@HPSupport @BestBuy @TwelpForce #Ripoff #CustomerServiceFail
“Geek Squad® Agents and Installers are ready to take the hassle out of your technology woes. They have the know-how and skill to set up, install or repair your computer, network, home theater solution and car audio, video and navigation systems, no matter where you bought your gear.” – Best Buy Website
Long time readers of this blog may remember my struggles with Best Buy back in December 2008/January 2009.
To sum up that situation:
We purchased our computer in 10/2008 with a 2 year extended warranty. Two months later it would not power up. We took it to the local Geek Squad where they put in a new power supply (for unknown reasons they did not replace the power supply with the same part, they added a different power supply with a separate on/off switch), claimed all was well and sent me home. When I hooked everything back up I couldn’t connect to the internet. The NIC appeared to have been damaged or was missing. I returned it to the store where they tried for several hours to install software to workaround this hardware problem before finally telling me they had to ship it to their super secret service center.
At the service center they replaced the motherboard but the replacement motherboard was also defective. They replaced the motherboard again. Then they replaced the CPU. They declared it fixed and returned it to the store. I was instructed to come pick it up. When I arrived there was nothing on my computer, not even an operating system. I had to return the next day to pick it up again.
All of this took a month and significant time and effort on my part to even find out what the status was throughout the entire ordeal. This was a 2 month old computer with at minimum 5 repair attempts. Best Buy’s extended warranty has a no-lemon clause which says it will replace any item on which there are 3 qualified repair attempts (I notice on their website this has since been changed to 4). The loophole is the word “qualified”. Even though they attempted to repair my two month old computer 5 times, they did not assign a new service order number to each attempt so all of these attempts only counted as 1 repair attempt.
Never mind that it would have been more efficient, less expensive and better customer service for them to just have replaced my two month old computer. No, they much preferred to spend a month replacing multiple components that they had to purchase from HP while their customer became more and more dissatisfied.
Fast forward to the end of May 2010. Suddenly the NIC is once again damaged or missing. Nothing else was acting up but I could, once again, not connect to the internet. I took it back to the dreaded store where I immediately encountered a shady Geek Squad Agent who claimed that he couldn’t even get the computer to boot up, it appeared to be a software issue, not a hardware issue and that I would need to pay $130 in order for him to perform a diagnostic test to diagnose the problem. I questioned the $130 fee since it is still under warranty but he insisted it was a software issue, most likely a virus he said, and therefore I had to pay for the diagnostic test. I left the store with my computer.
When I got home I plugged it in, turned it on, and it booted up just fine. The only issue was still the NIC. A friend of ours with a master’s degree in Information Technology, ten years of experience working on much more complicated problems and systems than the Geek Squad agents are qualified to handle and diagnostic tools of his own, ran the same diagnostic that Best Buy runs. Twice. Nothing. No virus. No malware. No software issues at all. The NIC was simply missing from the ROM BIOS.
After finding a sympathetic and seemingly helpful Geek Squad agent on Twitter (@AgentScottie) who confirmed that the diagnostic test was included in my extended warranty and that I should not be charged $130, he suggested that it sounded like a hardware problem and that I should take it back to the store just to have them ship it to the service center. He understood that I did not trust the in-store Geek Squad since they claimed that my computer had no operating system when it did, had a virus when it did not, and tried to get $130 out of me for something that is included in my extended warranty.
I returned to the dreaded store and asked them to ship it to the service center. I specifically stated that I did not want them to touch it, other than to pack it and ship it. The same agent who tried to scam me out of $130 immediately started plugging my computer in and taking it apart despite my having just instructed him not to touch it. A manager came over who did acknowledge that I should not have been asked to pay the $130 but that it was “irrelevant” that his employee had insisted upon charging me. He was combative and rude and not helpful in any way.
