Complaint Review: Best Buy Geek Squad - Houston Texas

I am anther one that considers myself a computer geek. I do agree that Anne should have backed up her data, however, I do not feel it is her fault that data was loss. For those that are blaming Anne, please reread her post. 1.) Best Buy wanted to charge her additional ($100) more to back up her data than quoted on the phone. I would have asked to speak to a manager. 2.) Even though they wanted to charge $100 more, Anne told the technician (more than once) that she was willing to pay that extra fee to back up the data. The technician brushes her off and assures her that he would not lose her data. The end result was that some data was lost. Whose fault is that? The Geek Squad technician. Technically, Anne signed an agreement that states that Geek Squad is not responsible for lost data, which in a way puts them legally in the clear. However, I believe that what happened here very much tarnished the reputation of the local store. If you say you are going to do something, then you should do it. As a computer geek whom is very knowledgeable of viral, adware, and spyware disinfection, I know that there are no sure bets. Viruses and related coding can cripple files. Here's a little lesson for those that don't know. One of the goals of a virus, adware, spyware, or trojan is to not be found. How does it accomplsh this? Obscurity. These programs will try to hide within the coding of legitimate files (i.e. Word files, etc). They use these files as sort of a shield so that when these "Anti" programs come looking for them, they have something to hide behind. Now, these "Anti" programs look for out of the ordinary information. When one of these programs hides in good/benign files, they alter information that the "Anti" programs can pick up. So, to hide even more they encrypt their self to make it harder for the "Anti" programs to read. ANY Geek Squad technician or person working on another's PC should know this basic information. If you know and understand this then you would know that you can't 100% guarantee anything. To me, it sounds like the technician was very sure of himself, got in deep, and realized later on that the infection was more than he could handle. This is not to say that he didn't "know his stuff" as these nasties try to do their best from being detected once they infect a system. There may be a few reasons why the data was lost: 1.) The technician(s) did not properly use the backup program. 2.) The technician(s) waited until after he/she ran a few disinfection procedures to back up the files. Sometimes disinfection will actually end up deleting or corrupting files. This is why any data backups should have done BEFORE any disinfection procedures should have started. 3.) The files may have been backed up properly, but the person restoring the data may not have known what they were doing. In all, I feel it was Geek Squad's fault because the trust was put in to their hands. Anne wanted her data backed up, but the technician brushed her off. Technicians have to realize that customers put their trust in them. It's like a person that knows very little about cars putting their trust in the mechanic. A customer should not have to demand and pester the technician to backup their data. If that is what they want, then give it to them. If you tell a customer that there's nothing to worry about and they don't need their data backed up, then YOU, the technician, are taking the risk and are not fully responsible for all consequences.

To "Bgg" You are correct about basically everything you said in your post, except for the techs being "good". I was the In-Home / Lead technician for Circuit City's firedog (circuit city's equivalent to the geek squad, same basic model). And the level of tech expertise and knowledge varies greatly from person to person and store to store. It depends on who is the Technology manager. Some tech at some stores, I am HORRIFIED that they let them touch others computers, some, like me (not to brag) are really good. Me and my team (we had a really good tech manager, If you hadn't built a PC from ground up he wouldn't even interview you). The CompTIA A+ is an OK certification. Lots of people have it. But it is a good starter indicator. Just like some MCSE's, we know some MCSE's are paper MCSE's. It varies by store, some tech's the company hired did not even by-god know how to install a video card. Some, like me. Didnt just format a PC with spyware. I did manual registry editing, changing startup configurations, you know, stuff that is not hard to you and I, but, sometimes, it is better just to format. We had one customer that had 13 unique trojans and countless other spyware. If you turned on the PC, XP would take no joke, 48 minutes to bring the desktop up. It was so slow it would almost be impossible to start surgically cleaning up that PC, besides that, with that level of infection, it would be hard to do proper 100% removal. Some people are just tech-heads, and will never pursue and IT career beyond firedog or GeekSquad. I have attained a position with an unrelated company doing hardware repair, installation, as well as network infrastructure design, implementation and maintenance from small to medium business's. I have the same degree and certifications I did when I was in firedog. (except for the 70-290, which they required I pass as a formality). I went from 18,000 bucks a year to 50,000 bucks a year. But no company will hire you without any technical experience on your resume, and thats what the geek squad and firedog is, it gave me 2 years of IT experience.

