Best Buy makes major announcement about its Geek Squad team

SOLON, Ohio - Best Buy will shut down its service center in Solon at the end of April, affecting the jobs of 45 people.

A source first told NewsChannel5 on Friday that Best Buy is shutting down its operation in Solon, along with seven other Geek Squad operations nationwide. The source, who wishes to remain anonymous, said Best Buy has a total of 16 Geek Squad service centers.

According to the source, company officials told workers on a conference call Friday morning the layoffs have nothing to do with money, but everything to do with consolidation and better work efficiency.

Friday evening, Best Buy's public relations department released the following statement:

"Today we notified the 45 employees at our small service center in the Cleveland area of our plans to consolidate service centers and repairs operations. The changes in the volume and types of products handled through these facilities has forced us to consider ways to better streamline our operations and be more relevant to the needs our customers have today.

The Cleveland facility will close April 29, 2011, at which time its television and appliance repair services, as well as in-home services functions, will be relocated to one of our core service centers. Between now and April 8, we will work to help place the affected employees in other positions within Best Buy. In addition, 90 days of paid outplacement services is being provided immediately for those interested in alternative positions."

Our source says the company offered all laid off employees a severance package, but that package came with conditions. In order to get the money and benefits employees must stay working with the Best Buy until April 8 or they will not qualify for the severance.

Our source also said company officials said laid off employees can apply for other jobs, but they aren't guaranteed a position.

Our source told us there are more than 100 people that work at the Solon facility that will be affected by this announcement.