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So your buddy couldn't help you either?
The lady didn't sound too bright either.
Gasp, a power supply with a separate on/off switch?! Where do I sign up?!
NIC damage or missing? Lady, either the RJ45 port is there or it's not.
She sounds like the type who second guesses everyone and think she's better than everyone. My brother's like that. He would treat doctors, mechanics, technicians, repairmen, any professionals with utmost contempt. I'm surprised he's still around.
I was a Geek Squad supervisor (DCI) for two different stores. The story in this link doesn't sound too extra ordinary. I agree that not all Geek Squad techs are qualified (some of the smartest guys among them are the worst customer service reps). Most of these problems are caused by the agents not communicating well with the customers about the problems. Most customers are happy if they get accurate information. However there are a tone of customers out there who buy the cheapest computer on the Sunday Add and then think that a $99 warranty oughta cover them for the next 3 years.
I was a Geek Squad supervisor (DCI) for two different stores. The story in this link doesn't sound too extra ordinary. I agree that not all Geek Squad techs are qualified (some of the smartest guys among them are the worst customer service reps). Most of these problems are caused by the agents not communicating well with the customers about the problems. Most customers are happy if they get accurate information. However there are a tone of customers out there who buy the cheapest computer on the Sunday Add and then think that a $99 warranty oughta cover them for the next 3 years.
Ahh geek squad...
everything passed "running a virus and spyware scanner" has to be sent off to technical support center
they would probably save money if they stopped shipping computers back and forth and actually hired someone that knew how to replace a motherboard
Why wouldn't it cover them for 3 years? Cheap computers these days mean slower computers or smaller capacity, not low quality. An Intel CPU is an Intel CPU. An AMD CPU is an AMD CPU. It's not like motherboard manufacturers design low cost boards to quit sooner than $250 boards.
You make it sound like cheaper computers is like buying a Huffy at K-mart instead of a Schwinn at a bicycle dealer.
Why wouldn't it cover them for 3 years? Cheap computers these days mean slower computers or smaller capacity, not low quality. An Intel CPU is an Intel CPU. An AMD CPU is an AMD CPU. It's not like motherboard manufacturers design low cost boards to quit sooner than $250 boards.
You make it sound like cheaper computers is like buying a Huffy at K-mart instead of a Schwinn at a bicycle dealer.
Ahh geek squad...
everything passed "running a virus and spyware scanner" has to be sent off to technical support center
they would probably save money if they stopped shipping computers back and forth and actually hired someone that knew how to replace a motherboard
I guess we have a difference of opinion on this. If you honestly think a $300 desktop is the same as $1500 desktop (Quality wise) then I don't know how to convince you. The point I was trying to make was about the Psyche of the customers.
Most people that visit a forum like this know enough about computers that they don't need to go to the likes of Geeksquad for repairs and fixes. I was talking from first hand experience. My primary job was to deal with situations like the ones discussed in this story.
I am not saying that GeekSquad is not to blame in this case.
LOL. I doubt they even ask for A+ certs anymore considering all of the horror stories. Their online job application seems to ask questions that are more centered on how much butt will you kiss if you get hired rather then anything technical. Ridiculous.He then asked me if I had my A+ (?!?!) I told him No, there wasn't even a need at that point in my career as I had certs that surpassed that level of knowledge and experience. He said that they only hire A+ techs and that he could only have me work the floor. I actually laughed right in his face and explained what he could do with his "stockboy" position.
Thank goodness for IT people with masters degree!
