I Asked Best Buy to Fix my PC… They FAILED - Geek Squad vs Mom & Pop Shop

[@LinusTechTips]

Thanks OriginPC for sponsoring today's video! Enter for your chance to win an OriginPC Neuron pre-built PC at bit.ly/originpc-ltt-mp

[@kazi1]

Hi

[@kymdrbkd]

first

[@elliott7757]

no

[@plaguegaming3642]

I'm building my pc tomorrow, so I wont be entering that

[@Narinjas]

GIFT BLACK LABS THE PC THEY FIXED. PLEASE.

[@DerekKnop]

Something that didn't get mentioned was that the guys at Best Buy were cranking up the technical talk in an attempt to overwhelm Chewie, even after Chewie made it clear that he wasn't technical and didn't really understand what they were talking about. Keith, however, dropped trying to be super technical once Chewie made it clear he wasn't technical in his knowledge. I believe that's why Keith didn't do a super detailed rundown of every single thing he fixed, like the connectior being unplugged. He just hit the high points that were easy to understand and left it at that. I don't see that as a bad thing. It's something I do every day at my job. As my boss likes to day, "They don't care how you did it, they just want it fixed".

[@Iwhoiam999]

That was my thought as well

[@Davethreshold]

If it was me, I would SNAPSHOT every single Item in that Monster. If Linus' guys were playing dumb, they might have gotten it back with a 2080 or something!

[@josh8106]

100%. I doesn’t seem that weird to me to undersell the technical fix for something when the customer is clearly not interested in how it was done.

[@PSYCHOV3N0M]

​@@josh8106Makes sense though it really depends on if the customer asks what was wrong with it.

[@ghomerhust]

ive been doing repairs since the late 90s, and keith's process was excellent. kept it light-hearted, he asked some quick questions to get an idea of what the person knew or didnt know, and after finding out they didnt know much, he wasnt going to bog them down with info on what was broken, just that "yep, got it all going, it's happy now"

[@TheOnceAndFutureDoug]

In fairness to Keith, sometimes when I'm fixing stuff for non-technical people I don't bother doing the full explanation because they (a) aren't going to understand and (b) don't really seem interested. I just give them enough to feel confident on fix and move on.

[@kelmanl4]

I mean he fixed it in the end and he got an A rating so his service was pretty good. CCleaner is also flagged as malware often because it had issues in the past and is quite predatory. 25% extra and four extra days to have it fixed versus best buy that did basically nothing and maybe even made it worse.

[@JJFlores197]

Yep. I learned that a while ago working in IT support. I found out most people either do not care to know the full details or will get extremely confused if you start giving them the full explanation. They just want the thing fixed. And in a worse case scenario, they may feel that you're talking down on them by using all sorts of technical jargon even if that isn't your intention. I think its always good to find a middle ground: be transparent with them but don't go overboard with details. Sometimes analogies help people understand or at least get a general idea of what was going on with their device. I work in K12 IT and a lot of classrooms have black network boxes that provide network connectivity to that wing of classrooms. Most teachers don't really pay attention to it, but occasional I get asked what its for. I just give them a brief explanation that the equipment inside that box allows those 4 or 5 classrooms in that wing to get internet access. That's usually more than enough for most teachers. I could tell them that it contains a patch panel where all those data drops from the classrooms congregate at and that we patch in their wifi APs and phone into the switch and in turn that switch communicates with the main campus switch which in turn goes out to AT&T's network to end up at our firewall, content filter, and main network switch, etc etc. That's just way too much information for most staff. As long as their technology works fine, that's what matters.

[@CreativityNull]

​@@JJFlores197 yup. Sometimes I'll get asked by people "what was wrong" and I'll ask, "are you sure you want to know?" If they answer yes I will give them the whole technical spiel and even answer questions about terms and stuff. Most of the time they don't understand a single word. I think some people basically want you to show your work, even if they don't understand it, so they don't feel like they got taken for a ride.

[@Ryuseigan]

To be fair, he could have just mentioned a small cable has come loose too.

[@RC360]

@@Ryuseigan I think part of the no mention of the cable is, it took a week and he did a bunch of software work maybe before noticing it or because they might say, "why is the price so high just for a cable" and not understand that there was a software issue as well.

[@jajssblue]

Only missed opportunity here was making Linus diagnose the system blind too.

[@nerd20fromdiscord]

To be honest yeah they should have i agree

[@4olovik]

cool idea

[@Atsumari]

Would indeed like to have seen this.

[@mini-_]

Yeah great point, a well needed 'control' test to see his troubleshooting in action too.

[@northlyte]

now this really is a top notch idea. this would have been a great addition!!

[@MrMTGPsycho]

See this where I love the small shop I have near me. I was doing a case swap, MB, PSU upgrade, something happened and the machine stopped posting all together. Like nothing worked, was half sure my $1200 4080 was toast and was ready to cry. Took it to my local shop of experts (they are by the way as most of their employees are CS majors from the local university). They tested it, found it didn't POST, then tested each individual part in their machines and found it needed a BIOS reset. It took them a little less than a week and was $35 US. They even offer cable management services on the regular and have a good stock of parts (at the mom and pop shop mark up) to replace your stuff with.

[@bojangles9115]

The thing with " Professionalism" with Keith is, having worked a psudo-retail job myself, he's trying to break the ice with the customers, he's trying to get them to laugh and loosen up and be more "human" and friendly to build that rapport with the customer. Thats one thing I love about mom and pop shops is that its less "transactional" and more having a good relationship so hopefully you get loyal customers.

[@DayxAndxAge]

ikr, god forbid you crack a joke. I've work in customer service for a long time and i have a loose and relaxed personality like keith and the majority of the people want that real person experience. Granted some old heads want you to be this robot talking like your reading a script, but the average person will then see you as a robot and if they are not happy will treat you like a Roomba vacuum cleaner who gets stuck every 3 minutes.

[@lightworthy]

especially when the customer clearly has no tech knowledge and is confused and concerned, making jokes and being human will make them feel more confident in YOU fixing it, because they like you and feel like you’re confident in yourself. a techy customer would receive different “bedside manner” for lack of a better term because they actually know the language you throw at them to explain what you think could be wrong or what you may need to do, but likely still friendly since workers aren’t robots, and clearly this guy likes his job and helping people

[@MagiRemmie]

As an ex manager, you HAVE to change the way you speak depending on who you are talking to. Not only is it being respectful but you're also putting the other person at ease by speaking in a manner they would. If you are sound technie and the person you're speaking to has no idea about computers, you're just gonna confuse them and can cause anxeity.

[@adrycough]

That's genius, instead of just having your own tools, ie thermal paste, on hand like a real repair company, just open up a new package from the shelf and upsell the customer!

[@JoeyTheGamer2018]

Right!?!?! Honestly I'm not even a computer tech but I always have 2 or 3 tubes on hand Incase one of my friends or I need to do maintenance or anything on our PC's

[@Simon-jw1ww]

I am from germany. When my grandpa told me his pc makes weird noises and won't start I (computer scientist) couldn't help him remotly, I told him to go to the near by compter repairshop. So he did. When he called me afterwards I asked him how much he payed. He told me the man at the shop fixed the problem in 5 minutes and refused to take money for the minor issue. When I asked what the issue was my grandpa told me the man replaced a broken RAM-bar. In fact the man replaced a broken DDR3-8GB-RAM with another one! My grandpa had no idea and tipped him 20€. In my eyes this man could have made 200€ when I think about what happend here in this video. What a nice and generous computer-repair-hero.

[@Epro95]

A computer science degree has nothing to do with PC repair.

[@a_random_guitarist2189]

Das war sehr nett von diesem Mann!

[@matts.8342]

@@Epro95 Totally agree. My old boss (idiotically, he's a moron) has hired some of them as part timers in the past. They don't teach hardware, malware removal, and even OS installation is beyond many CS students. They can usually code pretty well though.

[@LtTakarii]

@@matts.8342 As a software engineer, we typically use CS students in place of a rubber ducky when doing rubber ducky debugging. They are about the same as each other :D

[@iliketrains263]

post name of the shop in germany if possible. there may be germans here needing PC repairs and could use a recommendation ;o

[@elementairttv]

13:59 I actually enjoy that level of professionalism. Makes it a fun time.

[@whyyn0tt.]

The irony of this video releasing on a day where Best Buy is laying off a ton of employees is not lost on me. Fuck BBY.

[@jadenbishop2297]

Amen I'm at work rn and I am so over them

[@whyyn0tt.]

@@jadenbishop2297 I got out several years ago but still have several friends in GS and on the sales floor. Apparently tenure and loyalty don't count for shit anymore. Sad day.

[@danr.1299]

Fuck Best Buy they sold my 4090 I already paid for and had to fight them for the damn refund

[@TheFalseShepphard]

​@@danr.1299 Another happy customer 🤗🤗

[@Metalninja89]

Seriously, I would love to see a mass boycott of Best Buy similar to Bud Light and Planet Fitness.

[@scottanderson691]

In my book, Keith is actually being very professional. Because he's using his knowledge and sarcasm to educate the customer on what he's doing wrong right up front. Kudos to him.

