I Asked Best Buy to Fix my PC… They FAILED

[mynameGeoff]

Thanks OriginPC for sponsoring today's video! Enter for your chance to win an OriginPC Neuron pre-built PC at https://bit.ly/originpc-ltt-mp

 

Computer repair is big business, and no one is bigger than Geek Squad. If you’re no IT expert and your PC’s sick, should you go to Best Buy, or should you look at a smaller fish?

[RecockulousIdea]

Okay, say what you will about BestBuy, but if it weren't for how terrible they are at diagnosing ANYTHING, I wouldn't have gotten my 4090 at auction for 400 bucks. Yes, that is 400 Canadian dollars.

The issue was that ASUS Arua sync was bugged when used with the ASUS 4090 Strix OC.

 

[xnamkcor]

I would hate to imagine the strain of talking to an unhelpful Indian technician in person. Over the phone is bad enough when I have to be polite and hope they eventually solve the problem, but in person? My annoyance would be far too palpable.

 

Edit: It's completely possible Origin PC puts "malware" on computers.

[Touch My Hamm]

I would love to see the techs notes (geek squads) from what was initially discussed and written down. As the person getting the PC to repair may not be the same person who signed it in, if they failed to note down all the issues that would end up with issues right off the start. The cable unless very hidden is visible and would put the thought "Maybe this should be plugged in somewhere" and lookup what the other end is attached to and they would find some sort of hub.

To play devils advocate for geekSquad: some of the issues put onto the pc are difficult to diagnose for t1 tech that in reality your paying $100 for them to find the issue and X amount to solve it. I havnt done work for geeksquad in 10 years but can see how some "agents" would have issues. Normally the standard is reset pc (unless they wanted backup which their contract says software isnt kept) then test. Alot of PC's are not physically opened unless there is a clear reason to (did they drop the pc, did the user say something physical could be wrong, etc). The fan hub not being plugged in is also not the standard they see as most fans are simply connected directly all to the motherboard and would have to trace the fan cables and understand what the hub is doing. Also having changes to the bios is NOT something their front line agents would know anything about. For the most part they are sales agents who like computers.

 

last iw as at Geek squad they would simply run their custom linux and run its scan. Then reset pc and test if they where told "its slow in games" and check fans noise. If software from windows reset didnt work then its simply check cabling and cpu temp. If still performing like crap and ONLY if its a custom pc would someone check Bios and it would be set to default and run again. Also odd that seeing custom prebuilts usually got spacial treatment from the "PC builders" of the agents. Most pc/laptops/phones/etc are usually older or standard OOB machines they sell at BestBuy. I actually remember an example of something similar to this happening where someone brought their $6000 pc in and it was very messed up from malware from kids downloading from free corn and a small drop which rattled the gpu just enough out to where it needed a re-seat and a HDD cable being torn out so the "games" files was missing. Their kids also had some crazy unstable OC on the CPU which I had to save the bios and had to reset but it was not simple as I had the actual tech working on it ask me why it keeps crashing when we loaded the clients fav game when everything appeared ok.

 

By no means does this mean im straight defending charging someone and not fixing the issue. Diagnostic fee aside, their standard for repair should be greatly improved but it would add time and require more knowledge/understanding which they simply do not pay.

[Emily Young]

43 minutes ago, xnamkcor said:

Edit: It's completely possible Origin PC puts "malware" on computers.

Nah. I know it's a sponsored video and all so take what I say with a grain of salt, but while setting up I noted the Origin image is pretty much a stock Win11 install. The only extras I saw were wallpapers, user profile icons, and in our case an RGB lighting profile in iCUE (not sure if that's standard or not), though in fairness I didn't run a malware scan so I guess I can't confirm. Either way, CCleaner and WinZip were installed by me.

[Touch My Hamm]

10 minutes ago, Emily Young said:

Nah. I know it's a sponsored video and all so take what I say with a grain of salt, but while setting up I noted the Origin image is pretty much a stock Win11 install. The only extras I saw were wallpapers, user profile icons, and in our case an RGB lighting profile in iCUE (not sure if that's standard or not), though in fairness I didn't run a malware scan so I guess I can't confirm. Either way, CCleaner and WinZip were installed by me.

imo the term "malware" has become very bloated as well as what is defined as such has a disconnect between users. This maybe where that confusion lies. Example for "spyware" defined back in the early 00's would have a meltdown if it saw what we allow now (maybe more on the phone and internet side).

[xnamkcor]

25 minutes ago, Touch My Hamm said:

imo the term "malware" has become very bloated as well as what is defined as such has a disconnect between users. This maybe where that confusion lies. Example for "spyware" defined back in the early 00's would have a meltdown if it saw what we allow now (maybe more on the phone and internet side).

Here's a fun example. On my tablet, I use a program that was removed from the Google Play store, but I like it and use it and I'm mostly offline with the device so I'm fine with it. But Device Care or whatever constantly "puts it to deep sleep" if I'm not actively using the device because it decided what was in my best interest. Even though I have the app in the "never deep sleep" list.
So, in this case, I would consider Device Care to be malware.

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

BestBuy doesn't stencil on the thermal paste? Interesting.

 

tiny techtipp: If the process asks for a reliable, repeatable thermalpaste application: Order a custom PCB/SMT stencil for $10 and 3D-print a frame to align the stencil.

 

[Theguywhobea]

Is it just me or does Linus look like he just got done eating a sloppy bowl of pasta before filming this? 

[Leaker9000]

So this video will cause some ripple effects across the company, and possibly the people involved might get terminated or written up for certain things that were exposed in the video that shouldn’t have. But that’s on them and not LTT.

