Best Buy and their NON Service!

This is a long story, but here goes. 2 years ago I bought a Laptop from Best Buy to use as my mobile Encoder for the OnComputers show. At the time I bought it I bought an extended warrantee from Best Buy for the Laptop. (I only get an extended warrantee for Laptops.)

Well about the 4th of November the laptop wouldn’t boot. I took it into Best Buy for service, and they sent it down to their service center in the lower 48 someplace. When I took it in I told them I needed it back for a remote show on the first weekend of December, I was told that is not a problem. The week of Thanksgiving the service center called me and told me they were replacing the harddrive, did I want to have them back up my data. (For a only $89.00) I told them no thank you. That computer only has one job; it is the encoder and only used to broadcast the show. They told me it would be finished that Friday, I said I will be leaving for Los Angeles on 12/1/04 I need it back here by them. They said that is not a problem.

When I arrived in Los Angeles I called the service center and asked when I was going to receive my laptop. I was told it’s finished and ready to ship. I told the same lady that called me Thanksgiving week I was in Los Angeles and needed my computer. (This was on a Friday) She checked with someone and came back and told me they would ship it Next day to the hotel in Los Angeles to me. I was happy. The next day UPS showed up at the hotel and I got my laptop. I brought it up to the room and plugged it in and turned it on. They replaced the Harddrive and there was NO Operating System on the computer, now I am in Los Angeles and have my laptop I use to broadcast the OnComputers radio show and it doesn’t have an OS. I called the local Best Buy and talked to the service manager, he told me to bring it in and they would take a look at it. Remember we were in Los Angeles for Deepak’s memorial so there were 12 or 15 of us there. We ALL went to Best Buy. I went up to the service counter and asked for the manager, I explained I just received this laptop from their server center Next day USP and there is no OS on the computer. He said he would see what they can do and came back a few minutes later and said there is nothing he can do. I need to bring in my restore CD from Compaq. I told him their service center had this computer for a month (from 5 November to 4 December) and I didn’t have the restore CD with me. I was then told by the Service manager they would send the computer back to the service center for me. (This is the second service ticket written up my Best Buy) We all went back to the hotel without my Laptop. An hour or two later they called me and said they can’t send it in to the service center for me I would have to come back to their store to pick up my Laptop. I pointed out that the service center UPS next day the laptop to me at the hotel because they couldn’t replace the harddrive in a month and return it to me in Alaska. I told the service manager I would be talking about the POOR service I was getting from Best Buy, The service manager then told me “They hear about their POOR service all of the time.” They had one of their GeekSquad Techs come to the hotel and give me back my laptop.

Here I was in Los Angeles with a Laptop without an Operating System. It cost me $42 to have the useless laptop FedEx home to Alaska. I installed XP on it and it was up and running again.

On January 17th the Laptop would not Boot again. Once again I took it into the Best Buy store in Anchorage for service. (Service ticket number 3) This time Best Buy had the laptop until February 12th and replaced the Motherboard.

On March 4th it went in to Best Buy again for the same reason it wouldn’t boot! (Service ticket number 4, this time because it was the 4th ticket the tech requested the laptop be replaced.) After a few weeks I looked on their (http://www.geeksquad.com/) web site and it said the computer was back at the store so I called them. After waiting 30 minutes of the phone ringing someone answered it. Chris the service manager in Anchorage told me the laptop was shipped to the wrong service center (I was told it was shipped to Compaq, even their web site said it was sent to their service center.) and was returned and had to be shipped out again. This time it was going to Best Buy’s service center. (Service ticket number 5, March 21)

At this point I called the Best Buy Public relations office. I got someone’s voice mail. On March 31 I was given a UPS tracking number and the laptop was going to be delivered to the store on April 1st. (Remember this time it went it for them to decide if they were going to replace it as a lemon.) April 1st I called the store and asked about my laptop, I was told they didn’t know anything about it, I told them USP said it was delivered at 10:47AM Friday April 1st. They then said they would send Chris an email and Monday when he came in he could look into it. Tuesday April 5th Chris called me and said it was fixed that a cable going under the power button was stopping the button from going all the way down and wouldn’t let it turn on the computer.

I picked up my laptop at 11:57AM April 5th. We will see how long it runs this time. Since November 5, 2004 Best Buy has had this laptop in for service for 90 days! Out of the last 5 months I have had my laptop for 2 months; Best Buy has had it for service for 3 months.

A little FYI, I have another Compaq laptop I bought at Best Buy, but this one I bought the extended warrantee from http://www.hp.com/ and I call them on a Sunday and tell them I had a problem, they have FedEx pick it up at my door on Monday and Wednesday it is back here repaired! It also cost about $100.00 less.

Joe Polinsky the on air host for the OnComputers radio show. Joe at OnComputers.info