Sharon’s husband had Best Buy repair a laptop, and when he got it back the Windows 7 operating system was missing. They complained to Best Buy, which refused to reinstall the system, saying it had held up its end of the bargain because it had originally sold them a laptop, not Windows 7.
She writes:
My husband and I purchased a Toshiba laptop from Best Buy in August 2010. In early October, the laptop wouldn’t boot. My husband took it to the Best Buy we purchased it from. They said they would send it to Toshiba for warranty work. (Later in this story, that turns out to be important)10 days go by. Best Buy calls and says the laptop is ready. They replaced the hard drive. Husband picks it up and brings it home to discover it wouldn’t boot because there was no OS installed.
Back we go to Best Buy, where we are told *we* need to install the OS. We said we wanted the device back to the way it was when we purchased it. No one knows for sure the new hard drive works until we have an OS. Thus the repair was not complete. We were told over and over that it was up to us to install the OS.
I called Best Buy Corporate and was told that indeed the repair was not complete until the computer booted. That we should order the restore discs (we couldn’t find them), Best Buy would reimburse is for this cost and then they would install the OS to complete the repair.
We call Toshiba to order the discs – who told us that if they had repaired the laptop, they would have returned it with an OS installed – and 5 days later, the restore discs arrive.
Sending the laptop to Toshiba was what Best Buy said they did. They sent it to an authorized Toshiba repair center, which I would assume is as good as sending it to Toshiba. But if they had sent it to Toshiba, there would be an OS installed.
I went to Best Buy with the restore discs and was told for $130, they would be happy to install the OS. That their repair obligation ended when they replaced the hard drive. If, after the OS was installed, the computer still didn?t work, I should bring it back for further work/repair.
From the parking lot, I called Corporate again. Consumer complaints took my cell phone number and called the store. He called me back and said this was all true and that if I wanted the OS installed, I had to pony up $130.
I’m completely capable of installing an OS but that’s not the point. The point is we took in a computer under warranty that wouldn’t boot and was returned a computer that wouldn’t boot. We don’t know the hard drive repair is complete until we have an OS and the laptop boots.
Best Buy didn’t sell us an OS, they say, they sold us a laptop. It was up to us to install the OS. Except the OS was installed on the laptop when we purchased it from them. Following this line of reasoning, they should return cell phones or game stations after repair without an OS. How does that make sense?
Warranty work should return the device to the condition it was when it was purchased. In this case, we purchased a computer that booted into Windows 7. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect the warranty repair to return it to booting into Windows 7.
If you’ve ever had a repaired computer come back with missing programs, let us know how you approached the problem.
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Purchasing sophisticated technology at a mass market retailer inevitably creates situations such as this. Low paid help with great marketing creates the perception that ‘sales associates’ are anything more than just that.
I am a private laptop technician and many of my clients call on me to take care of such repairs even when a unit is in warranty because of experiences they had with Best Buy or some other mass market retailer. I actually care about client data and make an effort to get them and their computer back, up and running as soon as possible. I charge $50-$75 per hour for my services. It is foolish to expect someone being paid minimum wage to care; especially when they are pressured to up-sell customers service contracts and useless security software for extra money.
Let the buyer beware, and as the previous tech recommended, purchase a Dell. Not because they are the best computers out there, but because Dell has a top notch service and support network. I don’t recommend purchasing from a Best Buy or comparable retailer because in the big scheme of things, you don’t really save any money do you?
I have a 10 year old Dell laptop that still works fine for the web and light duty. Few of the new computers I work on today will be around in even 5 years, technology aside, they are just built to less demanding standards and designed to be thrown away after just a few year.
Suggestion: Go to Best Buy, Office Depot, etc. to evaluate the class of laptop you want. Then purchase a Dell online with a 2 year extended service contract. Check the Dell website on late Saturday or Sunday when they have their most aggressive pricing for the week and purchase with confidence.
