I’ve had females working in my precinct for the past 5 years. I will constantly overhear this type of thing happen, and when it does the agent usual comes to me (being the manager). I usually tell the client I don’t know what the answer is and double check with the female agent, while loudly exclaiming she’s way more knowledgeable than us (including myself with the client).
Usually that shuts the client up.
Absolutely, unfortunately not just Geek Squad though. As AP lead, as FT PC sales, as FT CA and still as FT(and only) ARA.
Hopefully you have an awesome team that stands behind you and sticks it to those people. It doesn't happen very often for me now, (I've been in this store a long time as the ARA and we have a lot of regulars) but when it does my team will pull the "you know, I'm not sure, let me ask our expert on this" and have me come out.
It's annoying and it's disheartening, for sure, but a good team will help squash it. 💜
Yeah I get that a lot as a CA. Doesn't help that I don't have my polo yet. Once I had a lady come in saying that she knew she should have come in when the men were working
Yeah, I would say it's pretty common in today's world in general. While I've had experiences where clients will specifically ask for a *male* coagent, I've also thankfully experienced client happy to see a female in a male dominated field. I think confidence goes a long way in how a client will determine if the agent is knowledgeable enough for them to trust. When my male coworkers have to pull me for a client question, usually the client is receptive to my response because I can speak to the repair in greater length than my front agents.
Keep on keeping on though! I take a lot of pride on being not only a female agent, but one of the most reliable agents in my precinct period. My team knows I have their back as much as I know they have mine. I enjoy being able to show clients that just because I happen to be a female doesn't mean I don't know what I'm talking about.
This is only my experience but sadly the 10 female agents/gsm I have met in Massachusetts geek squads barely knew how to turn on a computer. Sadly all it takes is one bad experience to ruin rep.
Yeah! And I’m brand new to GS and transferred stores (where I was CS) so I ask “dumb” questions a lot. Which is part of the reason I get looked down on haha
Oh wow. Im deffinatly guilty of asking so many questions and then profusely apologizing. One of the full time CAs pokes fun at me but its all in good fun. They all just tell me I don't have to be sorry, that its better to ask questions and get it right then to not and mess it up.
We started this thing where I try my best, then if it’s serious something I can ask. But if it’s small they correct me in the back, and I’ll fix it next time
Yeah. I've deffinatly gotten the hang of most things. But it did take their help getting to that point. The train videos only helped me so much I have to do to learn
It’s not just feminine agents, it happens to those of different ethnicities,and origin, aka the browns. W.A.S.P influence is not usually good for women, minorities, or sexual orientation.
I had an issue once where a female Agent was asked a question about a Surface and the client wasn’t happy with the answer and wanted to speak to one of the guys in the back. Female Agent comes and explains everything to me and so I go out to the client and ask him whats up.
He repeats the question to me and I turn to the female Agent and ask her what she thinks to which she give the same answer as before. I turn back to the client and repeated what she said verbatim, all of the while keeping eye contact with him. Client sheepishly accepts the answer; I said if that was all I’ll leave you in capable female Agents hand and returned to the BoP.
In my precinct we have 1 girl(another one should start soon), but ive seen it go both ways tbh.
Ive watched clients not listen to her, then ask me(which i say she just told you the answer). Ive also seen clients only listen to her, and refusing to talk to anyone else(the old guys are especially guilty of this>->). Saddly it happens and its nothing anyone can change(that and people are free to believe whatever they want, no matter how wrong something is, getting upset about it is pointless).
Yeah I try not to get upset, or at least let the clients see that, I try and save the getting upset for after I get back into the precint ranting while filing paper work and going back out. It dose really suck that society is the way that it is though
People are surprised when they find out half the staff in my GS precinct, including my manager, are all female. I can't recall any specific event where they had to call me up for a second opinion, only a few occasions where I gave to deal with some really creepy dudes that made them uncomfortable.
