BLADDER_MASTER
is no more
This is the ultimate Geek Squad insider confession. It's 10 pages long.
Highlights:
• Wave a magic erase and reinstall wand over a used PC. SHAZAM! Now it's a new PC!
• Geek Squad agents scour your computer for those porn pics you and your girlfriend(s) took, and load it onto their thumb drives. Even the ones you thought you deleted.
• GS used to be great, until they replaced most of the actual techs with salesmen.
Raw, uncut and uncorroborated, you'll think twice about bringing your computer to Geek Squad after reading this one...
Anonymous writes:
Introduction - What's all this, then?
I am writing this for various reasons. One reason is in hopes that I might shine some light on the reality of Geek Squad and Best Buy; both correcting false rumors, as well as confirming others. Another reason that I have chosen to write this is out of retribution. No, not "revenge", or the stereotypical "payback" you may think of a former employee wanting. And no, not the "vengeance" of a "disgruntled employee", which I surely am not, and still recommend Best Buy services as much as I had before. The retribution I speak of is simply the need for closure. Geek Squad was a wonderful and amazing company, and I indeed loved--and now miss--my job, as well as my friends I made while there (both co-workers as well as customers). Sadly, due to certain events, and by no fault of Geek Squad itself, the company changed, corrupted, and slowly reduced itself to what it currently is. I spent every ounce of myself to make Geek Squad as great as possible, and in the end, due to corporate bureaucracy, bad decisions, and greed, my job that I had taken with so much pride, had turned into something that now brings me shame for even being a part of. Despite all of this, the main reason, however, is essentially so I do not forget the details of my experiences. As you start digesting my story, do so not in the mindset of reading an exposé of a company, rather, do so in the mindset of reading a tragic novel.
I Thought Best Buy was Evil - And I was wrong.
Like many people, I have an interesting history with Best Buy. From return issues, to fictitious warranty information, I had experienced just about all I wanted to in regards to the Best Buy brand. But why did I work for them? Did I need the money? No. Was it some sort of sick joke? No. I applied because it was the summer, and my friend worked for Best Buy and guaranteed me I was wrong about them. He was right, and I was definitely wrong.
Best Buy was an amazing company! I remember distinctly telling my friends and family (some who didn't believe me) how wrong I had been about Best Buy. I remember laughing with my fellow Geek Squad agents. I remember smiling and helping customers. I remember wanting to come to work and not wanting to leave. I remember wearing my Geek Squad uniform with pride, even when I could feel the glares of people and hear their giggles. But why should I care? I love working with computers, I love helping people, and I loved my job that allowed me to do both.
I Thought Best Buy was Amazing - And I was wrong.
I loved my job, and I kid you not, it breaks my heart to think back as I watched Geek Squad--almost a member of my family--become beaten and ravaged by Best Buy. It was a shock to me as it happened, but not to everyone. One agent commented to me how Geek Squad replaced Best Buy's old support service. And indeed, he was correct. Though, the marriage of Best Buy and Geek Squad was the most advertised, Geek Squad was surely not Best Buy's first tech-support companion. Best Buy use to have its own tech support service, which it corrupted, ruined, and then replaced with Geek Squad... and is now repeating the process with this new acquisition.
Some of you must be wondering how, exactly, I could have been wrong about Best Buy on both sides of the spectrum. I'll do my best to explain as we continue on.
Customer Centricity - Common Sense Comes at a Price.
It wasn't long after I was hired into the company when I learned why I was so wrong about it: "Customer Centricity". You see, the current Vice Chairman and CEO of Best Buy is a wonderful and kind man by the name of Brad Anderson. I had the privilege of meeting, working, and even eating with Anderson on numerous occasions while working at Best Buy. Anderson has one of those "kind faces" that you do not forget; the kind of face that has a smile even when he is not smiling, and the kind of eyes that do not judge you, and make you realize that the difference between you and him does not rest in the amount of zero's in his bank account, but rather how much of yourself you put into your job. He is a great man, and I cannot stress how much I respect him. Sadly, though, it was his kindness that, I believe, would contribute to the downfall of Best Buy's Geek Squad.
From what other executives in the company told me, the reason my beloved Best Buy was so amazing had to do a lot with the fact that Anderson was getting old, and hoped to leave a legacy behind him of making Best Buy "Customer Centristic". And there I go again, using that term, "Customer Centristic"... Let me explain what I mean: In 2003, a man named Larry Selden published a book, Angel Customers and Demon Customers, and I am not quite sure who read it, but it caught someone's eye in Best Buy. Selden worked with Best Buy to develop Customer Centricity, which basically is a fancy term for, "If you treat customers right, they will trust you and buy more from you." That's it. It boggled my mind how something so simple could be so hard to comprehend, and would require a man like Selden to be paid large amounts of money to consult Best Buy on their customer centricity goals. But this was reality.
Selden became a man of folklore within the realm of Best Buy. I heard rumors that he was chauffeured from Best Buy to Best Buy in a stretch limo. The very mention of Selden visiting your Best Buy caused managers to swiftly move through the stores, snapping their fingers at employees, yelling at them to be on their best behavior.
Selden's customer centricity was just what Anderson was looking for to help path the way for his legacy of patching Best Buy's reputation. And it would have worked, if not for the kindness of a CEO.
The Death of Customer Centricity - All Good Things Must Come to an End.
