Those outsourced folks are getting worse with what they are advising our clients and it is nearly rivaling Apple with the amount of misinformation given. Examples are of today and not super bad, I just am too tired to remember the worse ones.

1. Clients told us that the call center told them it was cool to just show up without an appointment. We are short staffed with agents still in training.

2. Clients advised to bring in their monitor, keyboard and mouse with their desktop to their appointments.

3. Clients encouraged to bring multiple devices because we can of course diagnose and checkin multiple devices in 20 minutes.

And finally, a few days ago, the call center folks told the clients we can transfer data from one iOS device to another (without iCloud) during a 20 minute consultation.

Hey yo. Sleeper 11 year veteran ARA here. What is up with 1800 geek squad? Trying to get my washer fixed that I bought a 5 year GSP on. Been hung up on twice and transferred to a lemon car lawyer that does not work with GS. Now I gotta go to my old store and convince the manager to junk out my washer. Now I get why customers were always super pissed. What gives?

I have the protection plan and my dryer starting to act out. I called the Geek Squad number and I was given this number to call: 888-472-4861

either I was given the wrong number or I wrote it down incorrectly.

who do I call to get someone to come out to my house?

Hello! I was wondering if there’s any way at all to look up call records from our lovely 800 team.

Hi fellow agents, something weird has been going on. Today I talked to the second client this week that has mentioned that they called the official Geek Squad hotline, only to get transferred eventually to a scam call center which stole their information.

First client that brought this up was earlier this week. He said he had called 1-800-GEEKSQUAD over a printer setup. Some time later, "Geek Squad" called back with a slightly different (but 1-800 number) saying they got "disconnected," and that they needed to reconnect with a remote access program. What's interesting is that when he was called back, the impostors knew what he originally called for: the printer setup. They told the client to go to ######.xyz (I forgot the exact URL, but it was a bunch of letters and numbers), the impostors remoted in, and soon enough began going through the client's bank accounts while he was away from his computer.

Now, I just had a client come in today with a VERY similar story. He called 1-800-GEEKSQUAD over a tune-up, given he has TotalTech. Much like the client from earlier this week, he got "disconnected," they called back, knowing why he had called initially. They had him go to ######.xyz, remoted in, started trying to buy Amazon and Kohl's gift cards.

Is this a known issue with the Geek Squad hotline? Has it been hijacked by scammers? Is there insider business going on here, where legit Geek Squad employees are transferring customers to scam call centers? Who does this need to get reported to, given now this is the second occurrence I've seen of this this week?

Hello, I want to start this off by saying this is in no way shape or form dissing Geek Squad, just sharing my experience and looking for some 3rd party opinions/advice that could possibly get me out of this rough spot I'm in with my PC.

With that being said, I have an OMEN 45L, GeForce RTX 4070, i7 12700K with 16GB RAM with a Samsung - 27” Odyssey FHD IPS 240Hz G-Sync Gaming Monitor. (I know very little about PCs as this is my first one and I've never had problems with it up until now).

I've had this PC since late December 2023, it started giving me problems about 5 days go. Frame drops, ungodly ones. The ones where you're playing that one competitive game and you freeze during PVP, next thing you know your dead type of frame drops. Now this doesn't happen all the time, nor does it happen every time. It's completely random, I run Fortnite with my FPS capped at 240. There are times I've seen it drop in the 60's, there's times I've seen it drop to the 20's. Other times it will be around 150-240. I know sometimes lag can correlate with FPS, but I usually run a steady 0-20 ping and I'm connected directly to my router. I only play one game which is Fortnite which may make it harder to diagnose.

-Contacting Geek Squad

When I initially contacted Geek Squad, I entered a live chat with an agent and set up an appointment at the local Best Buy to have my PC evaluated for hardware issues, corrupted files etc. They had my PC for 2 days. They ran multiple tests on my PC and found a few corrupted files with my drivers and windows. I'll quote the repair notes, "All hardware passed, ran extensive GPU, CPU, RAM, HDD tests. Repaired corrupted windows and driver files, ran all windows, driver, Microsoft store updates. Tested with Fortnite and had consistent 200+ FPS with no big dips. Unit is GTG."

Today, I got a call notifying me that I was able to pick up my PC and that the problem should be resolved. The agent told me if the frames continued dropping, to contact remote support so they can do some tests on my PC since they couldn't do it in store. He also suggested that if the problem is still occurring that it's possible there's something wrong with the way that the PC is communicating to the monitor. I got home and played for a few hours; the FPS still drops like crazy! So, I got ahold of the remote support and told them every detail about what I've been experiencing, and I also told them what the Geek Squad agent already performed on my PC. The agent from the remote team took control of my PC and did his work. He told me he pretty much did the same thing the in-store agent did. I didn't ask too far in depth of what he did, all he said was that he made sure my drivers and windows was up to date. That took him a half an hour to complete, I asked him if the problem was resolved, and he ensured me that it was, he then instructed me to wait 10-15 minutes, restart my PC and give the game a shot. I then thanked him and hung up the phone. I restarted my PC, ran a few games and what do you know? Frame drops are still there. By that point I was getting a little disappointed.

