Best Buy — Local services in Gainesville

As to shopping at the Best Buy store in Gainesville, Virginia, my experience has typically resulted in a "Good" rating. However, please keep in mind that I'm only providing such a rating based on the fact that 99% of my purchases are made when I've had adequate time to perform the necessary research and comparison on-line via heading to the store.

Store greeter. In regards to the store greeter, I see people have commented that they may, or may not have been greeted at the door. Best Buy typically only applies personnel to the front area to cover a bit of security work. They would have, at one time, some monitors on the front kiosk that were connected to security cameras in the store. Also, the individual would be there to attach tags to items being returned, as well as handle the exit door package inspections, if an alarm were to alert based on an item leaving the store. I, personally never viewed these people as greeters.

But, in the past few months of fall 2012, I've notice many Best Buy stores in my area converting over to a new format. It appears these newer formats are doing away with the front door security person and all people checking out stand in a single line, then head to an open cashier. Also, the new format for the stores have a separate customer service area, Geek Squad area and additionally, a separate area to pick up items that have been ordered on-line, and held for customer pick up.

Now, let me explain my experience while shopping at Best Buy. As I've indicated, I've typically done plenty of research before going into the store. I never really count on support from the store personnel at any of the stores that I shop at. Why? Well, frankly, support and guidance in a purchase no longer really exists. Sure, there are personnel in the store that could potentially help you. However, I find that most tend to not be quite as up on the technology in order to properly handle a customer's questions. I feel bad for those who don't have the knowledge on technology or can't research their purchase decisions prior to going to the store. Then again, not everyone has time nor the desire to perform some of the extensive work that might be involved. When I've used the store personnel on the floor, they have been able to guide me to a specific area, or have been able to tell me if an item was in stock, or not. But, I have not used them for technical advice to aid in my purchase.

Sadly, I've even encountered support personnel in stores - actually respond to personal text messages why trying to assist me. I don't want to single out Best Buy in these situations, as it tends to happen at many stores. I do find it irritating, and sad when someone is hired to perform work for a fixed period of time and they can't commit to their employer for the whole period of time and have to remain loyal to their friends, too. After all, we turn off or silence our phones in a movie theater. Why not do the same while at work and only respond when one is on a true break, or at the end of their shift? It only seems courteous if one would do so, and ethical, too. I would suspect that if one's house were burning down, the necessary people would know where the individual was (at work) and could call the store to alert the individual through the store's staff system. I hardly think that a manager would complain about getting an emergency message to an employee who happened to be working at the time.

The store's other services. The check-out process, etc. as well as all the services from entering the store until departing the store are deserving of a "Good" rating, but nothing higher. I do feel my service was good, but I don't feel as though anyone has really gone out of their way to truly help me during my Best Buy shopping...

This is the first review I've ever written, but I felt like I was obligated to tell my story so that someone else won't make the same mistake I did.

With that being said, I visited this Best Buy location early last month hoping to purchase new speakers for my car and have them installed. I just bought the car and decided I was going to opt for the best speakers they had in the store. The geek squad installer recommended 2 sets of speakers (4 total) and assured me my audio system would sound amazing after they were installed. The day of the installation I recieved a phone call urging me to buy an amplifier as well, another $150, and I obliged. Later that afternoon I picked up my car and to my surprise, the audio sounded terrible, way worse than before. There was a loud pitched hum coming out of the speakers with the volume turned to 0 and there was absolutely no bass response. It sounded like a cheap boombox was sitting on top of my dash. This is after I've spent hundreds of dollars upgrading. The Geek Squad guy told me that's the best I was going to get, the hum is normal, and he didn't have time to check if anything was wrong (which he was confident there wasn't).

Over the next couple of days, I noticed the noise would get louder as I accelerated, I thought I was going crazy. I started to doubt myself and ended up taking the car to the dealer thinking the noise was coming from the engine. $250 dollars later, he confirmed it was the audio system! I then took the car to an audio specialist who checked it out and shook his head in disbelief at the audio set up Best Buy left me with. He advised me to get a refund and ask them to reinstall my old system. Turns out they destroyed my old speakers getting the new ones in, which left me with another $700 bill to install speakers at the audio specialist.

I visited the store and explained to the manager what had happened and told her I wanted a refund. She pointed to the back of the receipt that said "No refunds on labor." I explained to her that the labor was not done properly, but she kept tapping her finger on that line on the receipt. I told her I can get documentation from the dealer and the audio shop to prove it, that's when she started to laugh. I was in utter disbelief at her demeanor. After she had succeeded at making me feel stupid, she had the rest of the staff bully me for an additional 30 minutes. I left, basically shaking with frustration and decided to call the corporate office.

5 phone calls, being on hold for hours and hours, and 1 month later (I wish I was exaggerating), after talking to customer care, consumer relations, human resources, and being assured I would be refunded the labor and even recieve an additional $30 gift card for my trouble. I have yet to hear anything from Best Buy. Today, the supervisor at customer relations told me that they don't have any of my conversations documented and he can't refund me. What kind of company is this? How does this happen? Basically, I took a major hit and I have to swallow it. The message they conveyed to me: They're big and powerful and I'm a nobody.

I will never do business with Best Buy again and I hope my story will help someone avoid the hassle and frustration I've...

A $40 laptop charger an employee heavily encouraged me to buy ended up costing me $400 in parts & repair, and would have tanked my laptop if I had a different model.

My laptop fried right almost 4 weeks ago, because in December 2023 an employee(a very young man, possibly still in highschool) pushed me to buy the incorrectly watted charger for my laptop, telling me a jcreate 100w charger for my 65w Dell laptop would make my laptop charge faster. I distinctly remember pressing him on the fact that it is almost 2x the wattage that my laptop calls for, and he stated there would not be any issues because modern laptops have surge protectors.

I listened to that advice and used the 100w charger occasionally.

Well coming up on 4 weeks ago I plugged the jcreate charger in and within a few minutes the power started draining and the screen went black.

At first it didn't occur to me that the charger was the issue. I thought something internal went bad, like the laptop type-c charging port. Then I thought both my chargers(Dell and jcreate) had tanked, so I even bought another jcreate charger brand new from the Fair Lakes Best Buy to double check it wasn't a charger issue. Obviously I ended up returning that, because the laptop did not turn on.

I went to 3 different computer repair stores, because the first two refused to work on a non-charging laptop. Apparently laptops that don't charge are frequently non-repairable because the source boards are so expensive, and the price of labor in addition to the component cost brings the cost to well above $1,000.

Luckily my source board was less than $200, and Dok Klaus in Warrenton took the repair. I ended up spending $400 including the diagnostic fees from UbreakiFix. It took Dok Klaus 2 weeks to fix my laptop because they had to call Dell and manage their convoluted anti-repair tactics.

Earlier this afternoon my laptop was fixed. However the hardware repairman wanted to double check the 100w jcreate charger was the issue, so he plugged it in. Sure enough, the incorrectly watted charger was the issue, and it tanked my laptop again, instantly this time. Keep in mind I have not used this charger much, so it has no cable damage from normal use. Now we know the jcreate charger WAS the issue, and I have to wait until December to get my laptop back, because the part needs replacement again(no cost to me).

BestBuy, do better on training your employees on technical specs. That employee was spewing mistruths and it cost me money because of it. I don't know if the employee got commission or he just really wanted to sell me that charger.

Either way, I am obviously upset.

On another note, I called this store last week to check if they had an item in stock, and the employee who answered the phone was very knowledgeable and courteous. So I am hoping the employee training has improved in the past year.

Buyer Beware of any hardware or software advice the employees give you! It could cost you a...