My War Against (The Wrong Kind of) Geeks
There is a scourge in our society. Most technology bloggers know about it. They’ve been teased, mocked, and (occasionally) exposed for the frauds they are but in this economy I think that the best contribution that I can make is to do what I can to marginalize and eliminate this company from the world. That is the people of Geek Squad.
This week, I read the following article about an exposé that a news station in Portland, OR that made my blood boil. The tech repair places that I dealt with in the past would fit in well with the description of some of the computer repair stores that are found in the article. I brought my laptop in because it would freezeup when I unplugged it from the wall. They were immediately curious and while I was there diagnosed the problem. The guy was very helpful, explained the problem and, because it was still under warranty, didn’t charge me a dime, even though they could have charged for the time for the diagnosis: “Now we know the next time someone comes in. We’ve heard of this problem but never actually seen it before.” I shudder at what they would have done if I took it to Geek Squad.
I would have probably just brushed it aside were it not for the extravagant prices they charge. Back before I was dating Jess, I went out on a date with another woman and when I showed up she was still getting unpacked from moving and that included setting up the wireless router she just bought in the apartment. I looked at the instructions, followed the steps, and set it up in about 20 minutes. The woman I was dating told me that Geek Squad charges around $130 to set up the network. $130?!?!?! If you look at their site, they estimate that it will take 1-2 hours to complete the task. That means that these high schoolers are making over (or, at 1 hour, well over) twice what I make per hour! Granted, they don’t keep it but their labor charges are that much, which, if you were to roll total value of my income and what they would bill in a contract, that would still be well over half. One of the updates I’d like to make soon would be to upgrade the memory on my desktop. If I were to take my desktop to Best Buy, buy the memory, and have Geek Squad install it, the installation cost would probably cost more than the memory. It’s insane. Imagine your grandparents or your aunt and uncle trying to set something up for the first time. Would you want them to pay double every time they bought a new piece of hadware for their house just to be able to use it?
No more; I know that I’m late to this war, but now that I’m here, I’m going to see it through to the end. I’ll be posting any stories I see about Geek Squad abusing their position here. I’ll also post any additional information I discover about their company here and on twitter. For my geekier friends, this is meaningless information because we’d never be caught dead talking with one of those little idiots at Best Buy but for family members that keep track of me through my blog, I think it’s important for you to know how bad you could be fleeeced by this company.