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What Do Geek Squad Technicians Actually Do?
Posted by
Cliff
on Tue Jun 27, 2006 09:35 PM
from the are-they-worthy-of-the-name dept.
from the are-they-worthy-of-the-name dept.
Zenitram asks: "I am a lead technician at a company that repairs computers for various vendors. Many of our systems are from Best Buy's Geek Squad. Based on the systems Geek Squad sends us, it makes me wonder what, if anything, do they actually do? We get systems that have issues that we simply shouldn't have to work on, like: installing device drivers, OS reloads, and reseting CRUs (Customer Removable Units). Additionally, we get systems that are misdiagnosed such as: bad hard drive when a system has faulty RAM; no POST when it simply won't boot into Windows; or no boot when it won't power on at all. So, what is the scope of technical repair that Geek Squad techs do?"
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Suggestions for a PC Home Tech Support Business? 165 comments
RPGonAS400 asks: "I want to start my own small business in the evening and on weekends (after my day job) going into peoples homes for PC tech support. There has to be a need for this — I help enough friends out with their PC problems. I live in an area that has roughly 50,000+ people within 15 minutes of my home. The best business oriented tech support in our area charges $95/hour for hardware repair and $135/hour for software support. Options for home based PCs are quite limited here. Geek Squad (yuk!) charges outrageous prices. I am not sure what I will charge but I plan on having a minimum charge and then only charge for actual work done. If I have to learn how to fix something I either won't take the job or else not charge for my learning time. I am looking for suggestions for lots of things. Namely, rates, liability, insurance, equipment needed, waiver forms, tax issues, incorporation, local paper advertising, web site, etc. As you probably guessed, I have always been an employee and this is my first venture into small business. Thanks."
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Hand holding. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hand holding. (Score:5, Funny)
I think Apple should buy them, and then when they make a call, they replace the PC with a Mac. Simple, and then there would be no return call.
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Re:Hand holding. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Hand holding. (Score:5, Funny)
*sigh*
Thats not funny.
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Excuse me? (Score:5, Funny)
The MacBook is clearly a space heater.
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Re:Hand holding. (Score:5, Insightful)
That doesn't sound like a Windows problem, that sounds like an Adobe problem, or possibly a driver problem... Or possibly a Windows problem, but that wouldn't be my first assumption.
Blame where blame's due; Windows has its flaws, Office has its flaws, Microsoft has its flaws. But when comments like this are made, I envision one of two things:
If we use anecdotes as a metric to guage product quality, Windows is the most amazing OS ever. My seven machines at home that I use for audio/video/image editing, 3D modeling, gaming, development, and lab machines never crash... ever. My 1000+ user environments that I architect using Microsoft solutions almost never have an issue, and even less rarely an issue that is caused directly by an MS product. OTOH, my Linux box has never had all its hardware working concurrently, it crapped out when I tried to recompile my kernel, and I can't configure it the way I want. Clearly this means Linux is the paperweight, and Windows is, like, deus ex machina, right? No; it simply means that Windows is the right platform for my needs, and I know enough about it to make it work for me. And that I'm a clueless Linux n00b.
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Re:Hand holding. (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't ever Chef something, you'd cook it. The same with an Architect, you would design something.
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Re:Hand holding. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Hand holding. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Hand holding. (Score:5, Insightful)
You hit the nail on the head. That's exactly the point of Geek Squad and similar repair/upgrade services. It's all too easy for slashdotters to pile on Geek Squad, since they don't do much that's very difficult (and I doubt they pay enough to to attract top-notch techs anyway, so they have to send things out a lot, duh). But the typical home or business computer user is NOT a geek.
Yes, there are lots of geeks of varying degrees, but not everyone wants to know how to par tition a hard drive, install device drivers or diagnose problems that turn out to be merely software related. My mom wants Word and Photoshop to work, and that's it. She doesn't care about overclocking for 7% better performance in a game, maximizing her server's reliability or learning Linux inside and out. She still INSISTS of using Netscape, for Pete's sake. Looke at how many people who can afford broadband still use dialup. People like them are plenty willing to pay for someone else to worry about their problems, or else wait patiently for me to have a chance to check it out. Or they buy Macs.
