How Best Buy Scams Noobs... 

Ahh Thief Squad strikes again!

Dawid walks through the door of the best buy to pick up the computer *Best Buy employee* "oh fuck, that's the guy that does tech stuff"

My favorite part about working for best buy at the time was during my interview I was talking about my prior experience in PC repair and the assistant manager said something to the effect of "we aren't really concerned with how much you know, we can teach you that, we need to know if you can sell" and then during "class" they proceeded to "teach" me a bunch of incorrect information. Over a few years there I usually was #1 for sales in the store, despite not being nearly as pushy about extended warranties, credit cards, and services. As it turns out when you know stuff about the products it can be very easy to demonstrate to people why an upgrade is worth it, or what they might have issues with, where they can save on the machine without impacting the user experience and allocate more budget to more useful (and profitable) accessories. Yet all management cared about is how many times you beat them over the head to get a credit card application or geek squad protection.

Geek Squad Manager: "Do you have any experience building computers with properly-sourced components?" Interviewee: "I factory reset a Macbook once." Manager: "YOU'RE FUCKING HIRED!"

"As an adult, I don't really play League Of Legends." A++ no notes.

That spider just wants to be your new web developer

26 years later still waiting for my mail in rebate for the Vooodoo Banshee I bought at Best Buy.

I know that PC doesn't NEED the extra CPU power cables, but if the builder didn't plug them in you would 100% complain about it.

$240 CAD for windows is insane

Years ago, my sister and I went to Best Buy to buy a TV. At the time, it was just short of $2000 which, to be fair, was a good price relative to the competition at the time. But then the inevitable pitch to pay $300 to make sure the colour is accurate was made. My sister said, "So you're telling me you're selling a $2000 television that does not have proper colour?" They ended all upselling attempts instantly.

Being "no longer eligible for rehire" was strangely more comforting than it should be. So much just didn't sit right and if I was cutting corners I was doing it for the customers behalf not the brand. Screen issues with repeat hot fixes that never fixed the root. Data backups for those already using cloud services (some still might but feeling tricked never being explained) or just small fixes that can be done at the counter where you get to educate the client on a small bit of tech instead of claiming for few days just to say "fixed here ya go" I should note my times were horrible and I regret nothing.

A build fee on top of the membership? They really fleece you in Canada. In the US, the membership covers the build, setup, and support for a year for $179.

Story time: About 15 years ago, I was at Best Buy to grab a KVM switch. I had one in my hands and a geek squad kid walked up and asked me if I needed help. I said " yes, I have 2 computers and only 1 monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Is there any way I can get something like a switch that will let me just switch between machines instead of unhooking everything each time?" The guy thought and thought and thought and then asked a blue shirt who said "nah, that sounds like a specialty part. You would need to go to a place like Microcenter for that. " So I said "okay" and I put the KVM switch that I was holding back on the shelf and went to Microcenter. That was the best advice that I ever got from Best Buy.

The fact that some guy behind me had to remind me (and the Best Buy employee) that I’d need a cpu cooler was mad. The whole experience was wild and took really long. But we made it. They just milked me hard.

They definitely need to change their franchise's name to Best Buy (somewhere else).

"Hey, I've got $30, what can I get at your restaurant for that?" - "Oh, I would definitely recommend the Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, served in a Provençale manner with shallots and aubergines, garnished with truffle pâté, brandy, and a fried egg on top. That'll be $180, thank you. Oh, and would you like to leave a gratuity? For your information, we don't accept values under 25% I'm afraid."

damn, in my local biggest computer shop, they will build your pc for free if you buy most of the part from them, even when you bring some of your own part, and it only took like 30 minute or an hour of waiting

$400 Build fee is crazy...

Ex-Best Buy employee here and completely unsurprised. I just wanted to see how that thermal paste application was. Or if it was preapplied to the CPU cooler back when GTAV came out.

"Doom Maternal" I love auto generated subtitles! Also, when I got married and we set everything up joint, my wife had a monthly subscription to Geek Squad for a laptop she no longer owned. ...And so did both her mother and father 👍 It's no wonder they try to rope people in with subscriptions, it's got to be a massive source of passive income with near zero cost.

Why is it that when Best Buy does it they get away with it but if I do it I can go to jail? It makes no sense. These big companies need to held accountable

You know who prevents noobs from being scammed? Dawid

I love how Dawid is now an investigative reporter! Next up a collab with Steve from Gamer's Nexus and he will call all his videos "pieces" now!

