Geek Squad
Reviews and Complaints

I previously wrote regarding UBS ports not working and taking it to Best Buy, Geek Squad for service, where thought I was informed didn't have Black Tie. (I called the company to be told the most hardware is safe or the first year, but after that, expensive so they wouldn't renew it.)

Went to pick computer up to be told "the UBS ports aren't working". I told them that is why I brought it in, but the "agent" -when bringing it in-said it was a virus which was the reason 2 of the 3 ports weren't working. He said they would do checking and had me sign a paper they weren't responsible if I lost all data, or I could pay to have it all backed-up. I signed the paper and he said, "it probably won't delete all information, but that is just in case."

When I returned to pick the computer up informed the ports weren't working, "they clean it all up and even put Microsoft Security Essentials on it"! (It was already on it when I brought it in.). When I told him-the Manager who was helping me "with 30 years experience", about the company not offering me a renewal on the Black tie, "because the first year there is rare the hardware breaks, but the second year would not be cost-effective to purchase it due to the price increase, I was first told I was lying, and then said, "it's your fault, you should have purchased a two year instead of a one year warranty." It went down hill from there not listening to me, yelling at me. I finally asked for the computer, after again telling me they didn't really check the USB ports, but would do that and would wipe out all my information. I again told him the "agent" told me they were going to do it, and assumed it had been done, and he said, "there are no notes to that".

I told him I would be forwarding a complain to the Consumers Complain, and his response? "I could care less!"

Don't use Best Buy Geek Squad! Very incompetent...They don't know what they are doing--they lost all my data in a simple data transfer to an external hard drive. They said the hard drive failed the second time they opened it up--terrible help from the manager.

I purchased a fairly expensive camera from Best Buy a little over a year ago. I brought it into the Geek Squad for repair, where they charged me a diagnostc fee of $36 and sent it off. I didn’t hear back from them for a couple of months. I ended up calling the store to get the status of the repair. I was told by the “agent” that the camera was in Texas and could not be repaired because they didn’t have the part, but I could bring it to a private camera shop in the area for repair. When I went to pick my camera up, after it got back to the store, they refusef to give me my diagnostic fee back.

When I told them that they could have gotten the part but didn’t, that became their problem and they should do yhe right thing and refund my money, they refused. They were extremely rude and unhelpful. They also tolde numerous tes that I should have gotten the extendef warranty. So, I feel that if you don’t pay the extra money on insurance, they don’t stand by their products, even if they are only a year old. All they needed to do was get the part!

We bought an Asus laptop from Best Buy in August 2011. In December, the screen developed a crack making it unreadable. (There was no drop or other abuse. You just have to press on the screen a bit to crack it. It is very very cheap.) Of course, this is not covered by the warranty. Geek Squad wants $85 up front, unrefundable, to look at it. Seven weeks later, they tell us to come and pick it up. We get there and they hand it back with a tag that says unrepairable. (And four gooey stickers on it that I had to scrape off with a razor blade!) After pitching a fit, they did refund the $85. But only after summoning the manager who realized that a customer causing a scene was probably not good for business. Now this is a computer that we bought just 6 months earlier from Best Buy. This whole affair was a mess from day one. The Asus is a complete piece of crap, Best Buy's service when I bought the thing was poor, they did not stand behind their product, and Geek Squad was ridiculously slow, completely useless, and they provided no information as to what was going on while they had my computer for 7 weeks. (Their web site where you could track things was so poorly designed that its deveopment was obviously outsourced to Elbonia.) Now I have a mostly useless 6-month old laptop. Never again will I visit Best Buy. I will tell everyone I know about the crap built by Asus. But I guess I don't need to spread the word about the completely useless service provided by Geek Squad because it appears that everyone else is learning about that every day.

