents in Chicago, LA and SF with awesome tech and customer service skills. The #1 commandment was "make the customer happy with the service they have received." Honestly, there were some really big brains on the tech backend at Geek Squad. Pay was commensurate with performance, the business was small enough that management was personally on top of any issues an Agent had with a customer or with their job, and it was truly a great company to work for.

Then Best Buy entered the picture, and contrary to what some are saying, there was confusion and chaos form the start on the front lines, with some stores forcing sales quotas for Vonage devices, for exmaple, on in-home techs, sales trying to hijack GS as a gimmick to boost their numbers, etc. Tech-wise, that very first round of agents was beyond reproach and were vetted pretty well by the still-original Geek Squad managers who hadn't yet been shafyed by Best Buy. But it started to get watered down as it scaled. It was, at its peak, a small and extremely customer-focused business serving a much-needed niche -- you would not believe how badly, for example, people need their laptop fixed on a Sunday night at 11 pm when they have a presentation due the next day at work! -- and very rightly got a lot of good press and high prodile gigs working for rock stars. But Best Buy has NEVER been good at customer focus. That was part of the reason they bought GS -- to bring an entity in there with some good practices -- but I personally never believed the Geek Squad ethos I was taught could scale to Best Buy size. Perhaps on its own, grown more organically with local "precincts" grown from individual agents who establish and grow a territory and recruit more agents -- that was the plan, back in the day. But Best Buy adopting Geek Squad to get better at customer service is like a cancerous tumor adopting healthy cells to get healthier. It just doesn't work that way.

By the way, Robert Stephens is a totally stand yp guy and from what I know of him these shenanigans and Best Buy bumblefuckedness is probably driving him batshit furious. But there's only so much he can do without the a mandate to go in and personally have people killed. Knowing him he would probably kill the right ones. Robert's only mistake was selling the company to Best Buy before going all the way with his own expansion plans, but we all have to make decisions like that from time to time and I think Robert was tempted by the ability to make the national Geek Squad thing happen using a big corproation's resources. I don't think it has worked out as he'd imagined, and that's a shame because he's a really cool guy.

UncleFestus

FHRocker

I just received a call from the Geek Squad, advising me that the power button was fixed, but that they also had to replace my hard drive and if I wanted my data (2 years of documents, etc.) restored, it would cost me $279.00, which, by the way, was NOT covered by the service plan.

I was told that I signed a waiver that it was my responsibility to back up all data, so they may not be able to do anything for me, and I would have to pay $279 to get my data.

However, I did not have any problems with my hard drive and did not take it in for a hard drive repair.

Second, I did not LOSE my data (which, I understand, is not covered by the service plan), but they removed the data from my computer by unnecessarily replacing my hard drive in the course of repairing the power button. To the extent that they still had the data and the ability to restore it, they should have done so without charging me.

Finally, the "waiver" I signed was, in actuality, ten numbered paragraphs on a service order that was printed out AFTER they took my computer and had me sign an altogether different form. Moreover, they never pointed out anything on that fine print form, and certainly never explained that there was any risk of losing data (or a hard drive) in the course of fixing a power button.

Here's my question: Is this standard practice (or is there pressure) to find ways to charge people for services that are not covered under the service plan?

Why did they charge me $279.00 to copy my data onto the new hard drive when someone in the post above said $99, I think. Aren't prices uniform? Do they charge people with service plans more for "excluded services" than they charge people who don't have plans?

Also, the guy from corporate who I complained to said that they will usually run a diagnostic on the computer and fix whatever seems to be problematic even if it isn't the precise thing that the customer brought the computer in for. Is this true? How can they get away with "fixing" soemthing other than what it is brought in for, especially when one thing has nothing to do with the other? If I take my car in for new brakes, how can they charge me for putting on a new set of tires too just because they thought I needed them?

Anyone out there with similar experiences?

Is this standard practice? Fixing everything they diagnose as wrong, even if it isn't what the customer asked for?

sle212

(But man, I have to admit, the temptation to take a peak at someone's amature porn must be pretty strong!)

WorldConsumer

ChicanoD

3/25: http://britpoptarts.livejournal.com/30473.html
3/24: http://britpoptarts.livejournal.com/30312.html
3/22: http://britpoptarts.livejournal.com/30048.html
3/20: http://britpoptarts.livejournal.com/29502.html

WARNING: Cat Macros and CAPS OF RAGE.

