Yup...forget about GEEK SQUAD repairs and their imbecilic CEO. Just go ahead to small claims court as well as filing a complaint at BBB.

Looks like you have one last trip to make, to the county clerks office to file the lawsuit!

Ah, this makes total sense if it's the 86th and Lexington BB. I have suspicions that that location is actually the model store where they send other Best Buy managers/employees to learn how to suck.

In my experience, it's hands-down worse than any other Best Buy, which is already a terribly low expectations bar to fail.

It's probably a heat related issue. Just guessing, but I bet it's full of dust and/or the heat sink fins are covered in dust which acts like an insulator (doesn't allow the processor to cool properly).

Better Business Bureau and/or file a complaint with the State Attorney's office governing the jurisdiction for fraudulent practices (without knowing the full details of the contract, I'd say it was fraudulent practices just from what is listed).

I'd say Small Claims Court is the final resort. Perhaps he should consult a lawyer in his area for assistance.

There's really nothing you can do about the lost files because they say in their warranty information that it is your responsibility to make a backup. However if it were me, I'd threaten with a lawsuit for not providing the service that I'm paying for and I'd demand a cash refund instead of any sort of credit.

@darkrose: That was my assumption too. If not heat, it could be a bad power supply, or faulty memory.

>> "Serving the Public, Policing Technology, and Protecting the World"

Wow, what a signature! Someone thinks mighty highly of themselves.

"Serving the Public, Policing Technology, and Protecting the World"

Wow, someone thinks quite higly of themselves!

They are probably saying they can restore your data because they made a copy of it before wiping the drive. I hear this is common practice in shops like that; have a disclaimer that indemnifies them from data loss, copy the drive, wipe it, then hold the customer's data for ransom.

I understand bigbox stores giving crappy service. However, the files on your Hard drive is YOUR responsibility. If you read any type of check in sheet at ANY store, they will tell you this. They can delete your files for FUN and not be held liable. Also, the Recovery cd's are your responsibility as well. How can 1 store hold recovery cds/dvds for each make/model of computer that goes through there? I understand geek squad sucks ass, but, c'mon, claim SOME type of responsibility. You really want some high-school kid to handle your important files? I sure as hell wouldn't!

Here's my suggestion. Cut your losses and run. Buy something else from another vendor and swear off Geek Squad for as long as you live. Is pursuing this matter any further really worth the stress?

It baffles me that people still shop at BB, especially readers of Consumerist. I have to agree with the others. BBB and a letter to the state attorney.

Yuck. Thanks for the heads-up for not going to my local Best Buy location =/

@Brad2723: I'm with you. Take it to a local shop, bat also BACKUP your files!

whooops: bat=but (bats in the belfry)

Three words: Apple Power Book

lol @ wiping the harddrive after restarting issues

#1 cause of computing shutting down is overheating

@MDSasquatch: ya so they can charge $90 to install itunes!

ummm... BBY employee here... I'm sorry your comp is dead. I'm sorry we can't fix it. This reminds me of something my grandfather went through. It was cancer. We kept sending him to the doctor, to surgery, kept getting the runaround being sent for chemo, then more surgery, then prescriptions. And after all that bullshit, he still freakin' died and we still had to pay the doctor for the measly five hours he spent operating. What a ripoff. It's totally the surgeon's fault that my grandfather didn't follow any medical advice he's ever received about not smoking.

Dude, you definitely got terrible service, and you should get a refund, but just because you WANT your comp fixed, doesn't always mean it CAN be fixed. And back up your data! That paper you signed, will the 10 clauses, one of which says you need to backup your data because it may be lost, remember that? Call 888 best buy, ask for *consumer relations*, be firm and polite, and get your refund. I would give it to you. Good luck.

If they refuse basic support for items under warrenty then you should follow Meg's advise and start small claims proceedings for the cost of the computer, time lost, and data/software lost during blundered support.

As a Geek Squad vet, I used to fight on behalf of the customer over this kind of bullshit. Here's a lowdown on why Bezalel can file a BBB and small court claim:

The BBY service plan is actually an AIG insurance policy, which is defined in that tri-fold card they give you when you purchase the plan.
In non-legalese, the contract clearly states: All hardware repairs, including the labor to diagnose the issue, is covered under the service plan. Physical abuse is the ONLY exception.
They are not fulfilling the contract by refusing to look at it; knowing what I know about the store services policies, I'd already be suing.

@wellfleet:

Interesting analogy...

$90 to install iTunes? Installing software on a Mac requires nothing more than two mouse clicks, if you paid for the service, someone took you to the cleaners. Got a mac issue in the future drop me a line kingcletus at gmail dot com

From the sound of this guy's problem, it can either be a overheating (too much dust inside) issue, device conflict issue (did he install any new hardware recently?), or the power supply issue might be shot. I don't see how any rational computer tech would say "you just need to reformat" in this situation.