This was his note he left on my case, "Today I ensured your drivers and windows updates fully functional and up to date." This is exactly what I told them the in-store agent already did to my PC. I don't know what to do from here, from the looks of it I'm not too sure if I'm going to get a direct answer as to what the problem is. I'm not too sure if there's any other tests that they can run on my PC to find a problem, maybe the problem is undetectable on their behalf? I would love to hear input from any Geek Squad agents and community members as I would like to get this problem solved. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope to see some feedback.

I’ve been working at McDonald’s for about a year and have been desperately wanting a better job with more pay. And I’ve had my eye on Best Buy in general, is geek squad also worth joining??

I wanted to follow up because couple months ago when i was thinking about quitting you guys suggested staying as a flex employee which helped a lot.

I ended up leavening because I got another job. And I have nothing bad to say about geek squad as a whole it was super fun and I definitely recommend it as a job to anyone who needs customer service experience.

Even after being there for about 6months I still think nova is the biggest pos ever and needs a revamp, but to anyone thinking about quitting cause its hard just stick it out.

Open to questions in the comments. Cheers

Our market and the ones nearby are testing out a new “model” for Geek Squad. There are around 42 stores testing this new model in two weeks. They gave us two weeks notice that we will be operating as an “intake” facility. Geek Squad is apparently losing millions of dollars per year and this is a sudden and desperate move by Best Buy.

In two weeks:

1)NO MORE SENIOR AGENTS at non-hub stores. I will be losing my position as Senior after years of excellent performance, 5 plaques on the wall for quarterly MVP, and double digit employee of the months. They did not offer severance. The offered me a sales position as a leader (shift lead) or CA. I will be losing my leadership benefits and experience. After running the precinct for years and turning this geek squad into one of the top 20 in the country YoY, this is a slap in the face.

2)NO MORE BACK OF PRECINCT at non-hub stores. In store repairs are gone at our location and this micromarket now has only one geek squad that can check in devices. ONE CA will be running the counter and when someone comes in who requires a check in, we will create an in take form and tell them to drive to our hub location instead, which is about 15-20 mins away. Ara’s were offered a job at the hub location. If you don’t drive, you don’t have a job. Also, not everyone was offered a job.

3) NEW JOB CODE for CAs to spend all downtime on the sales floor selling product and memberships.

This is a major hit to us and our precincts. To spend years developing agents and performing the way we did, with the friends we made, and then have it dismantled under the guise of “positive changes” is crazy. Losing my leadership positions along with all my ARA’s hurts. I have officially fully lost faith in this company.

Hey, so the post explains it all, I applied for geek squad because i build computers as a hobby and thought it'd be a good way to support myself while i go to school for software design.I thought that it would help me learn to deal with my social anxiety but its been getting worse.I have never had a retail position before and these past few days have given me so much respect for all retail workers. Today is my 3rd day and I'm honestly thinking about putting in my weeks notice. I know it takes time to get situated in any position but THIS IS HARD!

I spent 30 minutes helping someone make an apple account for their daughter yesterday, luckily there were no other customers waiting but once I finished helping them i forgot to charge them. Thankfully my Chief was super supportive and told me how to handle it next time. Another agent told me it'd take me around 6 months to feel comfortable but still i feel very overwhelmed and get extremely anxious when i have to help someone. Do you guys have any tips for this? Should I just stick it out?All of my past jobs were either labor or only working with a handful of employees that id see every day.I'd like to succeed in this position but i honestly dont think im built for it. Thanks for the read/ letting me vent and thank you in advance for any advice

TL;DR: Im super anxious and don't think im cut out for GeekSquad

UPDATE AFTER 3RD DAY: WOW! Thank you all so so much! And thank you to my coworkers!!
You guys, I have never in my life felt so welcomed by a community. I led the cheer this morning (gave me a lot of anxiety lol) and was able to get more comfortable at the counter! I communicated how i was feeling with the other agents and sales associates I was working with, they each took their time to help me understand the systems in place and how the job functions. The anxiety was still very real but just knowing I could take a breath, calm down and lean on my co-workers, really helped.

Again thank you guys, today was tough but it was manageable, thanks to your comments and my co-workers!

2nd TL;DR: You guys are great thank you so much!

Hi all,

I’m considering a role as a Geek Squad Consultation Agent (CA**)** and wanted to get some real-world insight from those who’ve worked the job (or still do).

A little about me:

• I recently earned my CompTIA A+ certification

• I have a background in customer service and the military (Non IT related)

• I’m looking to build a long-term career in IT, and was hoping this role would help me gain hands-on experience troubleshooting and repairing tech

That said, I’ve seen some posts here saying the CA role is more focused on upselling memberships and customer intake, and less about actual tech work. I don’t mind helping customers, but I’m hoping to grow my technical skills and not get stuck in a purely sales role.

