Best Buy Being Best Buy...Again

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Best Buy should just pretend this is a feature. Buy a laptop or PC and get someone else's files for free! ;)

"Although one could say the original owner should have known better and reset the unit before returning it, many/most people are probably clueless in this area," Urban noted. "So if the retailer accepts the return and resells the item, it's their responsibility to return it to factory defaults. Although I'd like to believe it's not true, I suspect they completely ignore this in many cases."
 
We've had a couple customers bring their laptops in that they bought as refurbs from Best Buy, claiming there was a previous customers data on it. At first I didn't believe them.
 
I've seen it once. Nothing important was stored, but their profile was there. Maybe it was a floor model and someone logged in using their profile, maybe it was sold and returned.

I guess if you get a cheap, open box computer, you should expect it... And don't assume if you return it that they'll delete your data. If you need to, take it in and have them remove it.
 
If it's not your data, wipe it out and start fresh. Yes, BB should have done it but this is hardly news worthy.
 
One upon a time I worked at the geek squad.

Not once was I asked to restore a return to factory defaults. I'd be willing to bet this is common practice BB wide.
 
lol, I can't click the link on the page due to the MSI Ad covering it up.
 
The MSI Z170 ad is covering up the link on the other page so I can't get to the article.
 
Found a trashed Asus x201e with just a bad power connector. A $2 Ebay purchase later and some quick soldering and the thing was working fine, along with all the owners information . Oh well, I erased it and put Linux Mint on it and then gave it to my niece.

Just last week someone found a trashed old HP laptop that had a broken screen. Ebayed the screen for $17 and oh boy what did I find. Person liked to play Counter Strike and had cheats on it. Also had plenty of sexy time photos of himself. Again, wiped it and installed Linux Mint gave it to my cousin.

I like to hate on BestBuy like anyone else but it's not entirely their fault when people are just throwing away laptops that in the wrong hands can be a problem for you. You do have some responsibility to make sure your data doesn't end up in the wrong hands. If I wanted to I could have gone in your web browser and extract the passwords you use and log in as you.
 
Ashbringer said:
Just last week someone found a trashed old HP laptop that had a broken screen. Ebayed the screen for $17 and oh boy what did I find. Person liked to play Counter Strike and had cheats on it. Also had plenty of sexy time photos of himself. Again, wiped it and installed Linux Mint gave it to my cousin.
Click to expand...
Hope you wiped it with some disinfectant too!
 
Well to be fair, this was an open box product. While I agree that BB dropped the ball on this, the person who returned it should have taken greater care about their account and data on the device or should have at least inquired at BB or Apple regarding resetting device before it was returned. It's your data so you need to take precautions on safeguarding it.
 
Hell even when I turned in an old WinXP laptop for a free voucher I sdeleted everything that wasn't the OS (because the fuckers required it to still boot to XP)
 
Frankly I don't blame the retailer at all for this. If a person doesn't value their information enough to wipe it off a device before returning it, then it is their own fault when it falls into someone else's hands. People need to take responsibility for their lack of knowledge and general ignorance and not put the burden on someone else.
 
There are some seriously shady practices at BB stores also though. I spend around 15k a year there as it's close, has what I need most of the time and price match with the best of them. Plus the rewards points add up fast with those kinds of numbers. General stuff, monitors for work, HDD's etc. What I've run into that is frustrating; SSD's that are packaged as "new" and full price with other users data on them, video cards that have been returned and re-sold as "new", monitors repackaged and sold as "new". A couple more things. I told the store manager and they gave me the cow look, then said, oh that's not our policy, I'll check with returns. Uh huh, sure. So, I've slowed my purchases down there.
 
Kueller said:
Hope you wiped it with some disinfectant too!
Click to expand...

Bleached it actually. Every piece that was plastic was cleaned with spray cleaner bleach, along with the massive heatsink that was likely clogged due to smokers dust.
 
People assume the Windows password prompt prevents others from accessing their data because they don't know any better.

I used to work at a computer shop and we had people come in all the time that just threw computers out or wanted us to recycle them not knowing that their data was accessible. We had a station set up to use DBAN to zero hard drives for free and if the drive had functional issues we would also drill through them in front of the customer.

Many people are clueless about the components that make up a computer or how they operate. For example, my parents had a power supply die on them. They assumed that because the computer wouldn't turn on that the entire thing was completely dead and the data was inaccessible to anyone forever.
 
grim4593 said:
People assume the Windows password prompt prevents others from accessing their data because they don't know any better.

I used to work at a computer shop and we had people come in all the time that just threw computers out or wanted us to recycle them not knowing that their data was accessible. We had a station set up to use DBAN to zero hard drives for free and if the drive had functional issues we would also drill through them in front of the customer.

Many people are clueless about the components that make up a computer or how they operate. For example, my parents had a power supply die on them. They assumed that because the computer wouldn't turn on that the entire thing was completely dead and the data was inaccessible to anyone forever.
Click to expand...

