The Geek Squad stinks. I'm in the business and have prven them wrong many times and charge half of what they do. They charge someone $200 plus to work on their computers and its very common for the customer to take their computer home only to discover they have no sound because the Geek Squad didn't install the audio drivers after reinstalling the OSD--thats basic Computers 101. Its good that they have competition. It will bring the prices they charge down and, hopefully, improve the quality of the work they do.

Personally, I hate Best Buy, and Geek Squad is no exception, I'll never understand their hiring process for the G.S. members, me and couple of my friends applied for it when they first opened, all of us have had previous tech experience, even though we were still seniors in HS, and they hired 2 idiots from the local university and made them assistant managers, then hired 2 guys from our high school that were also nowhere near the kind of people they should hire to do tech help. It's sad but one day I was in the store, and decided to ask a simple question about setting up a home network (already knew the answer, wanted to see if I could make the employee mad, I'm evil like that) and he had no clue. Geek Squad and Best Buy need to go away and stop ripping off consumers, I've had nothing but bad experiences with them, I wish we still had a Circuit City, they were good.

To All:

Your rantings and ravings about Geek Squad shortcomings would be better received if you made your comments grammatically correct and your spellings accurate.  John may be a misanthropic sort, but he's right about one thing -- You're all idiots!  

Wow you people are funny. i hear everyone complaining about a bad experience they had with geeksquad and etc etc. 1st dont complain about  geeksquad for prices. its all business we need to compete with all the other stores out there that sell similar services like firedog. I am a geeksquad agent. do you kno how many times i get people from circuit city and there poor service and these lil repair shops that you people say fix it for cheapier but whats the quality of work that is performed? Atleast in my store we get work done in 3 days most and when we gotta send stuff out parts do get on back order. that cant be controlled. when things get messed up its human error. we are human after all mistakes do happen.

Good concept.  I previously owned a computer store, we sold customed built systems, provided training/tutoring and installed/serviced networks.  One of the most powerfull sales tools we had was the fact that we would deliver, set-up and provide training for our customers.  We were the only ones at the time(10 years ago) that provided this type of service.  Best Buy has a great tool and it would be wise to create a seperate division/entity that provided that type of service and be available through other retailers or independently.

BEST BUY HAS ALWAYS HAD THE WORST REP FOR SERVICE. THE FAMOUS WHATS ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOX IS NOT WHATS IN THE BOX IS THERE BEST TRICK. IF YOU BUY SOMETHING FROM THIS OUT FIT CHECK THE PRODUCT BEFORE WALKING OUT THE DOOR. THE EMPLOYEES HAVE BEEN SWITCHING THINGS FROM BOX TO BOX FOR YEARS. GO AHEAD LOOK IT UP THERE IS HUNDREDS OF STORIES ON THE WEB. SO WHY WOULD THIS GEEK SQUAD BE DIFFERENT THERE A BUNCH OF HACK WANNABEES.

The Geek Squad stinks. I'm in the business and have proven them wrong many times and charge 1/2 of what they do. Its very common for a customer to spend over $200 to have their computer repaired then they discover that, after they get it home, they have no sound because the Geek Squad didn't install the audio drivers after they reimaged the hard drive--thats Computers 101.!! It's good that theres more competition for them. It will benefit the customers because it will bring the outrageous charges down and prompt the Geek Squad to be more professional and test a rig before they return it to a customer. I suggest people find a good local computer tech to do their computer work. They will charge you about $50-75 an hour and do a lot better job.

I was in best buy yesterday I needed to buy some RAM, while there I fixed a guys laptop, while the geek squad guy was doing nothing, but trying to sell me RAM that was not made for my computer. They suck

My point exactly...as I mentioned in my earlier post this blog is full of "Bitter " wanna be GEEK SQUAD TECHS, AJ, because they didn't hire you and your friends , you now hate them...but literally begged them for a job, and you describe yourself as "I'M EVIL LIKE THAT". thats the reason they didn't hire you and your grungy looking friends, BB prides themselves on customer service and you represent the company,so don't you think they could see right thru you and thats why they didn't hire you, becasue you're not fit for retail with an attitude like that, retail is all about customer service, how can someone "evil" provide that?? Don't bash it just because you're not part of it and it's your dream job...I knew from the tone of a majority of these posts that they were written by "wanna be GS Techs" poor guys find a life..

Firstly, everyone needs to keep in mind that just like auto repair, not everyone wants to or is able to know how to fix computers.  In fact, only a small portion of the population would bother taking the time to google an answer, many more would rather stand in my line for 20 minutes to ask if a SMART failure is bad.  Secondly, there is always going to be an emphasis on upselling, because A. THIS IS A BUSINESS (do you complain when Burger King offers to make it King sized?) and B. many clients don't have a clue what their PC is capable of, I can't count how many times someone has complained they can't run Battlefield 2142 with onboard graphics.  It is our goal to inform our clients so they can make educated decisions.  Do all Geek Squad precincts have their clients best interests in mind? Can't say, however the company is very strict in ensuring that false claims, gestapo tactics, etc are dealt with quickly and severely.  Thirdly, USER ERROR contributes to the majority of computer problems.  PCs are very technical devices to those that haven't grown up with them, and the millions of hackers/spammers/phishers/pharmers know this and take advantage.  It is not Geek Squad's fault a client wants to save money and downloads Antivirus 2008 (a rogue spyware app) which promptly ruins their computing experience.  And again, would I pay $199.99 to have the virus removed? Absolutely not, however I did just pay $1500 to have my clutch replaced.  And I know I have hundreds of satisfied clients who return often and even bake us cookies.  I guarantee they don't know how to blog...