Geek Squad charges premium rates for emergency and same-day services, with higher hourly fees up to $200 per hour depending on the level of expertise. They provide in-home installation and simple device repair, but most repairs are performed at the store. If the technician cannot do it, they usually refer to a flat rate labor guide.
Geek Squad offers in-home services, ideal for homepreneurs setting up their home office and small teams maintaining a simple tech infrastructure. To use in-home services, book an appointment. Best Buy’s Geek Squad does service and repair stereo components, and can be found at https://www.bestbuy.com/site/electronics/services/54.c?id=54.
If your TV or home theater has dead pixels, bad HDMI, bad power supply, or won’t turn on, it’s a replacement through customer service. If you have a protection plan, you can make an appointment to bring it to the local GS precinct, but otherwise, paying Sony or a local third-party repair place would be more cost-effective.
Geek Squad offers a 90-day workmanship warranty on all TV and home theater services, no matter where you bought it. They have over 20,000 Geek Squad members and can help with any issues after the original manufacturer warranty ends. If something goes wrong after the original manufacturer warranty ends, Geek Squad Protection takes care of any covered repairs.
📹 I Asked Best Buy to Fix my PC… They FAILED – Geek Squad vs Mom & Pop Shop
Computer repair is big business, and no one is bigger than Geek Squad. If you’re no IT expert and your PC’s sick, should you go …
How much is the Geek Squad annual fee?
Best Buy Totaltech has undergone a rebranding process and is now operating under the name My Best Buy Total. This new iteration is offering a price point of $199. The annual fee of $99 provides access to a range of benefits, including 24/7/365 technical assistance from the Geek Squad®, complimentary delivery, and standard installation for all hardware purchases, with the exception of the aforementioned items.
How much does Best Buy Geek Squad pay?
Best Buy / Geek Squad in the United States offers an average hourly pay of $16. 88 for Installation Technician and $25. 00 for Appliance Technician. This information is based on 31 data points collected from employees, users, and job advertisements on Indeed in the past 36 months. The figures are approximations and are provided for general comparison only. Minimum wage may vary by jurisdiction, and actual salary figures should be sought from the employer.
Can stereo speakers be repaired?
To repair or replace damaged components in a speaker, follow these steps:
Discard the damaged parts. If the speaker cone is damaged, use a recone kit specific to your model. Remove the damaged cone, voice coil, and spider, and clean the speaker frame thoroughly before installing new components. Patch minor damages with special speaker repair glue or adhesive. If the voice coil is damaged, unwind and replace it with one that matches the original specifications.
Reassemble the speaker carefully. Ensure all connections are secure and properly aligned. Reinstall the speaker in your system and perform a blown speaker test at a low volume to verify the repair’s success. Gradually increase the volume to verify sound quality and function without distortion or rattling.
If the damage is extensive or you lack confidence in your repair skills, consider seeking professional help. Professional repair services have the necessary tools and expertise to handle complex repairs and ensure optimal performance. This option is particularly advisable for high-end or expensive speakers where precision is crucial.
What services does Best Buy Geek Squad provide?
The Geek Squad provides assistance with the configuration and repair of a range of technological devices, including smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, and larger appliances and electronics such as televisions, fitness equipment, refrigerators, and laundry machines.
How much is a service call from the Geek Squad?
Geek Squad offers free phone or online chat assistance with a Best Buy membership. Remote support service costs $19. 99 to $149. 99 depending on the issue. Customers give Geek Squad high ratings, despite its high prices compared to other companies. In comparison, computer repair costs $50 to $150 at a local independent service shop. When hiring a computer repair service, ask questions to ensure you get the most out of your visit.
Can Geek Squad fix my speakers?
If a product fails due to normal wear and tear, it can be repaired due to internal issues, manufacturing defects, dust, internal heat, or humidity. International customers can shop on bestbuy. com and have orders shipped to any U. S. address or store. International customers can also compare products on bestbuy. com and send orders to any home or store in the U. S. The company offers a free shipping service for orders from the U. S. to other countries.
Does Geek Squad repair receivers?
The sender posits that the issue and the receiver’s age may influence the probability of a resolution. To initiate the process, they recommend contacting the helpline on GEEK-SQUAD or 433-5778 for further information.
How much does a Best Buy appointment cost?
Best Buy offers consultation services for free, with no obligation or pressure to buy. Home Experts are knowledgeable employees who have received extensive training on home technology and appliance solutions. They provide unbiased solutions to fit unique needs and are a single point of contact for all technology needs. Home Experts have extensive training on various topics, including home theater, appliances, smart home technology, networking, and fitness. They are a single point of contact for all your technology needs, providing a comprehensive solution for your home.
How can I fix my speakers at home?
This DIY guide provides a step-by-step guide on how to fix an old speaker in your home stereo for as little as $30. The process involves finding the problematic driver, unscrewing it, detaching it, choosing a replacement driver, inserting the new driver, screwing it in, replacing the grill, and testing the speaker. This DIY guide is perfect for those who want to upgrade their home stereo without spending hundreds of dollars. The guide covers the process of selecting an appropriate driver and the physical replacement using a screwdriver or drill.
To begin, remove the cloth section covering the front of the speaker, known as the speaker grill. This should come off fairly easily. The guide is perfect for DIYers who want to upgrade their home stereo without spending hundreds of dollars.
