Best Buy — Attraction in Idaho Falls

My Grandma is more knowledgeable than the workers here. And their incompetence proved very costly.

In the market for a new laptop, I visited the Idaho Falls Best Buy with the assumption that the staff would be able to help decide between several options I had identified through my own research. Huge mistake.

When I finally tracked down an employee, I wished I hadn't. The salesman was nominally knowledgeable about the computers and the differences among them. He plainly admitted he couldn't answer several very basic questions that you would expect a computer salesman to know.

At one point, the salesman called in a colleague, but he didn't add any knowledge to the situation. Basic computer questions - differences between processors, memory space, how fast they will run common operating programs - this crack team couldn't articulate which was right for my needs.

It shouldn't have been a tough question. I was looking for a practical laptop that could manage basic functions - Microsoft suite, Internet and email, moderate storage space and RAM, and select Adobe programs. In my own research, I had identified several computers that fit those needs.

Unfortunately, despite my better judgment, I trusted the advice of this "Geek Squad," which steered me away the options I had identified to a (surprise!) more expensive option.

Now, I wouldn't mind if that was it - if they had up-sold me on a computer that was more than I needed. But instead, the computer they talked me into was a total lemon, more expensive, and the wrong technology for my purposes. And it began to fail immediately.

It's a Dell Inspiron 15. This, the Geeks assured me, was exactly what I needed, although they couldn't even explain why or what differentiated this brand from the others. Shame on me for not realizing then how uninformed these sales people were. I hope those reading this don't make the same mistake.

Fast forward only two months from walking out of the store $900+ poorer. This Dell Inspiron - which should be called an Un-Inspiron because it's just a terrible computer - starts malfunctioning. At first it's only mildly concerning: Screens not are displaying correctly and it crashes occasionally. But hey, I tell myself, the problems are irregular and they're not entirely detrimental to my work.

Fast forward another three months. The problems now are rampant. The operating system crashes regularly. Adobe programs take minutes to open. Microsoft programs regularly lock up, requiring a reboot. I have to save my work like a schizophrenic because the computer could seize up at any time.

After ensuring all the latest plug-ins and updates were installed and current, even consulting a private computer service at my own expense, I called Best Buy to ask their support. Their answer? Sorry, that's Dell's problem.

That's it. Despite being within six months of the purchase, Best Buy refused to so much as review the computer to see if there's some glaring problem. Which isn't altogether surprising considering the incompetence of the sales people; I don't think I would trust them to work on it.

So, I call Dell. Their service is equally pitiful. After hours (no exaggeration) on the phone with representatives overseas, they tell me all they can do is have me mail it in, allow them to refurbish and wipe the computer (sayonara all my saved files), and hope to get it back in 8 weeks.

I'm a consultant, and my work depends on my computer. Eight weeks without my computer / files is eight weeks of unemployment.

So, here I am, typing a review on my wife's computer (a Mac, in case you were wondering) because mine crashed again....

TL, DR: Don't buy phones from Best Buy. Their online ordering system will likely mess up your order, and their brick and mortar store won't honor online promotions, even if corporate tells you they will.

I preordered a new phone on the Best Buy website over 2 weeks before it's release, making sure to thoroughly input all of the required information (that I was trading in a phone, that I currently had service and would like them to connect my new phone to a specific line when I picked up the phone, etc). On the day that I was supposed to pick up my new phone, I received an email simply stating that my order was cancelled. I called Best Buy and they told me it was because they couldn't activate my new phone so they just cancelled the order (which doesn't make sense to me that they would try to activate the phone when I still have a phone on that line. Wouldn't you bring in your old phone, transfer everything, then transfer and activate the new phone then? I've gone through switching phones MANY different times and I've never had a problem like this before with other companies). The representative I spoke with said to just reorder the phone and it would work this time.

I went ahead and jumped through all the same hoops, reordering the phone (which said it would be ready for pickup in 1 hour) and then waited. In 1 hour, I received another email stating that my order again had been cancelled. I called customer service again and they said it was the same reason, and that I should just go into the store and have them ring it up in the store, and they also promised me that the store would honor all of the same promotions and pricing from the website.

Doing this meant that I was missing out on at least $30 from an online cashback promotion, but I decided to go ahead and go into the store and get all of the other discounts. It is also upsetting overall because in order to preorder this phone, I was required to pay of my existing phone with my provider, losing almost $100 in promotional credits with them. I went into the store and the staff there was very friendly and helpful, however, they said that their computers in the store were showing a lower trade in value and no promotional gift card like was available when ordering online. I asked if I could just order it online again while in the store and have them try to reach out and prevent it from being cancelled, but they said that there was nothing they could do (and this was coming from their store manager). They couldn't honor the online prices and promotions, nor could they issue a gift card for the difference.

I have no problem with the employees at the store, but there's a serious problem with the store's promotions and the online promotions, and how the store cannot match the online promotions, AND how Best Buy's own customer support promised me something that their brick and mortar store said they absolutely could not do. Something is very wrong with how this all happened and it caused me a lot of problems and cost me more money. I had to go directly through my carrier and change my entire plan just to get a promotion that was even similar to what Best Buy promised in the first place, but after doing the math, it cost me almost $160 more because Best Buy couldn't get their own promotions and online system to work correctly.

My recommendation to anyone looking to upgrade your phone: do not trust Best Buy to honor their promotions. Don't trust their online ordering system. Just avoid the hassle and get your phone...

I brought my laptop to Best Buy/Geek Squad because it was clearly having a motherboard issue. I had already done extensive troubleshooting on my own—documented error codes, ran memory tests, OS install attempts, and more. I wrote it all down so the technician could skip the guesswork and get straight to fixing it.

When they entered it into the system, they ignored most of that information. The ticket just said “keeps crashing, can’t install OS, customer thinks motherboard issue.” All the extra detail I gave was wasted.

They sent it in, confirmed it was the motherboard, replaced it, and sent it back. On Friday, I called customer service to ask where my laptop was—they told me it had been delivered to the Idaho Falls location on Wednesday. I tried calling the store to speak to a manager before coming in, but you can’t get anyone directly, so I drove there.

At the store, they told me it wasn’t their fault and blamed “automation issues.” I reminded them that automation fails because humans fail. Someone didn’t do their job, period. They claimed it wasn’t in the system and couldn’t find it. Customer service said it was delivered—so they had it.

After more back and forth and getting the manager, they finally went to the back and, surprise, there it was. The manager brought it out with an attitude that made it feel like he’d blame me if he could. When I asked whether it was Best Buy staff or Geek Squad staff who dropped the ball, no one accepted responsibility. Both sides pointed fingers.

They rushed me out as quickly as possible, which honestly I was fine with at that point. But then I noticed—no ID check for my $2,300 laptop. When I asked if they needed to see it, they said, “We could check your ID if you want us to.” I laughed, reminded them they dropped yet another ball, and left.

Summary: Poor communication, failure to log critical information, inability to admit fault, terrible customer experience, and sloppy handling of expensive equipment. If this is Best Buy and Geek Squad’s standard, I have zero confidence they’ll survive any serious...