I purchased a new computer/printer/monitor and wanted all equipment set up correctly. I was assured by the Geek Squad technician "Hector" that the Geek Squad would come to my location and correctly set up all equipment. The Standard price was explained and agreed to, I was assured that the service tech. would come to my loaction between 9-11 A.M. on Tuesday March 29. I took off work this day so that I could let the tech person into my home/office to perform his service and pay for services performed. On Tuesday March 29 I never received a call or any other notification that the Geek Squad would not be coming out and that no person was available in the Rockford area. I was told all of this after I called to find out when there representative was. They further informed me that there representative had quit his job. It cost me a days pay to find out that if I ever need a computer expert I will NOT be calling the Geek Squad.

RIPOFF ALERT! What I was told when I bought Geek Squad coverage: "Bring it in, we'll diagnose it right away and get it back usually within a few days, depending on what is wrong."
What I was told when I called today asking about Geek Squad coverage: "Bring it in, we'll diagnose it right away and get it back usually within a few days, depending on what is wrong."
What REALLY happens AFTER Best Buy gets your money: You bring it in and are told by a Geek: We will look open in two weeks or more unless you give me $150.00 more just to expedite it, then we'll look at it in a week.
That is "bait and switch, " unethical, immoral, unprofessional and so much more. I have already lodged a formal complaint with my state's Attorney General today, will post this on facebook, the [redacted], all other ripoff sites, the BBB and any other blog and media I can find to warn others of this criminal behavior.

Hello,
Here is a good one for you all. I brought my computer to get repaired from Geek Squad because my Gateway was shutting down at will, without notice. I brought it to them and they told me it was the motherboard and I was very skeptical when they said this so I did some research online, and I found out it was a fan that was needed for the Gateway LX 6810 model. This is a glitch in this computer that GATEWAY will not admit too ! Anyways, I had to tell them how to fix my computer and these Geeks cannot fix my computer by setting it back to the original settings, and its been well over 4 weeks. They installed the fan after I went there and complained to them, but they do not respond, keep me updated or even notify me to pick it up. Simply terrible ! They cannot restore my system now and I am out to lunch without a computer because those darn Geeks put the ball back in my court everytime something is wrong. Really ! I am paying $199 for the Geeks to fix my computer and they cannot even get it back to the original setting from when I bought it. WARNING: DO NOT BRING YOUR COMPUTER TO THE GEEKSQUAD ! It is a wast of money and time...

I Called Geek Squad for a tv repair. I was told that the cost would be $150 plus parts. Tech showed up an hour and half late, looked at tv (didn't even open back or perform any diagnostics) and said that the TV needed a main control unit. He called me and says it will be around 500 and he will have the part in four days. He told me he would call back within the hour to set up new appointment. Never called back, I called a week later, they sent out a different tech with the parts. New Tech installed a logic board(online $34) not a main control unit (350 online), he couldn't figure out why tech ordered 2 of them when tv only has one. He called his billing people and they told him part was $45 and they, d subtract one. He tells me that the bill is $670. I asked how 150(service call)+ 45(part) comes to 670. Couldn't answer nor could anyone else, but that's what I owe for the repair. Tech spends two hours on phone at my house with his billing dept., still no answers, puts me on phone, they tell me they don't know what happened and will call me next day to explain. No call. Two days later 1st tech calls, tells me that they ordered the wrong parts and it's just a coincidence that the $45 part fixed my tv. He also said that I need to pay the $498 because it was the quote. Now geek squad called back and says they'll take $85 for the $45 part and call it even. What a joke, they get caught trying to rip me off for $498 and come back with they'll take twice what the parts worth to settle it. Beware of these rip off artists.

I purchased three 60" TVs to be installed for my church. Paid cash for them and then paid the extra money for Geek Squad to professionally install my monitors with all the appropriate wiring. I waited two weeks after the promised installation date and upon delivery they installers gave me more excuses than solutions and at the end of the day they did not do ANYTHING but hang the televisions that we could have done ourselves. Best Buy geek Squad is a joke!

