I took my desktop computer into the Geek Squad at Best Buy because my primary hard drive was failing. I needed a back up and data recovery on the primary drive, as well as an installation of a new hard drive I'd already purchased. I paid $160 with my debit card when I dropped off the tower and was told when my computer was ready, I would owe an additional $230. $100 was for back up and $129 was for data recovery.
(Before I took my computer in, I moved everything from my primary drive to my secondary drive, including documents, pictures and settings. Since the problem was with my primary drive, I wanted to make sure everything was on a working drive and therefore, safe.)
After not hearing from them for a couple of days, I called the store to get an update on my computer. I had to hang up and call back three different times because no one would answer the phone in their department. When someone finally answered the phone, I was told that the data transfer was taking place and my machine would be ready two days later.
The day I picked up my computer, they did not charge me for the work that had been done. When I asked why, they said they would automatically pull the funds from my account. This made me uneasy because I'm not comfortable with businesses being able to pull any amount of money without my authorization each time, but there was nothing I could do at that point.
When I got home and turned my computer on, none of my files or settings had been restored. Over ten years of data were missing, including word documents, emails, over 32,000 music files and hundreds of personal pictures. These were all things that I had either transferred onto the secondary drive, or were originally installed on that drive, so there was no reason those files were not there. When I called the store, the Geek Agent could not understand why the files had not transferred. This was a little unsettling because he's a supposed expert in this field. After running back and forth from the phone to the machine that held my files, he finally found my pictures, music and documents. I had to bring my machine back in for another data transfer.
I called again after a couple of days, and again I had to hang up and call back several different times in order for someone to answer the phone. I was told they were in the process of cleaning several viruses off of my machine and then they would do the data transfer. This made no sense to me because if they were going to do a data backup and transfer onto one of their machines, wouldn't they scan for viruses the first time I'd brought it in? The agent never mentioned any viruses, but the second time I brought it in all of the sudden there were viruses.
Four days later, I went back to pick up my computer. Before I left the store, I asked if they could hook up my machine so I could make sure everything was on it. My music files were there, but my documents and pictures were still missing. I'm not sure what their procedure is, but it wouldn't take two seconds to check the My Documents folder and make sure there were files in there. I was asked to come into the back so I could try to find my files on their machine. The way they had my folders organized made it hard to find anything. The agent then stated that if they weren't on my machine then they probably weren't there to begin with. It was a ridiculous statement to make to me, the customer, as I know what was on my secondary hard drive when I brought the computer in. I'm not even sure why they did a data recovery on that drive to begin with since it was working perfectly.
He finally found the missing files and I had to wait another thirty minutes for the transfer to be finished. When I got home and turned on my computer, nothing worked. My settings were still gone, and my saved emails and addresses in Outlook Express were nowhere to be found. I know my Outlook Express files are on their machine because I saw them when we were looking for my pictures, so now I have to call again and will probably have to take my computer in again when they should at least be offering a house call at this point.
The bottom line is, after paying over $400 - a far cry from the initial amount they told me it was going to be - and ten days later, my computer is worse off than when I first brought it in with a failing hard drive. I've found Geek Squad to be extremely lacking in competency and I find it hard to understand why they consider themselves the best of the best in their field. I warn anyone who is thinking of using Geek Squad to check out other options and do a search for the many complaints about their services on the internet.
Anonymous
New York, New York
U.S.A.
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