[@HazewinDog]

Yeah I think it's professionalism, but notably of the informal type.

[@scottanderson691]

@HazewinDog agreed. For my money, that's the better form as well. It puts people at ease but at the same time usually flips the little light on in their head that says "oh, probably shouldn't have said/done that huh?" And he comes off as not being a know it all jack ass doing it that way too.

[@xeon39688]

I think you gotta be like this with customers who aren't technical

[@trashandchaos]

Oh yeah, that's honesty there.

[@DanKaschel]

I loved Keith but that might be a little too generous

[@Arbiter_360]

Ex-GeekSquad agent here. I worked both as a front end person and an "advanced repair agent" (the one who actually does the repair in the "Precinct"). I never turned away a computer. I dealt with anywhere from macbooks with an actual virus to a custom built PC that did not have the 24-pin power connector a bit unplugged. It was always interesting to see what came in and if we did not know something, we researched it until we found an answer. this was prior to the pandemic. I feel like they have gone down hill due to bestbuy trying to cut costs.

[@Arbiter_360]

Also, I left because they didn't pay me enought to stay lol. Now, I'm about to finish my Cybercesurity associates degree!

[@tobymacdonald5893]

@@Arbiter_360 Congrats on your degree!

[@DerekHansell]

@@Arbiter_360 Lack of competitive pay leading to brain-drain is a real problem in any tech business.

[@roberthall1305]

I worked at bestbuy geeksquad post-pandemic and thats pretty much correct, we would get penalties for taking to long to repair things and always had a board in the back with how much we sold in services perday. As somebody who wants to do technical support for their careeri hated trying to sell people on more and more services, if i could solve it on the bench i would 100% i was in trouble for not charging somebody 40$ minimum fee cus an old lady had airplane mode on

[@Bioterrorist356]

It’s not completely like that even now. I work at one Best Buy as an agent and we never turn away custom builds unless they’re custom loop builds. We are not all like that. It’s just that stores hire absolute morons at times. You’re luck with Best Buy HIGHLY depends on whether or not you have enthusiasts employed there.

[@SpotyBen]

Were was Chewie ? : A) Canada B) India

[@tylercgarrison]

I used to work for a lcoal computer store, and our local best buy sent people to us all the time. We also had lots of people who took things to best buy, got service like this (or worse) and then came to us to get it properly fixed. There were a few other technicians at our shop but peolle would come in and specifically request me to work on their stuff because i was the only one they trusted after the hell they had been through in the past with best buy/other repair shops. After the owner of that store retired and closed up shop i stared my own computer/IT business. And i actually have LTT to thank for inspiring me to get into this stuff back in 2015. The old techquickie videos taught me so many thigns while i was still inexperienced

[@shotguncreeper]

I currently work at a local store, and can confirm, the local Best Buy is always sending people our way.

[@greevar]

Former Geek Squad repair agent. I can say with confidence the quality of service you get is dependent on who they manage to hire. Some know their shit. Some are just sales people who were promoted from the sales floor.

[@FloridaMan254]

Same when I worked for Best Buy. All the GS agents were the promoted top sellers in PCHO. They know how to sell office and get branded payments but can’t fix a fucking lightbulb. We had 1 or 2 people that knew their shit. Once GS went from repair based to sales based things changed.

[@ichangednametoamorecringyo1489]

was a former consultant agent and was hired based on sales skills. Often went to the back to watch youtube videos for quick fixes and troubleshooting. It was pretty embarrassing telling a customer I don't know how a mac works. Luckily I left and I am not sure why I wasn't moved but I guess it was cause we were very understaffed.

[@TongueHead]

and its worse now. they keep laying off senior staff so its almost exclusively kids who were promoted from sales.

[@greevar]

@@TongueHead That tracks. I wouldn't send anyone I know to GS. I know how to do it better. They treated me like shit and they lost a competent repair agent. They probably don't have anyone who knows what they're doing now.

[@Emoneylance]

Yup and usually the ones that know their shit quit because they can get paid better somewhere else or quit when they realize they aren’t just repair agents but also salesman for any and every product best buy offers

[@aceenterprise]

To be fair, with Keith, I've been at my shop, working for hours, and you try a few things, they don't work, you try a few more things, and finally, you have a break through. It's sometimes difficult, unless you take the time to retrace all your steps, to know exactly which modification you made (or even if it was a combination of things) that actually fixed the issue. So kudos to Keith for plugging it back in, even if he didn't realize that was the issue.

[@ian.williamson]

I still think first instinct would be to restore default bios or remove the cmos. That and reinstall windows would be my very first thing

[@sTas073-i1e]

@@ian.williamson bios sure, but reinstalling windows should be the last step, as reinstalling everything games programs login back in is something that a user should only be required to if necessary

[@tomrayson7702]

I build and fix computers as a side gig and this is the reason I have a set troubleshooting list which I do in order. I go from most likely to least likely and I rarely get past step 3.

[@valdir7426]

@@sTas073-i1eyou could also boot a fresh windows from an ssd and see if it's better

[@xfghffhfg]

Maybe he did realize it but charging 250$ for basically replugging a cable doesn't sound complex enough, this also explains the malware remark. But who knows...

[@Kozi69]

9:07 as a Consultation Agent (CA) at Geek Squad I can say this is nearly spot on. We absolutely do work on custom PCs as mentioned earlier in the video but there are some scenarios where we shy away from that idea. It's very rare at my Best Buy (although Best Buy as a whole is going to shit) but it still happens. IT IS NOT POLICY TO TURN DOWN CUSTOM OR PREBUILT TOWERS. Also one more thing to note: we always have people sign off on their paperwork before giving us their devices so THEY are liable for any pre-existing issues. We will usually ask if they have already tried to tamper with any parts or diagnose the device themself and then have them sign off on them saying those exact words. PS, As a Consultation Agent, what we do in terms of repairing the computer is very slim but we are like the agents in this video that intake the client's information and have the device moved to the actual Advanced Repair Agents (ARAs) so that they can repair and diagnose it.

[@grizzlies15]

Just a FYI, 26 minutes in - according to the recording of drop off for the local computer store - you forgot to mention Helldivers. You only explicitly mentioned this to Geek Squad.

[@PaisleyBiscuit]

makes sense that he didnt see the message if that wasnt just cut and they just didnt say it

[@TheAnonymousLemur]

Helldivers was irrelevant lmao

[@omargomez5712]

@@TheAnonymousLemurno it wasn’t the whole point was that it would pull up the cpu message which will give a clue to the repair shop that the bios got messed with

[@jesusbarrera6916]

@@omargomez5712 Helldivers 2 literally crashes all the time.... that's why it's irrelevant

[@timothyjn100]

@@jesusbarrera6916 It may (has only crashed once on my system back at launch. Clearly anecdotal) However, that is besides the point. The game doesn't need to actually run, they just need to click on the .exe to cause the AVX prompt to display. The whole point of helldivers was to queue them to solve AVX being disabled in the bios. The game did not need to run, nor was that insinuated once during the video.

[@Roc_City_PC]

I am a mom and pop shop and have been here since 2001 and going strong. I am also less than a 1/4 mile from best buy so i get probably 10-15 people a week that went to best buy and their problem was never solved. Some of the stories customers tell me is mind blowing. Also, im willing to bet that keith likely thought it was a software issue even though he plugged the cable back in, he probably thought it was just a USB 2 front panel cable that just never got plugged in. Either way, goes to show.... SUPPORT YOU LOCAL SMALL BUSINESSES!!! we do appreciate it, i promise.

[@ohaiyoworld7593]

I will say, im a repair agent in bestbuy and we are nothing like this. Half our agents have 10+ year experience and we work on custom builds regularly. We actually love them because we benchmark and play on them after for our enjoyment 😂 if client lets us. We all can do micro soldering, however the business does not allow us to (im assuming fire hazard for the store itself?). So for everything physical or involvint soldering, we send to a local small repair shop that we trust. They know us by name and we actually have a good relationship with them. Unfortunately a few bad stores makes everyone look bad. Usually because its a GM who knows nothing about computers who does the hiring. Luckily our store and many stores we have a geek squad leader who does the hiring screening, so we havent had any issues. We have a metrics system as well, right now we are at like 97.8% success for the last3 months (which is pretty good for how limited resources the company lets us use). Im very happy to not be one of those horrible stores. But we love custom builds, we actually make more labor working on them so it benefits us. Cheers mate, and keep up the good work with your business.

[@thespegs]

Eh *shrug* it's all in who you get. There are absolutely horrible independent shops, and there are absolutely horrible chain shops. It doesn't matter where you go, it matters which employee you get.

[@Patrick-y4d1z]

It's easy to say to support small businesses, but people don't because they tend to be a lot more expensive (because of scale).

[@nero3700]

@@ohaiyoworld7593 Sure, when a customer brings in their pc, you ask them if you can play on it after fixing it? Also, hard to believe BBY outsources micro soldering and doesn't just replace the part. And 97.8% success rate (you mean FTR?) smells like BS, especially considering the type of customers you'd have to deal with.

