Best Buy Surprise

I spent a good portion of today hunting down a replacement power supply for a dead server.

Now here's what I know about power supplies: they supply power. Oh, and they have wires sticking out of them. That's all I got.

So, after calling around a bit today, I decided the best thing to do was to yank the power supply from the dead maching and bring it into a computer store. I figured I'd have my best chance of matching it up that way.

The closest place to where I was that even had a shot at providing me with the new supply was Best Buy. You know my feelings about Best Buy, but there were the best option it seemed.

I walked into the store holding this metal box spewing wires and found the first sales agent in the computer department. I expected him to not know the difference between a power strip and a power supply.

But get this - he knew exactly what I needed! He had just built out a gaming box and had just shopped for his own power supply. Best Buy had three or four power supplies available on the shelf, and he picked the one that best matched the specs of the older supply.

I was shocked and delighted. And the story gets better!

I wanted to open up the box and physically compare the two units. He said he wasn't authorized to do this, but maybe the Geek Squad could. Fine, I could live with that.

He took me over to the Geek Squad counter where a bunch of uniformed agents were able to help me. We opened up the box (after I bought it, that seemed fair) and inspected things. Here's the thing - the Geek Squad guys knew what each of the different cables connected in to and why. They actually knew obscure technical details.

I was shocked. I assumed I would have been dealing with some cluless set of reps, and instead, I was dealing with true geeks.

Way to go Best Buy and Geek Squad. What a pleasant surprise.

--Ben