She sent this email to Best Buy:

On January 2, 2009 I bought a Samsung 46" 8 series television. I love it! In June, the motherboard had to be replaced.

About a month and a half ago I noticed that when I would turn my TV. on I would have lines that went up and down on both sides of my television. I called the Geek Squad to get someone out here to look at it. I ended wasting an entire day waiting for the third party to get here. I had told them to call me before they got here so I could make sure to be home since I had to go get my son from pre-school. Well he showed up, never called, and left. I missed him by 4 minutes! Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with the third party and Best Buy, what a waste of a day!

I called the Geek Squad that day to reschedule with the Geek Squad since that is who I wanted in the first place but, I was told when I originally scheduled my appointment with the third party that the Geek Squad was booked through November so a third party was a better option. A week later when my appointment with Geek Squad was supposed to be, Geek Squad never showed. I called the Geek Squad at noon to figure out when they would be over since I hadn't heard from them. I was told that I never did have an appointment and that I wouldn't be seeing the Geek Squad that day since I didn't have an appointment. I thought I did have an appointment since that is what I had been told by a Geek Squad agent. Another waste of half a day.

At this point I told the customer service agent that I didn't mind going with a third party I just didn't want to go with the company that I had originally scheduled with. They found me another third party in the valley and I scheduled an appointment with them for today, the 28th. The gentleman showed up this morning, replaced the part that they thought was going out. That didn't work, I still had lines on my TV, in the process of trying to fix my television he scratched the cabinet the TV was sitting on and then blamed me! Not only was my TV not fixed but my cabinet was now scratched, furniture isn't cheap, I was pissed off.

I called the Geek Squad to figure out what the next step was and they told me that I had to wait and see what the manufacturer wanted to do since my TV was only 10 months old and being fixed under the manufacturer warranty. At this point I am wondering why exactly I paid for a Black Tie policy if it wasn't even being used. I was told by the Geek Squad and by the third party that they next step would probably be to replace the LCD panel. Unacceptable!!! I didn't pay top dollar for my TV to have a new motherboard, and a new LCD panel replaced after only 10 months. I don't want a hodgepodge of new and replaced parts.

I called the 888-Best-Buy this afternoon to lodge a complaint. I feel like I have been given the run around by not only Best Buy, shame on you, but by your third party as well. In my mind your third party is a direct reflection of Best Buy and should also live up to your standards. When I get substandard service it makes it so I don't want to do business with Best Buy anymore, there are too many other options for me to have to put up with this.

If you've gone through similar hassles with Geek Squad and lived to tell the tale, please drop your knowledge in the comments.

(Photo: The Joy Of The Mundane)

He writes:

Today I went to Best Buy just to check it out. I haven't been to a Best Buy in a few years. After much looking around, I've seen better buys actually. While browsing the Wii Games, I saw Mario Party 8 with a "geek squad professional installation" sticker on it. I asked a few associates how much a professional installation would cost without much luck. I eventually asked Geek Squad. They said that the sticker was there in error. Either way, it's a funny picture to start a Monday.

Hey, mistakes happen. Such as going to Best Buy and not expecting the Geek Squad to pitch you — intentionally or not — ludicrous, unnecessary services.

L951B951 says:

Thanks to your 9/28 article about Best Buy's "Optimization" service on new laptops, I went into my local Best Buy fully prepared and left without having to pay the $40 for whatever this service is supposed to be.

I just returned from purchasing a laptop from Best Buy. The guys working in the computer area were already with customers, but luckily another Best Buy employee saw I needed help and came over. I told him I wanted this particular laptop, but the 2 they had on the floor had been opened and had a paper taped to them claiming they had been "optimized" (the optimization forms at this location looked different than the one shown here these appeared to have been made in MS Word and were taped on with cellophane tape, but it was removed at the register so I don't have a picture of it).

The employee helping me told me he didn't work in the computer department but would go see if he could find an "unopened one" (his words, not mine). The interesting part is that he didn't understand what the optimization sheet meant; he thought it was an open box, and set about trying to find me an "unopened" laptop. After a few minutes of climbing the rolling stairs, he came down to tell me the bad news: of the 5 they had, all of them were opened. Luckily, at that point, one of the employees from the computer department came by to help. He explained that they weren't returns, as the other employee thought, but that a certain percentage of their laptops get "Optimized" by the Geek Squad (apparently that certain percentage is 100%). He was very friendly and offered to waive the $40 optimization fee since I didn't want it and was unwilling to pay for it. I would like to state again: both employees were very helpful throughout the purchase.

I am home now, and curious as to what kind of Optimization service Best Buy does. It's not listed under Geek Squad's services ( http://support.geeksquad.com/support/services ). Per your previous story about the optimization, I looked in the box for any recovery disks made - there were none. And when I booted my laptop up for the first time i was greeted by a Windows Error Recovery message (picture 1, taken with my phone). Once I passed that hurdle, and Vista booted up, I was greeted with 200+ MB worth of updates, some being authored in February (picture 2 below). So I'm stumped as to what the "Optimization" did beyond set my default language and timezone.

All the more reason to decline this silly optimization service. If Best Buy or any other store tries to pressure you into it, we suggest you call your state's attorney general.

From The Daily Bleat's open letter to Best Buy's CEO:

As it happens, I was on a cordless, and I was outside, so I was literally facing a brick wall while I was talking to one. Tanya explained that the unit had to fail four times before anything could be done. That was the alpha and omega of the situation. It would have been nice if Tanya had expressed sympathy or tendered an apology at that point, but it's not her job, I guess.

It's Tanya's job to tell me what the customer isn't going to get. If that's what the rules say.

Now. I don't run a big company, and I have no inside know-how on the vagaries of handling customer complaints – Gosh, I bet you get a lot! But I would suggest, with all due respect, that the customer profile database be tweaked somehow so you can see, for your own benefit, that a customer who bought two top-of-the-line appliances has had failures with each one, and tie this information into a repair / failure database. Surely some program could tell you that the cost of satisfying the customer NOW is less than the cost of making four trips to repair the SAME. STUPID. POORLY. DESIGNED. PART, and said customer might buy another appliance, or speak favorably of the experience to others, or refrain from issuing twitter updates to 10,000 people.

Heard of Twitter? Yes? Okay, then.

Since she couldn't do anything for me, she set up an appointment to repair the unit. We had to choose a date on a Saturday, because I work. I suggested they order the defective control panel now so it can be installed on Saturday, but she said the technicians don't get their assignments until the day they go out. So next Saturday's visit is just a formality, I guess. It will take a week to get the part, and I hope they can show up on the next Saturday, because otherwise I will be washing dishes for three weeks.

We've heard this type of complaint a lot. Anyone had success short circuiting the 4-repair policy?

Dear CEO of Best Buy [Daily Bleat] (Thanks, Rich!)
(Photo:Meg Marco)

*For the low, low price of $129.99, the Geek Squad will come to your home... Do I even need to go on? After all, a visit from the honorable techno-soldiers alone is worth at least that much money. But there's even more. With the purchase of a PlayStation 3, the wizards will:

*Set up and install your PS3: This presumably involves taking it out of the box, plugging it into the wall — and here's where things get crazy — into your TV as well.

*Install the latest firmware updates: Gritty work indeed. To do this, the Geek Squadster will power on your controller, flick the "left" button on the directional pad several times, then click "x" to tell your PS3 to download the firmware.

*Set up & configure local user accounts with parental controls: More pushing of the "left" button, followed by more pressing of "x" under the parental controls prompt. This could take as long as 15 seconds. And time is money!

*Set up & configure online account: Typing in your name and e-mail when prompted. This is an especially valuable service to those who are illiterate and/or dyslexic.

So, so amazing. Kotaku's headline for its story on the matter was "This should be illegal. Seriously." Hell yeah, it should. This offer is so great, it's darn near criminal. Hurry up and take Best Buy up on this offer before they run out of Geeks!

Seriously. This Should Be Illegal [Kotaku]
(Photo: The Consumerist)

If you don't know how to rip music off a CD, you're probably having someone read you this post. Best Buy charges you $1 a CD and $35 for a shipping kit. Reader Sabler spotted the program and sent us his responses to the Geek Squad's sales pitch:

1) We are an amazing time saver!

True. Asking someone to rip even one CD for me saves me untold seconds. Time has, in fact, been saved.

Look, unless you've got an entire room dedicated to CDs this isn't tantamount to canceling weekend plans. On a modern computer, a disc averaging about 12 tracks should encode in ~2 minutes. Even if you've got a pile of 100 CDs that's only going to be about 3 hours of your time. Make some coffee, do a crossword or three, make some phone calls, pay some bills...

2) Just $1 per CD includes free shipping, insurance, cleaning, and repair

On the flip side of this, if you have so much music that you can't bear to do this by yourself, you have to ask if it's worth spending any money on the risk of your stuff getting lost, stolen, or damaged by, God help you, Geek Squad's repair + cleaning services.

3) We'll transfer your music to a purchased device free of charge

In the world of the iPod, iPhone, and Zune, this is pretty much automated.

4) We have great metadata and album artwork
I have my beefs with Gracenote/CDDB occasionally having some wrong information, but this is the most hands-off, automatic part of CD-ripping. Why am I paying these guys to do it again?

5) We have legendary service and support and a satisfaction guarantee

Which reminds me of an joke I once saw in an (obviously) fake ACME Catalog. "We stand by our products, usually at a safe distance."

Oh, Geek Squad, what will you think of next?

(Photo: Photosynthetique)

Well, the internet didn't take too kindly to the plight and suddenly Best Buy decided maybe doing that to customers isn't such a great strategy. So the general manager of the store in question has gone and made things right.

Diana gloats:

I am writing this letter as a follow up to a letter that I wrote last month. You may remember my story: my husband and I brought our PC to Best Buy for a CD player to be replaced, and the Geek Squad changed the entire hard drive, causing us to lose everything. I read all of the comments on Consumerist regarding my letter, and I actually agree with much of what was posted, as it was a huge mistake on our part not to have backed up our data….even when going in for something as simple as a CD replacement. We have learned our lesson and are researching the best way to back up our things. There were other comments implying that my story was false, that I had made it up, etc, and I can assure you that this is the real deal. I would never purposefully hurt another person, or a business, and in no way did I make it up….