I'm not sure why so many tech-savy folks can't understand that they are special (although they often like to point out that they are), or that not everyone wants to be a computer expert. I like driving my neat little car around town, but I'll be damned if I'm going to freeze my butt off if it needs brakes in the winter. Bodywork? Hah! Simple and labor-intensive, but not thanks. I'm not mechanically inept, but I have a job and like to have dirty work done for me sometimes. And how is this news or "stuff that matters?"
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Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Their Clothing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Their Clothing (Score:5, Insightful)
When I worked professionally as a repair tech, I wore a tie for exactly one day. They dangle, and get stuck to the pins on the back of a PCB like velcro. Work on one machine without being careful about your tie, and it's ruined with dozens of pulls. If you're lucky, you didn't ruin whatever it is you were working on.
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Re:Their Clothing (Score:5, Interesting)
If memory serves, IBM field techs used to have a no-real-tie policy. They all wore clip-ons for safety reasons. If your tie gets caught in a printer, do you want to lose your tie or lose your neck?
Of course that was in the days where computer rooms had raised floors and separate air conditioning systems. Dinosaurs may also have been roaming the earth, but I was a child at the time.
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Re:Their Clothing (Score:5, Funny)
Though, not to prevent one from being caught in a printer but to keep people from hanging themselves.
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Real nerds wear ties (Score:5, Funny)
I agree with you completely. Although, I used to work for a company where a tie was mandatory. People would always buy me computer ties as gifts and I had about 100 of them. So, one day I am doing some service work at a company I had never visited when one of the owners strolled in. He gestured at me and I introduced myself. He then stated that he thought for the money paid he would have a more conservative, business-minded computer person building out his network and told me to never wear the tie I had on or even one like it in his building. So, I left. I told my boss about it and he told me I had to return and where a non-geeky computer tie (I think I had on a tie with a 3-D computer mouse). So, on the way over, I stopped at a thrift shop and bought a god-awful, really wide, nasty-colored tie. Needless to say, I always made sure I wore a crummy tie while at his office from then on out.
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Re:Their Clothing (Score:5, Funny)
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I just got a job there (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I just got a job there (Score:5, Funny)
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Have you ever looked at these guys? (Score:5, Funny)
God help you if they ever make you speak to one to explain what's wrong with something purchased there.
well... (Score:5, Insightful)
my question is what the 'repair' centers do. i had to send a laptop out to have the power jack replaced. laptop came back with scratches and superglue and a 'new DVD drive that didnt work and was covered in glue (my previous drive worked). i then sent it out to have a fan replaced. i used geek squad again because they said thye would replace the DVD with one that works and wasnt covered in glue. computer came back with new drive, scratches and note that says 'unit overheats and shuts down after two minutes. needs fan.' (that took 2 weeks) i sent it back out to have the fan replaced (again). laptop came back after another two weeks with more scratches and missing rubber feet. fan works.
during this time i wrote a few letters. it only took 2.5 months to get back my working, yet cosmetically damaged, laptop back. the only good thing is that all 'repairs' were free, a stack of DVD-R's and a 200$ refund on my only big purchase at best buy.
apparantly geek squad is building their own repair center.
lastly the guy there stated that when it comes to notebooks, geek squad is a glorified shipping center. they also just write down the symptoms that the customer tells them. so the customer could be wrong
A classic mistake... (Score:5, Funny)
Depends on the area (Score:5, Insightful)
We love the geek squad! (Score:5, Interesting)
We have determined that the Geek Squad geeks are people hired off the street the day before, and are instructed to look at the computer, and recommend that they buy a new computer. (from Best Buy, of course!)
Every attempt that we are aware of that they have actually tried to fix something, we see it a week later to fix what was wrong, and to fix what the geek broke while trying to fix it.
Some of the latest episodes:
- geek browsed customer's computer to a nasty web site and got it infected with spyware and viruses (two weeks ago)
- geek took laptop apart and failed to reconnect cardbus slot connector (that one was today)
- geek told customer he needed a new computer when he needed a new power supply (this happens somewhat frequently)
- geek told customer he needed a new computer because this one is slow, was actually rampant with spyware and viruses (happens all the time)
- geek sold customer another copy of XP because this one was showing it was no longer registerd
The list just goes on and on... funny thing too, we are quite expensive for on-site service compared to others in our area, (we're expensive, but we're good) but the Geek Squad actually is more expensive than we are. I don't see how they get any business, they must have a killer marketing campaign.
