I want to steal business from Best Buy’s Geek Squad. I don’t have anything against any of their techs. In fact, I think all of those techs would be better off going into business for themselves but my instincts tell me Best Buy has a no competition agreement as part of their terms of employment.
Why I Want Geek Squad’s Business To Become My Business
They’re simply too expensive. Technicians are seeing $9-23 out of every $150-300 charged. On top of that, Geek Squad doesn’t want to share knowledge with their customers as outlined in the training section of their website: “Training Services EXCLUDES teaching how to remove viruses or spyware and any other propritary Geek Squad information.” For a company making millions, you’d think they’d have someone who would catch typos like the misspelling of proprietary. 
Geek Squad Is Bad For America 
Best Buy’s Geek Squad is just a step above a company who outsources their services to India. They charge fees like Mark Shuttleworth will be working on your computer but pay technicians the salaries of fast food workers. By hiring a local technician, a customer not only saves money but helps a computer professional from becoming another member of the working poor.
There’s a lot more than low prices to cheer about! By hiring directly, customers also avoid the salesman disguised as Chuck. This person’s primary mission is not to provide the best tools and service but to sell Geek-Squad-branded merchandise. Take comfort in knowing a self-employed technician will just as happily install a free antivirus program like Avast! as they will a suite like Kaspersky.
Dissecting The Services
The virus and spyware removal is shown above and what follows is a closer look at other Geek Squad services. 
Anyone with internet service can get 25gb of free online storage space using Skydrive. For $89, a 500gb hard drive can be purchased –no Geek Squad restoration point necessary. For less than $99, I can provide customers with 500gb of backup storage space and a link in their web browser to SkyDrive… or they can do this themselves by reading this.
Take a look at what Geek Squad charges for up to 9gb of data backup…
If a 500gb portable hard drive can be purchased for $89, why would it cost an extra $100 to backup 9gb of data? A dual-layer DVD can hold 8.5gb. I purc
hase these at a cost of around 25¢ each. BlueRay media has come down to about $2.50 each and can hold 25gb of data. The easiest method I can think of though for both portability and choice for a customer is a flash drive, like a 16gb SanDisk Cruzer, which is still only $33.
Hire Me!!!
While I probably won’t put a dent in Geek Squad’s business, I do hope potential customers in this area come across my blog as they research the company. I want your business.
The services I offer…
- Virus & Spyware Removal
- Security and Performance
- Wireless Networking
- Computer Tune-Up
- Computer Set-up
- Printer Help
- Backup
- Data Recovery
- Software Install
- Hardware Install
- Technology Consultation
- Training
- Hardware Repair
Serving:
Northern Whatcom County
Bellingham, Washington
Abbotsford, British Columbia
The Fraser Valley
Available for remote support to all areas of the world. I’m not a Mac guy but there are plenty of them on Craigslist.
Resumé and recommendations: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cylon
$35/hr for all services. Any additional hardware or software will be at direct cost with no hidden fees. Contact me by email using the link on the top of the page or via Google Voice or Skype:
