Geek Squad, your service sucks, but that's for the new tablet PC | The Coffeehouse

alwaysmc2
It's not stupid; It's advanced!

I bought a Toshiba Satellite r15 Tablet PC from Best Buy last year. I also got the extended warranty.

here's a list of incidences that I sent it in to be fixed.

1) It wouldn't wake up from sleep.
2) It came back from Geek Squad with the screen out of place, and a dent in the corner. (Someone had obviously dropped it.)
3) The power adapter broke.
4) The power port in the back of the laptop broke because the replacement power adapter Best Buy gave me was horrible.

Geek Squad has a no lemon policy. That means if you send it in to get repaired three times, on the fourth time it needs to be sent in you get your money back or a different laptop at the same price (you pay the difference if the new laptop costs more.)

The power adapter doesn't count towards the policy, but...

5) After 36 days of being gone, I get my tablet back and it's not fixed.

I'm going to bring everything back to Best Buy later and get my new tablet! Big Smile

So, Geek Squad, your service sucks, but that's for the new tablet PC

Who wants to share their encounters with Geek Squad?

Cornelius Ellsonpeter

But they drive cool vehicles!

I don't have any experience with them, although I remember applying to them once for a job. I had the feeling very early on in the phone conversation that it would be a match made in...[6]

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

alwaysmc2 wrote:
Who wants to share their encounters with Geek Squad?

I haven't had one, but I've had a much worse one with Toshiba, the makers of your laptop (and mine).

Basically, the screen hinge got loose (a common complaint in first-generation M4s) as well a few other superficial issues. I sent it in, first they quoted me £120 for something not covered by warranty that should cost no more than £20 even though I said I only wanted a quote and that everything else was covered. After getting that sorted out nothing happened until the 4th week, when they told me they didn't have a replacement screen mask in stock.

Not much happened, but I called regularly, and they kept changing their ETAs. By the 70th day I phoned Toshiba directly and threatened Small Claims Court action, I finally got somewhere.

By the 100th day I had a brand new second generation M4, free spare battery (in addition to the battery I saved from the one I sent in), and a free docking station (the big £300 one).

Of course, it's wiser to get a warranty agreement from the OEM and not a third-party, otherwise there's accountability.

Red5
Systems Manager Curmudgen

I used to enjoy shopping/browsing at BestBuy.
Not anymore. Now I can't stand it there.
The workers in the store are constantly on your back asking if you need assistance, and are never there when you actually do. The few times I had a technical question, the give you the deer in the headlights look and either make something up or call in someone else who knows nothing as well.
I have had far better experiences at Circuit City and CompUSA than "Worst" Buy.

I'm praying I don't have the same issues W3b did. I have the exact same model.[A]

blowdart
Peek-a-boo

Am I the only one that likes to go into these stores and when approached make up technical things to ask for?

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

blowdart wrote:
Am I the only one that likes to go into these stores and when approached make up technical things to ask for?

Aaah

jb43081

I've only had one experience, and it was before the "Geek Squad" brand.

I bought some memory for my PC. They had a deal going where they would install it for free. I thought that was cool since it would be one less thing I would have to do. I'm not sure what they did, but the mother board was damaged somehow and the thing never worked right again. Their diagnostic even said as much, but they took no responsibility for it.

Red5
Systems Manager Curmudgen

I think this LINK was posted before in the coffeehouse, but it seems apropos to reference it again here.
Improv Everywhere, we cause scenes.

SoBe8503

I registered here just for this topic. I actually used to work at the Geek Squad in a Best Buy. I do want to warn everyone, that they do rip you off. BUT, don't blame the techs. The techs I worked with were very smart and knew exactley what they were doing. It was management that cuased the poor service. You see, the geek squad department provides the strore with pure profit, so the managers want to get as much out of it as possible. This pissed me off beyond all belief, but i needed the money so i couldn't complain too much. To ease my conscience, whenever someone came in for a huge problem, I always did a little extra for them. Like doing a few of the "Agent Tweaks" for free, or training them on a few things so they didn't have to come back. Half of the time i did stuff for free. I didn't feel right charging a $59 diagnostics fee and a $29 System optimization fee to go into msconfig and stop a certain service from starting on boot. This pissed off the managers, but i just pointed out that those same customers came back specifically for me and paid more money. So please don't just group the entire geek squad staff, or even the bestbuy staff. Most of us know what we are doing. If you want to be mad at someone, egg the managers' cars or something. It's all their fault anyways.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

blowdart wrote:
Am I the only one that likes to go into these stores and when approached make up technical things to ask for?

