I have been a best buy customer since I was old enough to turn on a computer. Over the years I’ve had generally decent customer service; granted I never had any real issue. That is until I purchased my first laptop, notebook whatever you want to call it, an HP Pavilion dv9000.
When I walked into the store I knew exactly what I wanted; a wide screen, a keyboard with a number pad, an above average video card, and it had to be a computer that would last at least a few years without any major issues; which, I think, should go without saying.
I immediately walked back to the notebook department and talked with a salesperson who gave off the impression that he didn’t know a USB port from a headphone jack, but I talked with him just the same. I told him what I wanted and he pointed me in the direction of the HP’s. After asking him an extensive amount of questions; and receiving semi-helpful, mostly vague answers, I took a look at the specs myself. It had everything I wanted but was it durable, I of course asked him and he assured me that I was buying the top of the line entertainment laptop.
So fast forward a few months down the road, my first issue with the computer, I promptly bring it to geek squad and they ship it off to parts unknown. Two weeks later it comes back working fine and dandy again. At this point I’m still a satisfied customer. Then the trouble started.
Over the past 3 years my dv9000 has been to geek squad for countless issues including bad batteries on 3 separate occasions (that geek squad told me was a recall from HP and HP promptly told me to screw off), keys falling off the keyboard, BOTH hinges snapping due to the heat from the computer itself, the fan dying, the DVD drive dying, the hard drive slot not reading, and 3-4 replacement hard drives because everyone geek squad replaced it with went bad, and the motherboard going out not once but TWICE.
Now all these horrendous problems aside geek squad was relatively quick on the turn around. I drop the laptop off on a Monday and some times I’d have it back by the following Monday working, if only temporarily. I was mostly dissatisfied with HP at that moment; though the fact that best buy repeatedly refused my “No Lemon Clause” requests kind of irked me.
Now then to the not so distant past; I sent the laptop back for a video card error a couple months ago. When I arrived at best buy I turned on the laptop and the geek squad employee immediately noticed the vertical lines dancing wildly across my screen and informed me that I was correct and the video card had indeed gone bad. To which I replied “You guys replaced it a month earlier.” I was doing my best to remain calm and not take my anger out on him, after all it wasn’t his fault that I had been repeatedly screwed without reprieve, but I’m sure that it showed slightly. He had me fill out the paperwork that I could do in my sleep at this point and off the laptop went for repair for the umpteenth time.
Two weeks later I get a call from some 552 area code and it’s the repair center, and I hear something I can’t comprehend to this day, and I quote “Mr. Jewell we can’t recreate the problem so we’re shipping your laptop back to the store without repairs.” I argued with the tech for a moment about the fact that I had shown the issue to a guy wearing a geek squad name tag but shortly came to the realization that, it didn’t count for much of anything that one of best buy’s employees had diagnosed the problem.
The laptop was returned to me and I brought it home and turned it on, sure enough no vertical lines, for the first 10 minutes at least. That’s right I sat there and checked the computer out to be sure it was actually not showing any problem and 10 minutes in the screen began to flash and upon a reboot the vertical lines were right back where they had been before. Frustrated with best buy I held onto the computer for a few weeks and tried to ask my friends at other computer repair stores what I should do. When I told them I had a dv9000 every single one of them laughed in my face and told me how royally screwed I was. I even went so far as to ask a geek squad employee what they thought of the dv9000 and they told me it was “crap.” Needless to say I was upset.
Finally we come to tonight’s problem. Thank you for sticking with me this long I understand this is a long message but it’s been a long ride. About a week ago I was using my notebook for the 10 minutes that I knew I had before the lines popped up, once they did I turned the computer off and went to close the screen. Upon doing so I heard a crack; the hinge on the right side had snapped AGAIN. I thanked myself then and there for purchasing the extended warranty because I knew I must have accidental damage, and then loaded up the laptop to go back to geek squad. Once I arrived I showed the hinge to the geek squad agent and he pulled up my file on his computer and once again I quote “Well you’ve got accidental coverage that’s good.” I of course agreed with him and proceeded to fill out my paper work, turning on the computer briefly to show him that my screen would not post and that the video card error was still alive and well.
Tonight I get a phone call from the 552 number again, I of course am assuming they’ve fixed the hinge and can’t figure out what the problem is with the vertical lines, but once again I am disappointed. “Well Mr. Jewell I’ve got some bad news.” That’s how my conversation with the repair tech started. No “Hi how are you this evening” just straight to the bull. He promptly informed me that the warranty I had purchased (for a higher price than the initial warranty) did NOT include accidental damage and that if I wanted to have the laptop repaired it would cost over $400 for the replacement parts. Of course I was angry but did my best to keep my cool. Now the laptop is being shipped back for the second time without repairs and at this point I’m so far past upset I can’t even think of a word colorful enough to describe it.
When I purchased this notebook I made a $1200 investment with the assurance that any issues I had would be covered under warranty. For some of the duration best buy lived up to their end of the bargain though they seemed reluctant to do so at times, when I had to go 6 months with a battery that would hold a charge for 30 seconds because they wouldn’t replace it for example, and now this issue is like a kick in the teeth. You expect me to pay over $400 for a hinge on a laptop that was broken long before that hinge snapped, that was supposed to be fixed under warranty months ago, and that even if I did have it repaired it would just not be working right in a week again anyway. I am a patient man as I’m sure my message here shows, but at some point patience always runs out. If you can’t tell at this point I am a fully dissatisfied customer, and I would like some attempt at fixing that issue. I used to love best buy, I used to go there on a weekly basis, I’d send my friends to best buy, and after all that loyalty this is what I get in return. The best thing I could think of at this point and time is for you to finally accept my “no lemon” request that I’ve been asking for, for well over a year; or at the absolute very least repair the laptop so that I can do something with it other than throw it in the garbage.
Thank you for your time I expect a reply
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Ryan-BBY
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