Geek Squad

[Scheizekopf]

"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."

Nice quote.

On a lighter note, I will be making some anti-Geek Squad shirts. I wonder how they'll go over when I stroll through Best Buy.

That's funny. Me and my brother were walking through Best Buy last weekend and I was talking shit about them to him. He started going off on them. "Geek Squad sucks" and a bunch of other things. So Funny.

 

[GlobalFear]

LOL some questions on a+ tests are retarded, one was: what steps do you take when installing a video card. one of the options was disconnect monitor cable ( no shit ) so I checked that, turns out its wrong??? I've never seens anyone swap videocards without disconnecting the monitor cable

Sometimes I just go to bestbuy to listen to the techs talk, pretty entertaining. Then again I've gone to bb to get some thermalpaste ( I know it's shit but it works, and it was for an xbox ) I asked the guy if he had any in the back, he told me to go to a website (xoxide.com) and buy artic silver as the stuff here was crap and overpriced. (exact words) We bullshitted for a bit about comps then I left. They probally fired him

 

[Scheizekopf]

They try to pretend that they know a lot. They know basic stuff. Funny when they try to talk about something really technical. . . they just dont know.

 

[Dan_D]

Most Best Buy bench-job's require A+.

The hell they do. Try and find more than one A+ tech per store and you'll fail. More than likely anyway. It is not required. I am a former Best Buy PC technician.

Service center techs at the centralized depots require certifications. Store techs do not. It isn't that hard to get a job at Best Buy as a tech. But it can be without certification. Depending on the managers own personal hiring practices.

I'd agree that most of the techs were hacks. I used a soldering iron to repair a laptop motherboard. The power connector had been broken off. It amazed them. They had never seen anyone do that. They were surprized I could reassemble it and not have left over screws. And then it powered up and worked off AC power. Simply shocking to them.

A week later I did a fuser installation on a Laserjet 6L. That freaked them out too.

After three months of working in the store I was shipped to the service center for some real work.

But I will say this much. It's easy work and it pays well for retail.

 

[aerithchylde]

I would have to say the thing that really gest me about GS is the car. A New Beetle with 1-800-GEEK-SQUAD for the phone number. Last I checked thats too many digits for a phone number. Now thats marketing hype.

I do phone support for a popular video game, and I actually suggest to some people to use that serivce (*edit local PC store installation service, not necessarily BB *edit) to install their video cards. Not take the PC to them for toubleshooting, but installing hardware. After talking to some people on the phone I would not trust them to plug a mouse into the PC.

 

[Scheizekopf]

After talking to some people on the phone I would not trust them to plug a mouse into the PC.

That's funny.

 

[Mr_Evil]

Fragalot, the problem is there's alot of half-wits down at the Service Centers too. I once sent a computer down to Dallas THREE TIMES because it would lock up when we tried stressing the machine. I don't mean crash either, it would lock down HARD like it was overheating. We tried booting with a Knoppix disc and it'd still lock up. We ran every diag we could to narrow down what it was, ultimately I said it was the CPU. The system came back with a replace Hard Drive. Still exhibited the same problems so we sent it back, they said they could get it to lock up. Sadly, this wasn't an isolated incident, Best Buy's service center techs can be just as stupid as the in-store geeks. (no offense to you personally)

 

[Dan_D]

Fragalot, the problem is there's alot of half-wits down at the Service Centers too. I once sent a computer down to Dallas THREE TIMES because it would lock up when we tried stressing the machine. I don't mean crash either, it would lock down HARD like it was overheating. We tried booting with a Knoppix disc and it'd still lock up. We ran every diag we could to narrow down what it was, ultimately I said it was the CPU. The system came back with a replace Hard Drive. Still exhibited the same problems so we sent it back, they said they could get it to lock up. Sadly, this wasn't an isolated incident, Best Buy's service center techs can be just as stupid as the in-store geeks. (no offense to you personally)

I know. I was making a generalization about the techs. The quality of the one's at the service centers vs. the store is better. But I am not saying that all of them are good. But % wise, the stores suck harder than the service centers.