Having said that, I would like to say a HUGE thank you to Mr. Kevin Grant, the General Manager of the Best Buy store in Salem, NH. Mr. Grant was alerted to my posting on Consumerist and contacted us immediately. He was very professional with my husband, and really cared about the situation that we were in…he even gave us his cell phone number! His communication was fantastic, and has kept in touch, just to make sure that we are all set. Mr. Grant did everything in his power to right this situation, although, in my opinion, it was not his wrong to make right. Mr. Grant made phone calls and tried to rectify the situation, and ultimately, has paid for us to have our data retrieved from our original hard drive, along with the external hard drive. I understand that paying for this $1,700 mistake will take away from his profit/loss for the month, but it is clear that his number one goal was to make us happy and to make up for the mistakes that the Geek Squad had made.

I am still annoyed that Mr. Grant had to take the hit for the mistakes of the Geek Squad, but am so pleased in the manner that Mr. Grant has helped us. I am grateful for his response and professionalism. I tried to find my original posting on your web site, but was unable to…could you please post this for me? I want Mr. Grant to know how much we appreciate his efforts.

Thanks for helping us! Diane and Joe.

Done and done. So remember kids, no need to back up your data before you take it to be repaired because the powers of public shame will solve all your problems. Just joking — never, ever, ever, never, ever allow a computer mechanic to monkey with your business unless you've backed that *ss up.

(Photo: Scurzuzu)

Diane writes:

I am writing to you because my husband and I are really getting the run around from Best Buy.

We bought a PC about 5 years ago, which has become our children's computer. It was in good condition, except the CD player in it was broken. We bought the extended warranty for the computer so we brought the tower in to the (redacted), NH store to get the CD replaced over 3 weeks ago. We declined backing up the data (a $100 charge) since replacing the CD drive is not a big deal, and does not require any work to be done to the hard drive. My husband would have replaced the CD drive himself, but then it would invalidate the warranty.

We found out this week that there was actually more work done to the computer than just what we had requested. In fact, our entire hard drive was replaced, thus all of the data is now gone! Apparently there were other things wrong with the computer than what we thought and the Geek Squad thought it would be in everyone's best interest to replace the hard drive. In fact, the Geek Squad replaced so much on the computer that the value of the work that they did is well over the amount of money that the computer is even worth!!! If we thought there was even a chance that our data was in jeopardy, we definitely would have backed it up ourselves, or paid the $100 to have it backed up.

So, to make a long story short, the Best Buy Geek Squad is asking that we pay about $1,700 in for lab fees, an external hard drive and labor in order to MAYBE aquire about 80% of the data from my computer. When we called their corporate office, after a 2 hour phone call, my husband was told that the corporate office, "does not negotiate fees". Corporate Office called the GM from the Best Buy in (redacted), NH and they are giving us a $200 gift card that we can use to pay towards the fee.

We need your help! We do not have an extra $1,500 to get our data back! We are losing thousands of photos of our children, and a lot of personal and professional files. I now know that we should always back up our data, but honestly, we were just getting the CD drive changed! We didn't want anything else done to the computer! It was working just fine! We truly feel like we are being wronged here.

I just need to know what to do next? Do we pay the fee and then sue them? We could put it on our Best Buy credit card (interest free for 18 months) although I really don't want to.

Best Buy seems to be admitting some fault here by offering the $200 gift card, but it's but a bandaid for a gaping wound. You're in a tight spot, because while it was totally reasonable to assume that replacing a CD drive wouldn't include erasing your hard drive, you aren't really dealing with a reasonable entity. We haven't examined the terms of your warranty, but if you feel like you can make the case that it was violated in any way, you can try taking Best Buy to small claims court.

It's not expensive and you can do it yourself. Here's some information about the small claims process. It's different in every state, but NH's limit of $5,000 should cover your issue if you're able to make your case.

Internet, how have you handled similar situations?

(Photo: dooleymtv)

It seems like a pretty simple transaction: purchase computer, leave computer overnight with the Geek Squad to have recovery disks made, bring computer home the following day. No, this is too difficult for Best Buy.

This is the letter that she sent to Best Buy CEO Bradbury Anderson yesterday:

Bradbury H. Anderson
Vice Chairman and Chief Executive

Best Buy Co., Inc.
7601 Penn Ave S.
Richfield, MN 55423

Dear Mr. Anderson:

Below please find a summary of events from my horrendous experience trying to purchase a laptop from your Yuma, Arizona location. While I researched my laptop purchase quite extensively, I never expected the real research should have gone to a store with proper equipment, employees who can return phone calls and some appreciation of customer service in any form; a store I have been loyal to for over 5 years.

July 8th 2009: My Boyfriend, Kevin insisted on a new laptop purchase to replace my '06 HP (which I purchased from Best Buy with a three year warranty). I happily began to research computers with him and decided upon an HP dv6 1260se. We made the purchase, bought a three year warranty and also asked to have your Geek Squad department make recovery software disks at an additional charge of $69.99. We left the computer overnight since the backup takes 3-4 hours and waited on a phone call to pick up the new device. A day had passed, it was now Thursday and I did not receive a phone call. Surely your company must be so busy in this economy it cannot return the phone call toward a purchase of $1385.89? So I called to check in and what do you know… the device was defective. Luckily, your employees caught this error. How horrible would it be to bring a defective computer home? Oh the disappointment.

July 10th 2009: More disappointment. We returned to your store and began to look at other laptop options. My boyfriend's aunt who had also recently purchased a laptop from your location recommended an HP dv7 1285 and we inquired on the model. Sure enough, Best Buy did carry the computer, but it was sold out. After speaking with several customer service reps we were told we could order the computer which would take 5-6 business days OR we could wait for the shipment arriving on Tuesday, July 14th. Obviously we chose the second option and again waited patiently for the computer to arrive. I left the store confident and happily awaited a phone call; more anxious than ever.

July 14th 2009: No phone call. I again called in to check up on the computer and what do you know? The order was ‘deleted'. Extremely anxious and annoyed, I again returned to your store and we were again informed the order was deleted. We inquired about other possible locations and miraculously ONE laptop was at a San Diego, Mission Valley location and would be transferred over for our inconvenience. Did I mention this computer with warranty is an additional $300 from our original purchase? My faith in your store was strong up until this point.

July 15-17 2009: I called in every day to check up on my purchase and inquire on the delivery.

July 18th 2009: Your store calls! The computer is in! The week wait is up! I again ask to have the recovery disks made as I am now well aware of the dreaded 3-4 hour wait time on these; however my anticipation is greatly outweighed by my inconvenience. I'm thrilled to finally have a computer!

Evening of July 18 2009: Geek Squad calls (yes they called!) to inform me that they accidentally placed a DVD instead of a CD to burn the disks. Annoyed, but still incredibly excited I patiently decided to wait until 10am to pick up my long awaited purchase.

10am July 19th 2009: Device is defective. I'm sure you can understand when I say this: your store has put me on more roller coaster of emotions than my own mother does. Can you please explain how after I again returned to your store on the 19th, absolutely no help was offered? I was absolutely thrilled and now I am reconsidering every purchase I have ever made from your store. Yes, I will still forge on but I am so annoyed that I refuse to even look at another laptop online.

Thank you for reading my experience. I truly hope this will avoid another mishap with another loyal customer. I'm sure you are well aware that mistakes are never truly mishaps unless you learn something from them and I have definitely learned something about the decision to purchase a laptop from your company.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth

Why so unresponsive, Yuma Best Buy? More importantly, why is the Geek Squad finding not one, but two computers sold in your very store "defective"? Is Elizabeth exceptionally unlucky, did you receive a few bad batches from HP, or is something else going on here?

Had Elizabeth sent us this letter before mailing, we might have had a few tips for her - remove the emotional appeals, and the irrelevant information such as her boyfriend's role in the purchase. The situation itself is absurd enough to make the case on its own.

Yes, most Consumerist readers wouldn't leave their computers with the Geek Squad overnight, but if Best Buy wants to encourage customers to use their services, why not make sure that "overnight" actually means "overnight?" and that the Geek Squad performs their services correctly?

(Photo: penner42)

Geek Squad only fessed up to installing an inferior chip after Brian got Sony on the phone to confirm that they didn't use the replacement model in their laptops.

Brian writes:

A couple of months ago, I brought my laptop to my local Best Buy for repair. After being told it would be no more than two weeks before I had my laptop back, I left the store content. The only problem with the laptop when I turned it in to Geek Squad was a cooling fan that was starting to go bad.

A month and half later, I finally got my laptop back. They had replaced the cooling fan, the motherboard, the processor, and most of the cabling. Apparently, I was told, they had inadvertently damaged the motherboard and processor during the repair of the cooling fan. That's a kind of silly mistake, but I can forgive them for it. However, they replaced my processor with a model that was inferior to the one the laptop had in it to begin with. The laptop had an Intel T7500 processor, they replaced it with a T7300. It took several days of arguing with them. I finally had to call Sony (they manufactured the laptop) and get them to confirm that the laptop had indeed had a T7500 processor in it.

Eventually Geek Squad agreed to fix the mistake. However, I can't help but wonder how often this type of "mistake" happens. By replacing my processor (which they damaged) with an inferior T7300 model, they saved about $100 on the repair. Your average consumer would never have caught this "mistake." I've been searching message boards to see if anyone else has had a similar problem and have thus far not found anything exactly like my situation. However, there is an overwhelming amount of negative comments regarding Geek Squad's service.

(Photo: dooleymtv)

The alleged victim told police that she had agreed to meet the suspect - Jay Mora, 25, of Newark - at the hotel to "engage in a sex-for-money transaction," according to the police report.