Re:We love the geek squad! (Score:5, Informative)
I joined, as was suggested by another user already, becuase I needed a steady first job and local IT positions were pretty much non-existant. I have been a computer "geek" since the first Pentium, and consider myself extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of PC systems. I was definitely overqualified for the job, even without my A+ rating (which I thought for sure they'd turn me down over...).
I was probably the best (or close to the best) "agent" on the squad as soon as I learned their piece of shit software. The problem was, they were so concentrated on making revenue and churning out computers, it was difficult to spend enough time on a machine to do things 100% the best way without getting kicked in the ass to get it off the bench, although 90% of the computers that were checked in were so incredibly trashed with malware, spyware, (pr0n, etc..) that windows was too trashed to repair w/o a format. Many of those computers were so outdated and missing CD's that in some cases it wasn't possible to find all the drivers for thier generic devices, even in the depths of the internet.
As far as sending computers out for repair by third party vendors like the writer - I HATED seeing computers get shipped out. sometimes, we just sent comptuers out becuase we were too backed up. Some were misdiagnosed on our end, and some, even properly diagnosed, came back unrepaired or worse. The worst part was that >yours truly had to deal with a screaming customer instead of the shitheads who messed it up on one end or the other. Of the 9 or 10 "agents" on our "squad", MAYBE 2 of them (besides myself) REALLY seemed to GENUINELY care about what the customer was going through on the other side of the desk, and consequently caused a lot of shit to happen - the main reason I won't go back...
I will also say we definitly had a problem with techs who were hired either off the sales floor or off the street w/o proper evaluation : We actually had one tech who brought her own computer in for repair after she "coudln't figure it out for the life of (her)". 30 seconds later I had it fixed after I set the jumper on her CDROM correctly.
There is soooo much more I could say, but I'll stop and leave those on the consumer end with some tips dealing with computer repairs:
DUH) GOOGLE your problems first...you save money, and you don't have to read any further
1) Find someone local who works on their own or for a small firm. Your unit will likely get more personal attention and not just be sent through the repair process on a conveyor belt.
2) If you have to go to the geek squad or other group of the like, don't go straight in with your computer. go in ahead of time, and talk to the guys at the bench, and find someone you can trust - leave knowing one of them enough that they know your name and your face.
Ask when their next work shift is and when there is the least amount of traffic, and bring your machine in durring that time.
4) If the tech works often enough that it is reasonable for both of you that ONLY they work on your computer, ASK for such service. It may take longer, but its better to have someone you trust get it done the first time, then have 5 different techs skrew it up. Some "squads" are great at handing computers off - mine wasn't at all - you never know...Best case scenario, you have a guy you can trust to do a good job from now on. Worst case scenario - he can't blame his shit job on somebody else.
5) BACK YOUR STUFF UP BEFORE YOU BRING IT IN, especially if you're having problems that may require restoring your system. It can save you a LOT of money, and a LOT of hastle. Even if the backup is as simple as using the customer's CDRW drive to do the backup, we still charged full price (i hated this with a passion...).
*Yes, we dress like in the ads.**
**Yes, the ties get in the way and we hate them**
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What they repair (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory Office Space Reference (Score:5, Funny)
I've worked the squad (Score:5, Informative)
-In changing over from being a computer sales person to a tech, absolutely no form of test was administered to assess my proficiency before putting me to work formatting people's computers (I could have literally not known how to do this before being assigned to this job.)
-The only training that was administered to me upon transfer to the department was an abysmal program that failed to teach me the ins and outs of the database I would be using (and there were gaps in my knowledge about computer tech work that needed addressing at the time).
-Almost without exception the only thing done by Geek Squad members to computers which were brought in was a reformat and reinstall of the OS. If that didn't work the computer was almost always sent out of the store for weeks on end for repair.
-My boss spent over half of his time at work in various hiding places yakking on his cell phone. He was never held accountable for this.
Eventually my complete disgust with our lack of service, outright hatred of all levels of management and just general dislike of being forced to con people into buying things they don't need drove me to leave. I now work quite happily (at a dollar less an hour) at a locally owned supermarket while I finish me degree. Of every part time job I've ever had (high school included) this was by far the worst.
I could go on about all kinds of other things about Best Buy outside of the context of the Geek Squad but I'll stay on topic. Also, it should be noted that these are only my own experiences working in one store.