Today I have learned that the service center replaced the video card for no apparent reason as we had no problems with the display when we dropped it off. They also replaced the motherboard (this would be motherboard #4, including the original) claiming it had a short. I have yet to find out if the original problem (NIC) has been repaired or replaced but I have been told that the operating system will need to be reinstalled due to the number of components that were replaced. When I pointed out that the only reason the operating system would have been removed was if they had replaced the hard drive, I was given a new excuse for replacing the operating system: the computer is only able to boot into safe mode and that this can be a sign of either damaged startup files or corrupted drivers – both of which are issues that can be addressed by reinstalling Windows. The catch here is that if the latter excuse is accurate, they can move my profile including all files, off in safe mode, reinstall Windows and then put all my files back onto my computer. However, they really want me to pay the $150 fee for backing up my files so therein explains the multiple excuses for reinstalling Windows.
Upon expressing concern about all of this AGAIN, I was told to take it up with the in-store Geek Squad when my computer arrives there later this week!
I had also e-mailed my issues to HP and even received a call stating that I would hear from the retail services department within 48 hours but, shockingly, have not heard from anyone at HP since then.
In summary, my complaints about the horrible service at this store have been completely ignored. I have no idea if the problem I took it in for has been fixed. Multiple components have been replaced with no detailed or logical explanation provided. They are trying their hardest to either claim this is a software issue or to get me to pay to back-up my files when it is not necessary and is also not in line with providing excellent customer service after all the nonsense I have had to put up with over this computer. And it would have been cheaper and easier to replace this computer since we are now up to 8 repair attempts.
Update: Immediately upon publishing this I received this response from @AgentScottie: “I apologize you’ve had such trouble with us thus far. If it were up to me, I would’ve replaced the PC already. But sadly” – via Twitter. And this from him this morning: “Again I’m truly sorry for the issues you’ve encountered. This is definitely not the level of service client’s should expect“ - via Twitter. Too bad he’s not running the show.
Thanks for stopping by!
I have never and will never look at Best Buy the same since hearing about your troubles w/ them. Whenever I see an ad of theirs or drive past them your story always pops in mind and I get a weary feeling.
I hope eventually through your blogging and bringing this to light you’ll see some form of good customer service from them, but I won’t hold my breath.
Christina´s last blog ..To whet your appetite
Reading your description of the issues, I am amazed they did this under warranty at all. Power supply blown, Nic blown and other issue would be a sign of a lightning hit to me and thus out of warranty. Granted they fixed your issues with some trouble, but they did it under warranty. If I was the tech, you would have been out of warranty the first day your brought it in. Granted I would have been more complete in my diagnostics than just replacing a power supply.
It wasn’t struck by lightning and it wasn’t a power surge, which is covered. I’ve since read on a few forums that HPs are known for these problems. Lucky me!
I tend to disagree. When power supplies go out, they very frequently take other parts out with them as well. Especially the cheap power supplies used in this grade of machine. When these cheap power supplies do fail, the power sent to the components is either dirty, and/or it will surge and kill parts. I’ve seen a cheap failing power supply kill the motherboard, hard drive, nic, or various other parts of the machine.
Josh rules. He knows what he is talking about!
Exactly what Josh said…we are dealing with a Bestec powersupply, 75% of the time when they go…they shoot a surge out and take the motherboard with them. I see these things in my shop all the time. If it’s an Emachine..it’s an automatice replace the board with me. Best Buy /Geek Squad techs are only aware of what what BB/GS wants them to know..they hire untrained people to mold them to become the cash grubbing soldiers they are. Funny thing is that they send alot of business my way for some reason. So many stories…so little time and space to say it in this comment box! LOL!
@Tech109 – You state this sounds like a “lightning strike” to you, and I understand why, but in my experience they cause more damage.
The most plausible cause would be that the power supply failing fried the NIC. Then ineptitude and stupidity took over, so they didn’t test things out. But they eagerly started poking around (without using an anti-static wrist strap) so they could look like they were doing their job.
But the fact that the service center had to replace the motherboard twice is what tells me that it was most likely just a defective part to begin with… Simply put, troubleshooting something as complex as a modern motherboard is really difficult. And unless you are doing failure analysis its always a good idea to replace it at the first sign of trouble. However, if you have to do a second replacement, it’s always required to swap the CPU because can’t troubleshoot them separately.