 

[Laforge]

I work at the Daytoan Beach Best Buy doing "Geek Squad" (God, I fucking hate that name...not the geek part, just the how they are using it). But it's not too hard to get a job there and you don't need your A+, rumour is that BB will pay you to take the A+ test soon. The experience really varies from store to store. My store has a pretty good mix of techs that actually know what we are doing. We had training with some people from other stores and soem knew what they were doing while others were complete n00bs. They were just there to sell stuff.

Your main responsiblities is to fix computers, check computers that are being returned to make sure they are broken and all the parts are there, ship and receive things sent out to 3rd party repair, deal with pissed off customers becuase the service center fucked up their computer (I had one 40GB harddrive come back formated all to hell with a bunch of fat16 partitions) and sell stuff. The starting pay at our store is around $9/hr but this is alos the lowest paying county in florida.

The thing that makes the tech bench good or not is the management, my store use to have good mangement but that went to hell a few months ago. Now the only help we get from mangement is to "work faster".

My business is in daytona, and I get, 3+ computers a week that were as the customers put it "made worse" by some big chain computer tech superstore

I charge $50 an hour, and fix it right, the first time.
When you pay technicians $9 an hour, you are going to get technicians that are WORTH $3 an hour. If someone applies for a job with me, and offers to work for say.. $25k a year, I won't even hire them. You should be expecting DOUBLE that if you are any good.

 

[Dan_D]

I made more than $9 at Best Buy as a tech. They only pay the entry level uncertified guys that low.

 

[Laforge]

When I hire people I make 2 piles
A+ and non
the A+ all get a simple friendly call back to ask if they have it because a former work required it or if they got it in a class

I used to just toss all the A+ in the trash but I figured I should find out why they have it before passing judgement

That's a really retarded way to run a business, if I must say-so myself.

Many people who get their certifactions to so because MANY businesses require those certifications to even be considered. I cannot tell you how many adverts are in our local paper that say "A+ certification or better" on them.

Yes, it's true that the A+ certification doesn't mean you know what you are doing..

But it also doesn't mean that you ARE an idiot.

I've got 26 years experience.

I have an A+, S+, Security+, HP LJ Cert, Linux+, Network+, Dell Certification, Gateway Certification, Speak 6 languages, Can program in 5, have an MCSE, partial CCNA, and as well as being an SME for comptia, I am, or have been, on advisory panels for ibm, seagate, dell, microsoft, and western digital. I wrote a tech spec that, in part, was basis for usb technology (although I specc'ed it out as optical, and not copper, and when it becomes optical, it will be MUCH faster).. So, you wouldn't hire me?


That makes you, sir, the one that should be sent to the trash can.

Also.. unless something has changed that I'm unaware of, federal law (the laws of the US, anyhow which pertain to EOE) require you to keep ALL APPLICATIONs for employment for a period of 1 year.

So, in addition to being a 'tard..

I think you're also most likely, a [I don't want to say ... criminal ...] violator of federal employment regulations.

 

[Laforge]

By class i mean one of the punch out drones computer schools
i have had people show up with A+ that gave me dumb looks when i asked them how often someone should defragment their HD.

So.. what is the answer to that question.. how often SHOULD someone defragment their hard drive? Because the answer is NOT as easy as you might think.



I'll give you a hint..

It really depends on what you do with your system, what O/S you are running, etc.. It's not "once a week"

Some systems, you don't even NEED to defragment

 

[GlobalFear]

The main thing defraging does is rearranges all your data is its close together, now if you are constantly dling large files and installing apps you should more often then if you just read email.

 

[CommanderFrank]

Laforge, while I agree with your summation of the hiring practices, I will have to take exception to the name calling on grounds of exceeding the forum rules. Compliance is appreciated

 

[r00k]

I don't know if this is the correct section for this but...

I have been interested in getting into the PC Technician work force for some time now. I believe that I am well educated and qualified, and enjoy the work.

I have tried (not too hard, though) to do this on my own, at a rate of $20/hr, but I only had a few jobs...

I am currently a freshman attending the University of Central Florida, pursuing a Computer/Electrical Engineering Degree. I stopped by the nearest geek squad section in the local Best Buy, and asked about employment. They simply referred me to www.bestbuy.com, or to fill out an application in a kiosk.