In the Bahamas, on August 23rd, 2005, a moderate storm formed and moved across southern Florida. Suddenly, the warm waters of the Gulf magnified it, then, on August 29th, 2005, she slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi. Her name was Katrina. Inside all of the statistics of death, injury, and destruction, there were fifteen Best Buy stores affected by Katrina, and out of that fifteen, six stores were completely ruined; I remember at least one of these six was reportedly looted, and another was under water.
This was, indeed, a trying time for any CEO, but Anderson pushed forward, and declared that all the employees, from the stores which were destroyed, would remain on payroll, despite them having no store in which to work. I distinctly remember having mixed emotions about this decision. On the one hand, it was a beautiful and enormous act of generosity to help the "members of the Best Buy family", however, the business side of me began to crunch the numbers and, in my head, I watched Best Buy dig itself into the red through generosity. And surely, they did.
Best Buy's stock was already not doing too well, and soon, it began to dip further. Was this completely due to Best Buy's pledge to pay hundreds of employees from stores that were bringing in no revenue? I cannot say for certain. What I do know for sure, however, is that as the company's belt began to tighten, the backlash was felt throughout the country. From coast to coast, hours began to be cut, and lives became disrupted. I am not saying it was not noble to help the victims of Katrina, nor am I saying it was wrong to do so. I am simply pointing out a fact that we all learned early in school, which is for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When Anderson decided to help a concentration of employees in Louisiana and Mississippi, he, in turn, decided to economically hurt hundreds more employees spread throughout the United States.
I remember coming to work, and seeing that I had no hours to work. I did not mind, though, because, again... I was not there for the money to begin with, and I only stayed for the friendship and love of my job. Many times I gave my hours up completely to my friends who were desperately trying to pay their rent, insurance, and other bills that had previously never been a weight on their minds.
The thought of what happened in Katrina didn't really faze me as much as it did to people who lost loved ones in the storm. I am not saying I did not care, because I did. I watched the news every day, just like everyone else. I donated from my paycheck every two weeks, as much as I could, to hope that it would find its way to helping those in need. And I prayed that they would keep finding survivors, even when it was clear they would not. But I did not lose anyone... so I thought.
It was only as the weeks began to pass that I realized I had indeed lost someone--a loved one: Geek Squad. In late 2005, Geek Squad's integrity, along with Customer Centricty, had drowned in the turbulent floodwaters of economic tragedy, caused, in part, by Hurricane Katrina and the kindness of an old man. Simply put, Best Buy needed to increase profits... and while customer centricty filled the stores with happy customers, ripping customers off filled the store's pockets with money.
From Geek Squad to Geek $quad - The Death of Technicians, and the Rise of Salesmen.
Where once store meetings were a rarity, they had now become ritualistic. Stores kept missing their numbers, and in the land of Best Buy, a worker who doesn't meet his numbers means a manager who doesn't keep their job. It may sound intriguing that it may work this way... punishing managers for the shortcomings of employees, but it is this military-like strategy that helps keep non-commissioned employees motivated by their managers.
Ah yes... the old, "We don't get paid on commission here!" Line. It is definitely true... Best Buy employees do not get paid on commission; however, I find this even worse than if they were. You see, when you go into a store where you know the employees work on commission, you instinctively keep your guard up. However, when you know the employees receive no commission, you are inclined to believe you are hearing the truth rather than lies from a salesperson hoping to get another "sale". It's a psychological tactic that relies on the ability for Best Buy to motivate their employees with charts, graphs, and the occasional reprimand from a superior. It works, though. Oh, it does work! To some, it may be in hopes of "moving up the ladder", or receiving applause from the entire store at a meeting, or even, possibly, the sheer fact that some employees are so egotistical that they actually believe their own bogus information while selling a customer on a product.
Before you go hating all the employees, though, in my opinion, it is not entirely their fault. While Geek Squad use to be a condensed army of the most computer savvy men and women the world has ever known, it has been diluted and infected by swarms of salesmen and saleswomen. The Geek Squad uniform use to emboss the separation of class between the interchangeable and recyclable blue-shirted salespeople and the geek-sheik computer gurus who were nothing less than company assets. While it use to imply knowledge, it now implies assumption... and that is what you might get. You see, when an employee is entrusted with the job of a Geek Squad agent, they now only need to believe they know what they are talking about--as if their clip-on-tie gives them automatic right-of-passage into the nerd world. This belief leads many of them to suggest products and answer questions regardless of whether they know what they are talking about... because they must know what they are talking about... they are wearing the clip on tie, Geek Squad button, and badge... therefore whatever dribble comes out of their mouth, which leads to money coming out of your wallet, must be correct.
I am sincerely sorry if I have eroded your view of the men and women who drive those fancy VW Beetles, but it is a reality that you must remember and keep with you always. If you, for any reason doubt me, by all means, apply to Geek Squad yourself, just remember that it is easier to become Geek Squad by transferring into the department from being a salesperson than it is to apply directly to Geek Squad and actually know what you are doing.
The fact is that you are no more likely to see a real technician at a Geek Squad today than you would be to see a real 5'10" mouse, wearing red suspenders at Disneyland. It is all an act... a show to provide what the customer assumes they need to see. The shoes, the ties, the badges, the pants, the socks, and the shirts do not increase the persons ability to fix your computer, they merely fulfill the customer's subconscious expectation of what a competent computer technician looks like.
.
