Geek Squad Consumer Reviews - Page 6

SAN DIEGO, CA -- A few months ago my father's laptop malfunctioned. It would turn on but would only reveal a black screen with the little white mouse. After several attempts at trying to figure out the problem my father (without my knowledge) decided to take it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy in Mission Valley located in San Diego, Ca. They said they needed to keep the laptop for over a week to fully diagnose the problem and also told him to order two recovery discs from Toshiba which cost him an extra 30$ or else they wouldn't fix it. My father is a 64 year old honest and kind man who likes to believe people are too good to rip others off.

They charged him $298.98 to fix his laptop, which in turn only broke down yesterday again. He called me asking for help since he didn't have the money to bring it in again. After he told me the stories of how they treated him with no respect, rolling eyes and exasperated huffs, taking their time to "find his computer" while he stood there on a bad leg (he walks with a cane) and acting like he was wasting their time I was in shock. I asked if he still had the recovery disks he had bought and he fortunately did save them. I had my doubts about Geek Squad for some time now but refused to believe they would go so far as to rip off an old man for 300 bucks just for putting in a CD.

I decided to give it a shot. After putting in the CD the laptop pretty much fixed itself after asking me to do a System Restore which restores your computer to an earlier time where no problems of any kind were wrong with it. After clicking the button and waiting about 5 minutes everything came back on again in full working mode. The laptop works beautifully now, and all thanks to a 30$ Recovery CD he only had to buy in the first place. I took a look at the receipt given to him and was even more shocked as to find what ** it had on there such as labor and time.

300 bucks to put in a CD, hit a button and wait 5 minutes doesn't sound like labor and it definitely didn't take any time. I'm a self proclaimed geek with the computer and can tell you Geek Squad is a bunch of crap. If you'd like to try Geek Squad out, by all means go for it I will not stop you, just do so at your own risk and please keep in mind, these people are just a bunch of snobby college students looking for a quick buck. ANYTHING they can do, you can do trust me. They didn't go to school for this stuff. And you would have saved yourself a sh*t load of cash and valuable time, trust me.

ATHENS, GEORGIA -- I purchased a 42 in Insignia TV from Best Buy. I also purchased a 4 year black tie warranty. I did not realize then that Best Buy only used Geek Squad for their warranty. Two years into the warranty the power supply went out. Called Geek Squad and they said that they would have a tech come check it out. it took a week for him to come out tell me it was a bad power supply and that he had to order parts. He said the parts would take 7 days.

Well the next Friday cam and he did return only to tell me he had brought the wrong parts (obviously did not check the parts number before bringing the wrong part to my house). He then said it would be another week and he would return on Friday. Friday came and no repair man so I called the 800 number only to find that my tech was not coming and he would be on vacation the following week.

When he finely showed up to fix the set he got it working somewhat but there was now a line down the middle of my TV. He said he would order another part and be back out in a week. The TV worked for 1 day and then went blank again. As I was looking for the problem I found that the whole back for my TV was bowed out and the screws were stripped. I called Geek Squad and they told me that my case had been closed out.

After several calls and several hours on the phone they finely scheduled an outside repair group to come fix or replace my TV. It has now been over two months since my TV went out. Geek squad dis the worst warranty repair people in the business and their customer service is horrible also. I have always used Best Buy and loved the deals and in store service. But I will not purchase another item from them as long as they are partnered with the geeks at Geek Squad.

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA -- My computer booted but would not access internet. I gave my computer to the Geek Squad on Monday and agreed to pay $70.00 for the diagnostic. They agreed to run the diagnostic testing, call me for authorization to repair the problem, and actually repair the computer. They told me the whole process would take 3 to 4 days.

At that time I failed to understand why it would take 3 to 4 days but reluctantly agreed. I have since found out why it takes so long to scan and fix your computer. I dropped it off on Monday. They informed me on Tuesday that the diagnostic test was completed and the computer had malware and viruses. We agreed to do a system restoration for an additional $130.00.

On Wednesday when I called it was not done but they said a spot on the bench had opened up. So I was hopeful that I would get it back on Thursday. However, Thursday afternoon they call me to see if I wanted to pay extra for them to back up the computer before they started the system restoration (they should have asked this question on Tuesday and they still had not started the repairs after another 48 hours). By this point I am thinking what kind of service is this? I should have just had a friend of mine do it for me. What a waste of time and $200.00.

I'€™m still waiting for my computer. It isn't that they don'™t tell you it will be days before you get the computer but they don'™t tell you it will be days because you are minor and insignificant to them. I believe they should just tell you that your computer will sit around waiting for a spot in the line while they call you to offer more services as a means of increasing you cost. I believe they intentionally do this to float your cost up to the point that you are forced to consider cutting your cost by buying a new computer (probably what I should have done from the beginning).

I recommend you find somewhere else to take you computer if you are having problems. The Geek Squad only works to milk you for all the money they can possibly get while they string you along. Once again, take it somewhere else or just buy a new computer.

