I know it is long but you have to read the whole thing!
My 60G 5th Gen Ipod had a hard drive failure and I brought it into my local best buy because it was covered under my Performance Service Plan. It went out and was returned within a two week time frame right to my front door. See details below:
STATUS: Shipped and Closed
Completed product has been shipped to the customer
Category: MP3
Manufacturer: APPLE
Model Number: MA147LL/A
Serial Number: XXXXXXXX
Accessories Checked-In: None
Payment or Coverage Type: All or partially covered by Best Buy Performance Service Plan
Date Time Status Description
10/03/08 9:11am Shipped and Closed Completed product has been shipped to the customer
10/02/08 3:37pm Final Inspection, Awaiting Shipment Product is ready for final inspection and shipment
10/02/08 3:36pm Parts Received Parts have been received and product is being repaired
09/30/08 10:21am Received Product has been received at the repair location and is being assigned to a Geek Squad Agent or a certified technician for repair 09/25/08 7:59pm Shipped Product has been shipped to the repair location
09/23/08 1:10pm Checked In Product has been checked in and is awaiting shipment
I was quite pleased up until I opened the box. This is where It starts to go down hill. Well soon as I opened up the box, The Ipod was in a foam box but the ipod itself was just in a long shaped plastic zip lock bag. Nothing to protect it at all really. Now I being like myself took pictures of the Ipod because it was in great condition, It has always been in an Agent18 clear plastic hard shell case since the day I first used it. Not bad for almost 3 years old. Anyway I would expect it to come back to me the same way I sent it out (cosmetically that is). It came back with 2 decent sized scratches/marks right where the video screen is. I brought it into the store the very same day I got it in the mail and I told the Geek squad It wouldn't be a big deal if it was anywhere else but they were in the screen area.I showed them the pictures and the geek squad said No Problem and took it back and sent it back out, and it would be shipped back to the store itself so I could inspect it before I took it home. I had no problem with that.Still not such a big deal and besides the lousy protection and shipping of the Ipod I was still not all that upset, but that all changed soon as it went back out for repair. This is where it completely goes down hill.Here is the start of the details from the online status check. I would check in on it every once in a while to see the status.
10/14/08 11:16am Received Product has been received at the repair location and is being assigned to a Geek Squad Agent or a certified technician for repair 10/09/08 8:49pm Shipped Product has been shipped to the repair location
10/08/08 1:28pm Checked In Product has been checked in and is awaiting shipment
Well after about 2 weeks I started to wonder why it was taking so long and stuck at "Received Product has been received at the repair location and is being assigned to a Geek Squad Agent or a certified technician for repair" when the last time it went out it was there, repaired and back with in 2 weeks.So on Halloween I tried the geek squad online chat and tried to see what the status was , They were no help and actually wanted to know my email address and that just seemed to be ridiculous to me, When I dropped off my Ipod for repair I never gave them my email address so I didn't feel they needed that info , like they wanted it to spam me with offers and without that they wouldn't give me any info, this is the start of the chat log:
[11:29 AM] Agent Jones says: This session may be recorded for quality and monitoring purposes. Thank you for contacting Geek Squad Chat. This is Agent Jones how may I help you?
[11:30 AM] mike says: 01026-945XXXXXXXX repair..just thought i would check on it
[11:31 AM] Agent Jones says: I'm glad you contacted us; I need to get a little information from you to determine what service and pricing options I can offer you. Can you verify your name, phone number, full mailing address , email address and zip code?
[11:32 AM] mike says: no, i don't need an offer, i need to know the status of my repair
[11:33 AM] Agent Jones says: The reason we ask for this information is because if you go to the store, call or chat with us again your information will already be on file and for security purposes and prices and services in your area.
I gave up on him so I called the qeek squad 800 # and they said I had to call the store I dropped it off at itself and get that info, which seemed weird to me (even though it isn't at the store and what could they tell me that a computer that they are all plugged into couln't!)Every time I called they told me to call my local store it went out of and when in the store they said to call the 800 #, always played off to the other. I was off that day so I stopped in the store in person. I asked what was the hold up and they told me the exact thing I can see online from the status update. The girl and the geek squad counter said she would put in an escalation with the repair facility and I she would hear back in 24-48 hours and she would call me with the info. I said OK , It was a Friday so I gave them until Tuesday to call and heard nothing so I gave the store a call (now I have been without the ipod for almost 4 weeks with just this repair, if you include the original date sent out It is about 7 weeks I was ipodless at this point). Of course when I called I got a different agent who had no idea what was going on, but they would do another escalation and get back to me. I was told escalations to the repair center is all done by email so you have to wait for the agent to receive the info and call you back. At that point I called the geek squad 800 # again to see if maybe they might know more than the store would, Of course they said I had to call the store I brought it to and I explained that I just did that, I was able to find out that it was waiting on the part at that point but I don't know if the store or geek squad 800 # gave me that info.
I called the geek squad in the store, the 800 # or stopped in at the store every day from that point and each time I would get the same story from a different agent, except one agent who remembered me and said he never heard back on the escalation he put in , but he would do another. I was told they don't have a phone # for the Dallas repair center so they can't just call them, Later on in the store during the two weeks of my daily calling and going into the store one agent actually moved the computer screen and showed me quickly that there was a number for the repair facility and they could be called. I heard that every day from everyone I spoke to from 10/31 for 11/13, I will put in an escalation, no I can't call them, but never ever called me back with the info I was looking for. Each time I called the store itself and pressed the # for the Geek Squad, no one ever answered and it defaulted back the regular store operator and they had to reconnect me. At one point a couple days before that in the store an agent told me to call Derek who is the Store Services Manager and gave me his number and to speek with him, So I called him the next day and explained the situation and he said he could do more and get back to me he said he actually got a recent email from someone there and had in inside man , so he would be able to find something out, I gave it a couple days to hear from him and didn't so I gave him a call back he wasn’t there but called me that night and said he said he was still waiting to hear back but he would get back to me when he heard more info , but I never heard back from him. I always asked if it said if the part was actually ever ordered and if so when, but no one could answer that question. You would think it being 2008 that they would have the technology to have some way of communication and tracking items that go the Dallas repair center. I could understand if it was a 3rd party repair center, but I was told by a supervisor at Corporate Consumer Relations that it was Best Buys own repair center.
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Dorothy-BBY
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