"Your hard drive is broken but it's working enough to tell us you have a virus."

Visited Geek squad 2 days ago... they wanted $100 to diagnose. Went to Office Max. He found I had a bad power cord in under 5 minutes. No charge.

That first guy is my favorite type of tech guy, does it for the challenge and the fun, it's why I fix computers. Old vid I know but I hope his business got a massive boost.

The Geek Squad, more like the thief squad 😂

Geek Squad: "Do you want us to install that software for you? We can hit [next] repeatedly for you for the low price of $39.99"

Anyone smart enough to work on a computer would know that, odds are, this is a setup. The hard drive cable never just falls off.

Congrats to PC Paramedix for being honest. I'd rather take my computer to a smaller locally owned place and would never go to the geek Squad.

I don't need to watch this to know they scam people. Just look at those prices.

"The best tests are the ones you don't know you're taking". I like that!

"We take any misdiagnosis very seriously, and I personally feel horrible that we missed this opportunity to be consistently accurate" translates to "Fuck, we are annoyed that you caught us."

Had similar results when I tried to take my laptop in to ask about a boot error. They told me I needed to buy a new hard drive online and bring it back for a 150 dollar installation, then got embarrassed when I told them they were full of shit.

1:22 She seems surprised that paying for a tech to travel out to their location, spend an unknowable amount of time troubleshooting a computer with an unknown problem, potentially spending time to repair the issue or at least make a backup of the machine, potentially traveling back to and from their normal place of business for parts, and then finally traveling back to the shop after completing the job would be expensive.

"Your hard drive is broken but also somehow we figured out there's a virus on it."

580$ for a new hd... What the fuck is it gold plated 10TB SSD ?

You will need a GTX Titan X and 2 4k monitors to be able to go on Facebook!

I was scammed into buying an Asus computer at a Best Buy in AZ. They had me sign up for the Geek Squad services too. I am not computer savvy. A month after buying the computer, I began having issues with it. I would contact them several times a week and they would work on it remotely. Well, just about every time, I was left with the original problem not fixed and additional issues. This went on for months. Eventually, the computer performance worsened. Finally, after two years of this, they informed me that the mother board was irreversible broken. I told them how could this be? The computer was barely two years old. The warranty ran out and then they had the audacity to tell me it would cost me a lot of money to fix it and that I'd be better off buying a new computer. I reported them to the BBB, but they refused to make amends of any kind. I ended up going somewhere else to buy a new computer (this new one works great). Now, if I have issues, I have my family member work on it (he's a computer technician). I will never trust the Geek squad or that particular Best Buy again. I feel I was scammed out of over a thousand dollars and I even suspect that they may have done something to damage the computer on purpose. I was told by a computer tech that if the computer is dropped, the mother board can become damaged. I never dropped it but, on more than one occasion, I did leave it at the Geek Squad store when they had to physically work on it because they, supposedly, couldn't fix the "problem" remotely. So, just for the sake of giving these jerks some bad publicity, the store is located in Ahwatukee AZ 00177, 5051 E. Ray RD. 85044. It's a public address, so I feel confident to publish it here Stay away from them.

$580 for a fucking hard drive LOL

I took my Toshiba laptop to Geek Squad ONCE, because I told them it was overheating and crashing constantly while I was trying to use it. I told them that I'm 99% sure it's just that the fan is dirty and if they could just show me WHERE I needed to use compressed air to clean the fan, then it'll be fine. Apparently, without even looking at my laptop, they "knew" that the hard drive must be corrupted and the fan is not working at all and that's the ONLY reason my laptop would be doing that. The guy behind the counter asked how old the laptop was and I told him it was about 2-3 years old. I was then told that the laptop is NOT worth repairing and that I was better off buying a new one laptop because mine was too OLD to bother repairing. Really? It's only 2-3 years old and 3 years was the absolute MAX age that it was at the time I brought it in, it has an i7 Core processor, advanced graphics, etc but because it was a couple years old, I should just trash it and buy a whole new laptop >.>. I told him I wanted MY laptop repaired, I do NOT want a new laptop and he went on a whole rant about how he would have to ask his manager if they could even take it because the laptop was so "old" and I told him to bring the manager then. The manager just asked if I was sure that I wanted the laptop repaired, I said yes and he told the guy I was originally talking to to go ahead and take it. He asked me if I was ok with losing all my data on my laptop, because "sometimes that happens when they're repairing the laptop" and I told him no, I'm not ok with that. He then told me I had to buy a separate hard drive to backup all my data before I let them have the laptop to repair. I told him I'll do it at home, but if he could please just blow out the fan for me to make sure it won't overheat and crash while I'm backing up my laptop. He blows it out and tells me that my fan was really dirty and that when I brought my laptop back, it would be $70 just to send it out, not even for "repair" and they didn't even guarantee that it would be repaired, that was just to send the laptop out! 1+ years later, and my laptop still has NOT gone back to them because I have had NO problems with it ever since....