The name "Geek Squad" (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The name "Geek Squad" (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but probably not for the same reasons. I wear my geek badge with pride. It's my website and my license plates... What offends me is that these folks, from the sounds of it (I have no personal experience), haven't earned the badge. To me, it's a bit like someone calling themselves a doctor when they haven't been to medical school (or even have a Ph.D. of any sort).
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Quality cost money... (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, there are some people who might say that Geek Squad is overpriced. I don't know what the going rate for tech support is, but it seems to me that Geek Squad is far from a monopoly on tech support, and that people are either happy with the service, or prefer the one-stop Best Buy concept than to open a phone book and look for a place themselves.
A real answer (Score:5, Interesting)
First, I agree that many Geek Squad Agents aren't too bright. However, many are. Where do you think some of the future whatever-you-are's work in high school and college? Yeah, these types of jobs.
I'm lucky that I can say at my store I was surrounded by several other smart guys, and some not so smart guys. Now, occasionally a dumb guy would try to fix something, call it fixed, and mess things up. However, that was an exception rather than the norm. Often the dumb guys would leave stuff in the back with notes on them to have someone smarter look at it :)
You have to really understand the situation these guys are in. On the one hand they've got a stream of customers who (rightly) want their computers fixed. On the other hand they've got managers who don't know anything about fixing computers, and would rather have the Geek Squad guys sell more add-on products than fix things. The managers only care about the bottom line. And only in the short-term.
So often they either have to hurry though something because they're not being "productive" (e.g. not selling enough Norton to people), or don't have the tools / replacement parts to fix things that are broken.
The way replacing parts works is this: If the best buy store sells a comparable part, and the repair is covered under warranty or service plan, then the Geek Squad Agent can pull the part off the shelf, install it, and send the customer home. This only works in a very few cases, unfortunately. Anything else has to go to a vendor for repair. The Agent just diagnoses which part is bad, boxes it up, and sends it out. Again, this isn't because the Agent is incompetant, it's because he's not allowed to fix it.
Now, all software-related problems (drivers, spyware, etc.) are done in-store. They don't ship that stuff out to vendors.
Oh, a note about fixing stuff. It's a common joke to say all that they do is just reinstall windows. In my experience, that's just not the case. However, if you really think about it, often it really is the fastest way to do something. If you're on a tight budget for time, would you rather spend a few hours or days carefully researching and repairing some asinine spyware infestation that's so embedded that no spyware cleaners will remove it, or just spend a couple hours backing up, installing windows, and restoring personal data? It just makes good sense in some cases.
In summary: Geek Squad agents, the smart ones, at least, realize the situation they're in, and try to do the best job they can despite the obstacles thrown in their way by Best Buy and their managers. Before I'm flamed by some Geek Squad employees: I admit that my info is a bit dated. I'm sure some things are done differently now. This is my own experience.
Before I'm flamed by some Best Buy haters: I'm not saying Geek Squad is great, or it's the right thing for everybody. In fact, if you're reading /. and actually reading the comments, then Geek Squad is not a product aimed at you. Bitching about Geek Squad (and services like it) on Slashdot is like a Formula 1 pit crew lead telling an 85 year old lady to change her own oil because Jiffy Lube is a rip off. You entirely miss the point.
response from a geeksquad employee (Score:5, Informative)
i am a member of the geeksquad; I've worked there for a little less than a year, and from my experience, here's what we do.
Essentially, the in-store people do low level work. I'm constantly bored because I'm doing virus removal after virus removal from people who have messed up their computers and no longer know how to get on the internet. The job is redundant and menial and it gets old pretty quickly.
We actually do have a data backup that we try to convince people to do, but generally speaking, they opt out because, yes, our prices are too high. If i could change them, i would, so don't bitch at me.
The main brunt of work that we do though is basic setup (i.e. av install and antispyware install). it's menial dull and boring, and more than half of my time during the day is spent sitting watching little trackbars scrolling across a screen despite the fact that i have an 8 port KVM running full of machines.
From my experience, there are two types of "agents" who work in store as we're forced by SOP to call each other. there are the fairly smart ones, who know what's going on for the most part and can figure out just about anything wrong with a system. then there are the ones who are good with customers. they know nothing about computers, but often they think that they can fix problems. i don't trust them. most of the good agents that i work with also don't trust them, and as such they don't work on computers very often. in the stores which are understaffed, however, there is not this luxury. This is why the geeksquad has such a bad reputation among the ivory tower of computer intellectuals.