My laptop stopped powering up, so I took it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. They said they would send it out and it might take as long as 2 to 3 weeks to repair it and I'd get a call with a repair quote?. So, I had no choice but to buy a computer to use in the interim for my bookkeeping business, so I opted to upgrade my desktop computer'. A week, or so, later, I got a call from the Geek Squad, saying that the socket into which plug the power supply was damaged and that in order to replace it, they had to replace the entire motherboard because it is attached to the motherboard on my particular model|. They waid it would cost me $500 plus, so I told them not to fix and to just send it back to me, since I could practically get a new laptop for that". So, I bought a new laptop and got back on track with my business.. When I got the old laptop back, I took it to a PC repair shop and they said they could probably just solder a new receptor on it for $50.. I left it with them and the next day they said they didn't have to do anything to the computer -- that it was working fine! I think Geek Squad fixed the receptor, and was going to charge me for a new motherboard (whether they replaced it, or not), and charge me $500 plus

Ive purchased numerous products and services from best and geek squad and never really looked to see what else was out there. Big mistake...

I started listening to the advice of my friends and looking into other companies that would rival the services our family has purchased from geek squad(ie software installs for virus programs, removing the junk off the new pc, removing the viruses that got onto the new pc 3 months after it was purchased, etc.) We found a couple companies and tried their services and tested some of the things that they offer. I would like to propose to everyone a service that rivals geek squad and has a more cost effective approach to computer services. You can understand their workers also.

We've used secure remote support for a few things lately and they've saved us a lot of time and money taking our computer to geek squad. I would like to try and let everyone know to atleast look and see whats out there before you settle on geek squad or anyone else. secureremotesupport.com has a pretty good name, and has outdone geek squad in our opinions.

Sorry for the ranting, im a little irritated with geek squad lately as they helped caused a problem with our vista not loading correctly on our machine.

I have two complaints about Geek Squad:
1. They mishandled and scuffed my external hard drive and laptop.
2. The guy that was supposed to be helping me insinuated I was lying about a laptop I no longer own.

Last week I brought my laptop, which was having power issues, to Geek Squad. They told me they needed to transfer files to my external hard drive (which cost me $100) in case they were lost during the repair. The guy helping me said after the data was transferred they would ship the computer for repair. They called me the following day to come pick up the external hard drive. The guy brought out both the drive and the laptop when I got there. The hard drive had scratches and gunk on the right side of it and my laptop had white paint on one corner like it was scratched against a wall. When I asked him about it, he said that everything is handled with the best care. If that's the case then why were my things scuffed?

As the guy was writing up the ticket to have my computer shipped for repair, he became very standoffish when it came to discussing my extended warranty. I had two showing on the receipt: one for my old laptop and one for my new laptop. He told me how he hates other best buys because they don't know how to set warranties up properly. Come to find out that neither warranty was set up properly and the one that covered the repair this time was purchased at his location.

As far as the old warranty goes, I told him not to worry about it, I explained that I brought my old Asus to Geek Squad years ago and at that time the guy told me to go switch my old laptop out for a new one. I just paid the difference for the new laptop, they voided my old warranty and I paid for a new warranty.

After explaining this, the guy helping me insisted that (because it showed on the receipt) I had my old computer and that I would have trouble with the warranty if I ever take it back to Geek Squad. I thought to myself, "Are we really having this discussion? You're really going to stand there and tell me I have a laptop that I haven't owend for almost 2 years?" At that point I dropped the issue, he obviously didn't care about what I had to say, the receipt was be-all, end-all.

Lesson learned, don't try to explain your receipt purchases to Geek Squad employees. Better yet, don't deal with Geek Squad at all, go through the manufacturer.

I bought a samsung 55 led tv and a sony internet bluray dvd player with extended warranty with geek squad from best buy. After few months i had to deal with the customer service of geek squad for repairs or to make a appointment which was the worst experience i had . I tried to make appointment on line and over the phone but was unable to do so . Every time i called i was transferred at least 6 or 7 times to different departments who were just ignorant or maybe never wanted to help to make an appointment even for my repairs. When asked for a supervisor, was put on hold for long and then came the excuse that the supervisor was busy attending a meeting .Finally after wasting a few days and long wait over the phone i gave up the thought and realized how pathetic there customer service was. My only recommendations is never buy any extended warranty from geek squad .