Thank you for showing us the good guy aswell.

Geek Squad tried to rip me off also. Told me the hard drive was dead and it would cost $650 to recover all my wife's photo files. She thought she was backing up but wasn't. A local computer guy was able to get almost all the files, the drive was failing but not dead, only a few could not be recovered. He also showed us how to copy the files to google drive for a backup. Total charge, about $90 with tax. Gave him $100 and keep the change. Well worth paying for honest service.

I got kicked out of a Best Buy once because there was a lady on the floor looking for a good computer to download pictures from her digital camera onto. The Geek Squad guy told her that she would need a $800 computer they had on the floor, plus an upgrade to a $300 Graphics card, that they would install for X amount of dollars. I told her that all she needed was the $400 budget laptop that they had on the floor, and that the computer he showed her was for advanced gaming. and that the graphics card was a top of the line card that most current games didnt even need. She thanked me and bought the laptop. Shortly after the manager came up and escorted me out of the store.

Wait. The computer doesn't boot, so how could they, with any confidence, lie about it having a virus?? They sound like those Indian telephone scammers.

Yeah, GeekSquad did the same thing to me as well. Took my laptop in for repairs and they claimed my hard drive was broken as well and would need to be repaired, when I really just needed a new install of Windows.

At our school, the guy they hired to upgrade the ram was putting different ram in, & selling the new ram he was supposed to be putting in the machines. 2 cops came into the library one afternoon & arrested him right in front of me lol

Wait… Scammer says that there's a virus on the *broken hard drive?* Just think about that for a second…

It's 2015. Technology is everywhere. Spend some time and learn how to use it and you'll never get scammed for shit like this.

they're still just as bad... If not worse. I had a dead CMOS battery(which is just a watch battery that powers the motherboard timer when it's turned off) which I took to them because I didn't want to accidentally void my PC warranty while replacing it myself. It turned out that after they attempted to replace the battery in store, it would not boot up. They told me that it must be something else, so they sent it off to their main repair facility which took a little over a week. It turned out that the CMOS battery was the only problem. In addition to that they factory reset my PC and recommended a new OS. I know it didn't need a new OS and there was no reason to perform a factory rested during a CMOS battery change. In fact they should not have even logged into my PC because the CMOS battery is entirely hardware and changing it does not affect anything software wise. Basically the store didn't assemble my PC correctly and the main repair facility factory reset my PC for no reason. They also tried to upsell me by recommending that I buy a Windows OS from them(not an upgrade; the same one on my computer just a fresh download. (FYI you can buy restore disks for much cheaper form the PC manufacturers website, so it was purely a marketing strategy)

"We take any Misdiagnosis very seriously, and I personally feel horrible that we missed this opportunity to be consistently accurate. In other words. I am really pissed off inside that we were caught.

isn't it amazing that the only 'scam artist' was from the big corporate whilst all the small business owners were honest.

When I was 12 I Paid em $80 to install a stick of ram... and then googled it later that night to find out it only takes 5 minutes... omg. I mean now I know how to build my own pc, but the fact that they would rip off kids is just pitiful.

As a former Geek Squad employee, I'm not surprised! My Forte was Audio/Video which I learned in the military, as well as when I was a new products tech for Cabletron. I started at a new Best Buy, Portsmouth NH, store 535, and was quickly certified as a PC tech. Because of my background I was able to fix simple issues but relied on the other techs for the more problematic issues. Fortunately, as we were the original techs when the store opened we knew the limitations each tech had and worked around that to get the customer the best service possible. As time went on, and techs moved on to other employeers, the capabilities shrunk where the ones in house when I left were barley able to wipe their nose let alone fix a computer. As in this video, most would push the customer to buy a new machine, but I was one of the few that took pride trying to get the customer the best buy for tyheir buck. I eventually left as I could no longer deal with the "up sell" as they refer to it. I know Best Buy is not always the "best buy", please forgive the pun.

