Do yourself a favor, if your PC is acting up, get a professional, don’t get some schoolboy who hates his job- the service is too expensive for that anyway. And warranties? Decide that on your own accord, but be informed, manufacturers offer them too.

You sure got that right. Best Buy’s services are very expensive but I think people turn to them because they’re a familiar name. It’s always easier to turn to someone you’re familiar with for help versus a company you’ve never heard of. The other problem is that people who use Best Buy usually don’t understand computers so they can easily be taken advantage of.

Take a brisk walk behind the wall you see at the Geek Squad counter and you will find teenage kids who don’t care about anything that you brought in. Honestly, you are bringing your most valuable possessions to someone who considers that place nothing more than an after-school job. I’ve seen hard-drives have to be replaced because of a GS guy “fixing” what should’ve been nothing more than a simple software install.

Managers and most employees don’t care about your crap, they care about numbers and keeping their jobs. As one of their “star” employees I can’t even begin to tell you how fake their smiles and attempts at helping you are. Example: recently I was helping an older woman try and locate something that she desperately needed for her home but couldn’t find in my metro area, I spent about 20 min looking for it and found it just across the state, and was about to have it transfered when a manager told me to get off of the phone because the margin wasn’t enough for my time no matter how the woman needed it. Needless to say she went home empty-handed, thankful for my help but probably no longer a Best Buy customer. These things happen all the time.

Do yourself a favor, if your PC is acting up, get a professional, don’t get some schoolboy who hates his job- the service is too expensive for that anyway. And warranties? Decide that on your own accord, but be informed, manufacturers offer them too.

@Lashiec
Assuming that because the majority of the comments disagree with you that they didn’t read the article seems a bit arrogant doesn’t it?

It does not has anything to do with people disagreeing with me or not, but with the focus in the $54 million figure that IMO is irrelevant. Ms. Campbell admitted that it was done to attract media attention (objective reached, that’s for sure), but probably she would settle the suit for far less.

The problem is that they don’t simply lose her notebook. They lied regarding the situation (inexcusable), they ignored her demands, and they didn’t warn her about possible data loss, just as the law in the district stated. Not to mention the prospect of identity theft, as her tax returns were on the computer (or so she claims). Add to that legal costs, and it’s clear that some money to cover the cost of a new notebook it’s simply not enough. Of course, $54 million is a bit too much, but something covering all the costs would be enough. Perhaps something between $3000-$1000?

Assuming that because the majority of the comments disagree with you that they didn’t read the article seems a bit arrogant doesn’t it?

I certainly read it, MSNBC link and all. While yes, I agree that it would be nice customer service for Best Buy to offer the full price of the computer ($1100 cash, not the 2,100 she asked them for), from a legal standpoint they certainly don’t owe her even that much, let alone 54 million dollars. As I said, the computer was a year old therefore it was no longer worth full value and she can’t prove what was on her hard drive had any value or even what was on her hard drive.

Here is a clipping from the GeekSquad website that is on the form that the customer signs.

(b) User Responsibility: You understand and agree that before Geek Squad performs diagnostic repair on your computer, it is your responsibility to back up the data, software, information, or other files stored on your computer disks and/or drives. You acknowledge and agree that Geek Squad shall not be responsible under any circumstance for any loss or corruption of data and/or software.

i was pointing out the same thing in my comment above. apparently, nobody reads anymore.

However, from a legal standpoint, they might in fact be able to get away with $900, because the computer was a year old, and the law takes the depreciation of an item into account when determining value. Of course that’s not considering the actual contents of her hard drive. But even with that stuff her actual damages would not be much. First she has to prove that she bought every mp3 that she had as opposed to illegally downloading or ripping from a physical CD. The court wouldn’t award damages for stuff she didn’t buy in the first place. But there’s no way to prove that she had anything on the drive since the computer is lost.

She really really should have backed up.