I Took My PC to Geek Squad for a “Tune-Up”

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In many areas, GeekSquad is the only recognizable name in the PC Repair game. Is getting your computer tuned up at your local BestBuy actually worth the money?

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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova

Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
1:44 The Drop-Off
2:12 What's in a Tune-up?
3:40 Ain't got no RGB
5:46 Don't do this
7:21 Taking out the Trash
8:17 Clicking Next
8:41 Was it Worth it?
11:08 Outro

[vogueisdeath]

Is the color grading in this video on purpose?

[DreadedLad]

As a former Geek Squad employee, it just like any chain.... The results you get are dependent on the quality of employees at that store.

[jackmiller]

I think the whole community would appreciate a “system clean up” tutorial from LTT

[Mike-cemy]

iCue also works for Corsair's peripherals (headsets, etc). I wouldn't have removed it either just in case the customer had one of those.

[Flygodzlife]

ICUE could have been for a keyboard or mouse that was perhaps not plugged it. I think its fair they didn't mention it.

[ilkerYT]

4:10 lets not forget that the customer can have a keyboard/mouse/headset from Corsair at home that needs/benefits from Icue.

[SethanderWald]

In regards to the Corsair software not being removed, I think that's actually a good call. Sure, the case might not have rgb. But what about peripherals?

[honordevs]

As a PSA: Geek Squads are extremely different, depending on where you go. I worked for one while obtaining computer sci degree and my boss was a tenured employee who had multiple network security certifications. We, naturally, were excited to see "weird" cases and dug into them. Some malware, we even (yes, illegally), took home and reverse-engineered. He got me into security, where I am today. We did everything we would do for our own computers, to the clients, and they loved us. We took more time with people than we were "supposed to" because we genuinely loved explaining computer stuff to laymens.

Fast forward a bit, my wife wanted to go from being a teacher to web development. I told her to build a base in computer support and she started in Geek Squad. That place was absolutely moronic. Their GSM was fired and a new one hired, twice. They had someone that they couldn't fire for "legal reasons" and he did nothing. I spoke with the agents, while dropping her off, and found that none of them knew anything about computers. It was a complete 180 from where I started.

So, yeah, Geek Squad is great... If you get the right one. Sometimes you can have far over-qualified agents like I had on my team; sometimes you can have random kids on the street that don't want to be there and do a very sub-par job.

[ahmedshaltout]

as someone who does not live in the States, i just spent a whole video realizing for the first time that The Nerd Herd and the store "Buy More" from the show Chuck was based on the geek squad from Best Buy Stores.. and even realized the whole premise of the show "Chuck" being about him being a secret agent was inspired by the fact that Geek Squad employees are called agents.

[iviaverick]

I'm a former GeekSquad ARA (Advanced Repair Agent). and honestly, many of the guys who work there know a LOT. To the same tune, some GeekSquad employees are clueless, and merely click the start button on their automated cleanup utilities and call it a day.

[RSMrPony]

I'm a current employee of geeksquad working as an in home pc agent, i appreciate this video, most of us agree with everything stated in this video, corporate stops us from doing most things that dont follow SOP, but we always try to make the client our highest priority and do everything we can to ensure the service is done to their standards.

[LOLBROGAMER]

As an ex Best Buy employee, I can say that Geek Squad does have passionate computer nerds, and they were the ones who always delivered the best experiences to customers. There were also the fair share of "normies" who didn't know anything about technology at all who were hired on as well, and although you go through multiple online trainings (that a lot of people just skipped through and texted on their phone for most of it) doesn't really teach them anything or give them the motivation/passion/knowledge to do a good job. Again, this was just at the store I worked at, and all the comments saying "It really depends on the store" is super true. I will also say, at my store there wasn't really much of "following the script" outside of trying to sell Total Techs, protection plans, etc. I mostly had free reign on what I was allowed to say, recommend, etc.

Also, the ICUE thing Linus mentioned is kinda unfair. If they were to delete it or disable it on startup, and the customer has a Corsair keyboard/mouse/headset/etc, then their settings are messed up and their hardware will be wacky. But also informing the customer that, "Hey, Corsair products use ICUE and ICUE slows down your PC." is a quick way to make a customer not want to buy Corsair products anymore which is not a great thing to do at a Tech store. Which is kind of unfair to Corsair since ICUE doesn't have a noticable impact unless you're on a lower end device.
The best thing to do, would be to ask if they have any Corsair peripherals and then if they don't tell them that, "I'd recommend deleting the ICUE software as it's unnecessary if you don't have any Corsair products."
Still something a little over the top to test Geek Squad for when there are so many factors and complexities, especially if it is a mother or grandmother bringing in a PC for their kids who don't really know much about their kid's setups.