Amazing a TV station came up with a feature story like this to warm hearts as well as *FUEL OUR ANGER that unscrupulous sales people or owners* would scam customers.

$580 to replace a hard drive????? UHM? WHAT???

I used to be a Tech Supervisor at Best Buy. I left when Geek Squad came on board and the company started "over pricing" customers. (Can't use a stronger word cheating for legal reasons.) Before GS if a customer had a warranty we were allowed to Restore a computer for free, after GS we had to charge $69.00. After a few months the charge became $69 for a diagnose AND $69 for the Restore. Shortly thereafter the cost went to over $200. $69 diagnose, $69 Restore, AND $69 for virus/spam removal. Yes, we were instructed to charge for removing Viruses and Spam even though we Restored the customers computer with the Manufacture's System Restore CDs. I could no longer work at such a dishonest place.

thank you for taking the time to do this.

I wouldn't take my laptop to Geek Squad for FREE! Blessings to you for doing this test! Grateful! 😘 Thankful to the honest man on the video! God will Bless him for certain! ♥️🙏

her voice , fucking hell

How can you have a virus if the hard drive is broken?

Holy cow! This is REAL reporting from a local news station! Great story! Great info! Need more news like this that actually informs people!

2005: Had my first true server chassis machine I was using as a desktop. It was my first time using a true SCSI system and about a week in it stopped POSTing. I googled the issue, but couldn't come up with a solution. I called GeekSquad's 800 number and was eventually connected with an Indian sounding man. He told me to help me he would have to authorize my CC for an $80 charge, which I agreed to. I then began hearing suggestions suspiciously similar to those I had just read on Google. Eventually, he admitted to using Google and told me I would have to pay more to get a technician out to my house. I hung up. When I called IBM's tech support (pre-Lenovo) I got a man in Atlanta who had me do some troubleshooting and then got a new SCSI controller out to me in a couple days free because I still had two more weeks of warranty. On my next statement, GS had indeed charged me $82 for a 5 minute phone call that gave me no useful information. I used that IBM machine in various capacites until a capicitor in the power supply exploded in 2012.

I was told to leave bestbuy just for helping a customer make up his mind on buying a ps4 or a Xbox 1. He bought a 12 month ps plus card, Dying Light and NBA 2k15, and then the playstation. So I helped him do all that and shortly I was told I "should" leave. Idk what's up with bestbuy sometimes, my local bestbuy are slackers on helping people. The man was browsing around and no one was there to help him or ask if he needed anything.

Your hard drive is broken! Spend 580 to fix it or order a better HDD from newegg for 50 bucks

1:00 "the best tests are the ones you don't know your taking." huh, kind of insightful. Quality quote.

I am GLAD i finally found this video. I have been ripped off so many times by Geek Squad! i bought a "warranty" that was practically worthless for 150.00 from them.

The geek squad is such a shit operation. I cracked my laptop screen and it needed to be replaced. They said they could do it for $500 with labor. I ended up learning how to replace it myself and did it in 11 minutes.

Going to a best buy geek squad is exactly the same as going to your local high school and asking one of the students to take a look at your computer.

i bought a BRAND NEW laptop off the shelf in best buy and did NOT leave the store with it or turn it on but took it straight to their geek squad to upgrade the ram from 4gb to 8gb. geek squad had to order the ram for it because store was out. they kept comp in shop until ram arrived then installed it. they used the wrong type and fried the circuit board so the comp was toast and useless. they refunded the computer BUT REFUSED TO REFUND the geek squad fees ($150) for the install that destroyed the computer. stating that their fees are nonrefundable. i recorded the entire incident on video. went to court and they lied saying i had taken the computer home and that was why they didnt refund the fees because they said the circuit fried was not their fault. never mind the store security cameras and mine both showed i never turned it on or left the store with it. because they are a big business and have fancy lawyers i lost the case. geek squad are frauds and thieves and should be put out of work!

I worked at the Best Buy here in my area from the first day the door opened and for 3 year after. It was called product service to start with and changed to Geek Squad a few years later. The name was bought from 3 guys that had the name and service in the hometown of Best Buy to the tune of $3m so they could use it for their product service. I never ripped anyone off the entire time I was there and did a lot of free jobs for customers for simple 5 minute repairs so they would want to come back again. There were other techs there I had to redo their work later due to the lack of knowledge and I was the ONLY one who was Microsoft certified and had electronics certification in the building. They went to hooking units up over the internet and having them remote diagnosed from Texas, that is where I drew the line and left. For years now, I have been fixing their mistakes from my previous customers who found me privately and what I have found is shocking and amazing. Their are people who claim to know their "stuff", but clearly do not. I refused to be their upsell salesman when I was there and that did not bode well either. Small shops, like mine, are more likely to get it right due to we want to have a good reputation and return business through word of mouth.

