I got an email with a letter attached that I foolishly opened, saying I was going to be charged almost $500 dollars for a renewal of services. I called the number on the letter to cancel. They said they were going to email me some forms to fill out to cancel, and I realized it was a scam and hung up. I then noticed a small typo in the letter confirming to me it was a scam email.
I wanted to alert the real Best Buy Geek squad so I googled it to find the phone number. I clicked on the link and called the number. I talked to someone there, and gave them remote access to my computer for like 40 min so they could “run a scan”. They then told me they found banking security breaches and a “Trojan horse” (but spelled wrong) and they said they would have to come out and install something on on my router for 10 days and then take it back, but I would have to pay a $900 security deposit on the equipment. I then realized that I was talking to more/ the same scammers and hung up.
I did finally talk to the real Geek squad and showed them the email, the fake website I was redirected to when I tried to contact them, and the software I downloaded to give them remote access.
How bad is this?? If they didn’t already take money out of my back accounts already, do they not have access? Was the scam only to get money from people paying the deposit of the equipment to “monitor and fix” the “breech” they “found”? I’m worried it’s something more sophisticated since they were able to redirect me to the fake Geek Squad website. Do I throw out the whole computer? Cancel my bank accounts?? Can someone please give me some advice? I’m super scared and worried. Do I need to freeze my credit? They had remote access to my computer for a while, but it did look like they were just doing a scan of some sort. Thank you so much.
Let me preface this by saying I was helping three customers as the only CA available at the time this occurred. When I was able to ask the 3rd customer what their question was, they explained they purchased a speaker from Best Buy and couldn’t get it to work with their laptop.
Generally speaking we should charge for any service at the front of geek squad for clients without an active membership, but it can also be at the agents discretion based on the work performed. I basically explained to the client “yes, we can assist with troubleshooting the speaker, but it will be a wait as I’m currently helping these appointments. If you decide to wait and we are able to resolve your issue, there will be a service fee of $39.99”. He then decided it wasn’t worth it and went to return the speaker at customer service.
Later on, the realization dawned on me. If you purchase something at target or any other big box store, do you bring it to an associate and ask them to help troubshoot the product or set it up? No, you ask someone you know or just return the darn thing. Since Best Buy has Geek Squad, it’s the expectation that we help the client figure their tech out just because it was purchased at Best Buy; without paying for the service itself on top of it.
The moral of the story is, once I realized this, I stopped caring so much about charging clients for those “quick fixes” and now just make it as part of the disclaimer when they first come into the line, so that expectation is set. The entitlement of some (not all) customers is unreal sometimes, especially when they see you’re the only one working and are flabbergasted at the concept of being charged for help.