Sonny Guizzetti had seemingly tried everything but couldn’t figure out how to get his laptop or tablet to connect to FaceTime.
“I was getting so frustrated it was driving me crazy,” the Michigan man recalled.
So, he jumped in his car and drove to his local Best Buy store in Marquette, Michigan, to get some help from his friends at the Geek Squad.
Problem solved.
It wasn’t a quick fix, but Geek Squad Agent Eric Nelson was patient and stuck with it until he found a solution.
Geek Squad Agents Lizandra Hernandez and William Lomeli were driving between house calls in Fresno, California, one morning in early June when they came upon a crash involving a car and a motorcycle at a busy intersection.
First responders hadn’t arrived yet, so Lizandra — a certified EMT — took charge. She jumped out of the Geek Squad van and began to assess the condition of the motorcyclist.
While checking for life-threatening injuries, she asked the man to remove his jacket. She noticed he was wearing a white, short-sleeved shirt and a black tie.
John Dahlquist has been with Geek Squad longer than Geek Squad has been with Best Buy.
He first joined the tech-support task force 21 years ago, and he’s been an Agent ever since. He even has a special badge to prove it.
Agent Dahlquist is one of the nearly 60 Geek Squad Agents around the country receiving newly redesigned badges this week. The Agents all have been with the company continuously since at least 2004, when Best Buy rolled out Geek Squad across the U.S.
Almost three years of careful planning and outreach paid off this week as 160 students at an elementary school in Hawaii enjoyed their first interaction with a Geek Squad Academy (GSA).
Students got to program robots, write code and more with the help of Best Buy and Geek Squad volunteers.
“You could just feel the excitement and energy when the kids entered the room,” said James Pineda, a Geek Squad Agent at Best Buy’s Honolulu store who helped lead robotics classes.
Vacations and active outdoor sports are a natural pairing. If you’re itching to get off your beach towel this year to burn some calories instead of your skin, why not try an active outing such as hiking, mountain biking or stand-up paddle boarding? You’ll enjoy a healthy dose of fresh air, and all three activities can easily be done by beginners.
To help you get ready for your new adventures, we asked the outdoor gear and activity experts at REI for some helpful advice.
For Geek Squad Agent Marcos Puchols, Hurricane Maria started a whirlwind adventure that would lead him from Puerto Rico to Denver and back again.
In the early days after the storm, many Puerto Ricans found themselves without food, water or electricity. And, with Best Buy’s stores on the island damaged, Marcos wasn’t sure what his future held.
But that uncertainty quickly gave way to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With help from Best Buy, Marcos temporarily relocated to Denver, where he and his wife, Kathy, were able to work and maintain some sense of normalcy.
You’ve made it this far into winter without succumbing to a fever, the chills and the aches. Don’t let your guard down yet, though — we’re still in the heart of flu season.
You got your flu shot, and you heed the warnings about washing your hands and covering your mouth. But have you thought about that germ cesspool you touch a thousand times a day?
Yes, it’s your cellphone (and other tech devices, for that matter).
”Your cellphone can get pretty dirty,” says Agent Nick Karakatsoulis, who manages the Geek Squad at the Best Buy store in Mobile, Alabama.
You might have seen media reports about Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities that could affect technology devices.
Meltdown and Spectre are not viruses or active attacks. They are security vulnerabilities that could allow a malicious third party to access stored information on an individual device. However, so far there have been no reports of any criminal exploitation of this vulnerability.
In this situation and others like it, Geek Squad recommends downloading the latest software updates and patches for all of your computers, phones and other devices.
As soon as Geek Squad Agents Thomas Willis and Lucas Wilt entered the hospital room, the woman’s face lit up with excitement.
“My heroes!” she exclaimed. Then she asked for a hug, and the Agents were more than happy to oblige.
The last time they saw one another, the Agents were saving the woman from a fiery crash on the back roads of southwestern Virginia. She was badly injured and had to be airlifted to the hospital. Now, she’s expected to make a full recovery.
This time of year, it’s the big-name holidays that get all the attention. But we can’t forget about a less-heralded day that’s important: Computer Security Day.
You didn’t know Nov. 30 is Computer Security Day? Then you also might not know the key steps you should take to secure your devices. We talked with Geek Squad Agent Derek Meister to learn more.
Here are his top five tips.
Regardless of whether it’s a computer, smart phone, tablet or home security camera, keep your systems updated, Derek says.
My woes with home Wi-Fi started with monthly text messages from my wireless carrier days before the month was up: “FYI, you’ve used 90 percent of your shared data…”
Our inadequate Wi-Fi was responsible for mounting consternation, including but not limited to:
We’d been eking by with a spotty wireless network, and we’d been doing it
for too long.
Studying is studying whether you’re a second-grader or a second-year grad student. It’s sometimes boring and often time consuming, and for most students it’s an essential part of doing well in school.
But, it can be much easier.
Agent Noelle St. Andrew, from Richfield, Minnesota, juggles work, her personal life and school. She has come up with some tips to help students of any age study smarter, not harder.
Here’s what she recommends.
Writing things down has been shown to help you remember them better.