Once again, Best Buy’s Geek Squad is at it again, and this time, it’s a nasty vendor lock-in program.

Geek Squad recently came out with a program called “Ask An Agent Membership”. You PAY Geek Squad (GS from here on out…) $40 a year to be able to call and ask questions. They’ll answer your questions, if they don’t already have an offering targeted at your question. You also get 10% off, in the store, for any GS services, a free “checkup” each year – oh, and you get a nifty plastic card with a bunch of numbers on it.

Sounds great, right? It’s not, and here’s why:

1. I’ve mentioned many times that we don’t require you to pay to answer questions. Yesterday, I had a nice lady named Barb call asking about an older HP that was starting to go bad. The power brick died and the AC adapter inside the laptop was acting funny. I gave her a price for the work, but stated it was probably in her best interest to buy a new(er) laptop. We discussed companies and quality for a good 10 minutes over the phone – she didn’t pay a dime. GS would have said “Well, we offer laptop repair services in our store and you get a 10% discount!”, which would have lead to a $299+ bill, which would have paid for half of a brand new laptop. Then you get to listen on the up-sell for data transfer, and optimization of the new laptop, etc.
2. 10% off in the store. That’s not much, although the card “pays for itself” after your very first bill… Sorry, but certain customers of Protocol16 enjoy anywhere from 5% to 29% off normal prices, depending on the situation. That’s without paying us extra money for less fees. Is your business located in a specific business development (sorry, don’t want to name it)? Instant 10% off. Repeat customer, not already covered by a discount, 5-10% off. Goodness, I feel like “Flo” on the Progressive commercials “DISCOUNT!”
3. The “free checkup” isn’t what it means. The “ask an agent’ page is buried in their site, so it takes a bit to get to it (link), but the “Free Checkup” is, oh, and I do quote:
   

   Geek Squad recommends that you use your one PC Check Up towards the end of your term. This way you can maximize the information it provides you. The PC Checkup scans your computer and provides a report providing an assessment of system performance and protection.

   You see, they just “scan” the computer. They don’t say what they’re scanning for, how long it’ll take, and what they’ll attempt to upsell you on. They also fail to mention the fact that if they do a Virus scan (again, if), if they find anything, that’s an extra charge. On top of this, if you’re part of the Geek Squad program, they already offer this service.

   Sorry, we do a quick and free virus scan on anything that comes in the shop. Many times, customers have a few things on their machines they don’t know about, so we remove them automatically. Take that Geek Squad!

4. What’s covered…. Well, according to their website: “Speak directly to an Agent for answers to your questions, help overcoming obstacles, and strategies to get the most from your technology.“  – well that’s generic. They don’t mention what they don’t support. This whole thing upset me enough that I actually went down to Best Buy, in uniform, and requested a pamphlet for the Ask an Agent program. I basically wanted the “Terms of Service”, this is the legal way of saying “what’s really covered”. I was told that I could purchase a card and that I could save 10%, but nothing else. I cannot find any type of legal statement saying what’s covered – so it’s entirely hit or miss as to if the Geek Squad actually has to answer your questions. I’m reasonably certain, however, that any question asked will be met “We can fix that remotely, if you’d like” or “We can send an agent out…”

Folks, this program is pretty much worthless, unless you use the GS service. At that point, you can pay for the card for anything over $200 worth of service. That’s right, it’s not even worth looking at the card until the bill is around $201, or more. They make money in almost every situation. Please be careful when you see “deals” like this. It’s plain not worth it.

Hot on the heels of Best Buy’s “Pre-Optimization” service, which any user can do themselves, Best Buy has decided to release a new program. We’ll call it “More Trialware!” That’s right, Best Buy seems to think that users want even more trialware on their computers, and now they’re getting paid by the software companies to do it to you. All you have to do is buy an HP or Dell and click a few icons, install a program or two and Best Buy makes money.

They still have to take that new computer out of the box, load software on it before you even buy it, then try to put everything back in the box correctly – something they couldn’t seem to do correctly a week ago.

