The Reality of the Geek Squad

My name is Peacemaker and I am a gamer. I enjoy playing games on my PC. My favorites are the real time strategy games like Diablo or Starcraft although first person shooters like HalfLife, Doom, and Castle Wolfenstein are a very close second. However, I’m hardly on the cutting edge of things. I usually get a game maybe six months to a year after its initial release. By then, all the kinks have been worked out and just about everybody else has played it and have been able to write an opinion, strategy guides, and/or some helpful hints. Just last year I got the game F.E.A.R.

First Encounter Assault Recon was, and is, a brilliant game. I had a friend who played the game about a month before I started playing it. He admitted that it only took a couple of days of playing before he started having the nightmares. The game is that intense. Ghost jump out at you from the shadows along with the bad guys. The game could’ve been billed as a psychological thriller.

I bought the game at the local Best Buy, took it home and loaded it up on my desktop. But when I started the game my computer froze up. My video card just didn’t have the horsepower to get the game running. I had to get a replacement. It was back to the Best Buy. At the time, Best Buy was the only store in the area that dabbled in computer parts. I could’ve ordered the card online but I wanted the game running as soon as possible. That and if there were any problems I wanted to be able to get a replacement quickly.

I found an adequate video card in the PC parts aisle and raced back home. Broke the PC down and tried to get the card in only to find out that the motherboard wasn’t compatible with the new video card. I could’ve gotten a less sophisticated video card, but it would’ve been only a matter time before it would become too obsolete.  I decided to keep the card but go ahead and replace the antiquated motherboard.  This time Best Buy wouldn’t do. In order to make sure I got a board compatible with the video card and the memory sticks I had to order a motherboard online. Four days later it arrived via UPS. Replaced the motherboard, replaced the new video card, only to find out that the power supply was incompatible. The new motherboard used the new ATX power supply standard. Went back to Best Buy thinking I can find a standard power supply.

Excuse me, where are your power supplies?
Our what?
Your power supplies. You know the power unit for a personal computer?
You mean power cords?
No the power supply. It’s what the power cord plugs into on the computer.
Umm, I don’t think I know what that is.
Are you familiar with computer parts?
Uh, yeah but we don’t work on power supplies.
I’m not looking for someone to work on it I want to replace it myself. I just need to get one.
You’re going to have to go to a computer expert.
Aren’t you the Geek Squad?
Yeah but that sounds like it’s really complicated.
You might want to consider a more technical PC repair place.

A power supply has got to be one of, if not the most basic components of a computer. Everything in the computer that needs power is connected to the power supply. The power cord connected to the wall goes right into the power supply. It’s the loudest thing on a computer with its fan constantly whirring in the background. It doesn’t come in a wide variety of configurations like a motherboard or memory or the hard drives. It’s the furthest thing from rocket science inside the computer case.

This was my first and only experience with Best Buy’s Geek Squad. I have talked with a number of people who have used the Geek Squad for their computer problems and all I’ve heard has been nothing but horror stories. One person hired the Geek Squad to diagnose their problem with a virus. Their computer was returned all the data on the drive lost, the computer reconfigured, and a bill for almost two hundred dollars. A woman at work had given Best Buy her computer because the hard drive had crashed. Usually a problem that affects only the boot sector, it’s easily repaired with a new replacement drive as a master and the old damaged drive hooked up as a slave. But the PC came back home with a cracked motherboard and no working hard drive and a big bill.

I’m sure not everybody who takes their computer to Best Buy for a repair ends up with a horror story. But I’ve never heard of a successful encounter. But it is hardly surprising. The Geek Squad at the local Best Buy consists of nothing but high school kids working for just a dollar more than minimum wage. Anybody with real computer skills probably wouldn’t settle for such low wages. Sadly, Best Buy will charge something like thirty six dollars an hour for computer repair. The vast majority of that money goes to Best Buy’s profit margin. I don’t have a problem with people making a profit. But I do have a problem with people making such a huge profit, paying the worker only a fraction for the work they are doing, and the customers aren’t getting what they paid for.

I watch the commercials for the Geek Squad and I find them very entertaining. One guy was having a problem with his transporter machine and turned his son into a monster with a mosquito’s head. He needs help getting the machine working before his wife comes home. The man from the Geek Squad simply says, “I’ll get my tools”. There’s another commercial where a woman is having trouble with her android male robot. The man from the Geek Squad says, “Just needs a minor adjustment. I’ll get my tools.” They really do have some clever marketing.

Personally, I wouldn’t let Best Buy’s Geek Squad change the batteries in my flashlight. For what they would charge to return it broken I could buy a case full of working lights. Too many people I know have had too many problems with their Geek Squad service. Nobody I know has told me anything good.

But that marketing is a powerful tool. People watch television and buy everything Best Buy and the other corporate entities say. Millions of advertising dollars are spent to manipulate the buying public to believe whatever these companies want us to believe. And if they are spending millions of dollars in advertising, odds are good that they are getting their investment back handsomely. Since no one else has such clever corporate advertising Geek Squad is virtually unchallenged in its propaganda to sell themselves as the best bet in computer repair services even though they are more likely to damage it beyond repair.