[@tarkitarker0815]

well, sorry bud but that just shows that chains in the us are way shittier than a mom and pop shop, he did at the end solve everything for a hefty price, but it took a week and hes obviously not that fit with computers anymore, he should keep up with the tech, not just use wisdom from 2010´ish if he charges that much, and should be faster. atleast dont let a dude wait a whole week for a small problem.

[@MadSolarTrading]

I worked at best buy in canada and the supervisors did not care how you made sales, just that you made them. They said "fake it until you make it" meaning telling the customer what they want to hear. One day, 2 supervisors were talking over the mic about this old guy calling about a phone plan. One said "just pretend like the phone line is breaking up so we can sell him a new phone" It was disgusting. Left my 2 weeks notice on a napkin that day but never went back. Absolute scumbags.

[@oryxthemad]

Tangentially related, but I worked at a restaurant, we were doing the same deal with food. I feel like our consistency with food quality/quantity, although important, was secondary to the CONFIDENCE we presented the food with, kind of bluffing that we were keeping it at the same. If we were running out of refried beans, add water. If we were running out of chicken, give them smaller portions.

[@voxthesergal]

So you didn't choose to fix the problem and let it continue. Right.

[@northlyte]

@@voxthesergal There is no way you're this naive

[@voxthesergal]

@@northlyte it's far from naive and more 'Ah these people are bad and taking advantage of others! Out of my league!'

[@stayupthetree]

Even pre pandemic Linus had a hard on for proving that Geek Squad agents are pieces of shit, despite having a couple on staff. I worked hard my ass off as an ARA and wouldnt need the stress of being tested by a youtuber

[@ericinla65]

BEEN WORKING IN I.T. for 30 years now. These things are pretty easy to fix. I get hit up by family, friends and neighbors to fix their computers and other I.T. related things all the time.

[@NikolaiCherepanov]

The guy at black labs asking if he has an SSD is the first question I always ask as well, you wouldn't believe the amount of new laptops and desktops running core i5-i7's with HDD's still in them. Had one last week it was an HP with a a 10th gen i7 that had an HDD and no SSD present and the customer was wondering why it took 10 years for the browser to open.

[@spencerdunn6933]

Well that answers my problem

[@callumsmith2900]

I feel this to the point I wanna put a sign up saying hdd surcharge of £20 because they take so long to do anything 😭

[@DG_427]

Which HP? I'm an HP tech and 99,9% of the laptops I've seen have SSD in them. Even the really low end ones have at least 128GB. Might also be a regional thing.

[@mosne123]

I have a friend with a ryzen 5800x rtx4060 but counter strike installed on a HDD making it stutter 😂😂

[@danielberglv259]

Well, doing things that makes no sense, is the trademark of HP. I always stay clear of their crap. Don't want to own anything from them whether that be Laptops, Desktops, Printers etc. And I certainly will not waste my time helping others troubleshoot their HP. The only thing wrong with an HP, is the fact that it's an HP. Nothing that I can do about that. Got a free HP Desktop that someone did not want any longer with a 3'rd generation AMD. I tried stipping it for parts and when I was done removing anything usefull, I had a CPU :O

[@BriceLijewski]

Damn Best Buy layoffs tho. What timing for this video... Geek Squad got absolutely raked over the coals

[@MRJRSK]

That's me rn lol

[@Animo92]

Be better then? Then at least you can't blame yourself for getting sacked

[@SupremeRuleroftheWorld]

rightfully so.

[@DukeoftheAges]

not surprised, geek squad has always sucked ass

[@TheFalseShepphard]

​@@matthewhaddad9086Another happy customer 🤗

[@常藍守奏]

Great respect for the "we could take out this video card and put in a 1060" line, Keith tried to warn the customer, in a subtle way, about what might happen to the machine at a less professional repair shop.

[@matthewlozy1140]

Giving wayy too much props there. He was just throwing out some humor.

[@Suzuki_Hiakura]

Sadly, that is the prime warning you might get told when you mention going to an "Unofficial" repair shop...

[@ProdSwelly]

@@matthewlozy1140that humor is based on something

[@miguelhernandez72]

Recently gave them a less than 3 year old HP laptop with a cracked screen to fix. 1. After 3 weeks it was returned with a lower resolution screen (720p), so they again took it back 2. After 14 weeks, they said they could not procure the part and returned it with the terrible washed out 720p screen and refunded the money No acceptance of fault for the time wasted, no recompensation , no remmediation. Never using them again! I am happy you're also speaking out.

[@dan.94.]

As an Aussie, I can confirm Keith’s interactions with customers would fit in phenomenally here hahahaha

[@ardcollectsphones]

thats why aussies are some of my favorite people

[@BillAnt]

The guy's Indian accent at Best Buy was thicker than a tech support guy's in India. lol Damn they're everywhere now.

[@80sGameGuy]

I tried requesting a half gallon of paint from an Aussie home improvement store employee, and he says "we don't have half gallons, that's only at the diary store"

[@Yasumui]

@@BillAntunfortunately

[@JDMNINJA851]

@@80sGameGuy You probably got a Kiwi living in Australia, aussies don't call convenience stores Diary's.

[@lordofthesticks0]

i believe the single reason keith didn't enable AVX was because he just didn't even want to access his client's steam account and so didn't try playing helldivers on it. we need more people like him on this line of work man

[@kitsubreasts]

i mean, why would someone steal something from a client when you can easily charge them in the future? I often ask my clients for access (sometime bitlocker, steam, and mails) and they need to understand that i'm so busy with my own life to even peek at theirs.

[@IndianGeek5589]

but if the issue was specifically stated, and the client gave express permission, then I think that he should, because the client expectation is to probably get it running.

[@vadnegru]

And in the case of Steam you need authenticator to even log in on another PC or mess with inventory. So giving away your password is perfectly fine (unless you have one password for everything, PLEASE DON'T DO THAT, USE PASSWORD MANAGER)

[@Krytern]

​@SouvikMukherjeeACFCOD He should of at least ran his own games on there. Its a gaming system and he didn't properly test that its fixed which he should of with how much money he charged.

[@gentle285]

1.: AVX is not Helldivers exclusive anways. 2.: He specifically requested that he wants to play that.

[@HumbertoHernandez]

BestBuy service was basically a scam, like most (not all) of them are. They take advantage of the customer not knowing tech stuff and pass on stuff like "it's normal the fans are noisy... yeah...ah the lights... yeah, it's normal they don't light up"

[@liamalexander1797]

Former repair agent in the back here. All of us end up here originally wanting to help people. And the longest staying techs generally care about the client's devices. But the people out front are incentivized by threat of job security to get memberships. And they generally don't know anywhere near as much as the people in the back actually fixing things. So it breeds a culture of quick, low effort turnaround time and scammy behavior because it weeds out people with empathy and integrity. And repair agents are not supplied with the proper diagnostic tools we need to do our jobs quite often, as well as having to fight management to acquire parts such as motherboards or GPUs to use to diagnose and isolate individual hardware problems.

[@TheFalseShepphard]

"Yeah it's okay for lightning to not light up"

[@redmachine8354]

They themselves don't know what they're talking about.

[@shaunmac983]

My grandma bought a computer from them and bought the extended warranty. About 1.5 years later it stopped turning on. They told her she shouldn't have been sold that warranty with that computer and they weren't going to honor it. After fighting back and forth with customer support they said they would honor the warranty. They had the computer for like 6 months and sent it back having never opened it (obvious given the dust inside). She called asking why it wasn't fixed and they said sorry it's now out of warranty, good luck.

[@YuYuYuna_]

@@liamalexander1797 Sounds like a glorified call center for just about every service business out there. My mom for half a year worked for Safelite the windshield repair company and they are massive scammers and down right shitty people. First off they made her wait an entire month to "restart" training because she missed ONE hour, yes 1 hour at the start of ONE day of training. I was helping her get everything setup for her training sessions. I know what they do at the start. It's literally just bullshitting around talking about TV shows and what they had to eat, pointless small talk to try and appear "we're all a big family here!" ...Anyways Safelite is a windshield repair business right? Well the majority of what they make comes not from the windshields but selling wiper blades for $30 per blade aka $60 total. And on the back end they have quotas for each week and surprise my mom wasn't really keen on trying to push $30 wipers per blade so she would just say the script they give and if the customer said no she wouldn't push further. Well in "review" calls she would get scolded for not being pushy with the wipers and when she said "well if they say no what do you want me to do? It'll just annoy them more if I push" and her boss said "tell them these wiper blades last longer and will protect the glass making it last longer as well" (all complete bullshit btw) Eventually she was fired because "she wasn't a team player"

[@blakenolen5062]

This what makes me worried about alot of these tech stores - They always first go for software problems, WITHOUT LOOKING TO SEE IF ANYTHING IS UNPLUGED FIRST. The first thing I would of done, was look in the case to see if nothing was unplugged, and THEN move on to software

[@davidGA殿]

Kudos to Keith, he “told” the client that maybe he shouldn’t be that carefree with his things.