I have been suggesting this for years to my clients and they get better results, and less hassle dealing with the moronic kids who just want to get back to texting their friends or party.
Dan
Beach Computer Works HB, CA
Best Buy keeps giving me more reasons to shop elsewhere.
No it’s not unreasonable to think that the OS should also be installed.
It IS UNREASONABLE to think that dealing with Best Buy in any way shape or form is a good idea.
I realize it’s principle, but in the amount of time spent calling Best Buy, writing The Consumerist and the elevated blood pressure, you could just have popped the disk in and been done with it.
Doesn’t anybody get it. Best Buy is the worst store on the planet. Don’t go in there.
Why did you even bother buying something from Best Buy after all the negative stories people share about them?
Here we go again. MISTAKE #1 You bought a computer from a toy store, Worst Buy. MISTAKE #2. You bought a Toshiba, maker of some of the WORST laptops in the industry. MISTAKE #3 you brought your piece of junk, that you shouldn’t have bought in the first place, back to the place you shouldn’t have bought it from. Do the people who submit on this site READ this site??? WHY are we supposed to feel sorry for a FOOL and his/her money? Why? It’s this same lack of intelligence that got us into this economic situation the country is now in, and we keep consoling them and helping them. YOU WERE BORN WITH A BRAIN, USE IT!
Another reason not to get warranty work from Worst Buy. Actually, another reason NOT to buy a laptop from Worst Buy.
It’s this particular Best Buy that’s in the fault. Reinstalling the OS is part of the SoW if they replace the hard drive, motherboard, or any other hardware that can cause the machine to no longer function with the existing OS.
Never EVER get Best Buy to repair anything. Buying products from them is fine, they have good selection and many locations. However, you have to decline any additional protection plans etc. If you want an extended warranty, buy it from the manufacturer. Best Buy will only fuck up the repair.
i’m sure the box says the product should contain software
if that was the case, all retailers are selling mystery boxes b/c sh!t, they can’t guarantee the contents in the box right ?
BB is DA (dumbarse)
True. It came with an OS. But Best Buy’s service plans and the service order she signed said they aren’t responsible for it.
And yet Best Buy continues to thrive, regardless of the horror stories that seem to abound.
Why people shop there, I’ll never understand.
The Geek Squad agent apparently failed to tell them that no computer, when the hard drive is replaced, comes back with an OS installed on it. Obviously that would be a huge licensing cost to do that. Also, how are they supposed to keep recovery discs for every single computer sold in the U.S.? That’s ridiculous and this person is being overly dramatic. It’s not Best Buy’s fault that the customer lost their recovery discs either. Normally they do install the OS if you have the discs though. I find that odd.
The answer is to take it to another Best Buy. I know this isn’t an up-sell tactic, its straight ignorance of policy on behalf of that employee. I’ve had bad hdds under the manufacturer warranty and best buy warranty before. While they wouldn’t give me the OS, when I give them the OS discs they have no problem installing it for me. I’ve gone to the St. Joseph, MO and Independence, MO stores. No problem like this before.
About the OS: the stores told me that they have agreements with their vendors not to keep copies of the OS on hand. Something about how Microsoft liscenses the OS so it’d be illegal. Not sure if its true or not, but that’s their excuse.
I’ve sent back a desktop to HP for repair under warranty, and gotten it back with no OS installed. It happens, even if Toshiba insists it doesn’t.
My solution was to not get the extended warranty on my next computer. I’m more than willing to just do the repairs myself. I have no advice for you.
This is not blaming the original poster… but I get very tired of reading week after week about Best Buy screwing another unsuspecting customer.
What pisses my off is that Best Buy always seems to get away without any responsibility.
I think everytime BestBuy screws a customer, the attorney general’s office should be contacted – there is an established pattern of consumer abuse that may merit criminal prosecution, but if the AG doesn’t get the complaints, how would they know?
