UPDATE: Geek Squad City Insider Rebutts Founder’s Retort

We’ve got a special two-for-one Geek Squad tale here. The first is a flameout email from a fired Geek Squad City repair team manager with some startling accusations about his former employer.

And second, we gave Geek Squad founder, Robert Stephens, a crack at rebutting before going to print.

Chris J, the ex-employee, alleges that Geek Squad City techs receive little training and are recruited from fast food counters. He says the techs have no access to technical manuals for your computer. Repairs are often done by “shotgun approach” where they “spray” your computer with parts in the hopes that will fix the problem, he says. Superglue is used to make repairs. No one gets trained in the on-site tools needed for doing component level repair.

Needless to say, Robert doesn’t quite agree with all that.

The ex-Geek Squad City team manager versus the Founder and Chief Inspector of Geek Squad, inside…

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Chris J writes:

I came across your web site after doing a web search for ‘Geek Squad’ and ‘sucks’ and after reading some of your articles thought some insight may be of service to your readers.

I recently left (fired, actually, for telling an incompetent boob I could train a dog to do a better job when he smarted off to me) what the Geek Squad and Best Buy hailed as the ‘World’s Largest Repair Center’, aka ‘Geek Squad City’, in Louisville, KY. This facility was featured on ’60 Minutes’ in January and had a widely publicized grand opening in October of 2006. While the media has done a fine job of providing free advertising for Best Buy, I feel compelled to expose the complete lack of qualified personnel who work on the laptops and desktops that are sent for repairs, and to highlight the focus of the managers who guide them.

This facility was actually opened in August of 2006, with the primary intent of consolidating several other repair centers under one roof and to eliminate the need to use third party repair centers. Its main focus is laptop repair, as most desktop boxes don’t require specialized parts or as much technical expertise to repair and can be done in-store or in an owner’s home. Being a local resident and having worked on PC’s since the days of the 8088 in addition to running an Ebay-based laptop sales business, I applied and was hired as an ‘agent’ to participate in this grand venture, hereafter referred to as ‘the nightmare’.

So allow me, dear editors, to take you on a grand tour of this highly touted new era in laptop and desktop repair courtesy of the Geek Squad. Let’s say you’ve just taken your prized laptop or desktop to Best Buy, and the folks at the Geek Squad determine it needs to be sent out for repairs. Your unit is boxed up and sent off to Louisville for repairs and hopefully someone at the store gave you some idea of how long the repairs will take.

A couple of days later, it arrives at this shiny new repair facility. The units are checked in, and sorted by type (laptop or desktop) and brand. So far, so good, nothing unexpected there. Then racks full of units awaiting repairs are wheeled out to ‘teams’ consisting of 10-12 agents whose supposed specialty is your brand of computer. My job was to manage one such team. Here’s where the nightmare really begins.

Once at the center, a senior agent will look at the notes from the store and try to diagnose the issue with your unit. These senior agents are more often than not uncertified, and the vast majority working in this center never have taken a laptop apart before until this center opened. This diagnosis is only as good as the agent who holds it, as there are no ‘procedures’ in place to follow for getting an accurate assessment of what repair is needed. Oh, and let me also mention that this ‘senior agent’ has no access to any manufacturer technical data for your unit. Oh sure, he might ‘Google’ something up, but this facility has no media on hand for a reference. No repair guides, no service center manuals, nada. The only diagnostic ‘tool’ distributed by the company is a little CD-ROM full of software that, in most cases, Joe User at home can download for free, or for very little cash. Stuff like ccleaner, PC-Check, Memtest, the Drive Fitness Test, that sort of thing. It’s just neatly packaged with some other stuff under a clean interface. Ho-hum.

So what if your unit doesn’t power up? Or has no video and one can’t run this snake-oil CD of common remedies? Well dear reader, my heart goes out to you. While this facility is equipped with some electronic testing equipment, they don’t train anyone in its use. There is no class for ‘basic multi-meter use’ or ‘oscilloscope 101’, so unless you’re seen this equipment elsewhere, you are SOL. In fact the only training that ANY new hire gets is in the ‘culture’ and ‘history’ of the Geek Squad. (Read: Company propaganda). There is no ‘new model’ training when new laptops or desktops are released, there is no ‘diagnostics training’, nothing. So at this point, Agent Johnny makes his recommendation or ‘best guess’ and parts are ordered.

