Best Buy
reviews and complaints

My first problem with Best Buy was 3 1/2 years ago when I bought a Laptop. I bought the extended warranty and had the Geek Squad set it up (extra cost).

When buying, they will put extensive pressure on you to buy the warranty and the setup. Second, when they set it up, they put their own? (or higher profit?) virus software on the machine. Of course, their warranty was very expensive. But I didn't know any better at the time.

Second, when I had to return my Laptop for repairs, the Geek Squad manager of the store was incredibly rude throughout the entire process which took weeks despite other promises. I tried to call the store manager - and guess what - they don't answer the phone like the Geek Squad did not answer the phone. I will say that there was one person in the Squad that I finally found, realized the issue, and helped me out. They also figured out a way to charge me extra - which I do not think was valid according to how I read the warranty agreement. Of course, you have to be a lawyer to read it and truly understand it.

My second problem was recently when in buying my new PC. It is a PC that for what it had, was at a great price. I had sworn never to pay them another dime and this is an exception because they have gotten an exclusive on certain PCs. Best Buy was the only place I could get this brand and setup.

Pressure on to get the warranty again. I refused with difficulty. You do not have to buy a warranty from them. Go to SquareTrade.com, an independent warranty company that has about the best ratings I have seen for any such company. Many TV news and newspaper reporters have checked them out and report universally great reviews as far as I have seen.

They have also figured out another few ways to get you. They now have software on the machine that gives you trial downloads that end up costing you a lot. I suggest you do not buy anything from them because it is probably less expensive and better elsewhere.

They also offer you Microsoft Office Student (basic programs) for over $100. I include MS in this issue. What they didn't tell me, and I think an honest retailer would, is that Office 10 will be available for free online - with advertising. So what - Google does that. The cost to put it on your computer will be several hundred dollars I understand. The point -Office 10 comes out in June or July. You can do one of two things - use the trial Office 2007 on the new PC for the intro period, or download the Beta version from Microsoft.com. At least Best Buy didn't get another cent out of me.

Remember:

1 - There is a reason that Consumer Reports rated them dead last of consumer electronics stores.

2 - If you buy a warranty or any extras, especially involving Geek Squad - I would guess that you will be paying considerably more money for considerably less value.

3 - In my case - going to the Geek Squad was a bigger headache than my PC breaking down.

4 - My guess, while not being in the industry, is that they offer good prices and make money on the warranties and other stuff they can sell you.

So - save your self some money and the headache of dealing with them.

It all started the day after Thanksgiving, "Black Friday." I decided to order via bestbuy.com and I purchased $307 worth of items using my best buy credit card…I was also taking advantage of the no interest on purchases of $249 or more. Dec 2nd I rec’d an email stating that there was a problem with my billing and if they didn’t hear from me they were going to cancel my order. So I called the number listed in the email and spoke with a CSR from bestbuy.com… was told that they were going to send the order through again and that she wasn’t able to tell me exactly why it didn’t go the first time. I said that was fine, didn’t see a need to investigate further, all she said they needed was my authorization to process the order again.

Dec 3rd I rec’d another email stating that there was an issue on the billing and my items might be canceled. So, I went online to view my account and to my surprise my account was overdrawn ($196.27). I called bestbuy.com and got the run around. After the 5th person I spoke with I was told to call HSBC. I called HSBC, after the 3rd person it was determined that bestbuy.com charged my best buy card twice on Black Friday, 2 charges of $307 each, no duplications on the products just twice the charges. I was then told by HSBC that they couldn’t reverse the charge without bestbuy.com approving this…which meant I had to call bestbuy.com back and then have them call HSBC. Oh, and in the meantime I rec’d another email regarding billing errors in which 2 items on my order were canceled! Now where was I, yes, after 2 hours on the phone trying to get a credit of $307 back on my account I thought everything was fine so the call ended.

Dec 4th I look at my online account balance and notice that yes, a credit of $307 was issued back to my account but the items that were canceled on my order were still charged to my best buy card. So, I called Bestbuy.com since by now I knew the process was to call them first and have them call HSBC on the other line…anyways, after speaking with 3 people and a supervisor I was assigned a case# and was told someone would call me back. 2 days later no one ever called me back! I then proceeded to call bestbuy.com and go through the process again only to be disconnected after an hour on hold and in which I was being transferred to the 3rd person who I was told would be able to help me. I didn't call back, instead I took my business elsewhere to purchase the products that were canceled and told everyone I know what happened!

