Best Buy — Attraction in Coeur d'Alene

My Best Buy / HP Envy Experience

Returning to college is a daunting task. I should know, I did just that last fall after an 18 year break. So many things have changed since 1999, things we take for granted today. We had the Internet, but it was dial-up. Remember “You’ve got mail?” Online classes, weren’t a reality. Neither were tablets. Our cell phone? Well, we had one, but it definitely wasn’t smart. That dial-up Internet? It was connected to a desktop computer. Laptops were a luxury item, and we didn’t have one.

Fast forward to today and not only do I have a smart phone, it syncs to my tablet - and, I’m able to integrate the work that I do on those devices with apps on my laptop. But it may not have worked out that way if I hadn’t made that trip to Best Buy last September. I’ll tell you a little bit about that trip, but mostly about the pros and cons of the HP Envy laptop I got, now that I’ve had a few months to evaluate it. My HP Envy is not perfect, but overall I like it.

Being a student, I knew I needed a robust machine to take me through the next few years. However, being a student means I am on a budget. Figuring I’d be able to get a lot of questions answered by a member of the Geek Squad, I brought my personal IT guy, otherwise known as my husband, to Best Buy. Once there, we started looking at laptops.

After a few short minutes, one of the Geek Squad was on the scene to offer assistance. As we talked about my major and class load and types of things I need to do, we gradually narrowed down my options.

Based on the years of school ahead, I need plenty of RAM and plenty of internal storage. I need a keyboard that feels good, something I enjoy typing on. I need a screen that’s easy on my eyes, large enough to read without straining, so definitely bigger is better for me.

In addition to the things I need, there are a few things I want. Call it personal preference or whatever, I want a laptop with a touch screen. I want a back-light on the keyboard. I’ve seen that on somebody else’s laptop and I want it. We also talked about the Mac vs PC option. Now, I have an iPhone. But seriously, who doesn’t...am I right? It made sense to look at a Mac as an option. However, I’m not a recent Powerball winner so money IS an object. Ultimately I found the features I needed and wanted with an HP Envy, and it was less than the most comparable Mac...sorry Apple. It didn’t hurt that the HP came bundled with a great printer deal. I needed that too.

Now that I’ve had it for a few months, I’ve really been able to put it through the paces. My HP Envy has 16Gb of RAM, and a 1Tb internal hard drive. It’s fast, with an Intel i7 - 2.7 GHz CPU. I like the backlight under the keyboard. Overall, I’m happy with it. I’m able to sync my iPhone and back it up to iTunes. All the programs I need for school work great. This laptop has been a big help as I’ve transitioned back to being a student. I do however have a few minor issues.

Unfortunately, I don’t use the touchscreen nearly as much as I thought I would. Maybe I didn’t need that. The keyboard is okay, but I’ve had better. One of the most annoying things is the track-pad. Between the location and sensitivity of it, I find myself typing along and then realize my cursor has moved somewhere...and it never moves to a good place. That little ‘feature’ makes writing posts like this a LOT of fun. I’ve adjusted the sensitivity as low as I can, it still happens. I miss a few of the Mac features too, like being able to start a task like a message or email on my phone and continue it on the Mac. Overall I like my HP, even though it isn’t perfect.

For now, this HP Envy is working just fine for me, but maybe sometime in the next year or so, I’ll upgrade to a Mac. As much as I like this, I think I’d like...

