Best Buy — Attraction in Town of Vestal

First, I want to give a shout out to Erin the Manager and associate who helped me after Best Buy cancelled my order at 1am with no explanation on the same day as my Viper Installation. Erin made it right by getting me close to my deal I had from Cyber Monday. I also want to thank the online customer service agent who helped direct me back to the store because they had the Viper System in stock.

Next, the installer at the Geek Squad gave me the worst personal customer service I have ever had. He tried to talk be out of the Viper system I got saying they were difficult to install unlike Compustar which were easier and better. He kept saying he would need to peel back wires and it wasn’t straight forward. He asked if I wanted to upgrade, and I said that was fine if they were in stock because it was a gift for my wife. He said it would take a week, and I said please just go with the Viper. He continued to tell me if the only reason I was getting the Viper was the phone application, that I was wasting my time because it had a 30 foot range and couldn’t be used from anywhere else. He said that he had already talked to his bosses and that they told him that he was being disloyal to the company for this recommendation.

I went shopping and came back two hours later and he said he was unable to install the device and that he wasn’t taught properly by “sh@tty trainers and schematics.” He again offered me the compustar starter saying it would be a week. I said I appreciated it, but lived an hour and half away and wouldn’t be swinging back. He said, “I would love to have sympathy for you, but I live nearly two hours away in Corning to come to work.” He then asked me why I didn’t go to a mom and pop shop who offer better products and installation, which was strange since it is disloyal to the company you work for. He was really angry at this point and said he would be returning every viper product on the shelves because the technology sucks and hasn’t changed in 30 years. He gave me a refund and I left.

When I called customer service to speak to the manager about my concerns, they would not push me through until to the Vestal office until I was adamant that there was a CSR that was hurting their business and reputation. I went straight to voicemail.

I was so surprised by this experience from cancellation of order to the treatment of the tech that I had to laugh…I couldn’t even get angry because it was so bad.

I’m bummed because it was something special for my wife who is a nurse who leaves early and gets out late on 12-13 hour shifts. I wanted one less issue for her when she is so tired.

Best Buy,...

Whatever you do, please DO NOT use the Geek Squad repair service! I scheduled an appointment with a store representative to fix some small issues I've been having with my PC. The rep was friendly, outlined a comprehensive estimate of how much everything would likely cost for the diagnostic and repair, and they mentioned that if the repairs amounted to over $200 they could sign me up for their "total tech" package which would help cover the costs and would give me coverage for a full year, although myself and rep agreed that the minor issues I was having would likely cost no where near that since I didn't need any hardware replaced. He estimated that the whole service would cost approximately $100 which, in my opinion, is expensive but fair, because after all it's a business and the technician needs to be paid. So I scheduled an appointment with Geek Squad.

Today, I unplugged all of the cables from my PC, put the PC in the car and drove it over for my appointment. After placing my PC on the Geek Squad desk and explaining the issues I had the same way I explained them to the representative on the phone, which should take no more than a few hours to diagnose and fix, the employee at the counter proceeds to tell me that in order to even touch or look at the computer they would have to sign me up for the total tech package mentioned before for $200, in addition to the diagnostic charge and service fee which would run another $100-$200, not to mention any other unforeseen expenses. After explaining to her what the representative on the phone told me and how crazy that price is, she stated vaguely, "Oh they don't know what they're talking about, things are done differently here" she went on further to say that the representative more or less lied. I'm inclined to believe that its the employee at the counter who lied, but it doesn't really matter. The whole experience felt like a bad trip to the mechanics. $400 for a diagnostic and some simple software fix is RIDICULOUS. I chose to take the computer elsewhere, choosing to go to a local repair shop that charged 1/4th the price and agreed that $400 amounted to robbery. I can only imagine that Geek Squad has conned many other people who were desperate to get their technology fixed and were unfortunate enough to turn to them for help. If you are going to Best Buy in Vestal, do your wallet and dignity a favor and stick to their phones and TV's, STAY AWAY FROM GEEK SQUAD...

Good experience, kinda. Purchased an ASUS Vivobook online. Transaction and delivery happened on schedule. Within a month or so, the system started to misbehave. My experience with Best Buy online service reps, less than stellar. As part of the 'service call' initiation, an explanation of the issue with the equipment was detailed. Upon beginning the discussion with a 'live' person, they had to review my case. 5 minutes, and not even the courtesy of an elevator musac channel. I was certain they'd gone on a tea break. When they returned, they were perplexed, and asked that I explain the problem. Thanks to copy and paste technology, I restated what I said in my initial description. I even suggested that I send a screen shot of what was going on. They'd have nothing to do with that. ARE YOU FRIGGIN' SERIOUS?!?! I'm not wasting my time to send out inappropriate images to people on the other side of the world, and the tech for intercepting that kind of garbage is better than my game play abilities on the X Box! I didn't complain about not being able to to send images, just did my best in a non tech fashion what was happening. The first technician disconnected. The second I got hold of 10 minutes later, missing the point, and I can't get any better at speaking in English than I already am. Out of frustration, I emailed the Best Buy in vestal, including an embedded image of the issue. Thank you John for you quick response, Geek Squad suggested the unit be replaced. Two days after depositing the first unit at their outlet, I was happily typing away on my new system. Happily.

One suggestion I would make to the customer service team at the Vestal store, when it comes to data saving devices, ask the customer if they've backed up the data on the device being turned in on a portable system. If not, suggest a low cost option for doing so right there. If they had, you guys are Champs because it showed you cared about our data. I backed mine up, so it wasn't an issue. Just saying.

All in all, I'd buy from...