Guest Plato Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? nomail1983@hotmail.com wrote: > > Does anyone have first-hand experience with the Geek Squad? > Preferably someone who is not an employee of GS ;-). Can I trust them? If they dont fix your problem then dont pay the bill. After all, you are paying them to fix your PC. If it's not fixed then you have no reason to pay them. -- http://www.bootdisk.com/
Guest Harry Ohrn Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? "Vanguard" <no@mail.invalid> wrote in message news:evsHHfGwHHA.1212@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl... > "Harry Ohrn" wrote in message > news:%23cTXfxFwHHA.4516@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... >> Ask if you can speak with a few of their customers. If they have nothing >> to hide they should be able to set that up for you. > > > Not a workable solution for ANY company. After all, would you want to be > annoyed and waste time answering the phone for inquisitive potential > customers of every product your purchased or of every company you've dealt > with. Maybe you like being slammed with tons of phone calls from someone > asking if you like the television that you bought from some retail store, > or if that non-dealer car repair shop you use repeatedly is a good shop, > or whatever product or service you've used or bought before was okay. A > company is not going to divulge their customer list to other potential > customers. If you suddenly got spammed or slammed because someone you > dealt with released your personal information to anyone that asked, would > you really continue business with that irresponsible provider? > > Sure, a company may post letters of gleaming reviews by customers on their > walls. Have you ever seen them also post negative letters? They don't > have to post any of those letters so obviously they get to pick which ones > they do post, if any, and just as obvious is that they will only post > those which positively affect their business. Get a life. -- Harry Ohrn MS MVP [shell\User] http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp
Guest Vanguard Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? "Harry Ohrn" wrote in message news:elrhULewHHA.2040@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > > "Vanguard" wrote ... >> >> "Harry Ohrn" wrote ... >>> >>> Ask if you can speak with a few of their customers. If they have >>> nothing to hide they should be able to set that up for you. >> >> Not a workable solution for ANY company. After all, would you want >> to be annoyed and waste time answering the phone for inquisitive >> potential customers of every product your purchased or of every >> company you've dealt with. ... A company is not going to divulge >> their customer list to other potential customers. > > Get a life. A store or service provider isn't going to reveal their customers' personal info without a badge or court order. With under 200,000 folks in Regina, maybe the folks there are less irritated by having their personal info distributed to anyone that asks for it. I see a Geek Squad is listed at 2125 Prince of Wales Drive since they are partnered with Best Buy. So what happened when you went to your local Best Buy and asked them to divulge their customers' personal information? Uh huh.
Guest dobey Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? "Harry Ohrn" <harry---@webtree.ca> wrote in message news:elrhULewHHA.2040@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > "Vanguard" <no@mail.invalid> wrote in message > news:evsHHfGwHHA.1212@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl... >> "Harry Ohrn" wrote in message >> news:%23cTXfxFwHHA.4516@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... >>> Ask if you can speak with a few of their customers. If they have nothing >>> to hide they should be able to set that up for you. >> >> >> Not a workable solution for ANY company. After all, would you want to be >> annoyed and waste time answering the phone for inquisitive potential >> customers of every product your purchased or of every company you've >> dealt with. Maybe you like being slammed with tons of phone calls from >> someone asking if you like the television that you bought from some >> retail store, or if that non-dealer car repair shop you use repeatedly is >> a good shop, or whatever product or service you've used or bought before >> was okay. A company is not going to divulge their customer list to other >> potential customers. If you suddenly got spammed or slammed because >> someone you dealt with released your personal information to anyone that >> asked, would you really continue business with that irresponsible >> provider? >> >> Sure, a company may post letters of gleaming reviews by customers on >> their walls. Have you ever seen them also post negative letters? They >> don't have to post any of those letters so obviously they get to pick >> which ones they do post, if any, and just as obvious is that they will >> only post those which positively affect their business. > > > > Get a life. > > -- > > > Harry Ohrn MS MVP [shell\User] > http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp > In your profesional opinion as an MS MVP?
