When reached for comment, Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens said he knew nothing about 40% tech staff reduction / have-more-repairs-done-remotely-by-techs-in-India memo as described by our tipster. In fact, he said he’d like to see it if we did ever end up getting it. Anyhow, as far as staff reductions go Stephens said, “There has been restructuring since we launched within Best Buy and the most recent was back in Jan/Feb but that’s old news – and quite public.”

Regarding AJU in general, “…AJU (a beta name, by the way – and an admittedly really bad reference to a really bad Keanu Reeves movie) is a program that is really is innovative. You see, when you bring your PC to us, we need to run a lot of standard checks – including virus and spyware scans. With the size of hard drives today it can take hours to scan a single hard drive. Why use live people at the counter to run basic scans on your computer when they could be helping customers in the store? I’d rather use those Counter Intelligence Agents to deal with the people coming into the store – rather than have their backs to you running virus scans. They both rely on each other,” said Stephens.

Sounds good, as long as the wait times aren’t getting increased as computers wait in the queue, like one Geek Squad agent said they are. Perhaps the solution really is to hire even more techs in India! — BEN POPKEN

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.