Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[Moondoggie]

Best Buy Geek Squad – PC Misdiagnosis.  5/11/2012

This is a long story of the Geek Squad misdiagnosing my PC – and still charging me for their error!

On May 1, 2012, my five year old PC stopped booting up.  It would go to the desktop “background” screen and no further.  I described the problem to a local repair ship and they said, “We’ve seen this before – it’s a virus.  But we can’t work on it for a week.”  So – I took it to the Geek Squad at the Best Buy store in Chesterfield MO on May 3. 

They powered the PC up and said immediately,  “Oh – we’ve seen this before it’s a virus.  We’ll be able to fix this.”  Sounds right so far.  So – since the computer is five years old, they convinced me to buy their one year tech support plan for $180.  In addition, they made me buy their Kaspersky virus software for $20, so they could remove the virus.  This was even though I already had McAfee on the PC.   Seemed like a good investment for a PC that WAS running well prior to May 1.  The Geek Squad said they would call me if there were any problems, but if not, it would be ready in two days.

On the evening of May 4, I got an e-mail saying my PC was “completely repaired and ready willing and able” to be picked up.  Wow, I thought, what a professional organization!  Well, it all went downhill from there.

I drove in 20 miles on early Saturday morning the 5th to pick up my completed PC.  Imagine my surprise when they brought it out, and said that it was not repairable!  They said that now the mouse and keyboard don’t work (where they did before - and even during the initial checkout).  The paperwork even said “PC check – all HW passed”.    The first thing I asked was why didn’t someone call me and explain.  No answer.  Then I was given the explanation that they used the Kaspersky to try to remove the virus, but that didn’t get it, so they noticed that I have “blown capacitors on the mother board”, and that was the problem.  I asked how much would it cost and the attendant said – “it’s not worth it on a computer this old.  You can buy a new one for less than that.”

So – I asked for my $200 back.  In my mind the PC was worse off than when I left it with the Geek Squad, and they didn’t do anything to fix it – other than try to sell me a new PC.  I talked to Sean, the store manager.  After much discussion, he offered to give me $110 back.  I would have to pay for the diagnosis and the Kaspersky software.  I did not agree, and called the corporate customer service.  I got nothing from Josh, not his supervisor, Charlie.  They each had to call back to Sean and he wouldn’t budge.

I asked for the troubleshooting documentation.  It read:

PC Check…all HW passed – 5/3

Unit can’t boot to HD… just power cycles – 5/4

Finally booted to OS.  Now mouse and keyboard don’t work.

Mobo is probably failing

Bad Mother Board.  Blown caps – 5/4

So I asked Sean – why would I have to pay for the $20 software – if it’s apparent they didn’t even use it?  And that was after I was previously told they did use it!  And why should I have to pay for the $70 troubleshooting fee, when it came back worse than when it went in (mouse and keyboard now don’t work)?  His only answer was “the software was opened, so you can’t return that, and the techs didn’t make it worse on purpose.”  Unsatisfactory, but I really didn’t have a choice.  I was upset over the whole incident.  So – I took the $110 refund Sean offered and went home.

I took my PC home and powered it up.  Guess what – the mouse and keyboard worked!  Then I called my nephew.  Without even looking at the PC, he said “you have a virus”.  Sounds familiar…  He said try to downloading a program called “Malwarebytes”.   Well, after some gyrations to open Explorer, I did download the FREE software, and ran it twice.  It did find two viruses, and guess what – I’m now writing this long story on my PC that has a “blown caps – bad motherboard” – according to the Geek Squad. 

So – I fixed the PC myself for free after removing the virus that everyone said it had…..

Now I ask any reasonable person – why would I have to pay a $70 diagnosis fee and a $20 software fee  - for a misdiagnosis, and something that I fixed myself for free?

I tried going all over the Best Buy website – and this is the only method I can find to reach out to a customer service rep and try to get my $90 back.  I would really like to get a response from Customer Service.  Please help me….  

[tiggus]

Let me guess, I bet you the $20 that the Kaspersky software they sold you isn't anywhere installed on the PC...am I right?

[Mbrguy Emerging Expert]

They should have also refunded the $20 for the software. The only thing they should have charged for was the diagnostic.

They were probably still in the process of removing malware and would have gotten around to the mouse/keyboard issue (usually just a registry fix) when they discovered the blown caps. While blown caps don't always make the computer unusable right away, it is an indication that the motherboard is bad and the computer isually is inoperable soon after which is why they stopped work on the malware removal.

Imagine if they continued working on a computer with a bad motherboard and the. A month later the computer won't even turn in and the customer goes in and finds out that Geek Squa knew that the motherboard was bad but went ahead with removing viruses so that they wouldnt have to refund the $130 portion of tech support for removals. I'm willing to bet that this customer would be mighty peeved

[Mbrguy Emerging Expert]

Technically the 1 year Tech Support is $200. The anti virus is considered free but due to some accounting purposes tey charge for that and take the amount off of the price of Tech Support.

If you didn't get the anti virus, the price you would have paid for Tech Support OS $200.

I do think that you should speak with a Commuity Connector on these forums because they should have refunded the $20 for the anti-virus also. It's just unnecessary that you should be paying for that since they refunded the Tech Support and charged for the diagnostic.

Although Kaspersky is 10 times better than McAfee in my opinion (I'd personally never recommend McAfee).

[Mbrguy Emerging Expert]

The more I type on this iPhone, the worse and worse the phone gets for anticipating and corrsctig to the words I am typing. Somehow tey is now acceptable while when I first got the phone it would autocorrect it to "they".

I now go back and read posts that I've written and there are periods and capitalizations of words that were never supposed to be there, lol.

[Justin-BBY Community Connector]

Hello moondoggie-

Welcome to the forums!

I would also be extremely annoyed if I experienced the problems that you had with our Chesterfield, MO store about your computer service repair. Was your computer serviced in-store or did it go out to our service centers? Also, could you send me more details about your software and diagnostic purchases via private message, so I can look into this for you? To send me a private message, just click on the link beside my name. 

Sincerely,