Whenever I read the Article, “Best Buy’s Geek Squad: Conquest of Branding Over Competence” I was immediately intrigued. This was because, I have been working at Best Buy for over a year at the time, and I had learned many things about their services, including The Geek Squad. Knowing all that I do, I was very interested in knowing what a consumer has to think about Geek Squad, since I had my own opinions about this “service.” I was very curious to see if his opinion was similar to mine – and, not necessarily to my surprise, it was. When he was describing his circumstances with the “agents” I immediately had flashbacks of listening in on various conversations that I heard going on behind the Geek Squad curtain.
I laughed when I read the response the agents gave Joel concerning his hard drive. Mainly because this is the number one excuse that the agents use – 99% of the time, they do not take responsibility for any of the “Oops” or just plain mistakes that they make. But why? Perhaps it’s a pride thing, but in all actuality it is a ploy to cover up their sheer incompetence. Now, I say that understanding that there are some very talented and knowledgeable Geek Squad agents, however, as a whole, the Agents are just a group of individuals with common, and factually basic knowledge of computer systems. And what is their asking price for this “knowledge?” A VERY pretty penny. Over 90% of the time, all of the services that the Geek Squad Agents are performing, you can do on your own – and surprisingly enough, they are not difficult at all.
But why does Best Buy push this service so hard? The answer to that is VERY simple, all of the money that goes into the Geek Squad services is pure Margin! Any service that you plan on buying from Best Buy is going directly into the store’s pocket – why do you think they push the services and Geek Squad plans so hard? Is this a bad thing? Well, business speaking no, however, when it comes to the consumer, their service plans are not all that great. While I was an employee there, I had to have my iPod serviced – six weeks later, I received my iPod, and they said that they replaced the battery, however, when I recharged it, there was literally no difference. Upon inquiring about the service center, one of my managers said that most of the time, the service center just looks at the item – at best – and then “fixes it.” Like I said earlier, I’m not saying this is all true for every service center, etc., however, in many cases that I saw, it was.
While I was working at Best Buy, I had hundreds of individuals walk up to me and ask me about the Geek Squad services concerning wireless Internet. I would explain to them that a Geek Squad agent would come to their house and/or office and set up their wireless Internet – and the “clincher” – they would secure the connection as well!! Goodness-gracious, doesn’t that sound amazing! All of that for $160.00, of course, the hardware such as the wireless router and any other software is not included. After saying this I realized what a sham it actually was. Thus, I walked over to the wireless Internet aisle, showed them the exact things they needed, which isn’t much, and then talked them through the process of setting up a wireless Internet connection, and best of all, within the software that is included with wireless router, there is an option to have a secure connection – the whole thing takes around thirty minutes to do it yourself, and best of all, you just saved $160.00.
Now, I do understand that some people would rather have someone come out to their house to perform such a simple task, and for them, there’s Geek Squad, however, for the rest of us, why spend that much money for such a simple process? The expensive simplistic nature of the way Geek Squad operates does not stop their – oh no – upon buying a new computer, you will be asked if you would like a Geek Squad agent to “clean” your new computer. Clean a new computer? Basically, what they are saying, is that they will remove the unwanted icons on the desktop and clear the cache. Both of which can be done yourself, taking only around fifteen minutes. However, if you would like an agent to do the process than it will cost you $229.00 – wow! But here is where they get you, “we will not only clean your computer, we will install two different software titles that will protect your computer, we will also upgrade your system.” Now the software they install on your computer together rounds up to be around $80.00, and the upgrading of your system, you can do that by going to Microsoft.com – I hate to say this, but this service is just a way to get more money from Best Buy’s customers.
I understand that many of you are supporters of the Geek Squad service, however, please think twice before spending your money on them. And also remember, this isn’t coming for a jilted customer, or even a jilted employee – I still have very good standings with Best Buy – this is just coming from an individual who is tired of seeing retail giants lying and literally stealing money from its loyal customers. And always use your best judgment when handing your computer or other electronics to a group of teenagers wearing snazzy uniforms and being referred to as “agents.” It’s cute, but trust me, it does not lend them more knowledge.
