Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[Mbrguy Emerging Expert]

100 posts and this thread is still going strong. That horse sure is getting raw by now, lol.

[parkerthon]

The horse is only dead if you truly believe this is a dead topic/issue. Hopefully it's not or Best Buy is going to continue to lose customers to online shopping alternatives. TRE is impacting good customers every day and, just like me, they're coming on here to air their grievances. This is primarily because the whole system is so arbitrary and impersonal that nobody has any other recourse. I get Best Buy wants to protect against abusive return practices, but they should fix or abandon the system so:

1) Customers that price match aren't impacted

2) High season means higher limits

3) Higher spending means higher return limits

4) Clearly sealed items aren't counted

You can argue any of those adjustments weaken the system vs. the organized fraudsters, but I challenege Best Buy executives to delve into surveying that TRE touted 1% of denied returns to find out just how much of it was perfectly acceptable customer behavior vs. fraudulent. I think what's happening here is someone or some group up the corporate ladder decided what an ideal customer looked like and made that their policy. Unfortunately, working off medians and statistical averages won't take into account outliers that are potentially quite valuable customers. TRE systems in their current format would work effectively as a spam filter, but is a false positive rejection of .5% of your current paying customers really an acceptable price?

Forget 90 days, Best Buy needs to fix it or I won't be back ever

[emlopez]

I complete agree with parkerthon and think that price matched items and sealed items should not be counted against you. I've had to do several price matches and usually between $5-$10 and have also had to return several items from Black Friday flurry of buying that I did not need. Everything I returned was sealed yet I was asked for my Drivers license to be scanned for EACH iteam. Sucked! Best Buy. Please make these changes and listen to your customers. 

[emlopez]

Also for those including Best Buy who claim our data is secure...Let's just look back at the following:

TJ Max Security Breach - 45.7 million credit and debit cards of shoppers breached.

Sony PSN breach - 77 Million network users accounts breached. 24 Milions Sony Entertainment user accounts breached. 24,000 Credit cars breached.

Heartland Payment Systems Breach - 600 Million Credit Cars breached.

Hmmmm...is our data really that secure. Not sure I have my confidence in those Geek Squad folks. 

[Jimmienomam]

You're more likely to have your info taken when shopping online from your home computer then them to hack TRE.

[emlopez]

Not true. I am more confident in the security controls that I impose on my own systems than those of a third party such as TRE. 

If a large security firm such as Symantec can have their Source Code compromised then a company such as TRE can loose our Drivers License data just as easy. 

[Jimmienomam]

So you are saying that you have implemented better security measures than a company that's primary business is bent on keeping secure info?

Man I wish that I had the money that you have to properly secure my data.

[parkerthon]

Yeah...and you're also more likely to die falling off a ladder at home than being hit by a drunk driver. The issue isn't probability or general safety, it's lack of control. I shouldn't have to give my driver's license number to a 3rd party system(aka Best Buy washes their hands of any breach responsibility) with databases hosted somewhere, someplace with who knows what overworked IT staff running their operations on nickles and dimes because the business has to turn a profit and proper security guys cost way to much money. I've seen enough on the systems and network security side to know that for every one major company that spends enough to do it right, there's 10 that don't.

That's not to say getting my driver's license # in association with my personal info keeps me up at night... it doesn't because I pay for monthly credit monitoring as I know quite well that laying low in the tall grass is about all the data security you can rely on these days. I agree with these concerns for the principal of the matter. Best Buy shouldn't need a driver's license to process credit card returns. It shouldn't need it for clearly sealed items. It absolutely shouldn't need it for price matches. Someone in Best Buy corporate needs to hear their customers and confront the stubborn stakeholders that invested in this system. The message: "Fix it or get rid of it while you still have loyal customers that haven't gotten stung yet!"

[parkerthon]

Jimmienomam, if you want to just say that you personally know, or know someone who does know, how TRE runs their network and data security operations... so be it. I'll take your word for it.

Otherwise, if we're trusting your intuition and assuming they run a tight ship, consider my argument that voluntarily handing off sensitive unique personal data to an unfamiliar 3rd party for tracking purposes is naturally counterintuitive for consumers for something as simple as a price match or credit card return. Nevermind all the other negatives with this system detailed throughout this thread.

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

I still don't get how your name and state and dl number is sensitive info.