BestBuy Charges $1,700 for CD Drive Replacement?

Thats just insane. I have been doing PC repair for 15 years at various stores. This customer is getting boned dry.

First, its just a CD rom. Its a 5 min job! 30 min billable. Should be covered under warranty. Now, if I was the tech, and booted the system to find the HD was bad after the CD rom swap, the FIRST thing you do is NOTIFY the CUSTOMER!!!!!! Its happened to me a few times. You have a 5 year old hard drive. Then you toss it into your cars trunk, under the nice speaker system and sub woofer. Take a few speed bumps, pot holes, and erratic maneuvers, and drop it off at the store. Shit happens. Always back up your data before bringing it in! Anyways, again, you call the customer and tell him the options.

Now, I can tell you that the $1700 is almsot all labor. Some stupid tech dicked around with it for 3 days and is charging the customer for every single hour. Your paying someone an exorbitant amount of money to do nothing. Never put up with that. Also, they should ALWAYS contact the customer before doing something other then what was stated on the invoice. ALWAYS. No exceptions.

This customer has a very very good chance in court if BB never contacted them in advance about the additional problems and added cost's. Also, who would agree to a repair cost thats way more then a NEW PC! Hell, you could even get a MAC for that! I have told many customers that its just not worth repairing it before I ever turned a screw driver on it. Typically they do buy new systems. But to charge someone 1700 for a 5 year old system?

Fight this, and screw whoever is trying to bone you. There is no way a "warranty" CD replacement should run up $1700 without contacting you in advance for the OK. They ONLY agreed to the CD rom, not this other BS. If I took my 98 Saturn in for an oil change, and they charged me $15,000 to rotate the tires, thats illegal. Its extortion, since they hold your data and PC hostage.
 
+2 to the count of people who have posted without reading much/any of the thread.

nobody has been billed $1700 for a damn cd rom replacement. does anyone bother to read more than half a page of a multipage thread before responding?
 
I love how some people (many of them who work at BB/GS or similar services) all are sure that it's the customer's fault, based on nothing but speculation.

Whatever particular agreement BB has with the people that perform services is irrelevant from the point of view of the consumer. "Our contract with the service plant tells them to do x, y and z" is really not an excuse for messing up with the consumer.

The fact is, we don't KNOW if the hdd was dying or not. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But the point is if any repair at all under warranty, from a messed up cd-rom to a sticky power button, carries a risk of having a disk wiped unless you spend 100 bucks in data protection, that is a really shitty service, and borderline scam.
 
diogo said:
I love how some people (many of them who work at BB/GS or similar services) all are sure that it's the customer's fault, based on nothing but speculation.
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from the customers original story:

We declined backing up the data (a $100 charge)
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they knew about backing their data up before sending it off.

if geek squad didn't properly explain everything there is probably some blame for them to. But the customer didn't think their data was worth $100, so there you have it.
 
ivesceneenough said:
from the customers original story:




they knew about backing their data up before sending it off.

if geek squad didn't properly explain everything there is probably some blame for them to. But the customer didn't think their data was worth $100, so there you have it.
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How does this contradict anything in my post? We know that the hdd was replaced, but no one knows why. And as I said, a warranty that asks for a $100 "data protection" fee for any and all services is a scam.
 
Xaero_toast said:
+2 to the count of people who have posted without reading much/any of the thread.

nobody has been billed $1700 for a damn cd rom replacement. does anyone bother to read more than half a page of a multipage thread before responding?
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The reading comprehension in this thread is bad, but the title isn't helping either.

Jumping to conclusions anyone?

As he said, $1700 has nothing to do with the CD-ROM. Nothing. It is the quoted cost for data recovery service, which anyone that has every had to purchase knows is extremely expensive. I never worked in retail tech repair (thankfully), but I've had plenty of experience handling bad discs and years of experience coordinating factory warranty repairs on systems. If you send anything in for repair to any company you and only you are responsible for the data.
 
this craps more common then you think.. i use to work for bestbuy a couple years back.. the idiots over at geek squad use to go through peoples computers looking at images and shit.. removing passwords.. one of the idiots at my store got caught for stealing credit card numbers and passwords from a customer that used robofill or what ever that program is that automatically filled out the order information with a single click..

and the funny thing is bestbuy doesnt give a rats ass about it.. the idiot that got caught is still working at that same store..i finally got fed up with dealing with that garbage ass company.. i just took advantage of my 40% off then quit the next day after buying a new TV, surround sound and a few hard drives..
 