📹 Installing a Car Audio Receiver: Geek Squad Autotechs
In this segment of Geek Squad Installs, Autotech Agent Alan will show you the tools, parts, and know-how needed to do a common …
Something that didn’t get mentioned was that the guys at Best Buy were cranking up the technical talk in an attempt to overwhelm Chewie, even after Chewie made it clear that he wasn’t technical and didn’t really understand what they were talking about. Keith, however, dropped trying to be super technical once Chewie made it clear he wasn’t technical in his knowledge. I believe that’s why Keith didn’t do a super detailed rundown of every single thing he fixed, like the connectior being unplugged. He just hit the high points that were easy to understand and left it at that. I don’t see that as a bad thing. It’s something I do every day at my job. As my boss likes to day, “They don’t care how you did it, they just want it fixed”.
The thing with ” Professionalism” with Keith is, having worked a psudo-retail job myself, he’s trying to break the ice with the customers, he’s trying to get them to laugh and loosen up and be more “human” and friendly to build that rapport with the customer. Thats one thing I love about mom and pop shops is that its less “transactional” and more having a good relationship so hopefully you get loyal customers.
I used to work for a lcoal computer store, and our local best buy sent people to us all the time. We also had lots of people who took things to best buy, got service like this (or worse) and then came to us to get it properly fixed. There were a few other technicians at our shop but peolle would come in and specifically request me to work on their stuff because i was the only one they trusted after the hell they had been through in the past with best buy/other repair shops. After the owner of that store retired and closed up shop i stared my own computer/IT business. And i actually have LTT to thank for inspiring me to get into this stuff back in 2015. The old techquickie articles taught me so many thigns while i was still inexperienced
I used to have my own PC repair service in college, would run it out of my dorm. We had a Bestbuy and OfficeMax near campus. I didn’t expect much business, but I still distributed my business cards across campus. Within a week I would get constant emails of students needing help fixing their computer, the issue’s ranged from trivial to challenging, but all of them had told me they went to Best Buy first and stated they “repaired” their computer but basically ran some diagnostic software and used the customers situation to upsell them on a new computer.
GEEK SQUAD AGENT HERE!! im ashamed of whoever the frick was checking you in, here in twin falls we literally checked in a custom PC with like 800 Skyrim mods that was causing skyrim to crash and got them all sorted in less than a day, we checked in a custom PC with a weird issue that had crashed games that got above 120 FPS. you’ve got some terrible agents wherever you are, shamefull.
I am from germany. When my grandpa told me his pc makes weird noises and won’t start I (computer scientist) couldn’t help him remotly, I told him to go to the near by compter repairshop. So he did. When he called me afterwards I asked him how much he payed. He told me the man at the shop fixed the problem in 5 minutes and refused to take money for the minor issue. When I asked what the issue was my grandpa told me the man replaced a broken RAM-bar. In fact the man replaced a broken DDR3-8GB-RAM with another one! My grandpa had no idea and tipped him 20€. In my eyes this man could have made 200€ when I think about what happend here in this article. What a nice and generous computer-repair-hero.
Ex-GeekSquad agent here. I worked both as a front end person and an “advanced repair agent” (the one who actually does the repair in the “Precinct”). I never turned away a computer. I dealt with anywhere from macbooks with an actual virus to a custom built PC that did not have the 24-pin power connector a bit unplugged. It was always interesting to see what came in and if we did not know something, we researched it until we found an answer. this was prior to the pandemic. I feel like they have gone down hill due to bestbuy trying to cut costs.
The guy at black labs asking if he has an SSD is the first question I always ask as well, you wouldn’t believe the amount of new laptops and desktops running core i5-i7’s with HDD’s still in them. Had one last week it was an HP with a a 10th gen i7 that had an HDD and no SSD present and the customer was wondering why it took 10 years for the browser to open.
I worked at best buy in canada and the supervisors did not care how you made sales, just that you made them. They said “fake it until you make it” meaning telling the customer what they want to hear. One day, 2 supervisors were talking over the mic about this old guy calling about a phone plan. One said “just pretend like the phone line is breaking up so we can sell him a new phone” It was disgusting. Left my 2 weeks notice on a napkin that day but never went back. Absolute scumbags.
To be fair, with Keith, I’ve been at my shop, working for hours, and you try a few things, they don’t work, you try a few more things, and finally, you have a break through. It’s sometimes difficult, unless you take the time to retrace all your steps, to know exactly which modification you made (or even if it was a combination of things) that actually fixed the issue. So kudos to Keith for plugging it back in, even if he didn’t realize that was the issue.
I am a mom and pop shop and have been here since 2001 and going strong. I am also less than a 1/4 mile from best buy so i get probably 10-15 people a week that went to best buy and their problem was never solved. Some of the stories customers tell me is mind blowing. Also, im willing to bet that keith likely thought it was a software issue even though he plugged the cable back in, he probably thought it was just a USB 2 front panel cable that just never got plugged in. Either way, goes to show…. SUPPORT YOU LOCAL SMALL BUSINESSES!!! we do appreciate it, i promise.
as a technician, keith used a good tactic i use everyday. If i charge someone $250, and tell them “software issues and a cable was unplugged”, they are gonna think im a con artist. keith did very well on that side. (i havent finished the article so idk how the work was) edit: whats wrong with heaven 😥
As a former rehabilitated Micro Center employee. During the record business times of COVID when everyone needed to do work/school from their PC. This one hit me on a visceral level. Between memories of angry clueless customers and apathetic managers. Who encourage profits over people and are more concerned with selling protection plans than fixing things. This triggered PTSD for me.
Gotta say, I am not surprised Keith blew Geek Squad outta the water, the number of times I’ve had to fix something wrong on a friend or family’s PC that GeekSquad said was “totally normal” is such a high number I’m surprised they’re legally allowed to charge you money for what they do. Keith seemed like a straight shooter from the first vid you guys did with him, and was knowledgable about so much, past and present and I’m glad what he missed could be chalked up to merely forgetting while he was going down a rabbit trail and he rectified that for free for you. I wish we had more like him around the place I live.
