F**k you Best Buy

[accident]

http://consumerist.com/2010/01/consumerist-investigation-best-buy-optimization-is-a-big-stupid-annoying-waste-of-money.html

absolute bullshit.

[McGyver]

wow, that is really messed up. it sort of sounds like a "bait and switch" sales technique, and im pretty sure that's illegal.

[StereoInstaller1]

People are such retards.

[ACMF74]

that store is hardly ever the "the best buy" around....

convenience and that's about it

[TheEtaUnderdog]

that store is hardly ever the "the best buy" around....

convenience and that's about it

convenience?!?! have you ever shopped there? it's horrible

[allwheeldrive]

I knew that Geek Squad shit was a scam. What a bunch of turds.

[ZM Blue Devil]

They tried to sell me a $499 optimizations for the LCD TV we bought. I laughed so hard I think I offended them. Oh well.

[Jand3rson]

I hardly ever even go in the one here anymore. We've only had it for a few years, and it was all the rage when it opened, I went there all the time. Now I go maybe once every couple of months, for something small I know they'll have.

[threlevenguy]

I just had my last day of work at Best Buy due to my return of school...Geek Squad is a good help resource most of the time. I never did understand why computers were optimized before they were sold. This article is interesting.

[accident]

I got my laptop there in December, but i think i got lucky. I did Site2Store and got a decent deal. Walked in, picked it up, and walked out.

[Restoman]

I refuse to shop at Best Buy after they put up a cattle shoot at our store to direct customers when checking out. The could care less if you have to walk 300 feet when no one is in line. It's like going to six flags when no one is there. Their salespeople are crap and so is the store.

[pureaudio]

Geek Squad is a joke, I make so much money cleaning up their mistakes for pissed off clients.

[accident]

Geek Squad is a joke, I make so much money cleaning up their mistakes for pissed off clients.

I should get in to this.

[nando]

people are actually stupid enough to pay for that?

wait, I mean, of course they are. Shopping at Best Buy for a computer pretty much assumes that.

[equate975]

I work at geek squad, and this is what I think. My goal isn't really to defend them, because I disagree with a lot of their practices and prices.

First off, the quality of your repairs can vary a ton depending on what geek squad you have, it's a total crap shoot. I'm very sure there are some out there that sucks total balls, full of incompetent tech's who can't do anything but re-install windows and send computers to our repair facilities. That being said, some (like ours) are pretty damn good. We have a few local repair shops that I get a ton of overflow from with really angry customers. I've had one of them do some work for me in the past at a previous job when I didn't have the time to do everything myself. Anything that got past a simple PSU or HDD failure they spent days trying to figure out, only to give it back to me and have it fuck up for the same thing again. So compared to our areas shops, geek squad is #1. Myself and 2 other techs do all the "renew" which basically is fixing broken shit. When I came on I was surprised at how good the other techs that did renew were, this was the first time I could actually hold a conversation about a computer with another employee and have them understand wtf I mean, not only that, but be able to do everything I can do. So basically, some geek squads suck balls, some don't. The entry test to get hired is a fucking joke, so it's no wonder we get incompetent techs.

Secondly, as far as optimizations go... It's for lazy people. I would assume majority of the people on this board have at least 3 brain cells fully functioning. If you have those, you can setup a computer. I had to fill in for computer sales before x-mas, and obviously I was selling computers with our packages. The thing I told people, was you can do it all yourself no problem. But, if you have us do it, you can go home, open up your brand new toy, turn it on, and be ready to go. People pay for the convince, not the difficulty of the job. How many people here would pay a shop to change your air filter for you? I doubt many people at all would. And even if you did, it would be out of convince, not that it's too hard to figure out. I can guarantee most drivers on the road will pay someone to do it, just so they don't have to figure out how and do it themselves, even though it's easy as hell. People pay for it, because it's convenient.

Also, in the article, they said the $39.99 optimization is the same as the $69.99 one with AV. FWIW, it's not. The AV trial is only 30 days, not 6 months.

And for shopping at best buy for a computer, previous to working at geek squad I would totally agree I would NEVER buy a computer from them. But I have 100% changed my mind for one reason, the warranty. This basically adheres to laptops for me because I don't have a desktop, and I would just build one if I wanted one. Anyways, most computers it's only $250 for a 3 year warranty with accidental damage. It's totally worth the price IMO. What's nice is if anything fails, you just take it in and we fix it on the spot. This is also true for MFG warranty's. If you buy a laptop from amazon or something, and the HDD shits out under warranty, you will have to contact the MFG, send it in (or they might send you a drive if you're lucky) and have it fixed. If you buy it at BB, you just take that shit back in and we fix it. Then with our warranty all that goes out to 3 years. Also after a year you get a new battery, yours doesn't even have to be bad. As long as you remember to call in before your plan is up, we will give you a new one. And the accidental damage is pretty good, it only takes one drop to fuck a laptop up, and $250 to fix anything would be a good deal.

/end