I have been in the computer field for 15 years, and the business I am with supports home users, and small businesses. We specialize in computer repair, security, spyware/virus removal, and networking. First, I would like to point out, the kids at Best Buys are not better at computers, than most people. The A+ certification they have or say they have, is the very basic level of computer knowledge. A recent survey shows the majority of A+ certification is achieved while incarcerated. This is offered to prisoners, to help ensure they can find a job when they are released. This isn't to say everyone with the A+ cert was in jail, just to make a point. We have worked on thousands of computer, and never lost a customer's data, on a drive that would spin up, and was accessible. It is called imaging. Anytime you work on a client computer, where there is valuable data, you clone the entire drive, as a backup. I truly wish people would learn to backup their data, but that is not true. It is not reality. Most people that get a computer are like people that drive a car. They have a shop do the maintenance. Just a fact of life! (As of the mention of Thumb drives, they are one of the best creations of mankind, in my humble opinion!) As for the only way to fix an issue is to reload all the original software, that is bunk! We had had clients that were told the same think, by BB and other computer stores masquerading as computer repair businesses, and we removed some spyware, and/viruses, and did a tuneup, and they were good as new. Usually in less time, and at a lower price than BB. Our basic rules are,,, Never lose the data Never format, (Although if the clients agree, sometimes it is faster, and we do!) Never make a promise you can't keep. Keep in contact with your client. Few other observations! For the people that format every 6 month, why. We run large machines, host websites, Terminal Service support 100s of users moving gigabyte of data a hour, and format every 4 years. We have workstations, which are run 24/7 and are formatted even less. Geek Squad get an answering machine! How unprofessional can you be? Circuit City has them for under $50 To the nice lady that lost all her thousands of MS documents. It was not your fault! It would be better if you learned to backup your data. But next time, if your data and machine are that valuable, take it to a professional. Not some store who's main interest is selling products. And don't believe for a minute that just because some kid can talk about the latest games, video cards, processors, ram, or had a few words of tech-talk to toss around, that he knows anything about repairs computers. Your data may still be recoverable, but the cost is probley not worth it. There are a lot of backup solutions available, Ma'am, and most are well worth the few $$$'s. To James, good to hear from another pro! The the comment about Geek Squad techies being "good". Anyone that has to format to remove spyare or a virus isn't that good. That's my speech, and I know hand my soapbox over to the next person,

Let me start by saying that I know exactly how you feel. Some things like this are a common problem with Geek Squad but it isn't a problem with their skills. I don't know how it is at that location but at mine the Geek Squad is completely swamped with many different customer problems at the same time. Being a GS agent is probably one of the hardest jobs in a Best Buy store because every department in the store has some kind of tie to GS (except for media) A typical GS shift could involve many or all of the following circumstances: Doing a data backup on one computer while installing Anti-Virus/Anti-spyware on a new setup computer at the same time, all while answering the phone that rings exactly 10 secs after you just hung up (which could explain the phone problem. While doing this they also have other customers who come in with computers and also have to help them by running diag and checking in their systems. At this same time (At least in my BB) they also have to run diag on returns so that the return can either be sent to PRC or "Open-Box item" Checking in TV's back from service or cameras back from the repair center. The worst part is that most of the problems that come in to the GS counter are things that don't even need a tech to fix (Like figuring out the way to open Internet Explorer is to double click the icon on the destop) Most of the stuff could easily be fixed just by having some sort of class where you can learn how to use your new PC (kinda like stand-alone Gateway stores used to do) Another thing is that GS stations in Best Buy stores have to share labor costs with the rest of the store so many times there isn't enough labor to have more than 1 or 2 agents working at one time. Due to this kind of thing our store has started training other employees from computers and customer service to check-in and check-out customers products so that the GS can actually get back to doing what they need to on the computers they already have. Unfortunatly this isn't a company-wide plan so many stores are still going to suffer from the delays. I know I've been typing to a little bit now but just a little work of help (and I know this won't apply to everybody here) but going to a stand-alone GS store is actually one of the best ways to get your services and repairs done. The GS agents Best Buy employs are some of the best techs you can get but when they get buried in everything they don't have a chance to shine. I am truly truly sorry for the experience you received but please keep the preceding article in mind when visiting your local Best Buy. I encourage customers who want to help make a difference to write to the Best Buy corporate headquarters started the idea of a computer training class the the GS can offer.

Anne, I own and operate a computer service center. Guess what the first thing is on our service check list? A BACK UP. We do a full image of every system that comes in for our overhaul service or system reload service. We have NAS server on our network with a couple terabytes of storage. And we keep the image for a minimum of two weeks. We explicitly inform the customer that we WILL do a full back up. Period. I have to disagree with the BBY employee who points the finger at Anne. The bottom line is, any service center with any level of competence KNOWS the importance of customer data. Good God, what are you thinking (Chris)? Not backing up customer data is like having a lawn mowing service but not using a weed whip to finish the job. The "Red X" is nothing more than an excuse to pass off responsibility and accountability because you can't count on the incomptetent teenie bopper techs you hire. You did nothing wrong Anne. You trusted the idiot that told you your data would be safe. Why wouldn't you? After all HE is the one that would be working on your computer! If he's a liar, (which he evidently IS) he shouldn't be working there as a tech. We regularly do data recovery at our lab at an average of $1300 per job (for damaged platters, actuators etc). We have an inkling of the importance of customer data. That being said, if nothing else you should get a backup simply because you can't trust the morons working on your computer.