How does it contradict it?

It implies that the customer knew of potential data loss before the unit was taken in. It also shows that the customer before the incident did not value their data. The PC was obviously functioning before (minus the optical drive) so the customer could have quite easily taken that $100 bought their own external HD and done their own backup, also didn't happen.

Why it was replaced? Probably because it was bad. That's why most HDs are replaced under warranty. The reason the HDs are kept is probably to show the company who backs the warranty (AIG for reference) that they aren't being gamed for HDs.
 
Some really good points but one thing sticks with me is the owner still owns the hard drive that they replaced. Plain and simple, and they should always have the option to get it back. Sounds like they formatted it, or damaged it somehow not destroyed to protect the consumers data as some supposed BB employee said, and now are trying to stick someone with the cost of recovery.
 
I do agree with that part, the hard drives should either be returned to the owner or destroyed immediately, but I worked for years at a company that did was responsible for securely processing off lease equipment for large corporations. Tracking every single drive until it was either completely wiped or destroyed was a big part of our work.

For warranty repairs like this where your customers don't know squat, if a drive is replaced it should be returned with the system. As others have pointed out, identity theft is a big issue.

Now techs that steal data off of drives as mentioned by another poster above and stuff should be castrated. Those are the people that make me tell people never to bring their computer into a retail shop for repairs or to remove the hard drive first if you do.
 
ivesceneenough said:
How does it contradict it?

It implies that the customer knew of potential data loss before the unit was taken in. It also shows that the customer before the incident did not value their data. The PC was obviously functioning before (minus the optical drive) so the customer could have quite easily taken that $100 bought their own external HD and done their own backup, also didn't happen.

Why it was replaced? Probably because it was bad. That's why most HDs are replaced under warranty. The reason the HDs are kept is probably to show the company who backs the warranty (AIG for reference) that they aren't being gamed for HDs.
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This is the perfect example of making assumptions. You don't know it was because it went bad.

All we know is that best buy can at any time replace a harddrive without asking for permission or even simply informing the consumer. Because of that they get to charge $100 in fees for "data protection." Whether or not the consumer "cared" about the data or not is absolutely irrelevant. Whether or not they could have done their own back up is absolutely irrelevant.

A reputable business would have asked for permission before replacing the hard drive, and would have allowed the customer the option of paying a $100 again fee at that time.

Nikon does this for its cameras. Even in free warranty repairs they still inform you of what they are going to do and ask for permission.

The policy that "you should pay us $100 dollars for data protection in any and all repairs because we might decide to replace the hdd at our own discretion without ever letting you have access to it again" is a borderline scam, regardless of "fine print." It provides a very real incentive to be careless with data on their part, as it would either reduce warranty claims or force more consumers to pay the fee. And all of this while having to trust BB completely with your data and your old hd.
 
I am sitting here, right now, looking at a dead raptor, that is under warranty. If I submit an RMA form, do I still own it?

As much as I think "cake and eat it too" is a stupid thing to say, one really does not have the right to own both the dead drive, and it's warranty replacement.
 
Xaero_toast said:
I am sitting here, right now, looking at a dead raptor, that is under warranty. If I submit an RMA form, do I still own it?

As much as I think "cake and eat it too" is a stupid thing to say, one really does not have the right to own both the dead drive, and it's warranty replacement.
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The only concern about not getting to keep the old drive is all the personal data still stored on it for anyone with determination to get to rather easily with the right tools.
 
Xaero_toast said:
I am sitting here, right now, looking at a dead raptor, that is under warranty. If I submit an RMA form, do I still own it?

As much as I think "cake and eat it too" is a stupid thing to say, one really does not have the right to own both the dead drive, and it's warranty replacement.
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If you RMA it, WD will send you the new one and only expect the old one later, after you've had a chance to back up/recover/dispose of the data. That is the whole reason HDD manufacturers do advanced RMA.
 
I'm aware of that, but the post I was responding to seemed to think the user in this case was entitled to both the old and the new drives
 
BoogerBomb said:
The only concern about not getting to keep the old drive is all the personal data still stored on it for anyone with determination to get to rather easily with the right tools.
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good point, but the time for that concern is not when the drive does not come back, but before it ever goes out.
 
diogo said:
This is the perfect example of making assumptions. You don't know it was because it went bad.