A few months ago my laptop’s screen broke, I went to a mid-sized chain computer store in my area and they wouldn’t even touch it unless I found a replacement part myself, then I went to a really small ‘mom and pop store’ and the guy tried a few quick fixes on the spot unsuccessfully, so he showed me where and how to find the right replacement parts on the internet and taught me how to fix it without even asking for money. In the end after finding the replacement screen I went back to him because I was worried about breaking a piece (the glue holding it was really strong) and he put in the replacement for like €5 (and he seemed reluctant to even ask that much for it)
i worked in geek squad for 5 years. We werent supposed to work on custom built gaming pcs in store, but at my precinct we did anyway at least before i left. You also dont actually talk to a geek squad agent in store when you call them, you often times get routed to our international call center. its nice seeing them start failing after how they treated us.
Used to work at geek squad in the US until this past year and I can confidently say the quality of service you get is entirely dependent on which store you go to. The team I was apart of was phenomenal, they would look at anything you brought in, even if it’s beyond what we’re supposed to do and try to find a solution. They knew what they were doing, solved the overwhelming majority of issues, and always explained things to clients in terms they understood for their technical level. The store south of us, however, was constantly messing things up and outright lying to clients about issues to avoid fixing them. I couldn’t tell you how many times I got a client who said “I LOVE coming here” only to specify they meant our exact store and that they had bad experiences at a different Best Buy. You’re essentially rolling the dice each time you try a new geek squad. I know that team also watches LTT constantly so 👋 hi squids hope you’re doing well👋
Heyyo sleeper agent here! 1. the reason some precincts reject working on custom builds varies from precinct to precinct. I would take any computer in when i was an ARA as long as it didnt have custom tubing. Its all due to the experience and confidence that they have in the technicians. Luckily my area has really good techs that we never really had this issue. 2. the main line to best buy is outsourced to a call center that will tell you anything to get you off the phone even if it means agreeing with you to get you to go to the store with incorrect information. the amount of times that we get conflicting information given to customers about our policies bc they decided to call instead of just comming in and asking directly is crazy. hope this helps answer a couple of questions.
Former U.S. BestBuy employee as of 8 months ago. I built custom PC’s on a weekly basis for clients and worked on about 20 systems a day average. These stores are either overloaded or don’t actually have the necessary skills. Some BestBuys don’t have actual Advanced Repair Agents in store so they ship them out. Either way both stores were not abiding by Best Buy Geek Squa SOP.
dude that best buy guy was cringe when i worked for GS they would never deny custom pc builds, while we wouldn’t have access different parts, etc we would still at least diagnosis it and if we had to send them to a shop we would at least give them the name and then give them some kind of idea on the issue
What i can say about mom and pop shops is there was one in my town where i went back when i was in highschool, i said i was building my own pc and wanted some help doing it. He charged 100 dollars, gave me an old dell from 8+ years ago to let me practice taking apart and putting back together, then let me build my own pc in his shop using his tools and helped me between other things he was working on. It took a couple hours. Amazing guy.
To be fair my mother’s computer was having issues but they are a thousand miles away and I couldn’t easily diagnose it over the phone so my dad took it to Best buy and they got it figured out in half an hour. One of his USB ports was shorting out and it was causing the computer to blue screen. They actually desoldered the connector from the rear IO and the computer’s been just fine for a couple months now. So just like with most things your experience will change drastically from store to store.
I worked at a Geek Squad for my first Tech Job. I went to a trade school for IT, then college and now work IT for a University. I was one of the repair techs, because of my knowledge and trust from supervisors, we were “allowed” to build and take in custom PCs. The experience you get at Best Buy varies greatly depending on who they staff. They started searching for sales people and less for technically inclined people around 2018-2019. I left shortly after that.
This was the first thing I was taught in computer operations certification course. What we learned was to check all the connections. The teacher unplugged all the PC connectors to the printer for a printing assignment. Now of course this was for PC to printer but the same theory can be applied to components inside your PC.
My brother and I own two PC shops in Chicago. We usually have free diagnosis, but we do charge $50 for gaming PC’s. Simply because, once we tell someone with a gaming PC, what the problem is, they decline the repair and go do it themselves. Most customers do go with us for the repair though, its not that common. The Best Buy 10 minutes down the street has recommended customers to us, so I can’t complain.
Man, I was a pc tech back in the day for about 10 years or so and we were so thorough with clients pc’s. First thing we would have done with this was test for the issue, if problem is as customer described then reseat components and check connections, then check bios, reset and then look for software issues. Makes me want to go back into business again when seeing this.
One thing about Best Buy specifically, it sucks to say, but the Geek Agents in store are less technicians and more salespeople/clerical workers. The majority of the job is setting up machines as a paid addon service with new machines, or selling hefty repairs only to fill out some forms and ship everything off to the depot. You for sure will find some passionate techs who keep up to date with their technical knowledge, or at least will understand how to google enough to find the solutions they need, but you’ll also find them get burnt out quicker as the company really only sees their bottom line, no matter how many problems they’re able to solve for customers. At the end of the day, Geek Squad is just a department within Best Buy that has it’s own revenue goals just like the other sections of the store would.
