Geek Squad erases customer data without verbal warning.

[Mando]

2 minutes ago, Matthew S. said:

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

just fine like i read your post.

And as Circaflex has said if they have declined a file backup option as part of the original visit.....bingo, why is that Best Buys problem? They are a business, not their wetnurse.

 

[Circaflex]

Just now, Matthew S. said:

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

Except the text isn't super small like that. I want to say it is even bolded on the form they physically sign.

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

6 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

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.

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.

Technically they're obligated to tell the owner wtf it is there signing, at least in Canada they are required, by law if I'm not mistaken..  From the sounds of it they don't, they just say sign here.

[Circaflex]

1 minute ago, Matthew S. said:

Technically they're obligated to tell the owner wtf it is there signing, at least in Canada they are required, by law if I'm not mistaken..  From the sounds of it they don't, they just say sign here.

Again, incorrect. Believe me man, the last thing they want is to lose data. It is a legal nightmare and it ends up costing the company a large amount of money. They offer it as an upsell and the client has to decline it twice during the interaction. Even so, if you are told to just "sign here" and don't read any of the terms, or at least the bolded parts, that is 100% on you and no one can change that.

[+Warwagon MVC]

27 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

Again, incorrect. Believe me man, the last thing they want is to lose data. It is a legal nightmare and it ends up costing the company a large amount of money. They offer it as an upsell and the client has to decline it twice during the interaction. Even so, if you are told to just "sign here" and don't read any of the terms, or at least the bolded parts, that is 100% on you and no one can change that.

If they don't have a backup drive I send them to Walmart to buy a portable hard drive and then I back up all of their stuff.  I then image that hard drive before I start so that when I'm done if they forgot something nothing is lost.

 

So how exactly do they verbally warn them? Do they tell them all of their data will be destroyed if they don't have them back it up? Or do they just offer to back it up for them? But don't tell them it will be destroyed if they don't.

 

At least in this last case I saw, she's not stupid, Anyone could have verbally gotten the point across that all of her data would have been lost. Which tells me at least at that best buy, they didn't even try, at least not verbally. They did offer to back up her stuff for $80, but I'm sure that's all they did, They didn't tell her the ramifications of them not doing it.

 

Also is the $80 mainly for the cost of the backup drive they are putting their information on?

[branfont]

Well, it's clear from a certain poster that he works for Best Buy's [Wannabe] Geek Squad~

[The Evil Overlord]

43 minutes ago, Mando said:

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. 

@MandoIt can also depend on the repair store, and the repair in question, a faulty psu wouldn't normally mean a hard drive needs to be nuked, at least it didn't in my case. I went to a local pc repair shop, (not tech squad), they replaced the psu and the pc was up and running. (ok a very long time ago)

[+Warwagon MVC]

49 minutes ago, Mando said:

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.

4

Unfortunately, out of all the people who I help, almost none of them have any kind of back unless I help them do it. Most people tell me, they would like to but they don't know how.

 

So every computer that comes into my shop, I just assume they don't have a backup and that what is on the computer is the only copy. I also verbally drive home the point regarding their data and in 14 years of business have never had an upset customer because I erased all of their data. It's not rocket science.

[Circaflex]

 

26 minutes ago, branfont said:

Well, it's clear from a certain poster that he works for Best Buy's [Wannabe] Geek Squad~

You're right branfont, at one point I did work for the company and then moved on after college. I no longer work there obvious;y, I am a contractor for a Childrens Hospital in California and I have another contract with Space-X. However, i still keep in touch with many of their corporate partners(the trend micro guys, malwarebytes dev team, etc) and developers. I always find it laughable at how incorrect many people are with their assumptions on their practices or how they work. I know for one, I would trust a large company over a guy who does repairs out of his house. What happens if he breaks my computer while working on it? Does he have insurance to cover it? What if it is stolen from his home? What warranty does it come with? What if you mix my data up with another unit? I can go on and on, but I know damn well I can sue a large company and get some sort of compensation, with the guy out of his house that isn't always the case.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Circaflex

[Circaflex]

26 minutes ago, warwagon said:

So how exactly do they verbally warn them?

They verbally try and upsell them, and let them know that there is the possibility data is lost during the repair process.

 

26 minutes ago, warwagon said:

Do they tell them all of their data will be destroyed if they don't have them back it up?

No. They explain that there is the possibility of hardware failure during diagnostics or during the repair process that data can be losses.

 

26 minutes ago, warwagon said:

They did offer to back up her stuff for $80, but I'm sure that's all they did,

So she declined a data backup? Obviously neither of us were actually there when this happened, I doubt it was "hey pay us 80 bucks for a backup," they probably tried to upsell her and mentioned possible data loss and she said no thanks.

 

26 minutes ago, warwagon said:

Also is the $80 mainly for the cost of the backup drive they are putting their information on?

Drive + labor.

[Mando]

Quote

Most people tell me, they would like to but they don't know how.

^ Google is their friend.

My 78 year old dad managed to fathom it out all by himself, he just confirmed with me what cloud solution would be best for him.

Quote

So every computer that comes into my shop, I just assume they don't have a backup and that what is on the computer is the only copy. I also verbally drive home the point regarding their data and in 14 years of business have never had an upset customer because I erased all of their data. It's not rocket science.