Mandy: Have you read all of the comments about BB? There are several pages of them - I think it is way beyond "one bad experience." Laura: I agree with you. Best Buy offered to back up the data and even charged for it. During the whole process, they went back to their computers to try to recover these files, and evidently they did have some of them. Why did they not have all of them? Heather: I love your analogy for Chris. Ric: I normally don't comment on people's language, but with the "arraign" (arrange) and "price arrange" (price range), I did take a second glance that "Narcissitic" came out so well. Don't know if you are having problems with Vista and networking still, but we recently upgraded my wife's computer with a Vista machine and I still have XP. Ran into the same trouble. The simple fix is turn off Vista's firewall and purchase a firewall from a reputable company. And if you ever lose your network, you may have to ensure Vista's firewall is still off. Seems ours has turned itself back on at random a couple of times since. Our HP OfficeJet works fine from either computer. Our previous Lexmark even had problems with compatability with XP, so not sure if that will work for you or not in regards to the printer. So, there is my $200 worth of advice and if three people take my advice on that and not have to resort to Geek Squad, I will feel that my issue with them has finally been resolved. So you future posters might leave a comment if that works for you as well as you start purchasing Vista machines. Ben: The problems with the free software are that most of them will not "cure" everything, so you have to get a few of them. Well, they're free - no big deal, but if the computer doesn't even boot or, the big problem I've seen in these reports - the computer shuts off automatically, none of these software solutions will run to completion. But with everything else you've said, I believe I am in complete agreement. All: The facts are this. Today it has become a throw away society. If your problem is software related, keeping a backup of your critical data and making the restore disks when you first get your computer (after the problem develops it is too late) is your best bet and is a free fix. Hardware problems will almost always be a power supply or motherboard issue. Try the power supply first. They are about $50 and easy to replace yourself without a lot of technical knowledge. If I remember correctly, a couple of screws and about 2-3 cables to unplug. If it doesn't fix the problem, return the power supply and get your money back. At the time my last computer had a motherboard issue, it would have cost me about $300 to fix it myself (plus however many weeks of downtime waiting on the part). To have Geek Squad fix it would have cost $700-$800 (with the reports here, probably a couple of weeks downtime just the same). A new computer (just the tower - the rest of my system still worked fine) cost me about $600. Since my system was three years old at the time of the problem, I got a much more powerful system than had I fixed the problem. Put Geek Squad out of business - don't use them. They are ripping you off.

Mandy: Have you read all of the comments about BB? There are several pages of them - I think it is way beyond "one bad experience." Laura: I agree with you. Best Buy offered to back up the data and even charged for it. During the whole process, they went back to their computers to try to recover these files, and evidently they did have some of them. Why did they not have all of them? Heather: I love your analogy for Chris. Ric: I normally don't comment on people's language, but with the "arraign" (arrange) and "price arrange" (price range), I did take a second glance that "Narcissitic" came out so well. Don't know if you are having problems with Vista and networking still, but we recently upgraded my wife's computer with a Vista machine and I still have XP. Ran into the same trouble. The simple fix is turn off Vista's firewall and purchase a firewall from a reputable company. And if you ever lose your network, you may have to ensure Vista's firewall is still off. Seems ours has turned itself back on at random a couple of times since. Our HP OfficeJet works fine from either computer. Our previous Lexmark even had problems with compatability with XP, so not sure if that will work for you or not in regards to the printer. So, there is my $200 worth of advice and if three people take my advice on that and not have to resort to Geek Squad, I will feel that my issue with them has finally been resolved. So you future posters might leave a comment if that works for you as well as you start purchasing Vista machines. Ben: The problems with the free software are that most of them will not "cure" everything, so you have to get a few of them. Well, they're free - no big deal, but if the computer doesn't even boot or, the big problem I've seen in these reports - the computer shuts off automatically, none of these software solutions will run to completion. But with everything else you've said, I believe I am in complete agreement. All: The facts are this. Today it has become a throw away society. If your problem is software related, keeping a backup of your critical data and making the restore disks when you first get your computer (after the problem develops it is too late) is your best bet and is a free fix. Hardware problems will almost always be a power supply or motherboard issue. Try the power supply first. They are about $50 and easy to replace yourself without a lot of technical knowledge. If I remember correctly, a couple of screws and about 2-3 cables to unplug. If it doesn't fix the problem, return the power supply and get your money back. At the time my last computer had a motherboard issue, it would have cost me about $300 to fix it myself (plus however many weeks of downtime waiting on the part). To have Geek Squad fix it would have cost $700-$800 (with the reports here, probably a couple of weeks downtime just the same). A new computer (just the tower - the rest of my system still worked fine) cost me about $600. Since my system was three years old at the time of the problem, I got a much more powerful system than had I fixed the problem. Put Geek Squad out of business - don't use them. They are ripping you off.

