Not your Best Buy Apparently

[Linuturk]

I've had quite an experience with Best Buy over the last month. I've attached an Open Office Writer Document with the full story.

Tell me what you would do!!

If you want me to go to corporate, and know of any contact information, please post it for me!

[UPDATE2]

My issue has been resolved. See this post: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost...8&postcount=19

[/UPDATE2]

[UPDATE]

Ben Popken at Consumerist.com has given me a lot of help so far. Per his advice, I've sent an email to a particular Geek Squad email address with a summary of my problem and the resolution I want. I hope to hear something back soon.

[/UPDATE]

[aysiu]

To save people downloading an attachment, here's the story:

Not your Best Buy Apparently

We have all read about Best Buy horror stories. I'm sad to say that my Best Buy isn't any different. I have a Toshiba R15-S822 I purchased off of e-bay. The laptop has been great, but I overworked the speakers and eventually blew them out. I figure, this isn't a problem because I made the seller transfer the Best Buy Warranty to me.

So, I set aside a Saturday and took my laptop up to the Geek Squad. I'd also like to note that my finance's laptop was sent at the exact same time. Here is where things start to get interesting. I run a small business off my laptop, and I have several customers on file. This includes personal information that I can't let anyone else look at. Liability reasons and such. I also know it is standard practice to wipe a hard drive if something isn't working. Considering I run Linux as well, (shameless plug for Ubuntu.com), I figured the technicians wouldn't know what in the world they were looking at anyway. So, I decided to remove my hard drive from my laptop. I didn't have time to backup everything, and I shouldn't have to reconfigure everything when I get the system back. It is a sound issue, right? They can run the Toshiba diagnostic disk to test the speakers after they replace them. We also removed the hard drive from my finance's laptop. She was experiencing dead pixels in her LCD. The Geek Squad guy we talked to said it wouldn't be a problem, and said to expect the laptops back in about 3 to 4 weeks. I figure, that sounds fair enough. This was on 2/17/2007.

I gave Best Buy a call on 3/1/2007, hoping the laptop was back. They usually exaggerate on the times. The good news was, both laptops were at Best Buy. The bad news was, they had only repaired my finance's. When I asked why they hadn't replaced my speakers, the answer was they didn't have a hard drive to test whether or not they worked, so they didn't even bother replacing them. The tech that took down my service order also had the wrong information on the order. They had the original buyer from the receipt instead of my information. I had a tech by the name of Skip Wyatt correct this problem. I asked for the manager's information and gave her a call.

Here is the exact notes I took down during the phone call.

“3/1/2007 12:00 PM

Spoke with Abigail about the problem. She said she will send the machine back to the repair center on priority for the repair. She will install a formatted hard drive they provide. Expected turn around time – 5 business days. Will call when machine is ready.

Hard drive:
I don't want my OS wiped
Personal financial data
Clients personal data
Best Buy Policy states:
10. I AGREE THAT I MUST BACK UP MY DATA AND REMOVE ALL MEDIA FROM MY PRODUCT.

Service Center could have:
installed a different hard drive for testing purposes
booted to a live cd for testing purposes”

The section under the paragraph was just my notes on the reasons for not sending off my hard disk. The fact that Best Buy policy states to remove ALL MEDIA led me to believe if I didn't want something lost/erased, I should remove it.
The Geek Squad installed a blank hard drive in the laptop and sent it back out for repair. I waited for the 5 business days, and gave them a call back. Here are my notes on this:

“Veronica [the manager I spoke with] – 1:00 PM 3/6/2007

Laptop came back because it didn't have an OS
Geek Squad will install Windows and send the system back off for service
Expect a 5 day turn around
Geek squad will ship out same day and call me when it leaves”

I didn't receive a call that day, so I called the next day. I was told it was being shipped on the day I called (3/7/2007).

I called again on Friday (3/9/2007) and asked about the status of my order. I had a Linux User's Group meeting coming up, and I wanted to show off my Beryl to everyone. The tech told me that the laptop wasn't at the store, and he couldn't tell if it was on the way to the service center or back to the store. This guy didn't seem to have a clue about what was going on. I told him I'd call next week and thanked him for his help.

Today (3/10/2007), I got a phone call at 9:30 PM from the Geek Squad. They told me that the service center sent my laptop back without repairing it again. For some reason the technician's didn't know, the service center needed my original hard drive to do the testing with, and they wouldn't repair my laptop until they had my hard drive. I went up to the store and picked up my laptop to take it home and backup all my data. I also inquired about getting a refund on my warranty, since it isn't helping me at all. I was told I could get a $213 Best Buy gift card for the prorated price of the warranty.

The technician I spoke with also said the 160 GB Seagate hard drive they had put in my laptop was covered by my warranty, and I could keep it. This was more than double the capacity of my current hard drive, so I figured at least I got some sort of compensation out of this. After I had accepted this, I got a call 20 minutes later from the same technician who said I had to return the hard drive. He apparently was mistaken.