[@myopinion69420]

yeah, its crazy how care free people are with things. I used to work for an ATM company, I was sent out to do software updates on older standalone ATMs, the type of one you would find inside a service station or cafe. they are usually run by the shop they are in. so all the money thats inside it (anywhere from a few hundred to $50k plus) is actually the stores money until you withdraw it. (the money goes from your account to theirs, with a service charge and you get cash). I had my own keys and access codes, I even wore a hi vis vest that said on the front and back that I had no access to cash (to stop me from being mugged), yet I had more than 1 store owner walk over to the ATM once I introduced myself (without even showing my ID, just had it around my neck, could have been for anything) and them OPENING THE SAFE and just walking off, something I never have access to. I could have just walked out with over $20k from one store alone.

[@harmarize]

@@myopinion69420 I do remote installon behalf of another company to put on some software on small businesses machines. Out of hundreds that I have done, only two or three actually grilled me on who I was, what I was doing, contacted the primary company to be sure I was who I said I was. Everyoine else was so carefree on giving me their admin login on their primary server that I could install or copy who knows what on it. This server drives their entire business. I was shocked at the lack of security awareness.

[@TongueHead]

@@myopinion69420 and the name of these stores were... lol jk

[@AlfredoTaken]

It's nice that they let you back into the old building to film this one

[@igeekone]

This is why you always visually check the hardware first. This path, visual check-> reset BIOS-> software check. Unless you miss something or there is a hardware defect, that's going to be a nearly 100% fix. Great to see this to inform customers and techs on proper procedures.

[@joeymurphy9201]

Sounded like Anthony

[@scottsmanonahorse]

It's also great to educate grandsons who fuck up computers with the best intentions like me!

[@Macphotographs]

​@@scottsmanonahorse the best way to learn is by making mistakes. I didn't know anything about computers until I broke my laptop and couldn't afford a repair shop.

[@scottsmanonahorse]

@@Macphotographs same, my troubleshooting unfortunately tends to be the shotgun method

[@MrMersh-ts7jl]

This is the most creative video centered around it in advertisement or sponsorship that I've ever seen. That is not a bad thing. It was very entertaining and interesting.

[@baitboy3191]

I used to have my own PC repair service in college, would run it out of my dorm. We had a Bestbuy and OfficeMax near campus. I didn't expect much business, but I still distributed my business cards across campus. Within a week I would get constant emails of students needing help fixing their computer, the issue's ranged from trivial to challenging, but all of them had told me they went to Best Buy first and stated they "repaired" their computer but basically ran some diagnostic software and used the customers situation to upsell them on a new computer.

[@NoName-ye9jw]

W mans

[@kingtasticdev]

what was the most trivial and challenging ones lol

[@toxinfrost8747]

Yea what’s them challenges

[@Gamer-uj6zw]

Wow, that's really, really annoying if Best Buy only does that.

[@bader51500]

Next time, send Elijah and Dennis. They would make the "bread crumbs" misleading 😂

[@HeyLook287]

It would be weird sending in a kid with a pink bike helmet who hits his head on the PC somehow.

[@Anon-tm3uh]

They might get recognize though.

[@Metaldad87]

Or in the case of Dennis it would be simultaneously hilarious and nonsensical 😂

[@madmartigan9720]

If they send Elijah, then for sure they can expect a returned system with 1060 inside.

[@VladimirDT]

Too recognizable. At a tech store the jig would be up instantly

[@cheeseisgreat24]

Gotta say, I am not surprised Keith blew Geek Squad outta the water, the number of times I’ve had to fix something wrong on a friend or family’s PC that GeekSquad said was “totally normal” is such a high number I’m surprised they’re legally allowed to charge you money for what they do. Keith seemed like a straight shooter from the first vid you guys did with him, and was knowledgable about so much, past and present and I’m glad what he missed could be chalked up to merely forgetting while he was going down a rabbit trail and he rectified that for free for you. I wish we had more like him around the place I live.

[@Black3ternity]

Was expecting a call to Keith from Linus telling him he did good with that testbuild. Keith is doing a damn fine job in a world where "mom and pop pc shops" are a dying breed.

[@scorchio70]

Come on, Keith defo found the cable straight away but then couldn't charge the £250 for all that time spent reloading software, typical con man shop!

[@GINGER_KING_]

@@scorchio70stop assuming. He would of got paid good from linus either way. You clearly dont know anything

[@flagwashere]

@@scorchio70 Brainwashed by big corporations huh?

[@Benjiio]

​@@GINGER_KING_ what? he had no idea linus was involved

[@adrycough]

I'd be interested in what the supposed malware was because that sounds made up

[@TheEducatedDrunk]

Former U.S. BestBuy employee as of 8 months ago. I built custom PC's on a weekly basis for clients and worked on about 20 systems a day average. These stores are either overloaded or don't actually have the necessary skills. Some BestBuys don't have actual Advanced Repair Agents in store so they ship them out. Either way both stores were not abiding by Best Buy Geek Squa SOP.

[@centrifuglfarce]

Also a sleeper agent here. Videos like this are the norm because it is the norm. You and I were exceptions. There are lots of exceptions, but you can have a lot of exceptions and still have 99% of everyone be incompetent. Even if they were competent, there will always be cowboy managers throwing up roadblocks.

[@ohaiyoworld7593]

​@@centrifuglfarcecurrent agent here! Our store has two 10+ year ARAs, and many others. Not tooting my own horn, but we will do almost anything aside from micro soldering. We even made a friendship with a small local pc shop that we confidently recommend if anything does require soldering. We know each other by name and support that small business by doing that. Now...in our market area, there's a nightmare bestbuy store 20 minutes away from us. They are beyond horrible. They know we do really well so they'll even sell services to get the metrics then send them over to us with an excuse saying "we are just so busy, you can save time and go to this other store to get it done today". Our GM went to that store and scolded each and every one of their geek squad agents. The main difference is how we hire. That store hires only with their GM. Our store hires with our geek squad senior who actually vets and will literally turn down EVERYONE til he finds someone who knows computers. The thing that sucks is each store is managed different, there is no set standard for all stores sadly.

[@atticusatwood-ko9qv]

GEEK SQUAD AGENT HERE!! im ashamed of whoever the frick was checking you in, here in twin falls we literally checked in a custom PC with like 800 Skyrim mods that was causing skyrim to crash and got them all sorted in less than a day, we checked in a custom PC with a weird issue that had crashed games that got above 120 FPS. you've got some terrible agents wherever you are, shamefull.

[@wasakawakawaka2028]

Man, I was a pc tech back in the day for about 10 years or so and we were so thorough with clients pc’s. First thing we would have done with this was test for the issue, if problem is as customer described then reseat components and check connections, then check bios, reset and then look for software issues. Makes me want to go back into business again when seeing this.

[@gummy9431]

I was just in the process of writing this exact reply 🤣.

[@johnconnor2572]

As a former rehabilitated Micro Center employee. During the record business times of COVID when everyone needed to do work/school from their PC. This one hit me on a visceral level. Between memories of angry clueless customers and apathetic managers. Who encourage profits over people and are more concerned with selling protection plans than fixing things. This triggered PTSD for me.

[@Zinojn]

Yup. It’s actually a pretty gross video if you ask me. I’m not sure how much microcenter employees make but I know for sure Best Buy employees make less than fast food workers at times AND have to work through a lot more stressful situations. I’m fine with crapping on Best Buy, it’s likely deserved, but leave the employees out of it, especially their voice and their store location…. Good grief this video lacks tact and pisses me off more than anything Linus has done in the past…

[@Klaevin]

Are you no longer rehabilitated???

[@e21big]

I don't work on computer repair, but I have so much respect for the first guy who saw right through LTT bullshit and just go 'we are not taking it' on their face. I wish more sales would recognisd a quite literally sabotage and don't just gobble everything up for people to solve.

[@johnconnor2572]

@@Zinojn I was making 16/hr with 0 commission even if I convinced a customer to upgrade to an 8090

[@johnconnor2572]

@@Klaevin Trying to get into an IT career still

[@thepavilion7625]

I'd bet the "Malware" Keith found was just a PUP that whatever virus scanning tool he used found, and either didn't pay that close attention or decided the difference between a PUP and a virus is semantics as far as the user is concerned. To clarify, PUP = Potentially Unwanted Program

[@c.s.7474]

The "malware" was probably CCleaner

[@khanhdinh5650]

​@@c.s.7474beat me to it. Though, it does sell the *clueless user* shtick

[@renegeeder]

@@c.s.7474 To be fair, CCleaner of today has a lot of crap in it. And I'd say the reg cleaner should really only be used as last resort. Windows and the applications you're running are able to clean themselves up these days. And if you really want to get some storage back, get something like TreeSize Free, ccleaner is only gonna get you some space back that's gonna get taken up anyway.

[@krammerdijksdeltaland8408]

I would go as far as saying that using CCleaner on 'auto' mode and/or used by a novice user can do more damage than actual malware in some cases. CCleaner was usefull during the XP up to maybe the 7 era, but with Windows 10 or 11 i've seen more registry or other weird issues being caused by CCleaner than it actualy solves.

