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  • Geek Squad and Viruses

    So... My computer went DEAD a couple weeks ago... I was on it and a brown out hit us, when the power came back, my PC would not turn on. I was pissed, and was hoping to god it was something that could be fixed, and cheaply. So... I take it to the Geek Squad... They take it, and they can, in fact, fix it. The power supply burnt out (completely my fault for not cleaning it out enough. Oops.)

    So when the guy tells me this, he also said that in the diagnostic he found a ton of Viruses and Trojans... And he could run a virus sweep for $150. My response...

    "HA HA HA HA! No."

    The diagnostic cost 60 bucks, parts costed 30, and the labor costed 30... So a virus sweep would cost more than fixing the machine. I assure the man I have my own software for dealing with it, and can do it myself. I go get my fixed computer, take it home, and run my scans.... twice. Three programs designed to find spyware, viruses, and adware... Nothing is found. Now I know what happened, but I'd like to know for sure...


    Are Geek Squad employees forced to lie and push for the Virus sweep, or did I get a greedy one trying to up my cost?

    I honestly assume the former, sounds like the sleezey business practice forced upon employees...
    "How bloody difficult is it to take care of a DVD?"
    ~Me after any time I look at the back of a disc~

  • #2
    Quoth Will-Mun View Post
    So when the guy tells me this, he also said that in the diagnostic he found a ton of Viruses and Trojans... And he could run a virus sweep for $150.

    Are Geek Squad employees forced to lie and push for the Virus sweep, or did I get a greedy one trying to up my cost?
    I work part-time at a Micro Center. We aren't told to lie about spyware/adware/virus detections or anything to screw over the customer. But if we see any chance of upselling other services to do so. So if we actually did find viruses then we would try to upsell scanning/removal, tuning, and try to sell them NOD32. I don't like the fact that we are supposed to be a lil pushy with our services but we definitely don't try to screw them and we are a hell of a lot cheaper than Micro Center. We only charge $30 for scan and removal.
    Last edited by NightAngel; 06-29-2007, 05:48 AM. Reason: No need to quote entire post!

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    • #3
      Are Geek Squad employees forced to lie and push for the Virus sweep, or did I get a greedy one trying to up my cost?
      Much of the anecdotal evidence I've seen suggests the former.

      Go to http://www.consumerist.com and do a search for "geek squad". One thing I noticed about Best Buy and Geek Squad from reading the stories is that they'd rather train good salespeople to be techs, than train techs to be salespeople.
      Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

      "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

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      • #4
        From what I heard, the sups and managers over there get bonuses for the higher amount of services that they can sell. So if a geek squad guy tries to sell you something it's probably the sup or manager pressuring him so he can get his bonus.

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        • #5
          Quoth sld72382 View Post
          From what I heard, the sups and managers over there get bonuses for the higher amount of services that they can sell. So if a geek squad guy tries to sell you something it's probably the sup or manager pressuring him so he can get his bonus.
          That's what I was thinking too. But still, $150 for a virus/crap scan...are you effing kidding me? If that's true, I'm in the wrong line of work--I'm sure I could have gotten that from certain relatives when I was asked to fix their craputer recently
          Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

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          • #6
            Quoth Irving Patrick Freleigh View Post
            than train techs to be salespeople.
            You gotta be kidding....Have you seen or listened to a tech lately
            "I reject your reality and substitute my own"....Adam Savage-Mythbuster

            Must remember to stop using "brain of death" on slower morons.... I meant customers.

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            • #7
              It sounds like the tech was just offering a service that they provide. While that service is very expensive, I don't think the tech did anything wrong, unless he pushed you into buying the service

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              • #8
                Quoth Irving Patrick Freleigh View Post
                Much of the anecdotal evidence I've seen suggests the former.

