Best Buy ''Optimization'' A Waste of Money

[chunkymonster]

My most recent Best Buy excursion only further cemented the fact that they are one of the most overpriced retailers on the planet.

Case in point - I needed a USB A-B cable for a printer. No problem, just take a quick spin to a store and snag a USB cable. First stop was Best Buy and I walked out as quickly as I walked in when I saw they were selling a Belkin 6ft USB A-B cable for $349.99! WTF?! Ended up buying the exact same cable from Target for $7.99 as well as a PS3 controller and some games. I ended up spending $80 at Target instead of Best Buy because of an overpriced USB cable.

Time and time again, I walk into a Best Buy and walk out empty handed because I either am disgusted at their prices or disgusted by the failure of the sales staff to provide any type of insight or significant information about a product.

Going to Best Buy actually makes me wish Circuit City was still in business.

 

[chunkymonster]

Case in point - I needed a USB A-B cable for a printer. No problem, just take a quick spin to a store and snag a USB cable. First stop was Best Buy and I walked out as quickly as I walked in when I saw they were selling a Belkin 6ft USB A-B cable for $349.99! WTF?! Ended up buying the exact same cable from Target for $7.99 as well as a PS3 controller and some games. I ended up spending $80 at Target instead of Best Buy because of an overpriced USB cable.

Typo on my part, the Belkin 6ft USB A-B cable was priced at $39.99 not $349.99...regardless, $40 for a 6ft USB cable is robbery!

 

[bydesign]

Honestly Geek Squad = PC retards that can't get laid and take your money.

 

[E7130]

[citation][nom]dtemple[/nom]There's not enough information here to say that the optimization that Geek Squad offers is a bad thing. I know a guy who works at geek squad, and I asked him about this whole thing. He said that the optimization is 40 dollars in-store, no matter when you have it done. It doesn't get rid of viruses (which is a software repair closer to 200 dollars) and it won't speed up your computer 200 percent. It DOES give you all the Windows updates, they disable startup items that aren't necessary, they uninstall the trial bloatware, and then run a registry patching program that speeds up everything just a tad - making the computer devote more CPU time to foreground apps than background apps. If you get it done with the computer brand-new in the box, they also set the date and time, as well as configure it for automatic updates and configure your username and password for you.Did the geek squad guy say Windows Updates could take 2 days? Maybe if the consumer said they have dial-up. Maybe the person who they said the computer would be "incomplete" without the optimization meant it wouldn't be 100% ready to go out of the box without it, since you have to go through the initial setup process.For 40 bucks, people who don't have time to clean out bloatware, do updates, and configure the initial settings are getting a deal here. For most Toms readers, it's a waste of money.[/citation]

The Updates part kills me, updates are not just a one time deal as it happens weekly and monthly depending upon the need from MS. So that aspect of it is worthless. I have always found modifying the registry values to cause more trouble down the road than it is actually worth for a 1% performance increase. So what if it has a 60-day trial of Norton (I don't personally like them), but removing it and then charging someone $69 to install and AV is a little stupid.

It should come down to leaving it as a optional service instead of pre-optimizing and trying to trick people into believing that is the only option they have.

 

[Guest]

This article is ridiculous. I personally work at Geek Squad and know that none of this happens there. "YOUR PROCESSOR WILL GO 200% FASTER." We have never said that nor will ever say that. All we claim is that we do your windows updates, clean unwanted registration software, and disable start-up items off the computer, to make a smooth start up and shut down for the average joe.

 

[Guest]

oh and by the way, we do pre-optimizations, but it is the customer's choice to buy it or not. It is never forced upon them. It is called sales, so sorry if anyone is offended. We don't claim it is the answer to all of people's problems, just a great start up item to think about adding to your purchase. I have had countless compliments about this service. Reasonable cost for a needed service for people that don't know what they're doing when it comes to computers.

