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AT&T to form its own 'Geek Squad'

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

August 21, 2008, 4:30 PM

AT&T today launched ConnecTech, an in-home support team that deals with setup and repair of home media services, and not exclusively to AT&T customers.

For fees beginning at $69, AT&T will send a technician to your home to perform installation or support-related tasks. Services include: wireless network setup, setup and connection of PCs, digital media, printers, music or photo setup, PC upgrading, home theater and TV installation, as well as in-home or telephone support.

Prices for each of AT&T's services are on par with Geek Squad's, except for some in the Home Theater category. To have a Geek Squad tech come to a customer's home to set up and mount a 33"-60" flat-screen television will cost $199.99. AT&T's identical service for TVs over 32" goes for $100 more.

AT&T has built a new business upon its customer service reputation. Last year, the company ranked highest in small business customer care satisfaction, according to J. D. Power surveys. This month, the company took third place among its competitors in J. D. Power's Customer Care Performance study for consumer services. The industry average was 96; AT&T scored a 97.

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By DCIWADE

edited Aug 23, 2008 - 1:28 AM

If you need a outstanding Tech I am the one, where do I submit the resume.

Score: 0

By DeadFly

posted Aug 22, 2008 - 12:17 PM

Who the hell did at&t (note: switching to lower case did not make them less evil) pay off to get a good customer service rating??? There is no company I hate more.

Score: 0

By ZeroEpoch

posted Aug 22, 2008 - 11:09 AM

Unless they can do all that on Linux, they're no help to me. I doubt I'd ever call them anyways.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Aug 22, 2008 - 9:54 AM

So AT&T now offers overpriced, incompetent, WoW players to hang TVs on walls?

Wow.

Anyone *wanting* to be associated with the Geek Squad has apparently never actually had to deal with them... (At least, not since Best Buy bought them out)

Score: 0

By dvferret

posted Aug 21, 2008 - 8:05 PM

Cool, where can I apply? Seriously.

Score: 0

By Enlightenment

posted Aug 21, 2008 - 7:17 PM

Call it "Nerd Herd", like on "Chuck" tv show, yeah like that would happen.

http://www.youtube.com/w...244&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/w...sSE&feature=related

Score: 0

By whyldman

posted Aug 21, 2008 - 7:00 PM

AT&T ConnectTech has been around for a while. It actually used to be CompUSA's desktop support team. Their techs are not employees, they are independent technicians who signed up at OnForce (http://www.onforce.com). I realize I just increased my competition by announcing it. But I make between $60 to $70 per DSL install with them. This is a great way to go for them. But please, AT&T, be honest about how you get your techs.

Score: 0

By foxfyre

posted Aug 21, 2008 - 5:29 PM

"...set up and mount a 33"-60" flat-screen television will cost $199.99. AT&T's identical service for TVs over 32" goes for $100 more.

AT&T has built a new business upon its customer service reputation."

Yeah, except AT&T is a name purchased by Southwestern Bell as their Customer sat ratings under their own name were abysmal. And AT&T managed, in a period of little over 10 years, to go from the most recognized brandname in the world to a defunct entity existing only as a name.

Yeah, tell us about AT&T! What? No mention of Bell Labs? LOL! Oh, that's right! What's left of them belongs to Allcatel-Lucent...

Where is that ditz from Birmingham suing Apple for this one.

Score: 0

By psycros

posted Aug 21, 2008 - 5:46 PM

Oooo, nice one, fox. But apparently that name is still worth a lot because Cingular got it next.

Score: 0

By foxfyre

edited Aug 21, 2008 - 6:54 PM

SBC bought Bell South in Late 06 & SBC decided to rebrand Cingular to AT&T in early '07.

All they have done is buy up other regional bells and consolidate under a new (old) name in order to leverage the name recognition and to attempt to jettison the associated lousy customer sat associated with the old name.

Its caled "marketing"

...or in the case of SBC: "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain".

Score: 0

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