They are plenty of small local computer stores in almost every major city. Places where you will be treated as a valuable customer, and not a target for padding a ticket. Why people buy PCs from BB never ceases to amaze me.
if its under best buys warranty i think on a desktop:
power supply, RAM, and HDD can be replaced
laptop: ram, HDD.
as far as replacing motherboards in store keep in mind:
that to replace a motherboard in a laptop, you are probably looking at what 20-40 minutes to take a laptop fully apart without being interrupted (customer questions, questions from sales people, having to help customer service, phone calls about how long something takes) and THEN you have to have a motherboard to put in a laptop, these aren't standardized boards like on custom desktops, they are completely model dependent....
if you haven't figured out why they ship motherboard problems off yet, i will continue.
at a company like best buy, you may have 5,10, 15 stores in a single city. you can't stock all of those with any amount of components in a cost effective way, at least compared to shipping laptops to a central service center.
and finally...
if someone can do laptop repair on top of all the other things that come with working in retail, you are going to have to pay them more. again, add that up over the amount of stores best buy has.... hopefully this gives an idea of the problems of servicing laptops like that....
where's the problem? simply have 1 - 2 techs that actually know what the hell they're doing, and have them in the back room, away from the customers.....when something needs to be physically replaced, they're the ones who do it, while the rest of the "Geeks" do the simple stuff, like installing antivirus software & stuff like that.
if parts need to be replaced that they don't have in stock, they simply tell the customer that they need to have the parts shipped in, and it may take an extra day or two to get the computer back.
seems much more cost-effective than just shipping every single PC (twice, no less...once to the repair center, and once back to the store) when stuff needs to be replaced......
I stated you damaged the monitor, you don't have the equivalent technology available to me any longer so the only way I will be satisfied is if I get to keep the new monitor, and keep the remaining 2 years on the service plan. Thats what finally happened but that took a little over an hour of strongly discussing the only way I would leave happy.
Gasp, a power supply with a separate on/off switch?! Where do I sign up?!
NIC damage or missing? Lady, either the RJ45 port is there or it's not.
extended warranties are a complete & utter sham and usually are not worth the paper they're printed on....i found that out the hard way years & years ago, when i purchased my first computer from Best Buy with the extended warranty.
I always enjoy getting the contract calls for our "small computer store" (basically the only one in town) to go out and install new server or switches at Staples. A coworker one time had to go fix a printer problem. The reds weren't coming out right and were looking funny. He goes into the menu, changes the saturation, turns it up a bit and they were like "wow! The reds just pop out now! We've had this problem for 2 years." 2 years and they never called anyone or figured out how to fix it... wow. And they have their "tech department" what a joke.
I guess we have a difference of opinion on this. If you honestly think a $300 desktop is the same as $1500 desktop (Quality wise) then I don't know how to convince you. The point I was trying to make was about the Psyche of the customers.
Most people that visit a forum like this know enough about computers that they don't need to go to the likes of Geeksquad for repairs and fixes. I was talking from first hand experience. My primary job was to deal with situations like the ones discussed in this story.
I am not saying that GeekSquad is not to blame in this case.
one other thing it proves. that these extended warranties are just bullshit profit. Everybody knows it. Everybody says it. But morons keep buying them. And they never do what they promise to do.
Perhaps the worst repair by Geek squad, but maybe my store can beat that.
I purchased an HP Pavilion DM3-1020 back in November of last year and the laptop was defective from day one (nasty graphical artifacts that would only show up in 2D but garbled up the whole screen). Of course I tried to identify the problem myself first and after numerous tests the only remaining possible culprit was the graphics card, an nVidia 105M. I wouldn't have been surprised if it was defective, especially considering all the overheating issues they've had with laptop chips the past years.
...
That sounds like normal HP support to me. I had a DV-5000 (i belive that is the model). The L key popped off a little and got stuck. I pushed down hard on it to get it to pop back down and into place. After that it would stick some when typeing and wouldn't recorgnize L being pressed all the time. So i get on the chat with them to get a new keyboard sent out. They have me uninstall the keyboard and reinstall it in windows to see if that fixes the keyboard issue. I point out that it is physically broke and that isn't going to help. But they insist. So i uninstall and reinstall the keyboard drivers for hell of it. Then they have me check stuff in the registry. Then have me reboot a few times and see if the problem is still there. Then have me reboot into the bios and see if the problem is still there. They were going to have me format my harddrive and reinstall windows to see if that fixed my problem. I told him i would do so as soon as he tells me how reinstalling windows would reattack the L key which is now no longer on the keyboard but it sitting at the other end of my desk. It wasn't really but i just wanted to see the answer i would get as I just wanted to get them to send out the replacement keyboard as I had better things to do with my time than be in chat with them all day. He finally agreed it was a hardware issues but told me that I would have to send it in to have the new keyboard installed. I tried to get them to just send me the keyboard but they insist that they can't send out parts to customers.
