So, the title of this post probably goes without saying to a lot of people. But I imagine there are a number of folks who, like me, wondered a while ago if the bad word-of-mouth Geek Squad was getting was actually just hype and one or two bad experiences getting blown out of proportion.
Well, I'm here to say that no, it's not hype and it's not exaggeration. There's probably plenty of horror stories about Geek Squad service, but here's mine: after Hurricane Irene blew through, I found that my computer had been damaged by the fluctuating power. The graphics card had been corrupted and my OS was as well. So, not knowing many local computer repair shops save one where the service was horrible, I took it to my local Best Buy to get Geek Squad to look at my computer.
They told me that to leave my computer with them, I'd have to get a one-year service contract. Otherwise, I'd have to bring my computer back when they had more time (I'd brought it in late afternoon, only a couple hours before the store was going to close). The price for a one-year contract would be $200. I asked how much it would be for their services if I brought it in later; they said it would still be $200. I certainly wasn't happy with THAT, but I felt I didn't have much choice otherwise (I've since found out there are some other local repair shops in my area, but I wasn't aware of them at the time. (Well, maybe my former IP's in-house repair shop, but I didn't think they'd service me since I switched from them to Road Runner.)
So, leaving my computer with them, I came back later, got the diagnosis and knew I'd have to buy a new graphics card. I browsed what they had, asked them about which current card would be equivalent to my old one, and they pointed out one that had a pretty modest price, $80. I double checked with the tech guys and they said yes, it would do just as well as my old card. Better, in fact. So I bought it, then later got told that they'd have to take the computer back to factory settings to reinstall Windows 7 for me. The computer had come with Windows Vista. Doing so would wipe my hard drive unless I got a data backup, a service that wasn't included in the service plan. So how much for a one-time backup? $100.
So, with almost $400 sunk into getting my PC back up and running again, I take it home, reinstall my programs and reload all my files, which were saved onto DVDs for me. A couple days later, I download Dead Island and load it up. The cursor is lagging across my screen and the action get seriously choppy. Suspicious, and at the insistence of a friend that something's not right, I go to the graphics card manufacturer's site and look it up. My "new" card is nowhere near the powerhouse my old one was. Now granted my old one was a couple years old, at least, so it wasn't the newest thing on the market, but in terms of performance it had better than twice the performance than this new one I got. Maybe even three times the quality of graphics and gameplay.
I'm going to be going back to Best Buy later today and talk to them about returning the card (still have the receipt and packaging) so I can trade it in towards a better one. I saw some higher end cards in the store, so I figure if I buy it from them, it's only fair they should take off the price of the card I bought from them earlier and I'll pay the difference. Or they can just give me a refund outright and I'll put the money towards the new card, whatever works.
In a nutshell, Geek Squad is efficient and quick, but they're expensive and their advice is questionable because I don't think they do their research beforehand. Granted I didn't do much shopping around myself, but I had hoped that being right there in the store, they'd have the information I needed. Apparently, that's not the case. Like too many things in life, sometimes the only person you can trust to get something right is yourself.
Well, I'm here to say that no, it's not hype and it's not exaggeration. There's probably plenty of horror stories about Geek Squad service, but here's mine: after Hurricane Irene blew through, I found that my computer had been damaged by the fluctuating power. The graphics card had been corrupted and my OS was as well. So, not knowing many local computer repair shops save one where the service was horrible, I took it to my local Best Buy to get Geek Squad to look at my computer.
They told me that to leave my computer with them, I'd have to get a one-year service contract. Otherwise, I'd have to bring my computer back when they had more time (I'd brought it in late afternoon, only a couple hours before the store was going to close). The price for a one-year contract would be $200. I asked how much it would be for their services if I brought it in later; they said it would still be $200. I certainly wasn't happy with THAT, but I felt I didn't have much choice otherwise (I've since found out there are some other local repair shops in my area, but I wasn't aware of them at the time. (Well, maybe my former IP's in-house repair shop, but I didn't think they'd service me since I switched from them to Road Runner.)
So, leaving my computer with them, I came back later, got the diagnosis and knew I'd have to buy a new graphics card. I browsed what they had, asked them about which current card would be equivalent to my old one, and they pointed out one that had a pretty modest price, $80. I double checked with the tech guys and they said yes, it would do just as well as my old card. Better, in fact. So I bought it, then later got told that they'd have to take the computer back to factory settings to reinstall Windows 7 for me. The computer had come with Windows Vista. Doing so would wipe my hard drive unless I got a data backup, a service that wasn't included in the service plan. So how much for a one-time backup? $100.
So, with almost $400 sunk into getting my PC back up and running again, I take it home, reinstall my programs and reload all my files, which were saved onto DVDs for me. A couple days later, I download Dead Island and load it up. The cursor is lagging across my screen and the action get seriously choppy. Suspicious, and at the insistence of a friend that something's not right, I go to the graphics card manufacturer's site and look it up. My "new" card is nowhere near the powerhouse my old one was. Now granted my old one was a couple years old, at least, so it wasn't the newest thing on the market, but in terms of performance it had better than twice the performance than this new one I got. Maybe even three times the quality of graphics and gameplay.
I'm going to be going back to Best Buy later today and talk to them about returning the card (still have the receipt and packaging) so I can trade it in towards a better one. I saw some higher end cards in the store, so I figure if I buy it from them, it's only fair they should take off the price of the card I bought from them earlier and I'll pay the difference. Or they can just give me a refund outright and I'll put the money towards the new card, whatever works.
In a nutshell, Geek Squad is efficient and quick, but they're expensive and their advice is questionable because I don't think they do their research beforehand. Granted I didn't do much shopping around myself, but I had hoped that being right there in the store, they'd have the information I needed. Apparently, that's not the case. Like too many things in life, sometimes the only person you can trust to get something right is yourself.