Future Shop's (Which eventually got bought out by best buy and then replaced by their branding) tech support taking a whole month to diagnose a dead hard drive on my first PC when I was 12 was why I learned how to work on computers on my own (Windows Mistake Edition also had a helping hand). I see things never got any better.

Dawid admitting strange personal info to random people in the parking lot. Ah good times.

DDR4 RAM doesn't work with a DDR5 motherboard... *_Turning on Braincells_*

This needs more views... they threw everything in the book at you guys. I don't even shop at Best Buy anymore, their deals are rarely ever even good. Whoever built the system did alright - ultimately it's the sales people and Best Buy policy that's the issue.

Not just Best Buy - pretty much 80-85% of the hardware pre-build industry. Now and then you stumble upon some genuine decent morale corps, but sadly they tend to get outshined by the trash ones due to advertisement marketing.

" They won't believe that i won't know what I'm looking for.", says the guy with the CPU cooler graphic tee. You may be right, Dawid.

I'm going to give props to the guy who changed the BIOS settings. I don't expect most GeekSquad people to really touch that let alone anyone from BestBuy willing to touch that. Regardless of protocol - I appreciate them looking out. Even if it may not be setting you might care for, it's a nice "Hey, I appreciate you thinking about that."

They should have swapped the ram for the same price seeing how it was their mistake.

I use to work for the Best Buy distribution center. It was known at the warehouse that peoople at the store will lie to you about not having products to get you to buy something more expensive. The thing my supervisor told me to do was to look up to see if have it at the warhouse, print it out, and when they tried lying to you about it, pull out the paper and say "the system says you have this product" and if they kept lying to you about it, walk away.

Membership should allow you a free build

They upselled on the motherboard, cpu and ram, something that was not needed. *Correction: They did not upsell on the cpu but that board and ram where entirely not needed for that CPU.

I was wondering why there was so much giggling in the beginning 😂

a minute and half in, "has 1400 to spend", "ok you're gonna want a 30 series gpu and an i5 11" LMFAO done

Once in a similar store (different region so no Best Buy) the seller attempted to sell me calibration for a 800€ tv. I refused several times and them after he brought the tv from the backroom he said: It appears you are lucky, we only have calibrated tvs remaining so you will be getting one without the calibration fee (it was like 150€ or something). He 100% knew there were only "calibrated" units left in the store and tried to get me to pay more lol

the question now is,how the guys at geek squad would handle someone like dawid

Many a PC enthusiast considers it at affront to everything that's holy to not build your own PC, and especially pre-built PCs are an abomination, but the middle-ground of having a shop build a PC out of custom-chosen parts for you, even if it's for a fee, is not something to scoff at. When you purchase the components and build the PC yourself, you always run the risk of something going wrong: Maybe you run into an incompatibility problem, requiring you to swap some part. Maybe you fumble something and end up damaging one of the components (eg. bending a CPU pin beyond repair). Something can go wrong which can cost you not just time but in fact extra money. And even if the computer seems to work correctly at first but something goes wrong a month or two along the line, you are on your own. Having a shop build the PC for you has many advantages over that: They will procure the parts, and they will build the PC and test that it works. If it doesn't work, it's on them to fix it, not you. If one of the components is broken or incorrect, or if they break it while building it, it's on them to swap or fix it, not you. You are going to get a PC that's guaranteed to be running. And, on top of that, most if not all shops will give you a warranty on the final product, meaning that if it for some reason stops working after a month or two, it will be them who will have to find out why, and if it wasn't your fault, it will cost you nothing extra. Does it cost a bit extra to have a shop build the PC for you? Sure. But it comes with some good perks.

0:12 - me, 22, sweating knowing that I still have not felt the touch of woman and rapidly approaching 25.

Dawid that outtake is solid gold mate hahaha

6:45 ok this is the saddest part.

The problem is that as Best Buy’s sales advisors we are often told to only sell what we have available in our system. You can always price match to online so long as it falls within the range that they can discount. In the states the membership is $180 and often times is better than building it stand alone. As for the windows they have to use the official license key hence the $100 dollar charge in the US. I’m very curious as the differences between the US version and the Canadian versions of Best Buy.

LOL the @AnnaDoes giggles throughout the intro were great 😆I def wouldn't have been able to keep a strait face while listening.

Damn Dawid... I didn't know you hired arachnids to handle your filming gear

I hope this blows up and BestBuy becomes aware of it lol. It's gonna be a shaming for them for awhile.

I watch your channel because i like everything about, the fact that you just stay normal and dont even realize how funny you are combined with the real cool and original but sometimes ridiculously funny content makes me a real fan of this channel.