Mandy: Have you read all of the comments about BB? There are several pages of them - I think it is way beyond "one bad experience." Laura: I agree with you. Best Buy offered to back up the data and even charged for it. During the whole process, they went back to their computers to try to recover these files, and evidently they did have some of them. Why did they not have all of them? Heather: I love your analogy for Chris. Ric: I normally don't comment on people's language, but with the "arraign" (arrange) and "price arrange" (price range), I did take a second glance that "Narcissitic" came out so well. Don't know if you are having problems with Vista and networking still, but we recently upgraded my wife's computer with a Vista machine and I still have XP. Ran into the same trouble. The simple fix is turn off Vista's firewall and purchase a firewall from a reputable company. And if you ever lose your network, you may have to ensure Vista's firewall is still off. Seems ours has turned itself back on at random a couple of times since. Our HP OfficeJet works fine from either computer. Our previous Lexmark even had problems with compatability with XP, so not sure if that will work for you or not in regards to the printer. So, there is my $200 worth of advice and if three people take my advice on that and not have to resort to Geek Squad, I will feel that my issue with them has finally been resolved. So you future posters might leave a comment if that works for you as well as you start purchasing Vista machines. Ben: The problems with the free software are that most of them will not "cure" everything, so you have to get a few of them. Well, they're free - no big deal, but if the computer doesn't even boot or, the big problem I've seen in these reports - the computer shuts off automatically, none of these software solutions will run to completion. But with everything else you've said, I believe I am in complete agreement. All: The facts are this. Today it has become a throw away society. If your problem is software related, keeping a backup of your critical data and making the restore disks when you first get your computer (after the problem develops it is too late) is your best bet and is a free fix. Hardware problems will almost always be a power supply or motherboard issue. Try the power supply first. They are about $50 and easy to replace yourself without a lot of technical knowledge. If I remember correctly, a couple of screws and about 2-3 cables to unplug. If it doesn't fix the problem, return the power supply and get your money back. At the time my last computer had a motherboard issue, it would have cost me about $300 to fix it myself (plus however many weeks of downtime waiting on the part). To have Geek Squad fix it would have cost $700-$800 (with the reports here, probably a couple of weeks downtime just the same). A new computer (just the tower - the rest of my system still worked fine) cost me about $600. Since my system was three years old at the time of the problem, I got a much more powerful system than had I fixed the problem. Put Geek Squad out of business - don't use them. They are ripping you off.

Ric: If you talk like you write, then my faith in basic human intelligence has just been lowered to a whole new level. Yes, you do show your age. So much, that I've come to hope for new laws in the U.S. There's a law in most states where you must re-take the driver's test once you hit 70. I hope, for your sake, that the U.S. government enacts a law that requires people 50+ years of age to take a technology competency test to own certain pieces of technology/appliances. Ben: You pretty much wrote what I was thinking. Thank you. Anne: I am truly sorry about what happened to you. I've only read your side of the story, but I'm willing to give you the benefit of a doubt and take your word for it. Even though I believe it is both yours and Best Buy's fault for the loss of your data, I strongly believe that it was more of Best Buy's fault. I work at a federal government agency as an IT consultant and I cannot stress how important it is to back up your data. Companies and agencies I've worked with have backups of backups. Most even have paper backups in case technology decides to die out one day. As for Best Buy, they were careless and negligent. Thousands of customer nationwide trust the U.S.'s top electronics retailer with their personal info every day. The least they could do is be extremely careful with it especially if customers are paying a pretty penny for it. I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon and condemn Best Buy because I know it's not in their practice to "screw over customers." If so, then why have they been on top for so long? I believe most problems are localized through individual stores. There are good stores, and there are bad stores.