On November 12th, 2009 I brought my laptop to the Geek Squad @ Best Buy in Holmdel, NJ for repair. Today, December 13th, 2009 I still do not have my HP Pavilion laptop. I depend on this notebook to run my small business and this is a huge hardship for me. Geek Squad, obviously, is mismanaging its customer service. MY MAJOR COMPLAINT: No one at the store is being proactive, or showing the slightest bit of initiative in helping me get my laptop back, fixed.

I originally had a blue screen of death problem. (November 12th visit) They kept my computer for 10 days and returned it-- not fixed.I promptly brought it back and now one thing after another, and I still do NOT have my laptop. On Decmber 6th, 2009 they "sent it out."

I called again today and was told my computer is scheduled for return on December 23, 2009...WHAT? The fact is I brought my laptop in on November 12th and since then I have had no use of it--why should it take 6 weeks to fix a laptop?

On more than one occassion I have brought my computer into Geek Squad. Virus removal here, installation there. They've always done the job, at a hefty cost, but I assumed that was standard. The service was never great, and it took weeks to complete the work but again, I assumed it was all the standard, and the work got done. Well once I started bringing it in for more complicated issues they started having difficulty finding out what was wrong with it. They'd diagnose and run tests (all on my dime, of course) only to tell me they can't repair it and I'm out the $$ I paid to have them find out what it was. I think keeping a customer's computer for weeks, charging them up the whole time for tests only to not have the skills to complete the repair in the end is ridiculous. When did Best Buy start standing behind their incompetent college student technicians instead of their paying customers?

I know many people who've had this experience and other bad experiences with Geek Squad. I have finally found a company that stands behind their work with friendly, efficient, educated technicians. If anyone is looking for an alternative to their unsatisfactory Geek Squad experience, go to Secure Remote Support. They're a really great nation-wide company I stumbled upon with a no fix no fee policy.

I can't begin to express how awful my experience with Geek Squad by Best Buy has been. I hired them to remove a virus from my home computer. I should have known this would be a terrible experience when 10 minutes after the scheduled window of time, when I called to inquire about the exact time the associate would arrive, I was told "Sorry they called in sick, you'll need to reschedule". What?!? They had no back up scheduled and I had already taken the morning off of work. They finally agreed to send someone to my home later in the evening, after much complaining on my part. The technician was nice enough and removed the virus, my computer booted up fine and seemed to be working. However, when I later tried to go into Microsoft Office, it was not working! Upon calling and informing Geek Squad, they told me they did what they were contracted to do (remove the virus) and aren't liable for the Office issue! What? I'm out 300+ dollars and the computer doesn't even work like it should. I would seriously consider an alternate route vs. Geek Squad for any and all computer issues.

I trusted the name Best Buy, I never had an experience with Geek squad though I felt it would be a good referral. I took my uncle's computer in to be repaired after the OS seemed to be corrupted and was not booting appropriately. I was told it would be 200.00 to do an assessment, repair, re-configure, install updates and drivers. I felt this was fair considering all that was included.

I later called to get the status of the computer and was told the OS was completely corrupt and the only option was a complete re-install of the OS. I was then told that a backup of the system was 99.00. I was a little taken back when the only data on the machine was perhaps 5MB max in the My Documents folder. I then asked how much a new drive would be and how much would it be for them to install the new drive, put a fresh OS install on the drive and then make the existing drive a secondary drive to access the files. I was told by Hector that this would be 70.00 and the OS and drive installation was included in the 200 originally paid. I felt this was a good deal considering it was 99.00 to backup 5MB worth of data through DOS. We then had a new hard drive (existing was 4 years old) and a slave drive in the machine for later use if need be. I was told that my uncle only had to come in and pay for the hard drive.