He then tells me that i don't have an active warranty and would have to pay for the repairs. When infact I still had 6 months on the warranty. He tells me that I need to send a copy of the invoice and credit card statement showing that I purchased the warranty and that in 24 - 48 hours it would all be taken care of. I wait 3 days and contact them again. They tell me that they need more information from me before they can give me my warranty. I need to send them a copy of the invoice and credit card statement from when i purchased the laptop, a copy of the UPC from the box that laptop came in, and a copy of the packing slip for the laptop. So i send them all of that and a week later I finally get the warranty for the laptop applied. I go back to the chat to get them to send me the box to send in the laptop for repairs. This person isn't sure that it is really a hardware issue and wants me to try all the stuff again that he first one had me try. I agrued with him for awhile and finally got him to agree to just send me the box. Get the box 2 days later and send it in. Get it back 3 weeks later. In addition to the keyboard they claimed that the DVD drive didnt' work so they replaced that also. I never had any problems with it but figure no big deal. Go to put the battery back in, All 3 tabs that hold the battery in place on the shell are broken off and the battery just falls out. So i contact them again, they agree to fix it. So they send me another box, and i send it back in. Don't hear anything for 2 weeks. I contact them and am given a number to call, call that number and am giving another number. Call that one and was told to wait a few days and a case manager would get in touch with me. They told me they were waiting for my payment to begin working on it. I informed them that they broke it and that they were fixing it for free. They send the request to a manager to approve the work and I got it back a few weeks later with a new bottom. Go to put the battery back in, and the new bottom is broken. 1 tab completely broke off, one is twisted so that one side is broke off, the 3rd is fine. I contact them again to send it back yet again. I was first told ok, they would take it back to fix it agian. Never get a box after a few days so i contact them again. This time i am told that they already fixed the problem and would not take it back to fix it again.
By the time it was done, i was without my laptop for almost 3 months all because my L key broke on the keyboard.
I decided at that point I am only ordering Dell for our company laptops as with those I will get the parts sent to me and not have to go through something like that.
The reason BB and other stores push extended warranties so much is because it's very profitable. Most people never use the extended warranty. When you pay $99 for an extended warranty that potentially covers say a $400 TV repair bill, the salesman gets a $20 spiff and BB pockets a nice profit, the economics of it are that only one out of 10 (or less) will actually use the warranty. If you pay this $99 for an extended warranty each time with the odds being 1 in 10 that you will use it, you generally come out on the losing side.I disagree, On big ticket items, Monitors, TV's etc I always buy extended warranties. Every damn time it has paid for itself and sometimes more than once. Would not own a laptop without one. Ever price a laptop motherboard or display ?
I don't buy them on a lot of things but for items like I listed above, always, always, always.
Ouch! That's one reason I love HP's Business Notebook line. Their keyboards are under user-replaceable warranty because it's just 2 screws on the bottom of the laptop, and 4 latches on top of the keyboard, and it's off.
its shit like this that drove me to learn PC hardware in the first place. i think i was 15 or so when i started, just got tired of getting bent over so i started to learn myself. i think i decided i wouldn't get ripped off again.
did the same with cars just a few years ago, now i'll tackle just about anything. starting to learn home stuff too but not as good at that
true, this isn't for everyone but works for me!
lol
The entire tone of her blog just irritates me. I don't like Geek Squad any more than the next technician, but she strikes me as the kind of person who yells at helpdesk or customer service people thinking she knows it all. I deal with those kind at work from time to time.
[RIP]Zeus;1035870080 said:Fix it for you
I believe that "Geek Squad" should not have the word "Geek" in there name, as that is a disgrace to all geeks.