^ and you dont charge any extra for your extra time and labor backing up their data? When I did retail repairs in my friends computer shop,  I charged extra for actually backing it up, but would offer solutions for free, with pdf guides available for self help, these days i refuse to do any private PC work, i find quoting my employers contracted daily rate for my time puts them off. (£1k a day) *(i dont get paid that, I wish!) Screw doing private work, you end up working on old pieces of crap thats fit for e-waste. you clearly have more patience than I my friend  

Quote

It's not rocket science.

Either is googling on how to back up your photos and valuable shizzle mate. People need to take responsibility for their own valuable data, everyone spoon feeding them doesnt make people learn.

 

Ultimately, you win out of all of this in future, they will come to you from now on as you clearly care more about others data than Best Buy....is that a surprise?

 

[FloatingFatMan]

On 17/11/2017 at 11:47 PM, Circaflex said:

Again, incorrect. Believe me man, the last thing they want is to lose data. It is a legal nightmare and it ends up costing the company a large amount of money. They offer it as an upsell and the client has to decline it twice during the interaction. Even so, if you are told to just "sign here" and don't read any of the terms, or at least the bolded parts, that is 100% on you and no one can change that.

Back in the day, when I used to do repairs.. The first thing I always did was backup the customer's HD to one of several I kept purely for that purpose, at ZERO extra charge, just in case something happened during the course of the diagnostic.  It doesn't take long and keeps the customer's data safe for them. 

 

A happy customer is more important than a fast buck. A happy customer is a repeat customer, and tells their friends.

[Circaflex]

8 hours ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Back in the day, when I used to do repairs.. The first thing I always did was backup the customer's HD to one of several I kept purely for that purpose, at ZERO extra charge, just in case something happened during the course of the diagnostic.  It doesn't take long and keeps the customer's data safe for them. 

 

A happy customer is more important than a fast buck. A happy customer is a repeat customer, and tells their friends.

That’s great. You also arent a large company looking to make money who has to pay many employees. If i were a customer id be concerned my data was backed up without my permission. Best buy cant just back up everyones data, willy nilly without receiving approval. 

[techbeck]

Places like Geek Squad hire anyone who has seen a pic of a computer.  They are expensive and not qualified to work on PCs.  To many stories out there.

 

Anyway, before I do major work on a computer, I backup data.  Does not matter if it is mine, or someone elses.  I also have the person sit with me and go over what is backed up to make sure nothing is missed.  And when I can, I normally just swap a different hard drive in the PC if I need to do a complete reinstall.  That way the original drive is intact and I just hook it up externally to transfer the data.

[FloatingFatMan]

5 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

That’s great. You also arent a large company looking to make money who has to pay many employees. If i were a customer id be concerned my data was backed up without my permission. Best buy cant just back up everyones data, willy nilly without receiving approval. 

a. You have no idea whether I was part of a large company or not back then.

b. No one cared about privacy in those days.

[wahoospa]

I remember when Best Buy was caught using consumer software (non commercial) at their stores without permission to diagnose and repair computer problems.  They and the software manufacturer did come to some agreement to let them to continue to use the software.

 

[Hiker2019]

So,  I went to Best Buy Geek Squad and explained that I had dropped my computer and the screen was damaged. I suspected some wiring was loose. The agent said he would send my computer to be evaluated and let me know if the damaged screen weirdness could be repaired.  

Lo and behold I got an email saying that it could be repaired! I approved the repair. Nowhere in the email did it say specifically what they were doing to my computer. Silly me, I assumed they were fixing the thing I asked them to fix. 

 When I went to pick up my computer at Best Buy, they told me the repair place had replaced my hard drive and all my data was gone. 

Why in the Hell would they replace my hard drive, I asked. The agent said it was because  The shop had run a “diagnostic” and my hard drive was “failing“.  I said, my hard drive worked as I expected and that was not the reason I brought my computer in. 

 Without telling me or asking me, they threw my old hard drive out. Luckily I have Carbonite. The agent asked me why I hadn’t checked the “back up” box. I said why would my computer need to be backed up if all the shop was doing was fixing the screen and the screen’s wiring? Duh.

I asked why on Earth would anybody replace the hard drive without warning the customer? The consequences for something like that are enormous. For someone without  offsite back up, it’s catastrophic.

He told me that the agent had written to the repair shop to “repair the computer so it works as intended”. That is how they get around the ethics and legality of doing unauthorized, additionally expensive, repairs.

 

 

 

 

 

[Skiver Veteran]

On 11/19/2017 at 3:47 PM, Circaflex said:

That’s great. You also arent a large company looking to make money who has to pay many employees. If i were a customer id be concerned my data was backed up without my permission. Best buy cant just back up everyones data, willy nilly without receiving approval. 

Why are you so determined to disagree with everyone in this thread, I can understand you having different experiences but that doesn't make others wrong and there's absolutely no reason to call out FFM like this?!

 

I hope whatever seems to have gotten your back up gets better but maybe take a break for a while and chill? 

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Given that this rant/thread is a couple of years old, I'm going to go ahead and close it. No need to bring up past arguments.

 

<Thread locked>