The not so Geeky Geek Squad

Recently, I had to go back to our local Best Buy to pick up our Dyson vacuum. It turns out Dyson has a deal with Best Buy, where you can simply return your Dyson to Best Buy for warranty/repair issues.

Not only is it aggravating that only the "Geek Squad" personnel can walk the ten feet into the "back area" to get my vacuum, but even worse there is only one person there. So myself and a female customer in front of me wait for the gentleman to finish off with the other customer.

After a few minutes the other customer just leaves, and wait another ten minutes, being ignored by the "Geek Squadist". When I finally pull aside a Manager to ask for help he says:

Best Buy Manager: "Oh Bob is our Geek Squad Associate, he will be happy to help you"
Myself: "We'll, the last customer left 10 minutes ago, and "Bob" has not said one word to us".
Best Buy Manager: "Bob, could you help these customers out?"
Bob: "Sure thing boss"
Bob : "Hi Mam, I've actually been working on your laptop for the last few minutes, and it will be done soon!".
Female Customer: "Well you said it would take 30 minutes, it's been 45 minutes now..."
Bob: "I'm sorry mam, one of the platters on your drive is dying, so it's taking somewhat longer to run the test" < ???? >
Female Customer: "Can't I just leave the drive here and come back tomm?"
Bob: "Well mam, if we do that, I'd have to check it in, and that is a lot of paperwork. Let's just wait a few more minutes and it should be done."
Female Customer: "But if it doesn't finish soon, won't you have to check it in anyways?"
Bob: "Well yes, but I assure you, it will be done soon. It's just that messed up platter."
Myself: "So Bob, if one of the platters on her hard drive is dead, shouldn't you be replacing the drive under warranty, and check in the laptop anyways?"
Bob (Looking confused, and flustered): "Well... uh.... it's not actually the platter.... uh..... the drive is fine it's just running slow.....yeah yeah the platter is actually fine, we won't have to replace the drive."
Myself: "So the platter isn't dying and the drive is working?"
Bob: "Well yes, the platter is ok. ummmm... it's just running really slow"

Bob walks back to get my vaccum.

Myself to Female Customer: "Be careful, this Geek Squad Member is as much of a Geek as I am a Senator"

So remember, just because a store has setups like Geek Squad, Firedog, etc does not mean they really have more understanding than your typical teenager. Who would you rather try and recover your data on a failing hard drive, someone making $10-12 an hour working at a Big Box Retailer, or something with the experience to help you save your data. It may cost you a bit more, but in the end, isn't it worth the price when you can be sure your problem will be fixed, and your data won't be lost?

Nothing against working retail, I did it in my younger years, but retail and disk content recovery just don't jive well together.

-Dravor