In the end it most likely comes down to a manufacturing issue. Foxconn, or whoever is building the boards for HP, built a big batch of flawed motherboards. So Cyndi probably isn’t the only one to have problems. And the guys at the Geek Squad just don’t know any better. If they had done the “right thing” and replaced this lemon their manager probably would have fired them at the next convenient opportunity. As that is how Best Buy operates… And I know from personal experience.
ahhh…Best Buy, your 7th circle of Hell. I can’t believe you have to start all of this again. Once again I’ll offer my services on the Picket Line. Well, if by picket line we can pull up lawn chairs in front of the store, pull out margaritas and B*& $* to the customers thinking about going in. Good Luck!
well that just sucks. have you written people? the CEO, consumer reports, the news stations? raise a little hell!
ok and now can i give you the best advice ever. buy a MAC. yes. i have had one for 8 years now and have only sent it in once. guess what you do? you call the nice people, they treat you like a million bucks, they send an empty box for your computer, you mail it free of charge, they mail it back. nice. no bullshit. it is the best computer i have ever had. computer geek husband can explain why they are better and less trouble but who cares, they work great. i would suggest making a mac your next computer.
consuella´s last blog ..for every season
@consuella
“ok and now can i give you the best advice ever. buy a MAC.”
Or you could buy TWO similar PC’s put one away for spare, and it will STILL cost less than a Mac…
So yeah, if you pay a grand more than you should for the hardware, the customer service *better* come with a ‘happy ending’, if you know what I mean!
Buying a cheap PC is what caused this problem in the first place. Why double the problem? The real problem lies with HP’s shoddy service and the incompetency of the Best Buy folks who have given her the runaround. And really, she can pick up a Mac Mini for what she shelled out for an HP desktop + extended warranty.
The “Macs cost more” argument has been debunked long ago. It’s not a “grand more” and that just shows your bias & ignorance.
Please take your uneducated and incorrect statements elsewhere.
I have e-mailed everyone but the janitorial crew. Nothing so far. I will never again buy so much as a DVD from them but am stuck on this one since I paid for the extended warranty and I’m not going to pay someone else to fix it.
Apple is awesome! Hubby got an iTouch for X-mas and a few months ago it just stopped working, wouldn’t even turn on. I didn’t even buy it at the apple store. I got it on Amazon. They didn’t even ask for a receipt. They took a brief look at it, declared it defective and handed him a brand new one. THAT is customer service.
I like the idea of a picket line with lawn chairs and cocktails!
“They didn’t even ask for a receipt. They took a brief look at it, declared it defective and handed him a brand new one. THAT is customer service.”
That’s because you already paid for the second one when you bought the first. How else do you think Apple is the most profitable tech company on the planet?
They charge far too much, for far too little, then make you think they’re doing you a favour by providing the service that that sort of money SHOULD buy when their hardware, which is just as likely to fail as any one else’s, craps out.
It is an amazing story of how not to treat your customers and how many times the standard process gets in the way of providing good customer service. The shame is that we would be happy with good customer service because the customer service bar has been lowered so much! Shame on Best Buy for not picking up on any of the opportunities to turn this around!
Mark´s last blog ..Negative Thoughts
Good point Mark! The bar has been lowered. A little bit goes a long way.
My work revolves around tech on the trading floor and my interactions with Best Buy always left me with the impression that they are run by sociopathic commission junkies.
I must not look technical because what their sales people have told me has literally left me speechless. I’d chalk it all up but Best Buy is on the walk home from work so I’d stop in to look at a gadget and would find someone in blue and yellow shirt talking to me like I was a teenage girl on her first date.
I wanted to yell right in the middle of the store “Run everyone, run for your money!”
Best Buy is run by seriously flawed people. Brian Dunn is Flawed Person in Chief. Evil is an appropriate word because they corral young people into this antagonistic, us against the customer, ethos to earn their commission.
Anyway Consumerist.com is my absolute favorite consumer site. More powerful than any BBB or local consumer protection agency. They are so much better than Consumer Reports in these situations that CU bought them!