Geek Squad once cut wires inside of my newly purchased computer about 10 years ago and attempted to blame it on me and my family while charging nearly $300 in diagnostic fees. They are nothing more than another reason to learn a skill for yourself since trusting retailers in the 21st century is out of the question.

Like they say: The bigger you are the harder you fail. Thats why I go to small repair shops, they more genuine and waaay better expertise.

More like the Goon Squad, didn't know the difference between dedicated and integrated video card. After fixing one problem under warrantee, my DVD player stopped working, but did not notice right away. Figured out they accidentally unplugged it, will never go back.

Most big retailers with repair areas that are just asides to the main store like Best Buy offer a base free diagnostic that does not include opening a computer case. That sort of thing could void warranties and create liabilities, so the general consensus is that if it doesn't even boot, they need money and a signature to keep investigating. Mom and pop shops are usually run by people who enjoy the problem solving of fixing the computer, so their instinct is "open the case and check the connections" and not following a standard operating procedure to the letter and try to top it off with a sale.

Maybe someone should investigate the BBB... why would they willingly allow a company to consolidate reports with stores in another state? It is blatantly obvious that the choice of the Minnesota stores was a calculated move to obfuscate their poor reports. It really makes me wonder why the BBB would allow such a move and if they actually have provisions in place that allow for such a deceptive practice, then their ethics and integrity as a consumer reporting agency should be called into question.

How do you find a virus on a broken hard drive? If the hard drive is broken the computer wouldn't boot up?

I went to BB to purchase a new computer (we were full time RV'ers and I didn't feel like putting one together). I chose the exact machine I wanted, and then the salesperson told me I had to go through the "Geek Squad", as they would check to make sure everything worked for me. I have been working on computers since 1976, and have built dozens of computers for myself, family, and friends. I've also purchased and upgraded at least as many. I worked for a major university repairing them and also worked as a Systems Analyst in the military. I explained that the Geek Squad likely had less experience with computers than I did, and I didn't need them checking it out. I eventually had to contact the Manager of the store, and even then, I ended up calling Best Buy corporate headquarters before they would let me just buy my computer. After all was said and done, just as they finished ringing it up, I said, "Nevermind" and walked out.

It's really easily to see which stores were good and which were bad. From what was shown, the stores that identified the issue immediately more or less cracked open the PC almost as soon as the computer was brought in.

sick gaming rig fam

$580 for a new hard-drive?! LOL. What is it? An 8TB solid-state or some shit?

Few years back my mom bought a TV from there, and for the the low price of $150 geek squad would come set her it up for her. I laughed and said I could plug it in and and run a channel scan for free. All they do is try to scam older people out of there money.

Geek squad actually brought in my laptop in for a quote (it had a broken charging port) and returned it with a broken keyboard (underlights weren't working and It wasn't typing) and my track pad wasn't working either. Geek squad also told me that my USB port was broken as well, when he took out a USB I had in there for my computer mouse that was just working. Do not trust geek squad, they are expert scammers who will break your computer to force you to get it repaired or buy a new one.

$580 to repair a broken hard drive? Yeah if your are going to replace it with a 2TB SSD maybe...

BestBuy is BS. My mom and I went to BestBuy so I could get a new hard drive for my computer. The employee said, "This one is fast, good, yeah. Only $100." It was a 600 GB. A customer went up and said, "Don't listen." He pointed out a $60 1 TB HDD. I immediately thanked him and grabbed it. Picked up some speakers too. I still have the hard drive...

