Best Buy — Local services in Katy

I usually don't leave reviews for businesses but I had to for this Best Buy. I wish I could leave zero stars but 1 star is going to have to suffice. I've been to many different Best Buys in various different cities and this Best Buy is by far the WORST when it comes to customer service, especially the incompetent individuals they have at Geek Squad.

You see, my laptop's hard drive was in the process of failing. I had bought this laptop last year along with a $400 protection plan which covers hard drive replacement. I took the laptop to this Best Buy (where I bought it from) on 12/20/23 only for them to tell me that while yes, they can replace the hard drive in store, the laptop has to be sent out to their service center in Kentucky if I didn't want to pay for the hard drive replacement. Apparently, this is a hidden clause in their protection plan that was not made known to me when I first bought it. If I had known, I would have paid for a membership instead which does allow for in-store repair.

The first Geek Squad guy who spoke to me was fine (I don't know his name but he has red hair and a nose ring). It was his fellow worker and his awful excuse of a boss that were problematic. Mind you, I'm a medical school student so my laptop is everything and Best Buy doesn't give loaners. So, understandably, I was upset because I simply don't have the time to wait to send out this laptop and, as medical student heavily in debt, I don't have the money to pay for a new hard drive, plus the installation, plus data recovery, which would cost over $200 (or essentially half of what I paid for the protection plan).

This boss had the audacity to keep telling me to "stop talking" and how he doesn't want to work with me. He told me that he would replace my hard drive in store but then remove my protection plane because "that's what I wanted." When I told him that I was upset that Best Buy was not honest about this hidden clause when it comes to repairs, he said "A clause does not need to be honest." So essentially, Best Buy trains it's employees to not be upfront with their customers before they buy a product. It's seems that they care more about money than honesty.

To add insult to injury, when I told Geek Squad that I was going to write a review about how they treated me, I was told that I was "threatening employees." Because apparently I, a 5'2 woman, is "threatening" and me writing this review is viewed as a "threatening act." (I honestly wonder if that comment had to do with my race) When I asked if I could call my dad before I made a decision, I was mocked for it too. When I told my dad what the manager of Geek Squad said and did, the workers of Geek Squad tried to backtrack. But the damage has already been done.

Best Buy, you can do better. You need to fire these employees and train competent once. For anyone reading this review, I advise you to go to the Best Buy in Katy near Fry Rd and I-10. The Geek Squad there were wonderful and were able to help me in a way that both I and Best Buy were happy (not to mention were much quicker as well; I spent less than 30 minutes at the Katy location compared to the 1 hour at the Richmond location). If you want to be treated like a nuisance, then by all means go to this Best Buy...

I had the worst and the most ridiculous experience with this store just yesterday evening (09/11/2024 around 7:00pm). I couldn’t believe that Best Buy was going to charge restocking fee when we tried to return a defective product!

I spent over $2000 purchased a Sony camera several days ago, but it turned out it had charging issue, I even tried different cords however all I got was prompted line of “The battery is exhausted” then the screen turned black. The charging light was never on until the minute I got the error messages. I never had charging issue in the past with any cameras I owned, let alone with a new camera. Therefore I searched on line and saw quite a few other consumers complaining about this product with the same issue. I believed this camera I got was defective and we decided to return it to this store right away although I bought it in another store which is far away.

We went to the store and explained the situation and they agreed to refund but surprisingly not 100% - they were going to charge us 15% restocking fee including tax !!! Restocking? Did they plan to sell a defective product as open box to another customer?

Two people from its Geek Squad took the camera into their back house and after a while came out telling us this is 100% charged! I told them - now I would even more firmly believe this camera has quality issue - if it showed fully charged now, but 20 mins ago right before we drove to the store, it promoted the battery was exhausted and the screen was off, camera couldn’t be turned on - it looked like something was unstable. Geek Squad guys insisted that the product had no problems. To be honest , I do not understand why they behaved like they were qualified quality inspectors? they are supposed to send it back to the manufacturer and let Sony quality control guy to do the test and detect the issue. We were not there for trouble shooting on a new product literally hadn’t been used at all. We didn't need Geek Squad guy to instruct us how to charge the camera battery - I have over 20 years experience of using camera - went through several generations of camera！We talked to the manager, he insisted that we must pay the restocking fee if we wanted to return this. He even mentioned he owned a same model himself and it was good - but did that guarantee every other camera of this model would necessarily be good??? How ridiculous! Did he expect customers to pay for manufacturer’s fault? Who would have trust in them after this and shop here again? We almost shopped all our electronic products from this store in the passed years, simply we were lucky enough and didn’t run into defective products. But to find out if a business provides a good customer service or not is to see how it deals with issues and problems.

Anyway, the same evening, we drove all the way to the Best Buy where we made the purchase to give it another try, though the store was very far. Luckily, we got full refund finally. Never expected such a hassle! I believe Best Buy indicates on its website that the customer can return the merchandise to any store but not sure how the exact operation is in reality after...

Don't buy a phone from Best Buy. Their sales associates don't understand the promotions or obviously what promotions are going on and when they are going on. I went to look at phones upgrading my Samsung S7 to a Samsung S9. I was told my the associate that there is was a Verizon promotion where I would get $300 trade in for my phone. I went to Verizon and they didn't have a special going at the time except for the buy one get one free and that is not what I needed. So I headed back to this Best Buy to move forward with the phone and promotion. So from what I was told by the Best Buy associate I had 14 days to return my phone if I didn't want it with a restocking fee but I had 30 days for the trade in to take place. He gave me a piece of paper with the website to go to and the $300 would be spread out taken off my monthly bill for the amount of the contract with Verizon and I would be getting a box from Verizon to ship my trade in to them. So I finally get around completing the trade in process and I notice that the promotion is not a good promotion and the promotion sheet they gave me was for the preorder phone. So I went back to Best Buy last night talked to the supervisor...explained everything to him advised him I was lied to, he came to the conclusion last night after he spoke, with whom I thought was a manager, that I could return the phone and my case I bought and switch back to using my S7. I was not happy about having to switch back over but I spent an hour of my time transferring all my files back to my old phone and getting everything set back up so when I got back to the store it wouldn't take that long. I get back to Best Buy this afternoon and I see the supervisor and the first words he said was I was told by the associate that was there when you bought the phone that you were only given that piece of paper so you could see what the phone trade in would be. (Lied to save his job). Then he proceeds to tell me that he can't return my phone and phone case like he told me he would last night as he double checked with management and nothing could be done. So I was lied to not 1 time but 2 times. So I decide to leave, then my kids and I go back in so we can speak with a manager and not just the supervisor. I explained the situation to him and all he said was sorry ma'am there is nothing I can do because you are now in contract with Verizon. I suggested to him. I said my phone is worth $95 on a trade in through Verizon Website. They could make up the difference in a Best Buy gift card since I was not only lied to 1 but 2 times and nothing. What happened to the customer is always right and you make sure they are taken care of. This is the reason these stores are losing business. They don't train their employees properly. I know if I made a mistake at my job, I would be fixing it and taking the loss to show that I appreciate their business and would work on more training. So word to anyone wanting to buy a phone go to the actual store because at least they know what promotions they have going on. I paid off my existing phone in order to buy this phone with...