Anyway, does anyone know how difficult it is to get a job working for the Geek Squad? I am currently 19 years old, if that hinders me at all (apparently you need to be 21 to do in-home repairs, due to driving). Also, does anyone know what the wages generally are when working for them?

Thank you.

Well now that i took the time to read all 2 and a half pages of truths about the dimwitted hacks who help serve Best Buy's geeksploitation, i think its time to get back on topic.

DarkenReaper57 - I too am 19 y/o male, interested in similar work. I just got back from another semester of electrical / computer engineering at Marquette University. I have very good experience and just need to test for CCNA now. Over this past summer I worked independantly, travelling to people's homes far and wide across the state. I regularly began receviing calls from people i didn't know who heard i was da bomb-diggity with computers, and that i'd get it done right. The local Ford dealership also called and asked me to work for them on their computer issues, network issues and so on. There they decided to pay $30 per hour to me. At first i was rather unsure of rates for individual homes. as it was suggested in some of the good posts here - a "pay me what you think it's worth to you" has worked VERY well for me. I go out of my way to make sure the problems are diagnosed and fixed right. I tell them that $20 per hour is a good going rate which they can base computer work on. Usually they want to pay more. A lot of these really are horribly infected computers with hundreds or 1000's of pieces of adware, and a great deal of viruses too. sometimes hunting those things down can actually be a bit of a chore. Occasionally hardware failures were to blame, and i would find a good deal and replace the hardware at their cost for them. Business over summer was freakin awesome. So i was kinda sad to have to return to college.
After reading all those posts, i don't see any advantage to working at the GS, although i was actually considering it (it does still pay the bills), i dont think i could now. I do better cleaning up their messes and so on working alone. As far as certifications go - all the alphabet soup you can put on your resume is great. A+, CCNA, MCSE, whatever. Even if they are seen to be worthless by many of us on the forums, THEY DO GET JOBS. it shows that you at least took the time to study, took the time to test, and actually made it. Doesn't mean you know it, but its a few letters that, sans TieBird321, get you put well ahead of the pack. The real key though, is EXPERIENCE. references who will sing your praises, especially those who have a name in the community (i.e. my town Mayor, in my case) could definitely help. Hope that helps

 

[tiebird321]

That's a really retarded way to run a business, if I must say-so myself.

Many people who get their certifactions to so because MANY businesses require those certifications to even be considered. I cannot tell you how many adverts are in our local paper that say "A+ certification or better" on them.

Yes, it's true that the A+ certification doesn't mean you know what you are doing..

But it also doesn't mean that you ARE an idiot.

I've got 26 years experience.

I have an A+, S+, Security+, HP LJ Cert, Linux+, Network+, Dell Certification, Gateway Certification, Speak 6 languages, Can program in 5, have an MCSE, partial CCNA, and as well as being an SME for comptia, I am, or have been, on advisory panels for ibm, seagate, dell, microsoft, and western digital. I wrote a tech spec that, in part, was basis for usb technology (although I specc'ed it out as optical, and not copper, and when it becomes optical, it will be MUCH faster).. So, you wouldn't hire me?


That makes you, sir, the one that should be sent to the trash can.

Also.. unless something has changed that I'm unaware of, federal law (the laws of the US, anyhow which pertain to EOE) require you to keep ALL APPLICATIONs for employment for a period of 1 year.

So, in addition to being a 'tard..

I think you're also most likely, a [I don't want to say ... criminal ...] violator of federal employment regulations.

A. who said i was in the US... i'm not, i'm in australia the rules are different here.

B. Applications are recieved into a central administration which scans them and archives them for future needs. our current road map has us keeping all data for 25 years at a minimum. A copy of the applications are printed out without any age, sex, race or religios information. so since I just have coppies I can burn them in a bonfire if I felt the urge.


C. Let me make this clear so because i think you have this wrong, I hire level 1/2 tech support. . When i say pile of A+, the pile will contain people with an A+ cert and no other meaningfull experience (cs major minor... etc) or cert (my best tech is also an accredited master car mechanic). If they didn't say in the application where they got the A+ I will ask them. ~90% of the time it is from one of the start up tech schools who promie a cert in 90days or less....