[@cirkutpersonal]

Yep, there was a huge CCleaner scandal back in the day where it was suspected as Russian spyware. Definitely it was CCleaner that Keith said was the malware.

[@telepotatoe8508]

Ex Geek Squad employee here in NYC. We had to take in standard everyday PCs but Custom PCs were technician preference. It was up me if I wanted to deal with the potential headache of a custom. Cons were potential nightmare job but pros were more hours

[@merpmeeseeks135]

I had a customer just the other day who was quoted over 3500 euros to "find" and "restore" sentimental photos that had been "deleted", as the computer specialist they went to here in France said it had to be sent off to a 'specialist' specialist.... I found the images in the recycle bin.

[@Aaron6791ae]

Ouch lol! No way lol.

[@MichaelArtelle]

To be honest, that's a pretty average price for a full data recovery job. It takes hours to scan the drive to recover missing data, then there's the time needed to recover and verify the data integrity. Also, depending on the software and hardware used, there's additional cost there as well to cover training, etc.

[@DanielFerreira-ez8qd]

​@@MichaelArtelle You'd think the first thing they'd ask is "did you check the recycling bin?"

[@unbanmekoil]

@@MichaelArtelleto be fair Mike, you’ve completely missed the point of the comment. 😂

[@AuthenticGadzooks]

@@MichaelArtelle I'm pretty sure that if the files were in the recycle bin, they wouldn't show up when scanning the unallocated regions of a disk (unless the software explicitly points it out). The recycle bin is basically just a convenient intermediary step where they're placed in a different folder. Though I'd assume that if the PC was actually sent in for data restoration, they would have found the files.

[@chiballer20]

My brother and I own two PC shops in Chicago. We usually have free diagnosis, but we do charge $50 for gaming PC's. Simply because, once we tell someone with a gaming PC, what the problem is, they decline the repair and go do it themselves. Most customers do go with us for the repair though, its not that common. The Best Buy 10 minutes down the street has recommended customers to us, so I can't complain.

[@darkdevil399]

Can you drop me a contact? My old mom and pop store in DG closed and I haven't found a new spot yet.

[@chiballer20]

@@darkdevil399 Computer Prodigies

[@chiballer20]

@@darkdevil399 Computer Prodigies

[@NE0MEW]

You got the studio back :)

[@Daniel-zy1ir]

And he just came back from lunch :D Or am I the only one seeing orange around his mouth like at 9:43?

[@tridiots3681]

it's clearly a green screen lmao

[@gucky4717]

It's an old video before they left.

[@sativagirl1885]

but the tax man got his MOJO

[@Samsquanch1994]

nah this was just an old video before they got evicted. :P

[@NerdyPengin]

I'm a "techie friend" that specializes in the software side. I'm quite certain that the horror stories you have of the typical "techie friends" would terrify me too! I was kind of hoping we DIDN'T know what the issue was so we could guess, but kind of sad we were told. Now that you mentioned secret shopping other places.. now I feel like I need to watch other videos. :) Edit: My custom build has six fans on 3 intake, 3 exhaust and they all spin very fast! It's whisper quiet.

[@tonyfweb]

Should try Micro Center next. I actually used to work as a tech at two locations, and while we didn't have step-by-step processes written down, we were far more thorough than what we're seeing here.

[@deandollahite4779]

Yeah micro center techs are much better than geek squad

[@g0veGaming]

Only had to deal with their support once and the experience was pleasant. They could not figure out what was wrong with my recently purchased parts so they offered a full exchange on the spot.

[@Trillyana]

I haven't gone there for a repair, but I just recently had my first Micro Center experience buying parts for my first gaming desktop and the experience with the employee I dealt with was as positive as I could ask for. Walked me through selecting specific parts for each of the components I needed, and it was clear he was suggesting what would fit my situation best instead of what would make them the most money. Was very patient with me. Can't recommend them enough if that's how they always are.

[@battlekingad8291]

I don't think there are Micro centers in Canada.

[@blackdoc6320]

In IT school my instructor made it pretty clear to all of us that they do not hire people who are good with computers at best buy, they hire sales people (apart from the managers at geek squad)

[@shortyipper]

Pretty much the same with the ISP local to Linus (Telus). I was a field tech and they were more concerned about your sales then customer retention when fixing issues. Part of the reason I left, the other being that they held my lack of sales for the four months I was off on stress leave over me (there's way more but that's another story). Which was really sketchy. Going electrician now instead, through the local Union.

[@_MrSnrub]

I really hope that LTT brings an influx of business to Keith. Chill dude. Did a good job on the repair, and honestly fixing that many issues for ~250 Canadian Fun bucks doesn't seem like a raw deal at all. He deserves a ton of support.

[@helenHTID]

If someone has dropped 3/4/5K on a system has no clue about how to fix any type of problems and can't be bothered to investigate, then yeah that sort of money thrown at a PC shop is no big deal I guess? But it still makes me cringe lol. Such simple tasks, an can be done in a short time, all for 250 bux and days wating... Ouch.

[@rishabhsinghmanhas9982]

​@@helenHTIDMan that's when you're doing it for yourself and know the issues if you're going to find everything and try to solve it, it takes time and that's why he charged..... But even I think he overcharged but I guess if you're spending 3k on a PC and for checkup/touch up and diagnosis ik people just changing thermal reattaching wires and running benchmark take 150$ in INDIA so considering it it's not that bad, it is a little high but not unreasonable

[@MariusNinjai]

Charging 250 is crazy for clean up job that’s like Canadian 15 min wage work hours and taking a week to do it aswell..

[@MadhoshYagnik]

Now send it to the greatest technician that has ever lived.

[@deg503]

One thing about Best Buy specifically, it sucks to say, but the Geek Agents in store are less technicians and more salespeople/clerical workers. The majority of the job is setting up machines as a paid addon service with new machines, or selling hefty repairs only to fill out some forms and ship everything off to the depot. You for sure will find some passionate techs who keep up to date with their technical knowledge, or at least will understand how to google enough to find the solutions they need, but you'll also find them get burnt out quicker as the company really only sees their bottom line, no matter how many problems they're able to solve for customers. At the end of the day, Geek Squad is just a department within Best Buy that has it's own revenue goals just like the other sections of the store would.

[@davidschunak4471]

Was going to say this as well. They have very little training when they start. I used to work for a competing computer repair shop, and most of my business was fixing what they broke on my customer's machines

[@Busterbrwn]

Used to work at geek squad in the US until this past year and I can confidently say the quality of service you get is entirely dependent on which store you go to. The team I was apart of was phenomenal, they would look at anything you brought in, even if it’s beyond what we’re *supposed* to do and try to find a solution. They knew what they were doing, solved the overwhelming majority of issues, and always explained things to clients in terms they understood for their technical level. The store south of us, however, was constantly messing things up and outright lying to clients about issues to avoid fixing them. I couldn’t tell you how many times I got a client who said “I LOVE coming here” only to specify they meant our exact store and that they had bad experiences at a different Best Buy. You’re essentially rolling the dice each time you try a new geek squad. I know that team also watches LTT constantly so 👋 hi squids hope you’re doing well👋

[@moonasha]

sounds like the store LTT went to was outsourced to india

[@jwo7777777]

So, maybe a website like the one that tracks McDonalds' ice cream machines would help others.

[@KingOfKumquats]

Just went to a local geek squad to troubleshoot what my PCs issue was after I had done as much as I could myself without any spare parts to test with. After Id told them what I tried they just said they had no idea what to do. Like they should at least have spare parts, just replace the parts and figure out which is the issue lmao. Wish I had your store, I just wasted time and effort carrying my heavy ass pc to people who know less than I do.

[@coherentpanda7115]

@@moonasha Sadly most of Best Buy is outsourced to India. You should see their IT and software development teams. The whole company is trash.

[@lakorai2]

Corie has royally screwed up Best Buy

[@addisoncarter13]

dude that best buy guy was cringe when i worked for GS they would never deny custom pc builds, while we wouldn’t have access different parts, etc we would still at least diagnosis it and if we had to send them to a shop we would at least give them the name and then give them some kind of idea on the issue

[@nixvaldez]

It would all depend on the store honestly

[@Metalninja89]

As a recent former employee I can say that Best Buy has genuinely lost all credibility. They no longer care about customer or employee and only care about paying their investors. I actually can't wait until they go out of business.

[@bobbob-g8p]

We worked on Custom PC they were just the minority. 95% was none custom.

[@straphyr]

​@@Metalninja89 In store makes basically no sense, products or services. Free shipping from a nearby store faster than Amazon? Definitely worth it imo if the price is good

[@viewman86]

​@@straphyrI got lucky with an "open box" used laptop with them recently. But only cuz I knew what to look for. I tested it and looked it over in the parking lot in case I wanted to return it. But if you don't know what ur doing it's mostly ripoffs I agree

[@aaronlandry3947]

To be fair my mother's computer was having issues but they are a thousand miles away and I couldn't easily diagnose it over the phone so my dad took it to Best buy and they got it figured out in half an hour. One of his USB ports was shorting out and it was causing the computer to blue screen. They actually desoldered the connector from the rear IO and the computer's been just fine for a couple months now. So just like with most things your experience will change drastically from store to store.

