Geek Squad erases customer data without verbal warning.


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This month I had 3 reports of people who took their computers to Best Buy and the store formatted their computer and erased all their data without explicit warning

 

The only forewarning they had was in the fine print on the document they signed (which most people don’t take the time to carefully read). They were never verbally informed that all their data was going to be erased.

 

One of the reports was from a customer who took it down there because it was still had a service with geek squad when they bought their computer. They took it down to cash in on a free computer cleanup.  In the process they erased everything. When she called me telling me what they did, I spoke with the best buy employee. He said "Everything on the machine was corrupt. Nothing worked!, Wifi Nothing!". So they formatted and reinstalled windows.

 

When I got her back on the phone I asked her if the wifi worked before they bought their computer in and she said "She said, wifi worked just fine".

 

The last one told me she took her computer in because she bought the geek squad service with the computer. She said it was running slow so she took it in. She asked them if they back up the on the computer up and they said that it would be an additional $80 fee. So she opted out. Later they told her the system was corrupted and without contacting her they replaced the hard drive and sent the old drive back to HP. All her information was gone. 

 

She said she called and talked to a manager and said "Why wouldn't contact a customer before doing that"?

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On 11/16/2017 at 0:56 PM, nekrosoft13 said:

Geek Squad doesn't fix PCs, they wipe the hard drive and re-install. this been a common knowledge for last 10+ years.

Yes, but why wouldn't they tell customers their data will be lost? Can you imagine how many people would come in and go ballistic?

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7 minutes ago, warwagon said:

Yes, but why wouldn't they tell customers their data will be lost? Can you imagine how many people would come in and go ballistic?

How do you know exactly what was said? You are being given information from someone else. I can grantee, they were told about this. First off, when you leave a computer with them, you are offered an upsell on your data EVERY SINGLE TIME. You are also signing a waiver, whether you read it or not, that says they are not liable for data loss. 100% this falls on the user. If a hard drive is ever replaced or a wipe is needed, they will 100% call and ask for approval. Is there a possibility they didn't for one of your customers? Maybe, but believe me there are a ton of checks and balances in place for issues just like this. Chances are, your clients didn't understand what they were stating and now are upset. 

 

On 11/16/2017 at 10:56 AM, nekrosoft13 said:

Geek Squad doesn't fix PCs, they wipe the hard drive and re-install. this been a common knowledge for last 10+ years.

100% incorrect, but hey I am not going to try and change your mind. You seem stuck in the early 90's with that mentality.

 

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5 minutes ago, warwagon said:

Yes, but why wouldn't they tell customers their data will be lost? Can you imagine how many people would come in and go ballistic?

because Geek Squad is a horrible service that's getting worse by the year.

they hire untrained teenagers and give them a 'repair disk' to use to 'clean/repair' computers. There's nothing even special about the disk, they left it in my brother-in-laws laptop once and it just contains basic free tools you can get off of google

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1 minute ago, Brandon H said:

There's nothing even special about the disk, they left it in my brother-in-laws laptop once and it just contains basic free tools you can get off of google

Incorrect, but I can tell where you stand on this subject so I wont try and enlighten you.

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3 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

How do you know exactly what was said? You are being given information from someone else. I can grantee, they were told about this. First off, when you leave a computer with them, you are offered an upsell on your data EVERY SINGLE TIME. You are also signing a waiver, whether you read it or not, that says they are not liable for data loss. 100% this falls on the user. If a hard drive is ever replaced or a wipe is needed, they will 100% call and ask for approval. Is there a possibility they didn't for one of your customers? Maybe, but believe me there are a ton of checks and balances in place for issues just like this. Chances are, your clients didn't understand what they were stating and now are upset. 

After she asked the manager why they wouldn't call first, she said he responded with some half ass excuse along the lines of "by the time we figured out the hard drive had to be replaced there was no way we could have gotten the data off" .. .something along those lines.

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Just now, Circaflex said:

Incorrect, but I can tell where you stand on this subject so I wont try and enlighten you.

not incorrect. maybe your best buy has different tools but the disk they left in the computer contained nothing but tools like clamwin and superantispyware and a shortcut to regedit and a few other things wrapped in a 'nice launcher' on the disk

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3 minutes ago, warwagon said:

After she asked the manager this, she said he responded with some half ass excuse, along with the lines of "by the time we figured out the hard drive had to be replaced there was no way we could have gotten the data off" .. .something along those lines.