It gets even better after parts are delivered. Your pride and joy gets placed into the hands of Agent Timmy for repairs. Now while some of the repair agents actually came from stores, most were, up until they were hired, working drive-through windows at your local Mickey D’s. No, I am not kidding. Of the 6 agents on my team that actually performed the repairs, only 1 came from a store. One came from fast food, one from the military, one from retail sales, and two from local help desk positions. None, not ONE, had ever worked on a laptop. From talking with the managers of the other thirty-odd teams under this roof, this was pretty consistent across the board.

So here’s Agent Timmy. He has your laptop, and let’s say it needs an internal board replaced. So he opens up a technical manual, or pulls up an exploded view to see how to do it, right? WRONG. He’s armed with a power screwdriver, some prying tools and told to be like Nike and ‘just do it’. Of course, this often leads to other parts being damaged or broken from improper repairs. And when it happens – trust me, this isn’t an ‘IF’, it DOES happen, and pretty often – then Timmy has to order more parts to cover what he damaged trying to fix the real issues. And then, sometimes those parts aren’t replaced at all. Ones that are damaged cosmetically are often covered up, repaired using Super Glue (yes, seriously), or swapped out with parts from dead units. After what may take several days, or even WEEKS if parts are ordered from an outside vendor, Timmy has replaced the faulty part in your laptop. If said part didn’t fix it, guess what? You start the process all over again, but this time with an added challenge for the senior agent doing the diagnosis.

The parts being installed on your laptop by and large are used. Oh sure, they are marketed as ‘refurbished’ but are sold the Geek Squad from vendors that do no more than disassemble broken laptops and resell supposedly ‘good’ used parts. In my personal experience it was common to see as many as 15-20 parts a DAY come in with obvious defects or damage, or are just plain wrong for a given application. So now our senior man has to determine if A) The part is good, but didn’t fix the issue or B) Is this ‘new’ part defective too? Easy, he’ll just refer to a technical manual, or use his diagnostic equipment to make this assessment. Oh wait, he can’t because he has no manuals and hasn’t been trained to do anything other than wear a clip on tie.

At this point, the fun begins. Said senior agent may decide to reformat your data and reinstall your operating system in hopes that your problems will be cured. He may also decide to send your computer back to you with a recommendations you have the operating system serviced (for an ADDITIONAL fee) because it’s most likely a virus or something causing your problem. This is common, in my experience, even when testing shows no sign of infections. Or the agent may employ what I like to call ‘shotgun diagnostics’ and ‘spray’ your computer with several new parts at once, hoping that one of them will actually fix your issues. This is another common solution, unfortunately.

Hopefully, after several go rounds like this, your unit is ready to go back to you. It may or may not look as good as it did when you sent it (as covered by their disclaimer stating ‘refurbished’ parts are used for repairs) and depending on how knowledgeable agent Timmy was on screwdriver use. With any luck at all they fixed your problems and you’re happy. But there are other factors weighing in on the quality of your repair.

The Geek Squad is in the business of making money. To be profitable, they focus on generating high productivity from their employees and keeping costs low. As at team manager, I was present during both daily and weekly management meetings where these factors were pushed to the exclusion of all else. At the time of my leaving, employees were being written up, counseled, and moved or threatened with terminat
ion if their performances didn’t improve. You see, the company needs to move ‘x’ number of units per day through the facility, at an average cost of repairs under ‘x’ to be profitable. What they didn’t, and still don’t do, is train their employees to be able to meet these numbers. What they did do was introduce new methods for getting money from your pocket, which is material for another article in and of itself.