 

[cknobman]

Like many that worked their before have said already Best Buy is in the business to make money of accessories and services and the will f_ck anyone ignorant enough to fall for their bs.

I worked there and they pulled all kinds of crap. Hell we pushed norton antivirus and some no name spyware dectector program(both sold seperatley of course and cost $40-$60 each) but if someone brought in a computer of the street and paid $200 for a tune up it was SOP for geek squad to install AVG Free to clean the viruses and then uninstall it and then proceed to use Spybot(free also) to wipe the spyware from the system. Everyone that worked at my stored used to laugh our butts off how we wouldnt even use the products we pushed to consumers.

Hell they are so bent on profits I used to work in the printer department and every printer had to sell with a USB cable(or youd get your arse reemed for not selling attachments). So I found the one place in the store over in the av section where you could get a usb cable for $9.99(still a rip) which was cheaper than the cheapest usb cable in the computer dept.($29.99) and attach it with my printers I sold. My boss used to get so mad at me and ask why I would do that and I would repeatedly tell him I didnt feel comfortable tricking someone into paying so much for a $1.00 usb cable. Needless to say that $9.99 usb cable ended up disappearing from the shelf.

Anyways I finally quit there when they had an open box Emachine computers hard drive fail and then put a new harddrive in it. Since it was open box they had no recovery cd. Instead they used a HP computers(one off the shelf that they were selling) recovery cd to reimage that computer and then go to the emachine website and pickup any missing drivers.

I told my boss that was illegal and I was promptly told not to worry about it or else. Thats when I quit.

 

[shockerz33]

I guarantee that there are boutique dealers that will give a MUCH better price and MUCH better service than what a big box retailer does. But just because of that fact, don't think for one second that there isn't a boutique dealer that can't take a customer to the cleaners as well. I saw a person having a standard home computer being built for them at $400 an hour and 6 hours estimated....WHAT?

 

[dark_lord69]

I work for best buy and I know for sure this is a total ripoff!

 

[Sardaukarz]

[citation][nom]demonhorde665[/nom]and no one saw this comming ?i mean seriously most of best buy employees consist of pimple faced college student s who have no real IT back ground shit most of them cant even figure out their way around any software past the windows default install ware like paint or basic word. let alone do any real worth while optimizations. you want your computer optimized or fixed , take it to alocal boutique builder , where they actually hire real IT staff. not some retail giant whose store are filled with idiots that actually think buying a sony vioa or an HP is a great deal comapred to building your own. i admit i buy software from best buy , movies , music and the like but when it comes to comptuers or computer hardware i dodge them like you would dodge a terminal plauge[/citation]

OK so if I understand correctly with my limited knowledge of english language (it's my 3rd language sorry), you pretend here that if you want your computer to get properly fixed you take it to the local boutique builder BECAUSE they hire real IT staff ?

Where the hell is that local boutique builder I want to meet him! Cause I have never meet one and I have been working in IT for 10 years now and every single time I go to the local merchant (not Best Buy or Future Shop in Canada) most of them are completely incomptetent. With most of them beeing at the best college students and some of them study some form of programming/networking.

I agree that most of the Best Buy/Future Shop/any other big surface seller are not properly trained but this is true for the local boutique shop too. So pls be sure of what info you provide because there might actually be people who read this and get screwed because you have no idea what you are talking about!

 

[njalterio]

I get why the someone without any computer knowledge/skills would pay someone to optimize their computer. That makes sense to me. I don't expect the average person to do these tasks themselves.

The problem with Best Buy is not that they provide this service (or rather, try to provide this service), but the misleading advertising and aggressive selling of bogus claims like improve your computer's processor speed by 200%, getting software updates that would take you two days to perform on your own, or services that take an "incomplete" computer and make it more useful.

That is the part that is wrong. Just because someone is inept it doesn't mean that it is OK to mislead them.

 

[ajcroteau]

It's amazing how many people get taken advantage of just because they don't want to take 5 minutes and figure out how something actually works...