Which can easily be true. Every computer they look at, the first step is running some sort of hardware diagnostic on the unit. If your drive is possibly failing, there is a chance running a diagnostic on the drive can cause complete failure. This is why they try and up-sell you a backup on every computer brought in, it is a huge money maker for them. The store level doesn't have access to data recovery tools for anything that is above a format or delete, physical failures are sent to a recovery center.

1 minute ago, Brandon H said:

not incorrect. maybe your best buy has different tools but the disk they left in the computer contained nothing but tools like clamwin and superantispyware and a shortcut to regedit and a few other things wrapped in a 'nice launcher' on the disk

It is 100% incorrect, unless your story is from the early 2000's. Those programs havent been apart of their toolset since roughly 2007~2009. All stores use the same tools that are deployed via a network share.

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2 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

Which can easily be true. Every computer they look at, the first step is running some sort of hardware diagnostic on the unit. If your drive is possibly failing, there is a chance running a diagnostic on the drive can cause complete failure. This is why they try and up-sell you a backup on every computer brought in, it is a huge money maker for them. The store level doesn't have access to data recovery tools for anything that is above a format or delete, physical failures are sent to a recovery center.

There is no doubt in my mind he was feeding her a line of ######.

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1 minute ago, warwagon said:

:laugh:  There is no doubt in my mind he was feeding her a line of ######.

I guess, but the thing is you are receiving this information from someone who is not technical, and is trying to repeat back technical language to you. I can guarantee, all three of your "clients" were asked about purchasing a data backup and the potential loss of data multiple times. Now, whether they understood what any of that meant, I don't know.

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3 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

I guess, but the thing is you are receiving this information from someone who is not technical, and is trying to repeat back technical language to you.

True, but 3 stories which are practically identical. I'm sure one of them was offered a backup for $80, but regardless if they signed a waiver, to avoid a FURIOUS customer, call if you are going to nuke their data. It's not that hard to get the point across "If we continue your data will be GONE!!!!"

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1 minute ago, Circaflex said:

It is 100% incorrect, unless your story is from the early 2000's. Those programs havent been apart of their toolset since roughly 2009. All stores use the same tools that are deployed via a network share.

still not 100% incorrect. this happened in 2014
just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean the disks are not still in use.

 

maybe my local store has improved since then but ...

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3 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

still not 100% incorrect. this happened in 2014
just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean the disks are not still in use.

 

maybe my local store has improved since then but ...

Then your story is pure bull. The discs expire after so many months and are replaced with new versions. They wouldn't keep three or four year old versions around. Sure, you can fiddle with the time and date settings, but that takes more time than it is worth. Keep pushing your agenda, I stand by your story being bull.

 

Also, @warwagon your title says they were warned, yet in here you say they arent. Which was it?

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2 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

Also, @warwagon your title says they were warned, yet in here you say they arent. Which was it?

1

oopsie, typo in the title ... fixed...

 

"Geek Squad erases customer data without verbal warning."

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Just now, Circaflex said:

Then your story is pure bull. The discs expire after so many months and are replaced with new versions. Sure, you can fiddle with the time and date settings, but that takes more time than it is worth. Keep pushing your agenda, I stand by your story being bull.

Circaflex I have no agenda and would appreciate you not trying to discount me.

I am simply stating my experience with geek squad because what I stated HAS happened.

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1 minute ago, Brandon H said:

Circaflex I have no agenda and would appreciate you not trying to discount me.

I am simply stating my experience with geek squad because what I stated HAS happened.

He said "They wouldn't keep three or four year old versions around" .... that sounds like an absolute. I'm sure someone somewhere kept an old version around for some reason, accidental or otherwise. I personally belive your story.

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24 minutes ago, warwagon said:

He said "They wouldn't keep three or four year old versions around" .... that sounds like an absolute. I'm sure someone somewhere kept an old version around for some reason, accidental or otherwise. I personally belive your story.

Devil’s advocate here. If the disks are timebombed as mentioned, then why would they? Also, are they not your competitor? Hard to remain unbiased on that circumstance. 

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39 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

It is 100% incorrect, unless your story is from the early 2000's. Those programs havent been apart of their toolset since roughly 2007~2009. All stores use the same tools that are deployed via a network share.