I was a Tech Manager at a Staples store and I can confirm that the “Big Box” stores like Bestbuy and Staples are only out to sell you something. They are more concerned with selling you Mcafee or even a whole new computer instead of fixing the one you bring into the store. At the store I worked at, they DID have a policy to not work on custom built PCs (which I was more than qualified to work on). 90% of the time, if its not a software issue, they will not even work on it (at Staples atleast) and thats because they use a 3rd party company that connects to the PC remotely so their techs can troubleshoot the issue. If its not a software issue and the tech at the store cant just hook it up for the remote tech to troubleshoot, corporate doesnt even want them touching the PC. Its sad really…
I have a small shop myself. Cable we’d have definitely found, because I hounded my guys about that until literally the first thing they do is look for issues like cabling, bent pins in USB ports, bulging capacitors, etc – before even turning it on. Locked CPU speed would have led to a full BIOS reset -as someone has obviously been playing in there.
The only good thing Bestbuy did for me was put a 4090 up on an auction for 60%+ off because the “colours were glitching.” It was the RGB Aura sync that, for October, was having software issues with the ASUS Strix 4090. Also, I got an ASUS 88U and 86U router for me and my friend for 25 and 50 bucks. One was because the Wi-Fi radio button was hit, and the other was because the LED off button was hit. So, their incompetency was my windfall. OH MY GOD!!!! That service sticker is the EXACT one on the 4090 box. Most of the stuff at the auction was Aura sync stuff. For those who doubt me, I posted the defect sticker for the article on the forum post.
I’m a “techie friend” that specializes in the software side. I’m quite certain that the horror stories you have of the typical “techie friends” would terrify me too! I was kind of hoping we DIDN’T know what the issue was so we could guess, but kind of sad we were told. Now that you mentioned secret shopping other places.. now I feel like I need to watch other articles. 🙂 Edit: My custom build has six fans on 3 intake, 3 exhaust and they all spin very fast! It’s whisper quiet.
$100 just to get it diagnosed is freaking crazy. Last time I was having computer issues I brought my PC into Memory Express and they said it was $50 for diagnosis, then like $25 or something per hour that it takes to fix the issue. I got it back and they only charged me the $50 because the fix was easy for them and only took 20 min.
When I was working at Microsoft Store at the service desk we were told not to work on custom PCs (although there were like 4 of us that did anyway cause we were familiar with building devices) and heard a lot of stories of Geek Squad not even looking at custom units just to see if it was something they could even support. Like I get not taking a custom unit in, but not even looking at it to try and give some sort of support is wild to me. perusal this just opens up some old memories (and wounds). Do not miss working at service desks.
I worked for Geek Squad through COVID. It’s $50 just to answer a question, I have to sell something extra to every customer, you have 26 jobs to do in a 100 mile radius, but you have to go exactly 5mph under the speed limit… Cops get called on you constantly by angry neighbors who don’t like someone’s security cameras or claim damage to something we haven’t even been near. Many clients will intentionally order over-sized appliances and pressure you to damage their home, only to press charges once you leave. The parts warehouse never has a single thing on hand, so every technical repair takes 3 months and inevitably pisses off the client. I genuinely had more physically demanding, longer, and more dangerous days with GeekSquad than in the Military.
I used to work for Geeks Squad at Best Buy, they closed down my store location. One thing that I can verify is that the majority of people hired are under qualified to be technical per se. I was the one that specialized in hardware and software, whereas the new hires were people that barely knew how a motherboard worked
As a former geek squad agent of 5 years, their best days have been behind them for at least a decade. The other GS guys I worked with were all gems mostly, we all found it boggling how so many other stores got such bad raps but then as the corporate bigwigs negatively changed the way we worked so much, things just went further and further downhill moving so much of our work away from actively trying to repair things to just being glorified customer service and sales agents. The guys from my store all mostly now work in IT, but it still saddens me to see things have not improved since our time back in those days.
As a Geek Squad agent, working on custom computers is actually handled on a store by store basis. Our store has worked with a lot of custom builds thanks to being close to a college campus. However, I know there are other stores where agents really haven’t even built a computer which I would be weary of.
Former Geeksquad manager here. I worked at a store close to corporate headquarters in MN and both stores broke policy and didn’t even try to get all the information needed. (I’ve also worked at 3 other geeksquads in the area) Typically the consultant agents will ask all the questions needed and take in the computer (regardless of custom built or prebuilt) and hand off to the repair agents. If they do not have repair agents in the store which most stores do not have anymore and they would first check the hardware and make sure everything was plugged in right then run a diagnostics with a proprietary program for any mallard, hardware failure, or OS corruption. It is standard and policy to first make sure that we ask if they want their PC backed up or not and always tell the customer there’s a chance of losing data before finishing paperwork (on the program the geeksquad agents use it is a required checklist item that won’t let them continue the paperwork without filling that out) then either send it back to the repair agents or send it to a store that has repair agents. They also should have called to make an appointment for pick up to go over the repair and make sure it was to your liking before you left. Granted how they treated their employees and the managers was not the best which caused all the people who knew anything about working on a computer to quit so now it’s full of kids who don’t know alot. You should try doing a MacBook repair or iPhone repair next. Crazy how long the apple process takes
Bring your PC to my GeekSquad precinct! We are so embarrassed by the quality of these agents performances! My store is in a small town with very few other repair stores, and we pride ourselves on the quality of our work. Even though we are required to pitch the membership, this is one of the only places I can work on my passion for PCs in the area. I do have to be a salesman and play it up to meet quotas, but we truly enjoy what we do and love our clients!
