Patrick discovered a clever way of avoiding Best Buy’s silly optimization fees as he shopped for a laptop: Shop online and opt for in-store pickup. [More]
geek squad
Geek Squad Contributes To Society, Opens Outlet In Children's Hospital
By 11.18.09
The announcement that Best Buy plans to open a Geek Squad outlet inside the Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis seems, at first, incongruous. “Geek Squad?” we said. “Haven’t these families already suffered enough?” Except this Geek Squad isn’t there to profit off sick kids—they’re there to help. No, really.
Geek Squad Turns Your Laptop Into An XBOX 360?
By 11.17.09
Reader Taylor is a little concerned about his laptop. It died on Halloween and he took it in to Best Buy the next day. Two weeks later, he typed his order number into the Geek Squad website and found that a little Halloween magic had taken place. His laptop was now an XBOX 360.
Geek Squad Agent Doesn't Have Time To Look For Multimeter, Let's Just Send Off Laptop For 3 Weeks Instead
By 11.11.09
The usefulness of Best Buy’s Geek Squad depends entirely on the competence of the employee you get when you go in for help, and unfortunately Scott landed one of the lazier ones. Here’s his sales pitch to Scott over a laptop that wouldn’t start: “It’s going to take at least 10 minutes for me to get the multimeter or another adapter. It’s going to be a problem inside the computer, let’s just send it in.”
Woman Has Tried To Get Best Buy To Fix TV For 4 Months With No Luck
By 10.30.09
Kelli bought an HDTV from Best Buy, and the set broke in June. Now it’s almost November, and despite scads of phone calls and appointments, her TV is no closer to being fixed today than it was way back when.
Best Buy Offers To "Install" Mario Party8 On Your Wii…
By 10.19.09
While shopping at Best Buy, Chris spotted this wacky sticker on Mario Party 8, no doubt an accident, in which the benevolent Geek Squad offers to do the impossible for you and install the game onto your Wii, which doesn’t let you install disc-based games.
Best Buy "Optimized Laptop" Features Nothing But An Error Message
By 10.6.09
Reader L951B951 saw our recent posts about Best Buy’s dubious “optimization” services, so he went to the store armed and ready to demand an unopened laptop. The trouble is — he says Best Buy had opened them all. Did this stop our hero from coming away with a laptop without paying the optimization fee? Of course not.
Best Buy: All The Appliances In Your House Must Break 4 Times Before We Replace Them
By 10.5.09
James Lileks bought some fancy-ass Electrolux appliances from Best Buy. Unfortunately. they’ve turned out to be a bit of a headache. Mr. Lileks thought perhaps since he was a valuable customer who bought fancy-ass items, Best Buy would help him out and swap the problematic dishwasher for a more reliable cheaper brand (turns out that that the washer’s control panel is susceptible to moisture, of all things.) He was wrong. They’d rather keep fixing it. Over. And Over. And Over.
Geek Squad Will Plug In Your PS3 For Only $130
By 9.21.09
A Kotaku tipster notified the video game blog that Best Buy’s Geek Squad is offering what can only be described as the deal of the century. Something even better than that awe-inspiring CD ripping service.
Geek Squad Now Offering CD-Ripping "Service"
By 9.17.09
Sticking to its proud tradition of charging for services that take a couple button clicks to accomplish, i.e. HDTV and video game console “optimization,” Best Buy is now offering to rip music off your CDs and transfer it to an MP3 player or DVD.
Best Buy Responds To Fury Of Internet, Decides Not To Hold Data Hostage
By 9.14.09
Remember that couple who tried to get Best Buy to fix their CD drive, only to have lost all their data and be charged $1,500?
Couple Says Best Buy Is Holding Data Hostage For $1,500
By 8.28.09
Diane and Jo say they brought their computer to Best Buy‘s Geek Squad to get the CD drive fixed, but the Squad had some other ideas. After the dust cleared, the couple had gained a new hard drive they didn’t want and lost all their data.
Best Buy Won't Let Reader Exchange Money For Functioning Computer
By 7.21.09
Best Buy is an electronics store. The purpose of such a store is to allow customers to exchange money for electronic devices, then take those devices home and use them. Unfortunately, the Best Buy in Yuma, Arizona doesn’t seem to take this mission seriously, and has given reader Elizabeth such a run-around that she isn’t interested in buying a computer at all anymore.
Geek Squad: Sorry We Accidentally Hosed Your Motherboard. Here's A Vastly Inferior Replacement
By 7.4.09
Geek Squad tried to repair a broken fan in Brian’s Sony laptop, but somehow managed to instead break the laptop’s motherboard, processor, and much of the internal cabling. Though Geek Squad replaced all the damaged parts, Brian soon realized that the laptop’s new processor was slower and cheaper than the original model…
Man Uses Geek Squad Badge To Impersonate Cop, Coerce Sex Out Of Prostitute
By 6.22.09
If a man says he’s a police officer and flashes a badge at you, then tells you to have sex with him or he’ll arrest you, make sure the badge doesn’t say Geek Squad on it first. That’s what a woman says happened to her in Parsippany, New Jersey last week.
More Info On Replacing An HP Laptop Motherboard
By 6.10.09
We asked John, who wrote to us earlier this week about replacing the motherboard in his HP laptop, to send us a link to the listing he found for $150. Below is his response.
How Much Should It Cost To Replace The Motherboard On A Laptop?
By 6.8.09
John’s wife’s laptop died, and his local Geek Squad wants $800 total to replace the motherboard. John says he found the motherboard for $150, and he wants to know why Geek Squad thinks it will require $650 in labor. So all you IT and geek readers out there, we ask you: is this a fair price?
Best Buy Employees Find $10,000 Hidden In Computer Tower
By 5.28.09
A man in St. Louis dropped off his computer for repair at the area Best Buy, but apparently forgot that he was also using it as a bank. “Employees at a Best Buy store in South County discovered about $10,000 cash inside,” writes the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
