Best Buy — Local services in Onalaska

Good luck trying to get through on their customer "service" phone line. WORST experience ever! They just lost about $1,000 in sales from me.

Yikes, it is a week later and I tried and tried to speak to someone in the store to confirm a Geek Squad visit to my home for the next day. The email confirmation I received made it sound like they were expecting me to bring something in to the store. Again with a completely messed up in store customer "service" phone line. 15 minutes of holding. One brief contact with a human then back on hold. Nothing.

I try again .... nothing for about 7 minutes. Then I get cut off.

Time for corporate! Surely, they can help!

Right? Yeah and you probably believe in the Easter Bunny.

I ask for help getting a manager at the Onalaska store. The rep asks for the store number. Um, I say I can give it to you but you will have the same luck. Don't you have a private corporate line? Apparently not. She tells me to wait. Back on hold ... waiting ... waiting ... nothing. After 7 minutes I hang up ... she is lost in Best Buy customer service phone hell.

I know what that is like.

I redial corporate and ask for a supervisor. Nice guy. He really tries to help. He checks the computers. According to what he sees I'm not on the schedule for tomorrow in the Onalaska store! Oh for godsake! (I ran into this before. The Geek Squad 1-800 computers cannot see what the Onalaska store schedule looks like.)

I ask for a corporate number to call - who, I wonder is the supervisor's number. He has no idea (now he's lying and I'm getting really disgusted. It's one thing to screw a customer over but to lie about it!). Really, who is your boss? He's not talking.

I have come to the end of the public line of Best Buy non-help and non-accountablity.

Now one other ironic thing about this experience...

While on hold with Best Buy their recorded music sound quality was pure crap; scratchy, warbling. Good Lord, if an audio/electronics retailer can't manage a decent on-hold sound system, what does that say about their products and tech abilities?

Come on, Best Buy, get your act together. I really, truly would rather buy from a local store rather than Amazon but you guys are making Amazon look better all the time.

... Okay, it's the next morning. The Geekster is supposed to be here at 10:30 a.m. 11:15 and no agent. I call the store and - miracle - get through to the Geek Squad desk. At this point you won't be surprised to find they have no appt set up for me (I rearranged by schedule to be home today). Despite the fact that three days ago when I set up the appt I went through my address twice and made sure they could find me on a map, I am informed they have me down as "tentative". Nobody can answer anything though they all give me nicely scripted and well-rehearsed apologies. (I'd love to see that in-stor staff training). I ask to speak to the store manager. I'm offered the GS "floor supervisor" but he will have to call me back. We'll see how long that takes...

So I waited an hour and no call, so I headed into town for a face-to-face...

When I got there I was able to speak to a manager, prefacing my comments by noting to him that in the past 3 years I have spent a lot of money in his store. He was very polite, apologized and said they had a "new phone system" and they were having a lot of problems with it. (No kidding!)

He got me set up with a visit to my home in 6 days and waived the basic charge for the house call. I'll report back on how it went.

ONE WEEK LATER: The Geek Squad agent got out to my rural home first thing Saturday morning. He was the same one who installed my system 3 years ago. There were no big problems, just some system housekeeping, getting the printer working again and reconfiguration of the system layout. He got everything done in a little over an hour. I was not charged the basic service charge and just paid for some work done during the visit.

It was exhausting going through what I did last week, but I feel things were...

Over the last 6 months, I’ve had an incredibly frustrating experience with the Onalaska Best Buy Geek Squad—specifically Jack Larson and a woman I believe is a Service Experience Supervisor. To be clear, general BB staff (cashiers, floor employees) have always been kind and helpful. My issues lie solely with Geek Squad leadership and how they handled my situation.

In late 2024, I purchased a Lenovo Legion 5i Gaming Desktop for $1,500 (on sale from $2,000) using a BB credit card. After about a month, it started black-screening and becoming unresponsive. I brought it in on Dec. 14. Despite being nearly new, I was pressured into a $180 Total Tech membership just to have them look at it. On Dec. 20, it was returned, labeled as a loose GPU.