If your misery needs company here are pages of stories about Best Buy http://consumerist.com/company/best-buy/. They were in the running for Consumerist’s “Worst Company in America” but got stiff competition from the banks and telcom providers this year.
I know you’ve said you have emailed everyone but just in case you desire a little justice look up how to do what they call an EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb)
BTW your story sounds like a long con. A NIC is about $30. I’d guess that they gradually replaced parts and installed software to make the machine run worse so you would come back. It’s a complete breach of trust that Best Buy seems to specialize in.
Your post about narcissistic mothers serves as a touchstone for me so, in return, I would be more than happy to proof read a letter or serve as geek lie detector to their responses to you.
Thank you so much Tyler and I too love Consumerist. That’s where I got all the e-mail addresses. I also submitted my story to them, just in case.
The Evil Empire is what one of my friend calls Best Buy. It is rare to find someone truly helpful. The Geek Squad at my local store claims they don’t work on commission but whenever I’ve dealt with them it has been so shady that I find it hard to believe that they don’t get some sort of bonus or compensation based on what they can claim is not covered. You’re right, it is a big con.
I have finally found someone at corporate who is helpful, thanks to the Agent I mentioned in my post who I met on Twitter. We’ll see….
Hey, saw your post highlighted on Consumerist.com. The Geek Squad pulled that same scam on my 89 year old uncle. He bought a laptop and he bought the extended warranty. He brought his PC in to be repaired and the repair center fixed it. When he went to pick it up they charged him $100 or $150 to reinstall the OS. There was nothing wrong with the software they just scammed him out of his (already limited) money. If you’re able to find a competent or sympathetic person in all of Best Buy please let me know I’d love to talk to them about my uncle’s situation.
Hi Jim, thanks for commenting. Only in hindsight do I now know to never purchase anything from them again. Sadly I am not shocked to hear about what they pulled on your uncle.
If you’re on twitter, the agent that helped me was @AgentScottie: http://twitter.com/agentscottie. He’s the one who got me in touch with someone helpful.
The Consumerist also has a listing of corporate e-mail addresses (http://consumerist.com/company/best-buy/), although the CEO has changed since they posted it. His email address is: brian.dunn@bestbuy.com
I hope you are able to get some help for your uncle.
Sadly most retail establishments are not the best place to recieve customer servive. Especially in regards to computers. Best thing to do would be to make sure you got the cd’s to do the reinstall, and just throw a cheapy nic in one of the slots or if your area supports it get a 4g connection that connects to the usb slot. Just never ever be under any illusions that Best Buy or other establishments aren’t really after your money. I’d even suggest learning as much as you can about the pc and just start building them yourself. Easier to just go out and buy a motherboard and replace it yourself. At least then you don’t have to worry about some snot nosed teenager/young adult touching your computer and telling you lies.
Hi Brian, LOL – I’ve learned the hard way about retail establishments AND the snot nosed teenagers!
My friend tried a USB NIC but couldn’t get it to install the driver, likely due to the motherboard being fried.
I’ve never worked at Best buy or their Geek squad service, but I have 14 years experience dealing with Desktops, Laptops,, Windows or Mac. I’m a computer repair technician and I’ve dealt with a lot of hardware and software over the years for customers.
I get at least 20 clients a month that come to me after they’ve been at the Geek Squad service desk. Some of them even have the accidental warranty coverage from Geek Squad. I know that a couple years ago they would change your computer out fairly easily, but in recent years they’ve stopped that. They are told to do whatever they can to repair it, even extensive water damage and broken parts.
Without knowing the details of your specific computer issue, I can tell you that many different HP laptops have issues with the NIC and Wireless cards. If your system is less than a year old and doesn’t have physical damage to it you should really try sending it to HP for repair under the factory warranty. It takes about the same amount of time as Geek Squad and if they cant fix it they usually offer a replacement.
I feel your pain, I bought my first desktop many moons ago (circa 1996) from Gateway and after that horrendous experience, I’ve built my own computers from that point on. I would suggest the same to you, that way you don’t ever have to deal with the Geek Squad shadiness again……
Hi Bill, I won’t ever buy from BB again but not sure I can build my own. Thanks!
