Another example of Geek Squad ripping people off!

[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.....

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.

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

[xr4man]

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.

[CrazyTeaPot]

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

[TheGreatSatan]

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

[AmEv]

And oversensitive alarms....

[TLHarrell]

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.

[artoodeeto]

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.

[AmEv]

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






...



At least 2 whole states away.


...Crap.

[TLHarrell]

At least 2 whole states away.

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.

[AmEv]

We have Office Max...




Thankfully, we've got a Costco, too.