I took my son's computer to Best Buy because it would not start-up, and within a few hours, they said that they could not recover the data and asked if they could re-install OEM software thus, overwriting everything. We agreed to do this (and lose the data) but a day later, they said that the hard-drive was damaged beyond repair and there was a fault on the mainboard too. They suggested the cost to repair this (est. over $800.00) was nearing what a new computer would be. I indicated that my son was getting a new computer for Christmas anyway (all this taking place in early November) so, no worries. So, I requested to pay for their time and be done. They packed up the computer and when I got to the store, they told me NO CHARGE for the nearly 8 hour of time they held our computer, as they were not successful in fixing it! That impressed me.

this is real journalism at its best

I'm a very savvy computer repairman and I've had to fix lots of my friends computers after they first took them to PC repair shops. They got to charge money and ruin the machines whereas I fixed them for free. Best advice I can give is to make friends with someone who is good at PC fixes and when they look at problems offer them a nice pie. Way better than shady repair shops.

I used to have an ad out in the paper for in home computer repair. It was only a side business that yielded about 1-3 jobs each weekend. Each repair averaged $30.00+travel to location expense. When Geek squad was announced, my business almost halted entirely. Calls would come in 1-3 per month instead of each weekend, eventually only a few people would call me because I could see them right away to eventually nobody calling at all. I saw Geek squad vans/cars rolling around my town almost twice a week. Last year I started getting calls again, I told them "I'm out of the business, you called Geek squad instead of me because they were the hot new thing and pushed me aside. You baked the shit pie, now you eat it." At this point I hang up. Now I'll just sit back and watch it burn.

I worked for Best Buy years ago and was a great salesman on the floor. Because of that I was moved to the Geek Squad, even though I had no computer skills. I was told we are to do everything to talk the customer into getting a new computer. My trainer even gave me a bunch of fake tech jargon to say. I did great for 2 years until I helped this family out to get a new computer and their teenage son busted me. They complained to the manager on me and threatned to get coperate on the phone. I was fired. Looking back, I got what I deserved.

This makes me sick. I'm an ex-con(selling pills) and I'am a PC/Phone/TV/Car Audio/A/V/Technician and I would NEVER EVER lie to a customer, although I have made honest mistakes in repairing devices. I love the fact that I have a skill and a little bit of kindness and respect will bring you through anything. WTF is wrong with people? I can't get a job at Best Buy or Geek Squad or a LOT of places because of my background and I could run circles around most of these so called PC repairmen.I'm thankful for y'all uncovering these thieves.

I always tell people that Geek Squad is a rip off. They nickel and dime you for dumb things, and by the time they give you a price, it's double the amount of your PC. I needed a hard drive replaced a few years back and Geek Squad told me I also had a virus, but they didn't know my friend was a computer engineer and he even said there was no virus. I got it back and I replaced the hard drive at a local computer shop for less than half the price of geek squad..........oh, and he still never found a virus.

GeekSquad is crap. NEVER go there! Find a friend that knows computer (there are tons of people who do) or Google your problem.

Saying "Hi" instead of hiding from you, a good philosophy.

I went to buy a stick of ram to upgrade my previous lap top and the guy said it didn;t have an extra memory slot.A year later i found out on my own their was a extra memory slot.No matter where you go their is idiots who will scam you at every Bestbuy Geeksquad.If they would of told me about upgarde my parts i would of not done on my own and the cable wouldn't of falling apart on my lap top.That is why i'm glad i'm a computer tech major.I don't need Bestbuy to do my work unless it is covered by insurance.I'm also trying to figure out why Google Chrome doesn't allow Facebook video calling to make calls.They told me it was glitch with the browser.I'm still trying to learn new facts to repair issues within the computer and software.We must prepare for these kind of problems so we don't have to take it to Bestbuy.

I took my laptop to Tiger Direct for a log in problem,[ it wouldn't let me in at start up] the service guy, ran some diagnostic program for about 45min, and it fixed the problem. He told me no cost, because they didn't have to keep it.[ he had me fill out the form just in case] I was so greatful to him that I tipped him $20. He was shocked, never had that happen before. He saved me over $100, with the $70 min. take in charge, plus repair fees. Now he knows me, and helps any way he can. I learned very young to tip, it usually pays off. He could easily have beaten me, because I didn't know jack about computers.

wow fox giving accuratte information, this must be a dream

Geek squad needs to be shut down. I had a laptop get knocked off my desk and got the screen shattered. I bought the PC for $350 for school. Geek squad told me it would be $120 for the screen and $230 in labor because it would take 2 hours to replace. I found a new screen on Amazon for $50 and replaced it in less than 10 minutes!

I'm happy my fellow small repair shops all passed this test just as I would have.

If the hard drive was supposedly broken how did Geek Squad figure out there was a virus?