D. If i was to get 500 applications for a posistion. 300-350 would have A+ of those 270-320 would be from a tech school that promised them a 50k job after 9weeks of night classes.... the other 30-40 (in the 300-350) got the cert because it was free or they had to. I take the 30-40 and toss them back into the pot and put the 300 other A+ into the trash. I'm now left with 200 apps, they then get judged on how long they held thier previos job (if not directly out of college). I go trough the apps and look at everything they put in. i'm usualy able to toss out another 100 from people who have dodgy employment records (they have switched jobs every 9 months for the last 3 years) or who admit they have a criminal backround(applicants must be able to optain a security clearence) or because they are single with kids and shouldn't be applying for a job thats going to send them on a plane every 3rd day. with the 100 left I have a 10 minute personal phone call to ask them not about the job but just about life and small talk to get an idea of their comunication skills and thier general personality. Usaualy i can toss out another 50 or so from bad comunication skills. with the 50 remaining I have them come in for an interview and give them a test with me acting as a client and a computer sitting next to me that was carefully used to surf every porn site imaginable by my staff. i'm generaly nice to them and watch how they go about the process and what they ask me as the client is important. usualy about 15 out of the 50 get past this and they are taken out to dinner with a client as a final test. I'm generaly left with 5 candidates that I let my existing staff pick from.

D. If you applied for a posistion with me for instance I would write you back and sujest you apply for a posistion more suited to your qualifications. personaly I am sure you would be bored by the job and frustrated by the limitations I would put on you. Which is BEYOND the fact that nothing you have said indicates you are good at cleaning off spyware from a machine or revovering lost files or educating my clients on how to do things safely (porn). Which is the main responsabilitys of the posistions i'm hiring.

E. On the buisness front my companies profit to revenue ratio was 1:2 last year.. for every single $1 we pulled in $.50 was profit. So somehow I think I just might know something about running a buisness

As for experience my Boss who owns the company and tought me everything has >33 years (i'm sitting at 10). He helped 3M find the first EVER comercial data use for a CD. He was also the VP of technology for a tech company with over 100Million in revenue. ohh and he write half the man's on database programing for PL1.

Maybe you should ask more before calling other people tards

(appologies for typo's... i'm on a train right now)

 

[CommanderFrank]

I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. Get back to the topic at hand, this isn't the Soapbox

Well now that i took the time to read all 2 and a half pages of truths about the dimwitted hacks who help serve Best Buy's geeksploitation, i think its time to get back on topic.

 

[Laforge]

Laforge, while I agree with your summation of the hiring practices, I will have to take exception to the name calling on grounds of exceeding the forum rules. Compliance is appreciated

My apologies MajorDomo.. Holidays are a stressful time for year of me, and I brought my bad day to the forums.

 

[darktiger]

Take away their CD and they are nothing...

 

[r00k]

Take away their CD and they are nothing...

lol i took away 2 just last night

 

[Rombus]

C. Let me make this clear so because i think you have this wrong, I hire level 1/2 tech support. . When i say pile of A+, the pile will contain people with an A+ cert and no other meaningfull experience (cs major minor... etc) or cert (my best tech is also an accredited master car mechanic). If they didn't say in the application where they got the A+ I will ask them. ~90% of the time it is from one of the start up tech schools who promie a cert in 90days or less....

We only have it wrong because you didn’t originally say this! You only said you made 2 stacks and threw away the a+ ones.
There is a huge difference between "I throw away A+ certs" and "I throw away A+ certs without meaningful experience"

No matter what your hiring practices are, it still doesn’t change the fact that geek squad is a joke!

:Tries his best to guide thread back on topic:

 

[Tenchi4U]

Take away their CD and they are nothing...

forget the CDs...I want their freakin' shields (aka badges).

Me and my brother (aka darktiger) asked about the badges almost everytime we go into BB, they are actually getting them in soon only b/c they are asked so many times by customers to see the badges.

Talk about putting presentation before performance.

new words developed b/c of the Geek Squad:

1. geeksploitation

2. dumbMasses