Well, this is not the customers that I work with. I always make my best attempt to let them know not to throw out their hard drive that is inside their computer. I also explain to them the reasons for that and they understand. Out expertise means we should make sure the customer is aware of it if possible.
 
When I worked for geeksquad every floor model or customer returned item was restored. When find my iPad started it was even worse cause the customer service reps wouldn't make sure they turned it off.
 
grim4593 said:
Many people are clueless about the components that make up a computer or how they operate. For example, my parents had a power supply die on them. They assumed that because the computer wouldn't turn on that the entire thing was completely dead and the data was inaccessible to anyone forever.
Click to expand...

I got a free quad core Intel Dell PC for free because of a bad PSU. :D

I've got to shoot several HDD's as part of the decommission process. DBAN, then go shooting. Pharmacy was one (RAID, so several drives) and a work storage device (10 750 GB drives....).
 
Best buy is on my $hit list again. My buddy who's got 1/2 of a penny to his name bought a cheaper PSU there. It lasted a couple of days before smoking and melting wires. They won't take it back, stating he needs to send it back to manufacturer. How in the hell does a retailer not honor a return policy for something that could have burned his house down :(................
 
I've been through this before with a Mac mini that we bought for my brothers wife.

What I learned from the experience is that it's EXTREMELY easy to figure out a users password on a Mac if you have an install disk. I forget the exact details as this was a few years ago, but still...
 
Mattk418 said:
I've been through this before with a Mac mini that we bought for my brothers wife.

What I learned from the experience is that it's EXTREMELY easy to figure out a users password on a Mac if you have an install disk. I forget the exact details as this was a few years ago, but still...
Click to expand...

Don't even need an install disk on 10.7 and newer you can reset the password from the recovery partition.....
 
Ashbringer said:
Found a trashed Asus x201e with just a bad power connector. A $2 Ebay purchase later and some quick soldering and the thing was working fine, along with all the owners information . Oh well, I erased it and put Linux Mint on it and then gave it to my niece.

Just last week someone found a trashed old HP laptop that had a broken screen. Ebayed the screen for $17 and oh boy what did I find. Person liked to play Counter Strike and had cheats on it. Also had plenty of sexy time photos of himself. Again, wiped it and installed Linux Mint gave it to my cousin.

I like to hate on BestBuy like anyone else but it's not entirely their fault when people are just throwing away laptops that in the wrong hands can be a problem for you. You do have some responsibility to make sure your data doesn't end up in the wrong hands. If I wanted to I could have gone in your web browser and extract the passwords you use and log in as you.
Click to expand...

When I've donated an old computer, I wiped the drive several times first.

With a broken screen, or especially a busted power connector, most people aren't then able to delete their data before they junk the computer. The last time I threw out a computer that wasn't even worth donating, I first pulled out the HDD and smashed it with a hammer. The computer went in one bin and the smashed drive was trashed on a different garbage pickup day.
 
1. Buy laptop with cash
2. Install keylogger
3. Return
4. ???
5. Profit!
 
I remember trading in my Toshiba excite 7.7 into best buy for a Galaxy Tab S, I had to proved that it worked which I did, then I was going to wipe it in front of them and the lady told me that they would do that. so I waited till she was typing stuff into a computer about my trade and proceeded to wipe the device myself. Glad I did.
 
xorbe said:
1. Buy laptop with cash
2. Install keylogger
3. Return
4. ???
5. Profit!
Click to expand...
At Best Buy that would be a simple scam, very astute of you to notice.

Best Buy employees are probably the least knowledgeable sales people that I have ever met. And their tech folks are even less capable, and would have no idea what a keyolgger is even if you told them you installed it. Note to Best Buy: you get what you pay for.
 
RealBeast said:
At Best Buy that would be a simple scam, very astute of you to notice.

Best Buy employees are probably the least knowledgeable sales people that I have ever met. And their tech folks are even less capable, and would have no idea what a keyolgger is even if you told them you installed it. Note to Best Buy: you get what you pay for.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you get what you pay OUT THE ASS for. Just calling them "over priced" doesn't quite get the job done.

I recently and reluctantly went into the Best Buy near my area last week for something simple, a 50ft either net cord. Figured it wouldn't be too bad, how much can they over price net cords? Well, they can over price them a lot. A fuck ton actually. All the non-best buy insignia brands were smaller then 25ft, and the Insignia brand 25' cord was $35. I laughed a little and left. Ordered a 50' Cat 6 cord on newegg for $6.99. What a joke.
 
Zepher said:
lol, I can't click the link on the page due to the MSI Ad covering it up.
Click to expand...

Same here, there's a square msi ad in the banner ad area. Had to tab to it.

Also, anyone found it funny that the mac's previous owner account was named Steve H?
:D
 
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