Hello BB,
I recently had a poor experience at the local store in Hawthorne, CA. I had purchased 5 laptops, and configured all them to my liking.
After 40 days, I noticed one of them had a defective LAN port, and so I took it back to the store for an exchange. The first store I went to said "it's too late to return, even if you are RZ Silver" and so we had to get a manage to confirm I could still exchange. After all that, they didnt have it in stock - so they found another store that did.
I went to the second store, and told them the issue, and they also claimed I couldnt return it. And so another discussion with a manager. They then took 30 minutes to tell me "we can't find the 2 that are in stock" and since it's an outdated model - we can't get anymore. As I was looking around for another laptop (20 min), one of the employees came up and said "we found one" - this was the only positive thing about the transaction.
We went up front to the counter to exchange the unit - and I asked if i could just swap out the hard drive to the new one (exact same model) as I had spent a lot of time configuring it . here's the conversation:
bb: geek squad can do that for you for a price
me: i dont need them to turn a screwdriver for 3 minutes, i can do it right here, right now
bb: let me get a manager
bb manager (ernie): we can't exchange it, it needs to go back to the mfg exactly as it came to us
me: why is that? the mfg will get back a new HD, and i won't have to configure mine all over again, it's just a straight swap
ernie: can't do it
me: well, can i please have geek squad clone my configuration?
ernie: they will charge you for it
me: they can give me the cloning hardware, and i'll do it myself, or just give me a hd usb adapater and i'll do it right now
ernie: we cant give that to you, and they cant do it for free - if they do it for free, we can't guarentee that the clone will be perfect
me: ???? but you can guarentee the clone if i pay for it ????
ernie: yes
me: that doesnt make sense
ernie: that's all there is to say, have a nice day
me: at least tell geek squad to wipe the drive right now
ernie: ok, but they'll chage you for it
me: seriously ... this is unbelievable
ernie: ok, we'll do it this time
bb/gs (after waiting another 15 min) - i'll format the drive, just give me 5 min.
40 minutes later, with a second bb/gs guy
bb/gs: i cant seem to format the drive
me: give me the laptop with the dvd tool-kit (that he had) and i'll do it
5 minutes later .... drive is wiped (having never seen the software, i figured it out when two GS guys couldnt).
The whole event took approximately 2 hours.
It bugged me for a few weeks, so I called the consumer relations line and complained about the experience (look it up, it's there in the records). After airing my issues, the rep said "im sorry, but that's the way it is, i'll file a complaint and someone will call you back"
I didnt hear from anybody.
I'm posting this here now. I've been a RZ silver since it started, and in the past two years (all i could see on the web interface) i've spent over $13,000 at the stores. Shouldnt there be some discretionary advantage for those who spend a lot of money at the stores? If I'm not going to get good service, or get no service, I should just shop at Amazon - the prices are usually better anyway. Doesnt make sense does it ...
Justin-BBY
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