Now Agent Timmy is starting to feel the stress of losing his job if he takes too long to fix your laptop. He knows he has to fix ‘x’ numbers or face daily ridicule, write-ups, or termination. (the manager who oversaw the six teams on our product line ‘called out’ the ‘losers’ in daily spreadsheets). And the number Timmy has to meet are for completed units that he repaired and worked fine, this doesn’t count ones that need to be sent back for further diagnosis. The senior agents are held to diagnosing ‘x’ units per day also or face the same ridicule. So if you send in your computer with a problem that is sporadic or inconsistent, be prepared to get it back the same way you sent it, as the senior agents simply don’t have time to waste on your problem. Also, the repairs must be done in the cheapest way possible to meet management goals. This opens up another huge can of worms due to a policy Best Buy has.

Included in the extended service plan (PSP in company lingo) that they try to sell you is a clause that states if you have to send your computer in for more than three repairs, they’ll exchange your computer for another one as a ‘no-lemon’ type of thing. Guess what happens to a lot of these units? You guessed it, they come to us, where a team of people (not agents) disassemble them and make the component parts available to repair teams. They aren’t tested, usually, and may or may not have been removed in a clean, electronically safe environment. They also will usually bear signs of use, scuffs, dings, and wear. (Again, the reference to ‘refurbished parts’ is their CYA for this) So in the interest of keeping repair costs low, the use of these ‘free’ parts the company already owns is recommended. Nice.

So there you have it, in a nutshell. Your computers are diagnosed and repaired by folks possessing the skills they walked in the door with. They don’t use manuals, most aren’t certified and they receive zero company technical training. They are repaired using parts of questionable quality and origin by people who are driven to meet production numbers and not quality figures. Oh sure, quality of repairs is tracked as well, but the quality testing is done by persons who didn’t qualify as ‘agents’ – so how accurate is that number?

There is a reason you still see local shops in strip malls and converted houses advertising quality repairs at reasonable prices, and this is one of the bigger ones. In the Geek Squad’s case, marketing has fully triumphed over any sense of competence.

Just thought I’d share, thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Chris Johnson

Robert Stephen’s response:

“First off, I’m responding to this directly, because we really care about quality and reputation and I see so many companies get bashed on The Consumerist. That, and Ben was fair enough to give us a chance to respond to this anonymous e-mail.

Some background: Let’s call this -“Why most computer repair has traditionally sucked”.

Until now.

Then we’ll get to Geek Squad City and specific responses to the e-mail in question.

Most product support evolved because retailers had to provide some basic service when they sold you something. They sold it, so they had to at least fix the hardware. If you had a system crash or a virus – you were out of luck. Now, you have many choices where you buy this stuff – on-line, garage sales, eBay, retailers, and catalogs. More than ever, these devices are starting to talk to each other – but most people prefer to get one phone number to call for support. They prefer one person to make it all work. This is a recent development. Prior to The Geek Squad, no one really tied together phone support, store support, home support, and remote web support into a single brand for any computer product no matter where you bought it. Who wants to call AOL to be told, “Call microsoft”, who in turn says “call Hewlett Packard”.

Why didn’t this exist on such a large scale before The Geek Squad? It wasn’t for lack of trying. I remember many companies who tried to “go national” and raise lots of VC dollars. The simple reason is: it’s extremely hard to be great in this business and then scale that. That’s because we must be perfect every time. We get no points for “almost fixed”. That makes this a very difficult business to be in (think CompUsa). Our quality ratings for The Geek Squad are the best in the industry.

Geek Squad City (yes, that’s it’s name) is a 180,000 square foot facility in Louisville Kentucky housing over 350 Agents and another 200 support crew. Why Louisville? There’s a massive UPS hub here – that’s a major reason. Do you know why most retailer warranty repairs take 2-4 weeks? Most of it is shipping! By locating this facility next to a UPS hub, we are doing our best to speed up that cycle time. So why did we invest millions of dollars to change a process Best Buy was already doing for years? Because Best Buy and The Geek Squad care about quality.

Here are my responses to the points in the e-mail:

Culture – yes, we give them Geek Squad history when they start. I want them reminded of where we started and why we’ve gotten to where we are – quality. It’s the first thing we try to teach them. I want them motivated and committed to treating your computer with the utmost care. You can tell this person seems passionate about quality – we attract the best we can. I do not know who this person is or why they are no longer working for The Geek Squad.