[Finians_Mancave]

I'm semi-retired now, but not too long ago I ran a corporate IT Help Desk and fixed PCs as a side gig. While watching the video, two things stood out (Actually I'd call them glaring omissions) from this Best Buy "tune up" report: First, I'm surprised neither BB nor Linus mentioned the low amount of free space available on the PC main drive: 60GB out of 953GB (Just over 6%)! That should have been one of the first things addressed, or at the very least mentioned to the user (If the PC wasn't exhibiting signs of low disk space now, it most certainly would be in the near future)! Diagnosis: General rule of thumb - Don't let your HD fill up to 90% capacity. Weird behavior will ensue. Offload programs and data now! Oh, you don't have an external drive? Let me show you what we have in stock. There are a few models I can recommend (See how this thorough attitude benefits Best Buy?)...

Secondly, there's no mention of a physical inspection of the PC's interior. Even a "basic" tune-up would include this. I can't recall how many times I've opened a PC case to find it suffocating from dust bunnies! Diagnosis: Clogged vents = overheating. Weird behavior will ensue. Blow it out with canned air. (And while you're there, inspect components and cable connections).

So yeah, these are just two (major issues) that stood out!

[jamieburch]

I worked for GeekSquad for almost 10 years as an on-site business tech (Special Agent) and as one of the most experienced in store techs (Advanced Repair Agent). While I agree that most "registry cleanups" are just plain silly, there are actually some serious performance issues that can happen as a result of bad registry entries. There are corrupt/missing shell extensions that can make your right click context menu take AGES to open. There are invalid driver entries that can slow down the system while booting. There are often references to missing MSI files that can cause software updates to fail. While it may be a minority of cases, I would have at least one machine a month come across my bench that legitimately benefited from having some of these registry issues cleaned up.

[Subawuu]

This made me happy to see a video about my previous experiences. I was a Advanced Repair Agent for 3 years and everything you said hit close to home. One thing about each location is I would say the quality of work you get is how knowledgable the invididual is. I worked at various locations and in most cases your GSM (Geek Squad Manager) is not very hands on and just really care about metrics rather than quality unfortunately. If your NPS is low than they start nit-picking your work. I am sorry that your Agent didn't perform the service correctly, I wish it could have been me working on your PC!! Most of the clientele at Geek Squad is older folks so there knowledge for computers is pretty non-existant which makes them a perfect client for Geek Squad.

[Grimlak]

I worked as a GS consultation agent for 5 years and can completely confirm this is all true. I was lucky enough to have a progressive manager and our “precinct” was mostly talented people who were passionate about tech. GS agents who are really knowledgable do exist and I would honestly say are the norm.

[kylianthehylian]

when I worked geek squad, we definitely took some liberties when it came to fixing computers aka, we didn't always stick to the "approved" list of programs. The tech lead would often turn a blind eye cause he knew we knew what we were doing and would often have it back to the customer working much better than what they walked in with. It's all about who you get as a tech cause it's a mixed bag.

[apatheticwizard]

I'm currently a repair agent at Geek Squad, and as you said in the video it's a coinflip based on the actual agents working there. Some stores are bogged down by the sheer volume of PCs and other things such as iPhone repairs(Which basically rips us away from PC/Mac repairs because they HAVE to be done IMMEDIATELY if they come in before a cutoff time near closing time), or management/corporate forcing a bunch of excess paperwork that literally means nothing or is repeats of things we already put in detail in the closing notes.

We usually use plenty of software that isn't actually "approved" because MRI is a fossil at this point and is only useful for a two or three applications in it that are still updated on it. We generally try our best to get what the client wants done with their PC but there's often a lot of red tape from management/corporate, or miscommunication(sometimes, NO communication) from the client or the agent who checked in the device being untrained(99/100 times, the guys and girls at the counter know barely ANYTHING about PC repair and they are ONLY supposed to get info from the client for checking in. They are not supposed to troubleshoot on the counter) or unwilling to do their job correctly because they're paid the same as a blueshirt cashier but given much much more responsibility/pressure.

Some of us just want to fix people's computers man, BestBuy just doesn't let us.

[ChrisTitusTech]

I used to work for Best Buy in 2001-2006 when Geek Squad was acquired. My Cosplay number was "2667" and I had the titles of CIA, Double Agent, Special Agent (both with Badges), and then finished my time there as a DFM "Deputy Field Marshall". It's a bit sad they haven't updated many of these tools and they are still doing registry cleanings. However, I'd mention they were sued by Winternals (Systernals of today) in 2006 and lost millions.
Once upon a time, the Geek Squad had independent stores that had wonderful training and service. Robert Stevens had a huge hand in this and I was flown to Minnesota several times to get training during the transition period. They even paid for the first 3 professional certifications I received in my career, with one being a MacOS certification at the BBY corporate campus when they partnered with Apple. Now adays, it is definitely luck of the draw with little to no training being done, but it wasn't always like that. As a special agent, I was able to get tons of experience with server 2000, 2003 and see tons of business from SMBs to medium sized businesses.
Glad to see they didn't completely drop the ball on this one. I did enjoy my time working for them at the start of my career.

[nathansautodetail]

I work at an independent shop. I often get customers that come in that the Geek Squad referred to us because they couldn't handle it. I also get a lot of customers coming in unhappy with the service from the Geek Squad. They also apparently send off a lot of stuff because I get customers in because their computer was going to be shipped out by Geek Squad to be repaired. We do all our repairs in the shop. We may have to order parts, but the computer stays with us.