What is Digg?148 Comments
- nugx, on 04/12/2008, -12/+84What Digg Noob would take his puter to the Geek Squad?
- gannondork, on 04/12/2008, -3/+35They stole my Pr0n collection too!
- fearlessfx, on 04/12/2008, -6/+34"Best Buy ruined my computer. Big surprise right?"
/head asplode - Mootabolife, on 04/12/2008, -3/+27My experience.. I bring my laptop (emachines, stay away) in for a 4th warrany repair, which should enact the no lemon policy... Instead they tell me that the previous repair didn't count, because they didn't actually fix anything.. To remedy the problem they'll send it as a store repair which won't count for the lemon policy. The laptop was obviously a POS lemon, but they'll do anything to save a buck. I ended up bringing it to another BB and they did it for me.
Never buy a laptop from BB. - QurrUm, on 04/12/2008, -7/+28Somebody who doesn't read Digg as obsessively as you, perhaps? Those types of people exist, you know. They're called "normal" and they don't live in their mother's basement.
- xaeon, on 04/12/2008, -3/+22There is the possbility that they didn't notice the water damage the first time around even though it was there. I'm not sure where the law stands on that point. If you've already honoured a warrenty for a repair, are you then oblidged to continue the repairs?
Hmm. - Clp727, on 04/12/2008, -0/+18LSASS errors are typically software (OS) errors...not hardware related. The easy way to test this is to run a live Linux or BartPE CD. If there is a hardware error it would show up under another OS in most cases.
- warringgael, on 04/12/2008, -4/+19I work at geek squad. Service centers are generally a nightmare, IMO. Laptop hardware repairs other than RAM and HDD stuff have to be sent out to a centralized location, as in this instance. Technicians there take the ***** notes and sometimes customer product, ie laptop batteries, are lost. Service at geek squad is hit or miss. It is impossible to say, "geek squad does a horrible job" or "geek squad service sucks." There are many different stores with many different employees. That would be like saying, "All In-n-outs overcook their fries. Maybe that's a bad example, because IME most in-n-outs do, but if you request your fries not to be crispy they'll do it. Regardless, its more likely that its just THAT in-n-out, not the organization in general. Point being, just because you hear a horror story about geek squad (and there are plenty) doesn't mean the entire organization is corrupt. This story is extremely alarming, don't get me wrong. But more often than not, I think people are taken care of adequately and seem to be happy with their experiences.
- skuzbuket, on 04/12/2008, -0/+13I think the correct moral is not to purchase ANY electronics you might expect to have warranty service on from Best Buy.
- piratearggghhh, on 04/12/2008, -0/+12I would say file a report with the Better Business Bureau. For me, Charter Communications gave me the runaround for $350 worth of bogus unauthorized PPV charges for over 2 months, making me pay up front while the incident was being handled. I filed a complaint online and within a week, the BBB sent an email to their supervisor and the matter was settled when their corporate headquarters called me (although they accused me of the charges initially). I threatened to file in small claims in my complaint. I was shocked that the BBB actually does someting. It's worth a shot and only takes a few minutes.
- Metellus, on 04/12/2008, -0/+11reverent or relevant?
I'm not going to bother insulting your intelligence; your high-and-mighty Mensa comment says enough. - venuspcs, on 04/12/2008, -0/+11For years I have read the horror stories on Digg about BB and swore I would never shop there....However on Jan. 28, 2008 I decided to buy me a new laptop and the one I wanted was $150 cheaper at Best Buy (I couldn't believe it either till I bought it). However, by Feb. 11th it had overheated and blue screened numerous times so I took it into the Best Buy in Mansfield, TX and told them. They plugged it in, after a few minutes noticed how hot it was and told me to go get another one. I went and got another identical laptop and they exchanged it with no questions or problems. Then on Feb. 29th the second one (Gateway T1625) started doing the same thing, so again I went to Best Buy and told them, they plugged it in saw it getting too hot and told me to get another one. I informed them it was a design flaw and that I had already had two and several people I knew had had the same problem and I wanted something different. I then informed them that I bought mine on sale for $599 and they didn't have anything comparable for that price. The manager quickly and without question pulled out the sales paper and told me to pick one. So I got a $1099) Toshiba A215-S5818 at no additional cost to me.
So I have to say with 100% certainty it is not Best Buy as a whole that is the problem, just some of the idiots that work at Best Buy.
Oh and no I do not work there, would not work there and do not know anyone that works there. - franksalvo, on 04/12/2008, -4/+14I'll tell you exactly what happened:
She spilled coffee on her keyboard. Some of the coffee made it's way down to the motherboard. She brought it to Best Buy. They sent it to a manufacturer certified laptop warranty repair center. These places Usually do a pretty good job. 29 of 30 machines are fixed right the first time. If the machine is damaged by the user, they are supposed to call the manufacturer to report the incident and refer the customer to the manufacturer. In the shop I worked at, we took photos of the damage and kept them on record. You never attempt to repair a machine if there's even a hint of water damage. I made that mistake before and I got burned.
