Another example of Geek Squad ripping people off!

I had this old woman (at least 70) come in and ask for an IDE hard drive. We have them, but she was told to get at least 250GB which is about $50. Apparently she brought her PC to Best Buy and that's what they told her.

Her computer is at least 15 years old. She still had the receipt when she ordered it from Dell for $1600! It had 64MB graphics and a 40GB hard drive! BB had told her that her drive was bad and she needed one that they didn't carry. Why does a woman who goes 15 years with 40GB need 250GB???

When she brought it in they charged her $120 to "look at it" and then another $50 for some diagnostic.....:think:

After $170 on a 15 year old computer she was told to spend $50 on a new hard drive. BB would install the drive, reinstall Windows XP on it and then try to get her data back on the new drive for another $150.

Yeah, that's $370 total!

To her it was worth it because she's still thinking that a new computer would cost her $1600 like her old one.:rolleyes:

Here's where we, and anyone not out to rip people off, differ from BB. Instead of wasting $370 on an old PC, we talked her out of the hard drive purchase and sold her a new computer for $300 and then recovered her data for FREE (Because we felt so bad for her).

That place is the worst and I can't wait till they crash and burn like Circuit City

even though i think there are diagnostic softwares that can do a better job than the geek squad, i still like shopping at best buy. i just don't talk to anyone. BUT, judging from the two closest bb's to me, it looks like they are about to crash and burn like circuit city.


anyway, i'm glad to hear you all took care of this woman. too many people don't know any better than going to the geek squad.

oh, and another thing, they piss me off because i couldn't even get a job with them because their minimum requirement is an a+ cert, which i don't have because i couldn't afford the test at the time. but i can guarantee i can fix anything better, faster, and cheaper than they can.

I wasn't even aware that they made hard drives cheaper than $50.

Most IDE's these days are refurbs. We have 40GB ones for $15

And oversensitive alarms....

I think BB is on the way out because a lot of people use them to "window shop" an item, then go buy it online for cheaper. Most of these stores are getting really grouchy about people using barcode scanner type software on their smartphones in the store. Of course, I use the barcode software to look up reviews and specifications that the store doesn't supply. If they get nasty with me, I'll just stop going there.

But yeah, Geek Squad needs to become a part of IT history. The sooner the better.

This was exactly the reason why I enjoyed working at Micro Center, and why I still recommend it even though the nearest one is 2 hours away. :up:

...Nearest one to me is.........






...



At least 2 whole states away.


...Crap.

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Originally Posted by AmEv

At least 2 whole states away.

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That's not all that far...

Or you can just get TGS to ship you some stuff.


As far as Geek Squad... they suck so bad around here I'm almost tempted to open up a shop doing computer repairs. Only other game in town is the Geek Squad wannabes at Staples.

We have Office Max...




Thankfully, we've got a Costco, too.

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Originally Posted by TheGreatSatan

I had this old woman (at least 70) come in and ask for an IDE hard drive. We have them, but she was told to get at least 250GB which is about $50. Apparently she brought her PC to Best Buy and that's what they told her.

Her computer is at least 15 years old. She still had the receipt when she ordered it from Dell for $1600! It had 64MB graphics and a 40GB hard drive! BB had told her that her drive was bad and she needed one that they didn't carry. Why does a woman who goes 15 years with 40GB need 250GB???

When she brought it in they charged her $120 to "look at it" and then another $50 for some diagnostic.....:think:

After $170 on a 15 year old computer she was told to spend $50 on a new hard drive. BB would install the drive, reinstall Windows XP on it and then try to get her data back on the new drive for another $150.

Yeah, that's $370 total!

To her it was worth it because she's still thinking that a new computer would cost her $1600 like her old one.:rolleyes:

Here's where we, and anyone not out to rip people off, differ from BB. Instead of wasting $370 on an old PC, we talked her out of the hard drive purchase and sold her a new computer for $300 and then recovered her data for FREE (Because we felt so bad for her).

