Subscribe by EmailGot computer trouble? Call in the Geek Squad!
March 7, 2008 by Mark O'Neill |
By Mark O’Neill
I’ve just been reading an interesting article in the British Daily Telegraph about the Geek Squad which has just spread from the US over to the UK. It seems that for premium prices they are doing a booming trade in fixing people’s computers and gadgets. The top requests seem to be :
- Setting up a BlackBerry to synchronise email with a PC
- Activating and synchonizing an iPhone
- Installing a SlingBox (the gadget that lets you watch home TV anywhere)
- Setting up a webcam (with Skype)
- Installing and securing a home wireless network
- Installing a system for regular automated backups of important data
- Cleaning up viruses and spyware
To test the service, the reporter invited one of the geek agents around to the house to get some computer things done. The tasks were installing Skype, creating a home wireless network, making the router secure and transferring the iTunes library from an old laptop. The bill? $260.
I am definately in the wrong business.
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Geek Squad sets the prices, I charge a bit less, and still make great money (and keep most of it). My clients like the “local” guy, and appreciate honest service, and clear no - BS explanations of what’s wrong.
“Not being responsible for data loss” that is an industry standard CYA manuever, because you never know what will happen. A hard drive could crash during the backup, had it happen on me twice in four years. Or you could be asked to do data recover, and get the drive only after the friend of a friend did a system restore, followed by a system recovery to “get it back”.
They are bumbling idiots. According to a friend that worked at Circuit City (in Firedog, their repair part), half the stuff they got had “fixed by Geek Squad” stickers…and was often physically broken. They have a tendency to lie to customers if they don’t know the answer. One of my friends was kicked out of Best Buy for pointing out that the Geek Squad’s suggestion of a USB A/A Male/Male cable for transferring data (instead of a USB Transfer cable) would, if they were lucky, destroy only one computer’s USB card, but most likely both. I’ve been told by Geek Squad that PCI is a wireless chipset. When I decided it was time to talk to her the way Geek Squad talks to normal people, she got really upset and told me not to take that tone with her. Jeez, all I was trying to teach her is that PCI is a bus!
No one really questions that taking your car in for a basic service is expensive. Sure, I could save myself a packet if I serviced it myself but I would have to spend all that time learning how to do it and then take the time to do it. OR, I could just suck it up and pay someone else because I just want to use the car as transport - I couldn’t care less how it works if I can get someone else to check that for me.
Us geeks forget that for a lot of people a computer is just a tool and the money spent to have someone else set it up and make sure it is working is worth the expense.
and is coming to your house to fix your computer really worth 120 extra dollars? i find that a bit high.
You find $120 a bit high. I agree that $120 is high for me. However, my parents (who live too far away for me to do it for them) would probably pay it because then they don’t have to worry about it - it’s installed, it works and while that was being done they could be doing other things around the home.
Having said that, my thoughts on being prepared to pay $x for a service is based upon the idea that the service is being provided by a competent and credible service provider. It would appear from the comments here that Geek Squad are neither. I can’t comment on Geek Squad as that particular company doesn’t operate in Australia.
I’ll keep you updated on the interview possibility. Someone’s giving me a callback on Monday.
I run a great business locally and am in direct competition with these guys… nearly all my work is onsite and my customers say they would NEVER call “the other guys”, even when I get a bit backed up. I’ve had new referrals tell me that they would wait for 2 weeks for me to get to them, just so they wouldn’t have to use a “known ripoff” like geksquad (their words, not mine).
I could add to the horror stories but what’s the point, we all know who and what these guys are…
does that qualify as “prior art? I wonder….
1- Considering the salary they pay, most competent computer tech, meaning those with 5 - 10 years of experience in the corporate world, would never send their resume to widely known companies that offer service to Mr. and Mrs. Everybody. Having an MSCE doesn’t really mean anything anymore.
2- Let’s say GeekSquad pay an MSCE $20 per hour, or about 40k per year. a Good tech will earn at least 60K. At that price, the only people who will work for them are newbies.
3- An excerpt from the article: “The tasks were installing Skype, creating a home wireless network, making the router secure and transferring the iTunes library from an old laptop. The bill? $260″
$260? That is *completely insane*, especially since the task listed up here takes less than an hour to accomplish on a healthy system. I usually charge $65 to $85 an hour to my client + travel time. So something like this would cost around $100 to $120.
As a last point, I would suggest to everyone to head on to youtube and search for geek squad. You’ll find multiple reports from U.S. journalists who tested their service in comparison to other computer repair shop, and in almost all cases, they got ripped off with an inflated bill, and often, a wrong diagnostic.
I’m sure there’s someone out there who reads [GAS] and who work for the Geek Squad…. Your input would be appreciated.
Please note that I’m not bashing the company just out of pleasure…. I’m sure there are a few competent tech working for them… Everything that I said is based of my observations…. I’ve been working as a system admin for 12 years.