I don’t know if it’s a Canadian bestbuy thing but at my bestbuy I’ve asked, and they’ve said it costs 40$ per piece to assemble OR get the membership that’s gives a protection plan on everything and makes in store service “free” while costing 180 a year, and then you can cancel the membership immediately if you want to

13:50 Japanese PC is still looks amazing 👌

I know it's a good video when Anna is in it.

People need to stop shopping at best buy. They've been scamming for decades

Ah, Geek Squad. Absolutely worst service ever when I encountered them in a Future Shop. First of all, it took them to "fix" my new laptop which had connectivity issues. When they said it was ready for pickup, the person at the counter told me there were no sound issues. When I pointed out after biting my tongue that the original write up talked about the Wi-Fi problem, they froze and looked supremely embarrassed and told me to check in about a week and they'd get it all sorted out. I came back a week later...and they literally couldn't find my computer. For more than a week, no one in the Geek Squad had any idea where my brand-new laptop was. So I've avoided Best Buy and Future Shop since those many moons ago. Sad to see that not only has nothing changed, they've added extortion and price gouging to their practices. I don't rust them to actually service computers they sell that are already built. There's no way in hell I would ever give them a chance to build one for me.

3:55 that kind of scam also exist in my country. that is really sucks

Anna has the funniest laugh.

$400 CAD is a lot of money for someone to build a PC for you, and it's a bummer they make you subscribe to their Geek Squad plan for the privilege, but I'm actually pleasantly surprised with their component choice and build. They did a solid job.

Canadian Geek Squad agent here, that deals with in-home services country wide - we don't actually *officially* build computers, there's no *actual* SKU for it, stores kinda just do what they want and charge how they like. Some stores have to send your PC to the depot for something as simple as a RAM upgrade, others will build water cooled systems

every thing is going subscription...

$400 to build the computer?! Heck, I'd have done it for a pot of coffee and pack of smokes. Thanks god, I have a Micro Center close to me!

I actually tried to get a job at the geek squad. I had many president lists and dean lists and a 4.0. They didn't even call me for an interview. fast forward years later and now I am the #1 Lenovo Tech in the North American Market. Safe to say, I dodged a bullet. LOL

0:14 I like how you can hear his wife laughing in the background. Any woman who can laugh at you for crap like that and still somehow respect you.... they're a keeper. XD

Don’t lie, you first felt the touch of a woman at 35, and the first touch of a graphics card at 18 months

Easy way to bypass most of the subscription: If you're allowed to choose monthly payment option at checkout, choose that. Make sure to use a prepaid debit card with only enough money for the system itself and that first month. Then never load the card back up again and boom, no payment method, no subscription. What are they gonna do, storm your house and hold your new pc hostage until you pay? I doubt it. Best buy is definitely still a ripoff but that will at least mitigate some of the cost.

That blooper at the end 🤣🤣🤣

No McAfee either! 🤯

You have a way with words that I could effortlessly watch daily videos of lol.

If you live near a MicroCenter - I highly recommend thier system build service. Costs much less, much larger selection of parts and can get it the same day if you order early enough.

I would actually like to see Dawid attempt to do the same thing but actually do it himself instead of Anna go into Best Buy. Speaking from personal experience as a sleeper agent myself, I usually would help any of the nerdy guys that come in looking for PC build advice/help but would charge everything that I could for the older karens and poshy girls buying rigs for their boyfriends or whatever

I don't remember the last time I went into a BestBuy. More like WorstBuy... 😅 I'll see myself out.

At least they used 2 sticks of ram, unlike a lot systems Dawid gets.

This was full of the best bits of Anna/Dawid videos. The soft off-screen chuckling at Dawid before he's even dropped the joke. The ever-popular analogies. The fun sass at both the company trying to fleece Dawid (or in this case Anna) and the great commentary on the games themselves. Videos like this are the stuff that hooked me to this channel for life. You two are just so much fun and yet still informative when it matters too. A great combination.

Best Buy is no longer a Best Buy in any way shape or form. I figured this out one day when I went to my local Best Buy, which used to be a fun place to go to when you had nothing to do on a Friday night but now it's more of a night of the living dead in there at all hours with some of the rudest employees I've ever seen. These people didn't "quietly quit" they "loudly died".

$1400 CA budget for something that can LoL & stream? Surely even half of that would be a bit overkill... :) edit: And we really need to get some laws in Canada to punish companies whose names are outright lies. edit 2: No breakdown of what you could have paid sourcing the same parts yourself and going with a rando indie builder?

Your sarcasm is hilarious!