That place is the worst and I can't wait till they crash and burn like Circuit City

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SATAN, i always enjoy a good hate best buy story like the rest of us, but that one is beyond hate... may that best buy burn down in an inferno. :crossed:

To me what's saddest isn't so much the seemingly idiotic sales associates. It's the whole management mindset that generates them. Management isn't putting the customers' needs/desires first. Rather, they're trying anything they can to make more money. They instruct (and in the case of CompUSA, years ago) require sales people to hit certain goals for different programs, yet they don't want to take the time and money to properly train employees on good sales techniques that create results without irritating the customer. What we're left with is programs that make us feel like we're throwing away money for something with no value, and on top of that getting it pushed on us by sales people who don't seem to know what they're talking about beyond the bullet points. And on top of THAT, I know some stores require certain numbers to be met resulting in sales staff not taking time to help you if you want something small, or spending their time trying to push everything under the sun onto you.

Contrast that with online retailers like Amazon and Newegg, which passively advertise their specials (by passively I mean they put an ad on the screen, but nobody's forcing you to watch a video or click on it), and which allow you to browse products at your own pace. They also have so many reviews and links to more info that your buying choice is FAR more informed than what you'd get in most big-box stores. And if you need to return something, they're typically more accomodating that my usual store experience.

The exception I'd make to my store rant is Micro Center. Yes, when I worked there I had certain sales numbers I had to meet, but I found with a little effort they were realistic, and I figured out ways to do it so customers didn't feel like I was pushing stuff on them. I hate it when people do that to me, so I did everything I could to avoid doing it to others. And guess what...for a long time I was the leading salesperson in the store, and for a week I was ranked #3 in the company. Anyway, Micro Center took the time to train us (they had me conduct a training or two on sales techniques) both on sales and on the technical stuff. They didn't hire idiots, they paid well, and their tech support and returns were VERY accomodating.

I wish the big-box store management types would learn this. I think retail and online could co-exist, even complement each other, but so many of these big stores just aren't willing to put the effort in to get their staff, store layouts, and business models updated to deal with a very different sales world than we lived in 10 years ago. Sad.

"Why don't you have built-in WiFi on your desktop, a Wireless N router, a 50 foot Ethernet cable, a 100 foot Ethernet cable--"
"Lemme guess: You guys are paid based on commission."
"0.0 How did you know?"

Well, Best Buy isn't, or at least wasn't, directly commission. The problem is they will, depending on your store and manager, dock your hours if you don't hit a certain attach rate.

They don't want knowledgeable employees in the computer department. When I worked there they put me in media (dvds and such) even though I specifically asked for the computer department. I was finally switched to computers after I was approached by a customer because there wasn't anyone in the department, and I sold him a crap load of stuff and he told the store manager how helpful I was.

Within a couple of months I was down to less than half the hours of when I worked in the media section as I refused to sell people crap that wasn't applicable to them or that they didn't need. So even though my revenue numbers were nearly double that of anyone else in the department, my hours were severely docked because I had a horrible attach rate for useless services because I put the customer before the company's profits.

It's so much nicer working for a company where I actually matter, and can actively make a difference in the company.

What Best Buy doesn't realize is what drives a customer away:

• Overpriced items
• Forceful staff
• Unwanted items
• Staff that looks like idiots
• Not listening to the customer
• Just because the customer isn't always right, doesn't mean they're always wrong.
• Security is good, but when it takes half of the staff to shut off one alarm? Not good.
• Many other things.

$300 can score you a brand new Dell desktop without a monitor. $400 can get you a laptop. People who don't know anything about computers, or at least have friends who know, are really at the mercy of places like that.

I just gave away an old 633 Mhz Celeron with the last two IDE hard drives in it that I had. Didn't realize that I still had an old phone modem. I should have put that in there to get rid of as well.

There's almost no margin on a standard computer these days, the extras (and ****ing people around) are how this sort of place makes money...

That's a great story TGS! Sounds like you guys saved a old woman a lot...more...hassle.

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Originally Posted by dr.walrus

There's almost no margin on a standard computer these days, the extras (and ****ing people around) are how this sort of place makes money...

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I understand how thin the margins are. I worked there and saw the prices. I will never support not telling a customer about Microsoft Security Essentials, or another decent free antivirus, and convincing them to buy a mediocre retail antivirus, then charge them a whole ton of money to click through an install prompt.

They already make ~3000% on every cable they sell, and that has nothing to do with monster cables, just your basic USB cable. There are plenty of other products they can push that people can actually use, make the company money in the process, and not peddle snake oil computer tune-ups.

Why don't they tell a old lady a truth that she can have a new computer by paying a few hunderds dollors....