NEVER go to Geek Squad... Took my old laptop there once, and they wanted to charge me $150 just to see what was wrong with it. I didn't know any better at the time, so I went through with it. They told me my motherboard was dead. And that I would need to buy a new laptop. After that, a sales associate offered to show me new laptops, tried to sell me on one. First and last time I ever use Geek Squad. Extremely over priced, and they didn't even fix my laptop.

I worked in the computer department at a BB in 1998. I had just graduated from my computer science courses a few months before. I figured it was a job until I could get a foot in the door somewhere. It was Xmas time and everyone wanted a computer. We would ask what they wanted it for, etc. They would then buy the comp. Then have to stand in line to pay for it. After they paid for it they would have to drop it off at another computer tech at the front of the store to make upgrades, download updates try to sell them warranties. I felt so bad for the customers. I knew they were getting ripped off. I quit 2 days after Xmas when I got an IT job.

As a former Best Buy employee, I can very much say this varies store by store, employee by employee, as sales goals are heavily pushed on employees which usually leads to very greedy actions in the workplace like such, or even to other co-workers.

Back when the Ps3 was coming out during the holidays, I was in a Best Buy in Mankato, MN that was charging $50!!! TO UPDATE THE SYSTEM FOR YOU.. Some people were in line and I walked up to them, told them it was FREE to do on their own at home. They thanked me, Geek Squad sneered at me and I left laughing.

NEVER bring your computer to a shop to diagnose / fix if you don't have an intermediate knowledge about computers yourself. Get a geeky friend to help you, and treat them some nice dinners.

..That "computer". Lmfao!!!

The sad thing is that when I was at Best Buy to get a laptop repaired under their extended warrenty I heard the virus story said to many people. Telling the customer it would be cheaper to buy a new computer then it was to fix this one. I was about to jump out of my skin when I heard it. Also to make matters worse. I turned on my laptop in the store to have smoke come out of it. They tried to blame me for it. They replaced it and when I had issues again, they said they would refuse to look at it. I mailed it back the manufacturer who said it was a CPU / mother board issue. Second, never buy a computer from Best Buy again. lol

I used to work at a Best Buy Geek Squad. The problem is there is an enormous amount of pressure on selling services. When I was there we were issued sales stats every hour and it was up to us to stay on top of our sales numbers. The process is basically this: During check in we spend a few minutes to see what could be wrong. If it's something as minor as reconnecting a cable we didn't charge for that and off you went. If we needed to run further diagnostics then we'd check in the computer for diagnostics. The guys in front are usually just glorified sales associates that know slightly more than the average joe on computer repair. That's also where we'd try and push for the data backup to make a backup copy of the customer's data since their data. It's an expensive add on and depending on how much data we're backing up the customer may also be required to purchase an external hard drive for the service to be rendered. The main diagnostics are done in the back where there's typically one or two guys that know their stuff along with a remote access system called Agent Johnny Utah. It's a system in which we connect the computer to the internet and workers based in India remote in and run the diagnostic tests. If all 12+ stations were taken up it'd be queued up and MAYBE one of the guys that knows their stuff will be doing the diagnostic. It's worth noting that India does not have the same privacy laws as the United States so whatever info they gather from the computer is under India's law; sadly most customers are not aware of this. All and all Geek Squad agents are hired for their retail experience, not so much their technical prowess. Most serious repairs such as cpu or motherboard replacements are sent out for repair to a Geek Squad City facility. Also, at least when I was there, it was standard procedure to recommend a new PC to customers with a computer that was older than 3 years; then sell them the most expensive one we could with as many accessories as possible that they may need. The add ons are what matter on the sales ticket especially the service plans. So you have high pressure sales without commission, people with little technical knowledge sans the exceptional few that get hired on and do know their stuff. Geek Squad is one of the higher paying positions in the store so promotions there are highly sought after.

The *BBB* has become a totally worthless _profit-making_ venture. Business can purchase _"memberships"_ to get better scores. So where's the _"Independent and impartial"_ rating system? *_Yelp,_* by the way, has started pulling the same crap.

am so happy with all those undercover operations to expose those leaches

I no longer go to BestBuy for any reason. I had bought a pc there with the expensive warranty and started having problems right away. Took it in 8 different times and each time was told it was fixed, by low employees to managers, asked them if they had actually done anything after the first couple of times. Always showing me diagnostic testing. Each time never being fixed. Low and behold warranty runs out pc still not working and am told it has a bad motherboard which would cost more than the actual computer. How funny because it was the same guy and his lying manager who kept saying it was fixed on numerous occasions. I tell everyone not to make big item purchases there.