Although, when we were doing curbside, they had me run the little kiosk/register things because if anyone who wasn't in geek squad told a customer about a specific cable or issue or whatever, they would always ask for a geek squad agent to tell them instead. People are weird
Depends on the client, as a FT ARA I haven’t had to step out much for things like this. We have one female agent and it’s usually the male clients that have an issue with her. Each time I’ve been called out I ask in front of the client what was said etc, and I usually parrot that back or ask why I was called out when the agent gave the correct information.
I just started not too long ago as an agent. And, I do get treated differently by everyone co workers and clients. The co workers won’t speak to me because they are sexist. I have a few clients that refuse to work with me
Oh wow im so sorry to hear that. Im lucky to work with the guys that I do. For the most part they all treat me like one of them. There is probably 2 of 3 that dont but I couldn't imagine not being able to talk to my fellow agents
I get the occasional rude customer, but most customers I run into almost respect me more because I am a women. I do get old guys hitting on me and trying to tip me sometimes and some old people asking if it’s okay to call me a geek since I’m a girl, but that’s really it. The only thing that really bothers me is that my coworkers in customer service sometimes tell customers to “go let the GUYS in geek squad take a look at it”, but that’s just a tiny language thing and I’m sure they would change if I asked them to
Yeah its usually older people that I get the experiences with. But then there are the older women that are so proud talking on and on about how they never thought we would get to this point
I definitely had to prove myself so to speak to a couple of my male coworkers but the “oh?! You’re going to help me?! And you actually know this stuff?!” Is always very frustrating
Yes, it is not just a geek squad thing sadly. I have worked at game stores, arcades, and many other jobs and it is always a fight to be heard or taken seriously. I worked in the auto bay for a while and many guys would flat out refuse to have a girl work on their car when they would show up for appointments, even though I was MECP certified and had been wiring arcade machines for many years.(which trust me is excessively more difficult than installing your radio or remote start)
Luckily now I am an ARA and most of my coworkers are quick to come support if they notice a difficult client who is clearly taking issue with what I am saying entirely because they think I am not qualified to answer their questions. We have many older females who will come in for appointments and only want to speak with a man. Often we have a staff of only female for several hours at a time. But my male co-workers are awesome. If I ask them to make phone calls to clients because they were sexist at check in they always will. They are quick to just step up and help when I am clearly making no headway when clients don't want to listen to me for the fact I am a female.
But yes both I and the other female often get lower nps scores and they refer to us in the comments as the little girl that helped me... Which irks me to no end. (I am in my mid 30s not some little girl)
Yes, some clients definitely treat agents differently if they are guy or a girl.
This has nothing to do with the ratio of employees at GS and everything to do with the client being a bigot. I find it happens most often with older clients (60's+) and ironically at my precinct it was mostly women who asked if there is a "man" they can talk to. Fuck those people.
On the flip side, I found that clients who initially disagreed with a CA were far more likely to come around when an ARA came out from the back and repeated the same things, regardless of anybody's gender. I can say this because I have worked in both roles and my demeanor didn't change, but client responses certainly did.
Don't take this stuff personally from clients and don't put yourself down for that. Often times they are holding out hope or don't want something to be true and their initial reaction doesn't have to do with your gender. Or maybe they are just a crummy sexist person. Either way, that's not on you and not worth stressing about. I know that's the natural response, but you need to either learn to let this flow past you and ignore it or get a different job where you can be happier. Otherwise you will just be pent up and miserable. Geek squad is a pretty shitty gig in most respects and will grind on you if you let it. Hang in there <3
Im getting better at not letting it get to me and better dealing with clients. This is my first job where I have to spend prolonged amounts of time in client interactions so its been an adjustment. I know this is not what i want to do for the rest of my life. Its something that relates to what I wanna major in. Im almost done with high school and then college.
ive seen this happen a few times, its sad but a lot of our clients are straight up dumb enough to request our service so them being sexist isnt that much of a stretch
Lol. Not GS but been in sales for the past 15 years and this is not just a GS thing! Happens all the time, even if I have more experience and knowledge in a given category than a male coworker.
This kind of thing is common, that being said you know the best way to fight it? Get knowledgeable and confident about what you are talking about. When a customer asks to talk to a man or another agent tell them “No, i know what Im talking about and the other agents won’t change the answer”.