In-home and in-office technicians are a bit of a different case; they're at least required to have A+ cert for in-home working, and i'm fairly certain (but don't quote me on this) that the in-office are required to be MCSE. It may not be the same as having a masters or just being an all around badass, but they're at least generally qualified. Some people slide through the cracks in the system, though, and still give the organization a bad name.
I wish the geek squad would have more openings for people like me, though. I'm not certified, but i definately know my way around a system better than anyone I work with. I'm also the youngest at my store by far; I'm just now going to college next year. Basically the deal is that the people I work with are older and don't care as much about making an impression, which I believe is a fatal flaw. They don't want to ensure that management likes them as much because they have become disillusioned with the way the world works.
That's my 2 cents, sorry for the long comment.
The pre-requisites aren't enough... (Score:5, Informative)
1) It doesn't take much to pass. The A+ test consists of two sections (Core hardware and OS technologies), and you really only need a score of 500 to pass for each section to become A+ Certified (which really amounts to getting roughly 50-60 percent of the whole exam correct, a pitiful score). Whether or not you score the bare minimum or got above an 800 on each section, companies only see your certificate, so really you don't know whether the A+ monkey you've hired actually knows much. Hell, I even got A+ certified when I was 15 (I'm 17 now) and managed to get a job as a salesman at Micro Center [microcenter.com], and I didn't even get any hands-on practice (bought a 60-dollar Sybex book and crammed). The concepts are way too basic, and the objectives are messed up. A+ requires you to have knowledge of rarely-implemented concepts such as old motherbboard sockets and the features of really old CPU's (I'm talking 386 here). What the test should concentrate more on is detail on newer material instead of trying to create a catch-all for everything that has happened in IT in the past 20 years.
2) The test is only updated about every 3 years. Since newer computer hardware comes out about every 2 months, people usually have to resort to extra homework-research in order to catch up. Stores like Frys and Best Buy don't really give much training to new material. Only this year did COMPTIA update [comptia.org] the certification objectives to cover new topics such as dual-core processors, which were released 2 years ago.
3) The test has no hands-on material whatsoever. I didn't even know how to use brass standoffs in order to mount a motherboard into a case when I passed this test. When I really got into computers and started doing hands-on stuff by myself (i.e repairing PC's for friends and building PC's), I realized how much I missed out even with the certification. Many certifications today (especially the ones by COMPTIA such as Network+, Linux+, and Security+) don't have much, if any, hands-on objectives during testing. I don't care if you have memorized how many transistors each processor that has been developed in the past two decades have, but if you don't know how to correctly mount a motherboard/ground yourself/RAID multiple hard drives by hand, then you don't know jack shit.
Even with other certifications that broaden their knowledge like Network+ and maybe CCNA, the most important thing is hands-on experience, something that takes a lot more background than cramming a couple of books.
Re:They job is to collect money from (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with "the Geek Squad" and any other computer service (including CompUSA sales for example) is that the pay is so shitty that if an individual actually knows something about computers they won't be working there.
I remember one incident where a customer had brought a network card to the support desk at CompUSA and asked "Does this card support Linux?". The tech answered "Yes, it has Windows NT drivers. Windows NT is like Linux so it will work." The mindboggled stare of the obviously more savvy customer was priceless.
Geek Squad has a great model. People pay them to fix their computers, they break it worse and wipe out the data. Then the people don't have to blame themselves for the data loss, they can blame Geek Squad.
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Re:They job is to collect money from (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, my car is easy to use, but I wouldn't want to fix it myself. I'll leave car repair to the car geeks, and most people should leave computer repair to the computer geeks.
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Re:They job is to collect money from (Score:5, Insightful)
Case in point: my girlfriends father spent over $800 trying to fix a hesitation problem in their old car, before he gave it to my girlfriend. Coils replaced, wires, you name it, they did it. Three or four "techs" looked at it over the course of several months and never did solve it.
They dropped the car off at our house, I took it for a drive and saw the coolant needle drop like a brick as the car hesitated. Pulled over, had her hop in the drivers seat and tell me when it dropped again. Wiggled the wire going into the coolant sensor. *bam* dropped like a rock, and the engine hesitated.