Guest Plato Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? Vanguard wrote: > > A store or service provider isn't going to reveal their customers' > personal info without a badge or court order. > > With under 200,000 folks in Regina, maybe the folks there are less > irritated by having their personal info distributed to anyone that asks > for it. I see a Geek Squad is listed at 2125 Prince of Wales Drive > since they are partnered with Best Buy. So what happened when you went > to your local Best Buy and asked them to divulge their customers' > personal information? Uh huh. Any geek PC repair person doesn't care a bit about the contents of your personal data, they just care about saving it during the repair. -- http://www.bootdisk.com/
Guest Vanguard Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? "Plato" wrote in message news:4691ce1a$1$286$bb4e3ad8@newscene.com... > Vanguard wrote: >> >> A store or service provider isn't going to reveal their customers' >> personal info without a badge or court order. >> >> With under 200,000 folks in Regina, maybe the folks there are less >> irritated by having their personal info distributed to anyone that >> asks >> for it. I see a Geek Squad is listed at 2125 Prince of Wales Drive >> since they are partnered with Best Buy. So what happened when you >> went >> to your local Best Buy and asked them to divulge their customers' >> personal information? Uh huh. > > Any geek PC repair person doesn't care a bit about the contents of > your > personal data, they just care about saving it during the repair. Huh? Did you even read Harry's first post in this thread? Notice the first line of his first post was "Ask if you can speak with a few of their customers." It was non-advice because it ain't gonna happen. This subthread never touched on anyone looking at the contents of the files on the customer's drive(s).
Guest Vanguard Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? "dobey" wrote in message news:OMSR1sewHHA.3684@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > > "Harry Ohrn" wrote ... >> >> "Vanguard" wrote ... >>> >>> "Harry Ohrn" ... >>>> >>>> Ask if you can speak with a few of their customers. If they have >>>> nothing to hide they should be able to set that up for you. >>> >>> Not a workable solution for ANY company. ... A company is not going >>> to divulge their customer list to other potential customers. ... >> >> Get a life. >> >> -- >> >> Harry Ohrn MS MVP [shell\User] >> http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp > > In your profesional opinion as an MS MVP? The requirements to be an MVP do not require superb technical expertise. It just requires that you've been around long enough to be considered part of the community and generally provide positive help, and that eventually an MVP invites you to be another MVP. Expertise is nice but not required but instead you earn your way to be an MVP by successfully helping others for a year or two. I had also joined their e-mail mailing list (i.e., discussion threaded via e-mail) where many MVPs hang out to ask each other questions but eventually I left. I got an invite, too, to be an MVP. I didn't feel the need for the ego stroking of having "MVP" appended to my moniker or added to a signature, plus I figured that I'd have to be nicer more of the time. I'd rather be me than to wear an "MVP" labelled blazer and possibly have my posts colored by it because of the worry of losing that oh-so valuable "MVP" logo. For info about MVP, go to http://www.mvps.org/about/. Info on how to become an MVP is at http://www.mvps.org/about/mvp.html. Having "MVP" in your moniker is important to some people, like having MCP, MSCE or some other Microsoft cert listed on their resume. To some, they could care less about the babble of letters after your name.
Guest jnulsen Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? I have somewhat of a biased opinion on Geek Squad for two reasons...1. My fiance had a terrible experience with them and paid three times for support with no resolution and 2. I work for a competitor of theirs, albeit a much smaller one. If you can fix it for free through one of the many online forums that offer up great advice then great. Otherwise, I would recommend giving HiWired.com a shot. This is the company I work for, and we deliver all of our services remotely via the internet. If we can't fix it, you don't pay. Good luck solving your problem and if you end up trying us let me know how it went. -- jnulsen
Guest dobey Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? "Vanguard" <no@mail.invalid> wrote in message news:O2vo3VfwHHA.4384@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > "dobey" wrote in message news:OMSR1sewHHA.3684@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >> >> "Harry Ohrn" wrote ... >>> >>> "Vanguard" wrote ... >>>> >>>> "Harry Ohrn" ... >>>>> >>>>> Ask if you can speak with a few of their customers. If they have >>>>> nothing to hide they should be able to set that up for you. >>>> >>>> Not a workable solution for ANY company. ... A company is not going to >>>> divulge their customer list to other potential customers. ... >>> >>> Get a life. >>> >>> -- >>> >>> Harry Ohrn MS MVP [shell\User] >>> http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp >> >> In your profesional opinion as an MS MVP? > > The requirements to be an MVP do not require superb technical expertise. <snip> I know what am MVP is. You missed the joke. "Get a life" is a lame response given the perfectly correct statement it was aimed at. What company would freely give out customer information, without consulting the customer. For them to ask a client in the first place they would assume the customer will give them a good rap, or usually offer a sweetener to make sure they get a good review. Had the statement been "ask someone who has used the service..." fair enough - but it wasn't.
