Consumers turn to tech pros to help with frustrating Christmas gifts

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Long gone are the days when you can just hit the power button and enjoy your new gadgets.

Unfortunately, reading through the owner's manual and figuring out how to connect one device to another is Greek to many of us.

Figuring out the ins and out of your new television can have you seeing upside down.

"Learning for the first time how to center it, how to find the studs, how to hang it up the right way. Screwing up a few times. Starting over. So it's quite a process," said Aleem Choudhry.

That's why Choudhry turned to the Best Buy's Geek Squad to figure out everything for him.

The Brisbane man had them install his 75-inch T.V., and now they're finishing up all the wiring.

These sorts of things come second nature for Geek Squad installer Sam Assad.

"I would say it's difficult for people just because there are so many different ways to connect devices and you can kind of get lost I think," said Assad.

But the Geek squad is not the only choice out there.

Puls is a new San Francisco company which thinks it has come up with a better model.

"So our technicians are freelancers, and we don't have any physical stores. We can pass those savings onto the consumer," said Robert Tomkinson from Puls.

Puls will install your TV starting at $109 compared to $149 for the Geek Squad. but its starting price includes some services that will cost you extra with Puls.

Puls also have separate services for repairing smartphones and setting up smart homes.

The Geek Squad has a much wider range of services and a wider variety of electronic devices.

"You can plug those things in, but they don't always work the way you expect them to work. That's what we're for," said Assad.

But Tomkinson says, "I like to emphasize the quality of what we do is what we're really proud of and you can see it when you look at our yelp and our Facebook reviews."

As you might expect this is the busiest time of year for these companies. You can go to their websites to make appointments.

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