The sad thing is that I really trusted and had a good opinion of GS, especially after an at-home service call in January. I couldn't praise them enough. Then I took my brand new laptop into a GS center in person for a mere memory upgrade, and all hell broke loose. I omitted the dozens of phone calls where different managers and 1-800 supervisors and high- and low-ranking Geeks all told me completely different stories about what was going on with my machine.

The best bit was when they installed NortWare (without my permission!) on my machine, ditto a bunch of trial software and ADware, and removed all my very expensive programs, several of which were legally purchased downloaded programs, ergo no CDs to back them up with. Also? They decided I needed a newer version of WinAmp, so they gave me the newest one, which was for VISTA, not XP. The wrong drivers then farkled a whole helluva lot of other things. They also farkled my NVidia card drivers and settings.

I was sad.

I still have great respect for the at-home tech, who was knowledgable, friendly, professional and good at his job. It was the store-bound salesmen-masquerading-as-technically-savvy-geeks that I have a deep, burning, serious hatred for, now. Alas, small town. Options are limited. *sigh*

Britpoptart

Affinity

AnDrEwWiLlNeVeRuSeThIsAgAiN

FrancisFiveThousand

In consumer ed I just watched a video of a 60 minutes on the Geek Squad... apparently from their earlier days, just after being bought by Best Buy.... It was so unreal.

asherchang

I messed up my home computer and the IT guy at work volunteered to fix it for me. I was like, "Oh, no no no! Instructions will suffice. I'd never want to trouble you."

People are curious by nature. It doesn't necessarily make the Geek Squad pervs bad people, perhaps they're just bored. Honestly, I'd probably do some snooping myself if I worked there.

Which is exactly why I'd never take a computer in for repair - anywhere. It would just be awkward paying my bill.

Carson Daly

I know people who like that stuff and when I went to them and asked, all I had to say was "CSI" to provoke the groans.

I can understand the feeling, though. I'm a space geek and I can't stand it when other shows try to sound like they know something about THAT.

But we disgress ...

Buran

Ziazilia

http://www.jeremyduffy.com/retailers/angel-demon-customer-...

aikoto

ok1009

it has always amazed me how much personal stuff people put on their computer and then just drop it off for someone to rifle through.

krimson

TylerK

If you have not worked for this company from the conception of Geek Squad within Best Buy until now, you cannot fully grasp the downfall of it. I joined my store at the end of the "golden years" and watched as it slowly collapsed in on itself.

When I was hired on, I had to go through a rigorous interview process. Not only did I have my normal two interviews, initial and follow-up which every Best Buy employee must have, but I also had to undergo a comprehensive technical interview with one of the senior technicians of the Precinct. I was the last Geek Squad agent at my store to endure this process. After me, 4 more agents would be added and none of them qualified to do anything but sell.

My manager was hired on by a terminated senior manager and drinking buddy, to be in charge of the Geek Squad at my store. Our Deputy of Counter-Intelligence (a stupid name for the manager of the Geek Squad) could not tell you how to install RAM correctly, but he could sell you water if you were in the ocean. As such, he believed in hiring Geek Squad agents as "check-in specialists." I believe this was a phrase he, and possibly the company coined to relieve us technicians from checking in customers. This would leave highly unqualified people in charge of feeding a load of lies about what we could do to fix their computer and leaving us technicians to attempt to live up to the promises made by these individuals.

This presented a problem and toward the end of my days with the company I saw a growing trend. With my cut hours I only worked weekend shifts even though I had 7am to 10am availability through the week. As such, I found myself constantly in the cross hairs of angry customers on the weekends who were promised a quick return on their services, only to be greeted with "its taking more time", and "your computer is still in line for service and we work on a first come, first serve basis."

I could go on all day about my experiences; good and bad. I made a lot of great friends at the Geek Squad and I am truly thankful to Best Buy for that. I also believe I made a difference in several customer's lives as I always tried to live up to an honor code higher than what you might expect from a retail store employee. Thank you, writer, for voicing the pure and unadulterated truth about one of the biggest computer service companies in the world today.