Is there something that Consumerist’s owner can do to give Best Buy a big, well-deserved “NOT RECOMMENDED” rating – perhaps a permanent condemnation of the company and its business practices?
Or perhaps with the hands and feet of Consumerist readers, coordinate a nationwide informational picketing effort – on Black Friday.
Friends don’t let friends shop at Best Buy.
Installing a modern OS is not brain surgery.
1- put the disk in the CD Drive and Boot
2- when prompted either change the CD or reboot.
3- the screen will tell you when to remove the disk and reboot for the final install.
.
They are far from perfect and good service is built into the price but I must say that these stories are few and far between with Apple. They fixed a bunch of stuff for me out of warranty. Most of the problems I had were related to me dropping my laptop.
So Actually, that best buy is wrong as the policy as I have always understood it, if its under any kind of warranty best buy or manuf’s and a failure of hardware causes the software to stop working, in this case Windows would not work due to failed hard drive. Once Recovery discs are provided then its restored for free. The Manuf does this, and so does Best Buy being an authorized center.
Mis information it sounds like and maybe call another store? Something isn’t right thats for sure.
I have had terrible experience with Best Buy in regards with my Toshiba laptop. I had a screen that would randomly stop working and it was obvious that something was wrong with the wiring, but I sent it in for repairs for that problem 3 times, and each time it came back with a new hard drive. Like a new hard drive would solve that problem. The 2nd time it came back, I didn’t even leave the store. I just turned it on right there at the repair desk and showed them that the problem was still there.
How many times do we have to tell you that BEST BUY SUCKS THE HIGH HARD ONE.
And they’ve gotten even worse since circuit city went out of business. By apple products and get the apple care. You won’t be sorry and you’ll save money by never, ever having to buy security software. EVER.
Your warranty on this item is through Toshiba, and you opted to have Best Buy handle the warranty repair process by using their services. You probably could have went directly through Toshiba for this repair, saving yourself a lot of time and trips to the store, but you chose Best Buy because in your mind they are obligated to bend over backwards for you and repair it because you “bought it there”. You also could have saved yourself a lot of time by doing the right thing and actually creating the Factory Recovery CD’s that are pretty much standard on any PC bought in a retail store within the last 5 years. Honestly, Best Buy owes you nothing, you should be happy they reimbursed you for your neglegence and paid for your recovery disks.
^^^^^^This!
“I’m completely capable of installing an OS but that’s not the point. “
The point is I want some attention!!! Waaaahhhh!! Mommy didn’t hug me enough!!!!! Waaaaaaaah! I’m going to write to the Consumerist!
did I mention Waaaaaaaah?
Last time I was laptop shopping with a friend at Best Buy, the tags listing all the features (and therefore its selling points) listed the OS. Wouldn’t that mean that, technically, they are selling you an OS as well as a laptop?
This isn’t a shady upsell on Best Buy’s part. If you read the documentation on your warranty (You did read the hardware documentation on the warranty right?) You’d realize that the warranty covers the HARDWARE only. Not software issues. Lack of an OS is a software issue as the functionality of the hard drive and system can be fully tested without ever loading an OS. This always came up when I did field repair work for Dell. I was not paid to reinstall the customer’s OS. However the customer could use the software installation discs (Often sent to the customer ahead of my arrival) and work with tech support over the phone getting everything installed. I, as a courtesy to the customer, would get their PC through the first steps of Windows installation since that was just as good a test of weather the system functioned as running diagnostics.
Now I work in corporate IT, I don’t expect Lenovo or Dell to reinstall the OS for me on a Thinkpad or Desktop PC with a dead hard drive. They replaced the defective hardware, and bob’s my uncle.
Any and all OS issues regardless of reinstall, repair, updates etc.. are not covered under Toshiba’s warranty…
On a side note I will mention that per Geek Squad SOP they are required to reinstall the OS for any Hard Drive repairs completed under both manufacturer warranty and any service plan purchased at a Best Buy store.
