Best Buy Computers Consumer Reviews - Page 5

SOUTH PORTLAND, MAINE -- My HP Laptop suddenly stopped working and I took the computer in for repair under my extended service plan. I was told it would most likely be several weeks for the repair to be completed. Three weeks passed so I called to check on the status. The representative told me the delay was due to my computer being damaged during shipping to their service center. I was told the case was cracked, left front speaker was damaged and the LCD also had scratches. I was told they would replace everything and I wouldn't be able to tell any damage was done.

Yesterday, 8/11 I was informed my computer was ready. When I arrived at the store the Geek Squad representative proceeded to take my computer out of a box. When he did screws fell out. I also noticed deep scratches on the casing. Upon inspection of the computer it was clear they put on a used case which didn't fit properly on my model and most of the other damage was still visible. Also the computer was dead (would not turn on).

Needless to say I wasn't happy. The Geek Squad manager came over and was of little assistance. He was very argumentative and had the nerve to say "what would you like me to do?" Does anyone at Best Buy understand what customer service is? Especially considering my computer was destroyed while in their care?

I've wasted several hours on the phone with various people at Best Buy where I am told I should wait for my computer to be fixed and to stop being unreasonable. What does one do in this situation? I'm without a computer with little faith it can be restored to its original condition. I will no longer shop at Best Buy due to their poor customer service and their lack of concern for a customer's property.

MESQUITE, TEXAS -- On March 15, 2004 I took my laptop to Best Buy because it would not send a signal to video out. Best Buy sent my laptop back by UPS. When I got my laptop back it wouldn't turn on. I took it back to Best Buy, the techs at the store looked at it & had to send it off again to have it repaired. This was on March 27, 2004. When the unit was returned to the store they told me the unit was fixed & ready to pick up. When I got to the store they told me there was a charge of $108. I asked why & they said the techs said there was damage to the unit. I told them that I had just got the unit back & there was no way.

The next day they called & told me the charges was removed & I could pick up the unit. It had been fixed when I got to the store. I tried turning the unit on & again it wouldn't start. They again sent the unit off for repair. This was on April 21, 2004. I have called to see if my laptop was ready yet & have been told that there is water damage to the unit & that it was not fixed the first time that there was a note that there would have been a charge of $675. to repair the unit. I told them when I came up there to pick up my laptop that I was told was fixed. There wasn't anything about this told to me.

I have been talking to James ** & Steve ** @ the store in Mesquite # ** & I have also talked to Lisa ** @ **. They have told me there is nothing that they are going to do about this & that my laptop is on the way back to the store unrepaired. I told them that I would be contacting the BBB & they told me that wouldn't matter that it would not change what they are doing or not going to do. I also told them that I could not believe this. I took the unit for a simple problem & I can't even use the unit now that they have managed to trash my laptop.

PORTLAND, OREGON -- I bought THREE HP Pavilion Laptops at about the same time for family members - and ALL THREE had failed Hard Drives. I actually had two of them in the tech shop at Best Buy at the same time. One of the three was irreparable, so kicking in a little money it was replaced at Best Buy and is the G6 HP Pavilion that I will now talk about. The computer that I replaced the third lap top with is a HP Pavilion G6 Series. Purchased it on August 18, 2012. HARD DRIVE Failure, in the shop March 18, 2013.

The SECOND HARD DRIVE FAILURE happened just nine months later on December 8, 2013. I took it back to Best Buy. But by now my one-year warranty for the computer is now out-of-warranty. They did say they would replace the Hard Drive as it had just been replaced in March of 2013. The diagnostic tool on HP said it was a Hard Drive Failure. The following day I got a call from BEST BUY - They inform me that the problem is not the Hard Drive, it is the motherboard. BEST BUY tells me it would not be worth the cost to fix, and just buying a new one would be the best thing to do.

I pick up the HP Laptop from Best Buy. I have to say at this point didn't really trust what was said to me about the laptop. I was told also when picking up my laptop, that the diagnostic tool in HP's are not real reliable. I get home, decide to look at the hard drive - open it to view the hard drive and lo and behold when it was replaced in March 2013 - it was replaced by a TOSHIBA hard drive. I call Toshiba.... no warranty on the nine month hard drive. Why? I believe because the TOSHIBA was put in an HP product and not a Toshiba product. Called HP - not their problem and that this has to do with where I bought it at which was BEST BUY.