-Ænima

AEnima

The worst day I had was when A customer brought in a desktop with a faulty power supply and didn't tell me. I plug it in right in front of him to do the check in and Wham. Boy was I pissed. I said did you know it was going to do that and he replied yes. Jerk

The funny part was joking about a tie being caught in a fan, then it happened.

Each store takes on the persona of the general manager so that is why everyone has a different take on how BBY ran.

The worst was when we had a new GM. This one manager bought into the whole BBY thing 100%. I mean he was MR. Best Buy. Well some kid stole something and shot out he side door. The manager went out the door after the alarm went off. Well they considered it chasing the thief and fired him. I called the special line about that. I was so sad.

How did you Agents preform the cleanings? We had to go outside to the Bay and use the compressor because the canned air would freeze up and they were too cheap to buy a small compressor or run a line. But Ill tell ya opening up a dusty computer in front of a customer sold it every time.

We use to use Hiren's boot cd. I had in on one of those mini-cd. I use to carry that, a boot floppy, and the Toshiba check disk in my pants pocket.

Did you guys keeps books and books of restore cd's from the models we use to sell. I never understood why Best buy did not have a library of them on line.

I never got to meet any CEO's, our Anonymous-Writer must have been out near BBY HQ. I did get to meet one of the original Geeks whose picture was splattered everywhere.

They could have better techs If they spent a bit of cash. The really good guys moved on to make better money.

The way they ran the carts into the precinct was awful. The worst was if they used the layout how it the store was designed it would have been allot better.

I never understood why they would change who we report to... PCHO manager to Ops manager to if its new talk to PCHO if its used Talk to PCHO.

I made some good friends there. Had some good times there. But I gota say the worst was running out of register tape. Why they could not print the original receipt first with a list of the rebate numbers I dont know. But my stock is doing well so I am happy.

agentGreen

I guess the premise of this post that I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around is that prior to Katrina, Best Buy and Geek Squad were nearer to heaven than God and all the angels????

I too do not recall a difference before Katrina...

zolielo

I am completely aware about the complexities of current malwares, however, the time in which my story takes place was before the fairly recent outbreaks of malware and rootkits.

I am 100%, without a doubt, confident that the computer was absolutely cleaned."

I have no interest in provoking an argument with you, but this just backs me up. You use your certifications as justification that you know what you're doing. Let me tell you, most certifications mean nothing. The only ones I trust even a little bit are the higher level Cisco certs. I have a lot more than the ones you list (except iNet and Cisco), and I still believe that they mean nothing. There are no good certs that apply to being a tech, they're all too easy, not to mention braindumps. MCSE and Cisco don't apply to being a tech for home users.

Kale

jame-gum

0x00

Can he/she actually be serious? I suppose the achievements of "Geek Squad" really put the efforts of, say, the enigma code breakers of Bletchley Park in WW2 to shame....

I might be inclined to take anonymous's comments more seriously were he/she able to make use of a spell checker. The ten page diatribe is full of typos and poor grammar.

Let's face it, "Geek Squad" is just a service for the great unwashed, the lowest common denominator of pc user.

zalman

It's sad that Best Buy started going downhill after Katrina.

ThePlaz

First, let me thank the Consumerist.com for posting my lengthy story. I feel like I have some sort of closure now.

I want to take the time to respond to some comments I saw posted both here and on Digg's comment page:

----
B says:
"I have a question about the introduction. Does anybody here remember a magical time between 03 and 05 when Best Buy was wonderful and customer-centric? I sure don't."

I can certainly understand why you would have a hard time believing Best Buy was ever a "good company". But I assure you, for a brief moment, they were extremely honest. I was as surprised as anyone who has had a bad run-in with Best Buy.
----
----
n1ckel5 says:
"Which is is it?
We have no time to fix your computer so we blank it and start over!
...or...
We have ample time to find your porn, copy it, and laugh about it with our buddies.
If you search every computer for home-porn, doesn't that time spent add up over the course of the day/week/year to where someone notices? Especially considering the nazi-like timeframes BB & GS set."

It was both, sometimes. It was Best Buy's policy to wipe the systems, not for their employees to spend an extra 10 minutes to search for files.
----
----
Buran says:
"Thanks for admitting that Geek Squad really DOES go through peoples' private stuff without authorization and COPY peoples' private stuff without authorization. I'm a computer geek myself but this just reminds me yet again that I will never, ever recommend Geek Squad to anyone.