I remember years ago, i pretty much knew all the computer shops in my local shops and they all offered this $60.00 computer cleanup service and all they did was run Scandisk and Defrag, things that people can do on their own...

Seems like now the big stores are also getting in on this...

 

[maydaynomore]

The problem here is not whether 40 bucks gets you a good value. To some it may be. The problem is that the sales people at best buy are misleading customers into believing they are getting more than they actually are. A 200% performance incrase = BS. Imagine this: You know nothing about computers. You walk into a Best Buy and see a laptop for $500. You like it and want to buy it. A sales person walks over to you and says: for $1200 you can have a laptop that will run twice as fast, or you could pay Geek Squad $40 and increase this $500 laptops performance by 200%. All of a sudden that $40 tune up seems like an incredible deal. If the sales people were telling the truth, which is about a 5% performance increase, I don't believe that as many people would opt for that service.

 

[sslazio77]

The only person at any of these repair places that know any PC support / repair is the manager, every body else he hires knows absolutely nothing. I've had many customers come to me showing ridiculous bills from geek squad and other places when they had fixed nothing. I actually have a geek squad "optimization" cd because they left it in some kids computer that i repaired. There was nothing special on it, all free crappy software you can download online urself, and it was all the bad ones...

 

[coldmast]

$40 more on a better processor would have been a better optimization

 

[Clintonio]

Us techies, programmers, geeks and nerds often forget how inept the regular PC consumer is. Honestly, some people are better off buying it, it saves me doing it for free for relatives I don't even want to speak to!

 

[Guest]

sslazio77: I'll call you out for the liar that you are. The Geek Squad Optimization program itself is a propietaty program developed in concert with Webroot. not "all free crappy software you can download online urself, and it was all the bad ones...".

If you're going to hate, tell the truth.

 

[michaelahess]

This is great, it simply proves the point that stupid/uninformed/idiotic consumers perpetuate companies to do these practices.

I can't agree with anyone that says this service is valuable in ANY way, I have been in the business for 20 years and have yet to see ANYONE dumb enough to not LEARN how to do basic maintenance. I give friends and customers a single page email or printout that shows how to do the basics. BB or any of the others could do the same thing, but then they'd be labeled "honest" and the average consumer wouldn't trust them anymore as they wouldn't have outlandish claims.

To the guy that works at BB and gave his info, great for him, but intranet's aren't a "protocol" dumbass, just proves even the "smart" geeks, aren't.

Oh yeah, I get a 6ft A-B USB cable from my wholesaler for $1.20 (not in bulk), BB gets them CHEAPER! Employee prices are a markup over their "cost" which is whatever they make up, get a clue.

And to brando56894, I just got four 1.5TB drives for $80 each, not the greatest shopper are you?

If people can't take the time to learn how things work, they shouldn't be allowed to use them. Driving, cars, home appliances, personal electronics, etc. There is nothing I use in my day to day life that I can't fix. I may pay others to fix things I don't have the time/inclination to do, but only if it's something IMPORTANT, like tranny work. I'll work on my engine all day, but not the tranny, but I KNOW what needs to be done so I can't get ripped off.

 

[atticus052]

My ordered a laptop from BB then goes to pick it up from the store, the daughter opens it up christmas morning, it doesn't work, so she takes it in, best buy brings out a "replacement" box for her with another same model pc, go figure, it has HER name on the box. It's stuff like this that just makes my hatred for the computer people at BB grow, just like the time I asked for where their hard driver were (it was an emergency alright) and the girl took me to the CD burners...

 

[mayne92]

[citation][nom]brando56894[/nom]I've heard a lot of Geek Squad horror stories and stuff like this just adds to that feeling. Although they might have crappy computer services they do have some good deals I just bought a 1TB WD hdd for $95.[/citation]

Really? A good deal?...they sell for 99 bucks...wink wink