I am not a computer nerd yet I am a master at pc's, laptop's, and software. It is Anne's fault for not backing her information up but she really didn't know any better. It was Best Buy's fault for not listening to her wish to backup her information. It is all the technician's that she called fault for telling her the only way to fix was to backup and restore the OEM software. The worst of computer virius's or adware or spyware can be fixed with a few free programs. The only time to wipe a drive and restore is if you don't want to take the time to repair the software. Sure I have wiped and restored my own but never any friend or customer that needed their's repaired for a virus or adware or spyware. To the nerd that said they wipe and restore their's every 6 months. Kudos. Sure it may clean out unnecessary files and built up trash and run a little faster but it's not needed in real life. All stores should have great customer support before anything else. Why else would the customer come back after a complaint that was not repaired correctly. The nerd's or technician's should have basic computer knowledge before even starting employment at a retailer. I don't mean just book smart or just knowledge with some repair. I mean classes to have hands-on training with software repair. This country has gotten lazy. Everyone either wipes and restores or replaces and hopes it fixes it. There is hardly any diagnosing these days. The customer always pays in the end and not knowing how these young nerds are just replacing parts and when those parts dont work just get more parts to add and charge the customer for them not having the knowhow to fix the product. Yes you young nerds may be smarter than me in books but you are in training wheels compared to my computer knowledge. You customer support people may be nice people in real life but you really suck using the company's rules to advise the customer. What's with all the phone ringing? This is another area of customer support. At least answer the phone and put them on hold for an hour so they know at least you tried. This country has been digital or computerized for a long time now from tv's to cars to tractors to my coffeemaker. It's going to go more digital in the next few years than ever before. From young to old we all need to know what a computer is anyhow. You don't have to know how to repair whatever product you have trouble with but at least look it up or help someone lookup the product and get a little useful information about it before bringing it in for repair. There are people out there that will cheat you in a minute. There are people out there working on products that don't know what they are doing. There are good people out there just get some information before going to the first one you find. The most important thing there is in any business is customer support. If it was the way I would like it to be, this would be a friendlier world. Boy don't get me started on world matters....lol Ok. I have rambled on long enough. Goodluck to customers. Goodluck to young nerds. Listen and learn. Yall have a nice day now.

Chris you have no idea how Best Buy (best lie) cheat,steals, and over all screws it's customers. And just how Retarded your Employees, and customer service is.. You are so brain wash its pathetic. Listen to my tell, an think about your lousy Lip Service. I would love to tell you of our experience my wife and I add with the Big Blue Box (Best Buy) in Green Bay Wisconsin. Trust me if I would have know of your Web site I would have heeded the warnings and advice of others that have had just horrible experience with Best Buy. Well here goes: My wife and I decided to take some of our Tax Return to buy us a new Washer, and Dryer. Well as usual we went to BB as we have done for in the last (9) years to buy all of our Big Price appliance items, as we have bought our (3) Desktop Computers, (2) Refrigerator, (1) Dishwasher, (2) TV's (3) DVD Player's, (2) VCR's, (3) Surround Sound Systems?. etc?well you get the picture, close to $10,000.00 over those (9) years. Things seem to go smoothly with the purchase of both of them till the arraigning of the FREE delivery that was with the package deal. But the sales person worked out the glitches an made the delivery on Wed's the 14th of February in the late afternoon. I informed the sales person that we had some serious plans made, and could they arraign it before or after the 14th. ?No? was the reply that it was the only day they could make the delivery. Well ok I said, ?but let's make sure it happens?. No problem was the reply; a they would call us the night before to confirm the time in the afternoon. ?Great?, I said, let's do it. The night of the 13th we waited till around 9pm for their call. Nothing, no call. So I called the store a talked to the sale person that sold us the Washer/Dryer, and asked when they would be delivered. I waited on hold for over 20 minutes. Finally I called back and asked for the Manager on Duty. Waited other 10 minutes till he came on the line. I explained the situation to him; he stated he would check into this. After other 10 minutes he game back on the line. He stated that the Order for delivery was CANCELLED and that there was not going to be a delivery. Well my jaw dropped to the floor. ?What the Hell was going on?, I asked, I know we didn't cancel the order for delivery. I informed him of this and said this was not acceptable and that they would need to make the delivery as promised and that we would not be available for any other day. And why the Hell had this had happen. After waiting for other 15 minutes on the phone he finally came back on with ? it will be delivered tomorrow between 4pm an 6pm? OK I said great. As I was about to thank him he hung up, without an apology of any kind, or any explanation of what was going on? Well this should have clued me into Best Buy's customer service policy of SCREW'EM AN LOSES'EM. Well as promise they did deliver the machines on time, but not with out some hassles there too. Where comes the good part: The following week my wife an I decided to buy a new laptop computer, and of course BB was having a Package Deal on a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista installed and also with Mini mouse, and carrying case. This sounded great, and in our price arrange too. So we went into the Store and as usual we had to hunt down someone in the computer department to help us with the purchase. After finding a fresh Snot Nose Narcissistic Kid barely out of high school to help us, we decided to ask a few questions about the New Windows Vista system. We wanted to know if this laptop would be able to communicate with the other (3) computers we have in our home running Windows XP? And would it work with our Linksys Network Router System? And will we be able to share files, and to use our Lexmark Printer with this new Windows Vista, and our Network? ? Well of course it would?was his reply, with no problems. ? Well with that, and the blind trust I put in people we bought the laptop, and the extended service plan. And back home with our new toy. Well we got it home and started to set it up, and everything was going as smooth as silk till we tried to set up the Network to share files/folders with the other computers, and the printer. Now I am not illiterate when it comes to computers, nor am I an expert, but I knew something was a miss, and something was not right. Well it was late and we decided to wait till the morning to finish the setup. The following day was the Worst Frkin Nightmare I have had in 35 years (showing my age of 55) of dealing with any big business, and of course the worst day I ever had with Best Buy. I kept trying to make the Laptop communicate with the Network, and my other (3) computers. I would keep getting a Microsoft Windows Error of ?not finding a Network?. After spending an hour on their web site I could find nothing, so I called them. I spent over 45 minutes waiting; finally I spoke to someone about the problem (because I thought since it was a Windows Error the would be able to help) no such luck. They said I would need to contact Toshiba about this since this was an OEM (original equipment manufacture) problem, and not theirs. ?Great? Called Toshiba, nothing, this were their service person informs me that the new Windows Vista program will not work with the network, router, a printer if my other (3) computers are running Windows XP. ?HOLY COW POOP?. This was Frkin Peachy. Toshiba suggested to call Best Buy to see what they can do for me, buy asking someone there if they could help set up the network to communicate with the other computers. Sounded like sense. So I did. So I called the Big Blue Box (BB) and spoke to same manager I had dealt with on the delivery problem. Wow that was the most stupid mistake I ever made. This manager was the biggest ?d**k? I ever spoke to. I calmly explained the problem to him, an how I was led to believe that there would be no problem with this Laptop running Windows Vista to work with my computers, network, and printer. He told me point blank told me that his sales person would have ?never would have told me such a thing?. God I was outraged, not only was He calling me a Lair but also it was quite clear that this worthless manager was not going to help me at all. I asked to speak to his Boss, (the store manager) SHE was not there. Then I asked how to get in contact with his District manager?. guess what?that's right, he refused to give me that info also stating he did not know how, an even if he did he would not give me that info, because all customer concerns, and problems are handled at the store level, and that this problem did not warrant any further attention. What a worthless piece of human waste. I asked what was the name of his store manager, at first he was very hesent, and then he gave me her name. Well for the next (4) days I spent calling the Best Buy customer service line, (what a gdamn joke this is), calling their Corp Office, calling their District office, trying to get someone to listen and care about my problem. Again No-one gave a Royal flying Rats a*s about what was going on. Only to inform me that all the customer relation problems needs are handle at the Store Level. ?My God, don't they understand that here in lies the problem the Store Management and the rotten little peckerhead that sold me the Laptop. ?NO>>>HELL NO?. So after nearly going to the Hospital because on my Blood Pressure I decided to give it up. Knowing that Best Buy had SCREWED ME IN THE a*s AN NEVER USED ANY TYPE OF LUB TO EASE THE PAIN. Then out of the Blue the lousy Store Manager called an gave me the lamest apology I ever heard but still would not help me with my problem only offering to send out the GEEK Squad to make my Laptop work with my other computers, an network. But of course this would cost me other $200.00 for their service. God what kind of sick joke these folks live under, what kind of CON-Game they are playing on the costumer, what kind of people believe they would have me come back an waste my money in their store after this kind of Bull Sh___t. God I pray, and beg anyone reading this not to buy your need's at Best Buy, they will Lie, Cheat, an screw you up the behind so hard, that you will see stars. If any one reading this and still believes they will get good service from BB, all you will get is a Stroke. BEST BUY GO TO HELL YOU ROTTEN MOTHERF___KERS.