Hasn't anyone sued them yet for this?"

At my friend's store, a customer brought in their computer and paid for a data backup. My friend did the backup and found a huge amount of child pornography, so he followed protocol, called the sheriff, and the sheriff took the computer in.

Long story short, the lady sued Best Buy for "going through her files" or something, and Best Buy actually settled with her. Not because she was right, mind you, but because it was cheaper than fighting her.

That's the only case I've heard of personally.
----
----
masterdave says:
"If you take your computer to a Mom & Pop, you'll definitely get your porn leeched off the machine, and there's a good chance if it's a fairly complicated problem they'll just wipe it and show you the form you signed saying they had permission to do it."

I disagree... as a personal business owner myself, I can tell you that I have a lot of pride and integrity in my work. I can imagine this is true amongst many Mom & Pop shops. Geek Squad Agents, however, are there for a paycheck.
----
----
dculbderson says:
"Well, his big deal rant about the computer being "not new" because there was software and a virus on it was kinda off the mark. It's just as likely that it got into that state at the factory when being tested. There were a bunch of Apple drives that came directly from a factory with a virus on them, and they were definitely new. Just sayin'.
I think he blew at least that point out of proportion in order to have something "big" to think and talk about."

I made that its own section to make it clear that I am not standing on any soap box, preaching about the evils of Geek Squad. It may be no big to you, but I regret my actions of deceiving a customer, and I own up to it.

I feel it was a needed bridge to emboss the point that even the most helpful and caring technicians can screw up due to pressure of their peers.
----
----
longacre says:
"P.S. Do you really think the guys at the Apple Store "Genius Bars" are any better? I suspect not."

I would honestly say yes. Mainly because the dozen or so Mac Genius Bar technicians I know are absolutely insane (and many times irrational) about their macs.

Apple, itself, is almost a religion. I haven't yet met a Genius Bar tech that did not astound me with how spot-on they were with their information.

I'm sure there are some that are just as incompetent as some Geek Squad employees, but I have yet to meet one.

IMHO the only thing you need to worry about with Genius Bar techs is to understand that they will *rarely* tell you about the many bad things that also come with macs.
----
----
Pete says:
"Wow.
Just wow.
If you really believe that you don't know jack about current malware. For every virus you detect there are most likely more currently undetectable viruses, rootkits, trojans, etc..."

I'm A+ certified, MCSE certified, Cisco certified, and i-Net+ certified just to name a few.

I am completely aware about the complexities of current malwares, however, the time in which my story takes place was before the fairly recent outbreaks of malware and rootkits.

I am 100%, without a doubt, confident that the computer was absolutely cleaned.
----
----
kbksp says:
"The author of this article seems to have very little sense of reality when it comes to computers. Yes, there probably have been a few good techs at places like Geek Squad, but I believe those are the exceptions. Very few places will pay the wages for a good technician, they are far more likely to hire whatever 16 year old that has an A+ certification (if even that)."

I think you are very wrong. Again, read above at my certification. I am a complete and udder nerd, and computers are what I do.

There have been many more than a few amazing techs at Geek Squad, they just were removed. I can't express enough the amount of talent I worked with on a day to day basis. So to say they were an exception is a false assumption. Maybe it is true now, but definitely, at one time, the clip on tie stood for something.
----
----
@ XianZhuXuande...

You are an example that there are still good Agents left, which I do not deny at all.

But you are, as kbksp said, now an exception. As a corporate employee, I was able to visit several dozen Best Buys across the nation, and I can say that what I described was true across the board.

If anything, I did not describe anything unique to my store only, which I note in the end of my writings. So yes, some stores are good, some are worse than others, but my entire paper is a result of my time spent in many Best Buys, not just my own.
----
----

Thank you guys again so much for your interest in my writing. I honestly wish I could take credit for it instead of being anonymous, but due to my prior place within the company, I do not wish to risk any phone calls.

Thank you again to Consumerist.com, and a special thank you to Ben Popken for letting me finally get some closure on the subject.

If you guys have any more comments, I will be checking the page here and there and will be happy to provide any more answers you are looking for.

-Anonymous Ex-Agent

Anonymous-Writer

hellbent

I have to say what I see now out of geek squad is bad but its nothing worse than what I saw almost 10 years ago.