Back in the day Personal Computer Magazine did a test: they went to 16 different computer stores and asked what EDO-RAM and Pipelined Burst Cache were (both brand new at the time). They got only one correct answer.

If you really want to get them nervous, ask them if it works on Linux. Smiley

youcantdotheopt

In reply to SoBe8503

#Oct 18th, 2006 @ 9:51 AM

You can't do the optimization on your own though, there are microsoft employees who have seen this software and agree that it's not possible, they also say if it were possible, it would take 6 hours of manually editing over 250 registry tweaks to do it. Here is the list of tweaks in the optimization to show you what i mean.

Agent Tweaks

This tweak was designed to enhance the performance of a client’s computer, while at the same time keeping the basic familiarity of the system intact for them.

System Performance

Start Menu

Benefit: Decreases the delay of showing menus from 400 to 80 (milliseconds)

Cache for Customized Folders

Benefit: Increases the amount of folders a user can customize from 400 (pre-SP2) to 5000

Note: SP2 also addresses this issue and its default setting is 5000

Icon Cache Size

Benefit: Increases the icon cache from 500KB (default, if present) to 2048KB to help prevent icons from redrawing or that are corrupt. This also adds an option within “Folder Options” for the client to select which setting works best for them. Folder Options -> View Tab -> Advanced Settings -> Icon Cache Size

Prioritization of IRQs (Specifically CMOS/Real Time Clock)

Benefit: Increases I/O of the system

Optimize Processor Time on the System

Benefit: Foreground processes get three times as much processor time as do background processes. Note: Applying this to either SQL Server or Internet Information Server (IIS) will slow down these Background Processes.

Window Prefetcher Service

Benefit: Help shorten the amount of time it takes to start programs by fetching and storing commonly used files ensures default setting [3(hex)] is activated to allow pre-fetching of both application launch and boot

Accelerate Termination of Hung User Processes Wait Time

Benefit: Lowers the time the system waits for user processes to end after the user clicks the End Task command button in Task Manager from 5000 to 3000 (milliseconds)

Unload DLLs

Benefit: Forces Windows to unload DLLs from memory

Common Startup Items

Benefit: Prevents certain programs from loading when Windows boots

Start Up & Shut Down

Automate Boot Disk Optimization

Benefit: Optimize the disk on boot ensures default setting (“Y”) is enabled

Automatic Termination of Processes at Shut Down

Benefit: Forces user processes to end automatically when user logs off or shuts down

Accelerate Termination of Processes/Services at Shut Down

Benefit: Lowers the time the system waits for user processes to end when the user logs off or shuts down from 20000 to 3000 (milliseconds). Lowers the time the system waits for a service stop from 20000 to 5000 (milliseconds). Windows will still ask the user what to do (stop or wait for the task to end)

Visual Enhancements

Language Bar

Benefit: Removes the Language Bar and allows the client to preserve a configured desktop layout

Visual Effects

Benefit: The tweaks above modify the Visual Effects – It will disable (and uncheck) all of the settings *EXCEPT*

- Smooth edges of screen fonts

- Use a background image for folder type

- Use common tasks in folders

- Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop

- Use visual styles on windows and buttons

Commonly Used Icons on Desktop

Benefit: The seven tweaks above place the My Computer, My Documents, and Internet Explorer icons on the users desktop. It also places the My Computer icon in the upper left hand corner followed by My Documents and the Internet Explorer – provided this portion of the grid isn’t occupied by other icons

Status and Address Bar

Benefit: Will show the Status Bar and the Address Bar within Windows Explorer

Note: Showing the Address Bar takes advantage of the default setting “Display the full path in the address bar”

Thumbnail Images

Benefit: Increases the quality of thumbnail images 90% to 100% and their sizes from 96 (pixels) to 128

System Storage

Recycle Bin

Benefit: Lowers the maximum size of the Recycle Bin from 10% to 2% of each drive and uses this setting for all drives. Allows for the Recycle Bin to be renamed.

