Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[SeaFoam]

I purchased a laptop last year from store 16 in West Des Moines, IA. Well, a month or two ago I began having problems with it freezing, I thought perhaps it was Windows 7 RC1 so I formatted and used the manufacturer's restore disk. Worked ok for a week then began freezing, so I ran a hard drive scan and it kept hanging on the same sector each time. Pretty simple to diagnose as a bad hard drive. I brought the computer in and it was 7 days out of warranty (which I had through BBuy). I explained all of this to the Geek Squad person and they said there was nothing they could do (which I understand, so I asked for a manager). This manager's name is Matt and he also said that I was out of luck, I explained that I have spent several thousand dollars in the past year at BBuy to which his reply was 'I thank you for that'. He thanks me for that? Whatever then. So then he says 'Maybe we can give you a deal on a hard drive if that's the case' and 'You can try contacting corporate' - wow, glad I spent all that money and got that special silver card. 

Frankly it seemed like he thought I was lying about the problem being a month old.

So I email customer service and explain what had happened and received this email back:

 I do understand your concerns on your lap Top and your warranty. You can have it serviced but it will be at your expense at this time.  You may want to contact the Manufactory to check if they have been having an issue on this unit and see if their is a resolution to the problem with them.

You can contact Gateway at Gateway
 866-695-2237



Sincerely,
Alphonso
Best Buy Customer Care Team
 

Is it company policy to hire people with grammar and spelling problems? That email is appalling.

So I call customer service at this point and I talk to a woman named Sam, I have to say she went above and beyond trying to help me out. She contacted BBuy's warranty to see if we could get it extended, also the manufacturer. Unfortunately neither would. She also contacted the store and found out that my laptop diagnostic had been done (news to me, I never received a call) and it was indeed the hard drive. I asked her how much they quoted the repairs at - $287.99 (The hard drive is $110) - LOL, almost $200 in labor? Give me a break, it takes 5 minutes to replace a hard drive. She also advised me that the store would not work with her on the price at all. Sam was able to offer me a gift card that will cover a portion of the hard drive expense, which is helpful but does not remedy the absolute circus this has been. 

So I return to the store to pick up my laptop, I figured with the gift card and Matt making the comment about perhaps a deal on the hard drive I would be taken care of (I just want my laptop working). When I arrived Matt is there and asks me if he can help me, I replied that I need to pick up my laptop. He replies 'oh yeah, so what did they find out?' I told him the hard drive was bad, he says 'oh' and walks away. Wow, thanks!  The Geek Squad girl asks me for my info and then asks if I want to get the repair done, I obviously said absolutely not. So I sign the paperwork and she gives me a folder and my laptop (with a new scratch on the top, also a nice touch). Now when I brought the laptop in it was working, just freezing sometimes, I opened the folder and I see this:

Uh, that's my hard drive, not in my laptop and not even in an anti-static bag. 

So now I have a laptop that does not run at all with a nice new scratch on top of it and a hard drive that was working somewhat that could be 100% non-working now.

Needless to say I have had it.

[ncarter124]

Yeah that seems pretty typical for Geek Squad, sorry to hear about your 'lap Top' issues.

I am certainly thankful that I have never had to deal with them, and I will say they are the ONLY reason why I refuse to buy computers from Best Buy.  Best of luck getting the (now scratched) laptop up and running.  Maybe you should look into the Manufactory warranty again?  Hehehe, sorry, I just needed an excuse to use "Manufactory" in a sentence.

ANTI-STATIC BAGS ARE FOR SISSIES!

[starhelper2587]

No, Best Buy has no policies regarding hiring people who can't spell or construct a decent sentence.

Managers can do overrides on certain issues in the store, but with warranties, there's not much that can be done except to refer the client to corporate (Consumer Relations) through 1-888-BB. Is that the department you spoke to when you talked with Sam? I would think so since she was able to offer a gift card to cover part of the new hard drive costs. That same department would also be who you could submit a damage claim to for the GS Agents scratching your laptop while it was in their possession.

I'm sure a Community Connector will be able to address this Monday, but I don't know what else they will be able to do since you already received a gift card. Maybe they could talk to Matt and get him to hold up his side of the bargain on helping you out with the purchase of the new hard drive.