Three months later, the issues came back, worse than before. I decided to upgrade some parts (bought through BB again) and checked it in with the new parts on April 19. Jack Larson greeted me with a handshake, an apology, and the claim that their “only qualified tech” was part-time on weekends—a huge red flag. Still, I was hopeful for a quick, fee-free fix.

I got zero updates. I had to manually schedule an appointment on May 3. I was told the new parts were installed, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. The PC “worked like when I brought it in.” It didn’t. I brought it home—still dead. Returned again May 5, got another hollow apology from Jack and promises to “do better.”

Still no updates. I visited again May 11. A walk-in Geek Squad rep—not their tech—talked to me for five minutes and immediately suspected a motherboard failure, and even said the computer should qualify for a full replacement. This was more help than I had received in months. The store finally agreed to send it to a Service Center for motherboard replacement.

No one contacted me. I scheduled another meeting May 25, only to find out it hadn’t shipped because they “needed the original parts”—which I was never given back. It was finally sent out.

Still silence until I scheduled another meeting June 20. I was told the part was backordered and to wait a week. On July 2, I missed a call from BB’s general number at 7:40 p.m. while at work. I emailed Jack Larson—no reply.

On July 3, I went in person. Through whispers and laughter from staff, I found out my PC had been scrapped—without my consent or even notification. I was told I’d be offered a replacement, but instead they tried giving me a gift card that couldn’t cover the cost of an equivalent replacement. When I expressed frustration, Jack and the Supervisor began talking over me and my family--seemed offended I refused to shake Jack’s hand after months of broken promises, and devlovled into repeating "You get the gift card or you get nothing"

This was a $1,500+ machine, less than 6 months old, with an extended warranty and upgrades—all lost due to incompetent support, lack of communication, and poor internal processes. Throughout this ordeal, I had to chase every update myself. The minimal help I did receive came only after I pushed for it.

If your PC has issues and you're considering Geek Squad at this location: don’t. You may end up losing your time, money, and product with nothing but apologies and handshakes to...

2nd Update (2 stars): I enlisted the help of a friend to install my TV, only to find out that the soundbar I purchased at the same time as the TV is not fully compatible with my new TV... would have been nice for the salesperson at Best Buy to tell me that instead of encouraging me to buy something that wouldn't work properly. Back down to 2 stars.

Update (3 stars): I did eventually get my TV delivered to me, but not installed. Part of the reason that I chose purchasing from Best Buy was for the installation, as I can get a delivery from so many other places, so I'm very frustrated that the resolution center decided to cancel my installation and old TV haul-away without actually asking me. From hours and hours on the phone, I've found out that the store may have some staffing issues. I stand by my statement that you shouldn't buy anything that you can't take with you, and also that the automated phone system is trash. However, some of the people that work for Best Buy are very nice and were doing the best they could to try to help. The resolution center didn't seem to resolve anything, but the store managers were patient and pleasant. Because of the people that were helpful, I am bumping up my rating to 3 stars.

Original Review (1 star): Don't buy anything from this store unless you can carry it out with you. I've been trying to have a TV delivered and installed that I paid for a month ago, and they keep canceling my appointment with less than 24 hours' notice. Sometimes only 4 hours of notice. Now they want to deliver the new TV and take away my old one, and then have a separate appointment to install the new TV weeks later. Great, so I'm supposed to have a TV sitting here in the box and not have one to use in the meantime. Also, you can never actually call the store itself. You have to use the automated system, and the automated system is complete trash. The people on the phone say they can't help you and direct you to call a phone number. It usually ends up being the same number you used to get in contact with them. I had issues a couple of months ago with a washer and dryer set I ordered, which I ended up canceling after many hours of scheduling headaches and chose to go through a different store instead. I'm glad I went with the family appliance store in the end, because their service was phenomenal.

It looks like the store owner/manager asks negative reviewers to reach out for help via social media, but I won't be doing that as I do not have accounts with Facebook, X, or Instagram.

Anyway, I should have learned my lesson with the washer and dryer experience and should not have given Best Buy a second chance by purchasing an expensive TV. I will not be shopping at this Best Buy location again, and likely won't be shopping at any other Best Buy...