To whom it may concern,

Recently I had the bad fortune to have a serious hardware problem with one of our Dell office computers. Since I was unhappy with the computer repair shop I'd been using for quite a few years, I decided to give your "Geek Squad" repair center (Grapevine, Texas) a try. While I was happy with the check-in process and also the fact that they were able to diagnose and repair the computer in 24 hours, well short of their claimed 4-5 day turnaround, I was greatly bothered with what I perceived to be an attempt to scare me into buying something I didn't need.

The Geek Squad tech called me earlier today to tell me the problem had been found and fixed (a memory module had been knocked loose). After explaining that the computer was repaired, though, he told me that he was worried because my computer had "an extensive infection of malware" and would require another $80 to remove all of the malicious software.

I was very skeptical because I keep all of the office machines updated with the latest real-time spyware and virus removal software, so I refused the offer. Upon getting the machine home, I ran the existing virus and spyware scanner (AVG and Microsoft). Both scanners reported nothing of significance. Just to make sure, I then downloaded and ran another virus scanner (Trend Micro) and another spyware scanner (Spybot) and again found nothing more significant than a couple of browser-cookies from ad banners.

In short, I was correct in my thinking that there was nothing even remotely malicious on the machine. Spending $80 to scrub my machine of the "extensive infection" would have done nothing at all to make my machine safer.

I only bring this up because the Geek Squad check-in desk had a stack of virus and spyware scanner packages in easy reach, the person picking up his computer before me was sold spyware removal services and software, and the person behind me in line bringing their computer in for a second time brought their Best-Buy-purchased spyware and virus software with them.

It appears to be the norm for the Geek Squad to push expensive spyware and virus services on everyone who brings their computer in for repair, whether they need it or not. Please help me ensure that it is not the Geek Squad policy to scare customers into buying products and services they don't need.