Hell back then when acer/packard bell/hp/ibm/compaq were the top brands and people were buying them, if a computer was returned lemon or replaced we used to remove the CPU's and take a cut off electrical plug to the bottom of the CPU to really kill the computer on boot up to be able to send it back for credit. There wasn't anything that geek squad does today that hasn't already been done or been forced to be done that we old techs didn't have to do.

In the end the company demands us to make money, screw customers.

That was one job at the end I was so glad to be done with.

I was sick of management who didn't deal with customers truthfully, sales people who sold warrenties but didn't explain how they really worked, etc.. etc..

yzerman

If i want porn..i look it up on my own time at home, i dont need a customers personal stash to get me through the day. The fact that you're saying everyone does this is completely wrong and it makes all of us techs seem like crooks.

Are there any other techs out there that dont do this type of thing?

pburns83

ToddMU03

I can tell you people try to hide all sorts of things in their computer when they want a backup. Some were honest about certain directories and others were not so forthcoming.

We did find plenty of pictures of girls who have "hidden" pictures no one should see and we had to call the police a couple times for individuals who like to have a stash of underage material.

hatsumomo

My main reason for replying was to speak about #10. We had an employee at our store, once, who wiped a computer to cover his mistakes. He was placed on termination warning imediately, the customer was informed, refunded in full, and we made special arrangements to recovery his data after the fact through special software we purchased just for this task. A computer is checked in for a restore, or for a repair, and all repair work is done by an experienced technician. I am one of these. If you come into my store, you will not see me. I live in the back. My companions are all computers, some newly fixed, some waiting to be fixed. You will only meet with me if you manage to catch me while I am running out to the sales floor to gather parts needed for repairs, or if I have called you because I am working on your computer. People like me, in all the stores I have worked with, take our jobs, and the customer's data, very seriously. I will not reformat your computer to escape difficult work or with mistakes. I may call you to explain that such work will be necessary, but you will have a chance to get your data first. It sounds like the original story writer worked for a very bad store.

Most of this other stuff, yeah, it is true. Through and through, it is true. The talent of Geeksquad has gone down the toilet. You are speaking to salesmen who, in many cases, want your sale just as badly as someone on commission, and they may not understand everything they recommend. They want to impress their managers, or they may be fearful of their managers, or maybe they truly have bought in to everything they say. But if you work with Geeskquad for a while, you will begin to notice when you are speaking with a skilled technician. My customers notice the difference between us every single time.

I am still amazed that a store would delete customer data as a matter of regular practice. If I knew a coworker was doing this, I would expose them immediately, and I know they would be fired.

XianZhuXuande

Hardest part about GS now a days is not having the hours, and with only 2-3 people watching the counter, and anytime someone comes up for help we have to drop everything and help them.

I know I try my best to not take in a system, but with the systems we already have it's sometimes easier to just take the system in for diagnostics ($59, -$10 drop in price recently) and apply that towards the standard software fix price of $199, or hardware replacement of $39+cost of hw.

Our stores "Special Agent" (CIA, Black Ops, Agent, Double Agent, Special Agent) has conveyed that making customers happy is becoming more of a priority, so like if a customer balks at $199 for virus cleanup, offer $129. If an agent quotes you one price you probably just have to weigh the pros and cons of the fix, and if it's a bit more than you want to spend, ask the agent what other options he'd recommend. $199 to fix an old computer, or $199 towards a new MacBook? $99 to [try and] backup your data, or loose it all.

As for #10, while I've only been working since November it pains me have to fall back on #10, and I've only had to do it once (thank god). I do everything I can to fix the computer, and I'll call the customer if I have to "do a wipe" I will get the cusotomers approval first. Our group lately has been using highlighters on section #10, espically when people wave the backup, but at the same time I try to assure them we'll do everything we can to keep everything intact.

As for the huge influx of salespeople, while part of our job is to sell our services, most of our group will double-check with one another if were not sure and try our best to keep the price as low as possible. Some of us wander the floor when were not busy to answer questions. Maybe we are exceptions to the rule. An agent from N. Carolina recently transfered to our store and said our 5-10 day turnaround was worlds better than his old stores 21-28 day turnarounds.

