"Best Buy Optimization Is A Big Stupid Annoying Waste Of Money"

[JRViejo]

-{ Quote: "Over the past year, a number of you have been telling us that, due to "pre-optimization" of computers, it's difficult -- sometimes impossible -- to walk into a Best Buy and leave with the advertised deal (in effect, you would be paying a $39.99 surcharge over the computer's advertised price). We decided to look into your complaints. We sent the Consumer Reports secret shoppers to 18 different Best Buys in 11 states, and one of our shoppers was denied the price advertised for a specific model because only pre-optimized computers were available. When the Consumer Reports engineers compared three "optimized" computers to ones with default factory settings, there was no performance improvement. In one case, an optimized laptop actually performed 32% worse than the factory model." }-
The Consumerist Article (http://consumerist.com/2010/01/consumerist-investigation-best-buy-optimization-is-a-big-stupid-annoying-waste-of-money.html) by Meg Marco.

[dw426]

So GeekSquad is at it again, eh? In case anyone ever feels the need to use these (overall) buffoons, smack yourself out of it. No joke, too often they treat the systems brought to them like toys, and, worse, often like portable labs. God help you if one of them gets bored standing around. I've caught them red-handed peeking at contents they have no reason to be putting their beady little eyes on.

Best Buy already has a rough reputation for pricing (especially now that Circuit City and CompUSA are no longer competitors), but GeekSquad is making the company untrustworthy. Now, I want to make perfectly clear that I don't believe every tech in GeekSquad is horrid and up to no good, that would be stupid. But, overall, they've become bad news.

[Sully]

I see the GeekSquad as one of the only supposed 'trusted' sources many people have. There are many, many, many great computer technicians that have thier little shop, but there is some sort of sentiment that people are going to get ripped off when having thier computer fixed. I know many who take it to best buy because they bought it there, and they percieve a large corporation as 'less' of a threat than 'Dan the Computer Man' down the way.

I feel for them, because not everyone has a geek in thier back pocket like my family and friends do. I cannot imagine paying someone to fix a computer, as it is actually kinda expensive. When all you have to do is replace a hdd or similar, you end up paying twice that or more.

I must admit, one of my favorite things to do when my wife is shopping is spend some time in BestBuy playing stupid and listening to the sales people spew flat out lies. Occassionaly I get an honest one or a knowledgable one, and we have some good converstations. But overall I bet that 90% plus are just spewing garbage.

I once heard a guy telling these people that if they had an 'old fashioned' wired router hooked to thier computer, they were going to have a slower internet rate because the NEW draft-N routers were way faster. I laughed out loud ( I was scoping thier routers as chance had it ), and the couple looked at me. I smirked and said 'oh yeah? so my internet connection which is less that a 10base will be as fast as draft-N speeds if I just buy that router?'.

The couple (like it was scripted) both turned to look at the BB salesman, who had a very blank look. All he said was 'what is 10base?'.

I smirked again and went to find my wife.

Sul.

[JohnnyDollar]

Sounds like a nice little scam they got going on. I hope more media will pick up on this and put them in the spotlight. If they do then Best Buy will be changing their tactics pretty quickly.

[Judge Dee]

Absolutely infuriating.
That's the last straw for me concerning Best Buy.
I feel sorry for the less tech-savy people who are already struggling in this economy.
Thanks for the article, JRViejo.

[noons]

Same above goes for a lot of things. A garage told me it would cost 400 dollars to replace 2 brake pads and rotors, ended up working with a buddy of mine who works on cars as a past time and total cost of everything was 75 dollars and 2 hours of work.

[Woody777]

I bought a new computer from Best Buy a few years ago for a very good price. They did offer Optimization. They did tell me I could not get a restore disc from the factory or that I could make my own. To get one I had pay them to make me one. That was my only option apparently if I listened to them. One time they offered a warranty but the only way to get them to honor it when the dvd drive failed was to wait 2 weeks. They could not replace it while I waited but they would if I paid for one myself. I think they are just plain taking advantage of the public. What is so upsetting to me is that there is no one left in the business around my area except a few office supply stores & local oem
PC builders. When I need a new computer which is slowly becoming more & more critical I probably will have to go to them anyway unless I want to try Office Max or someone like that. That blurb about violating warranties by removing unwanted Antivirus installed at the factory is a new one to me. I never heard that one before. Why would taking off what is demo software be a violation of warranty?

[tgell]

After, reading that article, I would be very cautious about buying from them. I have noticed that when they advertise computers in their weekly ad, they no longer list the type of processor, especially for notebooks. Probably to keep people from comparison shopping. I did buy a notebook for my son at Staples at the advertised price with no pressure about buying anything extra. It was a Compaq with a T4200 and 3 GB of memory with a 240 GB hard drive for $375 after rebate.

[acuariano]

thanks JRViejo,,good post..i was thinking of a new pc..and the only option i have around here is worstbuy..
becuase.shopping online ships throught ups,fedex..and they like to throw boxes,packages.
and now..whom to trust.when planning to buy a new pc.

[MikeBCda]

I've steadfastly stuck with one dealer, a local OEM, for nearly 20 years now. Tech support is excellent, and any service work is a real bargain ... $65 (or maybe it's up to $75 by now) Cdn per hour, with NO minimum. If a job takes them 10 minutes, you get charged just for the 1/6 hour, plus parts of course.

The downside is that because they've got a long-standing excellent reputation, everyone in the know gets service done there, even if they bought elsewhere. So if you have to take yours in, it'll likely sit there a week or so before they even have a chance to look at it.

[andyman35]

I've read many bad things about those Geek Squad folks and the quality of their work.Seemingly a lot of them are of a very dubious technical ability and anything more involved than running their little MRI boot cd has them in a panic.

[acuariano]

i think is not only that...
what i saw,,is if you don't buy extra warranty for parts and labor.they give you " the returned and repacked units"..
so they make you come back and buy.

[JohnnyDollar]

As far as desktops go, I build my own. Laptops, I don't have one. I probably will soon be getting one. I will either buy a cheap netbook at a local retailer, or a decent notebook directly from the manufacturer's warehouse. I used to work for UPS, and they do sling boxes. The quality of packaging is what really makes the difference. They get banged around when they are delivered to the retailer also. Everything that you buy and own gets shipped in from somewhere in the world in some form or another.