I attempted to take my laptop out of sleep mode at the beginning of May (approximately May 8th). As it began to load back up, my screen all of a sudden went black. I attempted to restart the computer Windows Vista would not load in anything but safe mode and DOS would load without any problems. I also could only see what was on the screen if it was plugged into a separate monitor.
Since my warranty on my HP Pavillion had expired in March I was forced to take it somewhere to be diagnosed as my father (a computer geek himself) believed it could be the video card which was a part of the motherboard. I brought it to Best Buy and the Geek Squad. I explained the situtation to the young woman behind the counter and also told her that it couldn't be the LCD because I just had that replaced by HP in February while it was still under warranty. Without even trying to turn on the laptop, she immediately stated that it would need to be sent out to be diagnosed and it would be $84 to do so but the amount would be taken off of the total. She said we would hear something back in a week and that I would need to approve any amount necessary once they determined what was wrong with it since if it was going to cost more than a new laptop, I would just buy a new one and use my external hard drive to replace my files. I said okay, paid my $84 and let them ship it off to some facility of theirs.
A week went by and had not heard anything from them. No e-mail, no phone call, nothing. We then received an e-mail stating our order number and a website that we could check the status of our "order." Another week went by without any other e-mails or phone calls. At the end of that second week, my husband (who had been checking on the status daily) said that there was an update to the status and that it stated it was "awaiting customer approval." They still had not called to let me know what was wrong. I wasn't about to approve something I had no clue about. I called the Geek Squad at my location and stated that I saw that my approval was needed in order to complete the repairs. The gentleman that answered the phone said that there was a balance of $279 but that it didn't list what the amount was for or what was wrong with my laptop. He said he would have someone call me back during business hours to explain what the charges were for. It was 4pm at that time.
The next day (May 22nd) I finally received a phone call from them. The woman on the phone said that I would need a new motherboard and that the $279 was for its replacement. I said okay was that all that was wrong with it. She said as far as they know yes, but since the OS was not loading it could also be a hard drive issue but they would not know until they replaced the motherboard. I approved the repairs.
Another week and a half went by with no word from them and my husband once again told me the status had been changed to "shipped back to the store." June 5th I received a recorded message stating that my order was ready for pick-up. I went down that day to retrieve my laptop. At this point I had not paid for the repairs (I figured I'd do it when I picked it up).
I stood in line for 20 minutes because there was only one young girl working at the time. I walked up to the counter and gave her my information so she could bring me my laptop. She told me that it would be $279 and then went to go get my laptop. She put it on the counter and I asked her if the laptop was in working order now and if they only replaced the motherboard. She said "It should be." I said I'm only asking because I was told there might also be a problem with the hard drive. She didn't respond except to say that the total was $279 again and that I may swipe my credit card.
As I was paying for it, she then tells me that they found a virus on my laptop. I said I found it hard to believe since my laptop has never EVER not been protected by a firewall as well as anti-virus software. She said "well they don't always catch everything." I didn't mention to her that I run a scan daily before I go to bed (I'm paranoid of losing nearly 200GB of data). I asked her if they had removed it. She said "No. It would be another $200 if we removed it." I finished paying for the repairs, gathered up my stuff and returned home.
When I got home, I read over the detailed report of what they repaired/replaced as well as the scans they completed which included a full listing of all the programs on my computer as well as a security scan and virus scan. The second item on the list said that I had no virus software on my computer then further down the list it said I had a trojan. Particularly it was trojan. Gen. I booted up my laptop (which apparently they did get it working by changing out the motherboard) and as soon as windows loaded a window from my Norton software popped up. I immediately started yelling to my husband "See, see! I do have software on there and it is up to date!" I then proceeded to run a scan with my software (which scanned over 600K files) and it found nothing. I then proceeded to go on the web and use 2 different web-based programs (which I use whenever I suspect that a virus has disabled my software) and neither of them could find it!
I ask you, how did they find a virus that three different scans could not find?
I would NEVER use these people again. They charge outrageous amounts of money and don't bother attempting to contact you.
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