All we know is that best buy can at any time replace a harddrive without asking for permission or even simply informing the consumer. Because of that they get to charge $100 in fees for "data protection." Whether or not the consumer "cared" about the data or not is absolutely irrelevant. Whether or not they could have done their own back up is absolutely irrelevant.

A reputable business would have asked for permission before replacing the hard drive, and would have allowed the customer the option of paying a $100 again fee at that time.

Nikon does this for its cameras. Even in free warranty repairs they still inform you of what they are going to do and ask for permission.

The policy that "you should pay us $100 dollars for data protection in any and all repairs because we might decide to replace the hdd at our own discretion without ever letting you have access to it again" is a borderline scam, regardless of "fine print." It provides a very real incentive to be careless with data on their part, as it would either reduce warranty claims or force more consumers to pay the fee. And all of this while having to trust BB completely with your data and your old hd.
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I agree the simple solution would be to let the customer have the HD back again. But do you still replace the HD with a new one?

Because here's the thing, if they are asking for $1,700, that's a DEAD drive. The $100 dollar option is no longer on the table. That option is only there when the drive works and can be put into an enclosure and copied. The other thing is honestly, that service center is taking in probably 2 to 5 thousand laptops a day 5 days a week. Thats why they have you sign the paper work up front. They really don't like waiting for approvals and trading drives (going back to customer privacy issues, shipping the wrong drive back to some one is going to be UGLY) so before you send it off you have to OK all repairs required to get it back and operational. (admittedly this all is based on assumptions, but you are also assuming that best buy is out to scam people and hold HDs hostage so its even)

and Nikon is awesome, they in my opinion consistently go above whats required. (love my D200)

And there is obviously no "force" the consumer to pay fees here. There MIGHT be after this. But before it was completely up to the customer, and because of that, this is what happens.

cheers
 
Wow. Take machine in for new optical drive. Get extra work done without being informed. Get original hard disk replaced (again, without asking) and then be told it'll be $1700 to maybe get your data back back? And remember this was all under an extended warranty. RTFA article you dorks commenting in epic cluelessness.

Isn't that how the mob works? OH, yeah. The warranty covered the "repairs" but to get your family photos and personal/profesional documents back? $1700 for "lab services."

TardSquad FTL.
 
So alot of you are saying that the only thing that should have been replaced was a CD-ROM? I've seen in many instances that if one item is replaced and the unit comes back from service with another defective item.. the client is even more frustrated due to having to have the item serviced again. As for the data is concerned.. no warranty will ever cover data. It's not the manufacturer's, or warranty provider's problem. You decide to put something on a device is your own risk. The service center was simply providing the client with a data backup solution of which the client did not agree too. I know a majority of the population is thinking this is an insane fee for a small times work.... but I wonder how many can actually disassemble a drive to extract data when a simple plug and play will not work.
 
First off, people really need to read the darn article before commenting. Best Buy IS NOT CHARGING the customer to repair anything. Steve, you need to really change the title a bit. Now, best Buy gets a lot of bad rap, what BIG corporation doesn't? Most businesses that individuals on this board work for get bad reputations to, sorry, no business is perfect and a business is a business, they are there to MAKE MONEY. Businesses do some slimy things here and there, but in actuality, it is the consumer that overreacts to situations and starts bad PR like what is going on now, and the funny thing is, it is the customers FAULT! The customer got her cd-rom replaced which is nice but also got a FAULTY drive replaced at no expense. Would you want to get a computer back that the drive works but can't bott it up because the hard drive it bad, yet again, you'd be out of a computer for even longer. Now, I hate people's opinions on extended warranties. They can be useful, for instance, this scenario. A extended warranty at Best Buy for this computer probably ran $150-200. Lets break this down a little. A CD/DVD Writer/Burner runs on average $50. A new hard drive on average runs about $70-100. This is hardware only without the labor! So you just made up majority of the warranty cost, and yet, you still are MAINTAINING that warranty unless the computer is fully replaced! So stop bashing warranties unless you do a cost-breakdown. In most cases, you'll be astounded how much money you may have SAVED buying one!
 