BUYER BEWARE of the WARRANTY specs on your product. They can use replacement parts (where you have it purchased, i.e. Best Buy when you get warranty work done) that are not genuine parts for the computer - HP told me this. I will NEVER buy another HP product.

WOODLAND PARK, NEW JERSEY -- In August 2012 I purchased an Asus G75VW laptop from the Best Buy in Woodland Park, New Jersey. I was wary about purchasing such an expensive item but ended up even opening a credit line with them in order to file this purchase. I have lived in the area all my life and have always gone to Best Buy for my electronics and gaming needs. Two weeks ago the hard drive on the laptop went bad and it would not boot up. After speaking with several customer service reps I found out that I could bring it into the store and they would send it out for repairs for free because it is still under manufacturer's warranty.

I took it in and dropped it off. The technician removed the battery and gave it back to me and told me they did not need the charger. Yesterday, April 4, 2013, I went to pick up my laptop at the same Best Buy location. Having no battery or charger the tech was able to plug it in and turn it on. Upon turning it on the screen immediately showed a. exe error which means a program did not work correctly. The technician had already had me sign the paperwork for the "repair" before he turned it on. Before I could ask him about this new issue he turned away and began helping another customer. I had several questions about the repair that went unanswered.

After arriving home and rebooting the laptop the error message came up again. After trying to open several programs that come pre-installed with this laptop I received more exe errors and some did not open at all. I took my laptop back to the store today, April 5, 2013, and since I did not need the battery or charger the first time I did not bring the charger but did leave the battery in. I was instructed to return home to bring back the charger because they no longer have the charger they had yesterday. I was told that if I did not bring back the charger they would not do the repair and if I did not pick up the laptop it would be recycled.

As I was waiting for a technician another customer brought in a stand alone PC tower with no cords or cables and a technician was promptly able to accommodate him with the proper power supply. This is a laptop and a company that Best Buy frequently sells and repairs on site. After speaking to an Asus representative I also found out that Best Buy strips the laptops and does not include all the appropriate accessories for this model.

PHOENIX, ARIZONA -- I recently had an experience at Best Buy that suggested some highly unethical and predatory practices. I purchased a Nook that was defective, stopped working after using twice. Best Buy refused to allow me to return it though it was within the guidelines of their written return policy. I was able to work directly with Barnes and Noble for the return of an item I bought at Best Buy.

I wanted to share some of my research on the current unethical practices engaged in by Best Buy that corroborate my recent interactions with them that reflect their malevolent intents and attitudes toward their customers, as written in Forbes Magazine, as quoted here:

"Employees, I learned, are strongly conditioned to see every customer who walks in the store as a potential target, one who needs to be coerced into buying something other than what they came looking for. But you can't treat the customer as an adversary in a battle of wills. You can't provide superior service when you've been drilled to view each person who walks into your store as prey. You can't be a trusted source of expertise on consumer electronics when, as many former employees told me, failure to follow the company script means getting your hours cut or simply being fired."

"Best Buy employees are trained to focus on customers. But not so much to serve them as to overpower them. It is not being "customer-centric" when your laser-beam focus is on sizing the customer up and looking for weaknesses in their resistance to buying products and service they didn't come looking for." **

As described above, my own experience above reflects to a tee what Mr. Downes has identified. While everyone knows a defective item is returnable according to written policy, Best Buy staff "sized me up" and determined I could be conquered, and they were determined to do so for the simple reason of their vulnerability to job insecurity, including the possibility of being terminated and certainly being excluded from promotional rights and privileges as well being judged as weak by their peers.

In conclusion, I could have taken to task Best Buy staff and probably would have won but the more humane interaction with the online company Barnes and Noble, was less time consuming and stressful. More simple to do, as millions of other consumers of electronics in today's world have done, walk away from Best Buy... Forever. I take solace in the knowledge that as Best Buy appears to continue its tailspin with the continuation of predatory practices, soon to be unemployed.

