Geek Squad

This is a review only for the Geek Squad at the Scarborough Best Buy location:

I use for my business a powerful desktop, it is a vital part of my daily operations. After a crash while updating the OS, I decided to call for "at location" service but this service was unavailable until 5 business days after; I decided then to bring in my equipment to this Scarborough best buy/geek squad location. I was told by the agent that he would have a diagnostic for repair by the end of their working day (9pm) but that didn't happen.

It actually took them 3 business days to have a diagnostic for me! Apparently -and their excuse was- they they were too busy dealing with the clients and advising sales. In one of my visits to find out the status of the diagnostic, one of the agents made me wait for 1 hour because he had to sell and install an iPad screen protector!! (and I was sure that the geek squad agents were focused on equipment repairs and optimization, but looks like they are more occupied in selling stuff)

After finding out that "probably" my HDD had failed and there were "probably" memory errors, I was offered the worst possible solution. Am I not an experienced technician, but this did not add in my math:

- Swap my damaged enterprise-class 10000rpm HDD for an overpriced 5200rpm (HDD widely used in laptops) they had in stock

I was so upset by this suggestion, that I went to find the HDD myself. I purchased and brought it in for cloning in less than 1 hour so they get a feel for my sense of urgency on this repair. I was told this process would take few hours and that I'll be informed once finished. Of course no one called me, so I walked in they day after and one of the agents told me -again- that they were too busy, and the he hasn't had a chance to review the info because of the lack of the password.

That's odd because I provided it and it's was written on the work order. anyway, after finally accessing the equipment I noticed that only 2gb of the 6gb of ram were being used by the OS, the agent gave me a watery explanation and offered for me to buy additional memory (that was not compatible anyway and terribly overpriced)

I just got my equipment and got the hell out of there.

- Pros: They do an amazing job at promoting themselves as professionals and customer oriented.
- Cons: Agents have no sense of urgency, agents push too much for sales (warranties, equipment and software), there is no accountability, there is no coordination among agents, there is a clear lack of organization and communication, there are no specialized agents for hi-end equipment. The attitude towards clients asking for job updates is poor to offensive, the overall client support is poor, their solutions to problems is inadequate.

I went to Geek Squad with my Hitachi 250 gb portable harddrive mainly because it was unresponsive when hooked up to the computer. As i got to Geek Squad i presented my harddisk and explained to him my problem... Now he told be that jusst by looking at it they can't tell anything... which is pretty obvious, but i was told i had to pay $150 for them to look at it and see what is the problem and then additional charge MAY apply based on the problem. Now, this got me really upset also because there was a risk to attempting the repair. In my case i had a 120gb of valuable data including pictures, years of documents and other. I had no choice and wasn't willing to pay a third party to risk such an important drive. Now after they looked at it they told me they weren't sure as to what the problem is, and charges can get really costly to recover this data. I was really upset firstly cause my documents were no longer recoverable and secondly i paid $150 bucks for nothing. A few days later i met my brother in law who is an engineer in computer science and i presented him this problem. He said he will look into it and will get back to be. He came to me the next day and told me my data was fine (thanks god) and the problem was that the circuit had died out. basically all i need to recover the documents was and new sata hard disk enclosure that would cost me $15 bucks and the job would be done Now what was really upsetting was to it being 15 times the cost of the actual repair. Anyways, im just trying to pass the message that when it comes to issues in regards to computer and hard disk repairs. Get quotes, second opinions, and be sure to make the right move. Make sure you dont end up paying over and beyond what is needed, because sometimes things can get costly unnecessarily for no good reason. thank you.

i had this company come out and after 3 hours of waiting the guy comes and fixes the problem in 2 minutes and then charges me for 2 hours apparently the time starts from when they get lost on the way to my house!

I have done business with Best Buy on a retail level but their Geek Squad keeps me coming back.

This is only one instance where they were outstanding. We purchased a laptop. It was brand new and we were not sure if we could competently install the new operating system and/or software. We were able to work out a deal with the purchase price and warranty so that installation was reasonable and guaranteed with DISKS.

We keep going back because of the service, openness, helpful staff and great atmosphere.

I made the mistake of hiring the Geek squad for some in home installation, home/office and networking work. These reps can do basic work, but hire an experienced company if you want it done right without bias to the products being used. Geek Squad is owned by Best Buy/Future Shop. Therefore they only push the products that Best Buy has in store..especially the Best Buy house name product. These may not be the best options for you. again, hire an unbiased consultant even if you have to pay a little extra for the advice and work.

Made an appointment for the supply and installation of Linksys wireless N router, as advertised in the Best Buy flyer. The agent showd up with a different brand G router! He then tried to up sell me another one which was more xpensive! Bait and swtich!!! I told hime NO! You install what I asked for and I was given the price as per the advertised price!!! He said he cannot! So the door was shown!

As a computer dummy, Geek Squad helped me setup my Wireless Router. The service was not bad but the price was extremely high... Then I tried computersquad when my computer was infected with spyware/virus. Someone came over the same day and get the job done.

wasnt impressed with the geek squad support team. they never tried to fix my computer issues. instead they tried to sell me a new computer peripheral. they seemed to be glorified sales reps for best buy.

Last year I had occasion to ask the Geek Squad to come to my house and set up the surround sound system in the basement and I must say the service was excellent, the Geek Squad arrived on time and did what needed to be done with no problems and left me fully satisfied with the work.