Best Buy complaint

September 6, 2007

I have been a loyal Best Buy customer for many years. We have purchased

thousands of dollars worth of computers, cameras, televisions and sound

system equipment from Best Buy, always including the service plan. We

believed that was an important part of protecting our investment. So last

year when we bought our son's laptop to take to college, we came to Best Buy

and made our purchase. At this point, I would never make another purchase

from Best Buy and absolutely never buy the service plan.

At this time the computer is in for repair at the South Fort Worth, Texas

location. The experience I have had trying to get the computer fixed is

beyond unacceptable.

On July 30, 2007 I brought the computer in for service. It had a blue

screen, was showing errors and Windows could not start up. I expressed my

concern that my son would be leaving for college on August 17 and I needed

the computer by then.

I was called on August 7 to come pick the computer up, it was repaired. (We

live in Cleburne about 30 miles from the closest Best Buy) I picked the

computer up on August 7, brought it home and it still had the exact same

problems. I called Toshiba and paid for a phone diagnoses. They diagnosed it

was a hard drive problem and it needed to be replaced. I took it back to

Best Buy on August 8. I called several times over the next week because of

my concern for our August 17 deadline. I was told they did not have the size

hard drive needed and were waiting for it to come in on a regular shipment.

On August 13, I called again and was told by the sales associate that "your

calling everyday was not going to get it fixed any faster and they would

call when it was ready." I apologized for calling again, but was wondering

if they could get the hard drive from another store, instead of waiting for

it to arrive on a delivery truck. He said that was not possible.

I called again on the morning of August 17- the day my son is leaving for

school. I was told the computer was not ready. They were still waiting for a

hard drive. The associate told me they had the correct hard drives at two

other stores in the area and if I wanted to come pick the computer up and

take it to one of those stores, I might could get it fixed!!!

At this point, I am wondering why I would EVER buy a service plan from a

provider that REFUSED to fix the product. I was furious and was transferred

to a manager named Brian. He told me he would send someone to the other

store to pick up the hard drive and it would be ready in a few hours.

I called later that day and was told the computer would not work even after

the new hard drive was installed and it would have to be shipped to the

service center in Kentucky- the mother board would need to be replaced. At

this point, the computer had been sitting at Best Buy from August 8 to

August 17 waiting for a hard drive that still did not fix the problem. The

associates and Manager, Keith understood my deadline. They just don't care.

The computer was sent to Kentucky and returned to the FW store on August 30.

I was called to pick the computer up-it was repaired. When I got to Best

Buy, I asked to see the computer boot up before I left the store. The

associate could not get windows to run and it was still showing errors. The

associate checked the service notes from Kentucky and they had replaced the

hard drive and not the mother board. IT STILL DID NOT WORK!! They said it

would need to be sent back to the service center in Kentucky and that is

where the computer still is at this time.

I have called the 800 number for Geek Squad. I have talked to managers and

supervisors. They absolutely do not care! My son is a college student at

Texas A&M University, taking computer classes and a 16 hour schedule and

NEEDS HIS COMPUTER! I am at the mercy of Best Buy and their service

department. I guess I could just go buy him a new computer..it certainly won't

be at Best Buy.