So I’m not sure if Canadian best buy policy is different or not, but I used to be a Geek Sqaud agent in the US and we are supposed to check in any computer (customer or not) and run diagnostics on it if our over the counter agents can’t fix it. Diagnostics run from software like PC Doctor to inspecting the build to see if anything is disconnected. If we still can’t find out the issue, then that’s when we ask the customer if they’d like to send it out to our service center or not. I’m very surprised how these agents reacted, it’s very much a they didn’t wanna work on it situation.
as a geek squad agent on the customer-facing side i was surprised at how reluctant they were to work on custom PCs—we get those all the time, the only kind of devices we put the brakes on are company/school owned laptops, and even then all we need is writtenauthorization from the IT department that owns it and then we can go ahead. i’m lucky to be in a department where my coworkers give a shit about the work, the devices, and the people above all; i think that attitude (and having an interest in tech beyond the job requirements) goes a long way
Being a technician for years, the biggest thing I can say about this is that the random little issues isn’t the technician, but the company they work for. They want you to rush like crazy so it’s very easy to over look checks and it’s usually up to someone else to create the work order and total for what the job was based on technician notes. This is literally why I started my own repair company because I couldn’t deal with being blamed for missing small things because I was constantly being rushed by managers.
To credit Best Buy Geek Squad as someone who used to work at Best Buy years ago, I can say that company-wide policy was still a bit “flexible” up to the department managers on how strictly they adhered to those policies regarding accepting repair work that comes in. Geek Squad as a department is given a set budget and sales quota to hit, and I remember chatting with my department managers about why we would “sway” from the company policy and not take certain repairs, it ultimately came down to excessive losses, and the greater legal issue of property and value. If Best Buy bungs up a job while the property is in Geek Squad’s care, it’s VERY easy for the consumer to win any battle, no matter how much legal gets involved.
Love the article! Do want to say tho, as someone that works in Geek Squad in the US and having visited a couple different stores, while the service you get does vary quiet a bit depending on individuals in each store it looks like the Canada Geek Squad has a very different process and guidelines from the US, I already knew it was true on the sales side but it looks like Geek Squad does the same of Canada and US being extremely different, separated units. In my store we have no problem at all taking in custom builds even when built by the customer, we do give out the right expectation tho of the limit to what we can do in store(nothing with solder and this kind of hardware repair) and explain we will go through troubleshooting, call them to inform the issue we did or did not find and then give them options on how to go from there.
I do desk-side help-desk support for a large company. The worst thing i can hear when someone asks me to troubleshoot an issue on their work PC is “well my tech friend had it for a few days to try and fix it….” Almost every time the PC makes it to me in worse shape than if they would have just reported the issue days before.
I was a former senior agent at a geek squad. A lot of Geek Squads in smaller markets only ship out to the repair centers if there is a hardware issue and don’t have full repair techs on staff. Instead local agents only solve software issues or use “Agent Johnny Utah” (a remote agent) to remote in and fix issues. My geek squad never denied custom PCs. And we generally found them more fun to work on. But made sure to get their signature and confirmation that they knew that any replacement parts were for them to provide and would come out of their pocket.
9:07 as a Consultation Agent (CA) at Geek Squad I can say this is nearly spot on. We absolutely do work on custom PCs as mentioned earlier in the article but there are some scenarios where we shy away from that idea. It’s very rare at my Best Buy (although Best Buy as a whole is going to shit) but it still happens. IT IS NOT POLICY TO TURN DOWN CUSTOM OR PREBUILT TOWERS. Also one more thing to note: we always have people sign off on their paperwork before giving us their devices so THEY are liable for any pre-existing issues. We will usually ask if they have already tried to tamper with any parts or diagnose the device themself and then have them sign off on them saying those exact words. PS, As a Consultation Agent, what we do in terms of repairing the computer is very slim but we are like the agents in this article that intake the client’s information and have the device moved to the actual Advanced Repair Agents (ARAs) so that they can repair and diagnose it.
I apologize for those who had poor experiences with bestbuy’s geeksquad techs. I promise that most of us actually do want to help fix your issues. (Prior C.A. at a California location) I loved to go look into custom build issues, and putting together systems that customers requested to be put together. I never did reach the promotion to working primarily on the systems in the back, as we had low staffing with our CA’s. I really loved specifically hard cases. God i do miss working for GS sometimes, good memories. I used to take pictures prior on the GS phone, with cables, pins, and seating for everything before bringing the case back to my coworkers and get a 2nd opinion on the case. I always would unseat and reseat all cables/pins to make sure everything was seated properly. i also did follow-ups with the really difficult case issues. During the repair and after. There were a few times that we did run into issues during the time of the 30 series cards I hope i did leave a good imprint on the customers who came by and were assisted by me during my time working for GS. It was a fun learning and growing process there.
Recently gave them a less than 3 year old HP laptop with a cracked screen to fix. 1. After 3 weeks it was returned with a lower resolution screen (720p), so they again took it back 2. After 14 weeks, they said they could not procure the part and returned it with the terrible washed out 720p screen and refunded the money No acceptance of fault for the time wasted, no recompensation, no remmediation. Never using them again! I am happy you’re also speaking out.
Back in 2018/2019, I knew NOTHING about computers. Somehow, the graphics card on my families HP pre-built came loose, and we thought it was dead. Took it to bestbuy, and they said the graphics card was bad, and we’d have to buy a new one as the warranty ran out a month prior… 3 months later, I was gonna sell it to a co-worker for scrap parts, and he looked at it and was like, “Uh.. dude? The graphics card is just slightly unplugged.” And what do you know? It was completely fine after he reseated the cable.
You know what, I want to see linus fix a computer with similar problems. I want his team to do some stuff to a computer, then hand it over to him to fix. Sure, knowing the problems, it’s easy to judge, but let’s see how he does in the same situation he put best buy and keith in. I think he’d do better, but id like to see how much better.
the way i repair takes longer, yes, but it gets done right. i ask questions as normal. but when it comes to a idk kinda repair, i literally take it apart and rebuild the entire pc from the beginning. no issues so far, no callbacks. rebuild it from scratch, don’t take that long and you know its your work.
