Best Buy — Local services in Madison

It seems that Geek Squad at the West Towne Mall location in Madison, WI has been actively working to make my life more stressful every time I speak to them. From their inability to pull up my information, rude in-person customer service, and general air of "Your problem isn't my problem" - they showed no empathy and no coordination. Whoever is training and managing this location is doing a terrible job.

Henry (he never bothered to introduce himself and I had to ask his name) refused to give me a timeline of when I can expect my computer would be backed up even after I explained the situation (I'm a wedding photographer with two brides waiting to know if they lost all of their photos). The tracker said that the computer was ready for in store pickup but Henry seemed surprised to learn that I took that as meaning it was ready for in store pickup - apparently "in store pickup" means "we'll call you" to this guy. It wasn't ready because they hadn't put my backed up data on the computer which is understandable but Henry's condescension, arrogance and rudeness was unbelievable. And, the unwillingness to even make me think he cared about being a customer advocate was astonishing. He told me that it would probably be ready tomorrow and I said I need it done today if at all possible. This took place at noon. They close around 9. It doesn't take 9 hours to restore a backup of even a huge amount of data - the truth is he just didn't care about his customer and seemed intent on me knowing that.

Additionally, that was the time they chose to tell me that my hard drive was corrupt and was replaced - the first I heard of that and that my backup was probably corrupt. So why did it take weeks for them to tell me that and then make me pay for it? Seriously, you can't make this up!

Another store rep earlier in the process was so unable to understand the English language over the phone that I had to, after fifteen minutes of just trying to give him my phone number, ask for someone else to be put on.

This was after calling for fifteen straight minutes without anyone picking up the phone.

Finally when I went to get my laptop they screwed up grabbing the right service order and told me they had to junk my computer. This lasted about ten minutes before they realized they were looking at the wrong order.

This team was a total joke and I am not at all surprised that Best Buy's around the country are shutting down.

UPDATE - 1 HOUR AFTER LEAVING STORE: They just marked my computer as picked up and closed my repair file even though I didn't actually pick up the computer and they don't know if the backup will be successful. This would be funny if it wasn't...

Today I had a Toshiba Smart TV delivered by Best Buy. Within an hour of setup — after carefully attaching the legs and plugging it in — the TV would not work. The screen was completely black, it would not power on, and the product was defective right out of the box.

I immediately contacted Best Buy customer service, expecting this urgent issue to be handled quickly. Instead, I was told they could “see the order was delivered” but that they could not do anything until the logistics/warehouse team updated their internal system to mark the order as “complete.” This made absolutely no sense — the TV was in my living room, broken, delivered by Best Buy’s own team.

To make matters worse: • Support refused to escalate to a supervisor who could fix the situation. • They admitted they “had no way to reach logistics” and left me stranded waiting for a computer update. • They would not hold me a replacement spot in the schedule once the system updated, meaning I would be pushed to the back of the line despite reporting the issue immediately. • Their only “solution” was for me to bring the defective TV back to the store myself — after it was just delivered.

This was not just inconvenient — it was insulting. I paid over $400 for this TV and trusted Best Buy with delivery. I arranged this specifically for an important event tomorrow at 1:00 PM, and now that event is at risk because Best Buy refused to act. Their rigid process and lack of accountability wasted my time, disrupted my schedule, and left me without a working product.

This failure touches every level of Best Buy’s service: • Delivery/logistics for handing off a defective TV. • Customer service for hiding behind “system updates” instead of problem-solving. • Management for failing to escalate when an urgent replacement was needed. • Corporate policy for allowing internal processes to override basic consumer rights.

This was a breach of trust and a breach of warranty. A customer should never be told “there’s nothing we can do” while sitting in front of a broken product that Best Buy just delivered.

I will be pursuing formal complaints with the Better Business Bureau, my State Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division, and the Federal Trade Commission to hold Best Buy accountable.

Consumers deserve better than to waste time, money, and energy on a company that fails to stand behind its products the moment...

Went to Best Buy on West side of Madison to get new cell phone. Was helped by Alice who was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. After attempting to activate new service on 4 different computers, we left without new phones because the AT&T system was not working. Alice arranged for me to come back the next day but she was going to be off. She left all her notes with all the information and relayed to Victoria, a coworker, that we would be back. I returned as promised but the person who was supposed to help was not on the floor so isiah helped me. Very nice, but another worker, Orlando, kept making comments about my decision to switch carriers, so I decided to leave. Came back today to work with Alice only to now find out that my phone she was holding was given to someone else and there was no stock AT ALL of the Galaxy S22+ or the Ultra unless I wanted to buy one outright full price. Meanwhile, Alice was the only employee working in the mobile section. Her manager, Chris, a white haired guy, could not have been a ruder person. There was a line of people hanging out waiting to be assisted. All these employees walking around never once offering their assistance to all these potential customers. When this manager had no choice but to come over to perform an override, the other customers tried to get his attention and he LITERALLY blew them off! They were all floored! I have made many purchases at Best Buy, but after this experience, I will never step foot in that store again. I hope Alice finds a better work environment because she is a true customer service champion. She is the most genuine worker who goes above and beyond to help customers. I am a nurse so I know people can be difficult and I understand working in volatile work environments where management does not support you. It makes me sick when nasty, rude, miserable people take jobs where customer service is so important. I hate that people don’t value other peoples time or efforts. Now that I've had my still non working new phone for a week I strongly do not recommend getting a phone through here and most definitely do not go through AT&T. I have spent days and days and hours going back and forth getting nowhere to figure out why this phone only allows me to send or receive some calls. My previous carrier and AT&T have no clue. Basically...