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA -- This is by far the worst computer repair/service experience I've ever had. After an accident rendered by Powerbook G4 unusable (busted screen, some damage to the body, no damage to the hard drive), I took the laptop in to Geek Squad to have the data from my computer hard drive transferred to an external hard drive. I took it there, rather than to an out-of-town Mac store, on the recommendation of a friend because I didn't want to be without my computer's info for long.

After OVER A WEEK, I picked up the hard drive, and it was totally unusable. I took it back in, and the Geek Squad staff basically said "Oops, we formatted the drive incorrectly." I gave them a second chance to get it right, and more than a week later, they told me the external hard drive was bad. Which is crap, because it's only a few months old and I had used it the morning I dropped it off.

After much arguing, it finally came out that the hard drive isn't bad, but the partition path was corrupted. They attempted to partition the drive without my advice, permission or consent, which was totally unnecessary because I never use a PC or use my hard drive with a PC, which I made extremely clear both verbally and in writing. So they ruined my hard drive, took my computer apart and didn't put it back together, and have now had my computer for three weeks, have lost valuable information, including video, on both my external hard drive and my computer hard drive, and have cost me twice as much as they promised.

They have essentially lost an entire year's worth of valuable work documents and other items because they made a really dumb mistake and now can't figure out exactly what they did wrong. A key part of the problem is they seem to have only one person on staff who is qualified to deal with Mac, and his qualifications are doubtful. I will NEVER again take my computer to Geek Squad for Mac service.

I was HIGHLY disappointed in my service last month at Geek Squad. I spent close to 100 bucks for nothing. I brought my business laptop into Geek Squad because it intermittently wouldn't turn on at times, and I have to try turning it on sometimes 10-12 times before it finally boots. I thoroughly explained the situation to them.

After waiting a week, I finally got a call from the squad. I called back 14 times in two days, waiting 10 minutes + each time, but never got anyone on the phone. I finally drove over, stood in line for 1/2 hour, only to find out they the extent of their find was: They had done a scan and found some cookies & data miners on my computer. Big whoop, I do that every week with adware.

Then I asked, "so why does the computer intermittently not start?" NO CLUE. THEY HADN'T EVEN REPRODUCED THE PROBLEM. The guy had to go read the file to find out what I was talking about. 100 bucks, and I left with a computer that still has this same problem THAT I REPRODUCE EVERY DAY.

In my opinion, this is the poorest service I've experienced. I literally paid 100 bucks for a problem that the "geeks" couldn't even reproduce, which I reproduce every day. 100 bucks gone, only to be back at the same place I was before, with no answers or hints as to what's wrong. Wasted time and money. The representative was less than empathetic; no offer of recompense was given, just "see you later, next please." I have a very poor image of Geek Squad at this point.

When I have a great customer experience, I make it a point to tell everybody. The same goes for lousy customer experience - hence this post and many others I plan to make. I feel it my duty to warn all friends, family and colleagues of my bad experience at Geek Squad with no offer of recompense.

AKRON, OHIO -- I brought my 4 year old Apple to Best Buy Geek Squad due to sporadic shut downs. After reading information on the internet about similar problems, I informed the Geek Squad that I suspected a bad power supply. They informed me that they charged a $70 diagnostics fee. They also informed me that there would be a $100 charge to add 2 gigs of RAM about which I inquired.

After three days, I got a call stating that the problem was in the Operating System and that a $130 services was needed to fix the problem. The 2 gigs of RAM were now going to cost $170, not the $100 originally quoted. Service to fix the problem was OK's, but addition of the RAM was not. I had just updated the OS several months before, and never had a problem, but they are the experts, right?

Several more days passed, calls were exchanged, and I was able to pick up the computer. After bringing it home, it shut off just as before. They said it was still under warranty for the services performed, and to return it. After several more days, I received a phone call stating that the problem was the power supply after all, a suspicion I reported when I brought there in the first place.

I was informed by the Technician that the power supply was a "proprietary" item, to which they did not have access. "If you can bring us the part, we can put it in." Promises of obtaining the part number and returning phone calls were not kept. I was informed by the Technician that my service charge (prepaid prior to work performed) would be refunded.

I informed them that I would pick up my computer and wanted a full refund, including the diagnostics charge because they withheld information about not being able to fix a suspected problem in the first place. The supervisor stated that it is not their policy to refund and that all services were OK'd by me. They offered to find and install the part, which previously was unavailable. By this time, Geek Squad had proven themselves to be non-trustworthy and inept, so further service was declined.

The Geek Squad wasted 2 weeks of my time, performed unnecessary work, delayed repair of my computer, and they refused to refund any of my $212. I filed a complaint with their central public relations division, but they reported they could do nothing about securing a refund. They seemed genuinely disinterested that their employees provided misinformation, low-balled estimates, performed unnecessary services, failed to follow through on promises, and showed a pattern of general deception. Resolution will continue to be pursued.

NEWNAN, GEORGIA -- Went to use my computer one morning and it looked like it had crashed. It was only one year and nine months since we purchased it at Best Buy so naturally we decided to take it to Geek Squad for a diagnostic... BIG MISTAKE. Out machine was checked in and the cost of a basic diagnostic was $59.99. We agreed to this and were told we would be contacted in a few hours if anything else needed to be done.

