Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[SandraDSides]

I spent around 5 grand on two Toshiba laptops, service plans, wireless printers, the works,  Now I have NOTHING to show for the money I spent.  My daughters computer stopped working 2 months in.  I brought it to Geek Squad, who after three weeks decided she should have a new computer.  My husband went back to the store, chose a compatible computer (A Dell) and less then one month said Dell stopped working.  I brought the receipt and computer back to the store only to find out that they would not replace this obviously gray market Dell with a new one, instead I was sent through Geek squad purgatory for a second time.  My daughter is now five weeks without a computer with no end in sight. 

Obviously customer service is not the Jensen Beach Florist's strong suit. I asked for a manager, never got one. Asked for the name and address of the regional manager, again I never got that. We had the Dell less then a month, however it was a week over the two week cut off for returns.

I am stuck with a lemon.  I feel I have no recourse.  I was a faithful shopper at Best Buy for years, I will never ever spend a penny there again, and will make sure the word gets out at how horrible they really are,

The customer is never right. Customer Service is not their priority. 

Best Buy if you are listening, get it right. That is all we consumers ask GET IT RIGHT.  Make the customer happy. Make the 12 year old that has gone over 2 months without a computer happy.

To all you consumers thinking about making a large purchase at Best Buy. Run, as fast as you can in the opposite direction. You have zero recourse.

[IronZombie]

Well I will say this.. a 12 year old should not have to rely on a computer to make her happy. I was doing plenty of other fun things when I was 12.

That being said though, I have to agree with your post. Obviously it's not something that happens at every single Best Buy store but at the one I've shopped at, they've thoroughly let me down lately. I don't know what it is.. maybe it's the employees, maybe it's new Best Buy policy.. can't really say.

Customer service is about making the customer happy though. I used to work for a competitor of Best Buy and I'll just say that some of the stuff I've been subjected to at Best Buy (and have seen others been subjected to), we would never do that where I used to work. It was grounds for termination.

[bamcal07]

I definitely agree with your frustration, but I'd also like to say that I REALLY agree with IronZombie regarding a 12 year old needing a computer to make them happy. When I was that age, we had a family desktop and I was limited to an hour a day. Otherwise, I was reading or playing outside. 

Unfortunately, computers are expensive (as you've already said) and as such, are quite costly for both consumers AND retailers to just replace on the spot.

On an off note, and just my personal opinion, I really feel like a good turn around time for a computer repair should be less than 14 days. That'd be nice wouldn't it? 

[IronZombie]

14 days for repairs seems like a fair deal if you ask me, of course it also relies on the amount of damage on the computer. Still, when a computer breaks as easily as you stated SandraDSides, I think there's a lot to be said about that. Either you're doing something WAY wrong on the thing to break it so fast, or it just means there's faulty hardware/software being given to you.

Most technology such as laptops tend to fail within the first 6 months of purchase if there is a fault with it, so I would chalk this up to a problem in the laptop itself. It is a little unfair having to deal with the long waiting periods, but in the meantime, you have other laptops in your household if your kid(s) should require one.

As bamcal said, I remember having one central desktop for the whole family, and that thing was clunky and slow. I would get online (through dial up mind you) once a day to either read up on some video game news or to play online games. Going without Facebook for a month shouldn't be the end of the world lol.

[Mbrguy Emerging Expert]

14 days sounds great but the cost of the service plans and built in cost o the warranties to guarantee a 2 week turn time would drive up the price of the laptop more than most consumers would be willing to pay. Repair times suck but that is the way things work, or in other words...cést la vie. There are many things I would like bit when looking at the bigger picture you have to realize that smerimes things don't work out exactly the way we want them to.

[iamfromhouston]

Everyone saying a 12 year old does not need a computer you do not know the situation. Jumping on someone lik that telling them how to raise their kids seems a little rude. We are in a different day and time so if you dont want to help then dont post. Just my 2 cents. The OP came here for help not to be told how to raise kids.

[Pyrex]

I'm sure that Best Buy would appreciate knowing customers' expectations for repair times. I mean it's not like the government where the rules are the rules...

[MichaelHWG]

what is your daugther doing on her system that two different computers have gone bad in such a short period of time.

[CrimsonRain]

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iamfromhouston wrote:
Everyone saying a 12 year old does not need a computer you do not know the situation. Jumping on someone lik that telling them how to raise their kids seems a little rude. We are in a different day and time so if you dont want to help then dont post. Just my 2 cents. The OP came here for help not to be told how to raise kids.

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Yea we certainly are in a different era. It's the age of when parents have lost control and kids are now in control. We got 10-year olds with Macbook Pros to type a half a page of text and 8-year olds with iPhones using it to text, talk, and check FaceBook... I don't think anyone here would presume to tell another person on how to raise their kids, what is so critical with a 12-year old going without a laptop for 2-3 weeks? Or are we still in the age where parents use TV and computers to raise and babysit kids?

Just a suggestion here but if the computer were so important to the kid, there would be a backup one.

[MichaelHWG]

2 to 3 weeks with out a laptop for a 12 year old is a long time.

My nephew just turned 13 and his homework isn't given to him on a piece of paper, its given to him on a usb flash drive. he either has to print it out or fill out the adobe pdf file.

but iam just curious what the ops daugther does on the system that could cause 2 to die. when you see two systems go bad from one user you tend to attribute the problem to the user.