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Gaggle of Geek Services Comes to Rescue of Ailing Computers

Posted on: Tuesday, 8 November 2005, 15:00 CST

DENVER -- When Sonya Byars' printer abruptly stopped talking to her family's nine wirelessly networked computers, she didn't want to call tech support and waste hours on hold.

So Byars called her geek, Agent Daniel Ross, who works out of her nearby Best Buy store.

Spurred by an epidemic of spyware and viruses and consumer wariness about the growing complexity of technology, many computer users like Byars are dialing high-tech handymen. National retailers such as Best Buy, Circuit City and CompUSA are responding in kind by either adding new house-call services or bolstering existing ones.

"Before I heard about the Geek Squad, I didn't know who to call," said Byars, a Lone Tree, Colo., resident who has used the Geek Squad three times. "Now I can call them, pay a flat fee, and it doesn't take all day."

It helps that manufacturers tend to deflect customer questions to e-mail and overseas call centers, leaving in the lurch any computer owner who doesn't know a pasty-faced kid who spends Saturday nights playing "Quake 4."

"It's true that we're geeks. They're not making that up," said Ross, who admits to reading computer manuals in his leisure time and knowing the steps to the "Geek Squad" dance.

The house calls can range from recovering a lost hard drive to setting up a wireless computer network. But the most common request is to debug a virus or spyware-saturated computer, Ross said. In his year on the job, Ross' customers have ranged from Luddites to small-business owners whose livelihoods depend on their machines.

"Computer problems happen to everyone," Ross said. "I've even had calls from people who handle IT at their office _ they know their system at work but not at home."

The Geek Squad's house calls can range from $129 to upgrade a computer's memory to $229 for an agent to transfer data to another computer. The Geek Squad and most other competing services offer cheaper rates for customers who lug their gear into the store.

Given the Geek Squad's stylized look _ short-sleeve white dress shirts paired with black clip-on ties, floodwater black pants, black shoes and, yes, calf-high white socks _ it's no surprise that the service is the brainchild of an art-school dropout.

The service Robert Stephens started in 1994 with $200 and a bicycle was purchased in 2002 by Best Buy.

Since then, Minneapolis-based Best Buy has invested aggressively in the Geek Squad _ adding 1,000 agents in the past quarter alone for a total of 9,400 nationwide. The company recently began opening stand-alone stores, like one in Denver, in an effort to reach urban areas that typically aren't home to Best Buy's big-box stores.

Best Buy doesn't report Geek Squad's revenue, saying in its annual U.S. Securities and Exchange filing that the operations were "a small part of our fiscal 2005 business."

"However," the company went on to say, "our goal is to build Geek Squad into North America's largest provider of in-home computer repair, support and installation services, and we believe that over time it will become a more significant component of our business."

Best Buy isn't alone in fashioning geeks into a business strategy. There are also independent services such as Data Doctors, 1-800-Geeks-On-Time and Geeks on Call. Geeks on Call, which started in 1999, has 285 franchise stores in operation nationwide with another 55 franchises granted for stores to open in the next few months.

Norfolk, Va.-based Geeks on Call uses its independent status to needle Best Buy's similarly named Geek Squad, saying its big corporate rival uses its tech-repair service as another outlet to push Best Buy wares.

"If we don't offer the best possible customer service, we're going out of business," said spokesman Matt Nelson. Unlike Best Buy, "we have nothing to fall back on."

Dian Callaghan, of Denver, said that reasoning played into her decision to use Geeks on Call twice instead of the Geek Squad when her computer was consumed by "aliens from outer space" this summer.

"I knew with Geeks on Call that I didn't have to buy a product," Callaghan said. "I could just call and say, help!"

Best Buy says its geeks aren't salespeople, and for customers like Byars, a frequent Best Buy shopper, the connection to the retailer is a plus.

"I like the fact that they're affiliated with a major corporation. It gives them greater credibility," she said.

Other corporations are expanding or rebranding their services. CompUSA, which has offered computer troubleshooting and repair at its stores for more than a decade under the straightforward name of CompUSA Technical Services, joined the cute crowd when it rebranded the service "Techknowledgist" in August.

Closely held CompUSA also plans soon to expand its service to offer emergency house calls in addition to its current system of next-day appointments, said Clara Miller, a spokeswoman for the retailer.

CompUSA has more than 20,000 technicians, twice as many as the Geek Squad, and Techknowledgists make house calls in areas where CompUSA doesn't have stores. CompUSA's field technicians don't have any uniform aside from the guideline to dress business casual.

"This service truly is not new to us," Miller said. "We don't need gimmicks."

Circuit City has offered installations for home theater systems for years. This year, it moved into the computer market with the nationwide rollout of "Get Set Up," an in-store computer service for spyware and virus removal, configurations of drives and other repairs and upgrades. Circuit City is in the process of testing an at-home service, which includes customer-training sessions and setting up home networks in addition to the in-store offerings, in Denver and several other markets.

Circuit City is using a mix of its own employees and third-party providers for the at-home service test run, said spokesman Jim Babb. The company isn't saying when the testing phase will end.

Even computer manufacturers are getting into the game, with Dell about to debut a service that allows technicians to remotely access a customer's computer. Dell, the largest maker of personal computers, provides service over the phone for customers who have software problems that aren't covered by their hardware warranty, said spokeswoman Jennifer Jones.

(Contact Joyzelle Davis of the Rocky Mountain News at http://www.rockymountainnews.com.)

© 2005 Scripps Howard News Service.

All Rights Reserved.

Source: Scripps Howard

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