Best Buy's Geek Squad should pray there are no more Red Sox rainouts - Computers - Software

Hi my name is Paul Flanagan. I am the VP of Sales for Selkie Software. This is the second installment in my series of blogs about desktop data recovery and data migration solutions. Its Tuesday evening 4/21/09, and the Boston Red Sox have been rained out. So, I figure why not do a little competitive analysis and intelligence gathering. Since my first blog about Selkie Software VS the Geek Squad (/musings/index.php/thursday/index.php) got so much activity and interest about our website () from Best Buy Corp., why not return the favor and check out the Geek Squads website for Data Recovery Services? (/services/content.aspx?id=1951&menu_id=537). I have not been on the website for a whileWow! There are some very impressive substantial updates. The Geek Squad is finally starting to understand what the value of data recovery is all about. Great spin. Too bad in the world of data recovery they are "all hat and no cattle" Below are some of the statements on that webpage. Lets anal yze them one by one! Statement One: You depend on your computer for a lot of things, from storing pictures and family videos to doing your taxes or managing your business. We know your machine holds a lot of precious and critical information. What happens when one day you find yourself in a technological crisis, with a bright blue screen or a frozen system? Kudos to you Best Buy, thats a great problem statement and thanks. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, where is your value proposition? Here is an example you can try to copy: The Solution: Selkie Software - it saves your money, saves your time, and saves your data. Selkie Software is a 21st Century Solution to the "Blue Screen of Death. Selkie Software provides a solution to a 25-year-old problem that is a quantum leap ahead of any backup recovery software or consulting service currently available. What is Selkie Software? It is not back-up; it is not un-delete. Selkie Software is real-time data recove ry and migration of all emails, PowerPoint's, spreadsheets, word documents, jpegs, photos, videos and/or music for working and non-working Windows Operating Systems and failed Hard Drives. Selkie Software requires no pre-installation and no previous backup. Remember Best Buy, dont talk about the problem unless you have a real solution. Now lets analyze Statement Two: Thats where we come in. Bring your affected equipment into the Geek Squad Precinct in your local Best Buy store. Our tech-savvy Agents will do a basic checkup to ensure that your data actually CAN be retrieved (which is the case more than 99% of the time). Note from me: I recently visited 3 Best Buy Stores in the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, San Carlos and San Jose areas to observe the Geek Squad in action. Each store had a least 5 people in line and only 2 agents at the desk. The average wait time to meet with an agent was 20 minutes. Granted, not everyone was there for data recovery, but in the amount of time those people spent driving to the store and waiting in line, they could have done their own data recovery easily, reliably and at half the cost of the Geek Squad, by using Selkie Software! But then again they would not have had the pleasure of standing in line to pay $59 just to have an agent speak with them. Statement three: Heres where a city of experts REALLY comes in handy your machine will be securely handed off to the largest Geek Squad Precinct in the country, Geek Squad City (Louisville, KY), to dig through every nook and cranny of your hard drive and do whatever it takes to find your irreplaceable data. * Whether you just accidentally renamed or misplaced a document or your hard drive is suffering from a complete and utter failure, our Agents can help. Ok, folks, I really like this one. To paraphrase an old W.C Field line: I once entered a contest. 1st prize was a week in Lexington KY, and second prize was 2 weeks in Lexington KY"what did your desktop data eve r do to you to punish it by sending it to Kentucky? In all seriousness 2 weeks is about how long it will take to ship out your desktop, recover the data and get it back to you. Do you want to wait 1-2 weeks to gain access to your desktop data? Not to mention that all your confidential emails, powerpoints, photo, videos word documents and spreadsheets are out of you control and entrusted to complete strangers! With Selkie Software you control your data, how and when and where it is recovered, and you will have it back in a matter of minutes at your home and or office in exactly the same format you had it originally organized... More from the Geek Squad: Some other things to know about Geek Squads Professional Data Recovery service are: * The initial assessment cost at the store is $59. * As data recovery can be a complicated process, the actual price of recovery starts at $259 but depends on the difficulty or severity of issues found.I like this one as well. If you believe this one, you probably also believe that Artificial Sweeteners are safe, WMD were in Iraq and Anna Nicole Smith married for love. Data Recovery is not complicated with Selkie Software. There is no FUD(fear uncertainty and doubt) factor. Its easy, fast, reliable, secure and less than half the price. Look, they go on with their list: * Because we want to be thorough in our recovery, timing may vary, but our Agents will be in contact with you throughout the process to ensure you are well informed. (I have to interject: This means don't hold your breath!!) * Geek Squad can generally recover data on PCs, external hard drives, disks, tapes, CDs, or photo memory cards.

Ok, I feel better now that I can share my analysis of these industry giants with you. Thanks for taking the time to read my musing of David tweaking Goliath. The Geek Squad is a professional and reliable organization, with a quality service offering. Ive used them myself. However if turn-around time, ease of use, accuracy, security and reliability and $$$ are important, Selkie Software is your solution. Maybe the Geek Squad should hope that the Red Sox don't have any more rain outs!!