Never delivered, I purchased a Refrigerator from Best Buys in mid February with a delivery date of mid March. Not having received a phone call to confirm delivery I called the store and spoke to a young clerk who checked the delivery sheet and confirmed my delivery was set for noon to 4 pm that Saturday. At about 3:30 PM I called the store to check on delivery status and was informed that my item was on back order and they could not give me a delivery status. It is paid in full on my Best Buy card. Two months later still no delivery and I requested my money back and I was informed store policy was that they could only give me a " store credit " only . The item is still not delivered and I was informed it was no longer manufactured even though their web site indicated available to purchase. I dont need a $ 1458 store credit, I want my money back for item that cant be delivered... I feel ripped off, filed complaint with department of consumer protection, better bureau and am scheduled to go on air with Television to promote Best Buy rip offs ...

On 04/24/10 I ordered a cool Sprint phone using the web: Bestbuy.com which it was shipped and received by 04/26/10. Such order was a Super Mistake, since this stupid company just wasted my time by sending me this smart phone that I was told it was not a smart phone and that I could order it without changing my plan. After the receipt of my cell I called to activate it, but the stupid CSR (Customer Service Rep) advised me of changing my plan to a more expensive plan based on this phone's features of a smart phone (smart ### phone, I say), I raised hell and ask to speak with a manager. After a long wait the manager desided to call me and explained to me the same b s as mentioned. I told him my frustration of a bad order since I was not to give up on upgrating my plan for a higher and pocket inconvenient plan. We are still in recession and I am not willing to spend $170.00 for the up of the plan for 2 years. I sent them the below e-mail and still waiting for a response since I got tired and returned the cell for their very incompetent service. See below...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cancel my order! Thanks for wasting my time. I ordered this phone and now I can not activate it without changing my plan, you should train your dumb sales reps to learn how to make business and let the customer know about any possible changes before activating the phone after you ship it out to avoid a waste of time canceling such order and returning phones that should have never been shipped without a full explanation of possible changes to my existing plan.

I will open up a claim in the BBB to investigate your company for hiring very incompetent sales reps and management that care only for the customer's pocket.

Give me a call if you have questions about this complaint. I returned this phone today by FeDX. Expect to get a refund as soon as u get back your phone. I will post this complaint in the complaints board website. Thanks for nothing!
Call me!
ENRIQUE TOVAR

HP laptop (14 months old) was stuck at HP screen. Geek squad did nothing but charge me $84 to send to service center. They did nothing but tell me they've see this before: it needs a new motherboard for $500. (Why couldn't they have told the Geek squad this so I wouldn't have to send it off and waste $84?
So, I said "no" and took it to a local repair shop who fixed it for FREE. Took a second. Complained to BBB; they refused to give me the $84 back or even tell me where the $84 went. Beware of Best Buy.

I was in Chicago March 16-19 for a business conference and on March 17th my wife called me to tell me that she was working on our computer when it began to run slowly. She attempted to save her work in fear of losing it and when she did, the screen said that the "C" drive was not found. After a couple attempts at restarting the computer she received the dreaded blue screen with an error message. She called me and explained and I told her that there was nothing I could do until I returned home. When I returned home that Friday, I was disturbed that when I booted the computer that a message reading "Hard drive failure is imminent". The computer would not boot into Windows so I decided that since the I had purchased the 3 year black tie protection that I would bring it in for repair. I always purchase the warranty/black tie protection for anything electronics that I purchase at Best Buy because every salesman there says "if you purchase our protection plan, you don't have to worry about anything for the duration of the plan". This could not be further from the truth. I have done nothing but worry for the last 6 weeks.

On Saturday March 20, I took the CPU in to store 833 so that they could make good on my warranty. After their initial look at my computer they determined that they would need to keep it and work on it. I signed the service agreement and was on my way. I received a call the next day stating that the hard drive would need to be replaced and that the hard drive would need to be sent to the data recovery center so that the data could be extracted. Kaman was the agent in the store at the time and he informed me that I would not want to do this because it was "super expensive". I informed him that my family photos, videos, and other pertinent documents were on the hard drive and that I had purchased the protection plan in case a situation such as this were to arise. He informed me that data recovery was not covered on the protection plan. I asked him to speak to a manager and he told me that a manager would not approve the data recovery for free. I again asked to speak to the manager and he rolled his eyes at me and called Kristin, a store supervisor. She again informed me that the data recovery was not covered in the protection plan and that if they were to recover the data that I would be responsible for paying. With reluctance I agreed and she retired to speak with Kaman, the Geek Squad employee. She returned to tell me that if I brought in the recovery discs that I received when I purchased the computer that my data could be recovered. I immediately went home and retrieved the discs. I brought them back up to the store and gave them to the Geek Squad and told them what Kristin had said. They informed me that was incorrect and that the only way that the data could be recovered was if it was sent to the data recovery center for a minimum of $250-$300. You can imagine my surprise so I again asked to speak to Kristin. She came back and told me that she either misunderstood what Kaman had told her or he was incorrect. She then told me that I would have to pay a $60 deposit to get the hard drive sent to the recovery center. She saw my reaction to that and she offered to waive the $60. They sent the hard drive to the recovery center on that Monday and began the process of getting back the data.