Here's my tip if you REALLY need help, and you got cash to burn, call 1-800-GeekSquad and setup an appointment for at-home service. I don't know about everywhere, but in North California, only Double Agents and Special Agents go door to door, and most of them carry MSCE and other types of "Certifications" (and most like to flaunt them, just ask). Minimum charge is $89 I think, expect to pay $250, assuming they can fix everything in one trip you shouldn't pay more than what you need to have done.

BBY used to allow the computer sales and Geek Squad agents to make appointments for in-home service, but not anymore. (once again, speaking from my store only) Which is odd because a lot of people who were computer phobic used to love the home networking setups. Harder to sell if we can't setup an appointment on the spot.

Ah well, I'm babbling. Good post, but I disagree on some points.

Android8675

Knowing that each customer can rate and comment on their service from the technician, he or she is less likely to reformat without backing up your data first or cut corners in other ways.

But you are still dealing with humans with flaws, so you might suggest to your daughter that she wait until after the tech leaves before showering:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-geeksuit12apr12,0,...

gorndog

I'm not writing this to simply be a jerk. I'll admit that I was that kid once, years ago I even applied to Geek Squad (I was offered a sales position which I declined). I'm simply wish people would wake up and realize that holding possibly the lowest level position within the IT industry does not make you a computer expert, and you probably know very very little about computers. Hell, I've been a systems administrator for a while now, I deploy and manage servers, and I still don't act as high and mighty as some of those technicians.

(Although, there is something inherently wrong with a IT person that doesn't have a somewhat inflated ego.)

Kale

thegoodtimeguy

Cap'n Jack

1 Yank the hard drive from the customers machine and temporarily install it in my own PC,
2 Copy all of the data from the customer machine to one of my spare hard drives for backup purposes, (just in case something goes horribly wrong with the next step)
3 MOVE the entire contents of the customer's hard drive into a newly created "Previous Installation" folder on their hard drive,
4 Reinstall the hard drive into the customers PC,
5 Reinstall Windows/Office/AntiVirus/whatever else is on the corporate software license listing,
6 Have the customer log into the machine, and
7 Move any important profile information and data from the Previous Installation folder to the users new profile folder.

It's pretty much fool-proof, and if you have a backlog, then you can be installing an OS on one computer while the data backup is running for another -- or for that matter, if you're REALLY pressed for time, you can just skip steps 1, 2 and 4, and instead use a LiveCD to perform step 3, and you're probably still going to successfully retain the customer's data for them ninety-nine percent of the time.

So maybe I'm just a bit of an oddball... but I'm having a difficult time understanding how any self proclaimed "Geek" could possibly justify zorching a system for no reason at all.

zarmanto

I agree completely, with the advanced rootkits of this day and age, "thinking" it is clean, is not enough. This is definitely an inexperienced tech. If you even suspect or detect viruses, don't risk your client's personal data (not like GS cares about it anyways).

I find some of this behavior appalling. I never would snoop through files of a client's computer. There is one thing backing it up, there is another viewing them all for no reason. I find this a complete breach of trust, the sad part is that this is not out of the norm.

Also to say this happens in Mom and Pop's type location, it could, but not likely. These people earn money by how many units they repair, taking too long will just waste potential earnings. With the GS people, they are paid hourly, they can afford to screw around like this as they are still getting paid, they just make themselves look busy.

As for data backup, I consider it a free service since I am taking care of it anyways, it is one less thing for them to worry about. Things like this, doing the job right, makes the client keep coming back as they trust you, and in part, word of mouth goes a long way, whether it is a good or bad thing.

ShadowFalls

goyzilla

Being the inquisitive person that I am, I looked up all the accessed/created/etc files during that time period, and I noticed that they had looked at some pron I had on the computer.

First thing I thought was, well that's kinda messed up but I'd probably do the same thing.

Adam Rock

"While Geek Squad use to be a condensed army of the most computer savvy men and women the world has ever known..."

Actually, I might reserve that comment for Xerox PARC. Little things like inventing Ethernet, the laser printer, mouse and GUI might give them a slight advantage.

IndyJaws

Wow.
Just wow.
If you really believe that you don't know jack about current malware. For every virus you detect there are most likely more currently undetectable viruses, rootkits, trojans, etc...

pete

P.S. Do you really think the guys at the Apple Store "Genius Bars" are any better? I suspect not.

longacre

So if we hire a GS "agent" to rifle through our porn, does that make it some sort of geeky escort service? I guess they make in calls and out calls, right?