They replaced the keyboard, even though they shouldn't have, but, hey, it's a disposable part and it's easier than going through the hassel of proving negligence. Keyboards are not sent back to the manufacturer for inspection. They go in the trash. They may not have seen any evidence of damage to the motherboard initially. I've seen some instances of damage where an unnoticible amount of liquid came in contact with the board. It takes very little to cause a short circuit.
The broken DC jack is coincidental, they break all the time. You need to be really careful when you plug/unplug the charge to/from the laptop.
Then there's this business of the software problem. They should have wiped her machine and restored the factory installed software. She might lose data, but it's better than tiptoeing around the problem.
These techs were trying to do the right thing for this person, but what they've actually done is given themselves a bad name and given the customer a case against Best Buy. She may very well get a new laptop to replace the one she spilled coffee in. - Klowner, on 04/12/2008, -1/+10Why is it *always* about where I live? Come on
- JedicodeWarrior, on 04/12/2008, -4/+13"There is the possbility that they didn't notice the water damage the first time around" So who's fault is that? The customer's? I think not! If you didn't bother fixing it right the first time, your obligated to fix it for real the second time. Besides, how does water damage cause the BSOD?
- scabbers, on 04/12/2008, -2/+10The consumerist has lost all credibility with me since the soda stealing debacle.
- aladrin, on 04/12/2008, -1/+8As a Mensan, I'm appalled by his comment.
Just saying. - Shadic, on 04/12/2008, -3/+10...Why exactly hasn't the Better Business Bureau attacked the hell out of them for all of these things that they've done yet? I mean, it's likely that the stories that we see are a bit sensationalized, but the horrendous customer service coming out of this place frightens me.
- se1zure, on 04/12/2008, -0/+7Cause the BBB won't be able to do anything to BB
- AzureRise, on 04/12/2008, -1/+8Have fun being overcharged badly serviced and having all your files stolen. (geek squad's answer to everything is 'we had to reformat and reinstall windows', oh and they also have a habit of copying stuff off your hard drive onto theirs like music, photos, videos, games)
- amanilaenvelope, on 04/12/2008, -3/+9her first mistake was going to a best buy to purchase a laptop
- bitterbug, on 04/12/2008, -1/+7I dunno, I think living in the basement of a whorehouse would be kinda cool.
- ralph12c41, on 04/12/2008, -4/+10Aren't you hip to take a Geek Squad story and turn into something ant-Bush...you must be near genius IQ...
- frakkingtoaster, on 04/12/2008, -4/+10This is what you expect from Best Buy.
- Rikkochet, on 04/12/2008, -0/+6Fair enough, but shorting RAM is extremely unlikely to cause a reproducible problem in the same section of code.
It sounds like her Windows "broke" - fair enough, happens to occur frequently enough. - JJCDAD, on 04/12/2008, -1/+6Could have been worse: http://digg.com/tech_news/Dell_Breaks_Your_Laptop_ ...
- banmaster, on 04/12/2008, -1/+6And yes, wter damage can cause BSODs. A slight short in the RAM for instance can cause all kinds of wierd behaviour, hell you can even get a BSoD if the keyboard isn't plugged in fully/properly.
I own a PC store and do a lot of repairs, and this seems to be that its just as xaeon says, that they just missed the water damage in the first place, did some random fixup work to justify their existance, then shipped it back to the custoemr.
NEVER credit malisciousness where sheer carelessness is a posibility. - StarlessKnight, on 04/12/2008, -1/+5There are alternatives to Geek Squad, and I don't mean Fire Dog.
- inactive, on 04/12/2008, -1/+5Again..I am sure there is some proof that this story is accurate as described by Consumerist, right?
- mhearne, on 04/13/2008, -0/+3Don't be too sure.
- gcnaddict, on 04/12/2008, -0/+3The BBB doesn't have enforcement powers. They're a mediator, not an enforcement agency.
- xaeon, on 04/12/2008, -0/+3That's exactly the point I was trying to make. If they miss it first time, are they then obligated to carry out the repairs because they've already honoured the warrenty for that problem?
I'm sorry, but they are still a company, and if you water-damage your computer, the only person you should expect to pay for that is yourself. - inactive, on 04/12/2008, -2/+5He is a terrible performer live.
- DestroyFascism, on 04/12/2008, -2/+5kernel Panic unable to sinc.
(ie Get me the f**k of this computer piece of *****) - agentlame, on 04/13/2008, -0/+3You are correct, you will never buy anything from CompUSA, again.
- RickyBennett, on 04/12/2008, -0/+3why buy a new one when the one you have now works just as good plus you can get it fixed or replaced for free
- asspants, on 04/12/2008, -2/+5In-n-outs don't send their french fries off to be cooked by another company when they see that making french fries is too hard for their local french fry technicians.
Why don't you geek squad losers fix the ***** yourself? Because they didnt hire you because of your l33t as shirt skillz. They hired you because you probably worked at verizon wireless for 2 months as a salesperson before you applied there.