While in a room together, Mora allegedly passed off his Geek Squad ID as a State Police badge and told the woman he would release her without arrest if she agreed to have sex with him, police said. After they engaged in sexual acts, the suspect allegedly refused to leave the room, police said.

We had no idea that Geek Squad IDs looked that real, but we'll be sure to keep this in mind the next time we take a computer in for repair and are suddenly "arrested" and carted off to the employee bathroom. Fool me three times, shame on me, fool me four times, I know that's not a police badge now.

By the way, maybe Geek Squad should rethink its faux-crime fighting branding a little, or at least get rid of the badges and the creative police force names for everyone. Check out these descriptions of positions from the Geek Squad website.

Available Positions:
Store Agent positions:

* Counter Intelligence Agent (CIA)
* Deputy of Counter Intelligence (DCI)
* Store Service Manager (SSM)

Field Agent positions:

* Double Agent (DA)
* Certified Special Agent (CSA)
* Deputy Field Marshal (DFM)

It sounds like Jay just took the whole conceit one step further, then added a dirty cop twist. (Note that we have no idea whether he's actually a Geek Squad employee at this point.)

"Cops: Man posed as officer, flashed 'Geek Squad' badge to force sex" [Daily Record] (Thanks to Jeremiah!)

(Photo: zyphbear and bradleygee)

Several readers also contacted us to point out that HP extended the warranties on a number of models recently due to motherboard failures, so John or other readers may have more options than they initially thought.

First, to satisfy everyone's curiosity, here are the motherboard prices John found. As some of you speculated, the $150 he originally mentioned was for one on eBay, not from HP:

Here you go. Actually, if I return the broken board they will sell me a refurb for $133 and a new board for $228.95. The $150 boards were on eBay. And you know they'd send HP the defective board for the "core credit". AND you know that Best Buy would NOT pay near what I'd have to pay for the board being that they are the only licensed HP reseller in my area.

http://h20141.www2.hp.com/hpparts/Search_Results.asp?mscssid=BB31E5F3F21343B380DA714B5C2DCD3A&SearchInc=PartNumber

A reader named Mark read the post and wrote in to tell us he recently had his own problems with an HP laptop, and discovered the extended warranty news:

My HP laptop just went down as well and after a tech support rep at HP told me it would cost $50 for ANY phone support, as my laptop is out of warranty, I did some searching online.

Please check out:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?&objectID=c01087277

It details a trend of motherboard failures and a two year warranty extension for this specific problem.

(Thanks to IT Insider, Erick, and everyone else who also sent in this info!)

Finally, we got some interesting inside info from John, a former CompUSA repair tech who offered an explanation to why Geek Squad's quote was so high:

I just wanted to let you know how it is from the service side of things. I worked on the repair side at CompUSA. Generally this is how it worked, we would order our parts from a third party. They would refurbish the parts and put a limited 30 day warranty on the part. When we order parts from them, Motherboards would generally cost between 500-1000 for laptops. I don't know how Best Buy has it set up, but I would venture it is similar. This takes the cost of doing the business of finding a part and knowing that it will work off of the retailer. And if the part was bad we could send it back and get another part at no additional cost to us. So if we were to go on ebay we would probably have to pay shipping for a part that we have no clue if it worked. It makes sense to me that this is how Best Buy does it too.

Here's John's story. The first paragraph is really more about how Best Buy screwed up yet another easy sale by failing to offer the bare minimum of service. Paragraphs two and three are about the motherboard.

My wife's laptop died about a 2 weeks after the 1 year warranty expired. We paid about $1000 (including tax) for it from Sam's Club. We contacted HP on the off-chance that they'd be cool about it and cover it anyway. No luck. So my wife, desperate to get her laptop working, decided to take it to The Geek Squad. First, they told her that they couldn't diagnose it there that they'd have to send it away to do so. She uses this as her work computer, even though we bought it ourselves, and couldn't wait to get it back. So she said she'd buy a new one then and there and have them transfer the data to her new laptop. I'd already found one that would be good for her while she was at the Geek Squad counter and we went over to it. We couldn't find a store associate anywhere. So my wife went up to the counter to have someone come over to help us. We told them where we'd be standing/waiting and they said they'd send someone right over. We waited, and waited, and waited. No one. My wife was fuming at this point and she went back up the counter and demanded that they give her back her laptop, and told them that they just lost out on a guaranteed $1200+ sale then and there.

But it gets better.

So, desperate to get her laptop working, she had me take it back the them the next day. They sent it in ($89 just to look at it, btw) and 2 weeks later the diagnosis is that it needs a new motherboard. I looked online and a new HP motherboard for this unit costs $150 to a consumer like me. This means, they're charging $650 minimum to install a motherboard. Being a year old, I could buy a brand new laptop that's almost twice as good for that same price!

We found this "Ask a Geek" article from a year and a half ago that says you should expect to pay anywhere from $250 to $500 for a new motherboard, but that's including the cost of the motherboard, a new operating system license to replace the one your computer came with (which likely is not licensed to work on the new hardware), and 3-4 hours of labor to swap out the part and reinstall everything. Opinions? Advice? Suggestions on better places to go for this sort of computer repair?

"The Cost Of Replacing A Motherboard" [Ask a Geek]
(Photo: tarale)

According to the article, the employees called the police, "who ran a background check on the owner and checked the serial numbers on the bills stashed inside the tower." Nothing suspicious turned up, so they returned the money.

What kind of person stashes his savings in his computer tower and then forgets about it? The same kind who takes his computer to Best Buy for repair. Hooray! We were wondering how to spin this into something snarky and we managed to do it!

Pete, who sent us the tip, notes that there's an important lesson here: "Before you take your computer in for repairs, please remove your money."

"Best Buy employees find cash inside computer" [St. Louis Post Dispatch]
(Photos: karindalziel, AMagill)

Just shy of three years ago I bought an Averatec 2260-EY1 for about $1000 from Best Buy and paid extra for their 3-yr warranty in anticipation of something going wrong, hardware-wise, as something usually does. Back in January of this year, I finally decided to address the fact that it was overheating constantly, the battery no longer held charge, and it often froze up and had to be forced into shutdown. I dropped it off at the Geek Squad with those complaints, and was told in vague language that if they have to fix three things about the computer, the 4th move would be to junk it and replace it, according to their "lemon" policy. They said they could do an in-house diagnostic, which would take about 3-5 days, or they could send it right out to the offsite repair people, who would then strangely do their own diagnostic regardless of what the in-house people do. I told them to send it straight out, of course. They said I would receive an update via phone or email within a week.

Having heard nothing, I attempted to follow up by phone, to no avail. I was continually referred to the Geek Squad status website, which was basically like tracking a package with UPS, only the package never moved or changed status at all. Almost a month later, it came back from its repair limbo. I came back to the store to pick it up, and was told that they had replaced the fan and the battery. I figured I might as well start it up while I was standing there, just to see how it ran. It ran slow. Veeeerrry slow. Way slower than it ever had on my watch — slowness was not a part of my initial complaint — and even the guy behind the counter had to agree that it shouldn't take 10 full minutes to get from hitting the power button to loading MS Word. In the midst of all this, I noticed that the battery LED was still flashing green and orange, but I figured maybe they just hadn't charged the battery after the last round of tests or what-have-you. The counter guy, while frantically helping two other people in person and one on the phone, managed to run some software tests while I stood there for over half an hour.

He seemed to think it was the hard drive, which could be fixed in-house, but first they had to run a few days' worth of tests. I checked it back in, said goodbye to my livelihood once again (I'm a freelance writer), and kept my fingers crossed. At the very least, according to the first Geek to help me, a new HD would constitute the third "hardware thing" fixed, so if anything further went wrong, I might hit the lemon policy jackpot.

A week later, after several flabbergastingly fruitless attempts to gain information by phone, I return. They've replaced the hard drive, cloned it, and said I have to reinstall the OS myself. The Averatec didn't come with backup CDs because it came installed with backup software instead, which took me a while to figure out. A Phoenix Recover Pro software customer service operator walked me (by phone) through the process of restoring the OS, and by the time this was all said and done, I couldn't deny that the battery light was still flashing. Charge was not being held. If I unplugged the unit, it died instantly. That's not how a newly replaced battery should work, no?

Here begins the real fandango. I call Geek Squad, told them I'd hit Thing #4: If they did indeed already replace the battery as they said they had, then if I'm still having power problems, it must be something else — a fourth thing — and so I'm due a new laptop, right? Not so fast. First, they have to replace the battery again, to be sure it's not the battery. I'm not about to say goodbye to my most essential wage-earning tool for another month, so I enact the process of ordering one by phone through Best Buy Partsearch, still covered by warranty, at least until June. Since none of their systems are connected, I give them my name, address, make/model, and part number. Naturally, they send me the wrong battery. Wrong shape, wrong color, wrong model, not even close to what I need. I call them up, they email me a return postage label, I send the battery back and they were supposed to send out a correct one as soon as the wrong one was received. This one's taking longer, so I call to see to what the delay is. The battery I need is on back-order. They don't know when they'll get one. There's absolutely no way to find out. Supervisors, managers, Baron Wilhelm von Partsearch himself couldn't have told me any more than what appeared on that one lackey's very-slow-loading screen. If Nostradamus worked there, not even he could tell me when the correct battery would come in. I tell them my warranty's expiring soon. They say if I haven't gotten it by the expiration time, I should call customer relations and they'll probably extend it for as long as it takes to get the new battery. And what if, given that the new battery didn't solve the problem the first time they replaced it, the second new battery doesn't, either? What then?

Water-boarding couldn't have gotten these folks to err from their carefully scripted run-around. No one can see any of the information from any other department. Geek Squad is separate; in-house repairs are separate from the offsite people; Partsearch knows nothing about warranties, customer relations knows nothing about repairs, etc.. A week or so later, some anonymous genius decides to send me another battery anyway. Not only was it wrong again, but it was the same wrong battery. I spend another half an hour on the phone with some poor, disaffected, headsetted cubicle slave. He says I can always purchase a new battery myself, produce the receipt and Best Buy will reimburse me within a few weeks. Considering how dependable they've been so far, I decide not to bet on that. I order yet another battery.

