As promised on the 888 Geek Help Web site, there was no wait to speak to a technician. And surprisingly, the geek assigned to us wanted to hear about our PC problems before taking any payment information. Despite the terrible (perhaps overseas) connection, we distinctly heard pages turning as he read information to us.

After hearing about our trouble opening an e-mail attachment, he concluded that our e-mail provider was responsible. Even after we repeated the error message, which clearly indicated that Microsoft Outlook was blocking the attachment, he insisted we had to contact our ISP to solve the problem.

His solution to our sound problem, which involved speakers not producing any sound, was to remove the speakers, which he suggested after we told him we were using a laptop. Once he realized that we were dealing with built-in speakers, he was stumped. The diagnostics were not exactly probing; at no time did he suggest adjusting the volume (the most common solution) or opening the Control Panel.

He quickly identified our browser hijacker as a "pop-up" but never used the word spyware. At this point he told us he had to research the problem and would call back the next day. Alas, that was the last we heard from him.

At the beginning of the call, our geek explained that we could get our money back within the first 10 minutes, a promise he ultimately did not have to keep. During the 11-minute call, he was unable to offer a correct explanation for any of our three problems, yet never asked for a credit card. So the call cost nothing, and we got exactly what we paid for. At least 888 Geek Help didn't waste a lot of our time.