My uncle proceeded to go to best buy and paid for the hard drive. This time a representative named Sergio was in contact with him and told him he did not need a new drive and that they could salvage the existing drive. This was true, though not what was asked for and instructed to do. Even then Sergio still proceeded to sell my Uncle a hard drive. My uncle is not technical, nor does he have any knowledge about computers only to click here and click there. Now he had a Sergio tell him that he did not need a new drive and that he could fix his computer, he DID not tell my uncle he did not need to buy a new hard drive. Simply, he took advantage of someone who was not informed or had the knowledge to make an informed decision. The manager (Hector) did not step in and discuss what I had discussed with him, and they proceeded to charge him the money he paid SPECIFICALLY for a new hard drive as data services backup.

My uncle proceeded to get the computer back without the hard drive and actually without a working modem. I called Best Buy twice and spoke to Sergio to try and resolve the situation only to be told simply, there was nothing they could do and my Uncle would have to come in and pay for a new hard drive. Also, they did him a favor by discounting the backup services from 99.00 to 70.00 which was the price he paid to SUPPOSEDLY get a new hard drive.

Sergio then proceeded to say that he would only discuss the situation with the customer and that the customer stated I was to blame for it. Simply it seems he was not willing to take responsibility for the situation. Again, I was guiding my uncle along this process so he would not be taken advantage of. It seems as though Best Buy thought it best to still exploit the situation and take advantage of someone rather than work with someone to give the best service.

I hope this saves someone from experiencing the same fate. I feel we where taken advantage of, ripped off, and told you have 'better' options irresponsibly. To experience perhaps the same take your computer to Geek squad in Oxnard, CA and speak with Hector or Sergio.

Do not, under any circumstances, take your electronics to the geek squad! They haven’t the foggiest notion of what your problems are, much less how to fix them. When my $1200 HP suddenly died, I rushed it into the Geek Squad. After all, I purchased it from Best Buy (another story!). I have a lap top to use as a back up, so I wasn’t concerned about speed. A week later I was told that, basically, my machine was dead, that it had so many problems it simply could not be repaired. That sounded fishy to me, so I took it to someone who knows a bit more about computers than I do.

“Your hard disk died, not the whole machine.”

The GEEKS could not tell me that it was simply a matter of replacing the hard drive in my computer. When I returned complain, no one there could respond. Again, they didn’t have a clue.

And don’t bother to fill out their on-line “tell us how we did” survey. When I down graded them big time, it got kicked back to me as “undeliverable” four different times.

I was alerted that my black tie protection plan which is automatically deducted out of my checking account was being cancelled for non payment. Odd since two other plans through them come out of the same account each month. I called and reverified the bank info which had not changed and they said great all set. Now they tell me "your account is cancelled because you never made a payment". my bank says geek squad never initiated the request to be paid. But for the last year they had taken it out without a problem and then one month nothing. Again the other two accounts were coming out fine! After 6 days and many hours on the phone... they refused to reinstate the account due to non payment! WTF Again I tell them "I gave you the info and you did nothing with it. Not my fault which they agreed but still... cancelled due to non payment!

I bought an expensive canera, with maximum protection. The camera fell onto rocks, cracked, filled with water from a running stream, and the lens cracked and was bent. I brought the mess into Best Buy. Anyone with an I. Q. below dull-normal could see it was a total loss. But the senior Geek on duty, stated it must be shipped away for an evaluation to see if it was repairable, before issuing a new one. Four weeks have passed, not a single call from my local Best Buy, so I make a phone call. Their only information was that it was “being REPAIRED”. THE REPAIR WAS DELAYED BECAUSE THE FARMED-OUT REPAIR SERVICE (located 2, 000 miles away) COULDN’T GET PARTS.

At least that is what I was told. I believe my look into THE repair status, via home computer, was the same they were looking at – no mention of a parts problem. Comments – THAT camera is a sophisticated bunch of electronics – it could never be repaired to its original state. (I know of what I speak). A replacement should have been issued. They and I haven’t a clue what is going on with my purchase being “fixed” by Precision, El Paso, Texas [protected]). Their $ 130.00 service plan is obviously not of any serious concern on their part. Short of being a total S. O. B., I am at a loss.

Their sales representative who sold me the policy said that – worse case scenario – a problem might take two weeks to resolve.