At this point, it's March. I receive battery #3.... THE SAME WRONG BATTERY, again. Now it's just laughable. I stop laughing, however, when I speak to customer relations to begin laying groundwork for the trouble that surely will come in a few months when my warranty expires and I'm stuck with a problematic 'puter. According to that fine chap, none of this gets me close to the lemon policy after all. Suddenly it doesn't work the way it was originally explained. It doesn't matter how many "things" go wrong — you have to have three independent work tickets, or service numbers, or whatever — it has to have been checked in on three separate occasions for hardware-specific issues, then on the 4th check-in, it might be eligible for replacement. What's more, the battery replacement doesn't even count as a repair. And then the real kicker: So far he shows I've got two check-ins, only one of which resulted in parts replaced.

Now hang on a minute there... What about the hard drive? The 2nd check-in resulted in an HD replacement! Not according to this guy's records. Apparently, depending on who you ask, the 2nd check-in was only a diagnostic; Best Buy customer relations has no record of the HD replacement, but told me that if I have the paperwork to prove it, I should hang on to it and bring it into the store if/when the time comes to attempt to take advantage of the lemon policy. "Great," I think to myself. "So it's my own documentation versus the word of the store. That's gonna be tons of fun." Thankfully, I do have the documentation. I even have the old HD in a box with a Geek Squad bar code and an employee's handwriting on it. I arrange for battery #4. This time the kid on the phone says he can see a picture of the correct battery — it's black, not silver, just as I'd been saying all along. I feel hopeful — for completion of this stage, anyway.

Today, March 24th, I receive battery #4. That's right, folks — the same wrong battery, just like all the others.

The truth is, my laptop still basically works. I'm using it right now — I just can't unplug it, which kind of negates the whole "ultraportable" idea, which is a large part of why I bought this particular model. Meanwhile, a friend has an old laptop (yet still newer and more powerful than my Averatec) that also has a power problem that he doesn't care to fix, and he's willing to let me have the broken laptop for free. My plan is this: Take his broken Compaq to a trustworthy independent repair service, have it fixed (if cost effective), then use that one while submitting my Averatec to the Geek Squad once again, to let them sit on it indefinitely while waiting for a pterodactyl to come swooping out of the sky with the correct (but clearly obsolete) Averatec battery. All the while, I'll plant periodic phone calls to Customer Relations, demanding status info and attempting to make sure that if/when the battery doesn't solve the problem, they'll still fix it, and maybe — just maybe — make good on the lemon policy.

My Consumerist comrades: What say you?

It's clear that Best Buy has no intention of honoring their policy. When customer service agents stop talking about repairs in favor of talking about how their system describes the repairs, it's time to escalate. Try to get results by calling Best Buy's executive office. Or maybe just call your state's attorney general and ask what other policies Best Buy is training their employees to undermine.

(Photo: David Baker)

Nicole writes:

I took my computer into Best buy on February 17 because it wasn't recognizing the hard drive. I'm self-employed and that hard drive contained all the information for my business including the files for my website, my financial information, etc… as well as personal things such as thousands of pictures that I've taken and stored on the computer. My brother, who fixes, programs, and builds computers told me that if they have to replace the hard drive then to ask them for the old hard drive so he could try and get all my important data or send it off to someone who could get it.

Well, I spoke with the Geek Squad employee and explained to him how important all the information was on the hard drive and asked if I could get the old hard drive back if they needed to replace it. He said "no", but convinced me that he would be able to back-up the hard drive for me before sending the computer off to get repaired. It would cost $99, of course. He went on to explain how fancy the data retrieval machine was (which is why it cost $99) and that it could get the information of my hard drive and not to worry. So, I took his word for it and gave them my computer to send off for repairs.

On February 27 I got a call from a woman who worked at Best Buy and she left a message saying that my computer was back from the Service Center and that they had to replace the hard drive. However, because the hard drive needed to be replaced, they needed me to bring in the reboot discs that came with the computer… We recently moved and half our stuff is in boxes so I have NO clue where the discs were(or if we even still have them) so I explained that to the woman and she said that without them they couldn't do anything and that I'd have to buy new ones from HP, but they'd look around and see if they had any and would call me back.

A few days passed and I didn't hear back so I called them up to see what was going on. She said they didn't have the cds and so it was my responsibility to buy new ones. That, of course, got me angry because they ought to have that kind of stuff there. What's the point of repairing a computer if you can't get it back in working order?! The conversation led to me telling the woman that I just wanted to pick up my computer and then I asked her about the back-up discs as well…

This is when she told me that they had been unable to back-up my hard drive before sending it off for repairs and I completely flipped! I ended up hanging up and heading straight to Best Buy!

When my husband and I got to Best Buy we stood in line at Geek Squad for about 45 minutes and when it was my turn I ended up being with the same GS employee that I had originally given my computer to. I told the guy that I wanted my computer, the old hard drive and a refund for the $100 I paid to have my hard drive backed up! I pulled out the contract I'd signed and pointed out where the contract states, in CAPS, that the back-up was to be done PRIOR to any services being performed on the computer and that when I brought the computer in I made is VERY clear that I needed to the information on the computer and expressed that I'd like the old hardrive back if they had to replace it(to which he had told me "no" and assured me that he could back-up the info). I even said that, if they needed to, they could take back the NEW hardrive, if that's what it meant to get back my old one.

I told him that since the contract states that the back-up is going to be done prior to the repair services, then when they were unable to back-up the data, then I should have been contacted BEFORE the computer was sent off. Especially since I had made a huge point of telling him how important the hard drive was to me.

I also pointed out in the contract where it states that I am to be contacted if the repairs go above the estimated cost(which was $0). The GS employee had told me that there was a chance that the hard drive would need to be replaced, but no one ever mentioned anything to me about needed to reboot discs. The reboot discs, of course, cost money. Sooo…I feel that I should have been told that ahead of time because that is part of the repair cost(a hard drive is useless if it doesn't have the software on it).

He ended up having me speak to the manager on duty and after about 10 minutes of speaking with her she said that there was nothing she could do and she told the Geek Squad employee to simply call the Service Center and request my hard drive back. I was elated and relieved to hear her say that!

Well, as soon as she walked away the employee told me that he needed me to talk to the GS manager, but that he was on lunch break. So, my husband and I told him we'd come back in 30 minutes so we could talk to the GS Manager, Steve.

When we got back the GS manager was right there, but we had to wait in line and during that time he was off doing something else. 45 minutes later we got our turn in line only to be told to wait because the manager was busy with another customer. We had originally gotten at BB at 5pm and didn't get to speak with the manager til after 8pm and didn't leave til around 9pm!

Anyways, he finally came over and after talking with him for a while he said he'd contact the "Service Center" and ask them about the hard drive and that he'd let me know what they said and couldn't make any guarantees to get back my hard drive back.

I asked him for the contact information for the Service Center and he said that there's no "public contact #" for them. I asked if I could come back tomorrow when he calls them(to ensure that he really does call them and doesn't just sweep everything under the rug because the GS employee told me it would take around 2 weeks to hear back…) and he said that they don't have a contact #…(YEAH RIGHT!) I was told that the only way to contact them is via email and that information was private so he refused to give it to me.
Also, the entire time he was sitting back in a chair and give us a "better then thou" attitude, which just made me that much angrier!

Oh yeah, the manager said that the hard drive is their property, not mine. He told me that the contract from my warranty states that any hardware that is taken and replaced from my computer then becomes Best Buy property. However, when I asked him to show me that contract, he said that they no longer have it. I said that if I signed it then they HAVE to have a copy, but he said I didn't actually sign it, but that it was in the pamphlet I got when I bought the warranty. Soooo….yeah….

Now, to today…

I got a call this morning and a Best Buy employee ended up leaving me a message on my phone letting me know that the Service Center contacted them back and they refuse to give me back my hard drive. However, they, of course, said that they'd be more then happy to try and retrieve the information from my hard drive for me (which would cost a VERY large sum of money!).

Sooo...according to the call I got today, that means that they DO have my hard drive and are holding it hostage, so to speak.

All in all, this could have been avoided if they'd just contacted me when the back-up was unable to be done. I find it odd that they'd rather keep my old hard drive and have to deal with me as an upset customer rather then accepting my offer and taking back their brand new, perfectly good hard drive and giving me back my old, broken one instead."

To us, messing with someone's data is on par with taking a kid hostage. You can try to get in touch with Best Buy's executives, but executive email carpet bombs are designed to eviscerate incompetence. This isn't an ordinary customer service failure. This is evil.

Update: Nicole writes in with good news:

I just got a call from Randy Ratcliff who said he is an ambassador for Best Buy and he said that he has my hard drive and that he will be getting my data for me(for free!)! He apologized for everything and said it might take a few weeks, but he WILL get the data, even if he has to send it off to a clean room!

Thank you all SOOO much! I'm positive that if it hadn't been for you guys posting my story that I would have never gotten this response from Best Buy. You all are awesome for helping us "little people" get our voices heard!

(Photo: Sal Paradize)

Dave writes:

Let me begin with the below quote which is copied directly from the FAQ section of the Geek Squad website. This will resurface later in this email.

"If you notify us within the stated time period, we will work to remedy your problem quickly and at no additional cost."

Now, I have always been a huge fan of Best Buy and have shopped there religiously for years. Maybe it's due to the fact that I get memorized by the electronic goodness when entering the store. Or maybe it's because I've just never been a fan of the layout of Circuit City stores.