The next Monday I received a call that my computer would have to be sent off for service because they could not get the new hard drive to work with my computer. I had a less than favorable reaction having been without my computer for over a week but there was nothing I could do. My computer was sent and I received an e-mail with the case number so that I could check up on the status. Later that week I received a phone message stating that the recovery discs that I had provided were not working and that I needed to buy new ones from HP. The agent that called said that if I needed help ordering them that I could call and that Geek Squad would give me instructions. At this point I was furious. I called the store and spoke to the Cornell who said he was a manager. He immediately went to the Geek Squad desk and was speaking with them about the recovery disks. He then informed me that he would "get on top of the situation" and at that point I did not need to purchase the recovery disks. We are now over two weeks into this fiasco.

In the meantime I received a call from the Geek Squad data recovery center in Kentucky stating that a level 2 recovery was necessary to retrieve the data on my hard drive. I was given a price of $715 plus tax if they provided the external drive and $580 if I provided the drive. I was extremely upset and proceeded to call the Best Buy store to discuss my options regarding this recovery. I again spoke to Cornell, the store manager at the time. He told me that there was nothing that he could do to offset the cost of the recovery. I then proceeded to pay a visit to the store. I was told that since the data recovery was not covered that I would be responsible for the full amount. I agreed and told them to advise the recovery center to go ahead with the recovery of my data. They said that it would take a few days and that they would have the drive back to me in 1 week or less. This gave me great comfort as my wife was visibly upset at the thought of losing all of the pictures, videos, and documents from the last year of our life. With my approval they proceeded.

I had given up my daily calls as they were not returning results so I decided to let a week go by before I would call again. To my surprise on April, 5 I received an automated call that my computer was ready to be picked up. After picking up my daughter from school I proceeded to the store to retrieve my computer. When I arrived they informed me that it was not ready and that there was a glitch in the system and I should not have received a call. The call was actually due to the fact that the computer was finished at the service center and was ready to be shipped back to the store. However, they could not tell me when it would be shipped. I called every day and was informed that it finally shipped on that Thursday. When I called to speak to an agent about when it would be back in the store she told me that the computer would not arrive until the following Friday. I sarcastically asked her if they were walking it back to the store and then asked if she had a tracking number that she could check to see when it would arrive. She informed me that it would be in the following Tuesday, April 13th. On that day, I received a phone message from a Geek Squad agent and from the automated system that my computer was ready for pick up. I again proceeded there after my daughter's swim lesson just down the road. Again I was informed that I was called by mistake. I asked to speak to the manager and Shana approached me. She informed me that it was a mistake but could not explain why I had a message from a person and the machine. She then informed me that new recovery disks were necessary because the new hard drive was not working with my computer. She told me that she would provide her corporate card to purchase the disks and have them overnighted to the store. She also offered to offset the cost of the data recovery by half for all of the trouble that this particular store had caused me. She was extremely helpful and I left there confident that I would get my data back at a reasonable cost and that my computer would also be returned soon. The next day I received a call that HP could not overnight and that they were sent regular ground delivery. Finally, that Saturday April 17, I received a call that the disks had arrived and did not work. The message stated that I could come in and pick out a computer that would be similar in specifications as a direct replacement for mine. I was fine with this and that Sunday went in to the store and received my replacement computer. It works great! Unfortunately however, another stipulation of the protection plan is that if the computer needs to be replaced that the plan is fulfilled and I no longer have protection for my PC. This was upsetting because I had just under 2 years remaining on my protection plan. The Geek Squad employee informed me that I had 30 days to purchase a new protection plan for my computer. I left without protection on my computer in the hopes that when my hard drive arrived that I could work something out with the store manager to get my protection plan back as it was not my fault that the Geek Squad could not make my computer work.

On Thursday April 22 I received a phone message from the data recovery center stating that all attempts at a level 2 recovery had failed and that a level 3 recovery was necessary. The message stated to call in and to keep calling until I could talk to a person. It specifically said not to leave a message. Not having extended amounts of time to continuously call, I finally got through yesterday, April 26. I spoke to an agent that advised me that they were unable to copy my drive because the data was corrupted. She said that a level 3 clean room recovery was necessary to recover the data and that it would be approximately $1600 to recover the data. I was extremely upset and advised her that I had never received such poor service from any organization and that I could not believe that this was happening. She gave me a half-hearted apology and informed me that I had 72 hours to make a decision. This is where things stand right now. At this point I am going to request that they send me back my hard drive so that I can attempt to have it done locally. I am fed up with the Geek Squad and Best Buy.