Geek Squad hires people who actually don't know what they're doing, I wouldn't call it a scam though, just incompetence. A friend of mine was told by a Geek Squad manager, "If you have your A+ Certification, you're over qualified." --- For those of you who don't know, the A+ Certification is the base level certification for I.T Support. So they're literally saying, they'd rather you have no knowledge than any knowledge at all.

Her voice in headphones is so annoying!!

I worked for Geek Squad for about 3 months, and its true, some stores were like this... I worked with a few technicians that truely didnt know shit, and couldn't troubleshoot a fault if their lives depended on it. Coming from the military, and I worked for Nokia as an engineer in the early 2000s until the Melbourne FL plant shutdown, then I went on to work for DRS Optronics "defense contractor" on the Apache program and then I moved over to the IBAS targeting system for the Bradley tank, really cool stuff... but i was laid off when the market crashed in 2009, and so meh...Geek Squad was the only job I could find, even tho I was overqualified, and the pay was MUCH less, I did like being able to help people directly, seriously... I really like fixing things and seeing that appreciation. And though I had 15 years experience as an engineering technician, I hadn't been a PC technician professionally since i worked in a small computer shop when I was 17 back in... 1998! But building and repairing computers have always been a side hobby for me, so I knew the trade, plus they wanted my experience with cell phones since the smartphone market was starting to explode.. Anyhow! I get onboard and find straight away that a few of the techs were pretty damn incompetent. The kind that would pretend like they were experts.. In total, about a third of them were like that. The rest were good kids that Genuinely wanted to learn, loved electronics, and wanted to help people. The only other tech who I would call very knowledgeable, and had alot of experience, was fired for swapping parts from customer machines. So yeah, every store is different tho, and this one did want us to push upgrades, but never suggested we do anything like make up failures or purposely damage customer property, fuck that. However each tech could write whatever on his work orders tho, and it's those bad apples who want high numbers, sales, and go about it dishonestly that give everyone else a bad name. Now I didn't stay very long because I found a better job, but it's no so much the techs fault... It's management, and low pay. High employee turn around and inexperience.

This is precisely why i watched the Screen Savers tv show years ago to help me learn how to fix my own computer. Now i do all the repairs myself

That's why I fix my computers myself.

Back then I bought parts and built a computer, but I think I missed a cord and I cannot figure out which one is not plugged right. So I went to the local computer repair shop. It was obvious, that the computer had no problem, it was not broken. Yet, they charged me $75 just for looking at it and plug a cord. They also charged me for a new fan, however I didn't need a new fan. The other fan was brand new. They took another 13 dollars for that. Next time the computer broke, we went there, left the computer there for a day and then they called that the Hard Drive was not in it. I told them that it doesn't matter, because the computer won't start. The HDD is fine, just make the computer pass the BIOS. They refused to do that. I went there, picked up the broken computer, and dropped at another computer repair shop. The owner was a nice Arab guy, I left the computer there and he called me like 2 hours later, told me that a memory stick was dead. He just umplugged it and the computer started right. This "fix" was also kinda expensive, but cheaper than the 1st shop's offer and the 2nd shop is actually did the job, they didn't ask for my HDD to fix a memory stick error. Also, at BestBuy an employee sold me the wrong computer with the wrong processor. I told him what I needed, and he sold me something completely different. Some shops are just ridiculious, overpriced and the employees know less about computers than I do. :-/

Don’t trust Best Buy or GeekSquad.

Many times it takes more to take the panels off than to fix the issue - almost. The main problem is that you get trained for difficult issues that the simple ones "stump" you longer than they should. For main frame training we would incorporate simple code like a techs name that would cause the system to shut down. Then the techs would wander around the complex replacing and shutting down systems at random. It was all in good fun. Unfortunately, every issue would then come my way due to my reputation as an instigator.

How could they tell if you had a virus if they couldn't even get it to boot¿

God Bless Small Business!

Many years ago I took a PC to the Geek Squad. They didn't even crack it open and told me $200.00 and no guarantees. I reinstalled Windows XP myself and the problem was solved. The disk came with the PC. Total cost $0.00. Now I build gaming PCs. Thank you [sic] Best Buy.

So glad I have computer knowledge and if I didn’t I would’ve preferred to go to a local repair shop where I can trust actual experts with my pc.