Anyway, I recently took my 30gb iPod in for servicing at my local Best Buy in King of Prussia, PA. The iPod was not performing properly when connected to a docking station or iPod USB cord (sound only came out of the left speaker channel, no sound from the right speaker channel). It was covered by a "Product Service Plan" that I purchased from Best Buy with the iPod, so I explained the issue to the Geek Squad employee in the store and they sent it out for repair on November 10, 2008. I received it back on 12/10 and found that they replaced the hard drive, which did not fix the issue. I had it sent out for repair again on 12/8/08. The service note stated that the technician should call the customer (me) for details about the issue if there was confusion. No phone call and one month later, the iPod was ready for pick-up at Best Buy. The issue? The Geek Squad technician "could not duplicate the problem."

I asked the store Geek Squad representative why I was never called, and he stated that it's because the technician couldn't find an issue with the iPod. That's all fine and dandy, but had they called me, I could have explained the issue in greater detail since the Geek Squad store reps tend to write extremely vague descriptions on the Service Orders. Blank stare from Geek Squad rep. I then told the store the rep that I could show him right then and there that the iPod is malfunctioning by plugging the iPod into my car stereo, and by using my wife's iPod in comparison as an example of one that works perfectly fine. His response was that they don't repair the items in the store so showing him wouldn't do anything to help the cause. He recommended that I call the 1-800-GeekSquad number and take it up with them. So I did, and this is where things get good..

I called Geek Squad on 1/13/08 and spoke to a Customer Service rep. She was very nice, but she couldn't help me. She told me that I needed to go back to the store and explain my issue to them (even though I had already told her that the store directed me to call Geek Squad). She offered to transfer me to the Customer Relations department, and I spoke to a gentleman in that department. He told me that he could not reverse the technician's decision, but that he could offer me $60 store credit towards a new iPod. This irritated me because it's like I was being offered a consolation prize, when in reality, all I wanted is for my iPod to be fixed. I told him this, and his next response was that the best he could do is offer me $100 store credit instead. Again, I don't want store credit, I just want my iPod fixed because after all, I did pay a pretty penny for the service plan and the iPod as well. He couldn't help me, so I asked to be transferred to a Customer Relations supervisor.

Enter "Tony", a Geek Squad supervisor with a "customer is wrong" mentality. I explained the situation to him, and he said that he cannot overturn the technician's decision. I then asked why I was never contacted, and he told me that Geek Squad technician's aren't allowed to call customers. That strikes me as odd, because years back I had a surround sound system that was acting up and had it serviced by Circuit City under a similar type of service plan. Their tech called me numerous times so I could help him understand the issue I was experiencing, and so he could fix it appropriately and in a timely manner. It strikes me as odd that a Geek Squad technician is not allowed to contact a customer, when Best Buy and Geek Squad represent the service as if customer-technician relationships are common day. Have you seen their tv commercials? It's as if the Geek Squad tech is your best friend..yet they can't call a customer about a Service Order?

Tony then told me that since I'm not a technician, I have no right to say that the technician didn't fix the iPod, because after all, the tech "could not find an issue with it." I told him that I don't need to be a technician to realize that my iPod isn't working. Common sense tells you that when you plug it in and it's not working properly, and then you plug numerous other iPods in and they work perfectly fine, that the iPod is malfunctioning. Tony repeated the message again…I, as a customer, have no right to say that the technician didn't fix the iPod because I do not have the technical expertise that the technician has. The technician's decision is final. Seriously? This guy is basically telling me that I'm dumb and shouldn't question the FACT that their technician did not fix my iPod.

Remember the quote I began with earlier in this email? Apparently Tony the supervisor isn't on-board with this philosophy. I'll paste it again for reference:

"If you notify us within the stated time period, we will work to remedy your problem quickly and at no additional cost."

He told me the only option I have is to pay for a third-party to test my iPod and prove the Geek Squad technician wrong. Whaaaaat?!? I now have to pay someone else when I already paid for a service plan that should be addressing this issue? What kind of customer service is that?

I'm now stuck with an ipod that wasn't fixed by Geek Squad, and Tony the Geek Squad supervisor is telling me that my only option is to pay for someone else other then Geek Squad to have it fixed. What's the purpose of paying for a service plan if they refuse to properly service my product? I thought they work with their customers to "remedy your problem quickly and at no additional cost"..?

Geek Squad = FAIL.

Apple has a product service plan too called AppleCare. The difference? Apple cares. If they can't fix your iPod, you usually get a replacement, not a runaround.

We understand that since you already paid for a service you don't want to buy a different one. Since Tony the Geek Squad Supervisor won't help, go over his head and try asking Best Buy's executive team for help.

(Photo: Ian Muttoo)

Erin writes:

Wanted to tip everyone off: Best Buy sells a sweet Blu Ray player made by
Insignia for $169. I picked one up & spotted the "Geek Squad" can upgrade the firmware for $29.99. Meh. I'll do it myself.

On checking out, the young lady pointed out that I'd need the firmware upgrade, and they could do it. Without it, I'd not be able to watch the latest Blu Ray titles, such as the Dark Knight. I told her I'd take care of it.

I got home, and took a peek. There is no phone jack or ethernet port on the unit, only an SD Card slot on the front. Hmm. Went to Insignia website, no firmware update notice anywhere. I call Insignia, and guess what? All of their CS is now handled by Best Buy. Awesome.

The Dark Knight plays fine.

Tell everyone you know- if you buy the Insignia KM- BRDVD player, it's FINE. NO FIRMWARE update needed. I wonder how many people they sucker into this.

To those shoppers confused about the difference between hardware and software, "firmware" is probably scary enough to get them to shell out $30. Thanks for the heads up, Erin!

James says (to Best Buy):

Finally, on NOVEMBER 12th, I received a message from the Geek Squad asking if the service call that took place on November 5th had gone satisfactorily. This was news to me as I had never been informed that anyone had tried to come to take a look at my TV. I didn't receive a phone call before November 5th to schedule the appointment. I didn't receive a call on November 5th to tell me a tech would be coming at some point during the day. I didn't receive a call after November 5th to tell me that I had missed an appointment.

As of today, November 19, 2008, I have no idea where else to turn for help but it has now been almost 3 months since I first called in for assistance. In that time, I have been left with a TV that works WORSE than when I first called and have been left waiting for a phone call that never came SIX TIMES. In your latest press release, you said that "we [Best Buy] continue to see improvements in employee turnover, customer satisfaction and market share". If this is the type of service that you are offering, I cannot imagine how the second and third of those three could possibly be true.

Oh, that's harsh, quoting the press release. We hope your EECB is successful, James. If it isn't, you can always try small claims court!

For more information about launching your own EECB, click here.
(Photo: dooleymtv )

Good morning:

Each of you may have been receiving emails from anonymous individuals identifying his/herself as Wilt Chamberlain, Double Agent, Geek Squad, Agent Agent or Magic Johnson. These emails from an anonymous sender(s) are asking you to ‘unite’, directing you to the Communication Workers of America (CWA), directing you to a Forum and soliciting signatures on a petition for legislation called the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

http://www.cwa-union.org/
http://tellthem.forumotion.net/
http://www.freechoiceact.org

First, none of the emails are being generated by the company or by a manager.

We have been having meetings with you, asking everyone to voice their opinions and asking everyone to help solve the problems we collectively face in tough economic times. Your input is important. We do not solicit input anonymously.

Each of you was selected because of your professional experience, attitude and skills. Every single member of the Geek Squad should be proud of your personal contribution to the accomplishments of the team. You have each helped establish a brand that millions of people recognize and respect.

Economic times are tough right now.

Modifications are needed to get through this difficult time. This is happening in every company in America. Today, we are in a lot stronger position than most companies.. Economic times fluctuate. Decisions have to be made in both good times and in tough times. We always want your input. We want to hear your voice, your concerns and want to make changes in a respectful manner. We want to continue to work with you directly so that questions can be answered and so that misunderstandings can be addressed without filters. And we also recognize that as a management team we sometimes fail to follow the best processes – never intentionally - but your direct feedback and input helps all of us learn to be better in the future in service of our employee and customer.

One email suggested that Best Buy is afraid of Unions.

We are not afraid – We are concerned.

We are concerned about being able to talk with you directly.

We are concerned about being able to continue to get your feedback, input and suggestions in an open forum.

We are concerned that a union could result in a lack of flexibility to address market conditions, customer desires and your own desires and needs.

To whoever is using the name of the great Wilt Chamberlain.

Over the last thirty years, union membership has dropped from 35% of total workers to just over 7% of the private sector. Did you ever ask yourself why any business loses market share? In one email the CWA is mentioned. To find out more about the CWA, take the time to search around the links at http://unionfacts.com/unions/unionProfile.cfm?id=188

THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT

One anonymous email asks you to sign a petition supporting EFCA.

First, opinions on political issues and candidates are personal issues, and we believe that each individual’s opinion needs to be respected. This is one of the strengths of our company, and a basic tenet of democracy.

We are concerned about the EFCA because it will infringe on an individual’s right to express their opinion in a secret ballot government conducted election.

Under this legislation, employees do not get to vote in a secret ballot election but rather if a union gets 50%+1 of the employees to sign a union authorization card all 100% are considered unionized – without a vote. In fact, 49% + X may not even have a voice in the decision or process. And it is possible that any union authorization cards signed today may be held by a union and count as a ‘yes’ vote if the law changes. People may be stripped of their right to vote “no” after signing a card today.

We are also concerned that employees may lose their voice in the workplace under this legislation. Under current law, a company and union negotiate a contract to completion and then the employees get to vote yes or no on accepting the terms and conditions of the contract. Under this proposed legislation, the company and union are to negotiate for a specified time period and if an agreement is not reached, a federal arbitrator will decide the content of the contract. The employees get no say. That denies employees the right to vote on accepting or rejecting the contract.

We are also, concerned that EFCA may have a negative impact on Best Buy’s business model. Our business model works because we can deal directly with our employees and react quickly to changing business needs. The introduction of a third party into that relationship, may limit our ability to serve our customers in the way that we do now.

We encourage each of you to learn as much as you can about EFCA, and to form your own opinion about whether or not you believe it is something that is in the best interest of our brand and our company.

You can also express your opinion, whatever it may be, to the anonymous email authors.

