My new Cult Film - Geek Squad

Published Wed, Dec 28 2005 22:28 | William

I was at a major Best Buy today and got a great idea for  a movie.  It's called Geek Squad.  Basically, I'd take the same storyline as Oz but all the villians would be members of a group known as the Geek Squad.  All the new guys that come into the prison will be forced to buy really sucky extended warranties for ridiculous prices.  If you didn't buy the stupid extended warranty you'd get screwed if you ever needed anything , and if you did buy the extended warranty, you'd get screwed even worse.  They'd rule through fear and unprecedented incompetence. 

So maybe I'm being a bit unfair comparing the Geek Squad to a bunch of criminal sodomites who rule through brutality, but I don't think I'm off by much.  Have you heard the speech they give people trying to buy stuff?  When i bought my last tablet, they tried selling me a warranty and when I didn't want it I got a story about how two women bought the same model tablet earlier that week. One got the warranty, the other didn't.  The guy proceeds to tell me that both tablets were defective and one lady got everything fixed and replaced, the other one had to shell out $400.00.  Brilliant sales strategy there Geek Squad - tell me that at a minimum 100% of the tablets you sold this week were defective.  If I actually believed any of this crap I would have run for my life.

Earlier today i go to visit the Geek Squad with a notebook I bought there.  But I didn't get the warranty and it was 4 years ago. Guess what?  They can't do a thing about it.  then the clown behind the counter tells me that I should send it to the Toshiba distributor b/c that's all they do anyway.  And to make me feel better about it he says "even if we did handle it for you , you wouldn't get it back for 3 weeks to a month ".  Wow!  that really makes me want to buy something there again. 

What does Best Buy think, that buy coming up with some annoying gimmick like the "Geek Squad" that it's so cute that everyone will overlook the terrible service there. Gee, I wonder how well that's working for them ? 

Please Best Buy - shoot every member of the geek squad and stop with the dumb gimmicks.  Replace it with a tiny bit of real customer service - the world will be a much happier place because of it.

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Comments

# Sahil Malik said on December 28, 2005 9:05 PM:

See you could've solved this problem by not buying a tablet in the first place.

SM

PS: Aishwarya is sitting besides me, and she wants me to tell you that, she thinks tablets suck too.

# William said on December 29, 2005 7:36 AM:

Well how would that have fixed my notebook problem Mr Smarty Pants? And if I didn't have a tablet and *LIKE* it, I'd be a dweeb as are all people that don't like tablets. And Ash just sent me an email from her Tablet so I know you're making it up ;-)

# Jason Mauss said on December 30, 2005 2:47 AM:

Glad to hear at least someone has some common sense. My wife and I have been boycotting best buy for years ...long before "geek squad" arrived....but seeing the stupid "geek squad" people just confirmed my decision to boycott them.

# William said on December 30, 2005 7:36 AM:

jason - I'm in total agreement. It's really annoying b/c you *KNOW* that it's just a better packaged Gimmick used to compensate for the fact they *KNOW* their service sucks. And it lures a lot of folks in (at least in the short run). I used to like Best Buy but that was a long time ago - there's little to like any more.

# Tobin Titus said on January 2, 2006 2:57 PM:

A friend of mine hates best buy. I am personally ambivilent to them. I hate all retailers equally.Everyone wants to take your money and assume that's the last dollar they would have made from you. I say that because they defend their refund counter like al-quaida gaurding their favorite cave. Best buy is just one in the long line of bad retailers including wal-mart, compusa, circuit city, staples, office depot, etc. I say this. Be prepared to buy something and live with the consequences if the product goes bad. If you own something four years, you are most likely going to have to replace it yourself. Just dont' pay for those damned warranties.

# Bernard Dy said on January 6, 2006 10:03 AM:

I dunno guys. I can totally believe the horror stories I've heard about retail, but my experiences with BB and the rest of them have been OK. I can get generally decent prices on a variety of gear, and I've never had return hassles at BB or CompUSA. That said, if I have the time to research and wait for shipping, I can usually get almost anything cheaper via Internet :)

# William said on January 7, 2006 12:49 AM:

Bernard, the *real* problem I have is the hard sell approach of the stupid warranties. Just about every time I'm there I see some poor naive soul getting snuckered into getting the warranty for some really ridiculous price, thinking they are getting something 'real' for their money. If it wasn't for the service contracts I wouldn't have a problem with any of them

# You get what THEY pay for said on January 12, 2006 3:37 PM:

Best Buy does not pay their Geek Squad any more money then their cashiers. Odd that you can charge 70-100 an hour for someone's work but pay them less than 10.

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