BRISTOL, VIRGINIA -- I went to the Best Buy in Bristol, Va at exit 7 looking for a laptop. ** (I later found out her name) approached me and asked me if I needed any help. I told her "I would like to get the Dell" (I pointed at it). I believe that one was $349. So she went back to the back I guess to look for it and then came back. She then proceeded to tell me that they didn't have any, but they were getting 12 on the truck. I really wanted to leave with one and the whole time she stood there it was like she was so anxious to leave and go finish her conversation with the girl at the front desk.

So I asked her what the difference was between the $399 Dell and the $349 Dell and she told me that the $349 one was faster and just a better all-around computer and I repeated that back to her word for word and then I added "the least expensive one your telling me is faster than the more expensive one???" With the biggest attitude she said "Yes ma'am that's what I said". She then walked off. My friend I was with told me to find someone else and see what they had to say but she obviously shrugged me off to finish her conversation because that's exactly where she went after she rudely left me.

Then we found **. I asked him the same question about how could you tell the fastest one and he told me that she was very wrong. The $399 one was a lot faster than the $349. He actually said she must have been on crack... well he got the laptop for me and we went to pay for and I don't know much about any computer so that's why I brought my friend with me. He was so rude with her after I told him that I couldn't afford to pay another $200 and some odd dollars for protection and black tie.

I told my friend to tell him because he was not listening to me at all and when she told him he told her that he wasn't going to talk to her - he was talking to me and that she could go take a walk around the store. Now I don't know the people that you all hire but that would have made 2 times you almost lost my business. I just couldn't believe that someone would treat someone like that and then not to mention when we were about to leave I asked him to tell me what her name was and he told me "no" and I asked him for a manager and he told me he was going to get one. I worked at Sally's for almost 5 years and if we ever did something like that we would have got fired.

Dec 20, 2010, took phone (Dell Streak $500 Smart Phone) to local store for repair under black tie protection plan. It has water damage and doesn't function. It was sent off for repair. Jan 05, 2011, received phone back form Best Buy. Got it home, plugged in battery and chip, phone still doesn't work! When I look at the notes on the paperwork the store gave me, the technician said "unable to repair your phone", no reason given! They shouldn't have given me the phone back!!! Jan 06, 2011, returned to Best Buy and sent phone off again for an "expedited" repair. Two or three days. Phone sent to Geek Squad for repair, again. They determine they cannot fix it.

They send it to the manufacturer. The manufacturer says the phone has a black tie protection plan and says they have to send it back to Geek Squad. Currently, Geek Squad has my phone. Jan 12, 2011, still do not have my phone. That is 23 days without my phone. So much for the "Black Tie" protection plan. After numerous calls to Geek Squad, 888 Best Buy, and Geek Squad customer service, I have got nowhere. So yesterday I called the corporate office and spoke with the administrative assistant to the VP of customer care about my concerns. She apologized and took my complaint and said she would call me this afternoon.

I will wait and see but I won't hold my breath. I also sent an email to Barry Judge a senior VP of the company. Did I mention that they loaned me a poc cheap phone? Oh and the kicker, they wanted to charge me a deposit on the loaner phone! They have my $500 phone but they want to charge me a $50 deposit on a $50 phone? Good Grief! This service is terrible. I wouldn't recommend to anyone the black tie protection plan. It's a waste of money! And it's a huge headache.

My good friend who I work for recently encountered this situation. She called Best Buy because her laptop that she purchased from them under two years ago was acting up. She also purchased the best extended warranty they provided at the time. After telling them what was wrong they drew the conclusion that she probably had a virus so for 130.00 they told her they would sanitize and optimize her computer. This laptop is the hub of her business. She owns a catering company and has all her company spreadsheets and data on the computer. So of course she dropped it off for the cleaning and picked it up after the service.

The night she got it back it would not turn on and continued to act until the next day she brought it back to complain. The associate told her there was no problem and that they had installed a new hard drive. What? I know she never asked for that and they could not explain to her why it was done. After a few more days of trying to recover company data and records she discovered the battery compartment on the laptop was damaged. And of course her battery would not hold a charge too! When she brought it back they told her the battery had been fried and the compartment damaged by someone trying to replace it.