[@noirnit.]

Even keith was unprofessional he is obviously trying to make the customer laugh and make a bad time like going to the store to drop off a 5k machine (super frustrating) into a good time! I love this dude

[@noirnit.]

@@billpii6314 cuz linus did.

[@sarcasticdragon8673]

@@billpii6314 sarcasm. hopefully from both of you

[@Devdraco]

@@billpii6314 "Unprofessional" because if you're joking around and saying things like "I'm going to play on your account at home", you could cause some alarm in someone with low trust. "Professional" as a PC repair technician, you would expect cut-and-dry questions and answers, realistic time estimates, the works.

[@Jamesaepp]

@@Devdraco Someone with low trust won't be handing out their credentials without being requested for them.

[@Devdraco]

@@Jamesaepp Bit of a non-sequitur, friend. The person with "low trust" doesn't have to be the one who gave their own credentials to a shopkeep--can be another person browsing the current inventory, someone who reads a review online, or aught else.

[@virgenserge3857]

I used to work for Geeks Squad at Best Buy, they closed down my store location. One thing that I can verify is that the majority of people hired are under qualified to be technical per se. I was the one that specialized in hardware and software, whereas the new hires were people that barely knew how a motherboard worked

[@jmal]

For years, I've tried to apply at the Best Buy in my area and showed in every application that I had the technical chops to be at least worth their while. Nope, turns out, they want sales guys, not tech guys... for a dedicated repair service. Based on LTT's experiences, seems like I dodged a bullet.

[@ACHonezGaming]

@@jmal Which is unfortunante because I worked there while getting my degree in CIS. Got the job after starting my freshman year of college. The amount of people in GeekSquad that actually don't know what they are doing is astounding. I was an Advanced Repair Agent for most of it. I did it for 5 years before getting into a corporate IT job. Boy let me tell you the amount of things you realize you think you know about computers at an enterprise level was a shock to me. I'm grateful for my years at GS, but don't be fooled. It's still a sales job. Oh and the pay was crap for the amount of BS you're put through.

[@KowalskiStyL]

Ya I worked at front desk GeekSquad as seasonal hire. I loved working on PCs and was constantly fixing simple issues for free at the desk. Ya I received constant reprimands from my manager for it and told me any fix is a 99$ charge but "what I'm supposed to do is tell them it's shit and buy a new one"

[@virgenserge3857]

@@KowalskiStyL I was very much annoyed by that fact, as well, I was also a consultation agent, but I was so good at hardware and software that I was flex as advanced repair. As an incentive, they gave me literally one. cent. extra. per hour. And I was damn good at it unfortunately, though it was all numbers and no education. Even though they claim that they are motivating education as well it’s all corporate talk.

[@virgenserge3857]

@@ACHonezGaming I applaud you, for moving onto such a higher position in your career, rather than moving to another geek squad 45 minutes away when they closed my location or less than why I have been making after three years, I decided to start my own business localized, and I get to do what I was expecting to do in Geeks Squad. I even get to put my soldering expertise to use every day, and I am happy or rather grateful that they closed

[@Muksanim2012]

A minister friend of mine loaned his laptop to someone. While in her possession, the laptop developed an over heating problem. Since the laptop was on loan, she assumed responsibility and took it to BestBuy. After a short time the Geek contacted her to pick up the laptop, unable to find the problem. Of course they charged her $60. Nice way to build business! The minister asked me to look at the laptop and explained its brief history with the Geek Squad. I found and fixed the problem in less that 30 minutes! I have serviced and repaired many computers. Word of mouth has sent me most of those inquiries. I build my own systems and have never had any problems with my builds.

[@kozekistudio]

so glad linus is making the langley house look like the studio

[@craigWS]

Underrated

[@Dex2R7]

Origin's lifetime warranty sounds great until you realize you can just buy a 2nd brand new PC for the price of 1 Origin PC

[@DanielFerreira-ez8qd]

That is always true of pre-builts. Doesn't mean it's not a good advantage

[@a-universe]

@@DanielFerreira-ez8qd No, no it isn't. Most prebuilts are not twice the cost of the components.

[@DanielFerreira-ez8qd]

@@a-universe I just assumed dude was exaggerating, but they are more expensive

[@ThatYellowPokemon]

This is not true at all lmfao. Maybe another lower end PC.

[@DanielFerreira-ez8qd]

@@bradhaines3142 eh, for a usable one? That's not what I've seen of them. Sure, they sell it for cheap*er*, but there's still a lot of cost you can circumvent. Buying new parts on sale and building it yourself is definitely cheaper.

[@trevorduncan9580]

Way to go Kieth!! I am a Kieth fan! Love to see local "mom and pop" places supported and I really dig his attitude/personality. That is a good dude.

[@phancyisfancy8510]

love my local pc shop. got my custom from there (after 3 failed attempts elsewhere) cheap diagnosis, often free unless its a software problem but not always. quick handling. knowledgeable people (unless you go on a Saturday, they ou got the highschoolers)

[@avattz]

4:20 That button battery removal was smooth AF. Usually mine goes flying into the air and evaporates.

[@cocomonkilla]

Seriously, that was a better advertisement for the LTT screwdriver than all of the other cheesy plugs he does

[@tarkitarker0815]

@@cocomonkillayall need magnetic graphite screwdrivers, like seriously.

[@DBONPC]

As a former Geek Squad CA, I can say we definitly work on pre builds and custom computers, the CA will bring it to the ARA and they will give it a look and might even come talk to the customer about the build before taking it or regecting it.

[@twilightwolfqueen409]

It's so nice that LTT made this video. My current laptop was misdiagnosed with a memory AND motherboard issue. Went to a nearby mom and pop shop and found out it was a battery I had attempted to replace myself was a faulty one. Easy replacement and some driver updates later, back to normal.

[@cocomonkilla]

Back when I was in high school I had a teacher ask me for a second opinion because Best Buy told her that her laptop's motherboard and processor were blown and it would cost more to fix than the machine was worth. This was pre-SSD days. You could HEAR the hard drive clicking and failing to read. Unplugged the hard drive and it started right up. Told her replace this for $50 and you'll be fine. Motherboard my ass.

[@KRYMauL]

@@cocomonkilla I think they just want you to buy a new motherboard.

[@usedtoyotapriusfour2910]

As a appliance technician I can tell you 100% whatever you tell customer service will never reach the field technician or store technicians ears, you can give them model and serial and exact error codes and 99% of the time the call center tech will schedule it as "PC not working" or in my case "fridge not working"

[@independentman4695]

just one week ago i gave my laptop with water damage to a technichian and i saw he put a sticker to it labeling "not working" , brother didnt even mention water damage , my main concern wasnt that i want to fix it but i told them specifically i want to know if its repairable and how much would it cost for spare parts since water damage could obviously damage alot of components

[@werewolfwill7126]

Proper troubleshooting requires a thorough understanding of the product, and a solid research skill for looking up solutions to problems like these. Keep making videos guys it makes the world a better place!

[@KingGarlock]

When I was working at Microsoft Store at the service desk we were told not to work on custom PCs (although there were like 4 of us that did anyway cause we were familiar with building devices) and heard a lot of stories of Geek Squad not even looking at custom units just to see if it was something they could even support. Like I get not taking a custom unit in, but not even looking at it to try and give some sort of support is wild to me. Watching this just opens up some old memories (and wounds). Do not miss working at service desks.

[@matts.8342]

They are likely set up with stockpiles of parts and supply lines from Dell, Lenovo, HP etc and not MSI, ASUS, EVGA. I take custom PCs in all the time. I've seen mangled CPUs and sockets, one where the customer cut the PCIE tab on their video card to get it to fit the 4x slot, RAM forced into slots backwards, and multiple PCs with no standoffs under the motherboard shorting it to the case. I've even seen them with the plastic "remove this sticker" stickers still on the heatsink covering the thermal paste. I also had a couple in where thery couldn't figure out how to remove the VGA plug from the back (they screw in) so the ripped the port out of the motherboard. I don't know how the one 80+ year old woman managed that. BBY wants to work on bog standard PCs with easily sourced and replaceable parts backed by an OEM. They don't want to spend 4 hours on diagnosing why a specific game doesn't launch due to a graphics driver bug etc.

[@cocoxcocoa]

$100 just to get it diagnosed is freaking crazy. Last time I was having computer issues I brought my PC into Memory Express and they said it was $50 for diagnosis, then like $25 or something per hour that it takes to fix the issue. I got it back and they only charged me the $50 because the fix was easy for them and only took 20 min.

[@Raivo_K]

I looked up our biggest hardware store. Granted i live in a cheaper country than Canada but it's between 25-75€. The cheapest is BIOS update or new hardware install with drivers. Both at 25€. BIOS recovery is the most expensive at 75€ but im not sure what they mean by "recovery". Reconfiguring by removing old hardware and installing new hardware with stability test is 60€. Seems pretty reasonable.