If you disagree with the anonymous senders, it is your decision and you can show your disagreement in any lawful manner including responding to the emails of the anonymous senders. If you agree with the anonymous senders, it is your decision and you can show your support in any lawful manner.. It is your choice.

Let me say that we are not afraid of unions at Best Buy. We truly believe that union representation is not in the best interests of the company, our customers or our employees. If you have any issues, concerns or ideas please do not hesitate to talk to your immediate supervisor or reach out to me.

In closing, let me say that we are betting the farm on our employees. What we are concerned about is putting something or someone between our employees and their supervisors that eliminates transparency, honesty and our ability to win with our customers by creating a world class experience for each of our employees. Feel free to reach out share your thoughts, ideas or concerns to me at anytime. You can contact me at Christian.Babb@BestBuy.com.

Thank you,

Chris Babb

(Photo: ob1left)

So my friend goes in and decides to buy a new HP Pavilion Media Laptop. Not only do they push anti-virus protection and an HDMI input on him, they charge him over $200 for it along with $300 warranty. So his $800 laptop is now $1300. He ended up waiting almost 2 hours for them to 'install' these two components on top of this. While this may seem bad enough, the real story comes later.

He's my roomate and decided to buy this PC after his old notebook died. He came back, unopened it and began to download all the things he needs. He then calls me over and seemed confused because he wanted to plug it in and he couldn't seem to find where to plug it in. I started laughing because it seemed like something so simple. I go over and low and behold, the plug is wrong. It seems weird to me that a brand new PC would have the wrong AC adapter. He immediately calls Best Buy (1 hour before closing) and explains that he has the wrong adapter. Not only does the sales rep insult my friend, but he insists that it's not the wrong plug and we're doing something wrong. Now I work in IT, I think that I can PLUG IN A COMPUTER. Then he says "Well you can come in but we close in an hour." Thanks a lot.

So we go in and go right up to the Geek Squad desk and explain the situation. As soon as my friend pulls out the adapter, the guy takes it and gives us the correct one. He then says, "Yea, we put the wrong adapter back in. We put the wrong adapter in two other computers and one, we forgot to put an AC adapter in at all. So I'm not surprised."

Best Buy might actually have a workable customer service model if, you know, belated honesty made up for gross incompetence.

(Photo: Jared Harley)

I get the computer to my office and this is what I find:
1) Geek Squad cut the wires from the power supply to the motherboard plug so the power supply is worthless.
2) and a stick of RAM has been stolen from the second blue slot.
3) Geek Squad cut all of the IDE cables!
4) The Crown Jewel - Geek Squad broke the power connector off of
the Hard Drive controller.

Maybe it was innocently, maybe it was maliciously, maybe to hide the fact that they hosed the drive. I'm going with malicious until I can solder on a connector and get these peoples data back...

I'm so hacked at Geek Squad I can't even express it right now.

Obviously, this story isn't coming from the computer's owner, but we'll pass along some advice anyway. We don't see any reason why the owners of this computer shouldn't consider filing a small claims lawsuit against Best Buy for the damages. Here's some information about what small claims court is, and how it works. In addition, the owners should file a report with their attorney general and/or department of consumer affairs. We wouldn't hesitate to contact the local police and let them know that someone may have vandalized the computer.

Geek Squad [Kevitivity]
(Photo: Dave Baker )

PCMag's article says,

In a statement on its website dated July 14, Wal-Mart says the "program provides an opportunity for us to understand more about what our customers need and expect in home installation and technology services, within a specific market."

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, describes the program as a small pilot.

"There are no plans at this time to expand the service outside of Dallas other than to 15 select stores," Wal-Mart states.

When we hear the words "Walmart" and "computer repair" together, it's difficult to be optimistic. We just hope that they excel in all aspects of technical support and not just porn-recovery.

Wal-Mart Computer Repairs - Solution Stations vs Geek Squads [TrendHunter]
Wal-Mart Using Dell to Provide 'Solution Stations' [PCMag]

Here's Janssens' take on the law:

According to a lawsuit initiated by the newly-established Texas Chapter of the Institute for Justice, the Texas Private Security Board, a state agency, is interpreting this as including simple computer repairs such as malware removal.

The law provides for punishment of up to one year in jail and $4,000 in fines, and up to $10,000 in civil penalties. Additionally, any customer knowingly enlisting the help of an unlicensed computer repair person (that is, without a PI license) is subject to the same punishment.

Matt Miller, Texas Institute for Justice Executive Director and lead attorney on the case, notes that "it makes no sense to require a computer repairman with 10 or 20 years of experience to get a degree in criminal justice just to continue working in his occupation. This law will drive up the price of computer repair for everyone, and that’s exactly what the private investigations industry wants."

Janssens points out that "to get a PI license, one needs either a criminal justice degree (with all associated costs) or a three-year apprenticeship under a licensed PI."

But the Daily Times says repair technicians' fears are unfounded, and that the lawsuit is in part a publicity stunt by the organization that filed it:

The author of the bill, Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, told the Houston Chronicle that computer techs are misinterpreting the law and that the lawsuit is simply a publicity stunt by The Institute for Justice.

The lawsuit marked the launch of the group’s Texas chapter.

Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, agreed the new law probably is being misread.

“It needs some tightening up and some clarification, but I have been assured that they will be very cautious about enforcing it,” Hilderbran said. “(Driver’s) intent was that this rule only be used when analyzing data for investigative purposes.”

An e-mail sent to Hilderbran from DPS states that “only computer forensics officials must be licensed under the Private Security Act” and that those who only retrieve information from computer databases and pass it on to another person are not subject to the new law.

We just can't get over the idea of Geek Squad members all carrying around P.I. badges. Beyond the obvious concerns that over-eager Geek Squadders will abuse their power to, um, "privately investigate," the Texas Best Buy stores will have to remodel their in-store zones to provide a door with a frosted glass window for customers to walk through.

"Geek Squad, P.I.? Computer Repair Uproar in Texas" [ITPlanet.com] (Thanks to CaptZ!)
"Computer techs fight private-investigator law" [Daily Times]
(Photo: Joost Assink)

Mike writes to Best Buy:

Our home computer was infected by a Trojan that had seriously slowed down our service and had recently caused the computer to cease running a crucial process. When we took the CPU into the Geek Squad, they suggested that our best option was to have them back up the hard drive, and for us to then run the computer’s Restore disc at home.

We were asked to fill out a form that contained the absolute minimum that must be backed up. I listed on that form 3 folders of personal documents and a single Word document that resided on the computer’s desktop. However, we were then informed that the best way to absolutely ensure the Geek Squad’s ability to back up our entire hard drive would be to purchase an external drive whose capacity was at least as large as our computer’s. We thus purchased for approximately $95 a 500 GB external hard drive on which to back up an 80 GB computer.

The process, we were told, would take 2 to 3 days. After 5, we were finally told that our computer was ready.

Having picked up the CPU and brought it home, I checked the contents of the external hard drive before running the restore disc. At this time I discovered, firstly, that only the bare minimum had been backed up—the three folders and one document that we had indicated on the form. Since I had purchased the 500GB hard drive specifically because I was told that this would with certainty allow the Geek Squad to back up the entire hard drive, this was extremely frustrating.

However, the situation almost immediately graduated from frustrating to infuriating. One of the three folders I had marked on the form was the “My Documents” folder. The icon for this folder on the hard drive indicated that the file size was 1 KB. The technicians at Best Buy had NOT backed up the “My Documents” folder, as I had requested: they had backed up only the shortcut. None of the files within the folder had actually been transferred.

There is an expectation upon the part of the consumer that Best Buy’s computer technicians know what they are doing. The fact that they were not tipped off by the “1 KB” notation that I noticed immediately suggests precisely the opposite: that the Geek Squad at Best Buy on 14th Street are lazy at best, incompetent at worst.

I am extremely unhappy. I spent all night last night backing up the computer myself—a service I paid for rather handsomely, and for which I received LESS than the absolute-last-resort minimum that I had indicated on my paperwork. But my biggest regret in this entire fiasco is that I did not avail myself of the Best Buy Geek Squad’s long history of complaints and dissatisfied customers. I might then have saved myself a great deal of time and trouble.

Please be assured that I will not patronize Best Buy again.

Thank you.



Mike

Kudos to you for not waiting until after you nuked your hard drive to check the external. If Best Buy doesn't offer a refund for the services they did not perform, we wouldn't hesitate to contact our credit card company and request a chargeback.

(Photo: The Joy Of The Mundane )

"We are looking at different options," Gary Severson, a Wal-Mart senior vice president, told MarketWatch during a store tour with media.

The Consumerist would like to take this opportunity to thank Wal-Mart for ensuring the continuing existence of this site. This is going to be fun!

Wal-Mart eyes expansion in electronics services [MarketWatch]

(Photo: Ryan McFarland )

Once again, the lesson is to keep a separate hard drive just for stuff you don't want people in the repair shop to see.

Geek Squad: A matter of trust [Star Tribune]

Statements + Lawsuit (PDF)

So what does this prove? That you should learn to troubleshoot your own damn computer! Or more realistically, that you should troubleshoot the computer technician before taking him at his word:

Powis said customers need to ask questions when bringing a computer to any repair shop, including if the employees are qualified and what if any certifications and formal training they have.
 
He also said knowledgeable technicians would, in most cases, ask to keep the computer to perform diagnostic testing.

"Computer Shops Fail Undercover Test" [Denver's Channel 7 News] (Thanks to Jim!)
(Photo: redjar)

We laughed.

Do 11-year-olds really have lawyers?

His handwriting is pretty good, too.

Young man, if you really exist, we're impressed for standing up for your consumer rights at so early an age. While the tone is juvenile, we appreciate the sentiment, although you should learn as you get older that while calling customer service people names might make you feel better, it's not nice and it's more than likely to encourage them to not solve your problem.

Dear Dumb Ass (An 11-Year-Old's Note To Geek Squad) [Digg] (Thanks, Matt from MN!)