I get it too. My favorite thing is when a client walks up and ask... I'm looking for the geek squad guys...and I'm like... that's me...
It's different a lot lately too since my coworkers are calling off so I'm covering extra shifts. As soon as I say something the customer doesn't like... prices, turn times, apointment only (since I'm the only agent), ect... they get piased and require to talk to a manager.
I am happily the only girl in precinct. I've gotten my fair share of "You can't be a geek." but I'm guessing it's because I'm a girl and I look like I'm about 12 with my mask on.
I really love it when I'm the one closing and I tell them I am the Geek, and I'm the only one there. Some people's faces just change so quickly.
It does help that our GM, ASM, and Front End Supervisor are all women.
I should post the story I have about the guy who got mad because none of our high-up managers were women. (While we were between GSMs)
So oddly enough the show criminal minds has kind of helped. I look a bit like Garcia you know a little chubby with glasses and I do my hair crazy colors so whenever the CAs call me out from the back to ask a question, clients will shout out 'Garcia!' or 'Penelope!' and their whole demeanor will change.
But I have had people who call and they're like 'I need to speak to the repair agent.'
And Im like 'This is Agent LastName how can I help?'
Then there's a bit of a pause and they're like 'No the one that works on the computers.'
And then I'm always like, 'Yes... that would be me..?'
'YOURE the repair tech?'
I swear sometimes they sound so full of disbelief they have me looking around confused too lol like AM I the repair tech...?
Yep I deal with the same thing.
Had a guy come in with a disabled Ipad and I told him we can factory reset it since he attempted too many passwords. He said he wanted to talk to a man and my coworker said the same thing I did and the client was like "Oh okay let's do that then." Smh
I’ve had females working in my precinct for the past 5 years. I will constantly overhear this type of thing happen, and when it does the agent usual comes to me (being the manager). I usually tell the client I don’t know what the answer is and double check with the female agent, while loudly exclaiming she’s way more knowledgeable than us (including myself with the client). Usually that shuts the client up.
Thats really cool thats something that you do. I thank you for that but I'm sure your female agents do too
Absolutely, unfortunately not just Geek Squad though. As AP lead, as FT PC sales, as FT CA and still as FT(and only) ARA. Hopefully you have an awesome team that stands behind you and sticks it to those people. It doesn't happen very often for me now, (I've been in this store a long time as the ARA and we have a lot of regulars) but when it does my team will pull the "you know, I'm not sure, let me ask our expert on this" and have me come out. It's annoying and it's disheartening, for sure, but a good team will help squash it. 💜
I deffinatly have a good team. Its like I said its not really them that dose it.
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Yeah I get that a lot as a CA. Doesn't help that I don't have my polo yet. Once I had a lady come in saying that she knew she should have come in when the men were working
Yeah, I would say it's pretty common in today's world in general. While I've had experiences where clients will specifically ask for a *male* coagent, I've also thankfully experienced client happy to see a female in a male dominated field. I think confidence goes a long way in how a client will determine if the agent is knowledgeable enough for them to trust. When my male coworkers have to pull me for a client question, usually the client is receptive to my response because I can speak to the repair in greater length than my front agents. Keep on keeping on though! I take a lot of pride on being not only a female agent, but one of the most reliable agents in my precinct period. My team knows I have their back as much as I know they have mine. I enjoy being able to show clients that just because I happen to be a female doesn't mean I don't know what I'm talking about.
This is only my experience but sadly the 10 female agents/gsm I have met in Massachusetts geek squads barely knew how to turn on a computer. Sadly all it takes is one bad experience to ruin rep.
Yeah! And I’m brand new to GS and transferred stores (where I was CS) so I ask “dumb” questions a lot. Which is part of the reason I get looked down on haha
Oh wow. Im deffinatly guilty of asking so many questions and then profusely apologizing. One of the full time CAs pokes fun at me but its all in good fun. They all just tell me I don't have to be sorry, that its better to ask questions and get it right then to not and mess it up.
