My laptop was acting up. I was doing a Google search for Geek Squad and came across Geekatoo, which promises to be cheaper than the Squad, and will send a technician to a meeting place that works for the customer. I researched and found that the company seems very reputable and I secured via credit card the $129 flat fee to troubleshoot and do basic repair on my laptop, as advertised on the website. After putting in my credit card info, I was almost immediately emailed from Corporate that they had sent my order out to local "geeks" in my area. A 2nd email notified me that a local geek had picked-up my order. I called the geek, he seemed friendly enough, and we arranged for him to meet me at my house the next day (Saturday) at 12:00 PM. Geekatoo then emailed me confirming the appointment, and also sent me a reminder email on Saturday at 11:00AM of my upcoming appointment.
Come Saturday, 1 HOUR LATE and no sign or word from the geek. He was a no-call, no-show, but I didn't want to get him in trouble so I called him cell phone. He sounded surprised to hear from me and said that he "had intended to call me" but forgot. He asked if he could come on Sunday. Since that didn't work for me, he offered to come to my workplace and pick up my laptop, and he said he'd take it home and tinker with it overnight and get back it back to me. On Monday afternoon, he came by my work building and I handed him over my laptop. On Tuesday he called and said my laptop was available to pick up from his house, which creeped me out a little. I asked him about payment and the ONLY THING THAT HE MENTIONED was that my credit card was still on file with Geekatoo and they would take care of everything.
I drove to his house after work (annoying), waited in my car, he handed me my laptop and said everything worked fine. Around that time, I got an email populated from Geekatoo with a "modified" invoice - it went up from the $129 flat fee to $293 - AN ADDITIONAL $164! No mention of these additional charges earlier, or request for approval to proceed with these supposed additional fixes. Just to repair my old laptop, there is no way I would have consented to these additional charges/repairs - I would have just cancelled and purchased a new laptop. However, I tried to console myself on the drive home that the sentimental and practical value of my recipes and pictures that the geek promised he'd backed up and saved on my desktop were all there made the nearly $300 charge worth it.
DEFINITELY NOT THE CASE. Once home, the laptop no longer was just a blank screen, BUT IT DIDN'T WORK. I wasn't able to create a new user ID to log into my laptop. I kept getting "error" and "file corrupted" pop-ups. I couldn't log online since the pop-ups said my drive was corrupted and inoperable. AND, I checked the one folder on my desktop that the geek had saved and NO RECIPES were saved, and the geek hadn't saved the correct picture folder (and the files he saved wouldn't open because, again, apparently my laptop was corrupted). WTF. When I tried to call the geek, he didn't answer or return my call. THANKFULLY, I had a flashdrive with my recipes that we downloaded on my husband's Mac book, and I had some pictures saved on the flash drive that opened just fine on his Mac. BUT THE ENTIRE PAST TWO YEARS OF PHOTOS ARE COMPLETELY GONE. That slimy "geek" or whatever did NOT save them and wouldn't return my calls.
I called Geekatoo corporate FREAKING OUT at this point. I had a nice operator who was extremely apologetic and offered to send a "new" geek - HELL NO. I wanted to walk away clean from Geekatoo. No charges had been processed against my credit card yet, but the operator looked up the record and discovered that the Geek had input ALL THE ADDITIONAL CHARGES as if I, the customer, had requested and ordered them! I was only supposed to be charged the flat $129 fee that I had secured on the website during check-out. She was also appalled that he had taken my laptop home, as this violates Geekatoo's policy of strictly home- or -office-based services: repairs are to be done entirely on-site, with no over-night bailment.
Thankfully the Geekatoo operator said she would report the geek and emailed me a confirmation that my "order" had been cancelled, with no charges assessed. However, I am still nervous because the "geek" had access to all my private info (passport application, etc.), home and work address and family photos. A terrible and unnerving experience, one I won't risk again. Next time I'll just pay the extra to go to a bricks-and-more computer repair store. Since that thieving geek doesn't have the cojones to return my call, I'll just have to be content with the knowledge that he won't get paid on this assignment (which the operator confirmed, the higher the bill to the customer, the greater his cut - hence why that incompetent thief tried to jack up my bill with fraudulent charges that I never knew of or consented to). read more