I want to conclude by saying that I purchase all of my electronic devices and components at Best Buy since 1992. I have always had great success with Best Buy and their products but in all of that time this is the first time that I have had trouble with any item. It is disturbing to me that after all of the years doing business with your company that the first time I have an issue that this is the result. In addition, I have over the years recommended Best Buy to numerous friends and family members based on my successful dealings. As recently as last fall I recommended to my neighbor that she purchase her small business server and computers for her company at Best Buy. I then set it all up for her and it has been running smoothly so far but I cringe to think that if something goes wrong, she will be in the same boat as I am. Please note that I do not take any of this personally, but I do feel that the whole sequence of events has opened my eyes to the way that Best Buy and many other "big box" stores do business. I have realized, at least at store #833, that there is no communication and that the chain of command is greatly skewed. I was shown empathy by two out of the many employees I dealt with and this is unacceptable. I can't fully describe how I have felt over these last 6 weeks. In all of my dealings with any retail store this is by far the worst. I do not think that I am being unreasonable, I just expect to get what I pay for. In this case, I have not.

I think it is crazy that a so called geek squad knows less that me about computers and I am a 21 year old girl. On the first occasion that I learned about their stupidity, my dad took his laptop in because he got a virus and needed the files off his computer. These are very important files and the so called geek squad sent his computer out and said that his hard drive was fried. He sent the laptop to HIS I.T. people and they pulled the files off in minutes. THEN today I took my brand new laptop in because the internet wasn't working, no matter what I did. They barely looked at it and said there was nothing they could do. If I wanted a replacement I'd have to pay a 15% restocking fee. Well then why did I pay for a warrenty! I swear geek squad is a joke. They should have to have a BA or something.

I am a customer for Best Buy and have been hit with a late payment only once before,
which after they went over it and checked it, they ended up giving me the proper credit after
probably checking and finding out I was not at fault.
Now I have another late fee charge for paying my bill on time and also for sending my payment early,
I am getting punish for sending in my payments too early, according to them and they are talking about a cycle
of my bill or invoice which I had no idea of, my thinking was anything after the due date has to be counted
for the next billing cycle period, but once again BEST BUY has figure out in a shaddy kind of way I guess
to punish a good customer...I am sorry to say that I will be closing out my account if this doesn't get solve!

This below is how it went down:------------------------------------------------------------

NEW BALANCE PAYMENT $385.00
DUE DATE 3-2-2010
RECOMMENDED MAIL DATE [protected]
TOTAL MINIMUM PAYMENT DUE $10.00

So in [protected] I sent a payment online for $100.00 dollars for this Bill.
I decided to send my next payment early for my next bill on 3-6-2010, I paid $50.00 online.
My next statement received showed the following:

NEW BALANCE PAYMENT $235.00
DUE DATE 4-2-2010
RECOMMENDED MAIL DATE [protected]
TOTAL MINIMUM PAYMENT DUE $10.00

Because I had made two payments I figure I had taken care of this month bill also, but Best Buy claims I had made
my other payment to early and because of that I has been charge a late fee.
I had no knowledge of a closing cycle or a date of a closing cycle, I figure anything after the due date has to be applied to
the next month? but according to them is not.
here is the part of the email they sent me...see if you can make sense of what they are saying and you be the judge?
here is what they wrote to me and their solution to the matter:----------------------------------------------------------------

Any payment amount received in excess to the minimum payment requested does
not apply as a credit to the next month's minimum payment due. Please pay the
minimum payment when requested on each statement to avoid late fees.

Please be advised that as the payment on your Account for $50.00 was received
on 03/06/2010 and your account cycled on 03/10/2010, the payment was applied
towards the balance on your account, not towards the next month payment.

Any payment amount received in excess to the minimum payment requested does
not apply as a credit to the next month's minimum payment due. Please pay the
minimum payment when requested on each statement to avoid late fees.

We are unable to grant your request to remove late fees from your account.
Payments are due on or before the due dates listed on your billing statement.
All payments received after the due date will incur late fees.