In my opinion, your response is not only condescending but contradictory. On one hand you say you're not calling her a liar. Then you "have a hard time believing" what she says. You tell her you're not "pointing the finger" at her, but the title of this rebuttal is "I'm sorry you messed up" and tell her "you are at fault". You think it's "rude" to have to wait 15 minutes at a store while someone is on the phone; I think it's "rude" that you would post something that so blatantly blames a customer for a problem that they had with your company. Have one of those phone-talking cashiers ever written a diatribe on you saying that it's rude that you have a problem with them being on the phone? I mean, you ARE a customer and you DO have a complaint - how dare you?! And, "for what it's worth", your apology is not really "worth" an ounce, being obviously insincere throughout this entire post... and in your next sentence say you don't believe her. Your post is completely out of line, and as an employee of Best Buy, you are representing them HORRIBLY. What an embarrassment. On one point though, you are right. Customers do NOT always tell the entire story when they have a complaint. However, in this case, the facts are pretty unconcealed. While ultimately, she should have backed up her own files, and she is at fault for that, she is NOT at fault for being angry that she was made multiple promises and none were kept. I believe her when she says Best Buy promised to back up her data. Why wouldn't they? It's an easy thing to do (especially for them) and it doesn't take much time. I also believe her when she says Best Buy told her it would be ready by a certain date. Why was there such a lack of communication on Best Buy's part? What took so long? Let's use an analogy. Chris, say you're scheduled to work at Best Buy one day, but you have something really important to do and you ask me to switch shifts. I agree, and promise to work your shift. The referenced date comes, and at the last second, I decide I am not going to work for you or call you to let you know, so no one shows up for your shift. You then get in trouble with your boss. Ultimately, your shift (or backing up data) is your responsibility - and you suffer the consequences (losing years worth of files). However, that doesn't mean that I (Best Buy) didn't do anything wrong and that you (the customer) don't have the right to be angry. To take it one step further, let's say my response to your anger is "You're lying - I never said I would work for you" and then "Well, sorry, what I did sucks, but it's really your fault anyway." She should have backed up her data and she wouldn't have this problem. However, the company is not totally blameless when they promise to do something and don't deliver and stall on communicating that to the customer (regardless of any liability waivers - they sometimes get overlooked in certain court cases anyway). I'm not saying she has a case here, but this customer has every right to be angry without getting a haughty attitude from a company employee.