[@randomestdragon]

Memory Express is pretty great

[@Spentalei]

Most likely they'll always waive it if you let them fix it. Because of all the shipping and overhead they need to make like 200$ at least turn some kind of profit.

[@HazewinDog]

For sure. There are 'mom and pop' shops that only charge for diagnosis if they can fix it, and if they do, it's a very reasonable price. Unfortunately those are a rarity...

[@kieranking3045]

MemEx is great. I'm lucky we have a few in my city. Their price beat policy has helped me get good parts for DIY builds.

[@joshstucki4349]

As a previous full-time IT shop owner, Keith did ok. I never used to promise that I'd fix everything right the first time because PCs are truly complex, but rather that I would always follow-up until it was fixed properly and promptly. He did just that. Good job.

[@walterbot]

I worked at Best Buy/Geek Squad for 2 years. They are cookie cuter with repairs. They don't get into advance settings or repairs. There is no training for this stuff unless the AR "advance repair tech" does his research.

[@readyup6983]

It took them a month to replace my 2023 Asus ROG Flow X16’s SSD. It went into a blue screen boot-up loop of death and my personal testing made me suspect the SSD was dead (likely defective). They also lost the dust cover for the XG Mobile port while at the Geek Squad Facility. Only reason I took it in was because I bought the accidental damage warranty in case I royally screw something up on it. At least my laptop seems to be working great again but I definitely wouldn’t trust their in-store techs.

[@foxrumor]

I still work there and I would agree, the training is not where an agent can learn. They either go above and beyond with their training independently or they don't learn because the training the company provides is not it.

[@sjneow]

Yeah I think it is too much for Linus to expect best buy to fix noisy fans, most of the customer who would bring their computers to best buy probably wont care as long as it still runs.

[@James_Baggott]

I used to work Geek Squad 2008-2012. It became very clear that during that period, Best Buy wanted cheaper labor for GS who simply knew how to check it in, back it up, and restore, nothing else. The original crew was great at actually fixing things.

[@Yairozick]

I have 1 year with bestbuy all of us know how to fix and basically do everything and we never turn down a customer/client we only do so when our Geek squad manager 0% experience in tech is there cause he just wants to push memberships and wants to follow everything by the book. Honestly i miss the old manager she was amazing and never said no to a client.

[@Elkadetodd]

I have a small shop myself. Cable we'd have definitely found, because I hounded my guys about that until literally the first thing they do is look for issues like cabling, bent pins in USB ports, bulging capacitors, etc - before even turning it on. Locked CPU speed would have led to a full BIOS reset -as someone has obviously been playing in there.

[@Arjay404]

It makes so much sense, it's such an easy step to take and it's also a common thing to happen especially to new machines or machines that have been transported recently, so to not check the wires is just lazy.

[@TheCodyTaylor]

I was also taught to open and check every connection, and the capacitors before even turning it on. I assumed that was standard practice.

[@TheAddanz]

Yep as a veteran tech checking the cables are all seated is just like breathing, very much the first thing and i see it as an easy win.... Id fix that re-plug for free, while the customer was still in the store and build goodwill . Now given the machine still had other "issues" id boot and test and almost certainly reset the bios... diagnostic fee or minimum charge would be fair enough at that point... but reinstalling windows etc... while a valid step, should never be done lightly. I cant bring myself to say either of these places deserve an "A" when unnecessary work was performed and reinstalling windows costs the customer a LOT of time reinstalling things after. Bestbuy geek squad gets an "F" and should refund all charges ... "Keith" is still a C- , bare minimum, but if he performed like that every time id be going elsewhere, his customers deserve better.

[@minmogrovingstrongandhealthy]

In my case even back in 2010 onwards not just today I ran into bad connectors on GPU, or a board since some people like to be like animals with it, even when it's connected they wiggle it around like they are stirring something ... Then in general faulty power supply and they tend to break really fast. I still to this day use old PSU from 2003 never been serviced even once, only took it apart every few years to blow out the dust that is all. Good luck buying a new PSU that lasts even a year let alone 20+ years ... Everything else in general tend to be software issue. I lost counts how many times a simple driver update completely disables your entire system and even install malware type trash on it that in background takes up 50% to 90% of your system power. Heck even simple things like I always have to disable Adobe Cloud Service bunch of apps that are hidden, because that alone hogs up half of my RAM and CPU power ... I even delete it and sure enough it's backwithin minutes or hour the next time you boot it up especially it brings all the junk back ... SO I am honestly done with new systems and new software too ...

[@Wabajck]

Watched enough Greg Salazar to know you reset CMOS just for the heck of it. It takes almost no time and fixes all sorts of things.

[@edwardconkle687]

I once applied for a job there, and was certified to do the work. The manager at Best Buy literally said they would not hire me because people who are certified to do the work do not follow their instructions.

[@hotdog782]

as a geek squad agent on the customer-facing side i was surprised at how reluctant they were to work on custom PCs-we get those all the time, the only kind of devices we put the brakes on are company/school owned laptops, and even then all we need is writtenauthorization from the IT department that owns it and then we can go ahead. i’m lucky to be in a department where my coworkers give a shit about the work, the devices, and the people above all; i think that attitude (and having an interest in tech beyond the job requirements) goes a long way

[@siraxhead]

Bring your PC to my GeekSquad precinct! We are so embarrassed by the quality of these agents performances! My store is in a small town with very few other repair stores, and we pride ourselves on the quality of our work. Even though we are required to pitch the membership, this is one of the only places I can work on my passion for PCs in the area. I do have to be a salesman and play it up to meet quotas, but we truly enjoy what we do and love our clients!

[@CoalitionGaming]

As a former geek squad agent of 5 years, their best days have been behind them for at least a decade. The other GS guys I worked with were all gems mostly, we all found it boggling how so many other stores got such bad raps but then as the corporate bigwigs negatively changed the way we worked so much, things just went further and further downhill moving so much of our work away from actively trying to repair things to just being glorified customer service and sales agents. The guys from my store all mostly now work in IT, but it still saddens me to see things have not improved since our time back in those days.

[@EsteBandido_YT]

Greetings! What's a good way to start working in Tech / IT field? All these job openings I've seen require some sort of CS degree (even for some entry -level jobs). Any feedback would be appreciated

[@JJFlores197]

@@EsteBandido_YT I don't know where you live, but I don't believe IT tech jobs should require any CS degree. That's just absurd in my opinion. Not saying that a CS degree isn't useful, but it isn't necessary for a technician level job. Do you have any computer repair knowledge? If not, I suggest looking at A+ Training videos from Professor Messer on You Tube. There's a certification called the CompTIA A+ which is generally a good entry-level IT certification to get into a technician/help-desk level job. Learn the basics of how computers work and how to repair them and how to install Windows and drivers on a computer. See if you have any friends or family who have old PCs they don't want anymore and use those to learn.

[@jimbob2088]

⁠tinker on projects at home!! So many people I interviewed and rarely any even say they do anything at home. Even if it's taking your computer apart, setting up home automation, some kind of cheap raspberry pi project. Prove you aren't just a book worm.

[@EsteBandido_YT]

@@jimbob2088 pretty much I'm my parents's technician when it comes to troubleshooting any wifi issues, setting up their TVs, improving their wifi ever since they expanded their home to 3 stories now. However, business wise I have not had the chance for trying something out. Only Microsoft Office stuff when it comes to helping others from other departments ( i used to be in Material control)

[@CoalitionGaming]

​@@EsteBandido_YT local schools/school districts are probably the easiest and best entry points. Helpdesk and general end user IT support related positions are the entry level that shouldn't need any degrees or certs. Most of the time, the IT hiring people are looking for experience and knowledge and in lieu of that, very good teamwork skills combined with a high level of resourcefulness. Basically if you have experience in customer service + end user PC troubleshooting and can explain that you have the skills to figure things out that you don't have specific knowledge of by relying on your IT team, documentations, and Google...then you'll look like a good candidate.

[@jivepsilocybe993]

Man i would never personally take a custom build to a repair shop.

[@pigeonnplays]

So I'm not sure if Canadian best buy policy is different or not, but I used to be a Geek Sqaud agent in the US and we are supposed to check in any computer (customer or not) and run diagnostics on it if our over the counter agents can't fix it. Diagnostics run from software like PC Doctor to inspecting the build to see if anything is disconnected. If we still can't find out the issue, then that's when we ask the customer if they'd like to send it out to our service center or not. I'm very surprised how these agents reacted, it's very much a they didn't wanna work on it situation.

[@silvercoatwolf]

Heyyo sleeper agent here! 1. the reason some precincts reject working on custom builds varies from precinct to precinct. I would take any computer in when i was an ARA as long as it didnt have custom tubing. Its all due to the experience and confidence that they have in the technicians. Luckily my area has really good techs that we never really had this issue. 2. the main line to best buy is outsourced to a call center that will tell you anything to get you off the phone even if it means agreeing with you to get you to go to the store with incorrect information. the amount of times that we get conflicting information given to customers about our policies bc they decided to call instead of just comming in and asking directly is crazy. hope this helps answer a couple of questions.