Building a computer is very easy. Head to a reputable site like newegg.com
Its like tinker toys… Or baking a pie… you will need the following.
1 – motherboard – the base of your system.
2 – cpu compatible with the motherboard – you can usually buy 1,2 &3 in a “bare bones” package.
3 – RAM – I would suggest at least 2GB.
4 – Powersupply & case.
5 – hard drive & CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/whatever
6 – if your motherboard doesn’t come with integrated video, a VIDEO CARD.
Plug everything together, put your windows CD in the drive tray, power it on, load windows. Windows 7 should install most drivers for you, but if it doesn’t get one or two, you’ve got EVERY driver because you purchased the parts separately. Or just get a refurbished dell off woot.com for 300 bucks or something. Moral – you get what you pay for.
Thanks Cam! I’m sure my friend can handle that too.
Actually, I would suggest visiting an enthusiast site like Hard OCP, and getting into their forums. The people there know more than any best buy employee (and many computer company employees actually) because they make it a hobby to build computers that perfom better than they were designed to perform.
Now why I suggest you visit a site like that is this:
A few years back I was wanting to build a new gaming comp. Using sites like Hard OCP etc, I was able to find out all the inside details about hardware such as CPU’s and graphics cards that you don’t find in the marketing material. The end result? For $1K US, I built a computer that was listed on the Futuremark website as one of the top ten fastest air-cooled gaming computers in the world (at the time, and for about two weeks), and yet, it cost less than most “home user” desktops sold in retail chains.
Through those sites, I was able to find out that one of the cheapest CPU’s Intel made was actually and under clocked version of one of the fastest. All you had to do was change the clock speeds and you had a $1500 cpu for $300.
That’s the kind of information that can save you a LOT of heartache. I will never buy a piece of hardware again without visiting those sites first, and finding out what is currently the best bang for the buck.
You’ll probably find people there willing to design a system for you so that all you need to do is order the parts and pay a local techie (or ask a friend) to assemble them for you.
So yeah, overclocking or enthusiast sites like hardocp.com should be everyone’s first stop before buying a computer. People who hang out on sites like that (like me) love to share the knowledge we have, and I promise you it will be worth every second of your time to make friends there
could’ve fixed your problem in under an hour. just sayin’
=P
Jay, dammit, why don’t you work for my local Geek Squad??!! Never mind….
I’ve been building/repairing/selling PCs since ’84; I’ve worked in retail and corporate fields during that time. I’ve seen it all; you’re not the only one that has fallen prey to the ‘incompetent computer tech’ syndrome. I do tech work for my friends when they get into problems like this, and I can tell you that the issue could most likely have been fixed at the outset if the tech had known what he was doing. 9 times out of ten faulty setup or incomplete set up is responsible for the type of problems that your pc had. Reading your description of the problems you experienced had my blood boiling – those guys obviously had no idea what they were doing, and I’m sorry for your easily fixable issues. And truth be told, the new hardware could have been reset without having to completely re-intall your OS (IF one knows what one is doing).
Also, I’ve got news for Consuela; your Mac is every bit as susceptible to the same problems that any pc is – let me know how you’d troubleshoot a sad mac or kernel panic! Happens with pretty much the same frequency as OS issues on a pc.
AND for you, Tech109, I have fired people for that kind of attitude – if you cannot show the customer that there is that type of damage, so they can see it with their own eyes, then you cannot blame the issue on a power surge – good grief, that’s a Best Buy or Apple Store tactic.
Thanks for your comment SCBee. I have learned a lot since I bought this computer in 2008.
first mistake was buying oem. second mistake was buy from any store that there techs are part of a group called the geek squad. third is it seems you not only got burned this time but also was burned before. stupidity must run in the family huh?
I so love trolls hiding behind screen names who don’t know how to read or write calling people they don’t know stupid. Thanks for stopping by!
Don’t sweat him – he’s probably 12 and someone taught him how to build a PC.