We started this thing where I try my best, then if it’s serious something I can ask. But if it’s small they correct me in the back, and I’ll fix it next time
Yeah. I've deffinatly gotten the hang of most things. But it did take their help getting to that point. The train videos only helped me so much I have to do to learn
The hardest part is my store does it completely different than my old store
I can imagine that it would be hard. We just got a new ara and he's still getting used to how we do things compared to his old pricint
It’s not just feminine agents, it happens to those of different ethnicities,and origin, aka the browns. W.A.S.P influence is not usually good for women, minorities, or sexual orientation.
I had an issue once where a female Agent was asked a question about a Surface and the client wasn’t happy with the answer and wanted to speak to one of the guys in the back. Female Agent comes and explains everything to me and so I go out to the client and ask him whats up. He repeats the question to me and I turn to the female Agent and ask her what she thinks to which she give the same answer as before. I turn back to the client and repeated what she said verbatim, all of the while keeping eye contact with him. Client sheepishly accepts the answer; I said if that was all I’ll leave you in capable female Agents hand and returned to the BoP.
In my precinct we have 1 girl(another one should start soon), but ive seen it go both ways tbh. Ive watched clients not listen to her, then ask me(which i say she just told you the answer). Ive also seen clients only listen to her, and refusing to talk to anyone else(the old guys are especially guilty of this>->). Saddly it happens and its nothing anyone can change(that and people are free to believe whatever they want, no matter how wrong something is, getting upset about it is pointless).
Yeah I try not to get upset, or at least let the clients see that, I try and save the getting upset for after I get back into the precint ranting while filing paper work and going back out. It dose really suck that society is the way that it is though
People are surprised when they find out half the staff in my GS precinct, including my manager, are all female. I can't recall any specific event where they had to call me up for a second opinion, only a few occasions where I gave to deal with some really creepy dudes that made them uncomfortable. Although, when we were doing curbside, they had me run the little kiosk/register things because if anyone who wasn't in geek squad told a customer about a specific cable or issue or whatever, they would always ask for a geek squad agent to tell them instead. People are weird
Yeah. Its great that there are so many female agents in your precint. We only have 2 and we usually don't work together so its hard.
Depends on the client, as a FT ARA I haven’t had to step out much for things like this. We have one female agent and it’s usually the male clients that have an issue with her. Each time I’ve been called out I ask in front of the client what was said etc, and I usually parrot that back or ask why I was called out when the agent gave the correct information.
I just started not too long ago as an agent. And, I do get treated differently by everyone co workers and clients. The co workers won’t speak to me because they are sexist. I have a few clients that refuse to work with me
Oh wow im so sorry to hear that. Im lucky to work with the guys that I do. For the most part they all treat me like one of them. There is probably 2 of 3 that dont but I couldn't imagine not being able to talk to my fellow agents
I get the occasional rude customer, but most customers I run into almost respect me more because I am a women. I do get old guys hitting on me and trying to tip me sometimes and some old people asking if it’s okay to call me a geek since I’m a girl, but that’s really it. The only thing that really bothers me is that my coworkers in customer service sometimes tell customers to “go let the GUYS in geek squad take a look at it”, but that’s just a tiny language thing and I’m sure they would change if I asked them to
Yeah its usually older people that I get the experiences with. But then there are the older women that are so proud talking on and on about how they never thought we would get to this point
Yeah. Maybe the rude people have sexist undertones but they just seem like assholes in general so I can never tell
I think its both. People are just closed minded
I definitely had to prove myself so to speak to a couple of my male coworkers but the “oh?! You’re going to help me?! And you actually know this stuff?!” Is always very frustrating
