Frequently Asked Questions

We use TeamViewer, the industry's leading remote support and collaboration tool, in two ways:

• Quick Support: download and run it any time you'd like us to connect. You'll see an Allow/Deny prompt; clicking Allow lets us in.
• Hosted: installed for established clients who've already built trust with us, so we can log in with your permission (by phone, email or text) whenever needed. All Maintenance Plan clients use the Hosted version so we can perform routine upkeep.

Good instinct to ask. Bay Geeks will never call you out of the blue and ask for remote access to your computer. Tech-support scammers do exactly that, often claiming to be from a well-known company. If someone contacts you unprompted and wants to connect to your machine, hang up and call us directly at 727-579-4335 to confirm before allowing any connection. When you reach out to us first you stay in control: the Allow/Deny prompt only appears when you choose to run our tool.

Click the Open Ticket button at the top of any page on this site (it's also under “Get Help” in the footer). That takes you to our support portal, where a short form puts your issue straight into our queue and emails you a ticket number so you can follow along.

One caution: if you have an old Bay Geeks support email address saved from years past, don't rely on it. We've changed ticket systems over the years, and messages sent to older addresses may not reach us. The Open Ticket button always does. You can also call 727-579-4335, or ask the chat assistant in the corner of this page. It can hand you the ticket form directly.

Yes. We work on any brand of computer running Microsoft Windows or Apple macOS.

Standard service hours are Monday-Thursday, 8am-5pm, and Friday 8am-2pm, with Saturday available by appointment. In most cases, service can be scheduled the same day. Immediate-response or after-hours service may carry an additional charge.

We currently accept cash, check, Visa and Mastercard. Through PayPal we can also accept American Express and Discover.

Residential service is $125/hour and commercial service is $175/hour, both for on-site or remote support. On-site visits carry a one-hour minimum; remote support is billed in 15-minute increments after that. Pickup & return service for specific hardware issues typically starts at a $200 flat rate for residential clients and $300 for commercial clients. Many common jobs (like standard virus removal or a defined upgrade) can also be quoted as a flat rate instead of billed hourly; ask when you call or schedule.

On-site service is due before our technician leaves. Pickup/return service is due before we return your system. Remote service is charged after the work is done. Maintenance Plans are billed monthly via Stripe or PayPal, auto-renewing after the first year and cancelable anytime after that.

Remote service is available anywhere with high-speed internet: we've helped clients from Alaska to Japan. On-site and pickup/return service currently covers all of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, including South St. Pete. If a round trip is more than about 30 minutes, we reserve the right to add a reasonable trip fee.

Feel free to request the same Microsoft-trained technician every time; we encourage clients to get to know their technical consultant.

It depends on the issue. A quick configuration question might take a few minutes; a thorough virus, adware and spyware cleanup with optimization usually runs around an hour, sometimes longer depending on severity. We'd rather take the time to do it right than rush and leave something behind.

Yes, phone service is usually the easiest monthly bill to trim, and there are two switches we regularly recommend:

• Pure Talk for cell service: no-contract plans starting around $20/month on a major nationwide network, with US-based customer service. You keep your current phone and number.
• Vonage for home phone: it runs over your existing internet connection for a fraction of a traditional landline bill, using your same phones and number.

Those are our referral links: sign up through them and you get a signup discount while Bay Geeks earns a small credit. We only pass along services we'd recommend anyway, and if you'd like a hand making the switch, we're happy to help.