Duh. Engines aren't that complicated these days. Anyone claiming to be an automotive technician should've known instantly what the problem was. $2 for a replacement connector, five minutes of soldering and heat shrinking and the car was fixed.
Cars are easy to use and easy to fix if you know a few basics. I don't trust the average dimwit in the "industry" to touch my cars and I don't trust them to touch my computers.
Both are good fields for everyone to know enough about to know when they're dealing with a moron, or worse are being lied to.
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Re:They job is to collect money from (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:They job is to collect money from (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact, I bet I could pick some random card off the shelf, walk up to Linus Torvalds himself, and ask "does this work with Windows?" and he wouldn't know, and would probably blow me off with the same sort of answer.
And either way, that comparison would be a complete non-sequitor, as Linus doesn't purport to sell hardware. There was a time when minimal knowledge of the product you were selling was a good thing.
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Re:They job is to collect money from (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:They job is to collect money from (Score:5, Insightful)
The quizzical look I got back when I asked them for a copy of their price list (so I could then go cut their prices in half for my own repair services) was priceless. Apparently "comparison shopping" doesn't ring a bell with them, even with the Circuit City half a block down the street.
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Re:They job is to collect money from (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe it was because you were over qualified. Or, more likely, it was because they already had enough interviewable candidates lined up so they dropped your resume in the round file. Or they posted the job and then hired someone based on a current employee's recommendation. Or one of their employees knew you and mentioned that you smell bad, so they decided not to call you. Or the stack of resumes accidentally got destroyed in a freak blimp accident.
Saying a company never called you becase you were over qualified might make you feel better about yourself, but it's almost never the actual reason they never called you.
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Re:Who cares! (Score:5, Insightful)
Moreover, if I were the guy who submitted the ask
That's just the first two reasons I can think of. I'm sure I could think of more.
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Re:Who cares! (Score:5, Interesting)
You can get a brand new computer for cheaper than it costs to repair the broken one. At a certain point it's so cheap to buy a new one that they should just switch the harddrive over and upgrade them. I mean, if they misconfigured windows, so it stopped booting then they need a new harddrive with a new install.
I think it would be easier to just sell a service where they take the contents of your old harddrive and pour it into a directory on a brand new system they sell you for 400 bucks.
Hardware it too cheap to pay to repair it.
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Re:Who cares! (Score:5, Funny)
I care, because they might give geeks a bad name.
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Not just Geek Squad (Score:5, Funny)
Meanwhile I was thinking, "why go to Mexico for software
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Hire good techs and reward them (Score:5, Interesting)
I know a few who will gladly bill $120 - $175 / hour to fix your systems. How much is your data worth? It's certainly not worth $12.50/hr to me or anyone I know.
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You'd be surprised where else (Score:5, Interesting)
You'd be surprised where else you won't find good techs.
E.g., for the last 4 years I've been sorta a permanent consultant/contractor at a big corporation. You'd think that they could afford competent people, right? I mean, when you have tens of thousands of PCs (quite literally), it pays to have them well set up at least, right?
Well, wrong. PCs always routinely came with some stupidly wrong image installed.
E.g., the batch mine was in came with the wrong IDE drivers. Thank goodness Windows didn't use those, but performance was _abysmal_. You wouldn't believe how slow a fairly modern HDD is with NT 4.0's default drivers in PIO mode. Even stuff like switching between applications took seconds. (I assume that NT swapped some of the old app out, or something.)
E.g., they came with Matrox drivers installed... even though they had Nvidia cards.
Now being crazy enough to do the non-standard thing, I did download the right drivers off the internet and got our boss to give us the admin password to install them. But, you know, (A) I shouldn't have to. Wtf is the IT department for, if I have to do that. And (B) I wonder how many peons in other departments just gnash their teeth and put up with a system that performs like a lobotomized 486.
But let's delve a bit further into this madness...
So at some point it was decided to finally upgrade our RAM. So they send two IT drones to open the PCs and replace the RAM sticks. Easy job, right? I mean, right? Well, you wouldn't believe the uphill struggle that it was on every single PC. The problem? The RAM timings on the new sticks were different. So on every single PC, out of a batch of identical PCs, it was starting again from scratch digging into the BIOS and randomly changing stuff until it worked. You'd think they'd at least be able to remember what they did to the first half a dozen PCs by the time they get to the next one.