Best Buy ruined my computer. Big surprise right?

Over a month ago my computer suddenly started having blue screens and when I would try to start it up it would give me an lsass.exe error. Well I brought it in to geek squad because it was still under warranty and they shipped it out to their service center. It came back with a new keyboard and a repaired dc jack, and they said all the internal hardware was fine-it was just a corrupt user account. They made a new account. I brought it home and the exact same thing happened, same error at startup. So I brought it back after having it 48 hrs and they shipped it out again. This time I get a call saying its liquid damage and the motherboard was affected and it will be 1st call: $730; 2nd call:$740; 3rd call: $775 to repair. They had also made a note on the previous repair that there was NO liquid damage internally. So, after having it briefly and not spilling anything on it how did this happen? And why would the EXACT same problem happen when before it was just a corrupt user account and now it is a $700-something repair? This "liquid damage" had to have happened on their end whether in shipping or at the repair center. I've talked to the Geek Squad supervisor at the store I went to (who was very nice and thought the problem was ridiculous also), filed an escalation report, and talked to the customer service supervisor at 1-888-Best Buy. No one can do anything, no one can override the service center. I now have to get my broken computer shipped back to me with no repairs after being without it over a month.

Just thought I would add another story to the Geek Squad/Best Buy list, if there gets to be enough of them maybe they'll decide to change their service.

Nicole

(photo:photoMarkR)

I bought a Gateway laptop from Best Buy with a warranty a few years ago.

Powercord was loose and wouldn't stay in laptop. First time I brought it in, they sent it away to have the AC jack on the laptop itself replaced. When it came back, now the AC power supply cord was loose because of the jack being loose, so they had to send away for a new one.

A few months later, the AC port was loose again. This time it took them two months because they had to replace the motherboard. When it returned the DVD/CD drive door was warped open and it wouldn't work because according to the guy at the counter, it was jammed in at an angle incorrectly. Because it was my computer I did work from, I couldn't afford to have it gone two more months so I asked the guy at the counter to add a note in the system, under my name, that it came back this way so that when I did return it, they would know they had to fix what they broke.

Flashforward to last week when I took it in to a different location (where I had to wait for 10 minutes for the only two employees to come out of the back) which was a comedy of errors in itself:

1. They had trouble finding my complete history because under my phone number my name is under my first and last, as well as my first and middle initial.
2. They determined that it had to have been a shipping accident, and when they checked my account to see the note I asked the other employee to add they found he didn't put it in there.
3. It took two employees to do all this, because one geek along couldn't determine how to enter a work order in their computer.
4. When it was entered, he printed it too early and promised he would fix it immediately and call me with a new work order number (never called).
5. I did get a call the next day from their computer telling me the laptop was ready. This was an error and was a result of the employee fixing his previous mistake 24 hours later.

One call to the Best Buy to get my new tracking number had me on hold a half an hour before I hung up. The second had me on hold for fifteen minutes. Requests to have them call me back with a new number, three in total, were never returned as they promised.

I called today to get a status update, because the tracking system on their website still said it was arriving when I knew a week ago it already got there.

Today the employee apologized to me that it was going to take a bit to check on my order because he had to log in twice, which led to it crashing all together and him having to use another computer.

And with all of this, they aren't counting having to replace my AC power supply twice as part of the "hardware repairs" even though both times my laptop couldn't power up for the two weeks it would take them each time to replace it. That means that even though I have been without it five times total, it doesn't meet the "lemon policy" of a computer having to be serviced four times in order for them to deem it a lemon and replace it.

They send you paperwork with each replacement and repair telling you what it cost them each time. I determined that when you add what I paid for the laptop to what I paid for the warranty, they still lost money by the hundreds. When I told the kid at the counter that (that replacing it a long time ago with a more reliable laptop would have saved them hundreds in repair costs) he told me the name of the insurance company they use and how they are the ones paying for this, not Geek Squad, not Best Buy.

They are horribly inept on all levels and I regret ever doing business with them. I have found that it didn't matter what location I dealt with or where they sent it away, there was always numerous mistakes and horrible customer service.

People need to be warned and until Best Buy replaces Geek Squad with a better service and system, they shouldn't buy any computer equipment from them.

Well, George, I'd suggest writing to Geek Squad CEO Robert Stevens, but he may be blowing us off. I wonder if he realizes that this kind of rampant incompetence undermines Geek Squad's recent statement in Kiplinger.com, "Says a Geek Squad spokeswoman, 'We have been the target of a blog that prefers to focus on the exceptions to our service and not the overall, vast majority of successful services we provide to clients.'" They have a perfect chance to step up and make sure George gets a working laptop, one way or another.

(photo:meghannmarco)

"It's the monitor!" They said, so sure of themselves.
So she sent it off to be fixed by the Best Buy elves.
"Come and get it!" They called! She was filled with delight.
She brings her monitor home, but something isn't right.

It's having the same problem as it had before.
They said they fixed it. They said they were sure.
Back to Best Buy! She goes in a flash.
She buys a different wire with her hard earned cash.

Hooray! It's fixed, albeit not right.
The monitor doesn't make it through the night.
In the midst of her problems, she begins to weep.
Her computer won't start. All it does is beep.

Back to Best Buy, for the third time.
She hands her computer to the Geek Squad slime.
"It just beeps at me." She says with a sigh.
And of course the Geek Squad doesn't know why.

Now her computer is sent off for repair,
as stuff piles up on her unused computer chair.
She waits and she waits for it to come back,
Before her chair turns into a clothes rack.

A phone call. "Hello?" It's about time they called.
Her computer was back, and so ass she hauled.
She drove mighty quickly to that Best Buy store.
She got her computer, and bust out the door.

Home again! Home again! She arrives in a hurry.
She has a strange feeling, and she starts to worry.
She hooks up the wires, and turns her computer on.
Hooray! It works! She could burst into song!

But that's not the end of this really long story.
The repair shop has the attention span of Dory.
All is well, or so it seems like it might be.
Until she tries to play her Sweeney Todd CD.

She ejects the tray, and pops her CD in.
She sits and she waits for the music to begin.
"What's this?" She feels as if she could bawl.
Her CD drive isn't showing up at all.

She sighs a deep sigh as she opens her case.
Then she groans when she sees what was left out of place.
Her blood boils as the repairman she wish she could diss.
It's something that not just anyone could miss.

A loose wire was hanging. Quite obviously too.
Even a small child would know what to do.
She fixes it and sets her computer back onto the shelf.
"Next time my computer is broken," she says, "I'll fix it MYSELF."

The lesson of the story is, in so many words.
Geek Squad is laughable. They're not real nerds.
So unless you feel like wishing you were dead...
Don't go to Geek Squad, find a REAL geek instead.

— Kristi Lynn Cobden

The station's IT guy changed one settling in the BIOS.

"This is definitely something you can find out while you're doing your diagnostics or troubleshooting," 10TV's IT guy, Josh Waibel said.

Here's a summary of the results:

Circuit City FireDog
Consultation: $64.04
Diagnosis: "The hard drive is working correctly. Your operating system is fried on it, though," said the technician. "The operating system is essentially dead."
Additional Cost: $130 to reinstall the operating system.
Total Estimated Cost to Repair: $194.04

Best Buy Geek Squad:
Consultation: $62.98
Diagnosis: "It just clicked and that's usually an indicator that the hard drive's bad." "It's clicking - making some weird sounds - which is not a good thing."
Additional Cost: $80 hard drive, $39 hard drive installation, $129 operating system installation
Total Estimated Cost to Repair: $310.98

Micro Center:
Consultation: $74.67
Diagnosis: Repaired

Computer Technicians Put To Test [10TV](Thanks, M!)
Video [10TV]

We suggested he write Geek Squad's founder, Robert Stephens, for help. In the 9 months and 8 days since we received his first email, no further repair work has been done, despite a friendly email from Robert promising a "credit for further service," and that he would "ask that they keep me posted until it is resolved to your complete satisfaction."

May 3, 2007:

Here is my best buy horror story. I sent it to Robert Stephens today. I'll let you know if he gets back to me...

My computer was running slowly generally and shutting down completely at times, so, as I had it under warranty with Geek Squad (and still do), I brought it in to be fixed. When I brought it in, they said it would take about five days to fix, and I said that would be fine.

Five days later, I called to ask if my computer was ready, and they said it was. After making the trek to Best Buy (I had to leave work to do so, and it takes about 45 minutes to get there) the Geek Squad representative said that actually it wasn't ready, and they would need another seven days, and, as an afterthought, almost, that my hard drive had died while in GeekSquad's care. When I asked how, as they hadn't even begun to try to fix the problem yet, the Geek Squad representative couldn't tell me. I asked if they could save the files on the hard drive, and the Geek Squad representative said they would.

Seven days later, when I came back, after calling again and being told my computer was ready, I was told that, actually, they couldn't save any of the files on my hard drive, and that I would need to go back to my apartment and get the original cd so they could reload windows. I had to go all the way home and all the way back - an hour and a half trip that was totally unnecessary, as they could have just told me to bring the cd on the phone.

When I got back, the Geek Squad representative reloaded Windows on my pc, but I had lost all of my files, many of which were (needless to say) very important to me. Worse than this, soon after I got home, I found that my computer still shuts down randomly at times. So, not only did Geek Squad destroy my hard drive; they also failed to fix my computer.

At this point I don't know what to do. My computer still needs to be fixed, as it cannot remain in this state, but I don't feel comfortable bringing it to GeekSquad, which has already cost me hundreds of dollars in lost files and software. I had such a bad experience with GeekSquad that, even though I am still covered by its warranty, I feel that sending my computer to GeekSquad at this point would be comparable to sending my computer to a butcher.

Bezalel

Here is Robert's reply to me, followed by my re-reply to Robert. I'll let you know when I hear back from him.

