Best Buy — Local services in Meridian Charter Township

I’ve been a loyal – long-time customer of Best Buy, I have had good experiences at your stores until recently. I have purchased TVs, computers, iPads, phones, appliances. After an experience my daughter and I had with computer repair services, my family will no longer use Best Buy; certainly discourage others from doing so as well. That may or may not mean anything to you…

My daughter had an issue with her computer, she is a student. She went to the Okemos, MI store to have the laptop, which was purchased at Best Buy, serviced. The screen was cracked, she was careless and someone stepped on it. Anyway, I advised her to seek out a fix at Best Buy, she did. She received help from the Geek Squad service people, they even helped her move files from her hard drive to a flash drive – about 3 or 4 files for her next assignment. An important aspect is she declined back-up; the hard drive seemed fine and the service is expensive. The computer was shipped to a central service location. After a few days she received a call – a voice msg. was left - regarding the service and a final price. When she returned the call to authorize service, no one advised her that her hard drive was damaged and would be replaced; w/o benefit of data recovery from her damaged drive. She understood her screen was being replaced and authorized that service. I have listened to the voice mail message, no mention of replacing the hard drive! Yet when speaking to service reps at your company, they indicate she did authorize the replacement. The hard drive was replaced, all of her files were lost - not recovered. When she picked up the laptop, she was quite shocked and dismayed about losing all of her work! For anyone, no less a student, this is very inconvenient, disruptive. So aside from the he said/she said – there is also a major disconnect with your process. Hard drive back-ups are done at the store, not the service center. When she ‘authorized’ that her drive be replaced – which she did not – how would it occur to anyone that the service wouldn’t try to recover data, programs, pictures, files, etc. from the damaged hard drive? It seems the customer must connect the dots on your process instead of your service reps recommending or advising that changing a hard drive will result in lost data because the service center doesn’t do that and of course, she didn’t buy the back-up service. Had she been aware that her hard drive was being replaced and that she would lose all her files, I think she would have acted differently, as most reasonable people would.

Your company made mistakes in service – doing something w/o authorization - and no one I’ve talked to wants to own up to this. This is a major issue for us. Your customer service is this case has been abysmal and thus is not worthy of future patronage. I’m not one to make excuses for my children, they have been taught to take responsibility for their actions. She should have a back-up, she should have secured her computer to avoid being stepped on in the first place, she probably should have had the hard drive back-up by the Geek Squad service… But, your employees not owning up to the mistakes is not what great or even good companies do…clearly you have problems to address; which you should do before it...

This was always a 5 star review for me. I enjoyed wondering the store and browsing and even the impulse buy. I loved when I came in the staff was knowledgeable and friendly, and you knew they didn't work on commission so they weren't trying to upset you for the sake of their own wallet and at the expense of yours. However my trip yesterday and again today really sent me the other way. The store really has been on the decline in my opinion the last several years. Still had friendly staff but nothing in the store. I don't pop in to check out the latest and greatest tech, games, cameras or whatever because it's simple not in the store to actually purchase! I'm definitely not making impulse buys anymore so I guess I can thank you for that. Most of the time even if I see something an employee tells me they have to order it and then it's going to take 5-7 business days to show up. I might as well go to Amazon and order the same exact thing and have it in 2. Then to yesterday, in looking at a gaming monitor. Asking questions and having a good conversation about all the thing. Warranty, shipping (because surprise nothing in stock). The monitor was on sale in the store, but it seemed to be the last day for the sale. I asked about the sale and the same price in other store and of course amazon. As I ask another employee walks by says it's the older version or the monitor because the one I'm looking at had only been out 2 weeks and they are running a new release deal. First of all, rude. No one was talking to you. Second absolutely false I know this monitor came out in October of 2023 not 2 weeks ago in May of 2024. I end up leaving the store instead of letting the employee place and order for me. This morning after much thought I still wanted to purchase the monitor so returned to the store. What do you know it's still on sale vs yesterday when there was emphasis on the fact that it was the "last day for the sale price and an awesome price for that monitor" no less. So today I deal with a very nice young woman, she did have to ask for help a couple of times, not sure if she was newer or just not really her area normally but I was very happy with her help anyway. She was able to add my order to another item I was purchasing it all on the screen we've done all my account stuff total there and ready to go and then she says the monitor is out of stock and not available through any best buy anywhere. They let me know I could bookmark the monitor in the app and I would be notified if/when best buy ever received anymore. I left the store and made my purchase elsewhere. This is the second time this year I have left the store and made a same item purchase in another store. In February it was a dishwasher. Had it on the floor to look at couldn't get it for almost 3 weeks. Went over to home depot bought it, delivered 4 days later and for about 2-3 hundred dollars less because it was on sale there. Maybe I should start making best buy my "I've run out of options" store instead...

I must say that I was very surprised to see all of the positive reviews of this place after my own experience there. With two kids in hand, the drop-off process for my battery replacement took almost forty minutes on a Sunday, from 3:20-3:56 PM. This was primarily because the Geek Squad member helping me was completely disinterested in what he was doing and had to ask me three times for my phone number and twice for all of my other contact information. At first, the Geek Squad member told me that it would take two hours from the start of our appointment to complete the replacement. I said ok. After our nearly forty minute struggle with data entry that could have been done in one minute over email or an online portal beforehand (he wouldn't even let me walk around the store with my kids and come back), he told me that it would be two hours from the end of our appointment. The funny thing is that the store closes at 6 PM. Not knowing this at the time, I asked him if I should call ahead or just come back at 6 PM (roughly two hours into the future). He told me the latter. At my wife's suggestion, I did call ahead and was beside myself when I learned that I would have to miss work the following day to go in and collect my phone (I made my appointment on Sunday for a reason and got confirmation over the phone that it would be same-day service). When I went to collect my phone this morning, I immediately went to the manager and explained what happened to him. Rather than assuring me that he would instruct his employees to, in the future, avoid telling customers to come get their stuff after hours and offering me compensation for my lost work time, he blamed me for not reading the fine print (no guarantee of same day-service for a 3:20 PM appointment, despite what I was told over the phone) and knowing his store's COVID hours. I was too stunned to get angry. When he saw my disbelief, the manager reluctantly apologized and suggested that I pick up my phone. I left the store without another word from him. Amusingly, when I got back home, I saw that Best Buy left an automated voicemail on the phone instructing me to come for pickup at 5:45 PM the day before! Maybe the geniuses on the Geek Squad should consider contacting people without phones some other way, such as over email (which they definitely had on file, because I definitely received SPAM from Best Buy a few hours after my appointment). Needless to say, I won't be going back to Best Buy if I can possibly avoid it and will have a chuckle in a couple of years when Amazon sells them for scrap and the doofuses I interacted with find themselves...