Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[mramsey11]

Western Digital My Book World Edition II 2TB External Network Dual-Drive Hard Drive

Model: WDH2NC20000N | SKU: 9493283

Store up to 2TB of data and digital content with this external hard drive that features RAID 1 technology to protect your documents and files.

 4 Read reviews (3)

Sale: $239.99

Tonight in the store a Geek Squad Agent told a floor sales representative to rely the message to me that External Hard Drives with RAID Mirroring (RAID 1) "Doesn't exist" and that it was also "Impossible" to achieve. And when the sales representative realized that I wasn't interested in purchasing internal hard drives to achieve a raid solution, I was immediately left without any attempt to have my needs met.

Now, not only do external raid mirrors exist and not only are they possible, but bestbuy.com sells Western Digital RAID Editions that have mirroring capabilities.

I don't like having my intelligence insulted. I have been a best buy customer for over 5 years, long before there was even a store in the city of Northridge, CA. This is just unacceptable customer relations practices. And this isn't the first time that I have been blatantly dismissed and treated as an ignoramus shopper by this store's particular employees when they simply lacked an ability to assist me because of their own LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF PRODUCT AND INVENTORY online or otherwise. Do not ask a customer if they need assistance if you are NOT PREPARED to affluently represent your store and company and products that YOU SELL but state that are "not in existence" or "impossible" simply because you want to rush a customer out of the door with an alternate purchase before closing time.

There is NO EXCUSE for a computer sales/technician expert to tell a customer that something does not exist and can not be done when it is a common practice within the computer industry/home usage itself. In fact, any individual with such a severe lack of expertise should not even be allowed to work in a computer section. That Geek Squad Agent should not even be allowed to touch a customer's machine.

This experience was a travesty. And it has damaged my willingness to even consider returning to that store or even a Best Buy retail location elsewhere for any further shopping needs. This judgment isn't based on just this incident alone but on numerous unreported incidents that have regularly occurred with Best Buy Northridge.

And for reference...here is just a few links for items that do not exist and are impossible:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=466

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/blackarmor/blackarmor_nas_220/

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11394

http://go.iomega.com/en-us/products/external-hard-drive-desktop/ultramax-minimax/ultramax-plus/?part...

I guess that the product appearing at the top of this post is an illusion of some sort?  It is just one of several that are available from bestbuy.com.  Whether it is online only and not available in stores or not, don't tell me that it doesn't exist and add even further insult to injury and say that it is impossible.

What you guys did was literally the equivalent of me going into a pet store and being told by the "Dog Geek Specialist" that Cocker Spaniels do not exist and are impossible to create.

Despicable customer service.

I will be contacting Best Buy Corporate for a deserving form of complimentary compensation (since you guys continuously can't find my reward zone account whenever a purchase exceeds twenty dollars) and I will also be contacting Western Digital.  I am sure they would love to hear that one of their major retailers is telling customers that their hard drives do not exist.

[RealGeorgeW Emerging Expert]

I'm not trying to sound mean/condescending, but not everyone's familiar with RAIDs, and perhaps they just did not know?

[mramsey11]

There is a tremendous difference between "not knowing" and stating that something "doesn't exist" and is "impossible" especially when advertising and priding oneself on expertise.   Considering that you used to work for the Geek Squad, you know as well as I do that not being familiar with RAIDS in 2010 is nonsense coming from a retail store-with a computer specialty section-that actually sells RAID capable devices on their website for either online only or in store pickup on bestbuy.com

So no...I highly doubt that it was possible that they did just not know. Now I can understand if the statement came from an entry level tech...but it came from the Geek Squad supervisor on shift, so there is no excuse. Not to mention...there was no attempt to even discuss the issue with me to see if I was actually not making something up.

I didn't find you to be mean/condescending, having said that, the issue of "familiarity" is completely irrelevant to the overall customer experience and actual occurrence that you were not a personal witness to.

Have a nice day.

[cr_client]

If the associate on the floor thought you were asking about adding an external drive and adding that to a RAID-1 array with an existing internal drive, then, in fact, they were correct that a simple solution does not exist.