I purchased a Television in December of 09 and opened a credit card thru Best Buy at the time of purchase with a 0% interest if paid in full within 36 months. The minimum payments have been around $15 per month and in Januarary I paid $129 . Then my next bill was due Feb 28th and I paid the bill online on March 1st ( one day late), then my March bill was due sunday March 28th so I paid it online on Monday March 29th. When I went online March 29th I noticed 2 late charges of $39 each for the Feb payment and the current March payment. One day late on 2 payments and $78 is telling me that HSBC is trying to make money off me becuase they offered the 0% interest for 3 years, not my fault. Most credit cards and lenders offer a "grace" period, but this sorry, worthless, greedy, terrible company apparently does not. I have called them and emailed them about this and they are not willing to budge. If you are thinking about getting a HSBC card I would strongly suggest you look at other cards if available. Once my card is paid off I am canceling it and cutting it up and never using HSBC again!

I recieved a Toshiba Laptop from Best Buy for Christmas...not being a very computer literate person, I used it maybe 3-4 hours just cheking my emails...within 2 months, a computer that cost $1, 000.00 lasted just 60 days...Best buy did take it in to repair, returned it to me saying it's repaired...got home and it wasn't...back to Best buy...who, by the way has 14 day return policy...that tells you how much they stand by what they sell...Walmart has a much better return policy and I will never buy another thing from Best Buy...Back to the computer...then they tell me it will need to be mailed to California...they replaced the hard drive...can't believe it needed that... I have bought Dell laptops from pawn shops for $100.00 that lasted 5 years and I have passed them to my grandkids and are still working...this Toshiba should last 10 years or more without problems..I very disappointed and right now my laptop is still sitting at Best Buy...Toshiba can't seem to come up with a recovery disk...I have asked Best Buy for a new replacement...not a refund...they are still jacking me around. I may have to call in the bad boys for court. No more Toshiba, No more Best Buy! Hope it was worth my $10, 000.00 per year business they have now lost. I will warn everyone I meet.

The TV that I bought was sold off to someone else

My friend and I visited the Best Buy store located in Plano on 6th of March 2010 to buy a TV for his apartment. We spent about 3 hours before we could finalize and decide upon which TV would best suit his needs. We decided to buy the 46" Samsung LED 6000 series, 120 hz TV which was priced at 1299.99 $. We received great help from one of the Best Buy representatives called DJ.

We made the payment for the TV and decided to pick the TV as we did not want to pay 79 $ for shipping. We had a Toyota Camry and thought the TV would fit in, but it did not. So we decided to rent a truck for an hour and pick the TV. As it was pretty late and the store was about to close, we decided to pick the TV the next day. (Remember, the TV was sold to us) On March 7th, at around 4pm, we rented the truck from Lowes and went to pick the TV. We waited in the customer care queue for about 20 mins and then we showed them our receipt and asked them to get our TV out so that we could load it in the truck and take it home. After waiting for about half an hour, the customer service representative at Best Buy told us that the TV was sold to SOMEONE ELSE as it was NOT TAGGED PROPERLY.

I just could not believe her. How could they sell a TV that was already sold to us. We told her that we wanted the same TV or another TV with the same configuration. She said, that was the last piece and so nothing could be done. Later after arguing, she said, there were 2 TVs of the same configuration that were available at some other store which was about 2 hour drive away. It would take about a week for the TV to get transferred to the Plano store. We were pissed. It was a big inconvenience for us. We talked to the store manager (Mike) and explained the situation, hoping that he would understand us and come up with an agreeable solution. We had rented the truck for an hour (by then we had already spent more than an hour and a half in the store). The store manager said, all he could do was, pay us 25 $ for the truck rental that we had paid. We asked him, if he could at least deliver the TV for free at my friend's house once they get it from another store. The store manager (Mike) said delivering will cost 79 $ and that is too much for Best Buy to bear. (what about the inconvenience that they have caused to us by selling the TV that we owned to someone else?)

We asked the customer service (Brittany), to check when earliest we could get the TV transferred from another store. She called up the store only to let us know that the TV is not available anywhere within texas. We were mad; we were completely dissatisfied and very angry as that was the best configuration and price that would suit us. The store manager finally agreed to give us a 200$ off on any other TV that we decide to buy from Best Buy. He was trying to compensate for all the inconvenience that was caused due to the negligence of the Best Buy staff. By now, we had spent about 2 hrs in the store and had to return back the truck. We decided to come back the next day and buy another TV and get a 200 $ off.

