Hey, I'm looking to get my thermal paste renewed and a nice dusting on my laptop. I want to call them directly so I can ask them personally without having to get an uber to get there only to have them say no.

So is that possible? The call center is pretty difficult to navigate as im sure you're aware.

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.