geek squad

By John Vomhof Jr. Geek Squad Lifestyle

21 Oct: Geek Squad Agent’s Family Goes All Out for Halloween

Derek Meister’s family is to Halloween what the Griswolds are to Christmas.

For the past 25 years, they’ve decked out their suburban Cleveland home with hundreds of decorations every October. They have about 30 giant yard inflatables, a graveyard full of Styrofoam tombstones and even a high-tech light show.

“People start coming by while we’re setting it up,” said Derek, a longtime Geek Squad Agent. “Some places don’t even do trick-or-treating anymore, but we still get about 200 kids every year on Halloween.”

By Best Buy Lifestyle

15 Oct: Tech-savvy senior brings piano — and joy — to others

Herb Williams sits down at his piano, looks at the camera and starts to play. His fingers bound across the keys with a familiarity only eight decades can bring, then the 91-year-old posts the video on Facebook.

He’s repeated this scene nearly every day since COVID-19 sequestered people in their homes last spring. And he learned the skills from two Best Buy Canada Geek Squad Agents — as part of Best Buy Health’s Digital Citizen service.

Agents Rachel Sturm and Chadd Sine began teaching digital literacy skills to seniors a year and a half ago through a partnership that brings technology workshops and support to seniors at select Amica Senior Lifestyles residences in Canada.

By Best Buy Lifestyle

21 May: Best Buy Surprises Michigan Teen In Birthday Parade

Josh and Jennifer Wesolek wanted to outdo all the drive-by birthday celebrations they’d seen during the COVID-19 crisis. After all, their son Matt wasn’t just turning 18, he was graduating high school, too.

They thought he deserved something big. And that’s why Josh reached out to his local Best Buy store in Saginaw, Michigan.

“I called you guys to add a little extra spark to it,” Josh said.

And it worked. No one expected to see a Geek Squad van in the lineup of firetrucks and friends’ sedans.

By Suzanne Hilker Technology

24 Apr: Spring Cleaning Tips For Your Appliances

We’re all spending a lot of time at home this spring, and that means our appliances are getting more use than normal.

To keep those hardworking machines in tip-top shape, it’s important to give them a good spring cleaning.

To learn more, we talked to Geek Squad Agent Jonathon Sprague, who has more than 14 years of experience helping customers with all their appliance needs.

“Thoroughly cleaning your appliances will extend their life and ensure they are running most efficiently,” Agent Sprague said.

By Best Buy Technology

10 Feb: With end of Windows 7, consider computer options

A few weeks ago, Microsoft said goodbye to its 10-year-old operating system, Windows 7.

With support for Windows 7 ending, National Clean Out Your Computer Day on Feb. 10 and National Safer Internet Day on Feb. 11, now is the perfect time to check whether you need to update your system and give your computer some well-deserved TLC.

We talked to Geek Squad Agent Derek Meister to find out what the end of Windows 7 means for users and how they can keep their computers running at peak performance.

By John Vomhof Jr. Geek Squad Lifestyle

30 Dec: Geek Squad Agents reflect on 20th anniversary of Y2K

Andy Bork spent Dec. 31, 1999, at Geek Squad’s original precinct in Minneapolis, helping prepare for the yet-unknown impact of the so-called Y2K crisis.

“We had all hands on deck, waiting to see what would happen,” recalls Agent Bork, who was one of about 10 full-time Agents at the time.

The problem — made prevalent in headlines in the months leading up to the new year — was that computers only processed dates in two digits, which meant that the coming year 2000 would be indistinguishable from 1900.

By Best Buy Geek Squad Lifestyle

06 Aug: Geek Squad Agent donates kidney to colleague

You can work with people for years and not know much about them. Unless you’re like Katie Moran, a social butterfly who knows just about everyone at Best Buy’s Geek Squad City.

Katie, a Geek Squad Agent at the technology-repair facility in Kentucky, noticed that friend and colleague Agent Mike Beams was missing a lot of work.

“When it kept happening, I started asking him more questions about what’s going on,” Katie said.

She learned Mike was sick and getting sicker.

By John Vomhof Jr. Geek Squad Lifestyle

09 May: Geek Squad Agents Save Choking Man at Minnesota Hotel

After wrapping up a busy day of meetings at the Best Buy headquarters on Tuesday, a group of Geek Squad Autotechs from across the country returned to their hotel to relax. Little did they know they were about to save a man’s life.

Ethan Kimmel of Portland, Oregon, and Nick Potter of Naples, Florida, were hanging out in the bar area, talking to some fellow Geek Squad Agents, when someone in the group pointed out what he thought was a man assaulting an older man about 20 yards away.

By Natalie Albers Lifestyle

10 Jan: Hearing his late father’s voice again, in a Best Buy store

Just a few days into 2019, one customer says Best Buy has already made his year by saving something he couldn’t replace: his late father’s voice.

Halidor Arkellsson is a longtime Best Buy customer whose father’s confusion about voicemail turned out to be a gift he treasured.

His father, Dale, liked that answering machines allowed him to talk until someone heard him and picked up the phone to continue the conversation. But when phone technology evolved to software-based voicemail and took away that interactive feature, Halidor’s dad didn’t immediately convert along with it.

By Best Buy Geek Squad Lifestyle

24 Oct: An Agent and a young patient inspire each other

It takes some people their entire lives to learn how to live in the moment.

But at just 16 years old, Christian was a master at it. Cancer will do that to a teenager. Christian’s ability to find humor in the toughest times made him an instant friend with Geek Squad Agent Elliot Nelson.

The pair met while Christian was being treated at Children’s Minnesota in Minneapolis. Agent Nelson works at the philanthropic Geek Squad Precinct inside the hospital.

Their shared passion for video games and laughs is a reminder that friends can make even the most painful moments a little less so.

By Suzanne Hilker Community Relations Company News Geek Squad Lifestyle

23 Oct: Geek Squad Academy 2018 Season: 50 Cities Served

We just wrapped up another whirlwind season of Geek Squad Academy – our 12th! We traveled across the U.S.,from Hoboken to Honolulu, to bring interactive tech camps to kids.

Our employee volunteers taught everything from music production to coding using BB-8 robots.

As our new “Junior Agents” completed the camp, we hope to have sparked an interest in tech that will inspire their future education and career choices. That’s part of our commitment to prepare 1 million youth from underserved communities for the tech-reliant jobs of the future each year by 2020.

By Best Buy Technology

19 Sep: Avoid those cracked screens, dropped laptops and other campus tech fails

The school year is in full swing, and all those new back-to-school gadgets are (hopefully) being put to good use. Now, the goal is to keep them that way.

College-bound students spent the biggest chunk of their back-to-school budgets on consumer electronics this year,* and unfortunately (but not totally surprising), 18-to-24 year-olds are more likely than the general population to have accidents with their tech. College students are especially at risk for tech mishaps**.

Aaron Perkins is a senior at West Virginia University, and he’s also a Geek Squad Agent at our store in Morgantown, West Virginia.

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