XknightHawkX
join:2003-02-13
Morton, IL
clubs:
| Geek Squad and highway robbery
I was talking to someone in a chat room that was saying they made an appointment for the geek squad to come to thier house. When she told me she was having them come out cause they had a virus I told them to get AVG. They said they didn't think they could cancel the appointment. Now if I was reading right here somene posted something about half the geek squad had no clue what they were doing. If that is true I have something else bad to say about the geek squad. The person I was talking to said they were going to charge them 260 dollars to come to thier house and fix the computer. So not only do some of them not knowing what they are doing they even try to rob you blind. 260 dollar to do some work on thier computer is highway robbery. Now has anyone here accually had the geek squad come to thier house and did they get robbed blind by them doing work to thier system? |
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Greg_Z
Premium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL
 ·Comcast
| How is it Highway Robbery? Not only are you paying the employee's time, but it is also possibly what the pricing that they where looking at. The prices in US do not come near to $260.00. Possibly they where talking Candaian.
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One man's customer loyalty is another man's misguided arrogance.
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McSummation
Mmmm, Zeebas Are Tastee.
Premium,MVM
join:2003-08-13
Round Rock, TX | reply to XknightHawkX
If I went to someone's house to delouse a computer, $260 wouldn't be out of line for what I would charge. |
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fegul
Premium
join:2004-08-23
united state
| reply to XknightHawkX
Umm, I work for the GS, and its usually $229 if you want malware removal, having corruption issues, etc.
You can take it to a Best Buy store and get a Diagnostic, OS Service (which covers viruses and spyware and corruption) and a Tune-up where we edit registry settings depending on the computer and programs the client uses for $167
Just depends on whether you want convenience and are willing to pay for it. BTW, as of now, we go to houses and setup secure wireless networks (and configure two devices to use it) for $89 (its a special that comes around once in a while)
Not a bad price IMO.
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|My Blog|Fegul.com| |
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marti
Color outside the lines
Premium,MVM
join:2001-12-14
Houston, TX
clubs:
| reply to XknightHawkX
When you hire a repairman to fix your air conditioner or a plumber, you may get a good one or one that isn't well trained. Same with computer repair. The home repair guy is going to charge a minimum fee plus hourly rate for time spent for the repair plus parts. I'm sure the Geek Squad has a minimum rate for a specific job.
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Color outside the lines. |
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BurntCricket
Gotta Do What Ya Gotta Do
Premium
join:2000-09-02
Here
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to XknightHawkX
ok, I have not read the posts but ... YOU can charge whatever someone is willing to pay for whatever service you are providing .... $50 for a piece of tail or $100 an hour to fix your network/computer .... Capitalism is great isn't it ????
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Humans are capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares. |
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AbBaZaBbA
Premium
join:2002-07-10
Wildomar, CA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| reply to XknightHawkX
it seems alot of the geeksquad don't really know what they're doing. If you read some of the stories at that »www.bestbuysux.org/ site you will see it's probably not a good idea. Of course, those are only the bad stories.
No offence fegul, i'm sure you know what you're doing.
Maybe look on craigslist? |
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Chemop
join:2001-11-12
Stroudsburg, PA | reply to XknightHawkX
Well when I go to people's homes to work on their systems, my going rate is about $65 an hour. So if someone's computer is really bogged down with malware, spyware and viruses it could get a bit lofty in price. |
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Greg_Z
Premium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL
·Comcast
| reply to AbBaZaBbA
Sorry, but bestbuysux.org is a lopsided site in the fact that you have a few people (1-2% out of 100%) that complain because Best Buy was below what their expectations where.
Just because the manager did not allow you to return something that you broke, stole, or otherwise waited too long to return, along with the fact that maybe a employee did not exactly know the answer to your question, lets all run over to BBsux.org and complain. Everyone has an opinion, and I for one would not pay attention to what is said on that site.
Getting back on topic, maybe this OP does not know someone that is available in her area to fix the computer, or the fact that due to the marketing that BB uses is terrific, that could be a reason why they came to mind first. Honestly, BB is insured that if they break the computer, or one of their "Agents" screws it up, they are replacing it. If Joe Schmoe breaks it, he is not insured, and guess what, your $2500.00 computer is now a boat anchor because you let him do something he had no knowledge to do.
Once again, BB or their agent "Agent being Geeksquad employee" breaks your computer, they are replacing or fixing it at their cost. Joe Schmoe computer Tech that is uninsured cannot or will not replace it, and does not have the money otherwise to replace, so you end up having to pay to fix or replace.
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One man's customer loyalty is another man's misguided arrogance.
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atuarre
Here come the drums
Premium
join:2004-02-14
Lake Charles, LA
clubs:
| reply to XknightHawkX
I have never used Geek Squad, but I would not recommend using them because for one, you don't know the experience of the person working on your system, and two, the prices, to me, are unreasonable when you yourself could research the problem, and resolve it on your own.
Unless GeekSquad has their employees following guidelines for dealing with certain situations involving users PC's, I wouldn't want to deal with them. You could have someone that decides he has to wipe your PC clean, and there are those people out there that will do that with out even notifying you, and when you go to your PC, you find all of your files missing, and wonder what happened.
I would hope that they establish guidelines for all of their techs to follow in situations so that they can effectively come to a suitable resolution keeping the end users needs in mind. |
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MadDog3057
Ex Astris, Scientia
Premium
join:2002-02-26
Miami, FL | reply to XknightHawkX
Honestly, why would the Geek Squadd rob you on the highway?  |
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fegul
Premium
join:2004-08-23
united state
| reply to atuarre
said by atuarre  :I would hope that they establish guidelines for all of their techs to follow in situations so that they can effectively come to a suitable resolution keeping the end users needs in mind. They do. HD's are not wiped without customer approval. If you have not used them, it hardly qualifies you to make statements about them.