So you pretty much got shafted where you visited, 99% of geek squad services are overpriced but what they cover under the service plans are brilliant. That is so long as you NEVER mention cars, windows, dropping items on the machine, (more than 1 flight of stairs)
Sorry, an “authorized Toshiba repair center” != Toshiba. I work at an “authroized HP repair center” but we are not HP.
Shouldn’t a repair shop show you it works when you pick it up?
Best Buy failed to do that.
I would have tried installing it by myself if I was being charged $130 for it by Best Buy. It’s not even that hard. Click Next, Next, Next, then wait 20 minutes.
I agree with this person’s story 100%. The point isn’t if you have the discs or not the point is that you paid for warranty service and you should get the computer back to the point of which you purchased the warranty for. The laptop is nothing but paper weight without a working operating system (any OS), but if you buy it with Windows 7 and you take it then I want it back that way.
And like some folks have said they probably didnt even do any repairs, but just wiped the HDD and put it back to factory at a BB location and sent it back. I had a problem where they did that exact same thing, only the problem wasn’t with the hard drive or the operating system, it was that the piece of plastic holding the power connector on the back of the laptop broke. Why did they send it back to me without an OS, stripped my HDD, and didn’t offer to warn me that to replace a piece of plastic that I should back up my HDD. This also happened years ago before external HDDs were cheap and widely available. Point is I learned my mistake but best buy is a bunch of cronies who don’t give a crap about customer care. I’d report them to the better business bureau, and next time write an addendum to the repair contract for them to sign before handing over your computer.
I had the exact same problem with Best Buy around 2002 or so.
The experience taught me a valuable lesson; never purchase an extended warranty on anything ever again. Since then, I have bought several computers, high end digital cameras and a couple of flat screen TV’s, all without extended service plans and I have never once regretted it.
Thanks Best Buy!
I don’t think they can legally install an OS they don’t have the discs for. Operating systems don’t just grow on trees, there’s a verification process for setting up an OS. You have the discs, reinstall the OS and see if it works. If not, get in touch with Toshiba, not Best Buy.
You can install any OS or any program on any computer — the key is to have to have a valid legal serial number/license code/whatever to make it work. Most laptops have the serial number for the original OS printed on a tag that’s attached to the bottom of the laptop. Unless it’s an OEM number (Dell does that), you’re fine.
Let’s go over this one more time:
1. Never, ever, ever, ever, never, buy from Best Buy.
2. Buy your computers from independent, certified system builders and get damned operating system disks. You can do your own OS software dependent repairs if you have your own disc’s.
3. If you fail to heed 1 & 2, you will eventually get burned.
1. Befriend your local IT tech — someone in the IT dept at work, or a neighbor that works in IT. Note — this does not mean someone who claims to know all about computers. Make sure it’s a reliable person with IT experience.
2. Discover laptop doesn’t work
3. Ask IT friend to fix it AND — here’s the important part — be willing to pay THAT PERSON a fair amount (more than a few bucks, thanks) for the repair. Also be willing to put up the money to purchase a replacement hard drive.
4. Wait a few days until IT person has had a chance to obtain drive and set it up for you.
5. Pay IT friend.
6. Enjoy trouble-free laptop use.
Repeat as necessary.
Had a similar situation with Best Buy earlier this year. Had a Dell laptop that had a bad motherboard. They replaced the motherboard under the “Black Tie” protection plan, it took almost a month. When I returned to the store to pick it up it wouldn’t boot into windows. When I asked about the computer not booting they told me I’d have to reinstall windows. I said, “shouldn’t you guys do that since the service plan is supposed to guarantee the item worked like new” and they said no, they’d have to charge me almost $200 for the reinstallation. I went home and loaded a copy I luckily had at home.
To make a long story short, the computer ended up needing more service again a few days later. After shipping it off a total of three times and being without the machine for almost a month and a half over all they finally replaced the machine with a new one under the no lemon policy.
