The pay was decent, and the employee discounts ranged from "pretty good" to "oh my god they make THAT much profit margin on this piece of shit cable?!". That Dynex 50-pack of AA batteries for $17.99? $2.70. That's right, a measily two dollars and seventy cents.
Dynex products, Geek Squad products, can't remember the other one, are all Best-Buy-owned brands. The profit margins on those can easily be around 500%-4,000%! The employee discount REALLY helps here, and for ALL other non-BBY-owned accessories for any product (100%-400%). A 6-foot TV Component cable from Aucoustic Research for $60? $20 with employee discount. Computers, TVs, games, music CDs, and videos have a relatively small profit margin most of the time. For a $2,000 computer set it could be only $50-100 margin, which is where the AOL subscriptions and the myriad of accessories and plans are KEY to making a profit. Gateway computers are very reluctantly sold, the profit margin is minimal.
Car audio products (CD decks, subwoofers, speakers, amplifiers, radar detectors) range at 70%-140% profit margin. I paid $450 for a very nice MP3 CD deck, four 240W Pioneer Speakers, and install fees, and car-conversion-kit fees, compared to $750 retail value, back in January 2005.
Your employee discount will be "5% above cost", meaning you pay 5% more than what the company paid for it. The Ionic Pro air filter for $149? $107. For ANY service or labor charge, it will be 50% off retail value. If you get charged, say, $10 for a $60 computer diagnostic, then you got charged using the "old scheme", and are lucky. IIRC, they switched to the 50% scheme soon after I started working for BBY.
In February they were getting rid of their entire stock of old 4X DVD+Rs, for $13. Employee price was $3, IIRC. Needless to say I splurged here.
The job itself:
Once you're on board, the schedule is pretty flexible, if you get someone else to cover your shift. Day-off requests should be submitted at least 3 weeks prior, as a rule-of-thumb.
There were quite a few funny moments, too, some of the customers' sheer stupidity was breathtaking.
But having to endure the majority share of the bitching, whining, and complaining from customers, (even more so than the good-looking ladies at the customer service department), and the sheer pressure of having to perform was not something I wanted to continue doing after nearly a year there, despite the quite advantageous college-student part-time pay. I decided that enough is enough. It is a high-pressure environment. Turn-around time for a Geek Squad employee at where I worked was around a year. Although we still have one old-timer that's clocking in his EIGHTEENTH year at this point.
As a Geek Squad agent (in-store), you will be expected to quickly (5 minutes) and effectively diagnose problems with all electronics carried by Best Buy. You will be very well-versed in the very complex and detailed return, repair, replacement and exchange policy, including Performance Service Plans and Performance Replacement Plans, and what the "no-lemon" policy is and isn't. You will notice just how many people refuse to read those pamphlets and understand what they entail (99% of them), and how many blunders and bad incidents will arise from the confusion between the words "replacement" and "repair", and the Best Buy and manufacturers' policies regarding them. You will notice how many people refuse to buy a PSP or PRP, only to have that fact bite them hard in the ass after the 90-day or 1-year manufacturer's warrany goes out, and they flip out on you for that. You will also notice the problems and confusion arising from misinterpreting or misunderstanding the return/repair policies.
You will also notice the nightmare that results with reparing laptops at third-party repair centers (DEX), who consistently use the blanket-diagnosis of "keyboard and motherboard water damage. x-hundred dollars charge", even when it is obvious that is not.
You will also notice the draconian third-party (Precision Camera) repair policy regarding cameras and camcorders. Cracked LCDs run between $300-$500, and are almost never covered under the PSP.
It costs $300 UP FRONT just to ship out a non-manufacturer or PSP-covered camera/camcorder out to repair. This includes the repair deposit fee. If the repairs exceed this amount, the customer will be called by Precision Camera, and given the total repair fee. At that point the customer will say "fuck it", the camera will be sent back, and no matter how many times you call the customer to pick it up, they never will. Mentioning the $300 shipping and deposit repair fee for these items does not get good reactions from customers.
You will learn to use the STAR repair database, which is fairly flexible and pretty user-friendly. It is what you will be using for paperwork-related stuff regarding the repair of computers and other components in-store and in service centers.
And you will also notice how the sales employees are pressured to sell, and how they end up promising the customer the moon, "Yes, we will REPLACE the computer for you if ANY software or hardware problem EVER goes wrong!!!" (urge to kill sales employee...rising), and when the customer later mentions the promise, you have to explain how it really works, that software issues are NEVER covered under ANY computer warranty, Best Buy's or the manufacturer's, as listed in the PSP/PRP, and so on. And then you get the pleasure of having the customer snapping and exploding in your face, eventually being dragged off by LP (Loss Prevention, the guys in the yellow shirts) out of the store.
You will be frequently pulled out from the tech bench onto the sales floor (this includes cashiering) to sell items for whatever reason (someone called in sick, more customers show up than expected, etc.). You will be expected to sell any product in the store as effectively as any other sales employee, with a PRP/PSP, the "complete solution" and all those other sales techniques and gimmicks.
You will play a primary role in the return or exchange of items. You will inspect them for defects, packaging contents, and authorize the returns/exchanges as warranted(the actual sales/return/exchange process is done by Customer Service).
You will perform your own shipping and receiving of products from repair centers. You will scan the products in, create shipping labels, and haul them off to the warehouse in the back of the store. Received items coming back from service centers will be scanned in, put back on the shelf, and await customer pickup.
You will call customers whenever an issue arises with their computer being repaired in-store, the repair is completed, or whenever their product returns to the store from a service center.
Of computers, well over 60% of the work will be spyware related. From then on, it goes to O/S upgrades, hardware upgrades, and software installs, and so on.
You will be expected to promote the Geek Squad In-Home services whenever possible, as this is a MAJOR source of revenue for the brand (no shit, just look at those prices).
The above is a pretty rough and general description of working for the Geek Squad. Certain minor details may vary between stores, but it's all pretty standardized.
Overall, it was a decent place to work. I made a lot of friends, met my ex-gf who was a cashier there (funny story, that), and overall had a positive experience from there. I learned MANY things that give me far more power and knowledge into the very deep secrets, tips, and lore for effective shopping at Best Buy stores. Knowing the entire return, replacement, exchange, and return policy by heart is a big plus for me as well.
But in the end, depending on your personality, there's only so much customer-service-related stress you can take in that specific environment. For me, it was about a year. Others will not have a problem with this at all, and enjoy the work far more than some like me.
If I were to return to Best Buy, I not 100% certain if I'd try the Geek Squad again. If my motivation is financial (for perspective, I am a college student, so it's a part-time job), yes I probably would. But if that is not a concern, I'd probably go into a specific department on the sales floor just for a more relaxing job, which varies by store, department, and the managerial staff. In my store's case, I'd probably go Home Theater or Digital Imaging, or Appliances. Or maybe Cashiering. Those are the "easier" ones for my store.
I left that place for Mesaba Airlines at Minneapolis International. Also decent pay, and the luggage and cargo does not speak back when you throw it into or out of the plane.
The Jet-A fuel-laced fresh air was quite exhilariating, too.
Then Northwest went bankrupt, took back half of Mesaba's fleet (leased by Northwest), Mesaba filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and the rest is history.