Why do folks expect the former CEO to be able to do anything?

@MDSasquatch: The BBY in my area sells and services Apple's now. They even service notebooks at the store, no 2-3 week turnaround unless parts are needed.

I still think Apple Care is the best buy around; for what it is worth, rebooting a computer usually fixes 99% of the problems. Hardware problems are mostly done via swapping the parts, doesn't take a genius to fix the things.

Dollar for Dollar, Apple is still far superior in my mind

Oh, and another thing.. If you don't like Geek Squad or any of these other tech support/computer repair ripoff places, learn to fix your own computer. Computers really aren't that complex when you're looking at a pile of parts...

Also, avoid boxed/branded computers. Parts is parts.

@wellfleet: A supposedly professional group selling extended warranties and service plans on computers should be able to tell him what's wrong with the computer on which he has such a service plan, and if they can't fix it should at least be able to tell him that it needs to be replaced (and cover that replacement if it's included in the service plan.) Yes, he should have a backup of his files in any event, I agree that's not really the Geek Squad's problem, though they're obviously not too useful if they don't have an OEM Windows CD for models BestBuy sells, the license is on a Microsoft tag on the machine, they could use any OEM restore or install CD for that model and key in the license for the install. It sounds like the service policy isn't worth the paper it's printed on, which fits the recent reputation of the Geek Squad.

@misteral: At least they admit they're looking for kiddy porn on your computer to turn you in.

@wellfleet:
No, cuz he paid the company you work for and entrusted you and your colleagues to FIX the bloody wanker and you FAILED in the process. There is no parallel to your surgeon bit comparing your sainted granpa with repairing computers. The main issue here is QOS (Quality Of Service), pure and simple. If your company is not service oriented, but sales, you WILL fail at service, no argument. Your company owes the consumer a fat wad of refunds and a duty to us all to CLEAN UP your act!

"Does anyone out there have suggestions for Bezalel?"

yes... call your local news anchor, the one that covers consumer issues, tell them your story, and have them meet you at bestbuy. then grab that p.o.s. laptop, a big ass hammer, and a garbage bag. tell your story on camera from across the street with bestbuy in the background. next you'll be smashing the shit outta the soon-to-be-ex-laptop in front of the door.

then you'll go inside and ask to talk andre and the manager(s). when they ask what the problem is, you'll be dumping the pc pieces on the counter and with as straight of face as possible, "there seems to be something wrong with my laptop" (note to cameraman: be sure to get close up on andre's and the manager's faces). next you'll let our trusty reporter do their job and bust their balls and get outta there.

does this get you a new laptop or resolve your problem, no probably not, but it'll sure make you feel much better, will probably hurt their sales, and if you're lucky, the publicity you may even get you a new computer.

ps. it may not be such a bad idea to get robert down there as well and ask him on camera, "why you're company, that you make a crap load of money from, is screwing people on a daily basis?"

On a side note....if your PC turns off randomly, there is a chance it has a faulty power supply. I've had friends where they either had a faulty power supply, or did not put in the power supply properly when they built their PC that had the exact same problem.

As a former geek squad employee, I can't say I agree with most of what they do. The business is designed to help the financially more-than-comfortable computer illiterate. At the same time, it is a part of an international multi-billion dollar company. Did you really expect the CEO to care about your little problem? We've had people threaten to sue us on an almost daily basis. You said your computer was randomly shutting down. Do you have any idea how hard that is to duplicate? Even with the stress tests we run, we can't always get it to do it. You would have probably gotten much further staying within the store's management then by contacting the CEO. The country is filled with people who are pissed of at GS, but you have to realize that, in the end, GS is a business.

@darkrose: Amen to that. Build em' too. Not much cheaper but I have brand name parts inside.

Besides the common sense to backup anything near and dear to you, does anyone read the paperwork that we give to the customers? Anyway sometimes mistakes are made. I cant speak for those at that particular store you went to, but my team is VERY competent.

Apple zealots: He does not have a Mac nor does he need to know that Apple will fellate him and his PC if he would just go ahead and switch to ChristiApplety.

Erm, liar? hard drive died but they can recover files? Who are they fooling?

I wouldn't be surprised if they never even replaced the drive...

So basically, you take the computer in to get fixed, they failed to do so, and charged you anyway. When you come back in to get them to fix the problem they never fixed, they want to charge you again... wow.

I guess this is why you don't hire sales people to do a tech's job.

And when you do sue, make SURE to include Robert Stephens name in the suit now since he has involved himself in the process

Advice...Read this website more often maybe ?