Bezalel

Thank you for taking the time to send me your letter. I rely on direct feedback from our customers like you to let us know how The Geek Squad is doing. I know the store management would very much like to resolve this for you. I am including them on this e-mail so they can work to prevent this from happening again.
In addition to refunding all of your service money, I will ask that the store give you a credit for future service if you will please accept it from us. If you or anyone you know ever has any experience that is less than perfect, I want to know about it. We care very much about quality and I hope you'll give us another chance. I will ask that they keep me posted until it is resolved to your complete satisfaction.
Regards,
Robert Stephens
Founder and Chief Inspector
The Geek Squad
"Serving the Public, Policing Technology, and Protecting the World"

Dear Robert,

Thank you for your email. I can't tell you how glad I am to hear that someone at Geek Squad actually cares about my problems. However, it is not clear from your email just what you or Geek Squad will do to alleviate my problem. Please elaborate.

In addition to refunding my service money (which I take to mean refunding the cost of the warranty), I think the best way to fix this problem would be for Geek Squad to restore my hard drive. I have my hard drive (it is currently in a box, as I mentioned in my last email), and the people at Geek Squad said that they could restore it, but it would be expensive. If you could cover this service, I would very much appreciate it.

Additionally, while you write that the store will give me a credit for future service, you don't make clear what this service is - as I am already under warranty, I don't know how much I need credit for future service. My issue isn't bringing my computer to Geek Squad - which I can do already as my computer is under warranty - but trusting Geek Squad to fix my computer. In this, unfortunately, you have yet to alleviate my concerns. Please do so.

Thank you again for your concern, and for your help. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
Bezalel

I just wanted to follow up with you regarding my awful experience with Best Buy and Geek Squad. They have only gotten worse.

While Robert Stephens sent me a friendly email telling me he would do everything he could to fix my problem, the people he passed the problem on to (my local NY Geek Squad and Best Buy representatives) have just passed the buck for the past two and a half weeks.

After a constant barrage of emails from me, they finally two weeks ago asked me for my computer's information, which I gave them promptly. However, since then, I haven't heard from them at all, even after having sent numerous emails to everyone cc'd by Robert Stephens (including Stephens himself). In fact, when I called Best Buy this morning at the number included in the email of the woman supposed to help me, her extension didn't work and the phone service, at least, had no knowledge of her employment at Best Buy. Uch. Robert Stephen might mean well, but his (former) company sure does suck.

Bezalel

Here's an update on my Geek Squad horror story. It isn't pretty: The short of it is Geek Squad screwed up my computer, Robert Stephens (former CEO of Geek Squad), told them to fix it, and the Best Buy/Geek Squad people refused to. My latest email to Robert follows:

Unfortunately, I write this email bearing more bad news regarding the atrocious service I have received at the Geek Squad at 86th and Lexington, in New York. I brought my computer in this afternoon to get fixed, as you advised me to do in the email below. However, Andre [redacted] told me that they would not fix my computer, as per your instructions in the email below. Instead, Andre said that all that Geek Squad would do is run a diagnostic test, and I would have to pay for fixing the hardware. Andre claims that when you wrote that "I will ask that the store give you a credit for future service" you only meant giving the computer a diagnostic test, but not actually fixing the computer.

Forgive me my outrage, but this is downright ridiculous. I already know what is wrong with my computer. My computer has the same problem that it did when I brought it in to get it fixed originally - and when, I might add, Geek Squad failed to fix it the first time. For me to have to pay for all but the most basic services now is both outrageous and runs counter to the letter and the spirit of your email to me. Please make clear to Andre [redacted] that Geek Squad and Best Buy should cover both the diagnostic test AND the hardware issues that Geek Squad failed to fix the first time around.

As Andre [redacted] has said that Best Buy and Geek Squad would not fix the hardware issues on my computer without clear instructions from you to do so, I would appreciate you letting them know that my computer should be fixed as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for your help. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Does anyone out there have suggestions for Bezalel?

(Photo:meghannmarco)

Peepin Techs [KNBC]

He was able to "prove" that it was indeed his notebook via the sheaf of repair papers he'd held on to from the motherboard replacement—the repair description noted that the bottom of the case had been replaced. But when Jed asked the Geek Squad people to help fix the problem—either make a note on his account that the model number was no longer correct, or update his warranty with the new serial number—they refused: the technician working on the laptop said he still thought something "shady" was going on...

...and. "I was told that they can't do that and that I should laminate the repair paper I had because it was the only proof I have that this is my computer and that it is still under warranty."

Here's his full story:

I want to start off first by saying that me and my girlfriend both have had many problems with Best Buy in general. This includes an employee lying about what is included in their warranty and service plans and a huge problem with junking out a notebook that in turn voided a warranty, but that is not the problem I have today. We have both vowed never to buy a warranty from Best Buy ever again.

The computer that I purchased was a Gateway MX6030 on November 25, 2005 with the 3 year extended service plan. Surprisingly the unit did not give me any problems until recently. My ac adapter plug was acting funny and not charging my notebook. I took the plug into Best Buy Geek Squad and they told me I had to bring in the unit. At first I didn't understand why they needed the unit for a plug exchange, but they explained that they needed to check the serial number on the unit to make sure that it matched my service plan. Although I don't live very close to the store, I went back home and brought the unit back to the store. I received my plug in a couple weeks and everything was fine for a little while.

A few months later on November 8, 2007 I took my notebook back into the Geek Squad at the Corona Best Buy. The technician checked the serial number before it was logged in. The diagnosis was that it needed a new mother board and that the top cover needed to be replaced. It was sent out to Best Buy's service location in Chino, CA. It was returned in a few weeks and everything seemed okay again.

On Wednesday, January 16, 2008 my hard drive crashed and once again I went to the Corona location of Best Buy to have it serviced. I was quoted two or three days to install a new hard drive. Saturday, January 20, 2008 at around 12:00 I decided to give the Geek Squad a call to make sure everything was alright with my notebook. They told me it should be done at 3:00. At around 3:00 I give them another call and they told me it's still not ready, give it another hour. So I go to run a few errands and arrive at Best Buy at 6:00. I was told by a Geek Squad employee named Andrew that he just got to work and my unit has not been worked on at all that day. He would call me later that night when I could pick it up.

I did not receive a call that night so the next morning Sunday, January, 18, 2008 at 12:00 I called Geek Squad again. I talked to Andrew who tells me they are still not finished, but they have a problem. He tells me that the model of my notebook they have does not match the model number of the unit on the service plan and their manager said to stop working on it. He said he would call me back in a half an hour. I called them back more than an hour later and I inquire about the problem. I talk to Jared who put somebody else on the phone who tells me they can no longer work on the system, it isn't under the warranty and it isn't the correct model number. He tells me my unit is a MX-6421 and the service plan is for a MX6030. I ask him if he can match the serial number to the paperwork and see that it is mine. He told me this isn't possible because the unit does not have a serial number. Baffled, I tell him I'll come to store to figure this out. I bring all my paperwork for the services that have previously been done on my computer.

When I arrived at the store Andrew, another employee, and a manager by the name of Dahlia Mora, stepped into the back of the Geek Squad area to have a meeting about the situation. When they came back Dahlia asked me where the serial number is. I told her I was wondering the same thing. I asked them how the unit could have been serviced if the serial number was not checked when I brought it in. Andrew and Dahlia both claimed that the serial number does not need to be checked when an item is brought in for service. They both accused me of fraudulently attempting to service a Gateway MX6421 notebook under a MX6030 warranty.

Not knowing what to do I begin looking through my paperwork. I told them that another time I had brought in my plug, the employee made me go home to get the unit with the serial number. I am beginning to think they took off my serial number at the store before I got there. On the paperwork for the mother board repair I noticed that when it was serviced they also replaced the bottom cover. I show this to them and the manager blows me off, implying that it's not possible that Best Buy would remove a serial number and replace a cover with one from another model. The other technician looks at the paper and sees the notation on the paperwork saying that bottom cover was replaced with model MX6421.

The manager was obviously mad and stormed off to the back. They told me they could continue servicing the unit, which was still not finished. One of the employees commented that they thought something "shady" was going on. They estimated another hour to hour and a half. I asked about getting a new serial number or marking my account in someway that this won't be a problem in the future. I was told that they can't do that and that I should laminate the repair paper I had because it was the only proof I have that this is my computer and that it is still under warranty. I never received an apology from any of the employees about accusing me of fraud or that they overlooked the covers being switched.

Having a piece of paper instead of a serial number is not enough of a substitute for me. I was told by the store this is best they can do. I talked to Geek Squad online on Monday, January 21, 2008 at 5:30. I was told by Agent McCabe that this issue is "not their responsibility" and to talk to the manufacturer. I talked to Gateway at 6:15 and they told me I needed to talk to Best Buy about getting the original serial number back onto my computer since it was them who serviced it. I once again went on Geek Squad's chat and the same agent told me to talk to the store. I decided to call the Best Buy Service Center in Chino as this was where the service was done. I called the service center on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 11:00AM. They told me that they can attempt to issue a new serial number, but I have to take it back to the same Best Buy and have it sent back into the service center.

All I am asking for is my serial number back. Either the original, which is probably impossible, or a new one issued. If this is not resolved when my service plan ends in November of this year I will have a notebook that I cannot prove is mine let alone the correct model. Since Best Buy is the only one that will accept my paper as proof. Although the Best Buy service center told me I could be issued a new serial number, the manufacturer told me that this is impossible. I am also worried about giving my computer back to this store because quite frankly I don't trust them with my property anymore. Lastly, I would also like an apology from Best Buy for accusing me of fraud and embarrassing me. Not one person so far has said they were sorry to me. I don't know who else to contact or if there is anything that I can do. I hope that this letter will help bring change to how Best Buy treats their customers, but it seems like all hope may be lost Thank you for your time.

-Jed

Geek Squad employees viewed over 800 images contained in a folder titled XXXYOUNGS. The images featured young girls believed to be between the ages of 7 and 15. In some of the pictures the children were nude; in others, they were engaged in sexual acts with adult males.

Middle School Employee Charged with Child Pornography Possession [FOX9] (Thanks to Nick!)