The Best Buy I’ve seen has super competent people. It’s really about who’s in the Geek Squad at the given store. Some Best Buy stores are toxic with their management, others go hard and go awesome. Best Buy gets a bad wrap because some stores suck ass. The company itself is pretty dang great nowadays. Seriously, the super account is sick. It gives a lot of boons but the best ones are free 2 year coverage on anything you can get it on (all computer parts, for example), 2 day shipping like Amazon Prime, and random $10-$50 discounts across the parts I get. I use it and buy parts for my custom rigs that price match to Amazon and usually are less expensive, then get free 2 year replacement and repair coverage. If I’m not feeling up to it to work on a specific installation of a part or don’t have time, it makes Geek Squad doing it cost nothing.
See this where I love the small shop I have near me. I was doing a case swap, MB, PSU upgrade, something happened and the machine stopped posting all together. Like nothing worked, was half sure my $1200 4080 was toast and was ready to cry. Took it to my local shop of experts (they are by the way as most of their employees are CS majors from the local university). They tested it, found it didn’t POST, then tested each individual part in their machines and found it needed a BIOS reset. It took them a little less than a week and was $35 US. They even offer cable management services on the regular and have a good stock of parts (at the mom and pop shop mark up) to replace your stuff with.
I know that geek squad works on custom for a fact, because I’ve used them when I built my first build and couldn’t get it to post. They ended up breaking more than they fixed, but everything was replaced on them that they broke. Work well enough, but the indian call centers were confusing me more than helping.
As a appliance technician I can tell you 100% whatever you tell customer service will never reach the field technician or store technicians ears, you can give them model and serial and exact error codes and 99% of the time the call center tech will schedule it as “PC not working” or in my case “fridge not working”
Back in high school I had the geek squad warranty on my laptop, it had 3 problems 1. Screen had a mark ground into it from the keyboard 2. Cooling fans would occasionally grind really loud during startup until restarted, like rubbing 3. 1 of 2 heat pipes had broken away from the heat spreader on the CPU, so would throttle bad and even shut down at 100C I opened it up and saw the clear problem with the heat pipe, but I already had the warranty so I figured I’d let them take care of what I had already paid for. Took them 3 or 4 weeks at their service center, which was a hellishly long time without being able to game. The worst though, is when I received it back, only the screen was fixed, I ended up getting a heat sink and fan combo from a salvaged computer for like 20 or 30 bucks off eBay and fixing the thermal issue myself. I even made a blatant point that it was overheating really badly, as much of a point as I felt I could make without admitting that I opened it up myself, also when opened the heat pipe would float like a quarter inch away from the CPU spreader, it was pretty hard to miss in my opinion…
Here in Portugal, we charge 95€ for a full system rebuild, with cleaning everything, replacing thermal paste and pads with Honeywell stuff, backing up all data and reinstalling windows with all drivers (including printer drivers), customer software like Office while restoring the application settings like outlook mailboxes, updating and configuring the bios with XMP, custom fan curves, etc. Even did paint jobs and rebuild broken parts or replace bad caps for that money. People very frequently refuse that price and go to a family member that saw something on YouTube and call it a day. 200+ USD for the sh!t that these guys did? That’s robbery / scam.
I had an interview at a Best Buy. The manager told me they try to sell customers entire new systems before fixing PCs (this was about 2 or 3 years ago). When they do fix PCs, they send their PCs to a huge facility that does almost all of the repairs. They SOMETIMES work on machines in the back, like if it’s just a basic software issue or something, but anything that isn’t outside of a 3 minute Google search gets sent out. Their on site “techs” are as incompetent as you think they are.
Nice that Keith fixed it, but I think he is smarter than he let on. Probably saw it right away, plugged it in, realized he wouldn’t make money of a 5 second fix, then realized Chewie said he paid 3k (he thinks, if you are strapped for cash you would know exactly what you spent if it was pricey), and then did a ton of extra work for no reason to drive the price up. Again, good he fixed it, but little shady he didn’t mention the hardware, but did mention all the other semi-pointless stuff.
I remember in 2004, I got hired onto Geek Squad. The interview process basically was “Do you know how to use a computer?” Yes? “Your hired!”. Long story short, i lasted 3 months before I quit. I really HATED the way Best Buy operated during that time. So much incompetence. It’s good to know that 20 years later, things haven’t changed one bit.
Pretty sure this article was shot before the April Fool’s joke! I love the customer service articles as they represent a lot of what we consumers do when deciding to receive “professional” help from OEMS and repair companies. However Youtube, more specifically LTT and GN provided lots of troubleshooting advice to use day to day since 2018. Thank goodness for the internet, otherwise, we would all be in a tough spot.
Let me give a little insight into Geek Squad, at least as I knew it 10 years ago when I worked at their hardware repair facility in Brooks, KY. The agents in stores only fix software issues, hardware issues are shipped to the repair facility for any repairs. I can tell you the agents working at the repair facility are well qualified to diagnose and repair any problem, but they don’t have access to every possible part through the system Geek Squad uses. Geek Squad is in the business of repairing OEM electronics and that’s it. Oh and when they replace that bad motherboard, wifi card, or whatever? You’re just as likely to get a used part with an unknown number of hours of use as you are to receive a new part. Meaning you could potentially get a part that’s older than the one it replaces.
Haven’t watched the article yet. But just wanna say I had an appointment at Microcenter to fix my gaming pc, decided to take it to best buy across the street while waiting because I was early. I watched the geek squad employee attempt to plug in am hdmi cable to the display port for about 45 or so seconds before saying “you know what I’m all set thank you” no point me even telling him what he was doing wrong.
