Geeks to the rescue

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The first time Bruce Dougherty tried to get his home wireless network up and running, it was a bust. The former marketing executive had to enlist his son’s help, and still there were problems.

So who did he turn to when he wanted a network upgrade?

“That’s my geek, Johnny,” Dougherty said happily outside his local Best Buy store, gesturing toward a young man in a snappy black-and-white Volkswagen Beetle emblazoned with a “Geek Squad” logo.

Best Buy’s Geek Squad employs white-shirted men and women with snap-on ties whose mission, for a fee, is to convert consumer wrath about complicated gadgets into warm and fuzzy feelings.

Like Dougherty, many consumers are warming this holiday season to expanded tech house call services offered by Best Buy Co. Inc., Circuit City Stores Inc., CompUSA Inc., and Dell Inc.

The retailers’ traveling alpha geeks help customers with everything from home theater installations to virus removals to setting up gaming consoles. They even program remote controls.

“It’s less of a do-it-yourself and more of a do-it-for-me marketplace now,” said Sean Skelley, a senior vice president of services at Best Buy. His company, the nation’s largest electronics retailer, acquired Geek Squad in 2002 and turned the 60-employee company into a 6,200-strong 24-hour service.

Since August, it’s had a Geek Squad precinct in each of its 650 stores. Now it’s selling house-call gift cards, including a $129 card specifically for setting up digital camera equipment and software.

Problem-solving missions include any electronics — not just Best Buy purchases.

Dell recently expanded its at-home services to include nights and weekends, and last month, strengthened its lineup to include not just basic computer setups and wireless networking, but also the installation of PC accessories, Internet connections and e-mail accounts as well as moving files from an old computer to a new one.

The direct-to-consumer tech titan now also sells and installs plasma TVs.

Circuit City, which has been offering at-home installations for wireless networking and home entertainment systems for about two years, last month expanded services into more PC-related problems.

Its new “IQ Crew” is being tested in three cities to help customers — either in-store or at their homes — to fix a computer, remove viruses or do software or hardware upgrades.

Electronics retailers say customers have asked for such assistance for years, especially as often vexing digital devices have gone mainstream.

In the past, Dell’s customer service representatives would sometimes refer callers to Microsoft Corp., antivirus companies, Internet service providers or other manufacturers because the technical problems weren’t covered under Dell’s service warranties.

“Now we say, we can do it, but for a fee,” said Jennifer Jones Davis, a Dell spokeswoman.

At Best Buy, natural-born technicians on the staff felt handcuffed about providing certain services that they didn’t have the tools or job descriptions to handle. Now, the Geek Squad includes “counter intelligence agents” or CIAs, and “double agents” who both work the store counter and do house calls.