Best Buy
Paid for Warranty Virus Removal But Computer Problem Remained

I purchased a Dell computer with a monitor in October and also purchased a 2 year warranty.

Within a couple of months, I started having a problem, but didn't have time to take the computer in until Feb. 2009. I expected to have the Geek squad look it over, hopefully fix it and bring it home.

They took over 2 hours to run a diagnostic test and found nothing. They wanted to keep it for a few days to run a more in depth test. He said he thought it was a virus. I told him I didn't think it was. I asked him if he could put a rush on it, and no he could not put a rush on it, because they had others in front of me.

They wanted $70.00 to back up my hard drive. Since I hadn't expected them to keep it, I had not run the virus scan or backed anything up. I purchased a little back up and did a back up of some documents I needed myself.

The guy explained to me that the warranty only covered the computer and hardware, not software or viruses. He wanted $169.99 to cover removing any virus. If none were found, my money would be refunded. I gave him my credit card.

Approximately one hour later, I called back and told them I would pick it up, don't do anything to it. He told me they had already started the diagnostic, and found some virus. There went my $169.99.

I asked him how he was able to start it so soon, since I had been told (by him) that there were others in front of me. He said, "we got things cleared out back there."

The next morning without calling or them knowing I was coming in to pick it up, whether they were finished or not, I showed up at the Geek Squad department. The same guy was there, and told me it would be another 2 hours before they finished with my computer. I told him no, I didn't have 2 hours. He brought it out in about 15 minutes, and told me it was all done. They didn't find anything except the virus. I asked him for a report of the virus they took off, and he said he didn't know what they took off.

This is a big rip-off. I went in expecting to have no out of pocket expenses since I paid for a warranty and it cost me $200.00, with the back up and for them to take a virus off, a virus that they could not tell me what virus they removed.

When I got home, I had the same problem.

I will never go inside their store ever again. I called the store manager, told him my problem and he told me to bring it back in, they would run a more indepth diagnostic on it. I asked him why they had not already run it when they had it. He didn't answer me, but did say that they would get more information from me about the problem. I told him I had told them the problem, there was nothing more to add. I called the online complaint dept, but they didn't really care. I expect they will go the way Circuit City did, down the drain, where they belong.

When I initially took the computer in, I asked the young man in the Geek Squad what they would do if they didn't find a problem (seemed like I had been told when I purchased the 2 year warranty if they couldn't fix it, they would replace it), he said they would send it off to Dell to fix and it could take weeks to get it back. Which means that first year of warranty was a freebie for them. That's the last freebie they will get from me.

Company: Best Buy
Country: USA
State: Washington
City: Silverdale

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