Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[Miranda]

Guess I'm just throwing fuel on the fire here, but want to put my two cents in also.

My brother is currently a senior in college at his respective school. He has not had a laptop or a computer in general his entire college career. All of his papers, he goes to his school's library, types it up, saves it to a thumb drive, and goes on his way. I'd say he spends most of his time in the library outside of classes.

While I was in college as well, I was a music major. Granted, I did not live on campus (as my brother does), but I needed some very specific programs for writing and transcribing music, as well as writing drill for marching bands. I didn't have a computer, so I had to use the computers in the music department computer lab, and fight with 80 other majors over 7 computers for the same thing.

It would be silly for her to drop out of college over a laptop. Granted, I know having her own laptop makes life easier, but it's not impossible. Get a thumb drive (flash drive, jump drive, thumb stick...whatever those little USB memory devices are called in your area), to use temporarily until a resolution on the computer is reached.

[mstng87gt Trusted Contributor]

I agree with everyone I have friends that deal with purchasing Laptops everyday gutting them and making a personalized computer.    I spoke with them and they have never had this happen to them. 

[Nokia]

To be fair, I have heard of courses that require a laptop at some schools, such as aerospace engineering. However, I have never heard of an entire school that requires one.

[Dorothy-BBY Community Supervisor]

Hello panel1 -

Allan, from our Community Connector team, should be reaching out to you shortly.  Thank you for your patience!

[Allan-BBY Community Connector]

Hi panel1,

The described situation would be very upsetting for any young adult (about to enter college) as well as their parents, and the fact that you stood up and made this right for your niece speaks to your integrity.

It is true that we do require a product purchased in one of our stores to be returned or exchanged in like new condition. This policy is put in place because once a product leaves our store we are unable to control how they are treated, and any customer that accidentally damages a product they purchased from one of our stores would be able to claim it came that way.

This is not to say that it isn’t feasibly possible that this laptop was damaged prior to your niece taking possession of it, but I can assure you it isn’t the norm. In the vast majority of cases when there is damage to an item that occurs when it is still in its packaging there are physical signs on the packaging that the product could have damage.

If there isn’t any sign of abuse on the packaging the damage would have been caused prior to packaging, which means that the manufacturer would have packaged the laptop with it being damaged. In these cases we would advise the customer to contact the manufacturer as it would be their responsibility to make it right for the customer.

This is not to say that I do not want to help in this matter, and I am sending you a private message to see what I can do to get this resolved for you. To check your messages you should log into the forum, and then click on the letter icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Thanks for posting,

[niceguyvt1]

If BB dose not help you why not go to the manufacturer. Just a thought. I have been a computer tech for over 15 years and have come across several broken screen out of box with out any signs of damage to the box. One was from a cable being caught under the bezel. You got to remember quality control is not what it use to be!!!! Good Luck.

[tmellon]

I too have seen laptops out of the box damaged, many times. It DOES happen more often than people think. Sometimes it is because of workmanship, sometimes it is shipping, and sometimes it happens in store when people decide to drop boxes from the cages when downstocking, or things fall from top shelves, etc. I've seen it all.

Moral of the story:

1. When buying laptops, open the box in the store before leaving.

2. It sounds like a laptop is very important for her work. Black Tie protection with the accidental damage protection is the best around. (If you know a better plan, let me know!) Even if it was fine from the store, she could still end up accidently damaging it later down the road.

[cjkuhlenbeck]

Actually, ive seen this before, without showing any signs of damage on the outside box, or any sort. i once ordered a notebook from HP only to have the exact problem when it was recieved. Luckily, i wasnt the first to report the issue. HP had notified me that alot of notebooks shipped on that day had the same issue, even though they were all certified before leaving the store. Their best explanation was a possible heat issue when shipping. HP took it back, and sent a new one out with 24 hr ship. excellent customer service. In other words, it IS possible, and if Best Buy doesnt honor their return (which like others said, the condition can be questionable) , try contacting the manufacturer, they might know something best buy doesnt.

[liriana]

I personally wouldn't purchase any computer off of C List or used at all unless I knew the person I was buying it from.  It is too risky to get something that has known bad parts in it or known bad problems that are not disclosed to the buyer and then the item dies on the buyer a few weeks later with no recourse to be had.

[Adamtech Emerging Expert]

Certain products should not be purchased from C-List. The same applies to certain services.