As to the tech experience, a machine is usually worked on by at least 2 or 3 techs and if a resolution isnt found, either more will work on it, or we notify the customer about wiping the HD if need be. If the cust wants data backed up, that can be done too.
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|My Blog|Fegul.com| |
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Seph83
Gone Insane
Premium
join:2004-04-29
Blairsville, GA
 ·Windstream
| reply to XknightHawkX
Wow, after reading this, I don't feel bad at all for charging $35 for a service call/first hour, and $20 for every hour after that for doing something such as malware removal, repair install, or a reformat. Though almost every computer I've dealt with is always some damn HP or Dell running XP on a Heleron with only 128mb of RAM... lol
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Cingular Wireless: Because crippled phones and lame proprietary "service" whoring are SO 1992! |
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AMD Phreak
Premium
join:2003-12-14
| reply to XknightHawkX
Those prices are nothing. The place I work for charges customers $70/hr, with one hour minimum to show up for anything we do, unless its something special. High end tech work like servers, network engineering and what not are billed even higher, but for removing spyware and general monkey work its $70. $260 is not too bad, I'm not sure what GS bills for hourly rates, but I know for a fact sometimes spyware removal can take some serious time if it has really messed the PC up and as such prices go up exponetially, as they should.
When I had my own business we did tech work for $50/hr, which IMO is a steal. Of course we refused to work on home consumers PC's because of things like spyware and garbage always being the #1 service call. It was not profitable for us. |
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atuarre
Here come the drums
Premium
join:2004-02-14
Lake Charles, LA
clubs:
| reply to fegul
said by fegul :They do. HD's are not wiped without customer approval. If you have not used them, it hardly qualifies you to make statements about them. As to the tech experience, a machine is usually worked on by at least 2 or 3 techs and if a resolution isnt found, either more will work on it, or we notify the customer about wiping the HD if need be. If the cust wants data backed up, that can be done too. I was offering my opinion. Secondly...my experience qualifies me to post my opinion. He posted his thoughts regarding his friend using GS, and I posted my thoughts. Thank you. |
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XknightHawkX
join:2003-02-13
Morton, IL
clubs:
| reply to XknightHawkX
I have yet to find a computer that boots up to need a the hd wiped to fix the problem. The first person that tells me a hd needs wiped when it boots up can kiss my rear. And if 260 is reasonable I should get myself insured and start doing that work instead. You know anytime I have a problem I come here and usually find how to fix the problem. If not here I just google away till I find the fix. And what if it only takes them 30 minutes to fix the computer problem? Does that justify paying 260 dollars? To top that off I bet the repair man only gets his regular hourly wage and best buy get's the rest. Even if the repair man gets half the money I still don't think any repair man is worth 130 for half an hour of work. Well maybe someone that works in the nuclear field. |
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SND2005
Premium
join:2001-09-15
Im Over Here
 ·CWLab
| reply to XknightHawkX
The private company I work for charges 300 an hour for me. Granted, I do specialized support that Geek Squad would run from. $260 for some bozo in a sissy looking car is comical, but you know what? If the idiots will pay for it then why not? Supply & demand.....
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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. |
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53059959
Temp banned from BBR more then anyone
join:2002-10-02
PwnZone | lol we should make the dslreports squad. we would rip the gs a new asshole |
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Greg_Z
Premium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL
·Comcast
| reply to Seph83
$35.00, you are loosing money. I work on a Tier level when charging. $60.00 per hour, each half charged at the Per hour rate (ie 1.5 hours $120.00 labor). This only applies for hardcore stuff like cleaning due to Malware, and software updates. Otherwise, hardware install is the cost of the hardware, plus $25.00 base regardless of time spent.
House calls are $80.00 per hour plus mileage. If computer has to be taken with me to fix on my workbench, then they get charged the in house rate of $60.00 per hour, unless it is hardware. Networks are a different story, due to it depends on if it is WiFi, or Wired.
Computer repair is a highly competitive business, and trust is the first thing that you have to gain when working on a person's computer, due to it is theirs, not yours, and they are they ones that bought it, not you. You do not tell the customer that the computer they have is a POS, that the place they bought it from did not know what they where talking about when they bought it.
Always agree with the customer, if they ask what your thoughts of how they can improve the machine, look at things like: Can more memory be installed, Would they benefit with a larger hard drive? Do not sit there and tell them all the hype about going with a blazing fast computer, how you could build them a great computer, or that they should of let you buy the computer for them, instead of getting this slow machine.
Everyone's computer needs are different, and I have never had complaints about how I do business, due to I work with the customer, and work with their needs. I do MAKE suggestions as to how they can improve their current machine with maybe more memory, or a larger hard drive, especially if I can tell that they are using more then 50% of current space.
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One man's customer loyalty is another man's misguided arrogance.
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alg
Just a shot away
Premium
join:2001-04-10
Houston, TX
clubs:
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
1 edit | reply to XknightHawkX
Think of it this way: charging $260 will give the person incentive to keep their computer clean, their AV up to date, their firewall on, etc. Who here hasn't worked on a close friend/family system (somebody that you don't charge, maybe have them buy you dinner type of deal) that took you all day to clean and another day to install update, and explain how to use the AV and firewall to the operator only to come back a week later to find the machine completely FUBARed again because they disabled the AV an hour after you left because it gave them a warning about installing some crapware that they had downloaded? At $260 per job if the owner doesn't learn responsible computing habits then they deserve to pay it once a month. And in defense of GS and has been pointed out cleaning crapware is long, boring, difficult, and time consuming so $260 really isn't all that unreasonable. |
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