The customer service (Brittany) was very polite. She said, she would return back the money that we had spent for the TV that was sold to someone else. We agreed and got back the money on the credit card and decided to come back the next day. She also said, that she will not be working on the next day but she will inform the staff that will be working so that we do not face any other problem

On March 8th (next day) my friend and I went back to Best Buy during the lunch time (as both of us work) and decided upon a 55" LED Samsung TV (listed price 2199.99 $). We thought of renting a truck, once we are sure of getting the TV. We went to the customer service and there was a person called (Tyler) who was helping us. Brittany had told Tyler and written up our entire case on an A4 paper and had put it on the soft board there. Tyler was aware of the entire situation and just to make sure that he was doing the right thing, he called the store manager (named Bryan - Mike was not working that day). Brayan came to the customer service counter, checked something on the computer and said, " Sorry, we cannot give you a 200 $ off on this TV, this TV is already listed at a very low price" I got furious. Every person in the store says something different, I do not understand whom to belive and whom to not. I explained the entire chain of events that had happened the previous day and he said, he could not do anything about it. He said, the store manager (Mike) who committed to give 200 $ off will be working on Wednesday (March 10th). So come by then and talk to him.

I have never seen such a horrible way of dealing with the customers in my entire life. I hate Best Buy and will never ever think of buying anything from here. I was so pissed off, that I just told Bryan that we don’t want anything and we will never come again to Best Buy. Later I thought, I should have at least asked for the names of the people that I was dealing with so that I can complaint. I went back to the store and asked for the names of all the people that I dealt with.

I will wait for a few days to see if any action is taken for the complaint that I am submitting. If not, I have decided to file a lawsuit against Best Buy for selling a product that belonged to me and for such a horrible customer service.

1. On February 5th I bought my computer to the Geek Squad at Best Buy in Paramus, NJ. I know it had a blue screen error and wanted to extract the pictures & documents from it. With all I have ever heard about blue screen errors, I figured I would need an expert to help me.
2. I explained the situation to the technician at the counter who plugged my computer and he witnessed the blue screen error.
3. He told me it would cost $99.99 to do what they called a back up/transfer. I agreed and he gave me forms; on one I wrote exactly which files I would like to recover. I wrote: All Pictures & documents (excel&word) When I told him all pictures, he also wrote on the form: jpeg, pdf, palm
4. He never said there was a possibility of no recovery.
5. I paid $99.99 cash and was told I would receive a phone call in 1-2 days when it was complete
6. I received a message on approx. February 8th and went to pick up the computer on the 11th
7. When they bought out my computer I was informed that they were unable to perform the service I purchased and that they would be able to escalate the recovery to level 2 but that could cost anywhere from $500 - $1000.
8. I told them no thank you & also asked for a refund because they were not able to perform the service I purchased.
9. At that time I was told that there was a “tech fee” involved and that I would receive the balance. I asked how much this “tech fee” was and he said he was going to discuss it with his manager.
10. After going to the back and speaking with his manager he told me that it’s usually $70.00 but because of the circumstances he was only going to charge me $60.00
11. At this point I asked him where on the contract that I signed does it say that if the service I purchased could not be accomplished, that I would be charged a “tech fee”.
12. He told me it wasn’t on the contract so I told him to ask his manager about it.
13. When he came out again he showed me a line on the contract that was very vague and not applicable to my situation. I did not leave a deposit; I paid for a service that they could not provide.
14. I asked if I could speak to the manager myself.
15. The manager of the Geed Squad, Richard came out, told me he did the best he could by taking $10.00 off and told me if I had further issues, to contact corporate.
16. I had them process my $40.01 refund and left.
17. I immediately went and called the 800 customer service number and spoke with a rep. I explained to her the situation and she put the same manager on the phone from Paramus.
18. We ran around the same block & he told me that “a technician spent HOURS trying to recover the data” I said, “how many hours?” He told me, approx. 48, this was with the customer care rep on the phone. So they need to recoup fees for that time spent.
19. I saw I was getting nowhere with the conversation so I ended it with no resolve.
20. I decided to do my own research. I am by no means a computer expert, but I do have a limited understanding of how they work.
21. On February 12th, after reading a couple of blogs I came across an article which referred me to a website: prosoft engineering which could supply me with free demo software to see if the drive was recoverable
22. I followed the instructions by disconnecting the burnt drive, and installing it as a secondary hard drive, to a working computer I have.
23. I downloaded the demo but had difficulty making it work. I called prosoft engineering for their assistance and they sent a link to my email that worked.
24. After installing their demo and running it through the burnt drive, I discovered that I was able to retrieve all my files, myself, for free; from the drive that the experts said had “no data”.

· If this has happened to me, whom else has it happened to?
· I believe that I should be compensated for the rest of my “tech fee” and some

In October of 2007 my car was delivered to the Car Audio install bay at Best Buy of Mt View California. The goal was to install a simple hands-free syetm to my radio and to suggest a modification to the sub-woofer portion of the audio system. Other suggestions were made along the way which seemed reasonable given the apparent professionalism of the technician Mark Brasil.

As time went on he missed the deadlines he proposed repeatedly. The interior of my car had been dismantled so I had a choice of either taking my car and try to get it reassembled elsewhere or to hope hat Mark could get it to the state he had promised.