I am a current employee of Best Buy (BBY) and have been for many years. I do not work at hte store in question, in fact I only found this because I plan on taking a trip to Houston in the near future, and I try to visit the local BBY's when I go out of town. I won't say that this is your fault, but it is not BBY's fault either. I have worked in many areas of the company, but I started in the most important area, Customer Service. I learned a lot of things, but the most helpful bit of information I learned is that a lot of customer's do not tell the entire side of the story. They want people to feel sorry for them for their (the customer's) mistake. I say that because as I read your letter I noticed a BIG red flag. Anyone that has sales experience, especially someone that has experience in service based sales, would tell you that a retailer is not going to refuse to do a service for you, or this case talk you out of it. Services a a huge margin portion of any business. Think about it, and hardware you would have needed, you would have paid for. do you know what a data back-up consists of? It takes little effort on the users part, and requires five minutes of the operators time. I can't speak to your personal experience, and I'm not calling you a liar. I'm sure you did have some trouble getting through on the phones, but personally, I'd rather help the customer who took the time to come in the store as apposed to making them wait so I could go answer the phone. I don't know about you, but I think it's pretty rude when I go to a deptarment store and have to wait for fifteen minutes to ring out because all of the associates are on the phone! I do feel sorry for you, as little as that helps, I do. As for the form letters from Customer Service, I can't say I've ever experienced that. I will say that BBY does care a lot about it's customers. If you had called the Corporate number, which is readily available, they would have likely called the store in question and discussed the matter with the Manager on Duty. Your situation would have been taken care of immediatly. Again, I say I am sorry for your situation, but I can't help to say that you are at fault. You should have kept your data secure. You should have insisted on the data back-up you left feeling sick about not getting. YOU read the warning!! It's there for this reason! BBY is not at fault if you decide not to back-up your data. If you want to point a finger, you should use extreme caution when doing so, you might poke you eye out... For what it's worth, as an employee of Best Buy, I appologize for your trouble ma'am. (I have a hard time believing that no one appologized to you, seeing as those words are engrained into anyone's mind that works in customer service at any business)

To everyone who is saying that it is Anne's fault for not backing up her own data... Did you even read her complaint? She took extraordinary measures to ensure that her data would be backed up as requested. It is entirely Best Buy's fault, and I don't understand why anyone makes excuses for poor customer service. I had a similar experience with Geek Squad, except that their "diagnosis" of my problem was entirely incorrect. They shouldn't even be allowed to work on computers. Good luck, Anne. Laura

Dear Anne, as a computer nerd myself, I have to say, it's a shame when anyone with important data (which is most people!) isn't aware of the valuable nature of a jump-drive/memory stick. Considering that the types of files that teachers, businesspeople, ANYONE usually need to keep handy tends to be on the small side, filewise, it's usually extremely easy to keep it on hand. I have a jump drive for pieces of artwork, school documents, and the like. It makes it tons easier to know exactly where it is and to bring it with me if need be. It's too bad you didn't know about it sooner; this could have all been very easily avoided if you'd known to keep your most valuable files backed up. This is a standard aspect of owning and operating a computer of any kind -- your paper files are important, so why would you treat your computer files any differently? :) And that said, how long have people been cracking jokes like, "Jesus saves, but back up your hard drive"? I have to say with the utmost respect, the only person at fault for not backing up your data in more than one place is you. This isn't meant to be an attack. I am currently a new employee of the Best Buy location in question. I am NOT a Geek Squad employee, but am considering becoming one at a later time. The reason I'm writing this is to just share my personal experience so far with the GS members I've run into. True, they all seem young and energetic -- it's probably easy to misconstrue this as immature. But I have come to work so early some mornings that I had nothing to do but go into the back room and read up on my new employee manual, and I've sat in on some GS learning sessions, and I was most impressed with the things I overheard. As I said before, I consider myself somewhat of a computer nerd, and these kiddos really do know their stuff. They seem to take the information they have to know extremely seriously, and I've seen nothing but politeness when they deal with their customers. I've spoken to several of them outside of the store on my break, and they've been more friendly to me than anyone else I've talked to so far. So that means, yes, to a girl who's super sensitive and new to Best Buy, I've found them both knowledgable and friendly. I guess the reason I'm posting this is, I AM new to this location, and it struck me as a shock to find this complaint (I was only looking for the phone number to call in and get my schedule!). :3 I do plan on reading the others; it helps me understand what I will need to help the location work on once I am better integrated as an employee. The success of the company is important to me no matter where I am employed; it's only "work" if you don't enjoy what you do. So, just remember: sometimes it isn't the location or the company -- every store is made up of employees, individuals, and sometimes they just don't do what is expected of them. One bad experience shouldn't equate to an automatic phone call to the BBB -- more often than not, the issue arises from the individuals themselves, and every consumer would be wise and humble to remember this before they slam their hands down on the big red button. Thank you for reading this. I apologize again for your trouble, and hope that as I continue my employment at BB that I will be able to help my own customers avoid bad experiences such as yours.