I'm going to forward this information to Best Buy Corporate and the general manager of the store in question. Hopefully, I'll get some sort of resolution for all this trouble I'm going through. This laptop has been sent to the service center twice for the same problem, and they just refuse to repair the problem. It seems like Best Buy just wants my drive because I told them there is personal information on it!

I also wanted to point out that the problem here isn't with the Geek Squad itself. The names I've mentioned here have all done their best to get my laptop serviced, and have done so in a professional and courteous manner. The anger and blame for this problem should rest with the incompetent technicians at the mysterious “service center” I keep hearing about. Skip is a Linux user himself, and sympathizes with my plight.

Do you think I should cash in my warranty after this is all over? Is a future purchase of $213 at Best Buy something I really want to do considering my current experiences?

Justin “Linuturk” Phelps

[rusty4r]

Too late, I already downloaded. And I'm glad I read this, I thought I was the only one who had trouble with the establishment.

[Mateo]

eh, i'm not sure i agree with this guy. I'm not sure what his complaint is, really. places like best buy do not hire general computer geeks. they train people to do very specific things in very specific ways. when you bring in a computer that's different from how they do things, they don't know how to adapt.

i'd say he's lucky they did anything at all. most places will null a warranty if you tamper with the computer by taking out drives, etc.

[viergeame]

Take the money. There are lots of things you can buy there that won't have any reason to come near their service department. The idea of putting that money back into their company may not be appealing but it definitely beats bowing down to them.

[kinkdxm]

never ever ever use the geek squad.
five seconds ago I just read this huge rant on digg.com about geek squad only hiring sales people not technicians.
fight it all the way up!
prorated? warranty? what is that? when did people start prorating warranty's?
I would not give them the harddrive back they gave you by mistake.
They told you one thing and gave you the harddrive. NOT your responsibility to correct best buys mistakes.
They haven't fixed your laptop after how many times. But your supposed to run right back and help them out?

[riven0]

Seriously, if you're going to take it to the corporate and fight, it could take forever and may not even be worth the time wasted.
My idea is, get some headphones and plug it in the laptop. Then cash in the warranty and buy a $200 speaker set for your desktop. Finito!

[Linuturk]

eh, i'm not sure i agree with this guy. I'm not sure what his complaint is, really. places like best buy do not hire general computer geeks. they train people to do very specific things in very specific ways. when you bring in a computer that's different from how they do things, they don't know how to adapt.

i'd say he's lucky they did anything at all. most places will null a warranty if you tamper with the computer by taking out drives, etc.

Notice that I removed the drive under Geek Squad Technician supervision. The guy watched me remove the hard disk and said there wouldn't be any problems.

I wanted to clear that up.

[macluvjay]

What's the point in a "Geek Squad" if they don't actually fix anything? What do those guys do, install Windows, run spyware clearners and virus scanners? At rip-off prices nonetheless. Justin, you already know what I think about your situation. For everyone else, I'm going to shamelessly plug myself. If you live in North Florida and want someone who knows more about computers than "Spybot Search and Destroy" call a real geek and get your problem repaired in a fraction of the time. Oh yeah, take the money and run. The hassle of taking this to corporate is not worth it. Your tme is much more valuable. In the future, call me and don't let ANYONE you know take their computers to "The Geek Squad."

[Linuturk]

I appear to be getting some results with corporate. The founder of Geek Squad has been in contact via email, and has assured me everything will be "taken care of." Here is his email.

Thank you for contacting me and giving me a chance to take care of this for you. This is absolutely not how your experience should have gone.

I will do my best to help. Is the repair under your name - and can you at least give me a repair service order number? While I want you to purchase from us again, I also want to make sure you got what you paid for.

Lastly, you are welcome to give out my contact info to anyone you know who ever needs help. I have the ability and commitment to address not only Geek Squad issues, but also Best Buy issues as well.

Regards,

Robert Stephens
Founder and Chief Inspector
The Geek Squad

I'm not going to post his email to save him from spam, but if you do need it, feel free to pm me on these forums.

Here is my reply:

Robert,

First, I'd like to thank you for your prompt response and understanding in this matter. Thank you!

The repair is under my name.

[My address removed for obvious reasons]

Here is the number to the Best Buy store I visited: xxx-xxx-xxxx

Please remember that the actual employees at the store were as helpful and courteous as they could be. I don't want anything negative to reflect on them. If anything, they should be rewarded for trying to help me. The technicians and/or manager at the service center are at fault here.

Please call me at the number below, and I can give you the repair service order number. It has been filed at home, and I won't have access to it until after 5:00 PM today. As I understand it, you can pull up my repair via my phone number.

If you have any more questions about my specific experience, please call me.

Justin Phelps
xxx-xxx-xxxx