One coleague was left with a PC which was proclaimed to work after passing POST. Except it froze when trying to load Windows.
It gets better. They couldn't make one PC work at all, so they took it with them. It came back without the extra RAM, but freshly formatted and reinstalled. They fucking deleted that guy's 2 years worth of work instead of installing the RAM, and didn't even do a backup first. (Well, at least the sources were in CVS, but everything else, e.g., emails, documents he's downloaded, etc, wasn't.) How _does_ one end up formatting the hard drive instead of replacing the RAM? I mean, seriously, at which point are they similar or related enough to accidentally do one instead of the other?
And if you thought that the PC drones are the only ones without half a brain, let's just say that we actually have the whole flying circus. We have DBAs who don't know how to admin a database, and have to be told exactly what commands to run on it. (And occasionally do stupid stuff on their own, like disabling XA transactions on a productive Oracle database, because they thought it just takes up memory and doesn't do anything.) We have Unix admins who don't actually know jack about Unix. And I don't mean as in "not experts." I mean they probably haven't even _seen_ a Unix prompt before, and aren't going to start learning now. Etc.
*sigh* Methinks cost cutting is good and fine, but sometimes people should know when to stop. At the point where such clueless monkeys are hired just because they're very cheap... maybe it's already too much.
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Re:What does PCMCIA stand for? (Score:5, Funny)
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Was inspirational, now a cautionary tale (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, before Best Buy sunk its venomous teeth into it, Geek Squad really was. It was started in Minneapolis almost 15 years ago by a guy (Robert Stephens) on a bike. The cars, the image, the attitude of the company was all Robert's ideas. They were doing flat-rate pricing before practically everyone and they had Agents whose technical skills would eat the lunches of everyone on Slashdot. The main Minneapolis newspaper retired the "Best Computer Support" category from their annual "Best Of" issue because Geek Squad destroyed the competition every single year. They were supporting the Rolling Stones, Ice Cube, and scores of Hollywood stars because of the phenomenal service they provided and the general counter-cultural "cool" they oozed (this was before Geeks were vogue). They really were a fine lesson in branding and customer service back then.
I had the great fortune of being one of the first Agents hired after Best Buy purchased the company. My badge number gets awed looks from other Agents as the latest hires are in the 3600s and mine is in the mid 100s. We only had about 70 Agents nationwide at that point (Agent badge numbers are never reused) and the 800-number was still staffed by technically compentent people who actually knew computer repair. I had to go through a difficult technical interview and three personal interviews before I got the job. So did everyone else at that time. No one knew who we were and we had to work fucking hard to prove ourselves to the customers. I worked with brilliant and dedicated people and only answered to the higher-ups in Geek Squad.
Fast forward 4 years to the present. Best Buy had done what every soulless corporation does with a great idea. They commodomized the shit out of it, dilluted the quality with shoddy hiring practices, and drove away the best talent by only looking at the bottom line.
They gave all the jag-offs in the store the Geek Squad uniform and made the old Tech Benches into Geek Squad precincts, even though they were staffed with the same underpaid, uneducated, and lazy "techs" that gave Best Buy such a horrible reputation for computer repair. Us old-schoolers screamed bloody murder we they made this decision 2 years ago because we knew what would happen - our great reputation would be pulled into the mud by these knuckle-draggers. Guess what? IT WAS.
I can fix just about anything, set-up any consumer electronic device to work with any computer, and expertly train anyone on about two dozen diffent software titles. Instead of doing that, I spend most of my time fixing other Agent's fuck-ups and soothing angry customers for "Customer Loyalty". Why? Because I can fix shit properly and I'm good with people. Nowadays, Best Buy store managers hire the on-site Agents and generally look for people who will do their bidding, rather than those who know computers or have demonstrable customer service skills. Most of these new guys won't spend the time to improve their skills or learn new technologies. They either restore or have me do the "hard jobs". And God forbid they should download demo software to learn so they can provide trainings.
Best Buy management has had the worst affect on Agent morale and employee retention. They focus only on scorecards, holding Agents responsible for missed budgets even though the in-store sales team is expected to generate 70% of the revenue, rewarding Agents who unnecessarily rape their customers with preposterous upselling, and generally ignore technically skilled Agents or those who provide outstanding customer service. At the corporate level, overhiring has led to hour slashing that has wiped out my last three pay raises. I'
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