Hi Anne, I understand how you may feel. Data is the single most important thing you can have on the computer. Solution to your data problem: There is a good chance you can still recover your data (even if it's deleted).

Hello! I recently typed the rip off report about Best Buy Geek Squad and their treatment of me their customer. Thank you for your responses. I do back up all of my data now and have certainly learned my lesson in that regard! I will never again just rely on my hard drive. I admit that I should have learned how to do this. Like many people, I wish that I did know more about computers so I would not be at someone else's mercy. But then I also wish that I knew more about cars, so I wouldn't just be at my mechanic's mercy. There are lots and lots of things that I just wish I knew more about . . . In regard to one of the above rebuttals mentioning that small children know how to back up their data. I am a kindergarten teacher and I can assure you that although they are remarkably computer literate, most little children do NOT know how to back up data or even knw what the word data means! But you are right that I should have learned how to do this. . . I wanted others to know about my poor experience at Best Buy and in turn my positive experience at Comp USA in Houston, Texas. Best Buy came up with a very catchy name The Geek Squad. But, in my opinion that is all they have going for them, the catchy name that is. Please think twice before taking your computer them. It's been about three to four weeks now. Best Buy never even bothered to call me back. Best Buy never said sorry for losing my data and all of the other bad things that happend as mentoined in my above complaint. They just do not care.

You should always back up important data to CD/DVD's or an external backup source. If you are using a computer for schoolwork, business, or have other data that is vital to you it should be backed up regularly. You could have easily formatted the harddrive and reloaded the software with the disks provided by the manufacturer.

Anne, Did you know that clearing and reloading your system is very easy? All you have to do is follow step by step prompts. Small children do this everyday. You should never have any important data only in one place, like your hard drive. This is a no brainer. And, there is no magic diagnostic machine for software issues. It is simply remove and reinstall, or reload driver, etc.. Removing adware and spyware they usually just load a program on and run it. You should have had an up to date internet security program on that computer before ever going on the internet! What were you thinking? Just for faster performance you should reformat and reload your hard drive every year if you are a heavy user. I do it usually every 6 months.

Anne, Did you know that clearing and reloading your system is very easy? All you have to do is follow step by step prompts. Small children do this everyday. You should never have any important data only in one place, like your hard drive. This is a no brainer. And, there is no magic diagnostic machine for software issues. It is simply remove and reinstall, or reload driver, etc.. Removing adware and spyware they usually just load a program on and run it. You should have had an up to date internet security program on that computer before ever going on the internet! What were you thinking? Just for faster performance you should reformat and reload your hard drive every year if you are a heavy user. I do it usually every 6 months.

Anne, Did you know that clearing and reloading your system is very easy? All you have to do is follow step by step prompts. Small children do this everyday. You should never have any important data only in one place, like your hard drive. This is a no brainer. And, there is no magic diagnostic machine for software issues. It is simply remove and reinstall, or reload driver, etc.. Removing adware and spyware they usually just load a program on and run it. You should have had an up to date internet security program on that computer before ever going on the internet! What were you thinking? Just for faster performance you should reformat and reload your hard drive every year if you are a heavy user. I do it usually every 6 months.

Anne, I really feel for you and have had my own incident with The Geek Squad at Best Buy. Unfortunately, I can't comment just yet on it as legal issues may arise from either side, and I will post my own problem as soon as possible. In the mean time, for other readers, beware of what data you have on your computer when leaving it for repairs with Best Buy. Even if you leave specific to the letter instructions of what you want done and not done, once you are out of the store, they will search all of your files. I don't know what they are looking for personal information, bank account info, or what? If you are an attorney, a doctor, or some such professional that has records about your clients and their situation, you may be breaching your attorney-client priviledge by leaving this data with this company. If you can't remove this information securely before taking it in for repairs, I would suggest you stand there and explicitly watch what they are doing no matter how long it takes, and do not under any circumstances leave that information alone with them.