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94 Comments
- zdiddy85, on 10/10/2007, -4/+85How about we fire them for taking advantage of people who don't know much about computers?
- zyklon, on 10/10/2007, -4/+43I hope they get completely shut down. The Geek Squad is a dishonour to all PC Techs out there.
- ernasty10050, on 10/10/2007, -1/+25My girlfriend's computer broke a week ago. She took it to the Geek Squad before I had a chance to look at it. They simply reformatted her hard drive, installed the typical freeware virus protection, and charged her $130 after it took five days. Fire the whole Geek Squad.
- coinman987, on 10/10/2007, -2/+25Because he exposed the truth. You know they can't let people know the truth it's bad for business. Who would want to keep using geek squad if people knew they don't do anything, charge a ***** load of money for doing nothing, sell you a bunch of stuff you don't need, steal your files, and take forever to do it? Best buy's solution is to fire the people who talk, hide the problem, hope nobody finds out, and continue to scam people out of their money.
- hsmalley, on 10/10/2007, -1/+22When I worked there the amount of porn that would come in would make any one want to burn a disc or two. Also the amount of homemade stuff was pretty impressive too. Although this doesn't surprise me because they stopped hiring quality people and started hiring people who could sell stuff and just told you to stick in their MRI disc and let some kid across the world work on it via their Agent Johnny Utah, aka out sourced cheap labor. I'm sure there are a few good techs left but most have left when told, "If you want to move up in this company you need to work sales..." I just blame the irresponsible hiring practices.
- Egoist, on 10/10/2007, -3/+21It's because his job is to manage the employees under him. If he didn't do anything to stop the practice in the first place, he's not managing his department very well.
It's incredible that basic management practices have to be explained to Diggers. If it doesn't have to do with WoW, the iPhone, or Ron Paul, it's not worth knowing. - 808kick, on 10/10/2007, -1/+17So when I'm replacing the tile in your kitchen you don't mind me sneaking a few of your beers, making some long distance calls, and taking photos of your daughter cause you know if you RTFM you'd know how to do it
- firefox15, on 10/10/2007, -4/+19Is the supervisor supposed to go to the houses with the technicians to monitor them or something? Why the hell was he fired?
- themulf, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11I work for CompUSA and I could go on for hours for how much the service is practical ripoff. The techs, most of them not even A+ certs are pretty jaded and hamstrung by sh*tty corporate policy. It is a pretty lame situation. Most people are scared of computer technology and when theirs break, they are mad at the world and want someone to baby them and hold their had all the time.
- kaje, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10They'd charge you for a reinstall of Windows.
- spyrochaete, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Geek Squad charges exorbitant amounts to do very ordinary work that is only slightly above the skillset of the people who hire them. This is a GREAT opportunity for most Diggers, no doubt.
If you're looking for some extra bucks advertise yourself as a PC repair service (community paper, rec centre, neighbourhood signposts, etc.). I've been doing this for about 7 years and it's fun, fulfilling, profitable work. I've worked with many elderly people who sat with me while I fixed things and they really appreciated my explanations of what I was doing, why it was necessary, and what they can do to prevent the problem in the future.
I won't say how much I make per hour but it's a damn nice supplement to my daytime salary. If you know you're good enough with PCs to fix any problem that comes your way (mostly spyware removal and cluttered 8-year-old Win98 installs) all you have to do is quote a price lower than Geek Squad. And believe me, when they charge $175 for on-site spyware removal it's very very easy to eat their lunch. - Snarfy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8"I have no sympathy for the dumb asses that can't fix their own problems"
Your engine blew and you need it repaired? Fix it yourself dumbass. Your kidney has stones and your heart is going to explode? Fix it yourself dumbass. A/C on the fritz again? fix it yourself dumbass.
We live in a society so you don't have to be able to fix everything yourself. - WildTang3nt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7They'd probably "fix" it by reformatting your drive, putting Vista on it, and not tell you first. Oh, and of course they'll charge you for the OS as well...
