Geek Choice

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The tech was a young man who was very slow at figuring it out. He didn't have a Dell disc with him, so had to go back to pick it up. He used my phone to call his office for help 3 times and used my lap-top to get info from Dell. He was here 4 hours! He had to hook my computer up to my TV to get the screen size right, then sat and ran all the updates while on the clock - which I could have done. My computer is back on-line, but has no sound, he couldn't find the right driver. I was very disappointed in his work

It was an Angie's List Big Deal that I purchased. They wanted more money than I imagined, but it wasn't because I didn't know how much it was going to cost, it's just I think I allowed the agent to continue working on my system for probably more time than I realized. I can't say that it was more time than was necessary because for me in that kind of business, there's really no way to count whether I am being treated fairly. I had to assume I was being treated fairly and what they needed to do took the time to do it, but it appeared that rather the wrong amount of time to perform the functions that they performed. What I was charged was $75 for the Big Deal for the first hour. I am one of the typical uneducated virgins who own PCs. I was in the same room with him so it wasn't like he was reading a comic book, but I could have said, You have an hour to do what needs to be done. Basically when he was finished with the first hour, he said there was more that he can do and I let him continue it. He was here for maybe 3 hours. It's not like somebody came to fix your front door and a knob that you know is not closing properly, you can say "Good job, go on your way." When it comes to dealing with the computer, I have no idea of what it is. I should have cross examined him more, and asked what it is specifically. I believe by doing that, whatever I am being told, it was like all Greek to me. He kept telling me that my system is not properly balanced. I could cross examine him all day and if he wants to tell me that there's something wrong and can give me examples of what's wrong. The unfortunate part of this is that I don't understand everything that they are doing. I could be talked into just about anything because nobody wants to have a computer that's not working properly, you don't need viruses or worms, or whatever to get in there so I'm looking forward to be as good as I could possibly be. I could have bought almost 4 computers for what cost me. Subsequently, the computer ended up crashing and there was no recovery from it so I ended up buying a machine. There was a problem where I could not access my hard drive and my son has a contact who does that kind of work, and subsequently took the computer and pulled the hard drive, and reconstituted it for me. I got the files back. The machine is in a land someplace. That machine was about 6 years old. Meanwhile it had been functioning perfectly up to the point that it wasn't. I don't think that there was anything that they could ever be held responsible for. There are people who had interactions with Geek Squad at Best Buy or some other wholesale where they have a support group, like Computer City where they have a group of techs who would work on problems if ever you bought a machine from them. Subsequently when I bought my machine from Best Buy, I ended up buying a contract for 3 years and I've used that significantly since I bought it, but still that is a black box. Basically what you do with that Geek group is you sign on, you give them authority to work on you computer and you go out to dinner. When you come back, whether it's an hour or 2 hours or half a day, they'll work on it until it's done. I am not being educated. As far as I'm concerned, an organization like that wants a contract, and it's a brand new computer so there was nothing they could sell me. This was different, their bread and butter is the time spent on the job. I am being cynical here because it's like going some place for an estimate. You could get an estimate. Unless you are in the field, you have no idea whether that estimate is reality or something other than reality, and I have no way of knowing, so I assume everybody is out there to butter their own bread. It doesn't save me anything unless they want to look at it as advertising for their own business. If the guy comes in here and spends an hour, and he does everything, and then he gets out, but the guy was here for basically half a day. They did the job that they were supposed to but it took longer than I assumed. After all, they worked on something that I don't know very much so I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. With regards to the price, I am assuming that it's market price. An outfit like that that comes to somebody's home to look on the problem with the computer with their experience, they probably estimate it's a 2-hour job. They really want to give you a break in the cost. They gave you 2 hours at that hourly price, reduced rate, and that would be an A because that's realistic. The PC owner who's getting the service has got no earthly idea what they are in for when he shows up here. I am guessing that from that experience, an hour is on the short side. They offered 2 hours, they ended up having somebody commit to 2 hours to take care of the problem, and most likely resolve at all with time left over for which there is always a need to have other work done on the computer, and there isn't enough time to do it. At that point, they had to explain that you got this problem and that problem and it's going to cost so much more. They came when they were supposed to and they did what they were supposed to. I would never need them for the computer that I now have.

The software still isn't working properly despite the fact that the technician from Geek Choice made two attempts to solve the issues. The gentleman has told me that there is nothing more that he can do and that the issue is software-related. This is frustrating since I've basically paid hundreds of dollars for defective software. Aside from this, everything went well.

I had a good experience with them. They were very honest about what needed to be done, and they did the work as promised and did it well.

They were nice and polite, and they responded quickly to my call. However, I had to call them a second time as the computer still wasn't working properly, but the second visit didn't help either. Ultimately, they were expensive and failed to solve my problem.