I believe he’s a Geek squadder
No no no / how incredibly stressful and frustrating and annoying and Kafkaesque – that fact that you pursued makes me admire you even more, I would have been in a heap on the floor crying ( alternatively entered best Buy with a baseball bat….). It is one of those really crazy things that makes you feel so helpless and angry you just want to hit something hard:)
I wish you good luck in continuing to battle Best Buy!!
PS: I guess this is the last time you will ever buy anything from them? I stopped immediatly after they managed to deliver the wrong washer and dryer to us – twice.
LOL – the first time around I came pretty close to the heap on the floor/baseball bat scenario!
And YES, this is the last time I buy anything from BB.
I’m a computer technician. It sounds to me that when they replaced the motherboard in your system, they replaced it with a different model/part than the original. This would explain why they also replaced the CPU and video card at different times. The original motherboard was possibly a different socket type than the replacement, so they gave you an equivalent CPU that fit in the new motherboard. When they replaced the video card, they did so because the motherboard they replaced had a different slot type for the card than what you originally had. This could also be the reason they felt they had to reinstall your operating system, as the drivers installed were incompatible with the new motherboards they were putting in. I see this frequently at work when replacing motherboards. However, you usually only need to run an OS repair, leaving your personal files intact, instead of wiping and reinstalling from scratch.
This is obviously speculation, as I do not know your system model or details, but it does make sense from a technician perpective.
Oh, and I advise everyone I know to always back up their data, just in case something happens when work is being done to the machine. You should also always keep two copies of your personal files, one on the system, and one on an external device. That way you never would have to pay for a data backup.
Sad story, but all too common. Avoid HP, their management appears to have no ethics; for years now they’ve been doing their best to get rid of as many American-based staff (while rehiring in the third world) and continually short-changing their existing staff. They don’t deserve your money.
Not to be a jerk, but some of this is your own fault as a consumer.
First mistake you made was purchasing a computer from Best Buy, a company known for their terrible service and support.
Second, you purchased an HP (and probably a cheap HP). HP is company known for building cheap computers with high defective rates. Some studies put HPs defective rate at %20-25.
Third, you bought an extended warranty from Best Buy. Geek Squad is VERY well known for their shoddy repair practices, by their underpaid, non qualified staff.
If you had done your research before making a large purchase, you could have avoided all of this mess.
I would suggest purchasing a Dell next time, with their 3 year on site next day repair (there is a reason most company’s and schools purchase from Dell). With the right sales and coupons you could have got a better price/spec on your computer and better service and support.
Now some advice… Did you buy it on a Visa or Mastercard? If so then they cover your purchases for up to a year after warranty. They should have a lemon clause in it. Try calling your credit card company and see if they can refund you the money. Then go and purchase a new computer.
It’s true, I have learned a lot about Best Buy and HP and extended warranties since my unfortunate decision to purchase this computer. Thanks, I’ll look into Dell next time.
Don’t count on a corporation that makes VERY VERY little (if anything) off of your PC purchase.
Make backups, and find someone that can teach you to build your own computer.
And if you don’t know any computer geeks… YOUTUBE!!! There are hundreds of videos showing you what to do.
Here’s just one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldJNp6wdfqI
Thanks again Cam!
Cyndi,
I feel terrible for you and I am well aware of the pathetic excuse for technicians that Best Buy hires. I run a computer and consumer electronics review site and would be happy to offer my help as press in getting your issues resolved. Please feel free to drop me an e-mail and contact me. If we cant help resolve your issue I will get you a new High End PC for free.
Cyndi,
Apparently my last comment didn’t go through so I will leave this here for you. I would like to assist you in resolving your issues with Best Buy and can help you do so as I run a technology website; http://www.TechwareLabs.com and would be pleased to push the local store and the corporation to satisfactorily fix your computer. As a side offer if I am unable to get Best Buy to own up to the issue I will equip you with a new PC Free.