EsTeeM said:
So alot of you are saying that the only thing that should have been replaced was a CD-ROM? I've seen in many instances that if one item is replaced and the unit comes back from service with another defective item.. the client is even more frustrated due to having to have the item serviced again. As for the data is concerned.. no warranty will ever cover data. It's not the manufacturer's, or warranty provider's problem. You decide to put something on a device is your own risk. The service center was simply providing the client with a data backup solution of which the client did not agree too. I know a majority of the population is thinking this is an insane fee for a small times work.... but I wonder how many can actually disassemble a drive to extract data when a simple plug and play will not work.
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antbikerjl said:
First off, people really need to read the darn article before commenting. Best Buy IS NOT CHARGING the customer to repair anything. Steve, you need to really change the title a bit. Now, best Buy gets a lot of bad rap, what BIG corporation doesn't? Most businesses that individuals on this board work for get bad reputations to, sorry, no business is perfect and a business is a business, they are there to MAKE MONEY. Businesses do some slimy things here and there, but in actuality, it is the consumer that overreacts to situations and starts bad PR like what is going on now, and the funny thing is, it is the customers FAULT! The customer got her cd-rom replaced which is nice but also got a FAULTY drive replaced at no expense. Would you want to get a computer back that the drive works but can't bott it up because the hard drive it bad, yet again, you'd be out of a computer for even longer. Now, I hate people's opinions on extended warranties. They can be useful, for instance, this scenario. A extended warranty at Best Buy for this computer probably ran $150-200. Lets break this down a little. A CD/DVD Writer/Burner runs on average $50. A new hard drive on average runs about $70-100. This is hardware only without the labor! So you just made up majority of the warranty cost, and yet, you still are MAINTAINING that warranty unless the computer is fully replaced! So stop bashing warranties unless you do a cost-breakdown. In most cases, you'll be astounded how much money you may have SAVED buying one!
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What both of you are missing is that at no point best buy even asked or notified her that the HDD might need to be replaced.

A simple communication stating that

"our tests have shown a malfunction with your hard drive. If the hard drive is still readable, we can back up your data for a $100 fee before replacing it at no cost. If the hard drive is not readable, we can try to recover the data for you for $1700. If none of the alternatives are acceptable, we'd be more than happy to return the hdd in its current condition, though in that case we wouldnt be able to offer a replacement."

Would take care of the problem easily. Given the huge profit margin on their extended warranty service, it shouldnt be that hard.

If any service at all needs to be protected by a $100 back up, this "extended warranty" is worthless.
 
Well I forgot, we do live in America where people are lazy, can't read, or understand basic terms and conditions. The paper this individual signed stated about the possibility having the HD wiped for one. I also agree with what "Esteem" said. Best Buy did that customer a favor and replaced it, just like any car dealership would as that is what the "service agreement" she bought consisted of. If it wasn't replaced, the customer would be even more pissed off and even then run around screaming about Best Buy on the internet. I do agree that they should have notified her, but if she did some simple reading in that pamphlet they gave her, it says word-for-word about how the terms are and this wouldn't have happened. Best Buy did her a favor and replaced the faulty parts with no cost to her, they covered their end. Notifying her wouldve been adding a cherry on top, but even then, with consumers now-a-days, there would be been something else to be pissed about. The consumer mentality in todays world is all about complaining, yelling, and whining to get the best deals, bargains, free stuff, etc etc. So wouldn't surprise me even past notifying the customer, the customer then wouldve been yelling and screaming about "Best Buy is CHARGING ME for my OWN data?" 90% chance that would've played out just like that...

She made back pretty much every cent on that extended warranty. Add it up, new hard drive and a new cd-drive. They aren't always useless, just the majority of the time...
 
antbikerjl said:
Well I forgot, we do live in America where people are lazy, can't read, or understand basic terms and conditions. The paper this individual signed stated about the possibility having the HD wiped for one. I also agree with what "Esteem" said. Best Buy did that customer a favor and replaced it, just like any car dealership would as that is what the "service agreement" she bought consisted of. If it wasn't replaced, the customer would be even more pissed off and even then run around screaming about Best Buy on the internet. I do agree that they should have notified her, but if she did some simple reading in that pamphlet they gave her, it says word-for-word about how the terms are and this wouldn't have happened. Best Buy did her a favor and replaced the faulty parts with no cost to her, they covered their end. Notifying her wouldve been adding a cherry on top, but even then, with consumers now-a-days, there would be been something else to be pissed about. The consumer mentality in todays world is all about complaining, yelling, and whining to get the best deals, bargains, free stuff, etc etc. So wouldn't surprise me even past notifying the customer, the customer then wouldve been yelling and screaming about "Best Buy is CHARGING ME for my OWN data?" 90% chance that would've played out just like that...

