AT&T Launches ConnecTech to Rival Geek Squad

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Telecommunications company, AT&T has launched its own tech support service to rival Best Buy’s famous Geek Squad.

AT&T yesterday announced the launch of ConnecTech, a customer support service offering call-outs to both existing AT&T customers and non-AT&T customers. The company is now offering television and home theatre installation, as well as PC and home network setup. ConnecTech also offers customers notebook repairs, virus protection, and trouble shooting for all those miscellaneous problems people have with computers.

The home tech support market has, up until now, been dominated by Geek Squad — and it’s a brave move by AT&T if the company is expecting to rival the Best Buy subsidiary, however there are advantages and disadvantages to both options.

A PC setup with the Geek Squad is going to set you back $129. The Squad will set up your computer (including your monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers), install one software application and one external peripheral, configure your existing Internet configuration and an existing e-mail account and test your PC to make sure they didn’t mess up somewhere along the way.

A basic PC or notebook setup from ConnecTech offers the essentially the same service for system setup, the connection of two eternal peripherals, configuration of Windows security centre and ensuring your computer is set to receive all critical updates for $119.

However while AT&T might be that little bit cheaper, Geek Squad customers have the option of 24 hours a day emergency services where as all ConnecTech can offer you is next-day support seven days a week. AT&T, similar to Geek Squad, also offer over the phone support.

Before you spend any hard-earned cash on those services, however, seek the advice of fellow Tom’s readers in the hardware forum.

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Jane McEntegart

Jane McEntegart works in marketing communications at Intel and was previously Manager of Content Marketing at ASUS North America. Before that, she worked for more than seven years at Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware, holding such roles as Contributing Editor and Senior News Editor and writing about everything from smartphones to tablets and games consoles.

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8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • you know what there is still a problem with this. I work for a smaller computer store. We do the inital setup for free. We also do all the work in the store. I think that even though the bigger corps are doing the repair services that the smaller shops are actually getting a lot more people. People start to realize just how much they are getting overcharged at these larger buisnesses and go to the smaller ones that they can see their computer being worked on and even a main board repair can take only 2 days.
    Reply
  • JonathanDeane
    The other problem with Geek squad is that they do not hire certed people (while an A+ and N+ does not really mean that much its at least something....) I hope this AT&T service at least hires certified tech's and pays them accordingly.
    Reply
  • dcoaster
    uhhhh... why would they do this?
    Reply
  • frozenlead
    ...from my memory, AT&T was a telecommunications company. Pardon me, but what the hell do they know about personal computing?
    Reply
  • iiraymoii
    If they hired fully certified agents..you would be paying more money to pay their salary. While I agree that agents should be certified, most of them "MOST" have a good background and actually know what they are doing. I say this with confidence because I myself work for GS. Alot of us have A+ certificates..but almost anyone can pass it.

    Id like to see the competition between these two big companies. I wont defend my employer to the end and say we are perfect..I just wont because we are not, just like every other big company, there are bad apples.
    Reply
  • Mr_Man
    AT&T? I buy DSL and phone service through them, so here's how I think ConnecTech will be:
    Their service will be cheaper than most competition. They do this buy buying out all the other competition and "merging" with the big guys. Geek Squads will start to disappear across the country.
    Once all that is done, their prices will go up to what the competition's used to be, their service will change to a mail-order service, meaning you mail your computer to India, where uncertified people who speak English poorly will "fix" your computer.
    Yep. Fight the good fight, Geek Squad.
    Reply
  • armagdon
    Interesting move on the part of at&t. Im an agent and I'm a bit confused due to the fact that we are gonna start selling and activating Iphones as of the 7th of september.
    Reply
  • ATT Connectech is a scam they get you to subscribe monthly all the while it is a contract for a year. I called AT&T for assistance and was told to contact these people when all along I needed a new modem. Unfortunately out of desparation. My monthly subscription is a year contract. I had a hard time communicating with them after five hours on the phone only to have the same problem the very next day. This went on for two weeks. I called to find out why I am still being charged for the monthly service when I received no service.
    Reply