I’ll give you all a secret. If you want to “pre-optimize” your computer, download and install a program called Crap Cleaner and run it before doing anything else to that brand new laptop or desktop. There are a lot of other things to do as well, but that is be best place to start. After that, customize your computer to how YOU want it, and you’re already better off.

News hit the Internet today that Best Buy is practicing some pretty nasty business practices. Unfortunately, Best Buy has found that they can offer laptops, that are on sale, for a higher-than-advertised price. While they do sell two versions of the same laptop, a non-optimized and pre-optimized, the non-optimized laptops sell out first (naturally) leaving most customers with an extra $39.99 to add to the bill.

That’s right, imagine going into Best Buy thinking that you’re going to get a $299 laptop that’s on sale in the paper. You get there and find that the laptop you want is actually being listed as $299 + 39.99. You speak to one of the reps and they tell you that “Optimized is better” and explain several pre-scripted paragraphs of technobabble as well as some untrue, self thought-up, comments. You hold your ground and say you want the $299 laptop and they reply “we’re sold out of those…”. What happens then? Depending on which store you visit, and how much of a stink you raise, you may

1. Pay nothing extra
2. Pay a minor fee
3. Pay the full price.

Imagine bringing that pre-optimized computer home to find that you’ve got an info sheet for a different model and manufacturer, and that you’re missing your power supply. It happened. Pre-optimized laptops are opened by associates in the store then manually configured with tweaks that you can do yourself.

While I dislike talking badly about competition, I honestly feel that bad business practices hurt everyone involved, to include customers, technicians as well as legitimate repair companies. These types of situations need to be brought to light. It seems that the Consumerist feels the same way, as they broke the story yesterday. If you’re thinking about buying any type of electronics from Best Buy, or have considered the Geek Squad as a business to fix your computer, I highly recommend that you read the article. You may also want to check on exactly who fixes your computer at the Geek Squad.
Justin

It’s no secret that one of Protocol16′s competitors is the Geek Squad, but what exactly is the “GS”? I spent some time this weekend researching their tools, how they hire and what their internal policies are – it’s always good to know your enemy… One of my “enemies”, in this instance, is just down the road… The Best Buy in Beaverton.

What I learned surprised me a lot. While I knew that I didn’t like how the service operated, I found out that there are some things that go on behind that scenes that make that feeling go from “didn’t like” to “disgusted”…

First, I knew GS’ prices are roughly TWICE those of Protocol16′s. While I don’t agree on some of their time estimates, most of our times do align, when you think of things in raw hours of required labor for a specific fix.

Now, some of you may have just found out that their pricing is roughly twice as much as ours, but how would you feel if you were charged that for an outsourced company to remotely work on your computer? That’s right, outsourced labor. GS runs a program called “Agent Jonny Utah” which is high-tech, internal, lingo for “outsourcer”. According to the article, they’re in India. Don’t know about you, but I’d want to talk to the guy that actually worked on my computer…

I managed to find some interesting material on this program as well. You would think it mentions things like “lower costs for customers” or “better quality”, but no. I discovered terms like “Better utilization of on-floor reps” and “gross margins” – it’s all about the money folks, not about the quality, not about your computer and not about you (except for your money).

I also found out during the course of my research that the GS uses “proprietary tools” to locate and destroy viruses and spyware. What that actually means is, they repackaged several antivirus tools into one package AND use a rebranded service for their remote work that many computer repair shops use, they’re just charging you MUCH more than any normal computer repair shop would for the same tools.

We’re about quality. We’re about welcoming you into our family and ensuring that everything runs right, not about the money. My goal when starting Protocol16 was to ensure that my customers were happy and that I’d eventually have a normal job that I felt was not going to affect how I slept at night. I’ve worked for far too many corporations that literally caused me to lose sleep at night.

I hate talking bad about any company, but the GS is the same type of company I left to start Protocol16.
Justin