Hi there. My name's Joe Vancil, and I'm starting this technical blog.
Obviously, the first technical information should be about what it has taken to get this system up and going - right? Well, tough. It's my blog, and so I should talk about what's most on my mind. And what is most on my mind is the way Best Buy / Geek Squad in Columbia, MO has screwed up the repair of my laptop.
My problem was really simple. I needed a new battery. They had ordered one for me before, but they sent me the wrong battery - as the system kept telling me. All they needed to do was verify that they had the wrong battery, and get the new battery - and, if the battery was good, then they needed to repair what was wrong.
I took the laptop in on Tueseday, October 17. I have a platinum service plan; I needed the system turned around pretty quickly. They told me - without bothering to check out whether or not the battery was the correct one - that they'd have to ship it out, and that it would take about 8 days. So, I turned my laptop over to them with the SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS that an IMAGE BACKUP would be performed. I even asked the tech who took it in if they used something along the lines of Norton Ghost to do the image backup. He told me that they did, and that they would.
I next heard from Best Buy when I called them the next week. You see, they hadn't done ANYTHING. They had misplaced my laptop. I asked if they had the backup which they had performed, and they assured me that they did have it. They told me that they had found the laptop, and would ship it out immediately.
I called Best Buy again on November 3. They still had not shipped my laptop. A young man named Josh told me that it was inexcusable that it had been sitting around waiting for a back-up for all this time. I was livid, having been told that a backup had been made by the last guy I talked to.
In a moment of clarity of thought, I thought to myself, "You know, these folks don't know what they're doing. I should probably go get the laptop and do the image back-up myself." But I wanted the laptop turned around quickly. Josh assured me that he - personally - was doing the back-up as we spoke.
Josh at least got it shipped. But it was when it arrived back at the store on November 16 that the real problems began. I should mention that it was because at this time, I was checking the progress online.
They had not replaced the battery. However, they did take the time to replace my hard drive. I asked if the image had been restored. That's when I found out that I should have listened to myself earlier.
You see, they didn't perform an image back-up. In fact, I was told by several customer service folks and techs and managers that Best Buy is apparently LEGALLY PREVENTED from doing an image back-up. I was extremely upset. This meant that I'd have to go and re-install everything on the laptop from scratch. And that's a lot of stuff.
Then we took a look at the back-up. It had my name on it - but it wasn't my data. And it wasn't from November 3. I questioned Josh about this. He told me that he personally didn't do the back-up - despite the fact that he told me that he did when I questioned him on November 3. I directed them to call the service center, and was told that the hard drive - which was working perfectly when I took the system in - had already been destroyed.
They would get in touch with the tech who did the back-up, and they would call me with the progress. They called me, told me that they had found my data. I went by to check on the progress; to say that I didn't trust them by this point would be an understatement.
The "data" that they had backed up was my "Documents and Settings" folder - on one DVD. None of my musical compositions were saved. None of my documents - which I keep in a "docs" folder separate from Microsoft's garbage dump - were saved. None of my maps in Streets and Trips were saved. None of my financial information in Quicken was saved. So, essentially, all of my data was lost. All of it. I've got a few things - like my financial information - backed up on my main machine at home, but it's out-of-date. All told, I'll lose about two months of cash accounting. But I've lost all my musical development, and I've lost all my map information.
Since that time, I've been repeatedly given the run-around when trying to get to the bottom of how these kind of mix-ups occurred.
To top it all off, they've still not got my computer repaired and ready. And they've not replaced the battery - which is the whole problem in the first place. In fact, they ignored my request that the battery be shipped to the store, so that that way they could verify that we have the correct battery. I received e-mail yesterday giving my address as the place that they were going to ship the battery.
In short, Best Buy is now on my "boycott" list. I will provide them a detailed list month by month of exactly how much business their mistakes have cost them until I feel that they have properly "paid for" their uncooperativeness, their inability to follow instructions, their incompetence on technical matters, and the time that I've wasted dealing with them.
So, let me ask each of you - BOYCOTT BEST BUY / GEEK SQUAD. Anything that you would consider purchasing from them, purchase somewhere else, make a note of it, and on the 1st of each month, be prepared to send a statement of how much money you have spent at other stores that could have gone to Best Buy, had they not so angered one of their customers. I will be sending them a detailed bill, along with the "payment toward" the bill each month. In fact, I may even tack on interest. I'll let you know how it goes.