I used the CDA Best Buy's Geek Squad to have the battery in my iPhone 11 replaced since the reviews I've seen about this service from Best Buy were all pretty good. Upon arriving at the best buy on time for my scheduled appointment, it took approximately 10 minutes waiting at the Geek Squad counter before anyone even acknowledged I was there. Once they finally spoke with me, I stood around for another 20+ minutes before anyone came and spoke to me again. At this point I was about 30 minutes passed my appointment time. When I started the process of giving them my iPhone for the repair they explained they may break it during the process and would possibly need to send the phone to Apple for a replacement refurbished iPhone 11. The employee reassured me that is was not likely any issues would arise or damage occur. When i told them I did not want my phone sent to Apple, they said they could probably just give my phone back at that point. I asked the employee how long this service should take and was told 3 to 4 hours. About 4 hours and 30 minutes later, I called the Best Buy for an update and they said the were done and just trying to calibrate the battery for me and would call me back shortly, they also informed me they damaged multiple plastic tabs inside the phone during the disassembly process and were unable to repair what they had broke. They did not seem to think this was much of an issue as according to whoever I spoke to said they already put the phone back together. 2 hours after that, I had still not heard from Best Buy so I drove in to see if maybe they were done and just forgot to call me. Upon my arrival I spoke with someone at the Geek Squad counter who said they were having an issue with my phone as it would not celibate the new battery. They said they were going to try a couple different things and see if they could make it work. After another hour of hanging out in Best Buy they told me they were unable to calibrate the battery and would be likely sending it to Apple for a refurbished 5+ year old iPhone 11. When i told the gentleman i did not want another iPhone 11 and would rather take a refund for the botched work and take my phone back in its current condition he said they could not give me a refund or my phone back. He said they performed the work i had requested and even though it was not to my liking, since the work was already done they could not give me a refund. And as for my phone, in its current condition, they also refused to give that back to as well. They told me since the phone was unable to be calibrated to its new battery it would cause to many systems in the phone to not work right so they had to send it to Apple. He said since I signed the papers and handed them the phone for repair, it some how made the phone apples property again and they were now required to send it to Apple for further diagnostics and repair. So as of right now I am out about $95 and have no phone. The best they could do was give me my sim card back. Overall, they had my phone for 7 hours, broke some internal components that help keep the phone together and ultimately destroyed my phone. I will not be recommending anyone use this best buy for battery...

I ordered and scheduled installation of 2 remote starters on my vehicles. The appointments were scheduled for a Saturday because their installation hours during the week didn't work with my work schedule. I work 35 minutes away and can't just take a whole day off to sit in their store in the middle of the day for 3 hours. I live out of town and was bringing the cars into town to have the installations done. The night before the scheduled install, I received a confirmation call for the 2 appointments. When I showed up the next morning I was told that they had SOLD my second remote starter to SOMEONE ELSE. This item had ALREADY BEEN PAID FOR!! I was left to stand around in the store for an hour without any help from management or any answers as to what was going on. The Manager (Crystal) wouldn't come out to speak with me. The member of her customer service team tried calling for her multiple times and did not receive any response from her manager during that whole hour. I had to leave to make it to another appointment, so I left my phone number for Crystal to call me back when she had a chance to figure out what was going on. Crystal finally called me 2 hours later and said everything had been "resolved". Her idea of a resolution was to process a return for my product that they had sold to another customer. I don't know if it is normally store policy to do a return for a product that they didn't even have, but that's what she ended up doing. I was not made aware until after the fact that she had processed a return, nor was I refunded for this return. She had then created a new order for me that would be shipped to my house, but it turns out the order wasn't even complete with all the components of the original order that is needed for install. In the heat of the moment, since I was not satisfied with her sub par "resolution", she spat at me that the second car would not have even been able to have the installation done today EVEN IF they had the product... Why was this not told to me before driving multiple vehicles into town and borrowing a car for the day to get around? If it had been another customer that had scheduled that appointment after my first car, would they have been turned away as well? Their lack of knowledge about their own schedules is a whole separate issue in and of itself that just made this whole situation even worse. The icing on top of this whole ordeal came about when I picked up my 1 vehicle that they actually installed the product on. The store manager, Crystal, told me that I was the issue and that it wasn't their fault. She said that I was not "making an effort" because I told her I cannot come in for the second install on a Tuesday afternoon. Why should I have to take a day off of work for their mistake? I could never imagine telling that to someone that just spent hundreds of $$$ on two items that I had already paid for that were subsequently sold to...