1

That network sounds like a nightmare to secure. Plugging that network into a computer that has god knows what running on it.

 

My repair desk just has all of the different computers on the repair table segmented so they can't talk to each other or to my main network.

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33 minutes ago, warwagon said:

That network sounds like a nightmare to secure. Plugging that network into a computer that has god knows what running on it.

 

My repair desk just has all of the different computers on the repair table segmented so they can't talk to each other or to my main network.

You misunderstood. They are network shares where you can grab the iso of the “repair disc” it isnt a public facing network, nor is it the same network you would hook a unit up to, in order to perform work. You dont run anything from the network. You act as if their network team didnt think of that. There are various VLANs inside of Best Buy; Geek Squad has their own which is segmented away from everything else. Most of the virus removals or the pre-work is done in a PE environment. Again, the network share is just to distribute the newest ISOs of their tools.

 

1 hour ago, warwagon said:

He said "They wouldn't keep three or four year old versions around" .... that sounds like an absolute. I'm sure someone somewhere kept an old version around for some reason, accidental or otherwise. I personally belive your story.

Because they don't. It takes more time to change the time in the BIOS or within windows just to get the tools running. No one ever kept old versions around because it was a pain in the butt, no to mention they have protocols in place to destroy old versions. I could see one version behind sticking around, but to have something from 3 or 4 years ago is laughable and I still stand by my gut, and that Brandons story is bull. I get a lot of you guys dont like Geek Squad and see them are imbeciles, believe me there are plenty of imbeciles working for them, but you guys are highly misinformed and read into the fairy-tales of their operations way to much.

 

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25 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

You misunderstood. They are network shares where you can grab the iso of the “repair disc” it isnt a public facing network, nor is it the same network you would hook a unit up to, in order to perform work. You dont run anything from the network. You act as if their network team didnt think of that. There are various VLANs inside of Best Buy; Geek Squad has their own which is segmented away from everything else. Most of the virus removals or the pre-work is done in a PE environment. Again, the network share is just to distribute the newest ISOs of their tools.

 

3

I get it now. The way you worded it before made it sound like they just host the individual repair tools on a network share and run them from there. 

 

I'm sure different locations might have better quality employees. From what I heard the sioux city location, not so much.

 

Going back to the original topic at hand.

 

Regardless, if they had them sign a waiver which covers their ass. If they are nuking peoples data and people were confused about what they were being told, their word of mouth is going to be horrible. All they see is that Best buy deleted all their stuff.

 

Maybe they need to have them sign a second document ..

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Tidosho said:

This all sounds exactly like PC World here in the UK.....

ahh those were the days "The Tech squad" heh my mate went for a job with them after completing an HND in computing support and they rejected him because.......he was over qualified......

 

re: the original story, sorry but if its in the waiver they signed guess what thats their problem (RTFM!) and wtf man who puts their PC in for repair without saving a copy of their beloved files? (ok some know no better, they do now dont they, we all find that out the hard way once) Maybe im just too old and hard after working in IT for 20yr but not Best buys issue from what i can see.

 

Sorry dont mean to sound harsh but if they dont read what they sign, thats their problem. 

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14 minutes ago, Mando said:

Sorry dont mean to sound harsh but if they dont read what they sign, thats their problem. 

I agree with everything else you have said, but wanted to quote this part. It is alarming how many people just sign something without reading ANY of it.

1 hour ago, warwagon said:

I get it now. The way you worded it before made it sound like they just host the individual repair tools on a network share and run them from there. 

 

I'm sure different locations might have better quality employees. From what I heard the sioux city location, not so much.

 

Going back to the original topic at hand.

 

Regardless, if they had them sign a waiver which covers their ass. If they are nuking peoples data and people were confused about what they were being told, their word of mouth is going to be horrible. All they see is that Best buy deleted all their stuff.

 

Maybe they need to have them sign a second document ..

 

 

 

 

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See, this is what I am referring to. You don't have a clue as to how they actually operate. I would suggest, taking a unit to them so you can understand. They have to sign on the POS/Card reader stating they declined a backup, there is also a paper form they sign stating the same thing. Best Buy has been in this business for longer than you have probably repaired computers Warwagon, believe me they have all of the bases covered. I am sorry your clients did not read what they are signing, but obviously they dont read what they sign. Literally what you are recommending is what the store does.

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Mando, if it's this small then how do you expect them to read it?

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