She made back pretty much every cent on that extended warranty. Add it up, new hard drive and a new cd-drive. They aren't always useless, just the majority of the time...
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People who are lazy, stupid or can't read are the people who sign up for extended warranty in the first place. A business can't take advantage of that one day and then use that as a defense for not doing its job the next.

No reputable business will do repair on an item where repairs were not requested without clearing it first with the consumer. Especially when it is a hard drive with sensitive information.


By the way, am I the only one who has noticed that a number of people have either signed up or suddenly become active because of this post?
 
zshift said:
I work at Best Buy so this may sound slightly biased to others, but here goes.
The customer did note that she was informed and had been recommended of performing a backup of her data. She also stated that she declined said backup knowing it was her only copy of the data. At the store level everything was done as it was supposed to be done by the employees so there is no fault there. Now the service centers work in a very different manner. All computers fixed by Best Buy under warranty are sent out to Geek Squad City (located in Kentucky). That means over 1000 stores are sending in 1-10 laptops each DAY to this place (my store usually get 5-8 per day minimum as I work in a very high traffic store). So due to the extremely high work load the technicians run full diagnostics on all units and simply take it for what they say. So if they run an hdd scan and it fails, they replace the hard drive (at least that's the way it's been working in my experience). To protect customer privacy, the replaced hdds are to be destroyed within 2 days of replacement. If the customer wants their data back after this, it is usually extremely difficult to do so and requires data recovery services (which we all know is very expensive). Price is non-negotiable because Best Buy doesn't perform the data recovery themselves, it is done through a third-party company which charges $1200 starting for recovery on non-functional hdds plus price of external hdd and shipping and handling (all done and priced at the data recovery center). The customer was issued a $200 gift card because EVERYONE that calls corporate gets a gift card for complaining, even if the customer is the one at fault. Best Buy does this to try and appease the customer and keep them shopping at Best Buy. But asking Best Buy to pay $1700 for something that wasn't their fault is ludicrous. The customer was informed from the beginning of the possibility of data loss, knowing they didn't have a backup, and now wants to blame someone else for their faults. As far as I see it the customer is totally at fault here UNLESS the hdd was incorrectly replaced. ALSO, the customer was not charged on pickup, she was told she would be charged if she wanted her data recovered, as this is not covered under warranty.

Flame all you want, but I reiterate that the customer was informed of all possibilities (aside from the data recovery estimate charges) prior to sending the unit out.
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This is a prime example as to why you do not get work done at BB.......

Dead CD-ROM != replace HDD. I am a tech and there would be NO REASON TO EVEN TOUCH THE HDD other than to remove the cable if they both shared the same cable.
 
darkpaw said:
The reading comprehension in this thread is bad, but the title isn't helping either.

Jumping to conclusions anyone?

As he said, $1700 has nothing to do with the CD-ROM. Nothing. It is the quoted cost for data recovery service, which anyone that has every had to purchase knows is extremely expensive. I never worked in retail tech repair (thankfully), but I've had plenty of experience handling bad discs and years of experience coordinating factory warranty repairs on systems. If you send anything in for repair to any company you and only you are responsible for the data.
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Yeah, Christ forbid any company ever take any responsibility for anything, ever. No wonder customer service sucks shit in so many of these places. The fine print in all these warranties basically absolve them from any responsibility whatsoever, so they don't even have to give a half-assed try to even attempt to even start to give a shit about being half way competent.
 
I can't believe the guy got charged $1,700 for a new CD Drive. It can't even play HD/blu ray format.
 
diogo said:
What both of you are missing is that at no point best buy even asked or notified her that the HDD might need to be replaced.

A simple communication stating that

"our tests have shown a malfunction with your hard drive. If the hard drive is still readable, we can back up your data for a $100 fee before replacing it at no cost. If the hard drive is not readable, we can try to recover the data for you for $1700. If none of the alternatives are acceptable, we'd be more than happy to return the hdd in its current condition, though in that case we wouldnt be able to offer a replacement."

Would take care of the problem easily. Given the huge profit margin on their extended warranty service, it shouldnt be that hard.

If any service at all needs to be protected by a $100 back up, this "extended warranty" is worthless.
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Then the customer comes back and this article reads " Best Buy Broke My Computer And Will Not Fix It"

YeuEmMaiMai said:
This is a prime example as to why you do not get work done at BB.......