Turnover – Our turnover for Geek Squad City is less than 1%. That’s extremely low – for any industry – and especially for this one. There is a reason for that – culture matters. It would be improper for me to comment on any specific issue with any ex-employees, but there are many reasons someone would not be part of our team. We try to maintain the highest standards

Productivity pressure – No agent has lost their job due to productivity issues at the City. I can tell you that we remind them that you are waiting for that computer to get back as soon as possible. You are constantly telling the industry that they take too long to get your stuff back to you. We are listening.

Quality – We have an entire quality team whose responsibility is to ensure that our Agents have properly repaired the customers unit.

Speed – We always put quality before speed, but turn time in the City is under 5 days overall and for most customers under 3 days. This is a new facility open only since last fall. A complex this massive only improves with time. We’ve done over 200,000 repairs since then. Many delays are due to either parts – or we may have found another problem and we need to contact you for permission to do certain work. Your data is very important to us.

Parts – Every repair facility is vulnerable to the available supply of parts. Each laptop is like an antique – almost every part is custom to that laptop. If they didn’t make enough extra screens, I may have to make you wait another 1-2 weeks before getting your laptop back if I have to order one from Gateway. Every repair facility uses re-furbished parts. It’s because you have to – there aren’t enough parts to go around. Here’s a side benefit you won’t hear about: sometimes your laptop comes to us from you with a missing key – or a scratched case. Since we keep these extra parts around – we sometimes will replace it for you free of charge – just to surprise you with a little something extra.

Software and Copyright – Yes, in addition to our own proprietary software, we sometimes rely on small applications to help us help you. Guess what? So do a lot of other small tech support companies. The difference is – we have actually legally secured the rights to use this software from the makers – and paid them real money to do so. I’m confident most tech support companies have not legally secured the rights to use the tools they use. Even “freeware” may not be used in a business if you are charging people a fee to use it over and over to service computers. Again, we hold ourselves to the highest standard.

Tools – All benches are equipped with anywhere from $400 – $500 of equipment to repair units/according to the job each agent is assigned. Super Glue is not in our tool set. We have a dedicated data recovery lab on site and we recover over 90% of all data we attempt to revive.

Training – We train all agents that do component level repair to use the following equipment: O’scopes, soldering techniques, meter reading. We even have a soldering training center and lab at the facility. There’s a video on youtube showing Fabio using this soldering lab here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sfccSN1Tguw&mode=related&search=.

Certification – You will not ever see Geek Squad brag about certifications. While they are a plus when we recruit, they are not mandatory. No one individual could keep up with all of our certifications for each make and model. MCSE does nothing for you when repairing laptop issues. However, we train agents and gain certification from the vendors that offer (and require) the curriculum.

Access to technical data – Simply not true. We have vendor specific training for each make, model and new revision. Why do you think Best Buy acquired Geek Squad? When we were small – we could not get any of this data. Now that we have joined forces with Best Buy we can get data on any product when we want. The fact is, when Best Buy calls a manufacturer, they respond to our request for technical data. That’s why we partnered with Best Buy. We can make a much bigger impact using their size and power to improve quality than we ever could on our own.

Lastly, I responded to this to prove that The Geek Squad cares about its reputation. I have already shared my contact info with The Consumerist, but if your computer or network is ever serviced by The Geek Squad and the experience is less than perfect, I want to know about it. You can get feedback directly to me at info@geeksquad.com with the subject “For Robert.”

Regards,

Robert Stephens
Founder and Chief Inspector
The Geek Squad

“Serving the Public, Policing Technology, and Protecting the World”

http://www.geeksquad.com

As a followup question, we asked Robert what his day-to-day was like, and how often he was on the ground floor at Geek Squad City. He said, “I’m at Geek Squad HQ in Minneapolis. Geek Squad City is in Louisville, but I am in direct contact with the leaders there.”

— BEN POPKEN

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