                Go to http://www.consumerist.com and do a search for "geek squad". One thing I noticed about Best Buy and Geek Squad from reading the stories is that they'd rather train good salespeople to be techs, than train techs to be salespeople.
                I'm sorry, but that's false. There is no cross-training of the sales staff to do Geek Squad work. Neither are they encouraged to lie. Will-Mun either got a greedy asshat, or some poor schlub who's bosses are bitching at him because their service figures are down and he's trying to get them off his back.
                Last edited by Mike Taylor; 06-22-2007, 05:01 AM.
                "Sigh, I'm going to Hell.....but I'm going with a smile on my face." -- Gravekeeper

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                • #9
                  Quoth sld72382 View Post
                  From what I heard, the sups and managers over there get bonuses for the higher amount of services that they can sell. So if a geek squad guy tries to sell you something it's probably the sup or manager pressuring him so he can get his bonus.
                  Only if the management in the store doesn't know what in the hell they are doing. Pressuring employees backfires more often than not. You offer the service early and often in the in the transaction, explaining the benefits to the customer, and that's it. They then either say yes or no. Corporate knows that they're not going to get everybody to buy every service. The only hard and fast requirement is to offer (not force) the service to as many customers as you can. The store I work for has the highest service figures in our district because of that.
                  Last edited by Mike Taylor; 06-22-2007, 05:01 AM.
                  "Sigh, I'm going to Hell.....but I'm going with a smile on my face." -- Gravekeeper

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                  • #10
                    Is it wrong, that upon reading the OP, I just kept wanting to watch the StrongBad email episode where the Compy dies because he has some obscene number of viruses?
                    "In the end I was the mean girl/or somebody's in between girl"~Neko Case

                    “You don't need many words if you already know what you're talking about.” ~William Stafford

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                    • #11
                      Quoth ctown28 View Post
                      It sounds like the tech was just offering a service that they provide. While that service is very expensive, I don't think the tech did anything wrong, unless he pushed you into buying the service
                      Well no... See when he called, he ran through the drill, told me what the problem with the computer was, said it was easy to fix. He then said that they did a full diagnostic (which is standard, you have to get that.) and said my computer was LOADED with Viruses and Trojans, then he asked me if I wanted them to get rid of them for me, which would increase the preformance.

                      Thats fine, it's a ridiculously outpriced service, but hey, companies gotta make a buck. BUT, I took my machine home, and ran THREE different programs, TWICE. Thats six different scans. Now, I don't claim to own the best software, but McAfee and Windows Defender are very good. And Ad-Aware isn't exactly a small program either.


                      I didn't find ANYTHING, my computer was clean. So picture this. This guy was asking me to pay $150 EXTRA dollars, on top of the 120 it took to fix the HARDWARE... To do nothing.

                      Imagine I agreed to get the service, it would be impossible to tell that he just cheated me!
                      "How bloody difficult is it to take care of a DVD?"
                      ~Me after any time I look at the back of a disc~

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                      • #12
                        well, some virus scans count tracking cookies as "virus". So it's possible that you were LOADED with tracking cookies and he was a dumb ass and couldn't tell the difference between cookies and actual viruses. But a emptying of the temp folders would take care of those.
                        I've lost my mind ages ago. If you find it, please hide it.

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                        • #13
                          I'm thinking that the guy was either just a lying asshat or a dumb asshat. Doing a malware scan is done as part of the diagnostics, but just a bunch of cookies isn't going to raise alarm bells.
                          A smile is just a grimace that's been edited for public consumption. -- Tony Cochran

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                          • #14
                            Sounds like a scamming tech. I'd file a complaint, if I were you.

                            Also, if you think there might possibly be anything on your system, do a Hijackthis report and see what it spits out for you.

                            ^-.-^
                            Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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                            • #15
                              Thats fine, it's a ridiculously outpriced service, but hey, companies gotta make a buck. BUT, I took my machine home, and ran THREE different programs, TWICE. Thats six different scans. Now, I don't claim to own the best software, but McAfee and Windows Defender are very good. And Ad-Aware isn't exactly a small program either.
                              Windows Defender is a piece of crap, M$ took a good program and dumbed it down (translation: made it easy for newbies) to the point where it's not that effective. That's why many techs call it "Windows Defenseless." It's amazing that Sunbelt's CounterSpy and SuberAdBlocker's SuperAntiSpyware are based on the same engine yet are many times more effective. It's because they're not dumbed down!

                              McAfee? Might as well not have run a virus scan at all. Same league as Norton, use a real scanner like AVG or Avast.

                              Ad-aware? I used to like using it until I found out the really tough malware is designed to bypass it (as it's the most widely used), making it useless. Anybody who pays for the plus version is crazy, when you could have CounterSpy or SuperAntiSpyware for the same price!

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