Guest cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user) Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 01:50:47 -0500, "Vanguard" <no@mail.invalid> wrote: >"dobey" wrote in message >> "Harry Ohrn" wrote ... >>> "Vanguard" wrote ... >>>> "Harry Ohrn" ... >>>>> >>>>> Ask if you can speak with a few of their customers. If they have >>>>> nothing to hide they should be able to set that up for you. >>>> >>>> Not a workable solution for ANY company. ... A company is not going >>>> to divulge their customer list to other potential customers. ... >> In your profesional opinion as an MS MVP? >The requirements to be an MVP do not require superb technical expertise. >It just requires that you've been around long enough to be considered >part of the community and generally provide positive help, and that >eventually an MVP invites you to be another MVP. Actually, anyone can nominate anyone to be an MVP. You can nominate yourself, if you like. I nominated a few before I became an MVP. >Expertise is nice but not required but instead you earn your way >to be an MVP by successfully helping others for a year or two. It's up to MS as to which nominations they accept, and their criteria are their own business. It's their program, they are resourcing it. >I had also joined their e-mail mailing list (i.e., discussion threaded >via e-mail) where many MVPs hang out to ask each other >questions but eventually I left. Ah, if that was Desktop Systems 3 then I may have seen you there; I was also invited to that, before becoming an MVP :-) >I didn't feel the need for the ego stroking of having "MVP" >appended to my moniker or added to a signature, plus I >figured that I'd have to be nicer more of the time. I'm in a similar situation, and as the two halves of that sentence balanced out (I don't need the ego thing, so I'm not going to be "artificially nice" to retain the award) I was happy to accept. The main benefit I see in being an MVP is possibly better positioning to be able to feed back to MS on thier products, as I try to do. >For info about MVP, go to http://www.mvps.org/about/. Info on how to >become an MVP is at http://www.mvps.org/about/mvp.html. Having "MVP" in >your moniker is important to some people ....but not to others. I have it in my tag as a "full disclosure" thing - if you expect MVPs' advice to be tainted, and I withhold that disclosure, then you'd probably flame me for that, too... <shrug> >---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - - On the 'net, *everyone* can hear you scream >---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Guest +Bob+ Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 06:02:30 -0700, jnulsen <jnulsen@hiwired.com> wrote: >I work for a competitor of theirs, >albeit a much smaller one. And therein lies the solution - I'm a smaller company too, and if a potential customer asked to talk with some of my previous customers, I'd gladly give them some names of customers who'd be happy to talk to them. Unfortunately in today's Corporate and Franchise driven market, we've been led to believe that sharp marketing, sales, and flashy commercials and graphics should substitute for real references.