For anyone who's done the job:

• What’s the real day-to-day like?

• How much actual tech troubleshooting do CAs get to do?

• How long does it typically take to move up to ARA (Advanced Repair Agent)?

• If your goal was IT, did this job actually help you get there?

• And finally — should I just try applying directly for ARA positions instead?

Appreciate any honest feedback — trying to make the best choice for my path into tech. Thanks in advance!

Some Preface:

I currently work as a software developer, and I absolutely love my work. However, I've always had a sweet spot for hardware repair. I originally went to a technical college to study computer repair, but decided software was more lucrative.

While I was in college for my degree (CIT), I worked fulltime in help desk positions and networking support (specifically VoIP). I know I'm not the biggest fan of the constant on-the-phone positions like help desk. What I really want to do is computer repair. So, I've decided I want a part-time (weekend only) gig in computer repair. I may eventually bump that up to Friday, Saturday, Sunday as I move to my next software position which will likely be a 4-day work week.

With that preface out of the way:

I've decided to apply to a position with BestBuy GeekSquad. They seem to be open on the weekends. It also seems like they allow part time, but do they frown upon it? Is it something that's going to harm my ability to land a position with them?

Also, to you people who work at GeekSquad, how much of your day is customer facing? Is it a pretty healthy split? Or are you mostly just taking in new tickets all day? The 'underpaid' argument I see floated around a lot about GS isn't really a concern of mine, as I'm really not doing this for my main income.

If you think BestBuy is a terrible idea, do you have any ideas of position titles I could look into? I was struggling to find anything relevant on job hunting sites like Indeed.

Thanks for any advice you can give! :)

So I joined geek squad about 5 months ago as a PT CA for the first month or two my manager was very impressed and said I was one of the best CAs he’s had. That made me feel pretty good. However over the past couple months my numbers aren’t the best but they aren’t terrible and my manager tends to say that I need to improve, however in my precinct I’m the only one that does func checks shipping/receiving, cleaning, dusting, etc. my manager tends to look past these things and only praised my co workers because they get totals. I’ve brought it up to him a couple times however I just can’t seem to justify why I would be getting told I need to improve. I also have never messed up a check in (it will happen eventually) and I tend to spend time with clients and try to really get a understanding of their issue however the other agents tend to only help clients if they know fs they will get total. Anyone got any ideas what to do?

I've seen agents that have been working here for 10+ years, know so much about IT work and even have certifications. Why would you stay at Geek Squad for near minimum wage, capped at around 19 or 20 dollars I'm guessing, when that experience and knowledge could get you a job at any IT place potentially making double?

I'm looking for a new job. I have two years of experience in food service and I'm studying CS.

I want to know what it's like just starting to work at Geek Squad for a story I'm writing that I want to be accurate and detailed as possible

As a sleeper agent, hearing the news today broke my heart. Im sorry this happened and I ust wanted to throw some advice out there for those who need it.

I started as computer sales, moved to CA, then ARA, left GeekSquad to work for an MSP, and to this day, I still work in corporate IT.

During my interview after Geek Squad, my hiring manager said: “You used to work at Geek Squad? Good, we need someone who knows how to work with people - we can teach you the more advanced tech stuff later.”

If you plan to stay on the IT/Tech career path, your knowledge of how to professionally work with people is more valuable than you realize and you WILL find another - even better - job in the field again.

1. Update your LinkedIn. Recruiters love reaching out to ex-Geek Squad employees. Make sure to include your knowledge of computers, software, and other consumer hardware. The IT space loves it when you know about up-to-date tech!

2. Remember our old mantra of "Never say I don't know; instead, say I'll find out." This skill is incredibly useful in the tech space, especially during interviews. IT Managers like to know that you are self-sufficient.

3. People skills are a HUGE part of working in most IT Support roles. When I joined my first major MSP, they said the hardest part about hiring techs was finding people who had decent people skills - which are much harder to teach than tech skills. Make sure to include on your resume how you helped literally hundreds of different people and adapted to so many different situations. Clients who were angry about defective products, happy about getting their first PC, sad about losing priceless photos and documents, frustrated about not knowing how to set up their brand new computer - all of this happens everywhere in every company, just on a smaller scale! Your exposure is a huge plus.

4. Get some free certifications! And if you can't afford the cost of the paid certifications, just learn the content, take free practice exams, and include on your resume that you are still in the progress of earning said certs. Hiring managers love to hear that you are actively learning and WILL test you on what you've learned so far. Just because you can't take the test doesn't mean you can't still learn the material! There are TONS of free resources on YouTube alone for all CompTIA courses.

I don't want to seem like an expert or anything; I just wanted to share what has worked for me after I left Geek Squad. I hope this helps at least one person, and I'd be happy to answer questions when I have time. Good luck to all the agents affected today.

Aside from the general retail issues. What do you like and dislike working as geek squad? How is the work for the advance agent position?

I just applied for part-time gs ara position. Mostly doing this for the discount and to have a change of pace from my day job for the fall/winter season.