Dead CD-ROM != replace HDD. I am a tech and there would be NO REASON TO EVEN TOUCH THE HDD other than to remove the cable if they both shared the same cable.
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It looks like the repair was done at the main service center, which is in Louisville Kentucky. From google maps thats about 850 miles away in a UPS truck. That is more than enough to kill a 5 year old HD.
 
Hmm, I see a lot of people saying BB should have informed her of what was wrong before changing the HDD. Wow, because when a non-tech savvy person gives me a comp and says the CD-Rom is busted, I immediately believe them and simply replace it without checking anything else (NOT!). The tech probably plugged it in, turned it on, it didn't boot. Clearly that's a CD-Rom problem. Sure, I've made an assumption there, but so have all the people who say BB won't return the old HDD. I'll bet they will, but what good is a dead HDD going to do? She doesn't want the HDD, she wants the data that's clearly on a dead HDD. They gave her an estimate of $1700. For you car analogy people, take your car in for an oil change, just as you roll it in it seizes (because you haven't changed the oil in 2 years), they estimate it'll cost you $5000 to replace the engine. You're pissed because "it was working fine when I brought it in" Nobody's charged this lady $1700 for anything at all yet, it's an estimate.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
I am a tech and there would be NO REASON TO EVEN TOUCH THE HDD other than to remove the cable if they both shared the same cable.
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Then you'd not be a very good tech. How about if the machine wouldn't boot and gave a HDD failure error? Would that be a good enough reason "TO EVEN TOUCH THE HDD"? But clearly if the customer says it's the CD-Rom, it must be. Gods, give me a dollar for every time someone has referred to the entire computer as "the hard drive".
 
Tokamak said:
Then you'd not be a very good tech. How about if the machine wouldn't boot and gave a HDD failure error? Would that be a good enough reason "TO EVEN TOUCH THE HDD"? But clearly if the customer says it's the CD-Rom, it must be. Gods, give me a dollar for every time someone has referred to the entire computer as "the hard drive".
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You mean the "modem"?
 
Crosshairs said:
There seems to be some facts missing from that story....They claim the system worked fine except for the CD drive....so why does BB not just put the old hard drive back in?

They must have it if they are going to try a data recovery..me thinks they probably formatted it by mistake..
or am I missing something
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Maybe the did format it. For all we know the issue with the optical drive could have been a software one. If that is the case then reimaging the system would have been the way they would fix it(as would dell,hp, apple, and pretty much any other vendor covering a system under warranty).

We don't know the level of knowledge of the consumer. When I worked in retail I've had consumers tell me their dvd drive wasn't working and it would be the entire tower didn't turn on. I've also had people bring me monitors saying they wanted their ram upgraded.

SeaFoam said:
Dude did you read the article? They just wanted a CD-ROM replaced. Period.

Best Buy needs to correct the situation as it happened while it was in their custody.
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They took the machine in for repair under warranty. Best buy repaired what they found wrong. Maybe it was an issue with the hd(or the software loaded on it), maybe the drive got damaged in transit. Hell maybe the drive had been clicking the entire time and the consumer didn't notice it. Doesn't matter, best buy repaired the hardware on the machine as stated in their warranty.

Climber said:
If you take your car in for an oil change generally they'll also check your spark plugs, air filter, etc..etc..They then come let you know of any possible "defects" and ask if you want it changed. If they just started replacing all that stuff without your permission they wouldn't be able to get away with it and they would be held liable. I don't see this as any different. A cd drive does not need the HDD looked at it nor should the HDD be replaced or tampered with in any way shape or form by BB since it wasn't what it was sent in for.

IMO BB did every thing wrong here and they should be held liable for the cost and whatever other damages may be incurred.
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Unless the car is under warranty. You take your car to the dealership for its oil change while under warranty and they find something else wrong that is covered under warranty. They go ahead and fix it and when you pick it up they say hey this sensor or cable or whatever wasn't working right. We replaced it under warranty for no charge.

Best buy did the same thing. They make it clear they are not responsible for data loss.

RyanLucier said:
isn't this extortion? They're holding their data hostage unless they pay $1500... they just went in to replace a CD-rom drive, I wouldn't of paid $100 to backup my data either...

I'd sue the pants off BB if it was me...
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And you would loose if you managed to find a lawyer that would take it to court. The consumer was given back their machine in working order for no charge. It was the consumers responsibility to back up their data.

Gibbage said:
Thats just insane. I have been doing PC repair for 15 years at various stores. This customer is getting boned dry.

