Thanks sifty, you just never know what people are going to like.

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Charges back when this video were made (this is if every charge was applied)

$50 Hardware install (This was before BBY reduced the charge for installs because of the triviality of it to those of us whom are actual technicians.)

$130 For repair service (This includes Installing Clients OS, All drivers, All Windows Updates, Necessary Program updates {Flash and such}, Full physical computer cleaning, Post Operation Procedures of testing every function from a cold boot and doing that three times before computer is certified complete.)

Cost of hard drive is up in the air, but Given 2009 I remember drives there being in the $90-$130 range depending on capacity, spin rate and such.

$40 - They also probably recommended new Anti-Virus software as that is SOP if the client says theirs is out of date, don't have any or is about to expire.

Which leaves $270. This was the base cost for DATA RECOVERY services (Well, it was $259 for the base, but pretty damn close)

Of course the cost of the recovery would be different depending on the drive.

Level 1 Recovery = $259
Level 2 = $580
Level 3 = $1600 or more depending on the work needed for recovery. These are sent to Kroll OnTrack for clean room recovery or failed RAID arrays, or any OS other than Windows (back in this age at least)

Things were made much cheaper since then, but even for that work and scope of work, it's pretty standard.

You can probably tell I used to be one of the white shirts; and actually kept a department stocked of ACTUAL techs during my tenure.) Feel free to ask away if you have any other questions.


>> ^Quboid:

>> ^EMPIRE:
580 dollars for a disk replacement?? LOL, such theft.

That could include data recovery from the old disk, which is always very expensive (as the old disk is supposed to be broken at this point).

No wonder why they couldn't do calculations, their 386 didn't have a math coprocessor!!!>> ^Phreezdryd:

This seems a little dated (2009?) to be posted now.
IDE hard drive, and a floppy drive?
Just saying I prefer my tech support scam stories to be more timely.

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>> ^vex:

That last bit that she mentions really pisses me off. You should not be able to consolidate a local businesses BBB rating into headquarters' rating. If one store is consistently getting 'F's, it's time to fire management, not magically erase wrongdoings via 'consolidation'.
Reminds me of the time the financial sector consolidated toxic assets into triple A securities. That wasn't misleading at all and really worked out well for the economy.


Better Business Bureau is a joke. All you need for a good rating is to respond to a complaint. That's all. Even "We'll give them 10% off installation next time they buy $1500+ of computer accessories." counts as an A++ rating.

>> ^soulmonarch:

Well, it does have SOMETHING to do with Geek Squad. Primarily because they do not necessarily require any kind of knowledge when hiring a Geek Squad employee. (I worked at a Best Buy for a while between jobs.) They don't ask for an A+ or an MSCE, they don't ask you to pass a basic competency test, nothing.
So, you could very well get some smart computer-savy folks in a Geek Squad. Or you could get total dunces that are only there because management thought they'd look good behind the counter.


LOL ... Looking good behind the counter is certainly NOT a Geek Squad priority at the Best Buy I frequent =oD

>> ^EMPIRE:

580 dollars for a disk replacement?? LOL, such theft.


That could include data recovery from the old disk, which is always very expensive (as the old disk is supposed to be broken at this point).

>> ^bobknight33:

Lear to fix your PC yourself. That is what Google is for.
guess you haven't figured out how to enable a spell checker?

Hey good advice troll! Assuming everyone has two PC's, that would work. How to get to google when your computer is broken... trollalalolol thx for playing

if your computer is broken, you ask a child to fix it since they will know more than you.

>> ^bobknight33:

Lear to fix your PC yourself. That is what Google is for.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

This is just like mechanics, it has nothing to do with geek squad in general...some will be good, some will suck. I've known some to be very concerned with repairs and honesty, and others that care about nothing but sales. As a geek, I have used their hard drive recovery service, and for the store I used, I was very happy.


This

^ In Portland, Oregon a local news agency ran one of these sting operations on GeekSquad and only 1 out of 5 stores they went to attempted to overcharge them. All others fixed the issue for free. (Disconnected HDD cable).

Why I would never make it in one of those big box stores as a repairman... I would likely get fired for actually doing my job correctly!

Same problem that is associated with vehicle repairs, you would be amazed at what one could get away with in extra charges that someone does not need when they have no clue about what is being repaired. I can only imagine at GeekSquad they are told to try and upsell repairs at the cost of losing their job.

It really hurts when someone I know does simple spyware removal and charges $250 replacing hardware that was not defective when I would have done the same job for maybe $20... I may be poorer in the end but I would rather keep my dignity.

These "repairmen" are cunts and piss me off. I stopped expecting computer users to be proactive to keep their machines from getting screwed up, because you cant expect anyone to pick up a book and become an expert overnight.

I pray I keep my (not very well paying but very stable) IT job since I would be driven to gouging my brain cells with a pencil having to make up bullshit problems just to charge people more money when I would have been the one who fixed it in 5 minutes for no charge out of kindness.

When I worked IT I was the one that got sent out to fix everyone's little problems, being the intern-whatever I was. The advantage of this was everyone liked me cause I actually showed up almost immediately and fixed their problems rather than having them stew in it for days, weeks or months, in some cases.

Geeksquad, HAH! It's more of a con-shop to over charge for the simplest procedures, and sell people hardware they don't really need.