[SeaFoam]

I think she actually was trying to cover all of the hard drive costs and it would have, however that was for the cheapest drive they have, not the Scorpio drive which is what was formerly in the laptop. I will never go to the West Des Moines 16 store again, it's pretty obvious they won't help out at all considering they told Sam that they were not willing to work with me and Matt walked away from me when I was there.

As for the scratch and the possibility that all of my information may be destroyed, well, that just shows blatant disrespect for my property and is a whole other issue. I will submit a claim like you suggested, it is a shame people like this have jobs. I haven't touched the laptop since I brought it home, I don't think it's my job to put it back together like legos. It will be interesting to see if it works at all.

[SeaFoam]

Well time for an update:

I called Customer Relations and talked to Amanda, explained the situation and she said she could 'file a complaint' and possibly 'send the laptop out for the scratch'. I said file the complaint, I will take care of the scratch since I do not want anyone touching my laptop after what happened. I also told her about the hard drive being taken out, so she calls the store. The Geek Squad agent that handed the hard drive back in a folder happened to be the one that answered and told Amanda that: a) There was no way to prove the hard drive was in the laptop when I brought it in (Even though there is a note that we went through event viewer, why the **** would I take my hard drive out and give them the HD and laptop?) and b) She didn't put it in an anti-static bag because the HD showed bad and it 'didn't matter', so I think it's safe to assume that the information on the hard drive is definitely gone.

I am really glad Amanda sided with the Geek Squad agent, because it makes my choice for future business a much easier choice to make.

[SeaFoam]

Ahh, I almost forgot. Amanda advised me that I am more than welcome to go back to the store and discuss it with them. Boy that's problem solving!

[Elizabeth-BBY Community Supervisor]

Hi SeaFoam,

I've asked Matthew, one of our Geek Squad Community Connectors, to review and respond to your concerns.  You should hear from him within the next few business days.

Thanks for posting,

[SeaFoam]

I haven't heard anything yet in almost a week...

[Matthew-GS Community Advocate]

Hello, SeaFoam,

This is a very curious situation and I can read your frustration.  It is good we were able to confirm your findings about the hard drive failure, yet unfortunate about the manufacturer's warranty expiring.  Contacting Gateway is an excellent idea since they are the ones who provide the warranty coverage when you do not purchase a Performance Service Plan, now offered as Geek Squad Black Tie Protection. I would gladly contact them for you, but Gateway requires only the computer owner contact them.

While we do take many precautions, including providing plastic backs for agents, the Agents should have (and, as I understand, did) offer to put the hard drive back into the computer before you left (post-refusal of estimate).  This estimate was actually inclusive of several services, including the hard drive hardware, installation, and re-installation of your OS (Windows).  These premium services are nonnegotiable, but perhaps Sam's willingness to assist you with purchasing the hard drive was generous. Store managers will have the opportunity to review your comments and address improvements where needed or warranted.   We want to be helpful, so let me know if there is other assistance you require. 

[SeaFoam]

Cute, didn't like my reply so you deleted it.

Once again your employees did NOT offer to put my hard drive back in and I want to know how you came to that conclusion. The conversation with the agent (who was fat, female and short dark hair -- I didn't read her name tag) was short, I asked for my laptop, she asked if I wanted the service, I told her no and she said "sign here". There was no offer, period. Why would I want my laptop back in pieces? It was *RUNNING* when I gave it to the initial agent. Thus the note about looking through event viewer.  

Your employees also scratched my laptop.

As for warranty coverage - I did purchase a plan through BB, but once again - it had just expired. As for only myself being able to contact Gateway that is very surprising considering Sam was more than willing - and did contact Gateway to check on the warranty for me. She did not have to do that, but I can tell you that Sam and the initial agent were helpful, as well as Matt the manager when I discussed it further with him. However YOU and the agent I got my laptop back from come across as rude and unhelpful.

I did go back to the store and spoke to the manager I spoke with initially and got it sorted out on my own, with absolutely no thanks to you. By the way, deleting my message was a spineless move, but calling me a liar is way out of line - which is what you are strongly implying.

You want to be helpful? Answer the question and stop deleting my posts.