Guest Bruce Chambers Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? Plato wrote: > > > Any geek PC repair person doesn't care a bit about the contents of your > personal data, they just care about saving it during the repair. > > Think so? http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/05/geek_squad_jerk_caug.html http://consumerist.com/consumer/the-rollercoaster-ride-of-pride%2C-shame%2C-and-morality/ -- Bruce Chambers Help us help you: http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
Guest Allen Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? dobey wrote: <snip> > > Had the statement been "ask someone who has used the service..." fair > enough - but it wasn't. > > But wasn't that what the OP was asking? Allen
Guest R. McCarty Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? You're Right. Yesterday, I was at my neighborhood Best Buy. A lady shopping next to me was asking an "Associate" advice on a Wireless problem. She was obviously being given bad advice so after the clerk walked away I answered her question. Then someone standing close by came over and asked for my advice on upgrading a Windows 98 machine. When I was in the check out line the "Network Issue" lady walked over to me and thanked me for helping her out. Sometimes I'm reluctant to help, but the average user is stuck in a box not knowing where to turn to get help. That's why the NGs are so important. "+Bob+" <uctraing@ultranet.com> wrote in message news:d0g493hv42k1td1rvlb2j5irkhao9etb08@4ax.com... > On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 06:02:30 -0700, jnulsen <jnulsen@hiwired.com> > wrote: > >>I work for a competitor of theirs, >>albeit a much smaller one. > > And therein lies the solution - I'm a smaller company too, and if a > potential customer asked to talk with some of my previous customers, > I'd gladly give them some names of customers who'd be happy to talk to > them. > > Unfortunately in today's Corporate and Franchise driven market, we've > been led to believe that sharp marketing, sales, and flashy > commercials and graphics should substitute for real references. > >
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 10:20:30 -0400, "R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com> wrote: > You're Right. Yesterday, I was at my neighborhood Best Buy. > A lady shopping next to me was asking an "Associate" advice on > a Wireless problem. She was obviously being given bad advice > so after the clerk walked away I answered her question. To me that's a very touchy situation. I've been in exactly that situation several times, and have always been reluctant to tell a stranger that he's just gotten bad advice from a sales clerk. I'm always afraid of the response "why should I believe you instead of him?" The one time I did venture to help, I got such a response. > Then > someone standing close by came over and asked for my advice > on upgrading a Windows 98 machine. When I was in the check > out line the "Network Issue" lady walked over to me and thanked > me for helping her out. Great! I'm glad you had a good experience doing it. > Sometimes I'm reluctant to help, but the average user is stuck in > a box not knowing where to turn to get help. That's why the NGs > are so important. The newsgroups are great. When I started out with them, I was a relative beginner, asking questions like others. Now I've learned much more, in many cases, *from* others on the newsgroups, and I'm very happy to be able to give back to the community some of what I've gotten from it. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? On 8 Jul 2007 21:55:04 -0500, Plato <|@|.|> wrote: > nomail1983@hotmail.com wrote: > > > > Does anyone have first-hand experience with the Geek Squad? > > Preferably someone who is not an employee of GS ;-). Can I trust them? > > If they dont fix your problem then dont pay the bill. After all, you are > paying them to fix your PC. If it's not fixed then you have no reason to > pay them. I don't know how the Geek Squad operates or what their rules are, but unfortunately life isn't always that simple. In many cases, if you get service, you are required to pay for the service whether you are happy with the results or not. Try going to the doctor when you're sick and not paying him because he didn't cure you. Even if you die from what he didn't cure you of, your estate is responsible for the bill. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest Allen Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? Ken Blake, MVP wrote: > <snip> > To me that's a very touchy situation. I've been in exactly that > situation several times, and have always been reluctant to tell a > stranger that he's just gotten bad advice from a sales clerk. I'm > always afraid of the response "why should I believe you instead of > him?" The one time I did venture to help, I got such a response. > Another possible consequence--a few years in some newsgroup (probably one of the classical music NGs) a poster said that he had been escorted out of a BB store for the horrendous crime of writing down prices for some of their gear. Allen