First, its just a CD rom. Its a 5 min job! 30 min billable. Should be covered under warranty. Now, if I was the tech, and booted the system to find the HD was bad after the CD rom swap, the FIRST thing you do is NOTIFY the CUSTOMER!!!!!! Its happened to me a few times. You have a 5 year old hard drive. Then you toss it into your cars trunk, under the nice speaker system and sub woofer. Take a few speed bumps, pot holes, and erratic maneuvers, and drop it off at the store. Shit happens. Always back up your data before bringing it in! Anyways, again, you call the customer and tell him the options.

Now, I can tell you that the $1700 is almsot all labor. Some stupid tech dicked around with it for 3 days and is charging the customer for every single hour. Your paying someone an exorbitant amount of money to do nothing. Never put up with that. Also, they should ALWAYS contact the customer before doing something other then what was stated on the invoice. ALWAYS. No exceptions.

This customer has a very very good chance in court if BB never contacted them in advance about the additional problems and added cost's. Also, who would agree to a repair cost thats way more then a NEW PC! Hell, you could even get a MAC for that! I have told many customers that its just not worth repairing it before I ever turned a screw driver on it. Typically they do buy new systems. But to charge someone 1700 for a 5 year old system?

Fight this, and screw whoever is trying to bone you. There is no way a "warranty" CD replacement should run up $1700 without contacting you in advance for the OK. They ONLY agreed to the CD rom, not this other BS. If I took my 98 Saturn in for an oil change, and they charged me $15,000 to rotate the tires, thats illegal. Its extortion, since they hold your data and PC hostage.
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You either have no clue what your are doing or you didn't read the article. First off if the drive is damaged to the point it needs to be sent to a data recovery company 1700 bucks is the norm. Best buy's cut is maybe 15 or 20% if that of the cost.

Also the repair has nothing to do with the price of a new pc. The pc was repaired for free, we are talking about the data. I've had to send off drives a few times to recovery companies because someone didn't do a backup. Generally it started at a grand to try to get data.

Let me ask you this. If you shipped a machine back to dell, hp, acer, etc for a warranty repair would you really expect them to call you and say hey you sent it in for this but we found this wrong as well. Do you want us to repair it under warranty? The answer is no. Once the warranty vendor has it they will repair it within the guidelines of the warranty. If their is something that isn't covered then they will call you.

EsTeeM said:
So alot of you are saying that the only thing that should have been replaced was a CD-ROM? I've seen in many instances that if one item is replaced and the unit comes back from service with another defective item.. the client is even more frustrated due to having to have the item serviced again. As for the data is concerned.. no warranty will ever cover data. It's not the manufacturer's, or warranty provider's problem. You decide to put something on a device is your own risk. The service center was simply providing the client with a data backup solution of which the client did not agree too. I know a majority of the population is thinking this is an insane fee for a small times work.... but I wonder how many can actually disassemble a drive to extract data when a simple plug and play will not work.
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This.

Also for those that are commenting that they should just give the hard drive back. Industry standard is not to return the defective part. In reality this is the standard for most industries if the part was covered under warranty. The only company that I know does this off the top of my head is zippo. My dad send in a lighter that was over 50 years old because it was messing up. The replaced the guts and sent the old set back because of the age of them.

Another thing worth noting is that some vendors do have the option of returning the defective hard drives or letting customers keep bad ones to begin with. Dell makes you pay extra for the warranty to get this option on their business line. I'm guessing others do the same.
 
zshift said:
I work at Best Buy so this may sound slightly biased to others, but here goes.
The customer did note that she was informed and had been recommended of performing a backup of her data. She also stated that she declined said backup knowing it was her only copy of the data. At the store level everything was done as it was supposed to be done by the employees so there is no fault there. Now the service centers work in a very different manner. All computers fixed by Best Buy under warranty are sent out to Geek Squad City (located in Kentucky). That means over 1000 stores are sending in 1-10 laptops each DAY to this place (my store usually get 5-8 per day minimum as I work in a very high traffic store). So due to the extremely high work load the technicians run full diagnostics on all units and simply take it for what they say. So if they run an hdd scan and it fails, they replace the hard drive (at least that's the way it's been working in my experience). To protect customer privacy, the replaced hdds are to be destroyed within 2 days of replacement. If the customer wants their data back after this, it is usually extremely difficult to do so and requires data recovery services (which we all know is very expensive). Price is non-negotiable because Best Buy doesn't perform the data recovery themselves, it is done through a third-party company which charges $1200 starting for recovery on non-functional hdds plus price of external hdd and shipping and handling (all done and priced at the data recovery center). The customer was issued a $200 gift card because EVERYONE that calls corporate gets a gift card for complaining, even if the customer is the one at fault. Best Buy does this to try and appease the customer and keep them shopping at Best Buy. But asking Best Buy to pay $1700 for something that wasn't their fault is ludicrous. The customer was informed from the beginning of the possibility of data loss, knowing they didn't have a backup, and now wants to blame someone else for their faults. As far as I see it the customer is totally at fault here UNLESS the hdd was incorrectly replaced. ALSO, the customer was not charged on pickup, she was told she would be charged if she wanted her data recovered, as this is not covered under warranty.