Now the fix would have to come from the manufacturer because the extent of the damage of the battery compartment. All this from a virus cleaning and optimization? I am as confused as you are! First of all someone messed up and fried the battery and probably the hard drive (since they replaced it) and who knows what else?Broke the battery compartment and covered their butts like crazy. We have gone back several times to make them replace the whole computer because now the motherboard is acting up! She lives 40 minutes away and is still making attempts to get this issue resolved in a fair manner.

She is absolutely furious at the lack of customer care she has received and demanding a comparable computer in return. Many excuses and put off's later we are know waiting for the manufacturer to get involved. These people have no integrity and refuse to own up to their mistake and do the right thing. They have NO business fixing your computer many of them aren't even qualified to go near one. They seem to hire anyone that has one iota of experience with computers!! Would you hire someone as a doctor because he is really good at putting on bandages? I am disgusted by Best Buy's policies. I will buy my daughter's laptop from Wal-Mart first!!

BOGART, GEORGIA -- I purchased a computer from Best Buy in September 2010 for my small business. Between Sept and December 2010, I have returned this computer THREE times for repairs due to defective software that was factory-installed. This defect was keeping me from installing/opening the software I needed for my business. After the third visit, I thought we had the problem beat. I had to bring the computer to them and MAKE them install my program (their excuse for not installing the program was it may take too long!)

On December 21, I turned on my computer to find it, yet AGAIN, having the same problems and unable to pull up the program I need to run my business. I called Best Buy and explained the situation to them and that I urgently needed someone to come out and fix the computer and I was directed to the Geek Squad hotline where some snotty ** informed me that I would have to pay an absurd amount for the Geek Squad to just come out and look at BRAND NEW COMPUTER THEY HAVE WORKED ON THREE TIMES ALREADY FOR THE SAME PROBLEM! That wasn't even including the cost of repairs.

When I asked to speak to a manager about this, big surprise, one wasn't available. Best Buy has poor customer service. I've asked about returning the computer because obviously, the thing is defective and they are incapable of fixing it and they will only exchange it for another computer. I also bought a fax machine from them that STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX didn't work. Evidently Best Buy doesn't care about their customers and in the future I will pay double at another store for electronics before I spend a penny at Best Buy.

What makes me angry more than anything is their absolute disregard for customer satisfaction. I called them not expecting star treatment but expecting them to fix a problem which orginated at THEIR store with THEIR merchandise. They had no sympathy for the effect that this situation had on my business, it all came down to money with them.

BANGOR, MAINE -- I received a Toshiba Laptop for Christmas and by April I had used it about a week. The laptop would not connect to the wireless unless I was next to it. I took it back to Best Buy Geek Squad and they checked it out and said it connected to their wireless fine. I brought it home and tried it again and same problem. Took it back and they said that it was my wireless router. Brought it home and my son who repairs computers and is studying computer science just laughed, as all of his computers run just fine here. I took it back a 3rd time and the Geek Squad sent it away and again they said that it was not their problem.

Here I have a laptop which I cannot connect to the Internet without going downstairs and setting next to the router. My son was getting very upset with the Geek Squad and check the Internet site for Toshiba and looked for the same problem. He then found out that it had to do wireless card (imagine that). Apparently, there is a way to adjust the range on the wireless card to work in my house. Now, he can do this and it won't void the warranty. He does so and WOW!! It works just fine. I then called the Bust Buy Head Quarters and spoke to two different people about the problem and before I could finish they knew exactly what I was saying and what to do fix it.

I expressed my concerns about the Bust Buy Geek Squad and they were very concerned about this problem, (I Think). I then called the Geek Squad here in Bangor Maine and they did not know what I was talking about. They had NEVER heard of this problem. Apparently most laptops come with a factory setting for the wireless and sometimes you have to adjust it to work in your home. It is hard for me to believe that this is the first time they have heard about this. So, anyway it is now fixed and it is working great, no thanks to the Geek Squad!