Best Buy meets shitty customer service...

**eXosYn** · #1 (**permalink**) 08-02-2008, 07:51 PM

Seriously...............

So here's what's happened:

Thursday, July 24th, 2008:
I took my laptop into Best Buy to have them work on it...after all, they sold it to me. Told them to put Windows Vista back on it, and to install Windows XP on it as well to run both of them. They say it's no problem and it will be done within 3-4 business days.

Saturday, July 26th, 2008:
Get a call from Best Buy saying that the primary hard drive is bad (duh!, I told them that to begin with), and that they would have to send it back to HP to get a new one because they didn't have any in stock to put in my laptop. (Good thing is I have two 160GB hard drives...) I told them to wipe my secondary and install it onto that hard drive.

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008:
Called Best Buy: they're still working on it

Friday, July 31st, 2008:
Called Best Buy again. They say that they were able to start installing XP on it. The verdict: I'll have it by Saturday night.

Saturday, August 1st, 2008:
Called Best Buy to check on the status. "We are having an install error on your laptop. It appears that your hard drive is bad. We need to send it to our service center in Kentucky to have them work on it. It will be about another two or three weeks". I called HP about it. They said if it was sent to them, they'd have it fixed within 4 DAYS!. Told Best Buy that, and they said that they won't ship it to HP directly. I ask if I can talk to a manager. They pass the phone to some random person (don't know if he was the manager or not) and we talked about my situation.

You see, the thing is - that laptop isn't for personal use. It is used for three separate businesses. One for Photography to pull images of the card in a shoot, one for Website Development, and one for Business Marketing. It doesn't end well now that I don't have a laptop for a week - I've already lost over 450$ in revenue just from this week alone. This does not include the fact that I have to cancel one website development meeting for tomorrow afternoon, and I have to cancel a marketing strategy meeting for Monday.

I called Best Buy a total of 7 or 8 times today so far. They told me that they are just now going to put a larger hard drive in the laptop (and that's going to make me feel better...how!?) and that they can have it running by tomorrow at 11am. I have church service tomorrow at 11am. I need my laptop for service. What the hell is wrong with these people. The guy practically hung up on me....told me that's how it was going to happen and that he's not going to do anything else. I'm pissed at him...just because of him being rude to begin with...the younger guy did everything he could do to help me.

Monday I will be in there to speak with a manager on this. Plain and simple, if I don't get my laptop back tomorrow, I will be escalating my issues up to regional management because their customer service apparently isn't a priority.

(After being told that they were going to look at getting me a laptop for the time being while I didn't have a computer, I was told that Chris was going to call me back because he had to take care of some other things before he could look for a replacement for me).

I have spent well over $3000 there this year alone between computer equipment, a laptop, photo equipment, keyboards, printers, hard drives, flash drives, memory cards, flash accessories, video games, and sound system equipment for my truck.

I think I could be at least be taken care of promptly...right?

**HeartAttack** · 08-02-2008, 08:02 PM

Tip of the day:

No one, and I mean NO ONE should EVER take their computer to Best Buy for any kind of repairs or installations. I mean, never mind the fact that they do "cheap virus scans!" and all that super-cool stuff - but the Dumbshit-Squad is usually as clueless as a blade of grass.

They can make something as simple as a dual-boot insanely complicated, and I would never recommend BB to anyone.

Alyssa. =D · 08-02-2008, 09:05 PM

I've been to Best Buy many times to get a laptop or two fixed, but it sounds like you're located next to a really shitty Best Buy. idk.

**HeartAttack** · 08-02-2008, 09:31 PM

The truth and generally accepted notion is that Best Buy is a ripoff and their "tech's" generally are clueless. If something is wrong with your computer, it's rare that they'll pinpoint and fix the problem; they'll backup your stuff and then wipe and reinstall and call it a fix.

I mean, of course there's the occasional tech that knows what he's doing, but overall, Best Buy=crap in regards to prices vs customer service/repairs.

**Ristaron** · 08-02-2008, 10:25 PM

Appalling. I went through six weeks of training for my job, a full half of it was customer service stuff. If someone at my job took this fucking long and was this inept, they'd be fired.

Absolutely shameful.

GentleSpikeResort · 08-03-2008, 04:27 AM

Never buy computers from any retail or electronic store.

That's all I gotta say.

**HeartAttack** · 08-03-2008, 07:48 AM

Well...I don't necessarily agree with that, there are some excellent deals you can find at places like Best Buy...just never, EVER give into their extended service crap or take your stuff there to be "fixed".

GentleSpikeResort · 08-03-2008, 08:51 AM

What they sell you can buy the same for half the price. Or buy much better for the same price. C'mon, their computers only have 1GB of RAM with Windows Vista on it, then some lame video card and so on.

Or at least we can agree on that their services are absolutely terrible.

**HeartAttack** · 08-03-2008, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GentleSpikeResort

What they sell you can buy the same for half the price. Or buy much better for the same price. C'mon, their computers only have 1GB of RAM with Windows Vista on it, then some lame video card and so on.

Or at least we can agree on that their services are absolutely terrible.

4GB : Desktops - BestBuy

...and you should check out some of their in-store deals not available on the site. Last time I was in a Best Buy store a few weeks ago, I found a desktop with 4gb of RAM for under $350. And that's with a mean processor. It probably won't come with the best video card, but I think the 500gb or more hard drive space, an optical drive that's as good as the rest, and all the extra bundled software/accessories is worth it. Similar pricing also goes for laptops of similar specs.

I can't deny that they have good prices. But like I said, when it comes to other important issues such as customer service or tech support, nah, just look elsewhere.

**Opunaya** · 08-03-2008, 04:42 PM

I go to Best Buy for mainly video games and DVDs. I never use their tech support. I have friends that can do all that shit.