Beware Best Buy's "Geek Squad"

As you probably know, I'm no a fan of big box type stores. Not just because they tend to be atrocious corporate citizens (such as Wal-mart and Circuit City) but often, large selection aside, they're not always that cheap, and more often than not, the people that work there don't seem to know dick about what they're selling (in particular when it comes to computers). I'll pop into a Best Buy now and then just to see what's new, and then if there's something worth getting, I'll get it online substantially cheaper.

Now, this will come as no surprise to any of you who have been here for more than five minutes, but I'm quite the geek. I've built my last three computers from scratch, and I've never paid a dime to have anything fixed on them. But many people do, and apparently, a popular route to go is Best Buy's "Geek Squad", a cleverly marketed repair service. Anyways, I was just surfing and came across this big, interesting expose about the Geek Squad. If you're considering them for computer help, you might want to have a look at this article. which is written by a former "Geek Squad" employee who dishes the dirt on all of the rather questionable things the Geek Squad incorporates into their service (such as erasing your hard drive because they're under quotas instead of fixing the problem, grabbing your porn pictures, etc.).

Lest you think it's the ravings of a disgruntled employee, speaking as one who knows the ins and outs of diagnosing and fixing PC's, I think this guy is on the level. Beware. And let me just add, fixing common software and hardware problems aren't nearly as difficult and daunting as you think they are. Most problems can be fixed with a little patience and an hour or so of digging around on many of the great resources on the web. You really don't need no stinkin' "Geek Squad". Trust me on that one.