In the end neither of the two were available to me. I had to make numerous demands to from in store managers such as Tony and Santiago to the Corporate Consumer Affairs division just to get it in one piece again. While it may sound like the end to a long and ugly dilemma it was just the beginning.

Corporate demanded me to take my car off their premises and would not provide me with proof of service delivered. The car had serious damages to the interior and the engine alternator, the electrical system and cooling system. All had been tampered with by the technician. Currently they refuse to pay for damages and for expense I have had restoring the car to a functionally and mechanically safe condition.

I have had to spend many thousands of dollars to compensate for these damages and have not seen the end yet. More problems surface with regard to the electrical system on a regular basis that are related to the work Mark had performed. On top of that Mark was not even certified to perform most of the work he did and provided services that Best Buy refused to warranty. It is a nightmare.

Bottom line is make sure you have a solid agreement in place before any work begins. Set clear expectations so that failures will become evident sooner than later. And note consequences that will happen should those deadlines not be met. Take plenty of photos along the way to corroborate the work and have others available to verify the issues.

Best buy is a very difficult company to work with even when the local district attorney has been notified and their wrongs are clearly evident. Beware of strangers bearing gifts.

After being a platinum member for best buy for 5 years my husband bought a laptop,.. An hp that didn't have the windows installed correctly. We all know that the rules can bebent whenever they want to,.. I talked to the manager of the store and after just 3 weeks he woudn't even consider exhanging the laptop. After I asked him if he would bend a little since this situation was actually making my husband crazy,.. He said that was the rule and actally hung up on me while in the middle of conversation! Unbelievable.
We have always shopped at best buy for everything,... Not anymore! They just lost 2 very good customers because the manager has an attitude problem! What has happened to common curtesy and a little kindness?

I bought a Dell PC from Best Buy and the hard drive failed in less than two months. On returning to BB I found that they only covered the first 30 days and that I would have to contact Dell. Dell is now sending me a new drive. They use Seagates, which are not a very good drive, IMHO. I am wondering if it's just the Best Buy Dells which are now cheaply made and no longer high quality, or are all Dells this way? I will not deal with Best Buy again, nor will I buy a Dell. I'm very disappointed in both.

Traded up my sons ipod nano for an ipod touch at Best Buy in Loveland after having continual problems. Touch lasted less than a year. Took it to the store to exchange because it wasn't working. Didn't have my receipt so the cashier pulled it up in their system with my phone number. She had me verify my information in the signature pad for credit cards then typed the info into the computer. She then grabbed a new one and said it was eligible for a rapid exchange. Unable to ring the new one up in their system she called somebody over who said that even though it was a rapid exchange it had to be sent to Apple and they wouldsendme a new one in a few weeks. After 3 weeks called the 888-Bestbuy number and they were unable to find any info on it. She called the store and spoke to someone and found out the ipod is sitting in the store because they claim it was dropped off and they had no customer info! They are willing to send it out for SERVICE today but it will still take a few weeks! Spoke with Tim who identified himself as an asst manager and then said after I vented my frustrations that he is really like the secretary to the managers. I asked to speak to the GM he said he was not in I asked for the store manager who put a Geek Squad agent on the phone. I told her I didn't wish to speak with her I wanted the manager. After a couple rounds of picking the phone up and putting it back on hold Chris got on the phone. He was cocky and unhelpful!They are still refusing to give me the name of GM! Please don't support BEST BUY LOVELAND! They want to blame me for their untrained employees and to think the employee that messed up has the authority to handle money!