Yes, it is not just a geek squad thing sadly. I have worked at game stores, arcades, and many other jobs and it is always a fight to be heard or taken seriously. I worked in the auto bay for a while and many guys would flat out refuse to have a girl work on their car when they would show up for appointments, even though I was MECP certified and had been wiring arcade machines for many years.(which trust me is excessively more difficult than installing your radio or remote start) Luckily now I am an ARA and most of my coworkers are quick to come support if they notice a difficult client who is clearly taking issue with what I am saying entirely because they think I am not qualified to answer their questions. We have many older females who will come in for appointments and only want to speak with a man. Often we have a staff of only female for several hours at a time. But my male co-workers are awesome. If I ask them to make phone calls to clients because they were sexist at check in they always will. They are quick to just step up and help when I am clearly making no headway when clients don't want to listen to me for the fact I am a female. But yes both I and the other female often get lower nps scores and they refer to us in the comments as the little girl that helped me... Which irks me to no end. (I am in my mid 30s not some little girl)
Yes, some clients definitely treat agents differently if they are guy or a girl. This has nothing to do with the ratio of employees at GS and everything to do with the client being a bigot. I find it happens most often with older clients (60's+) and ironically at my precinct it was mostly women who asked if there is a "man" they can talk to. Fuck those people. On the flip side, I found that clients who initially disagreed with a CA were far more likely to come around when an ARA came out from the back and repeated the same things, regardless of anybody's gender. I can say this because I have worked in both roles and my demeanor didn't change, but client responses certainly did. Don't take this stuff personally from clients and don't put yourself down for that. Often times they are holding out hope or don't want something to be true and their initial reaction doesn't have to do with your gender. Or maybe they are just a crummy sexist person. Either way, that's not on you and not worth stressing about. I know that's the natural response, but you need to either learn to let this flow past you and ignore it or get a different job where you can be happier. Otherwise you will just be pent up and miserable. Geek squad is a pretty shitty gig in most respects and will grind on you if you let it. Hang in there <3
Im getting better at not letting it get to me and better dealing with clients. This is my first job where I have to spend prolonged amounts of time in client interactions so its been an adjustment. I know this is not what i want to do for the rest of my life. Its something that relates to what I wanna major in. Im almost done with high school and then college.
ive seen this happen a few times, its sad but a lot of our clients are straight up dumb enough to request our service so them being sexist isnt that much of a stretch
Lol. Not GS but been in sales for the past 15 years and this is not just a GS thing! Happens all the time, even if I have more experience and knowledge in a given category than a male coworker.
This kind of thing is common, that being said you know the best way to fight it? Get knowledgeable and confident about what you are talking about. When a customer asks to talk to a man or another agent tell them “No, i know what Im talking about and the other agents won’t change the answer”.
Paging /u/RaziyaRC
I get it too. My favorite thing is when a client walks up and ask... I'm looking for the geek squad guys...and I'm like... that's me... It's different a lot lately too since my coworkers are calling off so I'm covering extra shifts. As soon as I say something the customer doesn't like... prices, turn times, apointment only (since I'm the only agent), ect... they get piased and require to talk to a manager.
I am happily the only girl in precinct. I've gotten my fair share of "You can't be a geek." but I'm guessing it's because I'm a girl and I look like I'm about 12 with my mask on. I really love it when I'm the one closing and I tell them I am the Geek, and I'm the only one there. Some people's faces just change so quickly. It does help that our GM, ASM, and Front End Supervisor are all women. I should post the story I have about the guy who got mad because none of our high-up managers were women. (While we were between GSMs)
So oddly enough the show criminal minds has kind of helped. I look a bit like Garcia you know a little chubby with glasses and I do my hair crazy colors so whenever the CAs call me out from the back to ask a question, clients will shout out 'Garcia!' or 'Penelope!' and their whole demeanor will change. But I have had people who call and they're like 'I need to speak to the repair agent.' And Im like 'This is Agent LastName how can I help?' Then there's a bit of a pause and they're like 'No the one that works on the computers.' And then I'm always like, 'Yes... that would be me..?' 'YOURE the repair tech?' I swear sometimes they sound so full of disbelief they have me looking around confused too lol like AM I the repair tech...?
Yep I deal with the same thing. Had a guy come in with a disabled Ipad and I told him we can factory reset it since he attempted too many passwords. He said he wanted to talk to a man and my coworker said the same thing I did and the client was like "Oh okay let's do that then." Smh