Geek Squad

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The Geek Squad is a subsidiary of the Best Buy Company and is based in Richfield, Minnesota [1]. Originally founded in 1994 by Robert Stephens, the company offers various computer-related services and accessories for residential and commercial clients. The Geek Squad works both in-store and on-site, and also provides 24-hour telephone support.

The company's services are branded with an American law enforcement and geek theme.

Contents 1 Locations and partnerships 1.1 Total Services 2 Staff 2.1 Uniforms and vehicles 3 Process and procedure 4 Controversy 4.1 Winternals lawsuit 4.2 "Peeping Geek" lawsuit 4.3 Data theft 5 Geek Squad in popular culture 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Locations and partnerships

Geek Squad "precincts" exist in all Best Buy stores in the United States, Canada, and China, and exist as an onsite only service in England.^[1] There are also a number of "standalone" locations referred to separately as Geek Squad Stores. These consist of full-time "Agents" who specialize in PC repair, troubleshooting, data rescue, in-home PC setup, and wireless networking.

Best Buy terminated its partnership with Office Depot in Orlando, Florida, where Geek Squad precincts were located in 10 Office Depot locations.^[2] The brand is also located in select FedEx/Kinko's locations. In October, 2006, it was reported that Geek Squad would be launching in the United Kingdom in a joint 50-50 venture with Carphone Warehouse, where today it exists as both an onsite service and a remote repair service. It is now fully operational with onsite service in Greater London, the South Coast and North West areas of England, and phone and remote repair sites based at Tulketh Mill in Preston (Lancashire) and in the Stornoway Contact Centre (Isle of Lewis, Western Isles of Scotland). ^[3]

[edit] Total Services

In 2007 Geek Squad officially added Magnolia Home Theater Installation teams as well as Best Buy mobile Installers to the Geek Squad brand. The change was titled, "Total Services" and was aimed towards the combination of major Best Buy services into one cohesive unit. Best Buy mobile installers and Magnolia Home Theater installers have now switched from their previous grey and blue (respectfully) uniforms, to grey and orange shirts with black pants. This change removed all "Magnolia Home Theater Installation" branding and was replaced by "Geek Squad Installer units" instead. This has now allowed Geek Squad to incorporate home theater installation as one of the in home services offered via telephone. All services previously offered are still available, however, the process to set up the appointments have changed slightly (having clients contact 1-800-Geeksquad for all home theater services). Employee's have had mixed reactions to this change as it removed the unique services and brands and instead combined them into one service. Despite this change, Best Buy appliance installers were not incorporated under "Total Services".

[edit] Staff

Geek Squad employees are known as "Agents" and are assigned titles similar to those used by law enforcement authorities and the military:^[4]

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• "Chief Inspector": Leader of all Geek Squad agents and founder of the company. After the Best Buy/Geek Squad merge the Chief Inspector functions as the overseer of the majority of Best Buy's service departments.
• "Precinct Chief": Leader of a standalone store. A managerial position.
• "Deputy Field Marshall" (DFM): Deputy Field Marshals are the conduit between Geek Squad HQ and "Agents" in the field.
• "Deputy of Counter Intelligence" (DCI): Leader of the precinct, a supervisor position. This person handles the most difficult customer issues and manages other Agents. Responsible for the day to day operations of in-store locations.
• "Certified Special Agent" (CSA): Sort of the "technical architects" they work in conjunction with the Special Agents to insure larger scale installations retain scale and scope of project specification. Required to hold a current MCSE.
• "Special Agent" (SA): Services mostly businesses, supporting technology solutions such as VPN' s and server based environments. All Special Agents are required at minimum to hold a current MCP but encouraged to obtain a variety of certifications including CCNA, MCSA and others. This was the title of ALL onsite Agents prior to the Geek Squad acquisition by Best Buy in 2002.
• "Double Agent" (DA): Offer in-home services and some services for small businesses. The 'Double' part of the name refers to the fact that they also train other agents when not performing services
• "Counter-Intelligence Agent Senior" (CIA Sr.): An entry-level supervisory position at all Geek Squad locations (Best Buy Precincts, Stand-Alone, & Repair Facilities). Their primary duty is dealing with the more difficult repairs and customer service issues. Usually the "right-hand man/woman" to the DCI.
• "Counter-Intelligence Agents" (CIA): These Agents are located at Geek Squad Precincts, working at the precinct counter in order to provide customers with computer services and handle most of the repair work on computers, in addition to working the reigster
• "Counter-Operations Agent" (COA): In store Agents who handle most of the paperwork and customer communication needed to support CIAs.
• "Mission Controllers" (MCs): Technical support Agents identifying customer issues and recommending solutions.
• "Covert Operators" (CovOps): Remote Repair Agents, specializing in handling client software problems over the phone or the Internet.
• "Sleeper": Any Agent who has been honorably discharged from active duty to pursue other jobs. Sleepers can be recalled to active duty at the request of the Chief Inspector.
• "Guidance Engineer" (GE): Engineers who set up appointments and assist the field agents with scheduling emergency and recall services.
• "Cadet": Prior to the Best Buy/Geek Squad merge a Cadet was an initiate in the Geek Squad. After the Cadet had proven himself around the precinct he was given his or her badge and promoted to Special Agent. After the Best Buy/Geek Squad merge a Cadet was an agent in a Best Buy location who was authorized to do follow home service calls. Cadets also served to take simple calls from a Double Agent's schedule when the Double Agent was needed for a more urgent situation. The Cadet position was eliminated from the Geek Squad early in April 2007; However, due to high work loads, many still remain active.
• "Black Ops": Agents who fix computers in Precincts over the internet to help alleviate and speed up the repair process. These agents are generally similar to Counter Intelligence Agents and just focus on computer repair. As they use the Internet as their medium, they are unable to do hardware repair.
• "Secret Weapon": An elite team of agents with extensive field experience as Double Agents, Geek Squad Installers, and Autotechs that provide phone and remote support to the field.
• "Public Defender": Executive agents who deal with escalated customer service issues, as well as provide live video conferencing scheduling and support; currently being tested at select FedEx Kinkos locations for future national roll-out.