Antediluvian

George of the Jungle

WoLFBoP

geekchic

seriously. what is it w/ electronic stores & deceptively selling used equipment???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yYGoO5imyY

mac-phisto

I think he blew at least that point out of proportion in order to have something "big" to think and talk about.

dculberson

As far as searching for people's porn, music, photos, etc...OK, that totally happened all the time, but in almost every case, it was when we were being paid to do a data back-up anyway. Rather than just ghosting the drive and burning it on CDs or DVDs that the customer would have no idea how to access, a lot of us would take the time to back things up in well named folders and omit Windows data and application data that was unnecessary and would just waste space. When you do that, you kind of have to go through people's stuff, and yeah, you see porn, personal porn, music, etc. By law, any computer tech that comes across child porn has to contact the authorities and withhold the computer. The service center typically dealt with that more than stores, but we had a few occasions too. To be honest, although we may have laughed at some pictures or taken some MP3s for our tech PC to play while working in our tiny little back room, we never really remembered who anything belonged to or cared. It wasn't like we were reading their blog and then making fun of them to their face. We were reading each other's blogs when techs were dumb enough to stay logged in and write about how much they hated the department supervisor -- but not customers.

The reformat makes a PC new thing did happen -- but more often than not, those customers were given the 10% open-box discount...and if you do a OS restore anyway, it's not like it matters.

So yeah, I relate/remember/agree with a lot of that Geek's postings - but the problems were there well before the Geek Squad system replaced the Tech Bench, and the monogrammed black shirts became those hideous polyseter disasters. But aside from the pressure to push services and the limitations as far as using the corporate network to access tools (we had homebrew tool kits that past techs years earlier had built and left for us that were used all the time, just like any other tech would have their own private toolkits), the practices at Geek Squad/Tech Bench are absolutely no different from any other small or large computer repair shop.

geekchic

If you take your computer to a Mom & Pop, you'll definitely get your porn leeched off the machine, and there's a good chance if it's a fairly complicated problem they'll just wipe it and show you the form you signed saying they had permission to do it. Maybe Geek Squad was a higher class of computer repair before Best Buy acquired them, but it doesn't sound like they're doing anything out of the ordinary right now.

masterdave

I know when I worked for Best Buy (not in the tech dept), there was at least one tech who found gay porn and was none too pleased to have seen it, and one who uncovered some child porn. (If you've got that on your computer, wtf are you thinking giving it to someone else?)

Indecision

Indecision

I'm all verklempt...

TomFoolery

Meg Marco

Who on here had to think ONCE???

NoThru22

Now, regular non-furry gay porn? Bring it on, baby!

Porn w/ guys who are furry? Fine.
Porn w/ guys who are furries? Not for me.
Honestly, it's not that it's icky -- it's not -- it's that HOW CAN YOU TELL IT'S PORN??? It's two guys in animal costumes dry humping. They could just be hugging awkwardly if you don't look closely.

Or, at least that's what I learned on CSI. Maybe CBS cut something?

Antediluvian

dwarf74

Transuranic

The Bigger Unit

It doesn't take too long to find someone's porn stash. Shouldn't take longer than 45 minutes.

Not that I would know...

Anyways great read. If anyone ever asks me why I'm better than Geek Squad, this article will be my answer.

dangman4ever

Hasn't anyone sued them yet for this?

Buran

martyz

We have no time to fix your computer so we blank it and start over!

...or...

We have ample time to find your porn, copy it, and laugh about it with our buddies.

If you search every computer for home-porn, doesn't that time spent add up over the course of the day/week/year to where someone notices? Especially considering the nazi-like timeframes BB & GS set.

niccernicus

Eww... ... wrong..

rugger_can

But frankly, if I ever do need a technician to look at my PC, they're welcome to copy my stash of gay furry porn onto their USB drive. Serves 'em right for snooping =P

Unless they're into that sort of thing...

Indecision

rugger_can

Geek Squad employee uses his cameraphone to acquire naked pictures of his clients.

vs

Geek Squad employee lets you use your own cameraphone to acquire naked pictures of his clients.

Discuss!

mantari

B

matdevdug

Sudonum

suprthug8d

faust1200

kenposan

shaunirving