- Skod, on 10/10/2007, -7/+13Seriously though, I was honestly surprised that people pay for something as simple as an iTunes installation. I wonder what Geek Squad would do if I came in with a problem on one of my Ubuntu boxes....or better yet, take a new HP, put linux on it and go in claiming, "Winders looks funny today"
- spyrochaete, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6A friend of mine took her Windows PC to Future Shop a few years ago because it was randomly rebooting. Future Shop formatted her machine without warning her to back up her stuff and charged her $40. I encouraged her to walk out of the store without paying but she refused. She took it home, reinstalled Windows, and her PC kept on rebooting. Faulty power supply.
- jedikv, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Swing and a miss...
- Scopitone, on 10/10/2007, -6/+12Don't ***** with a man's porn.
- unreal32, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Odd how you think the only reason why you haven't had a job in 6 years is that there is some magical "blacklist" that every tech employer in the United States secretly checks names against before hiring... And how incredible that all these companies in competition with each other decide to work together just to conspire against you.
Ever think about upgrading your skills, changing careers, starting your own business, moving to where the jobs are, or even getting someone to proofread your resume? Maybe you've mispelled the word "computer" on your resume for the past 6 years and thats the only thing holding you back? Psst, there is no blacklist. And there is no tooth fairy either. - legendxx, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6if you did that you would be the biggest nerd in the world with too much time on your hands and everyone would know it.. congrats
- knobidy, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7"Best buy's solution is to fire the people who talk, hide the problem, hope nobody finds out, and continue to scam people out of their money."
Sounds like the Catholic Church to me. - nationalist, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4pwn'd
- owlfeathers, on 10/10/2007, -4/+8Rogues? Do you think they can come to Silvermoon City and open an chest for me?
- GodjustGod, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5How about we fire them for not knowing their ass from a hole in the ground? No offense to the few GS techs out their that have it together, but the majority of them are idiots.
- brstilson, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Doesn't surprise me in the least they fired this guy. I'm not surprised this happened either. This is retail, and the pay they're offering for Geek Squad is going to attract the type of element that would steal porn to begin with. Geek Squad is the McDonalds of tech support, except that their prices are among the highest in the industry. I used to work there, and I've heard their excuses like "well it's like a car repair, lots of people are happy to pay and have someone else do it." That would work except that the kind of car repairs analgous to Geek Squad services are things like putting air in the tires, changing wiper blades, and pumping gas. Installing iTunes is easier than pumping gas, yet you find very few people that need to pay someone to do it for them.
- themulf, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3True, but their some people who just freak out and break down when it comes to their computer. I think computer stores should offer cheap old mac mini G4's refurbe'd, locked down to safari, and sell that as an idiot proof "internets pc."
- spookyttws, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6I really don't get why anyone would do this, porn is readily available for free on the internet, and even if you find some large archive of some fetish you're into on someones computer, is it really worth risking your job and crossing a huge moral (and probably legal) line? Hell, a certain, "naughty country", "anonymous man's apartment" or even "the number that comes after 7th street Latinas" offer enough free content to ease anyone's pain. Also, I heard about someone's "sister has a hot friend..."
- Falkon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3The only downside to this is that you can have customers from hell. My uncle did this as a profession for three years and said that it was quite possibly the worst thing he's ever done.
He also lives in kentucky, so that could be part of it, but...be careful. - insomniac8400, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Now let the fake stories roll to really screw them up!
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Too little too late this time. Best Buy is just scrambling to reclaim what little bit of their image that they can. They have to make an example out of someone. The truth is that this will continue to happen no matter what. They tell their agents that you respect the privacy of the customer. They drill into the agents head that you have NO BUSINESS in someone's "my documents" or "my pictures". Sometimes it's necessary to get into their "My Music" to get a file to test the audio with.
The problem is that they are trusting horny young boys, or just people with no self control. How will they know if someone does it? They're just gonna take a "peek". Until Best Buy gets screen capture hardware on their KVM's so they can personally look in on what an agent is doing, it's never going to stop. By the way, if you all think that this isn't going on at your local small town computer shop, you're an idiot. Best Buy bears the responsibility on this one simply due to their place in the public eye. - CatalystGhost, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3And *****, it's not like they're actually stealing... copy+paste? It's pretty basic. They're just introducing these people to the world of file-sharing, free of charge!