[edit] Uniforms and vehicles

Dress code for Geek Squad employees consists of white short-sleeve dress shirts, black clip-on ties with the Geek Squad logo pin, black trousers or black skirts, white socks or nylons, and black shoes with the Geek Squad logo imprinted in the sole. This is the uniform for all Counter Intelligence Agents (CIA), Counter Intelligence Agent Seniors (CIA Sr.), Double Agents (DA), Special Agents (SA) and Deputies of Counter Intelligence (DCI). In addition, Special Agents, Double Agents, and now also DCIs are assigned unique badge numbers. Counter Operations Agents (COA) usually wear black polo shirts that bear an embroidered Geek Squad logo on the chest.

The Minnesota Historical Society added the official uniform to its permanent collection in 2000.^[5].

Best Buy's Home theater installers and car audio installers will soon don Geek Squad installer uniforms. While they won't be shirt and tie, they will house the Geek Squad name for all Best Buy's service installations.

Double Agents & Special Agents drive black-and-white Volkswagen New Beetles (dubbed "Geekmobiles") with an orange-and-black company logo on the door. In the summer of 2005, the California Highway Patrol requested that the Geek Squad vehicles be repainted to no longer resemble the paint scheme of their police vehicles (a violation of Californian law).^[6] As a result, Geekmobiles in California bear an alternate color scheme consisting of an all-black vehicle with white roof and running boards.

Due to a number of financial issues, including a large number of parking tickets and thousands of dollars lost for parking garage fees the Geekmobile program was ended in Manhattan New York City Geek Squad Precincts.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Process and procedure

Geek Squad agents work in a "first come first serve" manner, allowing even service to those in line, regardless of the repair issue. All Geek Squad agents are non-commission and base the repair work on a flat fee system, as opposed to an hourly charge. This allows agents to perform the work without having to worry about time constraints. This can be beneficial in a situation where a user might have a difficult problem and resolving it requires a lengthy process. In contrast, if someone has a simple, easily resolved issue, the costs remain the same.

Agents use tools such as Drive Fitness Test (HGST DFT), Eurosoft (PC-Check), Memtest86+, Acronis (Acronis Disk Director), MRI BDE (for "Best Disk Ever"), and various other diagnostic and repair applications. The MRI BDE application is the most frequently used application as it utilizes a combination of the most commonly used tools and applications used by agents. MRI BDE was created by Geek Squad agents in order to provide it's agents with a straightforward, all-in-one application for diagnostics, repair services, data backups, password resetting, and virus/spyware removals.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007 Geek Squad officially introduced "Agent Johnny Utah"; a remote access service used by Geek Squad Precincts to increase productivity and allow agents to perform more complicated tasks. Agent Johnny Utah (named after the Keanu Reeves character in the movie "Point Break") utilizes "Black Ops" agents to perform computer set-ups, basic diagnostics, operating system tune-ups, and any other simple computer tasks over a standard remote access server. The service itself is utilized in every Geek Squad Precinct across the United States as it is a company wide initiative; however, a good majority of the "Black Ops" agents are rumored to be outsourced to India and the Philippines. In response to this new tool, some Agents have criticized the service, saying that many of the "Black Ops" agents are, "under trained", "difficult to work with", and "ignorant of many common signs of major problems".^{[citation needed]}

Recently, Geek Squad has added the "check repair status" feature to Geeksquad.com. This allows clients to check their computers' repair status online rather than have to call or meet with the agents in person.

Double Agents (in-home Agents) also use the aforementioned tools; however, pricing is higher for services (typically around fifty U.S. dollars more than their in-store counterparts) to cover transportation charges.

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Winternals lawsuit

In April 2006, the Geek Squad was accused of using unlicensed versions of Winternals software in its MRI BDE toolset. A judge granted a restraining order on April 12, requiring use of all unlicensed software be stopped, and forcing Best Buy to turn over all copies of Winternals software within twenty days.^[7] After settlement, a version of the Winternals software was released to be used by Geek Squad.^[8]

[edit] "Peeping Geek" lawsuit

In April 2007, a Geek Squad employee was arrested for covertly recording a 22-year-old woman in her shower with a camera phone and later placing the phone in her 13-year-old sister's bedroom while on a service call. ^[9] The suspect was arrested the same day on suspicion of using a camera to view a person without their consent and of annoying or molesting a child under 18. ^[10] A civil lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, April 4th 2007.

[edit] Data theft

The Consumerist.com performed an experiment where they brought one of their computers to twelve different precincts for a simple installation of iTunes. The purpose of the experiment was to identify whether Geek Squad agents would steal pornography and other files from the client when repairing a computer. Through the course of the experiment, the Consumerist.com made their computer log a record of activity Geek Squad agents installed iTunes. At one of the precincts the computer brought to, an agent copied personal photos from the client's computer. The Consumerist chose to not inform the company of the agent's activity, assuming it was an industry issue and not an isolated incident. ^[11]

[edit] Geek Squad in popular culture

• The term "Geek Squad" originated in the movie Heathers.

• In the TV series Chuck, the main character works as a member of the "Nerd Herd" at a "Buy More" and drives around in a car similar to the Geekmobile, respectively alluding to Geek Squad, Best Buy, and its Geek Squad cars.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Geek Squad
• Geek Squad Canada
• Geek Squad United Kingdom
• Robert Stephens - Founder of Geek Squadfr:Geek Squad