Digital plumbers enter the home

Jane Wakefield finds out that people are prepared to put up with techno-failures

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The Geek Squad's Andrea Domenichini pays Alex Elliott a visit to fix her wayward projector.

My day with the Geek Squad began with meeting the two "agents" who I had been assigned to for the day - Marcello Martins and Andrea Domenichini.

Both have worked for Geek Squad since it was set up in the UK in February 2007 and clearly have lots of enthusiasm for their job.

"I fell in love with the fun of the brand and the fact that we are all really good friends," explained Agent Domenichini.

A key part of this brand is an FBI style uniform of black trousers, white shirts, sunglasses, personalised 'agent' badges and a very un-FBI style smart car.

Agents are extremely proud of their badges

"The clothes are a litmus test of whether you are a geek. Everyone likes the uniform," said Agent Martins.

So much so that some agents have even got married wearing it, I am told. Both of my agents are proud of the fact that they get to keep their badges even when they leave Geek Squad.

Dodgy disk drive

The first stop of the day was in Stockwell, South London and a man who had been having problems with his disk drive.

"It is ripping and burning ok but when it plays back there is a lot of interference," explained the client, Myles Granger.

Agent Martins sets to work, running Geek Squad's bespoke diagnostics and giving the PC a general clean-up.

"This will mean machines run faster and if clients see benefits from our visit that's a good thing," explained Mr Domenichini.

A lot of Geek Squad's business comes from secondary visits as it pushes itself as a "must have" contact in the same way as people have a trusted mechanic or builder.

GEEK SQUAD - THE FACTS Began life 14 years ago in Minneapolis, when Robert Stevens started fixing computers using just his bike and a laptop. Expanded to offer 24-hour technology support for homes across the US Arrived in the UK in February 2007 in partnership with the Carphone Warehouse It charges a £99 fixed fee per job, regardless of how long the job takes to solve

Unlike a broken car though, the day with the Geek Squad revealed that people are prepared to give the technology that increasingly runs their lives far more leeway.

The problem with the disk drive is months old and although Mr Granger mainly uses it to burn CDs, it is an annoyance that he has let ride for some time.

Later in the day we meet a client with a media centre PC which takes over 15 minutes to boot up, has not had TV output for several weeks and requires a pen to stabilise the connection.

Both clients seem somewhat resigned to the problems.

"There is a belief that they will simply have to live with it," said Agent Domenichini.

"Most people are not aware that there are companies that offer home IT support and so they think there is no way out. Once people hear of Geek Squad and find out from a friend that there are people out there ready to come and fix their tech problems they are on the phone to book us that same day," he added.

Wireless security

More people are having problems with their wireless connections

Back in Stockwell, Agent Martin opts to solve a secondary problem first as the PC is not connecting to the house's wireless router.

According to Agent Martins, wireless is becoming one of the main activities keeping the Geek Squad busy - whether it be setting up a Blackberry to synchronise with a PC, activating an iPhone or setting up a wireless network from scratch.

This problem is relatively easily solved with a change to the configuration of the router and creation of a more secure password.

Here there was a degree of debate between the agent and the client. The first wanted a fairly obscure high security password whereas the client wanted a lower security one that all members of the house would remember.

The issue with the disk drive was less easily solved and revealed that even the most experienced geek - and agents tend to be very highly qualified - needs external help.

"We often Google the problem," said Agent Domenichini.

"If we are really stuck we have a secret weapon in the form of ten supergeeks locked in a basement in the US," he added.

Google can be an agent's best friend

A search for this particular problem on Google revealed several possible software faults, all of which are tried but fail to solve the problem.

At about 1pm - some two and a half hours after we'd arrived - a decision is taken to return on a different day.

This is where Geek Squad's pricing structure comes in handy. Unlike rivals they do not charge by the hour but set a one-off fee of £99 per job, regardless of how long it takes to fix.

A follow-up call a week later revealed the problem.

"It turned out to be a faulty hard drive which is what I'd suspected all along," Mr Granger told me on the phone.

The engineer offered to sell him one he had "in the boot of the car".

"I said I'd leave it. I may buy one online at some point or I may just live with it," he said.

Cable fault

So on, somewhat later than intended, to the second job.

Alex Elliott, who has been forewarned that we will be late as Geek Squad prides itself on its time-keeping, has been using a media centre and projector as the family's main TV and for several weeks there has been no TV output.

After some checks of the software it becomes clear to Agent Domenichini that there is a problem with the settings - currently pictures are showing up on the computer screen rather than the wall - and this is easily fixed by changing them.

But there is a second problem with the cable which connects the media centre to the projector or the connection port.

He is sidelined for a while as he attempts to reboot the machine, and unaware that the system is extremely slow, is confused by the unexplained "crash".

Once Alex explains that this is "normal", it is back to the main issue - although not without a mention of the fact that the reboot problem could always be solved on another day.

An alternative cable is tested and TV pictures are restored.

So the job is done, albeit with an unsightly cable dragging across the carpet.

Mrs Elliott is left with the prospect of having to rebury a new cable under the floorboards which is not one she relishes although she is pleased to have "solved the problem".