Geek Squad: Costs, Services, Pros & Cons for 2023

Key Points

• Geek Squad is Best Buy’s in-house service for providing IT support to consumers and businesses, offering a variety of services for both residential and business users.
• Geek Squad is a solid choice for small businesses as it provides on-site IT support that is less expensive than hiring a consultant or independent contractor.
• Geek Squad offers on-call support, in-store support, and remote support for troubleshooting tech issues.
• Geek Squad has long-term service plans for businesses and offers device replacement and repairs, making it a convenient option for larger organizations.
• Some drawbacks of using Geek Squad include limited operating hours, high costs for certain services, and the fact that it is not a complete replacement for dedicated IT personnel.

Should you use Geek Squad? Geek Squad is Best Buy’s in-house service for providing IT support to consumers and businesses alike. As such, there are quite a few services on offer if you don’t have on-site IT support.

Geek Squad is a solid choice for small businesses, as it does provide IT support as needed. This helps cut down on costs and might prove to be less expensive than hiring a consultant or independent contractor.

That said, it is definitely worth exploring the services Geek Squad offers, along with any drawbacks the services might have.

Geek Squad Overview

Geek Squad is a service department that operates out of Best Buy. If you’ve purchased a new computer, tablet, or smartphone from Best Buy, you may have received assistance from them in the initial setup.

It offers a variety of services that help individuals who aren’t quite as tech-savvy as trained IT professionals. For residential users, it can be a great help to have a trained individual take a closer look at things like faulty laptops or malfunctioning printers.

Business users can benefit from the on-site services which are offered. These cover a wide variety of potential scenarios and come out as more affordable than hiring dedicated IT staff. While dedicated staff are certainly preferable in a time of crisis, for on-call support it is tough to beat.

Geek Squad: Service Overview

So, what sort of tech support does Geek Squad provide? There are actually quite a few services that fall into the traditional break-fix sort of IT support. Residential users have access to operating system tune-ups, Wi-Fi installation and configuration, and a slew of troubleshooting services.

Business users have access to far more services, as the demands of a small business cover far more ground than a home user.

You’ll find support for all devices covered under the Geek Squad yearly plans, network installation, hardware installation, diagnostics, backups, and just about all other services a business may need.

Geek Squad Services and Pricing

Residential Users

Business Users

Small businesses will typically be using service call options, which can be included in the annual Best Buy TotalTech service plan. This is a great purchase for most small businesses as you can get up to six devices covered annually for $199.99 a year.

Geek Squad will come out to do most of the aforementioned services for business users but expect a service fee of around $300 to dispatch a technician to your location. Business services on offer are fairly robust and include the following:

Geek Squad business users will have to contact Best Buy to actually get a quote for the above services. All other services included under the residential section are also applicable, so you have a unified IT support structure in place without the need for dedicated in-house personnel.

Why Geek Squad Is Great for Users

There are many practical reasons why Geek Squad is great for users.

1. On-Call Support

If you need someone to come to your house to troubleshoot a faulty printer installation, a Geek Squad employee is just a phone call away. Now, this isn’t as cheap as muttering under your breath and Googling everything.

However, it does provide a trained professional who is well-versed in the most common issues tech products might face. They aren’t just providing service for computers either and can help you with setting up your smart home or getting your newly purchased appliances up and running.

2. In-Store Support

There is something to be said about having a physical location where you can drop off a piece of tech. Geek Squad has dedicated stations in Best Buy locations, so getting the help you need is generally just an appointment and a drive away.

Now, this isn’t the best solution for most tech ills. If your laptop isn’t booting, it is a great solution, however. In-store support is a bit like making an appointment with an Apple Genius at a local Apple store. Best Buy is far more widespread across the nation, thankfully.

There is also just the added benefit of support for Windows, Android, and Apple devices.

3. Remote Support

You don’t have to be in the store or have someone come to your house to get support. Geek Squad also offers remote support, where you get both phone and virtual support to fix whatever might be ailing your tech.

This isn’t intended for everything, as you might imagine. However, if you’re having issues troubleshooting your Wi-Fi this can be a quick way to get back online.

4. Long-Term Service Plans for Businesses

Geek Squad does offer up business plans for larger organizations. Smaller businesses can likely get by just using the same sort of yearly plan residents have.

However, if you have a larger business and don’t want to deal with keeping IT personnel on staff, Geek Squad might be the solution for you.

There are long-term business service plans available, which are easily handled with just a phone call. Geek Squad doesn’t make business quotes public knowledge, but it should be an affordable solution to help curtail technological woes your business might be facing.

5. Device Replacement and Repairs

Warranties only cover so much for a given device. Geek Squad does offer up more extensive plans that will repair or replace a device. This is great for the likes of laptops and desktops because you can get an operational computer back in no time at all.

It functions similarly to AppleCare+ where you’ll have to pay an additional fee on top of the coverage. It certainly beats having to purchase a brand new laptop in the event that yours fails, however.

Why Geek Squad Might Not Meet Your Needs

There are some drawbacks to using Geek Squad, as there are with any service you might engage.

1. Limited Operating Hours

Geek Squad support isn’t available 24 hours a day. What this effectively means is that if you have a hardware failure at your business overnight, you’ll have to wait for Geek Squad to open. Now, in most cases, this isn’t going to be a dealbreaker.

However, some businesses will retain IT personnel on call 24/7, to keep the production line rolling. Some business models don’t have the luxury of having set operational hours.

As such, if you’re concerned about losing money due to power failure or a server going down, it might be worth keeping an IT department.

2. High Costs for Services

Some services Geek Squad offers are quite affordable. However, some, like the virus scans, can be fairly costly. $39.99 to help set up a new computer isn’t much of anything. Paying $149.99 for a scan that most individuals could learn how to handle is a bit much.

Not every service Geek Squad offers is going to be the most economical choice. If you don’t mind reading up a bit on basic computer hygiene, you can save yourself some unnecessary expenses and skip calling a tech.

3. Not a Complete Replacement for Dedicated IT Personnel

Managed service providers like Geek Squad certainly have their place in an organization. For residential users, it’s just great to have trained IT professionals to handle things. However, if you are running a business it might be worth keeping a skeleton crew of IT staff on board.

While they can handle most issues that arise, they aren’t directly engaged by your company. Now, plenty of companies have managed service providers to maintain their technological infrastructure. Having trained professionals that are directly integrated into your organization is well worth it.

Internal IT departments can be trained to respond to the needs of your business directly, rather than being a reactive force called in when something breaks.

Closing Thoughts

So, is Geek Squad worth using? If you’re after tech support with minimal headache, it is absolutely worth engaging its services. More tech-savvy folks are likely to handle things on their own.

For everyone else, it is great that a service like Geek Squad is around. It might not be the best fit for larger business users, but for small businesses, it is a solid investment.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Andriy Blokhin/Shutterstock.com.