Guest Peter Foldes Posted July 10, 2007 Posted July 10, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? > Any geek PC repair person doesn't care a bit about the contents of your > personal data, they just care about saving it during the repair. You are mistaken very badly. They caught one of them who copied an expensive program with the customers computer because the customer had Nero. He copied his Photoshop and along with the customers license key for it. He got caught . Was in the news just last month. -- Peter Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged. "Plato" <|@|.|> wrote in message news:4691ce1a$1$286$bb4e3ad8@newscene.com... > Vanguard wrote: >> >> A store or service provider isn't going to reveal their customers' >> personal info without a badge or court order. >> >> With under 200,000 folks in Regina, maybe the folks there are less >> irritated by having their personal info distributed to anyone that asks >> for it. I see a Geek Squad is listed at 2125 Prince of Wales Drive >> since they are partnered with Best Buy. So what happened when you went >> to your local Best Buy and asked them to divulge their customers' >> personal information? Uh huh. > > Any geek PC repair person doesn't care a bit about the contents of your > personal data, they just care about saving it during the repair. > > > -- > http://www.bootdisk.com/ > >
Guest Vanguard Posted July 10, 2007 Posted July 10, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? "Allen" wrote in message news:46924192$0$14995$4c368faf@roadrunner.com... > > dobey wrote: > <snip> >> >> Had the statement been "ask someone who has used the service..." fair >> enough - but it wasn't. >> > But wasn't that what the OP was asking? Um, so you are saying that nomail1983: asked for advice from someone that used the service and the expert advice should be: go ask for advice from someone that used the service (chuckle, chuckle) nomail1983's asked for opinions from anyone that actually used Geek Squad ("Does anyone have first-hand experience with the Geek Squad?"). Of the respondents so far, Og, Gary, and jnulsen were the only ones with first-hand experience (but Gary's problem was not in understanding that he demanded a warranty repair be performed). Not Me said he knew of folks in GS and thought they were no up to snuff. I was just addressing Harry's non-advice (because it ain't gonna happen). I have talked to some GS folks at 4 of the 9 local locations and found they don't know anymore than the salesman wandering the aisles in the store.
Guest FeMaster Posted July 10, 2007 Posted July 10, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? You forgot about this one not too long ago... http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/11348/53/ "Bruce Chambers" <bchambers@cable0ne.n3t> wrote in message news:%235ExMKjwHHA.4300@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > Plato wrote: >> >> >> Any geek PC repair person doesn't care a bit about the contents of your >> personal data, they just care about saving it during the repair. > > Think so? > > http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/05/geek_squad_jerk_caug.html > > http://consumerist.com/consumer/the-rollercoaster-ride-of-pride%2C-shame%2C-and-morality/ > > > -- > > Bruce Chambers > > Help us help you: > http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm > http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html > > They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary > safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin > > Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand > Russell >
Guest FeMaster Posted July 11, 2007 Posted July 11, 2007 Re: Can I trust the Geek Squad? <nomail1983@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:1183782669.544227.81590@e16g2000pri.googlegroups.com... >I am having a couple problems with Windows and common application > (Adobe Flash), and I have exhausted my ability to troubleshoot and > remedy them. I need an "expert". But I am leery. By "expert", I > mean someone who knows enough about Windows XP (Pro 2002 SP2) to truly > problem-solve, not someone who simply walks down a troubleshooting > tree that has "reload Windows" on the 2nd or 3rd branch -- and not a > "hacker" who tries random changes in the hope of stumbling upon a > solution. > > Does anyone have first-hand experience with the Geek Squad? > Preferably someone who is not an employee of GS ;-). Can I trust them? > I've heard many bad things about Geek Squad... There is another that you may want to give a try. It's a pretty big company, and I've heard nothing negative about them... And they are highly touted by Leo Laport and Steve Gibson... :) http://www.nerdsonsite.com/
Guest Black Heart Rakkasan Posted July 18, 2007 Posted July 18, 2007 RE: Can I trust the Geek Squad? A basic business principle if you have a inferior product is change the package and throw a marketing budget on it. That's my opinion of what's been done in this case. Wrap rookie techs in a VW beetle, with catchy branding, create a mystique by making them seem like a secret para military organization and advertise the hell our of it. Result, same inferior service/product with a sexy look. If you want someone you can trust find a system builder, system integrator or member of the Small Business Specialist Community in your area. "nomail1983@hotmail.com" wrote: > I am having a couple problems with Windows and common application > (Adobe Flash), and I have exhausted my ability to troubleshoot and > remedy them. I need an "expert". But I am leery. By "expert", I > mean someone who knows enough about Windows XP (Pro 2002 SP2) to truly > problem-solve, not someone who simply walks down a troubleshooting > tree that has "reload Windows" on the 2nd or 3rd branch -- and not a > "hacker" who tries random changes in the hope of stumbling upon a > solution. > > Does anyone have first-hand experience with the Geek Squad? > Preferably someone who is not an employee of GS ;-). Can I trust them? > >
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