Never heard back from anyone. We called next day, were put on hold and finally hung after waiting. Gave them one more day to contact us, no one did so we called back. Were told it was still being tested and may be a virus, they would call back. No one ever called. We call back again and finally speak to someone who said it may be motherboard and was still being tested they would let us know in a few hours. Again, never heard back.

We call next day. We are then told our computer has been shipped to Kentucky for further testing and that we would incur shipping charges for this. First of all, we NEVER authorized for our machine to be shipped anywhere. They argued and lied to us, insisting that we authorized this. After many days of escalations and headaches we finally get our computer back and are told it is the motherboard. Of course, they wanted $600.00 plus to repair it. We, of course, said "No way!"

Finally take the computer to a local private shop. I get the computer back the next day, completely fixed. All it was, was a memory stick has gone bad and was causing the computer to crash. They took the memory stick out, reloaded our programs and that was it. Cost us nearly nothing.

Geek Squad is one of biggest scams out there. They are a bunch of incompetent "old school used car salesman". The worst service and experience I have had in years with any company. I urge you for your own good... Do not use Geek Squad!!!

MAPLEWOOD, MINNESOTA -- I brought in a computer to get data recovered from a hard drive. They are a bunch of dumb ** or they are just out to screw the customer. The guy who looked at my computer said the drive would not mount, I know the ** drive would not mount, that was the problem. If that is the only thing they try and then tell me that they have to send it to their data recovery service for $500-$750 then I consider them a bunch of dumb **.

I brought the computer home, looked for answers on the Internet, found a program that said it could get data off of a drive that would not mount, bought it for less than I paid the Geeks to screw me, and within an hour I was backing up all the data on the drive and now have it restored to a new drive on the same computer. Bunch of Dumb ** or Screw Jobs is my opinion of the Geek Squad.

When filling out their service survey they asked how to improve their service. How about try something more than plugging in a drive and seeing that it does not mount then giving up. Probably took him 5 minutes so that works out to $840 per hour, what a racket. The head guy I talked to when picking up my computer said that if their machine couldn't get the data off then it is serious, **.

I also bought a home service appointment card to have a Geek come and review my installation and setup of a wireless router, the head guy said that out of a thousand he has seen only 2 people installed it properly, **! I am returning the service card unused. I will never think about the Geek Squad for service again.

HONOLULU, HAWAII -- I have never used Geek Squad before, but I was having trouble getting onto any internet browser other than internet explorer. I didn't understand the things people were posting about on the internet regarding how to fix the problem. So I figured I would try Geek Squad because they helped my friend with her computer in store. I called Best Buy and ended up with a recording and waiting around for a while. In the meantime, I tried to access Geek Squad through Internet Explorer. The website was faster than the store, but the person I talked to only wanted me to sign up for the $199 a year membership.

I stated that I only had one problem to fix and that I didn't want to commit to a membership, but then the guy said that to fix ONE problem would cost me about $149 TO START!!! They didn't even know what was wrong with my computer and they wanted to charge me $149! Um... I thought that was not good business. Even if I take my car to the mechanic, they give me a quote that includes what services they will be doing for me. The guy didn't even explain what they would be doing or how and he didn't even try. He just wanted me to buy a membership.

I don't normally rate websites or other things, but I was sorely disappointed with the push for ONLY membership rather than service or QUALITY service. It turns out the problem was my anti-virus program and I easily fixed it myself, but for something that simple I would have been charged $149 to START? Even if it was a standard hourly rate, I think that is an exorbitant amount of money for something.

Now the store people may have been better for my friend which would explain the good review that one person put. I am not saying anything bad about the service in person, just the website. It would have been a better experience if the customer support person could have been more informative instead of pushing the membership on me.

CUTLER BAY, FLORIDA -- I purchased the desktop at Best Buy for Christmas. Unfortunately the product failed within 2 weeks with what I diagnosed as a power supply or motherboard failure. Since the product was under warranty I did not attempt to confirm the problem or repair it so as to not void the warranty. I called ASUS and was directed to take the product to the Geek Squad for repair. I did so and the product came back in 2 weeks with the same problem; it had not been fixed and they changed the hard drive. I did not accept the product back and they re-sent the product to Kentucky for repair. It has been there ever since.

Their tracking system shows that they have all the parts and are working on it; the status never changes and it has been like that for quite some time. You get periodic e-mails showing you the erroneous status periodically adding insult to injury. When you call the store to inquire they do not know the status and refer you to the 800 number of customer support; when you call customer support they refer you to the store.

No one seems to be allowed to call the repair depot and give you a straight answer. In the meantime I have no computer and no clue as to when will it be repaired. The Geek Squad Manager has been useless and the Store Manager does not return her calls when you get through.

I have written to Corporate Management but that will probably do no good. I am also posting in every blog I can find to hopefully prevent someone else from making the same mistake with the Geek Squad. Best Buy has been unable or unwilling to help. Don't make my mistake, purchase from another retailer that will back what they sell with good service and by all means stay away from the Geek Squad. They should change their name to the Reek Squad, because their service stinks.