I mean, I can understand if it's a porn folder buried deep in the computer, with some protection on it or something. But if you just leave it in My Docs, you're an idiot. Someone's gonna find it. - spyrochaete, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Dishonourable techs only make the good guys look better. Competition is good. People don't deserve to have their privacy violated though.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2They'd probably go ahead and replace your hard drive, then do an install of Windows, and hold your PC hostage until you paid.
- cawpin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Your credit history is NOT publicly accessible. It requires your consent to look at.
- drdewm, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Best Buy should just hire their techs from the Digg forums. All these saints posting, everyone knows and does the right thing. Digg should be a primary HR resource.
- xienze, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I don't believe for a second that it's just "rogue employees" doing this. It's definitely systemic. I know a guy who used to work for Geek Squad and years ago he was telling us about how everyone in his department would copy pictures, porn, or whatever off of the customer's computers.
- nationalist, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2this doesn't need to be dugg down...
- fintheman, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4Any company that has morning meetings at Sunday at 6:30am deserve this *****.
Down with the Geek Squad. - cloudyprison, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2It took five days because every 10 seconds managers cart you off to some other department to sell ***** or 'attach' services. Then if you had some peace and quiet from them, you were overrun at the counter. It's like putting the mechanics repair bay in the sales room and expecting the mechanic on his back to answer all the customers dumb questions, while trying to beat a deadline.
It was a great learning experience on how NOT to do things. - rainergamer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2it isn't that difficult.
- Yarnage, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2What did you do to get on a blacklist?
- jdaustin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Linux is and has been ready for 'Prime Time' for quite awhile. Most of the servers I use are Linux servers. In the past few years Linux servers have replaced our Solaris, HPUX, and Tru64 servers and have done very well.
I'd bet that 20 somethings understand computers on a level most 40+ somethings don't. I don't count people like me that grew up with the technology. There are a lot of people with Masters and PhD degrees that know little outside their area of expertise (including computers); though the same could be said for a lot of computer geeks :)
The problem with offering computer repair on their scale is that they want to make money :) A competent computer tech is expensive. If they can get by with some guy without the experience they will as it is cost effective to do so. - celchu33, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Here's a link to a video where Consumerist catches the Geek Squad stealing personal pictures and porn:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/investigations/video-consumerist-catches-geek-squad-stealing-porn-from-customers-computer-271963.php - diggeddugg, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2One word. Amateur.
- thedreaming1, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3What's worst, that a geek squad member got caught copying porn from a customer's machine, or that they customer gets a hard on from watching lesbian midgets have sex with robotic donkeys? (wait for the mental picture, then type a response)
- Rustbelt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2So it's okay to dig through personal files and copy what you like? After all, if he went to her house why shouldn't he be allowed to go through her paper files and make copies of tax records, intimate photos and other items. After all, she's a hottie so he'd be a pussy if he didn't take advantage of her, right?
I don't understand the moral ambiguity that says don't steal from a store but once something is digitized it's "sharing" and okay to take. In both instances you are getting something without the owner's permission and without paying but because you're a smart IT guy it's all right. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Um they're geeks, what exactly did they expect?
If they just had the common sense to rent them prostitutes, this would never have been a problem! - Rustbelt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Computer technicians are the new mechanics. There are good ones and there are jerks who will rip you off. Anytime one person understands a technology better than another and profit is involved there will be those who feel obliged to rip people off. Whether it's installing a new operating system or changing the rotors on your breaks, the opportunity exists for the less scrupulous to sucker someone.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3 Who cares if they copy porn? As long as they copy/paste and not cut/paste what difference does it make? It's a job perk of working on PC's.
- cawpin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Chevy doesn't make a 5.6 liter.
So how'd that heart surgery go? - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1That actually kind of turns me on. It's special olympics meets the terminator with donkeys. This comment FTW!!!
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