The whole experience of buying a laptop at Bestbuy has left me depressed and exhausted. I went in to fix a laptop but was quoted $250 for it. I then bought a new compaq for only $365 on sale, but had to wait till the next day to take it home because geek squad had to remove the pre-installed software. I then returned the computer 7 days later because the touch pad was freezing up intermittently. I had to prove that it was freezing up first by sitting there surfing the net for hours until it froze. I had to come back in 5 days to pick up a replacement because none were in stock. My replacement turned out to be a dusty floor model from another city(the employee at the service counter tried to tell me it was new at first). I still took the unit because I really like the computer and it was a great deal(the manager sold it to me as a open model after I told her it was a used model, and she also threw in a two year Geek sqad protection for free but the price came out to be about the same). I was very happy with the computer for 8 days, then the touch pad froze. I had to surf the net at Bestbuy for an hour before it froze so I can then return it. I told one of the supervisors about my ordeal and he offered me $50 off on a Gateway for $699 or $649 after the discount. I was happy about my purchase for 6 days, then the CD drive started to make a loud noise. I tried to exchange it but was told that it's supposed to be like that by Geek squad. I was not happy at all for being taken as a fool so I asked for the service manager Bob. I showed Bob the video I took of the computer making the loud noise, but he simply said that it was not making any noise now and he can't take the exchange. I told him that this was my third laptop that didn't work and I was very unhappy. He said that he will do a stress test for me for free($75 usual charge)but it will take over night and if it comes back damaged like I've stated then he will allow me to exchange it(he did this because I was disturbing the flow of business now-to put it mildly). I came in the next day and had to wait two more hours because the test was not complete yet. I was then told that I was right and was permitted to exchange the laptop. My instinct told me to just take my money and run away and never look back, but the nice manager(Alex)who gave me the $50 off was called over by customer service to speak to me. After telling him what I had to go though just to get the exchange or return he told me he would give me $60 off on another brand of my choice if he can. He couldn't do it on a Toshiba I liked, or an HP that was out of stock(I told him he should pull it from the shelf), but he did offer me the $60 discount on a newer but slower HP model. I took the deal for $890 after tax and with a two year service plan(Geek squad takes better care of customers with a plan-I witnessed). I just hope this one won't have any defects.

Bestbuy can make my buying experience better by selling better products. Why are all the laptops damaged or defective? I came back within the 14 days period all three times, why was exchanging a product so hard and so humiliating? If not for some of the employees and Alex the supervisor, I would have left Bestbuy angry and without a computer. Re-train or get rid of the service supervisor Bob, who made me feel real small and insignificant. For the amount of time I've spent and the aggravation I went throughout in buying a laptop for way too much and not even the one I wanted, the cost for shopping at Bestbuy was simply way too high.

I purchased a laptop from BestBuy in Richmond, VA. I also purchased a 3 year warranty on the laptop. The release button to open the display soon began sticking (due to a hinge problem) and the laptop could often could not be opened.The disply would not turn off sometimes and the laptop would be sitting unused getting extremely hot. When trying to open the stuck laptop, it popped open so hard it cracked the display. I took the laptop to Bestbuy (Worstbuy) and a month later, they "fixed" the hinge and display.
Shortly after this (a few weeks) the exact same problem began occurring. Since I did not wish to be without the laptop for another month (for a "repair" that only lasted a month), I continued using the laptop but did not fold it shut. When setting it down on the table it rolled back and cracked the display. Apparently, there is some cushioning around the display that was probably not installed correctly. I returned it to Worstbuy and they again had it for a month and returned it to me.
Once again, a short time later, the same exact problem returned. I continued using the laptop without closing it thinking itwould stilled be covered since the warrranty had a year to go.
A short while back I googled the problem and discovered HP realized they had a design failure and had issued a retrofit repair( free of charge) that would have fixed the problem. WorstBuy had never mentioned the recall to me.
I then took my laptop to Worstbuy. They took my computer, referring to my service contract in their system.
I receive a call weeks laterfrom WorstBuy telling me that they refused to honor their service agreement since they had replaced the display twice. "Doesn't matter" that the displays broke because of design flaws and incompetent and incorrect repairs. Despite the fact that I had over a year remaining on my service contract, I was told my warranty expired 30 days after the last repair. No one at WorstBuy mentioned this little "fine print nugget" to me.
After multiple calls to WorstBuy, I was told I should have read the fine print when I bought the contract. The FINE PRINT THAT SAYS WORSTBUY CAN VOID THE CONTRACT BASICALLY WHENEVER THEY GET TIRED OF REPAIRING THEIR FAULTY REPAIRS!

After purchasing a printer from the Washington, DC Best Buy at 4500 Wisconsin Avenue NW, an employee from the store accessed my account information and made several charges to my account. After realizing this, I spoke with a manager at the store. The manager did NOTHING to help me. This store is unprofessional, unscrupulous, and unsafe. If you want to protect your account and avoid fraud, DO NOT SHOP at the Best Buy in Tenelytown on 4500 Wisconsin Ave, NW, Washington DC.

I went to Best Buy to buy some products for my business. They referred me to a business account manager who sold me my audio vidio products at my restaurant. He also told me that he could set me up with a 8 camera security system that records to a DVR that I could check from anywhere. I didn't know Best Buy was in the security business, but the prices were great. The installation didn't go smoothly with the cameras, I still had problems connecting to them remotely as promised. I ended contacting a security company in town to fix the Geek Squad's problems, and they informed me that Best Buy and Geek Squad illegally installed the security cameras under Texas law. They quickly fixed the issues I was having and I havent had any sense. I am apaulled that Best Buy and Geek Squad do not follow the law. It would have been cheaper if I had gone to real security people in the first place.