Geek Squad — Local services in Palm Desert

I bought a Lenovo Yoga 7 ($899 laptop) 15 months ago. I did not buy the extended warranty. Suddenly laptop stop charging. Online search indicated that likely static built up was to be blamed. We needed to remove battery, push the reset button and put battery back in. To do so I needed a 6-star precision screw driver that we did not have. I was hoping that Geek Squad could quickly open the cover for me. Geek Squad tech in Palm Desert store location immediately said "this cannot be the battery". He gave me multiple reasons for it. He tried telling me that this laptop obviously saw some "rough handling". I assured that this can impossibly be the case. He went on to say that no warranty would cover because of the obvious damage to the exterior to the laptop. He referred to a needle size scratch... barely visible ... next to the charger port. I bought laptop for slightly reduced price as open box item. Scratch was likely present when I bought it. SOLUTION he suggested was to turn laptop in for $89 for further investigation. Or mail it in to Lenovo. Either solution would have not only cost me money, but weeks of lost time using my laptop. His prediction was either a "busted" charger port or broken mother board. He did not fail to mention that either repairs would be more expensive than simply buying a new laptop. REALITY: I went to Home Depot, bought the $8 six-star precision screw driver. I did what Lenovo online search suggested... took a few minutes of my time... my laptop works. Static built-up was the issue. Had I listened to the Geek Squad "expert" I would have lost a perfectly fine laptop and I might have spent $1k to...

The corporate Covid restrictions placed on the Palm Desert store were such that you were required to call the national 800 number (an offshore person in the Phillipines) just to make an appointment to drop off your computer or speak to someone having understandable English skills (within a tight 10 minute window) and it became almost impossible to utilize the Geek Squad) total tech I had been subscribed to for years. After the local tech spoke to me after investigating my issue, the tech told me they couldn't help me and/or resolve my problem because it involved my isp go daddy. The tech agreed that the corporate rules had been too restrictive and allowed me to come pick up the computer and cancel the total tech agreement and get a full refund -...

How in the world does anyone give this 5 stars??? I call the palm desert store and after 6 minutes of press 1 press 2 etc and then being on hold for another 8 minutes I am transfered to person in another country that barely speaks english and we can't understand a word eachother says. After about 10 minutes of that, we are dissconected in the middle of a sentence and I do it all over again. You can't be serious with these 5...