. - aladrin, on 04/12/2008, -0/+3Actually, $100 is pretty good... The cheapest repair shops charge $40/hr and Windows is at least 1 hour, even if driver installation goes really well and they add nothing else. (Antivirus, etc.) I've never installed OS X, but I'm assuming it's another hour.
2.5 hours... Yeah, that sounds about right for both on a dual-boot configuration.
No, their prices are perfectly fine... It's their service and how poorly they'd do the job that should have concerned your friend instead. - sgtpppr, on 04/12/2008, -2/+5"Why don't you geek squad losers fix the ***** yourself? Because they didnt hire you because of your l33t as shirt skillz."
Uh, maybe because geek squad is marketed as cheap computer repair...meaning they pay squat. No high end computer technician with skill is going to be working for $10/hr at geek squad. I just always find it funny that so many people have no problem paying $2k+ for a computer, but don't even spend 10 minute learning about it. I worked at an ISP that also did some computer repair and some of the ***** that came in was incredible. Most of them were like a museum of past viruses. There were machines that had in excess of 12 different viruses ranging from Code Red to sircam to klez. Honestly, there is literally like a billion things that could be wrong with any machine that comes in and it's impossible to offer an effective AND cheap computer repair service. You either get really skilled technicians and change premium price (at least $70/hr) or you get high school kids to run some diagnostic software and charge you $100 for 'fixing it'.
There ARE premium computer repair services out there, but people want it cheap and go to geek squad. I don't have any sympathy for someone who not only knows zero about their computer, but also doesn't even know where to start looking for a good tech and hires geek squad instead. - slantyeyed, on 04/12/2008, -0/+2or just buy a new laptop
- inactive, on 04/13/2008, -0/+2The pc repair world is interesting, n00bs buy computers, and don't know ***** about them, (windows comps) within a few months its ate up with virii.spyware and they realize that 512mb of ram it came with just isn't cutting it. So they take it to a shop charges tons of money to fix it, and upgrade the ram. These people never learn, they are walking money trees they buy computers and software at bestbuy. The listen to everything they are told by sales, because they have no clue about life
- Pyrosis, on 04/12/2008, -0/+2For $775 you can just get a new one. Why was the time fixing it.
- crazyhorse13, on 04/12/2008, -1/+3No, it was definitely anti-bush.
- kontraire, on 04/13/2008, -1/+3I am a gullible idiot. I am sure that the link you have provided does, in fact, go to a stupendously entertaining interview with a thoroughly stupid supervisor, and does not lead to a music video performed by a mediocre has-been from the 80s.
/get a new ***** joke. - VinnieDaMac, on 04/12/2008, -2/+4Read this digg article and you'll completely change your outlook on theconsumerist:
http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Petty_thief_caught_red_h ...
For some reason, I doubt we're getting the whole story. - sexybobo, on 04/13/2008, -0/+2No if the problem is caused by water damage they don't have to fix it.
I am willing to be this is just another case of some one spilling water on their computer and not wanting to admit it. I can think of 5 other stories on consumerist of water damage that ended up being the person spilled water on the devise. Kinda like the dude with a dirty ps3 - StarlessKnight, on 04/12/2008, -0/+2Unless it's a warranty exchange. Had a gamepad for the PC once, one of the joysticks started pushing off to one side. I had a warranty on it (this was several years ago, mind) and though the model had been discontinued they offered the usual "or better" policy and I just had to pay a few more dollars. Now, as for the lemon policy... can't speak to that. First, personal computer I had I got from there, it was a gift. I had to have the motherboard replaced 3 times in 3 years (Compaq *Cough* I now build my own), technically four if you count the contractor that came out, one time, in person to swap motherboards and didn't test to be sure the dang thing would turn on! I digress. Came close to the magic "fourth" time... presuming they'd count the previous ones. Hadn't really thought of that eventuality, but it wouldn't be too surprising if they (a computer) tried.
- rogueyak, on 04/13/2008, -0/+2Try using the reply button.
- nightstar, on 04/12/2008, -0/+2I see this stuff from clients.
Had a firedog "repaired" laptop I was asked by a client to see what I though. Firedogs said it needed new mother board after two trips... Problem was a faulty update from Microsoft! Would kill sound and LAN after a few second after booting into windows. Tested with a live Linux CD. Both hardware worked ok. Did a search on the net and fixed it withing a few minutes. When I returned it. I told them they had enough hassles and no charge for what I did... But told them to never ever use Firedog again! And report them to the JAG on base.
That problem listed is usually a virus or a messed up registry. Its how its spelled { Upper/Lower case } that's the clue which it is. If the registry type. Its one of the 5 registry files. Yes there are five files that make up the registry. Two got chewed up some how on a clients computer. Was able to rebuild the two registry files affected { which by the book your are not suppose to do} so the darn thing would work again... Was easier to fix than rebuild from scratch that time. Else its a backup data and rebuild!
A new keyboard and DC jack???? Absolutely nothing to do with the problem. The water damage could have been caused by the cleaner you use to remove Rosen from a solder joint! - inactive, on 04/13/2008, -0/+2she is a n00b, so she went to the n00b store
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