Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[Partee]

Just bought a new Toshiba laptop from Best Buy Store #222 North Little Rock, Arkansas.  We also bought what we thought was a file transfer system and were sold a cloning device.  Trusting the advice of a Best Buy associate we eagerly arrived home to transfer our files.  Instead of transferring files we cloned our old computer to our new and nothing would operate at all.  With further exploration we discovered what had happened and returned the come. To the store.  Now, we had to get Geek Squad to fix our computer. This computer took us three  75 mile trips to get taken care of and it is still missing some sort of backup partition on the hard drive,   that  I was told we would have to get fixed ourselves.  Since we live so far away I simply wanted to return the computer and start over.  We did not have the spare money to fix a brand new computer or to drive 450 miles, 3 round trips (gas money).  I wrote corp.. Offices and received a friendly reply saying that they would forward my message and should get a response in a short time. It has now been over 6 days and we have heard not a thing.  I can't imagine a business not honoring their products.  I have had problems before at Best Buy and thought I would give them one more try.  Next, time I will know better.  I will probably just go to Walmart, they always honor the products they sell or Dell.  Even now that I have it at home it isn't working properly, it keeps resizing things on the page.  Stay away from Best Buy!!!!!

[AaronE]

I'm curious, what cloning device did they sell you? Did you have the SKU?

[Partee]

I am not for sure about the number but I think it is 1004886.  I am looking at my ticket but it has many items on it.  It is called EZ Upgrade Universal USB. 

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

That isn't a cloning device of any sort. It just allows you to plug your old hard drive into the computer as an external drive to move things off of it to the new computer.

[Bob_A]

Partee  -  

If you bought your new Laptop on, or after, March 4th. You have 30 days to return your Laptop, and accessories, for a full refund. Or, if you prefer, you can exchange it for another Brand New computer. The choice is entirely yours to make.

30 days is now the standard return policy. It does not require any special permission from corporate, and need not involve Geek Squad. Just return it to the store and say that you are returning it for a refund. Then, In response to the inevitable question about why you are returning it. You can provide a brief explanation of why. But avoid long stories, which can sometimes lead to unnecessary complications.  

Don't allow yourself to get sucked into attempting Geek Squad repairs. As long as you are eligible for a refund, you should take advantage of that opportunity to take the most convenient resolution for your problem.

For computer purchases made prior to March 4th. The return period was only 14 days. So if you bought it prior to March 4th, then you are almost certainly stuck with it.  

Be aware that your File Transfer Cloning "Device" might be classified as Software. I'm not positive, but Software probably can't be refunded.

Good Luck  

[Partee]

I'm not a computer expert at all so I am not for sure of the device.  The Geek Squad service order said the problem was caused by drive cloning software.  Thanks, I still don't understand what the problem was. 

[Partee]

Thank You.  I will try again but I have already went the repair route.  That is why I was so upset.  They wouldn't take the computer back but wanted me to have it repaired, at my expense.  Now I guess I will try again to return it.

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

If the software of the computer is messed up and it is deemed to be caused by the op, it may not be considered in like new condition and not be returnable. Since they have had time to write corp and get replies and such, I doubt it is within the return policy anyways. Sounds like they restored it for the op which would resolve any software problem it had which is normally at cost to the customer. You technically don't need the backup partition if you have the recovery disks or order them from toshiba so that isn't a huge deal. Basically, there is no way that the device they sold you messed up the computer as it is simply means to use an internal drive as an external drive. Its just an enclosure basically and a cord. The software that came with it I have no personal experience with so if you feel the software messed something up, you would want to contact the makers of that software.

[AaronE · Accepted solution]

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CrystalWoW wrote:
That isn't a cloning device of any sort. It just allows you to plug your old hard drive into the computer as an external drive to move things off of it to the new computer.

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Yup what Crystal said OP. That device can be used to migrate data without an issue so the real crux of your problem was user error unfortunately. 

That being said it seems like the store is doing their best to get the machine back up an running after you cloned your old drive to it, making it unusable, and nuking the restore partition in the process.

Now I don't mean to pour salt in the wound here but next time you may just want to think about having Geek Squad do the data transfer for you; it's a service clearly marked on the New PC Setup Sheet they would have gone over with you and is $80 with the purchase of a new computer. It looks like it was $30 more expensive then the stuff you purchased to do it yourself but it looks like it would have saved you quite a bit of aggrivation.

[Ryan-BBY Senior Social Media Specialist]

Hello Partee  -

Aaron from our Social Media team, will be reaching out to you regarding your concern. Thank you for your continued patience!