As a former employee 3 years ago at best buy//geek squad the main reason they dont wanna work on custom pcs has to do with it could take up to many labor hours finding the exact issue or they assume the customer is gonna try to blame them for the damage of something. I worked there for 7 years and it happens more often than ya think people try this. But still they shouldnt turn away someone just because it costs more labor
Best Buy is almost criminal. They charged $300 to install a wall-mount provided by the customer. They also charged someone to PARTITION a hard-drive. Most of the legwork was already done by the customer, yet they charged $300. In this article, they immediately offer membership and they charge for a tube of thermal paste that did not fix the problem; The end total was $200+ and they never fixed it. They mentioned the fan noise is normal to brush off the real problem. For that reason, I would never recommend BestBuy to anyone I love.
My first job was at staples as an easy tech, but I got my CCENT and A+ in HS. If geek squad or the local shops couldn’t fix it they sent it to me. I’m convinced most of these shops just reinstall windows whenever there is a problem now and hope for the best. Fixing issues was as simple as reinstalling drivers or a quick release/renew sometimes. Give a shop a faulty ram dim that posts and watch them squirm.
I am lucky to have a good PC shop in my area, I walked in because the ram I bought was not working (Fyi I took my pc in with me) and they cleaned it, fixed my bios settings, gave me new ram, fixed a fan that was installed in backwards, put new thermal paste on my cpu, and updated my bios so I could finally utilize my rams full MHZ and update to windows 11, for free took like 30 minutes as well.
i used to work at geek squad got my little badge back in 2015-2018 and the policy was changing we had a lot of pc guru ppl from comp USA, but they started saying we can no longer repair or touch custom pcs, cant change mobas,install cpus or power suppys, only install gpus, memory, ssd/m.2, windows software ofc. We also converted heavy to repairing apple iPhone GSW certified but that was only repairs we got to do. I would try and fix every pc i could but they limited repair time to only 15 mins per pc and they only wanted you to run MRI,do Clean install and Data transfer if needed no real repairs anymore. if it was Hardware they required to be shipped out which wasn’t worth it bc they charged arm and leg if you didn’t have a warranty it was cheaper to buy new pc. they went heavy at no longer hiring experienced repair personal but instead hiring from sales floor specifically from PC and Mobile dept; who had no real idea on how to diagnose a pc but instead they could sell products. then by time i was leaving they no longer wanted repairs at all and instead only ship them out if they have warranty of some kind if not don’t accept them and turn them away or sell them a new pc.
It was mentioned at a later point in the article, an LTT repair/parts shop franchise would save the PC gaming community. It is IMPOSSIBLE for me to find just standard repair parts at a reasonable price near me. Best Buy is the best it gets and they SUCK for someone that actually knows what they’re doing. It is a real pain to wait 5-7 days shipping just to fix a simple problem. Please execute an LTT PC franchise. (and credit me if you do lol)
Id like to start by saying everyone is entitled to their opinion. I know this is an older article, but I am a repair agent at GS. There is a lot more talk that happens in the background. BestBuy only cares about making customers happy and cutting losses as much as possible. Its not the GS thats the problem. The problem is we are taught to assume every possible problem is our fault. We make less money then most tech shops and we are under a strict policy that restricts what we can do with pc’s. I will say some locations might work differently. Like my Gs is forbidden to have chairs. We can’t sit down unless we have a medical problem while another store I visited has no issues letting their agents sit in a chair. Again all opinions are valid here, I can’t lie I was taken back with how the GS CA responded to the client. For that I will do what I have been taught to do for 6 years now. (Deep Breath) Sorry that my fellow agents have failed you. It wasn’t okay and it should have been handled better. I’m sorry for any frustration this might give you. Would you please stop yelling at me before I have to call the cops? Im depressed and have to pick up dinner after this.
Best buy Geek squad employees are trained to overwhelm customers who know nothing about computers with lots of technical garbble that doesn’t really address the issue, overcharge for not fixing it, then once they have the customer giving up on a computer that actually can be fixed easily, they can get you to buy a brand new PC. It’s disgusting. Never take a PC to best buy for repair. They fake it to make you buy a new PC.
did anyone else catch the real problem? this is only gonna get worse over the next decade and beyond. why? because there will be even fewer Keiths and far more Visajeets. it’s not a company thing, it’s not even a policy thing. it’s demographic. it’s illegal to say why this is the problem. which in turn perpetuates the problem itself.
I went to best buy because I wasn’t comfortable changing my SSDs from 500GB to 1TB. I just wanted them to clone to the new SSD and then install it. I got bullied into buying a new windows installation on the 1TB SSD and had to re install everything, I had to sign up for that damn bestbuy membership to save money since it was going to be 150 for windows and 50 for the installation. Decided to watch some more youtube articles and just needed to buy an enclosure to DIY the data clone and install the SSD when I was DIY upgrading my RAM from 16 to 32 GB.
i once had mom and pops shop try to fix my iphone, and said wouldn’t charge me unless they fix it. Spent 2 weeks trying and couldn’t. When i brought it to apple to fix, they said it would’ve been an easy fix if mom and pops shop didn’t steal a bunch of components from inside thinking that ” the phone is done, and we spent a lot of time trying” . Worst experience ever
Twenty years ago this happened to me, I got ripped off at a hardware store, they built me a rig with inappropriate parts and I was having serious problems and they would tell the there were no issues, than some games were not well optimised etc, I learned about computer hardware and I built my own PC from scratch and that time ir worked flawlessly, I have never come back to a PC hardware store
I recently took in a ASUS ROG Flow Z13 for having a power system failure where in my personal diagnostics it showed that the power system failed on the motherboard resulting in no battery charge and only running when on direct power. It needed a motherboard replacement. Common issue and it’s proprietary. They ran a diagnostic which took 7 days and charged me $100 despite giving them my own diagnostic, and said that the CPU was “idling too hot at 50C” and returned it to me telling me to send it to ASUS to have it looked at. I went to another Best Buy, they took it in and held it for 48 days before returning it with entirely refurbished hardware inside. They made the same exact notes as the last place. It at least turned on, but they forgot to return my charger … so they had to order a new one, which took 18 days. If you know what a Z13 is, of course it idles at 50C. It’s a gaming surface pro. Needless to say, the service took way too long. They also sent to to ASUS to fix it for them, and then claimed they fixed it at their service center. Mind boggling.