In the end it all worked out but the whole repair process was very painful and was enough to make me never buy another product warranty from Best Buy. If a computer comes preloaded with the OS, under a service contract I think the machine should come back fully functional as it did new. It seems however the Geek Squad model is to nickel and dime customers to the point of breaking! After all most “average Joe’s” won’t know any better and will pay whatever it takes to get their machine back functioning!
Just a hunch but I think perhaps small claims court would have a different answer than Best Buy
I hate to say anything nice about Staples, as they fired me, but as a former manager there, I can tell you that I’ve seen techs do a free restore in situations like this one. The customer has to provide the restore CDs, but our techs even helped them acquire them. Even if it was a gray area, they’d juts do it because it made the customer happy.
Before the customer drops off a computer, they probably sign a waiver saying they understand the store isn’t responsible for lost data (a great opportunity to upsell a data backup package). However, is there really anything in Best Buy’s paperwork saying they’re not responsible for losing the whole OS?
My experience was similar but with Sony and a $4k tricked out Vaio laptop. I wrote a letter to My3Cents dot com and copied it to the Better Business Bureau and EVERY Sony executive at every corporate office in the United States and Japan. I located their offices via online search; it is surprisingly easy though a bit time consuming. In less than 12 hours, I had calls from several Sony executives. The problem was solved within 24 hours.
Suggestions:
*Gather your facts; make a detailed timeline of events; include model and serial # info of your machine and a copy of receipt if available.
*Include that timeline in your letters to Toshiba and Best Buy executives; use store numbers, employee names and dates.
*Do mention Best Buy and Toshiba’s ‘Mission Statements’ (both corporate and service department) and specify how employees failed to meet those standards.
*Do include any Best Buy employee comments that were condescending, sarcastic, rude or unprofessional.
*Do include any professional history that will enhance your credibility and show you understand
the concepts of exhausting workloads, quality assurance, ethical business practices.
*Do keep the letter short, concise and in business format; check spelling and grammar.
Typical for Best Buy. They used to be reputable a long time ago, but no more.
IT IS NOT BEST BUY’S FAULT THAT THE COMPUTER THAT TOSHIBA OR ANY OTHER MANUFACTURER MADE IS BAD. IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT THAT YOUR HARD DRIVE FAILED. IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT YOU DID NOT PAY THEM FOR RECOVERY DISKS OR MAKE THEM YOURSELF.
All of you Best Buy haters are retarded.
First off, it is not Best Buy’ s responsibility to provide the OS to the customer. If they declined Best Buy making recovery disks for them, and they did not make it themselves, then they did what they needed to. They fixed the issue by replacing the bad hard drive.
Second, this customer by continually acting out and trying to go to corporate and such is ridiculous. Maybe just talking to someone at the store would not make you look like such a bitch.
Get all your facts straight before you rag on a company.
First off I work for geeksquad. Second I don’t know what best buy you’re going to but at mine, if your hard drive gets replaced at the service center or we have to replace it in store because it fails diagnostics then we will reinstall your OS for you for free. That’s how it has always been. You are supposed to make your restore discs when you get home with your laptop so you have them. It is not my responsibility if you do not make them and then need them later. You have the option of having us make them for you when you buy the computer to save yourself the time. Blame the laptop companies for wanting to be ‘green’ by not including the restore discs anymore. The only 2 brands that come back from the service center with a restored OS on a new drive are HPs and Sonys. If you are under only an MFG warranty you could have sent your own laptop out to Toshiba to have it fixed or you can take it to us and we will send it to Geek Squad City in KY where all the repairs are done.
I would call the MFG and complain about this, it is my understanding that is BestBuy is an authorized repair center then they have to repair the pc as Toshiba would repair it, to keep that title. Call and get Toshiba to call them (bestBuy). I used to work for GS and HP called our store once and blatantly told us if we wanted to keep the authorized repair dealer that we had to follow their procedure.