Funny Geek Squad Story

[asusman]

So my monitor shorted out. Took it back to Best Buy as was still under warrenty. 3 years P & L

After 30 minutes of hoop jumping they finally took it.
They were shocked I never bought the redundant junk warrenty they sell.

2 weeks pass and its done. Fixed for free of course.

Anyway picked it up and while there some guy was at the Geek Squad with a laptop problem. Simple virus/spyware.

They quoted him $200 and 3 days to fix.

I promptly gave him my card and said I'll do it for half.
He said DONE!

Maybe took an 45 min to fix. I spent another hour updating him to IE7 and other updates. Also creating a account for his kids thats limited.

You should of seen the look on the Geek Squad guy's face, it was priceless.

I swear I could go there everyday and do the same.

 

[finer_recliner]

^EXCELLENT!

more geek squad bashing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxqx4hgeKgQ&mode

 

[djplanet]

I have a horror story regarding Geek Squad involving a laptop that had STOP errors, strange involuntary shutoffs, a broken power jack and RJ-11 port (back in my dialup days). Had it taken in and repaired three times. Said lappy sat for six weeks on a shelf in the Geek Squad "zone", they were none the wiser. Went without a comp for a whole summer. Alas, they finally junked it out, I got something better.

HP Pavilion 4500, you will not be missed, you Athlon XP-M and ATI Rage Mobility running piece of crap.

 

[pwong1]

I think Geek Squad is way over priced. Those Agents want to sell you something rather than fixing your problems. Recently, my Dell computer crashed (blue screen while boot up, restore/last good known config. not working) I called Dell and the rep. told me to reformat my computer (reinstallation disc) BUT all my data (files) will be lost. So I phoned http://www.computersquad.ca/ and someone came today and fixed my computer problems with an affordable price! No need to format my computer

 

[Red October]

Yeah I can definitely symphathize with your story. I think Geek Squad is a big rip off.

I have started a blog about them it is: http://geek-squad-sucks.blogspot.com

Let me know what you think .

 

[Guest]

I wish i could've been there to see that! Geek squad sucks!!! You get 5 gold stars for that one... keep up the good work.

 

[Guest]

yeah the warranties are pretty retarded but i disagree that the 200 dollar virus repair is over priced. most places will charge 99 dollars an hour and just reload the os, also keep in mind if your taking your computer to geek squad you probably don't know enough to fix it just like when you get your oil changed, it takes them 10 minutes and 5 dollars in oil but you pay 40 bucks. and as for the 3 day turn time keep in mind is a large business that probably has 40 other computers waiting to be worked on, first in first out. and i find it extremely ill-mannered to walk into a business and steal their clients.

 

[AsAnAtheist]

yeah the warranties are pretty retarded but i disagree that the 200 dollar virus repair is over priced. most places will charge 99 dollars an hour and just reload the os, also keep in mind if your taking your computer to geek squad you probably don't know enough to fix it just like when you get your oil changed, it takes them 10 minutes and 5 dollars in oil but you pay 40 bucks. and as for the 3 day turn time keep in mind is a large business that probably has 40 other computers waiting to be worked on, first in first out. and i find it extremely ill-mannered to walk into a business and steal their clients.

I must say stealing customers from other businesses is a no-no as a business owner myself (specially if the prices are reasonable). However standing by and watching people get ripped off is also a huge no-no and I would have done the same for the client who was told it would be $200 for the virus removal. $200 is an rip off for removing viruses, specially when most viruses can be cleaned running 2-3 anti virus software.
We charge $45-$55 for virus removal, this insures your system to have 0 viruses/spyware/malwares. However doing this we cannot guarantee the stability of Windows as sometimes malware can easily cripple the operating system with garbage Registry edits, system file corruptions. etc. Why do we charge cheap? Because they always come back. We often just offer O/S Recovery for our clients/back up their files along with OS recovery.

We charge $95 for a O/S recovery for XP, and $140 for Vista OS recovery. This is a flat fee, regardless of the time it takes to do the recovery. We also back up up to 1gb of files for you (most of the times we let this slide/we back up all documents/musics/pictures etc), update your browsers, install Windows Live Messenger (Windows XP) and install Microsoft Security Essentials free of charge. We often include installation of other software such as ares, limewire, etc for free with the OS recovery.

Oil changes are different, they are NECESSARY to your transportation to and from work. A crashed computer is often NOT necessary.

 

[Zero_Cool]

I must say stealing customers from other businesses is a no-no as a business owner myself (specially if the prices are reasonable). However standing by and watching people get ripped off is also a huge no-no and I would have done the same for the client who was told it would be $200 for the virus removal. $200 is an rip off for removing viruses, specially when most viruses can be cleaned running 2-3 anti virus software.
We charge $45-$55 for virus removal, this insures your system to have 0 viruses/spyware/malwares. However doing this we cannot guarantee the stability of Windows as sometimes malware can easily cripple the operating system with garbage Registry edits, system file corruptions. etc. Why do we charge cheap? Because they always come back. We often just offer O/S Recovery for our clients/back up their files along with OS recovery.

We charge $95 for a O/S recovery for XP, and $140 for Vista OS recovery. This is a flat fee, regardless of the time it takes to do the recovery. We also back up up to 1gb of files for you (most of the times we let this slide/we back up all documents/musics/pictures etc), update your browsers, install Windows Live Messenger (Windows XP) and install Microsoft Security Essentials free of charge.

We often include installation of other software such as ares, limewire, etc for free with the OS recovery.

You re-install Limewire?! way to educate your customers in how to avoid getting the viruses in the first place. But since they have to come back to you to get them removed *AGAIN* (as it will be only a matter of time before issues come back...) They practically end up having to pay the same prices you would at Best Buy if not more! Since that $200 includes having to run recoveries/System Restores if it even has to come to that....

You are practically the same as your hated "Geek Squad" At least they put customer education into their sales pitch...

 

[AsAnAtheist]

You re-install Limewire?! way to educate your customers in how to avoid getting the viruses in the first place. But since they have to come back to you to get them removed *AGAIN* (as it will be only a matter of time before issues come back...) They practically end up having to pay the same prices you would at Best Buy if not more! Since that $200 includes having to run recoveries/System Restores if it even has to come to that....

You are practically the same as your hated "Geek Squad" At least they put customer education into their sales pitch...

Well the reason why we install Limewire/Ares etc is if it is stubbornly requested. They are WELL informed about the easily contraption of viruses using limewire/ares and that they will probably end up coming back here very soon if they download music off p2p software and have to pay another restore service. Some insist regardless so it is included.

Actually for people who come repeatedly, we offer them large discounts after the 2-3rd time. For example we have one guy with multiple computers. Came in 3 times in month, the 4th time it was a freebie and we gave him 1 hour class free to educate him on how to take better care of their stuff. Later in private we discussed internally about how much to charge customers after they're 3rd time, because we were not looking out to bankrupt a father or mother. :|

 

[buwish]

This topic has been closed by Buwish