[@pjwhite9829]

vouch, my precinct sends out 90% of what they take in gets sent out to service

[@TalonLusk]

Yep 100% on that, same with our Precinct

[@drdoubleU]

yup

[@ChaosWolfJoe]

The. Freaking. Phone. System. Atrocious, hate it. Everything else, pretty big fan. The phone system and anything associated- this is where Satan exists. He IS the phone system.

[@austinlaurey3846]

i worked in geek squad for 5 years. We werent supposed to work on custom built gaming pcs in store, but at my precinct we did anyway at least before i left. You also dont actually talk to a geek squad agent in store when you call them, you often times get routed to our international call center. its nice seeing them start failing after how they treated us.

[@rbeeson12]

PREACH! I always told clients how to get around the call center and giving them the correct extension. The phrase on how to do it is still burned into my head lol. ARA 20-22 and our entire precinct quit in the same week to get actual IT jobs. We saw the layoffs coming from a mile away when they started to do that Omni bullshit in 22. Fuck BBY.

[@HD-uf2om]

As a tech of 16 years i have to give some small sympathy to the techs, i have repaired numerous systems over the years for customers that had taken it to other shops and they couldnt fix it, i know what i am doing but when it comes to big gaming rigs i myself can get a little puzzled, i dont see many of those with that hardware, etc. Its like taking a tesla to the garage down the road, they know what there doing and have been there your whole life but the tesla should go to a tesla shop. Of course origin is going to know what there doing, its there machine lol Its all they work on. Also, a lot of big box shops wont work on systems if there going to be complicated and time consuming, there is immense pressure from corporate to move systems, they dont care about customers, only numbers. I myself have had up to 30 computers on the benches and i was the only tech so i would unfortunately have to recommend complicated or time consuming systems to other shops out of respect for the customer not having to wait forever. Also, i feel the need to point out the elephant in the room. Did any of these places call you to Authorize the repairs??? I hate when shops do this, you NEVER just go ahead and repair a machine before contacting the customer to tell them your diagnosis and authorized the repair. Just sad. And for the love of god, how did they not notice the usb header disconnected? That is just bad technician.

[@dinobottheboss]

Former Geeksquad manager here. I worked at a store close to corporate headquarters in MN and both stores broke policy and didn't even try to get all the information needed. (I've also worked at 3 other geeksquads in the area) Typically the consultant agents will ask all the questions needed and take in the computer (regardless of custom built or prebuilt) and hand off to the repair agents. If they do not have repair agents in the store which most stores do not have anymore and they would first check the hardware and make sure everything was plugged in right then run a diagnostics with a proprietary program for any mallard, hardware failure, or OS corruption. It is standard and policy to first make sure that we ask if they want their PC backed up or not and always tell the customer there's a chance of losing data before finishing paperwork (on the program the geeksquad agents use it is a required checklist item that won't let them continue the paperwork without filling that out) then either send it back to the repair agents or send it to a store that has repair agents. They also should have called to make an appointment for pick up to go over the repair and make sure it was to your liking before you left. Granted how they treated their employees and the managers was not the best which caused all the people who knew anything about working on a computer to quit so now it's full of kids who don't know alot. You should try doing a MacBook repair or iPhone repair next. Crazy how long the apple process takes

[@MissMarvel_]

Wait, most stores don't have repair agents anymore? Since when? Why? I had no idea this was even a thing.

[@matty2128]

As a Geek Squad agent, working on custom computers is actually handled on a store by store basis. Our store has worked with a lot of custom builds thanks to being close to a college campus. However, I know there are other stores where agents really haven't even built a computer which I would be weary of.

[@ej_tech]

Our precinct also take in custom builds including the ones where the client did a piss poor job of building it. We will rebuild it and stress test it for them. We are indeed one of the very few Geek Squad locations that actually do "advanced" repairs. All of us ARAs and some of our CAs have PCs we built ourselves.

[@l33lduck]

Love these secret shoppers/repair shop videos. Makes me wonder how well I'd do myself being in the MSP business.

[@jfdd43]

I actually no longer buy from Best Buy. They don’t allow you to call the store directly. You have to call a centre, and wait for the store to call you back within 24/48 hours. This led into two separate problems with the same purchase.

[@klaric1]

I worked at geek squad. They are allowed to do diddly squat in the stores anymore. Basically just software diagnostics and those are handled from a third-party remote call center. I think something like 80% of the machines we took in went straight to the repair center.

[@frozennorthproductions]

Being a technician for years, the biggest thing I can say about this is that the random little issues isn't the technician, but the company they work for. They want you to rush like crazy so it's very easy to over look checks and it's usually up to someone else to create the work order and total for what the job was based on technician notes. This is literally why I started my own repair company because I couldn't deal with being blamed for missing small things because I was constantly being rushed by managers.

[@domg6041]

The only good thing Bestbuy did for me was put a 4090 up on an auction for 60%+ off because the "colours were glitching." It was the RGB Aura sync that, for October, was having software issues with the ASUS Strix 4090. Also, I got an ASUS 88U and 86U router for me and my friend for 25 and 50 bucks. One was because the Wi-Fi radio button was hit, and the other was because the LED off button was hit. So, their incompetency was my windfall. OH MY GOD!!!! That service sticker is the EXACT one on the 4090 box. Most of the stuff at the auction was Aura sync stuff. For those who doubt me, I posted the defect sticker for the video on the forum post.

[@boorhadly]

as a previous geek squad manager and DCI, they have no official policy regarding what computers are repaired. this includes prebuilt performance or base machines or those built by customers. the check in porocess should be standardized, to include a physical inspection of the particular item, including cables being disconnected, case dust, dents and scratches and missing slot covers. you also have the issue as to who is working the counter and their technical expertise. in many cases, the person at the counter may not be technical at all but has basic understanding of the PC but are great at customer service, deescalation and sales.

[@averagemodeler]

years ago i worked a "mom and pop" computer store. i learned then what customer service was. i can tell you my boss would have flipped out over the lack of competence over the best buy service. he was a very ocd builder and repair oriented guy.

[@MasteringSilence]

These videos are so relaxing, I don’t even know anything about computers it’s just chill vibes

[@bigfin20]

thats pretty funny but more power to u

[@NeologicStudios]

To credit Best Buy Geek Squad as someone who used to work at Best Buy years ago, I can say that company-wide policy was still a bit "flexible" up to the department managers on how strictly they adhered to those policies regarding accepting repair work that comes in. Geek Squad as a department is given a set budget and sales quota to hit, and I remember chatting with my department managers about why we would "sway" from the company policy and not take certain repairs, it ultimately came down to excessive losses, and the greater legal issue of property and value. If Best Buy bungs up a job while the property is in Geek Squad's care, it's VERY easy for the consumer to win any battle, no matter how much legal gets involved.

[@kenball4906]

I love Keith’s energy man, he had me rolling with his banter. That in itself would be worth the trip to his place

[@matthew164]

You know what, this sounds like a similar issue I had multiple times. If your pc doesn't work after a move, ITS BECUZ SOMETHING DISCONNECT.. I'm so glad I was smart enough from the get go to figure that out, Praise Forsight

[@AgencyNighthawk]

The Malware Keith found is likely HD2's anticheat (nprotect). Shit's awful and presents as malware to a lot of reputable scanners.

[@dscrye]

It’s the entire reason I’ve not bought the game.

[@Gabbro_1]

yep, had to pass on HD2 because of that shit.

[@ruediix]

Maybe Keith meant the hardware issue was minor, and software issues were major (which they were.) As of the issue with malware. Many times CCleaner will often ship with malware depending on where you get it. This is well known.

[@adrycough]

Okay, I am glad that I am not losing my mind. Always thought CCleaner was malware posing as legitimate software.

[@TheAddanz]

@@adrycough no its semi-legitimate , one click fix...with inherent issues of, if the devs screw up, it can hose your machine , but the manufacturer was literally hacked and the official download infected with malware and uploaded as an official download from the official server. Those installing the official package also installed the unwanted malicious application the hackers piggybacked onto the installer. They eventually found the compromise, but not until hundreds of thousands of installs infecting their customers

[@Pigrat.]

Linus is the good eats of tech videos

[@aidenmcgeehan428]

I was a former senior agent at a geek squad. A lot of Geek Squads in smaller markets only ship out to the repair centers if there is a hardware issue and don't have full repair techs on staff. Instead local agents only solve software issues or use "Agent Johnny Utah" (a remote agent) to remote in and fix issues. My geek squad never denied custom PCs. And we generally found them more fun to work on. But made sure to get their signature and confirmation that they knew that any replacement parts were for them to provide and would come out of their pocket.

[@miguelvisbal4522]

Same here, I just left GeekSquad to get a corporate IT Job and we’ve never denied custom builds except for bug infestation (which like fair). We would call client if we found a part to be bad and give them options if they wanted to pay for the part on pick up if we had the part in stock.

[@centrifuglfarce]

AJU never fixed anything when I was a CIA. But it was nice to have them for installing updates, running FACE, etc. I put everything I could on AJU that was low skill, high touch.

[@MirceaPrunaru]

Technology Connections would be proud of you Linus.