Many of you may remember two weeks ago I posted my experience with Best Buy's warranty on my computer. In a nutshell my computer failed and I took it to Best Buy which is the store from which it was purchased. The mgf's. warranty had expired but I had purchased an extended warranty. The Geek Squad guy told me that it was a RAM issue and that it would have to be sent to Kentucky. He also told me that it would NOT be necessary to back up my hard drive. Two weeks later I picked up my "repaired" computer to find out that the hard drive had been replaced and that they had not recovered my important data from the old one. They told me that they still had my old hard drive and that they would recover my data - for $260.00 for the first 9 megs and the cost would go up from there. They refused to return my old hard drive and gave me no recourse. I posted something here about it and shortly thereafter I spoke with a manager who stated that he would see what he could do.
OK - about two days later I got a call from someone from Kentucky who stated that someone from the Salisbury store had contacted him and advised him of all the negative comments in response to the post - particularly the one by Mike Ash that referred everyone to Ripoff.com. This person advised that they were trying to keep customers satisfied as well as avoid anymore negative information reaching the public. They sent me my hard drive back - overnight - at no cost to me.
This is the best part. I collected my PCU, my old hard drive, and my disks, and took them to Brainwave Computers. As they tried to recover data from the old hard drive they ran some routine tests to determine what data was good, etc. Guess what? There was nothing wrong with the friggin original hard drive! Brainwave made a mirror image of my old hard drive on the new one and gave it to me in case the other ever did go bad. I would be back in action in less than an hour rather than five weeks. They upgraded my ram, tested the entire system, installed another program (one that I had just purchased), and cleaned up my system for under $200.00.
Exactly what game is the "Geek Squad" trying to run on folks who buy the extended warranty. It is a scam. Best Buy - You're making quite a reputation for yourselves!
Brainwave has got it goin' on!
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
14 comments:
Grand Dad,
Thanks for the heads-up. Most of us wouldn't know about such things unless we read about them here. This is a valuable public service.
They have a strange concept of keeping the customer satisfied. When you enter the store the employees blatantly ignore you coupled with the service aspect leave a general lack of desire to return. Brainwave needs to be first choice. I have never had need for their services to date but have heard good things and will go there first for any need. Best Buy will only change when forced to do so by lack of business. I am happy you got your data back but the right thing for them to do would have been to pay your bill!!
Mike Ash
I took my hard drive to Brainwave to get cleaned up and have more RAM installed. It never worked right after. I ended up getting a new one. I have taken other machines to Samual's. I think he does a better job
There are many things the consumer does not know when it comes to repairing there computers. Many of the big companies have service tech call centers that you call and they just read from a script. Many Many times computers repairs can be done at a much lower price and in less time than these major companies. Go local, it is the best way to go. Brainwave, Samuels, Inacom in Salisbury, 1st State Tech in Georgetown. These are all great repair shops that will save you alot of money and headache.
Guess there are lessons to be learned.
1 - The extended warranty is usually a joke. If it's a 2 yr warranty (through Best Buy) most manufactures will cover the 1st year, so you pay that extra money for basically 1 year "support" from Best Buy.
2 - Not sure why they would openly admit to it being a RAM issue and not walk over to the shelf and taking the 2 seconds needed to pop in new RAM?
3 - Good example of why something like an external USB hard drive is so valuable. You can back up your data easily, and if the hard drive were to fry, then you just buy a new one. The cost of hard drives these days are quite cheap. Then you simply install the operating system and your necessary software. While the data is still safe on the external HD.
Another advantage with the external hard drive is the plug-n-play of the USB.
You can connect the external HD to your other computers/laptops etc and also save the files.
I have a master and a slave drive on my computers, the slave drive is a data drive only which backs up to an external drive daily. I don't know why anyone relies on one hard drive anymore. You can't be to careful. As someone else stated, hard drives are fairly inexpensive these days as is RAM.
Anon 10:19 -
I ran a master/slave config once in the past. Randomly one day the slave drive format went from NTFS to RAW. Had to buy a specific recovery software to read that format, and recover the files. The other recovery software I tried just couldn't read the RAW format.
It's never a bad idea to have multiple back up sources. You just never know.
A few years ago I received a digital camera as a gift, and it came with the BB warranty.
While on a trip, I put the camera in my pocket and broke the LCD screen. BB told me it would take up to a month to get a fixed unit. I was persuasive enough to get the manager to allow me to swap the camera with one in stock instead. In my case, it was an awesome deal.
Regarding Geek Squad - don't a hire a geek. Hire a professional.
Brainwave has never let me or my computer down!Thanks for warning people about BB Grandad!
Caveat Emptor!
I have been in the computer business for 14 years. In the past we would service laptops and desktop computers in the shop and we always take the utmost care with a customer’s data. The data on the hard disk is almost always worth much more than the value of the computer itself and we treat it that way. More recently (in the last 5 to 7 years) the big manufactures no longer allow authorized service centers to order laptop parts. Almost all laptops go back to the manufacture for service. Desktop computers are almost never sent out of the shop. In either case, I would highly recommend that anyone who values their information back it up before taking their computer in for service. The fact is that you should backup your information regularly anyway. When you take your computer in to be serviced you are giving all your personal information to a stranger. You should consider that before taking it anywhere. When you use a local repair shop like the ones mentioned above, you have some idea of the character of the people you are intrusting your personal data to. A local shop will tell you where your equipment is going and if it needs to be sent to a third party. Any repair shop worth their salt will also offer to backup your data for you if your computer needs to go out to be fixed by a third party. Finally, consider removing your hard drive before taking the computer to be fixed. If your laptop has a bad screen or keyboard that needs to be replaced, there is no need for the hard drive to be in it to make those repairs. Remove it or have the local shop remove it before sending the device out. The service depot has plenty of parts and they don’t necessarily you’re your hard drive to fix the computer (unless of course the problem is with the hard drive.)
Oh and as a side note, Inacom is advertising that they can recover data from hard drives that are damaged or dead. Brainwave referred me to them. I am not sure what they are using to do it, but their price seemed much lower (almost $1500 lower) than a national company that I called for an estimate on rescuing some data from a failed drive. I never did have it done but it is interesting to know that there is someone on Delmarva doing things like that.
Brainwaves ROCKS!!! We have several computers and they have "never failed" to help us in our time of need. They are professional, fast, effecient and if they don't have what you need in stock they will go out of thier way to get it for you...even if it is a computer part they normally don't stock. they have very fair pricing and they back thier products. We would highly reccomend them to anyone.
I just got an ipod touch from best buy and they were not very clear with the warranty I HOPE THEY DONT RIP ME OFF!
I got a warranty for the IPHONE I bought from BEST BUY. When I asked about ATT warranty - per Best Buy rep ATT had none - wrong - ATT always had a warranty. The ATT warranty which covers everything - lost and stolen phone and accidental damage including water damage, product support with use and software and phone locating casts only $9.99 with a $199 copay. to get all of this with Best Buy costs $14.99 + $4.99. with no copay. Even if you ask the reps they will not tell you what the warranty they sell covers.
You are better off taking your business to the ATT store.
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