my personal experience: geek squad seems to me to only hire people who are barely knowledgable about PCs and al they ever do is simply reset your PC/OS than charge over $100 for it. PC will sitll have issues. I took mine to his local guy who works out of his home and been working on computers since 1980s IBM machines, and he got it fixed in just a few hours and its running better than ever. shout out to the computer guy in independence MO. if you’re in KC metro, i cant recommend the guy enough.
So I actually have a fair amount of IT knowledge (studied it in uni for two years and have built computers for about five) so I’d like to think that I actually AM a decent “techy friend / family member. But to be honest, I’m not sure if I’d correctly diagnose all of these issues correctly. I think some of them like the AVX error and maybe the driver issues would be pretty easy to realize and fix, but coming from square one with so many possible reasons for the multitude of issues, I might legitimately struggle to solve every single one of them.
I feel like the best way to do this test is to give them all that, and also give linus or one of the other guys one as well (obviously they would have to not know it). Its easy to know the exact steps to take when you did it. And presumably that would mean that we could actually see the problem solving done by someone who is unaware of the problem, and also see what the instincts are. I think that would be especially interesting because as you saw the different tech guys had different initial instincts.
I like Best Buy, but their “Geek Squad” repairs are nothing but a joke. I purchased a gaming laptop (mistake, I know) from them for about $2k. Something with the CPU/GPU was causing it to spike up insanely high, like 90 C just playing RuneScape. That is a very basic game from the 2000’s that shouldn’t be happening, even on a laptop. Brought it in to Geek Squad since I had the protection plan, & they said they “repaired it” on about 4 different occasions. 4 different times I returned, literally nothing changed. They did nothing, all while lying straight to my face about how they fixed it & temps are down. Then they told me I’m using the wrong app to monitor my temps & the one they installed showed significantly lower temps. I downloaded it on the laptop right in front of them, & wow, what do you know, nothing was fixed. Moral of the story, it’s great to have the protection plan for future failures of products because they actually refund you the price of the device, but dealing with them is an absolute fucking nightmare & they genuinely have no idea what they’re doing.
i worked in a Fuyjitsu siemens center that did repairs on laptops and i could remmeber a customer that stated he buyd it like that and it was clear he was trying to see inside and used wrong screws and put them THROUGH the mainboard in the back into the keyboard at the front and so on u couldnt press the C key anymore cause there was the screw under and also broke the display ….
Too many checklists and red tape at big box stores. Being a PC tech at Best Buy is like being a slave that gets whipped every time you try to actually use your talents to help a customer. “Mom and Pop” stores actually care (they have to or they will go out of business VERY fast) and will deep dive for solutions. They NEED customers and good word of mouth, while the big boxes know they will get customers no matter how much they screw up.
I’ve been where Keith was when fixing computers, phones, etc. If it was something simple and he checked basic stuff and just fixed it w/o thinking, he wouldn’t have documented that as a possible issue. Especially if he was just going through the motions like an every day typical check this and that and make sure it’s snug etc. OR he got to it after 2-3 hrs of working on the unit and didn’t think nothing of that cable, maybe because he didn’t trace it back to it’s origin. If I worked on something for a long time and did that, I may have thought i did an oopsie and unplugged it by accident. Last but not the least, if I got the system, looked over all physical aspects and found that in the first 15-30 minutes, I would have called the owner back and said no charge. If it would have taken me an hour to find it, then charge. Always check physical things first or layer 1 as network people say.
Bought a brand new computer from Best Buy. They shipped me a display model. The display model had the display version of Windows. I couldn’t remove it. I took it to Geek Squad “Sorry bro, your computer can’t be fixed, here’s a lesser computer at the same price, that’s all we can offer”. Took my refund and went to Newegg, where I spent another 500 dollars as a “Fuck you” to BestBuy.
Part of the issue with Bestbuy is they probably pay the techs 20 bucks an hour. Those guy are just slapping paste on and sending them on their way. They don’t care. It probably a 25 year old who just needed a job and wants to go home quickly. Lack of care and low paying job caused this. They honestly do not care.
As someone who works at best buy GS. It is sometimes very challenging hearing what some of the “Other Squads” Handle. We are very pressured for time. Many times I’d look at an issue on a bench and look behind me to see my manager tapping his watch pressuring me to hurry up. The sad part is that if you’re not gunna make a sale of something, they don’t want to take it. While yes I understand it from a business perspective. I do not understand it from a REPEATIVE business standpoint, especially in relation w/ customers. Sure I understand free is bad business. But happy customers is good business and it doesn’t seem to be something best buy understands.
When I worked at Geek Squad my manager said we could take anything we feel like we can fix. I never turned anyone down, even stuff like printers and such (if time permitted.) I worked on lots of custom builds made by end users (not SIs.) Honestly they were less trouble than off the shelf computers, most of the time. The one exception was a guy who had a custom loop hard pipe build, it was hard to work in and it was nerve wracking how he had his connector on the 3090 bent. There’s definitely no rule against taking custom PCs at Geek Squad at least at the corporate level. Maybe that is his managers policy though.