The blooper at the end 🤣🤣🤣

Dawid's hair is getting longer and detailed like Steve at GN and so is his scam investigation journalism. 👍👍

And I know an Anna! 😂 Funniest tech RU-vidr

Anna for as little as you claim to know about computers. Your knowledge is so much more vast than mine lol. Good luck in Best Buy.

I was working at Best Buy Canada when they were starting to stock more parts - in fact I think I was technically in the same district as the store you went to and had shot a message to the district manager suggesting a few things that seemingly eventually got implemented. Mainly leveraging existing relationships to build out their parts catalogue with brands like ASUS. The big issue they have though is that the knowledge gap across stores is absolutely massive, and the knowledge gap between associates can be pretty bad as well. Usually there's a few associates that know what they're talking about for parts selection, but the real priority with hiring is someone who is knowledgeable enough to select the right PC for the average person but mainly someone who can sell products well. Unfortunately that makes things like building PCs a bit difficult. I think realistically if they can't handle making part selection and building a part of their hiring process then they need to make some default SKUs they can build out on the fly instead. Oh and they definitely fleeced you on the membership, unless something has substantially changed the membership just gives you discounts on the services. Usually about 50% on labour if I remember correctly. So the build would have been about 300$ w/o the membership but you wouldn't have support for the year, they're mainly just trying to cover themselves if someone has issues within that first year and they don't want to tell them they have to pay. They may have changed this, but I doubt it.

This makes me feel so good about building my own systems, thanks.

Geek Squad....Cheap Squad (Except it aint cheap)

The wattage that the i5 was pulling in Cyberpunk is ridiculous. It's using more than double what my 7800X3D pulls.

~7:39 that peel alone was worth $400CAD alone 😅😂🤣😂🤣

I always hated that with sales people. When people say they have a budget... I keep them within the budget. If for any reason there is a part or upgrade that might push them over, it needs to be an absolutely deal for the performance for me to justify bringing it up. Then I fully explain it. If what they are doing does not need performance... I don't bring it up.

That out take was a classic!

A Z790 Board, but a 4060? Considering it's someone who doesn't even want to build their own PC, it would make more sense to use a B760 board and get a better GPU since they definitely won't be overclocking the CPU.

Bestbuy employee here. My store doesn't force you to pay for the membership for us to build a pc for you, BUT... building a pc isn't an actual service that Bestbuy does (at least not here), so the workaround we do is to charge a component installation for every component required for the build. The issue is that a component install is 50$, so it ends up being AROUND 400$ OR MORE depending on the build. So you're basically forced to either go with the membership or to make the absurd decision of paying a ridiculous amount of money, or to find someone else to build it for you. Should you choose to fork out the money, you still have to hope that the person that builds it for you actually has an idea of what they're doing. Thankfully the people at my store are pretty competent, but i can imagine how it is at other stores. Edit: forgot to mention that paying for the membership makes the service free, so you "only" have to pay $240 ☠

That outro blooper is absolutely hilarious xD

Thanks for taking one for the team. My god Best Buy just can’t get a W, even when they should easily be able to.

US Geek Squad Agent here: Im not sure WHERE they pulled those prices from but building a Custom PC is the cost of a $179.99 yearly membership plus parts and OS. That also includes troubleshooting, software, data transfers, hour trainings, included warranties and hardware installation/setup for the full year which CAN be cancelled at any time. This interaction is more of a reflection on that store/precinct rather than us as a whole. Not saying BB is without flaws, believe me, but just figured id share from my perspective for the last 5 years ive been there.

I petition we close all best-buys and put MICRO CENTERS at all best buy locations

loved the ending blooper... :) you should always add those. SO good

Here I am complaining about buying another $5 windows key when best buy is charging $240 for it lol

Good thing Ana was there to speak up for Dawid's manhood. "Ive never felt the touch of a woman" are very dangerous words to say in public as an adult straight male.

All these charges are directly anxiety inducing and I'm not even the one paying for it. When watching this I get the feeling of beeing stuck in a scam scheme with no way out since you are going through with it. Great episode even tough maybe a little life shortening.

Dang that's a nice anna model, way to go with the nerdy librarian case.

Looks more like GeekSquad is ripping us more than best buy.

Anna is pretty cute, you should marry her

as someone whose worked on the sales floor at bby: I advocate SO hard for building it yourself. Please, build it yourself. There's guides everywhere, it is not as hard as it looks. I swear. It's treason, but it's (T)reasonable.

Wow. I paid slightly more than 40 euros for my system to be build. And they did a pretty good job. Scammers. And they shipped it within 2 days from their headquarters to my home, which is around 600 km.

How did you meet Ana