The person who helped at the Surrey location wasn’t a GS agent, by the way. He was wearing the shirt and all, but he wasn’t part of the department. That’s because they flex people into other departments to save money. Also, he is a newer associate.

Norton is installed as part of MSI software packages. They most likely ran it after the clean install and walked away. The busier the store, the more mistakes happen, unfortunately, and Best Buy did a lot of cuts and reduced the number of agents working. So in some situations, it’s actually better to send things out so someone at the depot can dedicate themselves to working on the device. but of course no escuses. 

Agents in Canada are not like those in the USA, where people are split up into sub-areas within their departments. In Canada, agents often have to handle everything.

The $100 fee is for shipping and diagnosing at the depot repair and not in-store. The in-store service fee is $60 and is waived under certain circumstances.

Agents are allowed to store use products like thermal paste. As for why they charged the client for it, that is a question I’d ask their supervisor. There is no commission on any item, so doing so is to no one’s benefit.

FYI, I don’t advocate for Best Buy or Geek Squad, but I have an understanding of things in the company based on my knowledge and experience. 

That RTX 4090 the person mentioned above got for $400 was a customer service return. No one diagnosed anything because they took the client’s word for the problem. Best Buy does take the hit for that return. The RTV label stands for “return to vendor,” and items like that are repackaged onto skids and sold in liquidation. Sometimes you score gold at these places.

[Princess Lillie]

10 hours ago, Emily Young said:

Nah. I know it's a sponsored video and all so take what I say with a grain of salt, but while setting up I noted the Origin image is pretty much a stock Win11 install. The only extras I saw were wallpapers, user profile icons, and in our case an RGB lighting profile in iCUE (not sure if that's standard or not), though in fairness I didn't run a malware scan so I guess I can't confirm. Either way, CCleaner and WinZip were installed by me.

I haven't seen (or in this case, heard) you in a LTT video in what feels like forever. It's good to have you back!

[Stahlmann]

It's always funny to see professional PC techies fail spectacularly at their jobs. I bet most of these "technicians" don't even know what a BIOS is. I would never leave a $1000+ PC in the hands of someone who obviously doesn't know the first thing about computers. My grandmother could probably tell that these BestBuy employees don't know what they're talking about. And they're supposed to be the people who fix PCs every day?

[Yate Computing]

I love the fact that both repair centres charged $200 plus, This is why i thrive in the UK as I charge a sensible and realistic figure for any work i carry out and operate on a no Fix no Fee basis, Yeah i wont ever be rich but my conscience is clear after every repair.

[GodAtum]

This exposes a massive gap in the market. With everyone on earth owning a PC or laptop of some kind, it's impossible to get good support.

 

I've worked in IT for the best part of 30 years. I do part-time IT support for my local community and charge $100/hour (excluding parts).

[Paddo]

16 hours ago, xnamkcor said:

It's completely possible Origin PC puts "malware" on computers.

Some anti-malware programs flag WinZip software as malware or potentially unwanted programs. For example, Malwarebytes detects WinZip Malware Protector as a "Fake Computer Cleaner". Not surprising with all the ads and fake warnings that pop up when winzip is installed.

[darknessblade]

Shame linus didn't go to Keiths store with a obvious fake mustache.

[beggi702]

"*The reason he needs DSR is because we're using a 1080p monitor with passthrough for screencap"

I'm just curious.. Why does he need DSR while using 1080p monitor with passthrough for screencap ?

 

[Middcore]

On 4/4/2024 at 9:25 AM, darknessblade said:

Shame linus didn't go to Keiths store with a obvious fake mustache.

 

Hello, my name is... Sunil. Yes, that'll do. And I need you to fix my PC. 

[dogwitch]

On 4/4/2024 at 8:16 AM, Yate Computing said:

I love the fact that both repair centres charged $200 plus, This is why i thrive in the UK as I charge a sensible and realistic figure for any work i carry out and operate on a no Fix no Fee basis, Yeah i wont ever be rich but my conscience is clear after every repair.

same.  but in usa.

that being said.

none soc type pc are getting really rare to be used in my county.

 

[DaITguy]

Ya know, I kinda want to see Linus and the team test a Best Buy in the states to see if they have a better experience and if it IS, show up afterwards to meet them and explain they got secret shopped (secret repair requested?), they would flip out. 99% likelihood, they all watch LTT. Believe me I was one of them. On that subject:
As a former Geek Squad tech (both front counter and back of house) without going into detail, I can say that the three locations I worked at (USA) probably would not have failed in that way but in fairness, I can't speak as to how Best Buy in Canada runs things. With that said, as to their "policies" I can 100% see their manager saying to the team "hey absolutely no more custom PCs, we've had way too many issues and it's just not worth it" because one of my stores had a similar stance on certain things. Also they could be in a position where they don't have techs experienced enough to handle those repairs (believe me it's possible). As to the membership, I'm as against that kind of membership pushing as the next guy BUT since Geek Squad charges flat fees as opposed to hourly sometimes it makes sense because a backup is a charge, the diagnostic run is a charge (software and the tech diagnosing a hardware issue), malware removal is a charge, swapping parts is a charge, etc, etc. These are all things that can come up in a repair and can end up costing more than a membership. BUT in this case, yeah the relatively simple nature of the repair, I could reasonably see a Geek Squad agent saying hey, it was just a setting and a cable, it's a quick fix, it's included in the diagnostic fee which is cheaper (assuming they did NO data backup). Also remember it's a retail store, those guys are measured (well at least we were in the states) on their sales numbers so, they don't really have an option there. Anyway, disappointing to see my fellow Agents fail, better luck next time.