Almost anyone who has dealt with the geek squad knows their half hour training classes leave a lot to be desired. If replacing it, reinstalling it, or running AV/spyware scan on it don't fix it, They are pretty much out of options. "Sorry sir, you will have to buy a new one"

I am coping data onto DVD for a new client right now, He brought his hard drive in because the Geek Squad told him it was dead, and his data was all gone. He wanted a second opinion, we plugged the drive in and started coping data right off it, the drive has a SMART warning, and is likely failing, but getting the data off is trivial, It is clear they did not even try. They also didn't offer him ( or you ) any of the more advanced data recovery options like Drive Savers or On Track. Instead they just told him his data was GONE, lazy or ignorant ? I am not sure, and I am not sure it matters either way.

Cut your losses with BB, go find yourself a local computer store, their dumbest technicians can usually run circles around a bakers dozen of the geek squad. In addition to better training and experience, they won't give you the run around and, bonus, they actually tend to care about your return biz and satisfaction.

I think he's way at the point of small claims court, but he should call them ONE more time and give them a solid deadline as to when he will file if the matter is not fixed immediately. This way he's duly tried all avenues prior to court. I think it's going to go to court anyway, but I believe in covering legal bases here. Oh, and go through your contract line by line so you can highlight the facts to the judge on how they breached the contract.

On another note, please buy either a 2 GB USB keychain drive and backup all your important documents and files to it or purchase a external hard drive to backup your entire system regularly.

I recommend a wonderful company, with great customer service, called NewEgg.

@wellfleet: OMFG! You're so right! Giving him the run around and astonishingly bad service is like DYING OF CANCER! Now I see!

I should get a traumatic brain injury so I can work for Best Buy (and be proud of it) too.

This won't help the person who got screwed, but for anyone else, this is advice: Learn how to make your computer a multi-OS system!

Having two OSes can enable you to recover your own files (unless the hard drive is well and truly toast); just a 1GB partition is enough. It's quite easy to do:

1. Create at least two partitions on the drive.

2. Install either Lose95, Lose98 or even FreeDOS or DOS 5.0/6.0 in the C: drive.

3. Install NT/Lose2000/XP/Vista on the D: drive.

That's it. You can boot from the C: drive to recover the system if NT/Lose2000/XP/Vista screw up. There are even freeware NTFS disk readers if you choose to use that file system; I avoid that problem by using FAT32 with Lose2000 instead of NTFS.

Just remember to copy the C:\*.* files (NTDETECT.COM, etc.) to a floppy so you can copy them to the C: drive in case of an NT failure.

[support.microsoft.com]
[www.abc.se]
[www.bootdisk.com]

Remember, DOS is your friend when Windows screws up...which it often does.

It's lawsuit time!

@Royal72 - brilliant, just brilliant. Sometimes those local news shows have the consumers investigation snippet where they show some ripoff or bad company... Whatever you do, make sure gets a video and uploads it to YouTube to let the world see it :)

I work at the Geek Squad part time, (just a couple of days a week)( Yes, the discount is good) But during the day, I also work for a real IT corporation. The clowns that they call their so called geeks or tech's are quite comical. They follow a script for technical work in which my 14 year old child can. And better I might add. They do not have trouble shooting skills, but will try and convince you of it. It's a shame to be quite honest. The infomercial attitude and style these moron's have are disgraceful to the real IT professional. If your laptop is still under warranty through the manufacture, deal with them. That's the best advice I can deal out to you.
~~TechCheck~~~

Best Buy sucks people and here's why. A while ago had a similar problem with my new pc. For some reason some system files were deleted and I could not start my computer. It would ask me for those missing files only because I chose to do it through the recovery console. Never choose recovery console. Anyway, I called best buy to see if they could tell me over the phone which files I need to copy from my windows cd to the computer. A tech guy said he could do it for 50 bucks and I was ok with that. But, the manger said that they would do it for $120. I said screw it and went to Kinkos to get the info. Paid like 3 bucks, and 10 minutes later was back in business. Moral of the story, do it yourself. Never go to best buy .

The comment by dark rose, that it may be a heat related item, is a very good lead. I opened up my mother's PC at Christmas to add some new memory, and the two year old machine was clogged with dust that had become deeply deposited on all of the surfaces, but especially the power supply and CPU cooling fan blades and air ducts; those ducts were so badly clogged no fresh air was getting in. With a vacuum cleaner & dust brush hose attachment i was able to remove most of the accumulated dust, but the actual fan blades of the two cooling fans (or more) hade to be meticulously and thoroughly cleaned by hand to prevent the rapid re-accumulation of dust.
Try doing this! It is well known that overheating will cause a CPU to shut down, just like yours is doing. Maybe the Geeks even knew that, and didn't want to clean out your dirt! (It can be even much, much worse if you are a pet owner: my sister has dogs and cats, and you can just imagine what it looked like inside their computer!) :)