Best Buy — Local services in Utica

Avoid Nick at all costs. I bought my husband a surface laptop, and a month later he wanted a MacBook instead so I took the laptop back to return it. While trying to reset the laptop it kept giving an error code, so we left it as is and took it to returns where i found Nick. Now, Nick isn’t your typical Best Buy manager. No, he’s a deceptive, lazy, power-trip of a person who ran me in circles for absolutely ZERO reason. When I told Nick that the laptop is giving us a hard time to reset, he basically accused us of trying to hack it. I WISH I knew how to hack computers. Then, when he saw the error code himself, he told us “oh I’ve seen this before. This is a common surface laptop issue. If we can’t reset it I can’t take it back unless you pay $100 to geek squad to run a full diagnostic or take it to Microsoft to fix it there”. Nick could have easily taken the return which was valid under Best Buy’s return policy. Instead, Nick told me an entire story about how he can’t take the laptop back because he won’t be able to resell it since the laptop is DEFECTIVE and not allowing a reset due to a BIOS issue. I told Nick straight up whether it is re-sellable or not is NOT my problem. A defective laptop is a defective laptop, it was not anything we did or caused, it is a manufacturer problem which is covered under their return policy, and he needs to take the return regardless. Nick then tried to coerce me into paying $100 to Geek Squad in order to fix the laptop so they can take my return. Why on earth would I pay money to return an item that’s within the 60 day policy with my membership? He told me if we can’t fix the laptop, he will not take my return. Where Nick messed up drastically was thinking he could walk all over me and basically tell me I’m on my own and out $1200 simply because he didn’t want to take a return and be lazy. Anyway, I went back the same day and demanded to speak to another manager, Todd. Todd was wonderful, he told me he’s not sure why Nick fed me misinformation, and that geek squad could wipe the laptop and that regardless of whether the laptop resets or not, id still get my return because its NOT MY FAULT. And guess what? I took it to geek squad the next day, within 10 minutes they had me out of the store with the laptop returned and a new MacBook in my hands. Nick is truly an AWFUL person who was on some sort of “I’m the manager and I say how things go” power-trip. He thinks his feelings and say-so outweigh company policy. In a span of 30 mins, he accused us of trying to hack it, got proven wrong, then tried to make us pay for a diagnostic, then told us he won’t take the laptop back because he can’t resell it, then told us it would’ve been a “BIG problem” if he had taken the return and found out later the laptop is defective. What does that even mean? It definitely came off as a threat. Lying to a customer and misrepresenting company policy is unacceptable, and I expect Best Buy to address this seriously so that no other customer is treated this way. Perhaps an individual that isn’t familiar with the return policy of a business should not, in fact, be running...

Absolutely terrible experience at this store with a staff member and the general manager. My fiancée and I purchased a ring doorbell from Best Buy when we bought our house in august. We opened up the user guide a few weeks later to set it up. After reading the guide we realized that we needed the battery operated doorbell and not the hardwired version. We left the product untouched. We got busy of course with COVID and running a small business, so we didn’t get around to exchanging it right away. Then a couple weeks ago our home was vandalized and so we went to the store the next day straight from work. We got to the store an hour before they closed. The team member at the register told us to go pick out the item we wanted to exchange and bring it back up. We went and got the battery operated one and brought it up to the register. It was extremely busy and there was a long line. The team member at the register a male with brown hair in a pony tail, was clearly not in a good mood and being rude to the customer in front of us. They were trying to exchange an item under a similar circumstance as us, and he told them he could call the manager but he doesn’t know when the manager would be able to help them. And that they might have to come back at a different time. He was extremely rude. Then it was our turn. He said the exact same thing to us and said the store closes in 30 minutes so we may need to come back a different day, and we could try to wait for the manager but he doesn’t know how long that would take. Also, very rude to us. The general manger comes over and pretty much says he can’t do anything for us because the package was open. We kindly explained that we read just the manual and the product was un touched. We didn’t want money back, we did not want a return, we just wanted to exchange the product. He pointed to their policy and said we only had 2 weeks to exchange or return and there was nothing he could do for us. I couldn’t believe their inability to help a customer that is shopping at their store! I’ve been in retail management for 10 years, and never once have I witnessed this as an employee or a customer! Not only would they not move an inch to help us with a simple request, they were insanely rude and unprofessional. I now have to hold on to a $200 product that I have no use for. I will NEVER shop at Best Buy again, and let all my friends and family know of this terrible experience. This store needs to be closed down. This is why people prefer...

Don't get any installation services for any appliances from Best Buy. They installed a brand new GE Advantium ($2500) microwave in Nov 2024 and the bottom strip started falling off every time you open/close the door. I called them to fix it in Feb 2025 and they service/GeekSQUAD people wasted few hours of my time putting me on hold for different people and finally told me they can't help because it was 2 weeks over 90 days after the purchase/installation. They said their policy is to help with installation issues before 90 days and not after since I was 2 weeks over 90 days they will NOT help me.

They lost a lifetime of best buy customer here.

They should change their name to "WORST BUY".

UPDATE 3/12/2025: AFTER dealing with Best Buy via Facebook social media account as they suggested me to do:

This is beyond horrible. BestBuy told me here as you can see to contact them via my social media account. I contacted them via my Facebook account and over the last 10 days provided them everything they asked for such as pictures of problem, pictures of installation, original purchaser's info/date, etc etc. After wasting so much of my additional hours gain via facebook, BestBuy said they can not help me and refuse to help me.

Please DO NOT buy any appliance installation from their Geek (Freak) Squad. They are good for nothing, do a terrible job, and don't stand behind their installation. Wasted $2500 on a brand new microwave with severe installation messed up by BestBuy Freak Squad.

BestBuy should change it's name to WORST-BUY because they are full of crap and don't want to sand behind their botched up installation.

I will NEVER buy anything from them and request everyone to be careful about buying anything from BESTBUY...