Jason
jason@techwarelabs.com
Jason´s last blog ..Crucial Ballistix DDR3 1600 4GB Kit
you will look into a dell next time…..lol
you obviously havent learned anything.
all parts in main stream oems are the lowest grade parts available. dell, hp, compaq, etc., are all crap. unless you need a laptop then stay away from all of them. buy a 10.00 book on snapping a pc together and save some serious cash in the long run, and better yet, save your sanity. snapping together a system today is just that, snapping, a five year old can do it. however, you are female so it might take a few more times of getting screwed for you to figure it out.
Seriously? You have nothing better to do today? Get a life asshole.
Yikes, as much as I hate BB and would love to use this excuse to bash them, this looks like correctly applied standard technical support for mass-produced, minimum margin computer equipment.
I worked for almost 10 years in tech support for a major OEM before moving on to processor design, so I know how their processes generally work.
It’s normal that they wouldn’t check the NIC after a PSU replacement, since connecting a computer to the network always represents a bit of risk. It’s usually only connected when there is some report of network problems.
The reason why “their service center” is super secret is because it does not belong to the store. It belongs to whatever Chinese company designed the laptop for HP (usually Foxconn). This is standard procedure for EVERY brand that sells computers on retail stores.
It’s normal that they spend hours trying to find a software solution to a hardware problem. That is the only way to determine if it’s a hardware problem. There are so many software conflicts that can affect network connectivity that -many- shops will refuse to replace NICs unless they reinstall the OS first!
It’s normal for the repair center to replace many parts and count it as a single repair attempt. In order to reduce waiting times (which you noticed are really long anyway) major OEM service centers will sometimes replace all parts that could be involved in the problem in one sweep. Therefore, all the parts count as 1 attempt. -Everyone- works that way.
A Level-1 agent -always- has to assume that the problem is caused by software or a virus unless there is strong evidence of a hardware problem. The reason for this is that 80% of the problems reported as hardware failures are really software problems, which are not covered by the warranty. Companies cannot waste 80% of their warranty resources supporting software configuration/virus issues caused by the users. It would cause their computer prices to skyrocket. That means that many real hardware problems will be dismissed as software issues until proven otherwise. Once you ran the diagnostics, that proved that it was not a SW issue and they provided the warranty service.
Of course they should not have charged but technicians are experienced in technical problems, not in warranty policies, so they will often make those mistakes. When that happens a simple talk with their supervisor (who will know a lot about policies but very little about technical stuff) will quickly solve the problem.
The VAST majority of NICs are part of the motherboard. The controller chip is soldered to it. It is VERY common for the motherboard to -require- replacement when the NIC fails. Only exceptions are when the system has been upgraded to high-end network cards, like Bigfoot or 3Com.
When the motherboard is replaced, the OS will normally refuse to load and give a blue screen during bootup. This does not always happen when replacing with an identical motherboard but it does happen almost half of the time. The only (legal) solution is to reinstall the OS.
When booting in safe mode, the user profile can be saved but that will not save the full registry. Even if they did that and restored the profile on the new installation, most programs would not work and would need to be reinstalled. Even if they could make a full system backup, it wouldn’t make any sense because it would still have the blue screen. No major computer manufacturer supports personal files. Most companies support the hardware but will not support the user’s data at all, not even for an extra charge.
It’s not nice but this is the standard warranty service that all major computer OEMs provide. The retail stores that carry them have to work with that. It is also the only type of warranty service that they can afford to provide. With the current prices, even computers that seem expensive have small margins. The sad reality is that very few people will pay $700 more for an identical computer with a decent warranty service.