Flame all you want, but I reiterate that the customer was informed of all possibilities (aside from the data recovery estimate charges) prior to sending the unit out.
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Right... I worked at Best Buy and did exactly what the customer stated. Nothing more, nothing less. What this Best Buy did was completely out of line with what the customer stated. It is like taking your car in for an oil change and they change the engine because the oil was too black; without your consent. I know Best Buy has contact details for the customer, a simple phone call would have prevented all of this.

How does swapping a CD-ROM have anything to do with swapping hard drives (I'm sure they reloaded Windows...)? Here is a question, did Best Buy drill a hole thru the hard drive after they took it out of the computer? This would explain the $1700 charge because that would mean that it is a level 3 recovery (or something like that) and those are pretty expensive. So here we are again, Best Buy (GS) may have drilled a hole in a hard drive that was not even theirs. I gave back parts to the customer because they were simply their property.

Your damage control skills suck. This is why I do not work at Best Buy anymore because of the dumb shit other stores did (my store was one of the better stores).
 
I hope that for $1,700 they would at least throw in a free set of "Monster" cables!
 
How can anyone be against notifying the customer before doing work that was not requested? giving the person options?

Given the huge profit margins of extended warranties, I would think that that wouldn't be hard.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
This is a prime example as to why you do not get work done at BB.......

Dead CD-ROM != replace HDD. I am a tech and there would be NO REASON TO EVEN TOUCH THE HDD other than to remove the cable if they both shared the same cable.
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yeah steve needs to edit his headline. what happened clearly was the lady was offered to backup their data and because of her ignorance decided it was only a cdrom drive that nothing would happen to the drive. BB did its job under the warranty.

 
diogo said:
How can anyone be against notifying the customer before doing work that was not requested? giving the person options?

Given the huge profit margins of extended warranties, I would think that that wouldn't be hard.
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Everytime I've ever sent a computer out for a depot repair I've always informed the customer the risks and offered to backup their data for a fee. Thats just business.
 
diogo said:
How can anyone be against notifying the customer before doing work that was not requested? giving the person options?
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Because people don't always answer their phone or respond back within a timely manner. 99% of the time the answer to that question is going to be "Of course". Best Buy is trying to get the computer back to the person as fast as possible. What you are asking them to do is not as simple as you make it sound. Maybe for a small shop with maybe a dozen machines at a time, but we are talking thousands of computers a day. There would need to be a pretty complicated system put into place for them to inventory computers that have been diagnosed, if the customer was notified, returned the call or approved the repairs.


OR They can put it in the contract, notify the customer before hand at the retail stores that they will repair any and all problems, and be able to do a 1 day turn around on almost all repairs.
 
Toshiba wanted to charge me $300 for a replacement CD/DCD Combo drive for a 5 year old laptop a few weeks ago.

I told them charging that much for a $15 component during a recession wasnt a great idea. I bought a full dvd burner for $40 and used to silver paint to switch the slave/master and bobs your uncle.

Nowhere near $1700 though.
 
ivesceneenough said:
Then the customer comes back and this article reads " Best Buy Broke My Computer And Will Not Fix It"



It looks like the repair was done at the main service center, which is in Louisville Kentucky. From google maps thats about 850 miles away in a UPS truck. That is more than enough to kill a 5 year old HD.
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bullshit even 5 year old hdd can survive shipping if properly packaged. I got drives that are 10+ years old still in working order....BB service center f'd up somewhere and since they are agent of BB, BB needs to step up to the plate and take care of this customer. Point of contention is that customer was not notified of HDD swap and was not notified that due to HDD swap data would need to be backed up.
 
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