System Restore

Benefit: Lowers the amount of disk space used by the System Restore from 12% to 6%

Services

Disable Messenger Service

Benefit: Disables Messenger Service which can be used to deploy unsolicited advertising pop-ups

Note: This is NOT MSN Instant Messenger

Disable Indexing Service:

Benefit: Disables Indexing Service which when enabled can speed up local searching, but slow down many other aspects

Internet Explorer

Internet Connection Wizard

Benefit: Bypasses the Internet Connection Wizard the first time that you use IE

Simultaneous Download Sessions

Benefit: Increases the number of simultaneous connections from 2 to 10

Security Alert

Benefit: Will suppress the Security Alert windows when a user goes to or leaves a secure web site within IE

Block Access to Known Bad Sites

Benefit: Adds protection against 17513 known bad sites by not allowing you to browse them.

Disable Reusing of Windows

Benefit: Automatically allows a new window to be spawned when a shortcut is opened

Keyword Search

Benefit: Adds the capability of searching various sites via IE’s address bar

Advanced Privacy Setting: Cookies

Benefit: These tweaks modify the advanced privacy settings to handle cookies better

Temporary Internet Files (TIF) and History

Benefit: The eight tweaks above modify TIF and History Values

- TIF Folder = 50MB (51.2MB)

- TIF Settings (Check for newer version of stored pages:) = Automatic

- History (Days to keep pages in history:) = 7

Security

Alexa

Benefit: Removes the Alexa extension

Network

Speed Up Network Browsing

Benefit: Will disable checking for other computer’s scheduled tasks

QoS Packet Scheduling

Benefit: Reduces the aggregate amount of bandwidth programs can reserve from 20% to 0%

Caching of Failed DNS Lookups

Benefit: Lowers the DNS cache timeout for positive responses from 86,400 seconds (1 day) to 43,200 seconds (12 hours) and disables the caching or failed DNS lookups

Other

Search Options

Benefit: Turns off the animate search assistant. Ensures that the “Search System Folders”, “Search Hidden Files and Folders”, and “Search Subfolders” options are enabled. Enables the Windows search feature to include all file types, like unregistered file types, in its query

Open Command Window Here

Benefit: Adds the “Open Command Window Here” option to the context menu of system folders. This allows for the command window to quickly open and point to the selected folder

Windows XP Tour

Benefit: Suppresses the Windows XP Tour balloon prompts

Desktop Cleanup Wizard

Benefit: Disables the Desktop Cleanup Wizard

System Failure

Benefit: This will disable an automatic restart after a system failure (BSOD).

Windows Media Player

Benefit: Enables WMP to play DVDs provided that the client has hardware to support DVDs

Benefit: For Clients using WMP9 and earlier, this adds the capability of ripping musing using .mp3 format. It also changes the default format name of “mp3” to “MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3 (MP3)” on all WMP versions.

Note: The bit rates are 128Kbps, 192Kbps, 256Kbps, and 320Kbps

Benefit: The first two values ensure that the “Set clock on devices automatically” setting (v10 only) is enabled and that the “Acquire licenses automatically for protected content” setting (v9/10 only) is disabled so the user knows when licenses are being requested/acquired. The last two values ensure that the “Automatic Update” setting of WMP is set to “Once a week” and that “Download codecs automatically” (v9/10 only) is disabled so the user knows when codecs are being requested/downloaded.

AVI Files

Benefit: Speeds up the access of AVI folders as well as makes the renaming and deletion of AVIs easier

Accessibility Options

Benefit: These three tweaks disable the shortcuts to enable StickyKeys, FilterKeys, and ToggleKeys

Windows Automatic Updates

Benefit: Ensures Automatic Updates is set to “Automatic (recommended)”

USB 2.0 Power Drain Fix

Benefit: Addresses the below symptom as posted in KB899179. This does NOT fix the issue 100% of the time, but at this time Microsoft does not have a patch for it. – March 6^th, 2006

PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

In reply to youcantdotheopt

#Apr 7th @ 9:15 AM

I'm sure you had a very valid point, but right now I definitely fail to see it Sad

GoddersUK
I CAN has cheezburger and you CAN'T has stop me!

In reply to PaoloM

#Apr 7th @ 9:57 AM

GeekSquad MiniTrue a bit late on the disaster control there Tongue Out

EDIT: At least one of those "optimisations" was ensuring a default setting was enabled Perplexed

AndyC

In reply to GoddersUK

#Apr 7th @ 12:08 PM

They're pretty much all well documented changes, and a few of them (such as Accelerating termination of processes/services at shutdown) are a very bad idea.