Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[JJACKSON02]

Very curious about BB's GeekSquads policy on Hard Drive ownership and destruction.

When I read your in store "Disclaimer/agree to"  it states

I agree to/or that:

7. Best Buy may dispose of my product if I do not pick my product up within 30days of being notified by Best Buy that service on the product has been completed and , in the case of disposal, I waive any claims to my product, including all data and information on my product.

that's it about destruction or ownership of old hard drives.

Now to me this looks like this says.

After I am notified about my products status I have 30 days to pick up my product or it will be destroyed and any claim to said data is lost as well.

Now my problem right now is up to about 3 hrs ago my old "broken"  hard drive on our laptop was waiting for us to pick up. The hard drive in question apparently didn't work and was replaced. The whole time this was going on I notified the techs that I wanted the hard drive. Since I am more then capable of recovering the data from it in any condition I wanted it back. I was assured that I would get the old drive back by several Geek Squad members.

Then we were told the data was backed up and it was the motherboard since it didn't reconize the new hard drive either. Now it's off to the manufacture for repair.  One tech told us both the old and new hard drive went to the manufacture and another said no only the new hard drive when off and we could pick up our old drive.

Now when we go in to get the drive we're told it's been destroyed.

I was also told once they remove the old drive it's their property at that point.

I'm sorry but I fail to see anything that says you have said right to do with as you please my harddrive and data without my permission.

Please tell me your tech was misinformed and this is not how you do business?

[Adamtech Emerging Expert]

Hi there and welcome to the Community! Is the unit covered by a Geek Squad Black Tie Protection Plan?

[JJACKSON02]

if by black tie you mean extended warrnety then yes, actually the only reason I sent her to BB in the first place is because I was not around to do a data backup. I figured they would charge her $100 and reinstall her os. from the serperate partition where the Factory restore is located.  I would have never sent her to BB if I had know they would have drilled holes in the original hard drive. This was never a hardware issue hence my wanting the return of said hard drive.

[Adamtech Emerging Expert]

When the hard drive is replaced in store, the customer gets the old hard drive. When it is replaced at the service center, the old hard drive is destroyed. For customer data security, we are unable to ship the old hard drive back to the store. If the motherboard controller is bad, the original hard drive should have been put back in the unit and the unit sent to the service center.

[Aaron-GS Community Connector]

Hey JJACKSON02,

Because repairs often require the installation of new parts, it’s generally recommended to view hard drive replacement as the exchange of a defective component for a working one.  Most manufacturers (and the company that underwrites our service plans) require that defective parts be returned to them whenever replacements are provided, so, like Adamtech mentioned, defective parts become property of Best Buy® once replaced under either factory warranty or service plan coverage.

If you did not have the opportunity to back up your data prior to seeking service, you may wish to speak with an associate at your local store for further assistance.  In rare cases customers may be able to have additional data recovery services performed prior to their old hard drive being disposed of, but remember that these services cannot always be guaranteed.

I hope this helps you out, but please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions.  You can send me a private message by clicking on either my signature below or the letter icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

[JJACKSON02]

Actually I was assured that we could get the hard drive back by several techs. This is why I didn't insist on the laptops return instantly when it was apparent the techs were in over their head. It was only when we went to retreave it they said it was destroyed. Correction at first they said it was shipped with the laptop, but when we stated it was waiting on us to pick it up we were informed it was destroyed. I suspect they don't have a clue what actually happened to it so they went back to their default answer. Destroyed.

From the very begining they were unable to perform the Data backup and they were saying it was a hardware issue. It was never a hardware issue so I should have listened to my instincts and insisted the laptop was returned with the original hard drive upon hearing this. Often times people resort back to saying it's hardware when the software issue is over their head. The hardrive was fine but the OS was corrupt. Simple enough so I thought. I was going to have her restore the OS over the phone, but since I was 2k miles away I figured BB could do the Data backup and restore it for her. For $100 that would have been worth my time to avoid having to walk a novice computer person over the phone on databack up and system restore.  Even when they replaced the drive I figured as long I could get it back I  would recover the data at a later time, but that is after the fact now since they lost track of it, destroyed it or sent it to the factory.

I can only assume they sent it in with the MB repair. Since this would seem the most logical thing to do. Given the new drive wouldn't work for them either.  When we receive the laptop back I will look throught he HD's history to see if the data is still there or if it's a new/different drive.

I feel at this point it's at least a 50% lost cause. It the lack of communication from the techs prior to taking any action that is really disappointing to say the least. Clearly these BB techs seems to think they are the supreme experts and the rest of the world is not worthy of a phone call to ask if said action would have been acceptable. This laptop went in for a HD backup nothing more. To replace the harddrive without permission because the backup wasn't possible then to ship the laptop to a center without consulting us is at the very least an insult. Not to mention the lack of proper records to what actually happened to the drive just shows how childish this all is.

Had they consulted me prior to taking any action on any of this or actually kept this drive as per my request this would be a non issue.

but the damage is done. Now I can tell you this much it might be normal for BB techs to take action without consulting the customers,  and from what I read across the web it is. Still  the way I handle my car is how I'm going to handle this. Any time a tech starts replacing stuff or doing stuff to my car without my permission I don't use that tech/company again. BB would do well to instill in it's techs that customer approval for any action to person's hard drive where their data is the best approach. All other ways of handling it are fail. From everything you, the techs in the store and your policys indicate show it's all about the store first and customer 2nd. Shame really. When a little understanding, communication and a lot little less company protection first approach would have avoided all this.

Anyway thanks for clearing up what should be normal procedures for harddrive handling. Clearly this isn't normal.