And they don't exist for the simple fact that it would be a patently bad idea to create a RAID with a drive that may or may not be attached at any given moment in time.

It sounds more like a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of your request, rather than an associate trying to lie to you or being unfamiliar with technology and products.

[mramsey11]

"If the associate on the floor thought you were asking about adding an external drive and adding that to a RAID-1 array with an existing internal drive, then, in fact, they were correct that a simple solution does not exist.

And they don't exist for the simple fact that it would be a patently bad idea to create a RAID with a drive that may or may not be attached at any given moment in time.

It sounds more like a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of your request, rather than an associate trying to lie to you or being unfamiliar with technology and products"

Wrong on all counts. 

[JustusRyan]

I agree CR and it sounds like there may have been a simple miscommunication.

[mramsey11]

No. No "simple miscommunication." I could post a close to verbatim recount of the actual exchange between MYSELF and the Best Buy employees so as to better inform some of you individuals who were not even present with a better picture of what actually occurred.  Would that help? Oh, no it wouldn't...because none of you were there to begin with.  But keep disagreeing to you heart's content.  Funny how it's you "Super" users who are coming on here to the defense of the store.

[cr_client]

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mramsey11 wrote:

"If the associate on the floor thought you were asking about adding an external drive and adding that to a RAID-1 array with an existing internal drive, then, in fact, they were correct that a simple solution does not exist.

And they don't exist for the simple fact that it would be a patently bad idea to create a RAID with a drive that may or may not be attached at any given moment in time.

It sounds more like a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of your request, rather than an associate trying to lie to you or being unfamiliar with technology and products"

Wrong on all counts. 

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Really?  Show me a RAID controller that accepts an external USB hard drive as a member of an internal RAID-1 or RAID-0 array, and I will admit that I was mistaken.

Hot-swappable RAIDs exist, but no consumer computer manufacturer in their right mind would EVER let "Joe Six-pack" hook a USB drive up to a computer and join it to an internal RAID-0 or RAID-1, because there is no way to guarantee that the external hard drive will actually be there, and no way to prevent it from being removed.

eSATA, maybe, but even then, it's a MUCH bigger risk than having the disks on the array either all internal or all external.

[cr_client]

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mramsey11 wrote:

No. No "simple miscommunication." I could post a close to verbatim recount of the actual exchange between MYSELF and the Best Buy employees so as to better inform some of you individuals who were not even present with a better picture of what actually occurred.  Would that help? Oh, no it wouldn't...because none of you were there to begin with.  But keep disagreeing to you heart's content.  Funny how it's you "Super" users who are coming on here to the defense of the store.

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Actually, SuperUsers are designated by the Best Buy Community Team as assistants within the Forums.  Some SuperUsers are BBY employees who post on here independently of their jobs, and some are just regular folks who have been around and helped out in enough other situations that they have a different user title than others.  It has nothing to do with defending the store or the customer.

I don't doubt that you may have been treated rudely, as that sort of thing happens all too frequently.  And, if you had been allowed to speak to Geek Squad instead of playing telephone through another associate, then maybe the situation would have been resolved to your satisfaction.  But to call the associate a liar, when they were simply relaying information about something that they probably had no knowledge about, is going a little bit overboard.

It's a pretty sure-fire way to cause mis-communication, by putting someone who doesn't know the lingo and products in between two people who do.

[Mbrguy Emerging Expert]

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cr_client wrote:
It sounds more like a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of your request, rather than an associate trying to lie to you or being unfamiliar with technology and products.

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It was either a misunderstanding or possible it could have been an unfamiliarity of RAID technology.  Either way, I'm surprised that this issue is getting the OP so worked up about and the OP now wants "complimentary compensation" and is going to contact the manufacturer to tell them about us.  Wow!  Only thing left out is contacting the BBB.   Goose Fraba !

I can understand your frustration with what you may have been told, but it would seem that in today's age, there are many other things to get worked up about rather than an associates misunderstanding of you issue, or possible an associates unfamiliarity with obscure and complex technology.  RAID drives are not very well know and while some may be familiar with the term, few people are actually familiar with the technology.