Thursday, February 7, 2013

Are You Looking for a Solution?

Geek Squad

Have you ever thought how you don’t realize how much you need something until you need it? I have my cell phone. It’s a smartphone (which can be rather dumb sometimes). I know that I’m probably not using it to it’s fullest potential because I don’t even know what that potential is!

So, I have the option of talking to friends who have the same kind of phone as me or I can go to people who know all the tips and tricks I could need to utilize this phone to the maximum potential.

When the boys and I headed to my brother-in-law’s a couple weekends ago, I swung by Best Buy. Have you been to one lately? Smack dab in the middle of the store is the Solution Center. I had never used them before and quite honestly, really had no clue what purpose they served. lol I figured they helped people, but with what I didn’t know. I mean, they have the Geek Squad for help, right?

HA!

This Geek Squad Solution Center has all kinds of cool stuff. You can go online, like I did, and schedule yourself to take a technology class or a 1:1 consultation. Depending on your location your class options are:

Best Buy Solution Center

The entire process for signing up was super easy! I picked where I lived, the closest Best Buy that had the classes (because not all do yet), told them what I was hoping for out of the session and then I got a confirmation. Simple. Now, the only thing I didn’t care for was the hours to choose from. For each class there’s only one time available. So, if I wanted to take the App class and it was only at 8pm I’d probably opt to do a different class, which is exactly what I ended up doing. I’m hoping that as this expands they’ll have several time slots available for each class.

When I got to my Best Buy, they had an Apple class going. As I was waiting to find out who was going to work with me, I listened in to what he was teaching his group. I’d say there were about 5 people getting a half our instruction on how to use their iPads. It was really cool.

Best Buy Geek Squad Solution Center

I had only scheduled my meeting a couple of days before my appointment and somehow I had gotten lost in the shuffle. Kind of a bummer at first because I thought I was going to have to go back, but then they got me TWO Geek Squad guys to give me one on one assistance! Booyah!

One thing I have been wanting to figure out if I can do is screen shot my phone. I know that my time was supposed to be sent with them teaching me about the latest and greatest apps, and I knew we’d get to that, but I really wanted to find out how to screen shot things!

Geek Squad Guys

He showed me lickety split and showed me how easy it was to do! lol Hold down the power button and down volume button for about 3 seconds and SNAP! I could’ve left right then. But, I had other questions!

My phone came with apps that I will never use. I like watching football, but I don’t want to play it on my phone and neither do my boys. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a way to delete the apps that came with the phone. Oh well.

Then, we got down to what they were going to show me, the latest greatest apps I had to have for my phone!

The first thing they showed me was how to to navigate through the Play Store better! I had NO idea that I could scroll right and find lists of the Top Paid (scroll right), Top Free (scroll right), Top Grossing (scroll right), Top New Paid (scroll right), Top New Free (scroll right), and Trending (the end). What I found very interesting, and was thrilled they pointed it out was in the Top Grossing, even if the app is free, when you’re inside the game, you have the option to pay for things as you can go, so even if the app is free, the game can cost you plenty!

Geek Squad Lesson

Good to know. Those will be the games we do NOT download. lol I could just see my boys accidentally buying all kinds of crazy stuff!

They also went on to show me some of the new games everyone is talking about. One game Doodle had already gotten was Temple Run 2. A few others were mentioned and we flipped through the apps to find they weren’t available on Android yet.

These Geek Squad Solution Center guys were extremely knowledgeable and I have to admit I was pretty impressed! You never know what you’re going to get sometimes. Not only did I get a basic answer, they backed up what they knew with detailed information! It was a fantastic experience and I can guarantee you one thing…one day (what an annoying phrase) I’m going to have a tablet and when I do, I’m going to the Solution Center and they’re going to teach me how to use it from the start!

I have to tell you, all of my experiences lately with Best Buy have totally rocked! I had no idea what a wealth of information and support they are. I always just saw them as a store to buy electronics at! Needless to say, my eyes have been opened!

I have has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

5 comments:

Liz Mays said...

They really are helpful, I have to say. The thing is that geeks love tech, and love what they do so they like to talk about it making them incredibly great resources for Best Buy!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I actually didn't know Geek Squad provided services like this. I just thought they fixed computers haha. I am STILL trying to figure out how to take a screen shot on my droid. Blah.

Mama on a Green Mission said...

Wow! That's awesome! I had not idea they had classes like this and I love that you learned how to do the screen shot! :) Super cool info, thanks!!

Unknown said...

Another very useful piece of information. You rock! I need to high-tail it over there and check it out. I have a lot of questions, and don't want to look like a complete dummy, so it looks like this is the best place to go!

Laura Grace Andry said...

My desktop has been giving me grief for a while now and I have been meaning to take it and get it wiped. I will probably need to have a talk with someone about how to NOT get viruses. Oy! Thanks for the Geek Squad info.

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