By Megan Stoker
Dressed like secret agents and cruising through town in their sleek black and white VW bug, Orem”s newest computer help company has come to the rescue.
The Geek Squad, a 24-hour computer service company, works in connection with Provo”s new Best Buy, making house calls to distressed computer users. They answer questions and fix technical problems, and they do it in person.
The Squad came to Provo a month ago for Best Buy”s grand opening, Nov. 5, bringing their technical savvy and unusual corporate culture with them.
Brandon Miner, chief agent director of counter intelligence for the Orem precinct, said being a computer agent is just part of the Geek Squad corporate culture.
“A lot of our culture is based on the old government agencies,” Miner said. “For instance we dress in the white shirts with black pants and ties and call our agents CIAs or Counter Intelligent Agents.”
The company borrowed most of its corporate titles from the government.
Geek Squad representatives working with Best Buy are called ”moles”. Phone technicians are referred to as ”covert operations”, and the founder of the company — ”our beloved chief inspector,” according to the Geek Squad Web site.
Geek Squad operative, Agent Jesse Evenson, said the unique culture of the Geek Squad is one of the reasons he decided to join the ranks, working his way from lowly cadet to a full CIA.
“I joined the Geek Squad because it was just something I like doing,” Evenson said. “Also, they have a neat little theme going with the whole agent thing and the way we dress.”
Daywear for a Geek Squad member includes black pants, collared shirts, black ties and often Matrix-like sunglasses for their frequent trips in the Geek mobile.
“We wear white shirts with black pants and ties to work,” Evenson said. “Basically we”re going for a look kind of like the old ”50s agents … that go house to house fixing computers.”
Miner said the Geek Squad”s uniform has some locals confusing the agents with the other guys in black suits and ties: missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“We always get weird looks,” he said. “I think that people confuse us a lot with missionaries in the area.”
But agents aren”t too worried about the mix-up. The company dress code guidelines are comical enough to keep them laughing.
Guidelines include: “you practically have to have no self-esteem to dress like this,” “we only feel cool in groups,” and “a clip-on; this tie has saved agents from strangulation by printers.” After reading these, it”s hard for agents to take anything about their clothes too seriously.
Customers might not take the Geek Squad”s uniform seriously but they do appreciate the Geek Squad”s computer skills.
“The response that we”ve gotten in Utah is really tremendous because there”s nothing like this here,” Miner said. “People are really excited for us to help them.”
The Geek Squad was founded in 1994 by Chief Inspector Stevens and based on the ideas that computer illiterate people need help. Also, people need to be technically minded, as world domination is best achieved through computers.
The Geek Squad members help the world”s computer illiterate, both by repairing broken computers and by teaching people how not to break them again.
“Mainly we just help customers and educate them,” Miner said. “If there”s no major problem then we basically teach the customer what they”re doing wrong so they won”t do it again.”
As for world domination, Miner said the agents can handle that too.
“We really follow the agent philosophy,” Miner said. “We”re out for world domination one computer at a time.”