Mistake#1 You bought an HP. People, JUST BECAUSE THE STORES SELL THEM, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD BUY THEM!!! HP computers (and everything else they sell these days, for that matter) ARE CRAP. PERIOD. CRAP. HP is NOT a computer company. They USED to be a good printer manufacturer, in the 90′s, but those days are over. Their computers are GARBAGE! Overloaded with useless crappy software, poorly designed CRAP
Mistake#2. You bought your computer at Best Buy. PEOPLE, a computer is not a toy. A computer is NOT a toaster. A computer is NOT an “off the shelf” thing. AGAIN, just because they sell them there, DOESN’T mean you should buy them there. Best Buy is a TOY store. The people that work there are MINIMUM WAGE MORONS!. They are not TRAINED. They are NOT SKILLED, They are NOT experienced. If they were, THEY WOULDN’T WORK FOR BEST BUY!!!!!!!! USE YOUR HEAD! USE COMMON SENSE! Who, exactly, do you think works there??? Just because they are part of a big corporation, DOES NOT GIVE THEM CREDIBILITY. In fact, it makes it worse, because ALL they are interested in is taking advantage of you. Their motto is: “Take advantage of those who don’t know better” and that means YOU, because you spent NO time learning BEFORE you buy. and you don’t learn from the MORONS at Worst Buy! do you walk into a Chevy dealer and ask what car to buy? Do you walk in to Republican National Headquarters and ask who to vote for??? USE YOUR HEAD!
Mistake #3. You bought an extended warranty. Um, you DO realize that this BB store now has a picture of you on their stock room wall with the words SUCKER taped across your forehead.
A FOOL AND THEIR MONEY ARE SOON PARTED!
FWIW if you replace enough of the components you do need to re-install or at least re-activate Windows since Windows will think it has been moved to a different computer.
In the future I would suggest buying directly from the OEM via the web.
I used to work at the Geek Squad 4 years ago. I got the hell out of there. Their official title is “Sales Support” for a reason. The job requires you to talk nerdy to people to convince them to buy more shit. I ran into some flak when I tried to cut someone a break on labor for several jobs for 2 machines(ram upgrade, video card install, new HDD, etc) since I could perform most of them via multi tasking and it would take me less than 10 minutes (was supposed to tally everything separate and charge them nearly 300 bucks in labor alone). I finished the work, left for the day, came back the next day and found they had rerung up his order with the “correct” labor charges. The guy was furious, and I ended up in an argument with them which made me decide I didn’t want to be a part of this crap anymore. I am now an IT support specialist supporting workstations and servers for coworkers. Much more rewarding, and I don’t feel pressured to sell any of them anything.
I applaud you for getting out of there.
It’s unbelievable to me that they continue to get away with this.
Yes, it’s true I should have done more research, etc… Having said that, as with any business, there should be at least some customer service and quality standards.
Quality standards???????? hahahahahahaahahhahahahaahha C’mon, people, WHERE have you been the past 30 years. Corporations exist for ONE purpose, and One purpose only. TO MAKE MONEY. They work for the SHAREHOLDERS, NOT the customers. You are looked upon as a source of revenue, THAT’S IT. And the morons who work in retail are the bottom of the rung. Think about it: Low pay, crappy hours, morons for bosses. Please. THINK about it.
Morning meetings where we all stand around in a circle with our daily sales goals… as technicians… Better push that shitty Trend Micro Internet Security 20XX suite, or better yet OneCare which got canned by microsoft down the road anyways.
I was the worst and the best salesman you’d ever meet. Since I wasn’t on commission, I would get you exactly what you needed. Not this “come in to buy a cable, sell them a TV” shit. Customers enjoyed working with me, but Best Buy hated my guts. I silently refused to get certified (yes, you have to get certified) with their sales model of identifying someone by a first name (like that person is a “Jack” or a “Mary”) saying whether they are a female empty nester or a middle class male. Best Buy hated my guts.
Having worked at Best Buy in a past life, some of this stuff doesn’t suprise me in the least bit, You should’ve easily gotten a new machine already, worst case an easy fix would’ve been for them install one of their cheap network cards off the shelf, which I’ve seen them do at the store I worked (Store #1071). I can tell you for sure that Geek Squad service is extremely dependent on the individual you get and what kind of actual computer experience they have, most of these guys were pulled from another dept. or have “some” computer experience (either building their own or “fixing” friends computers). Even before I broke down and got my A+ (even with 4+ years IT experience) I refused to work in that dept. because of their reputation. most often the GM will direct you to call the corp. office to resolve these issues, if you can get ahold of the regional manager and send it up the ladder, you scream at the right person and things get done. good luck.