BestBuy nuked my files w/o permission


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The whole verbal agreement being binding thing doesn't count in this case, because the laptop would have gone to DEX or the manufacturer. Since the agreement was made with Geek Squad and not DEX or the manufacturer, no laws were broken, no contracts violated. In most cases (at least at my store), if you complain enough we'll send the HDD to the store on Preston Rd in Dallas, TX to have the data attempted to be recovered. Usually it's not possible after a DEX reformat (they're infamous for it), but we can try. The Preston Rd data recovery service is only available in a very select market in north Texas.

Well it is binding because Geek Squad sent it to a 3rd party on behalf of them, the customer didn't give it to them directly - so it was Geek Squad's responsibility to ensure that the customer's instructions were properly followed.

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Oh and by the way... DEX charges $72.64 for a CMOS battery..... we had it on the shelf for $3.00, but we couldn't use it because those "repairs" can't be handled in store.

:o Strewth, that's insane!

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You know, I fully understand GeekSquads policy, but I still think thats its total bull****. I mean, a dumb computer user buys their computer at BestBuy and something like a CD-Rom drive breaks while under warranty, do you really think most people know how to properly back up their data? If they have emails in outlook and their address book it becomes WAY to complicated for most users. So GeekSquad can then charge them for a backup (which they dont need) so when they f--- up and reformat it things will be backed up? Thats total crap. Its the way GeekSquad and BestBuy rip off their customers. Never trust either of them.

Also, here in Canada at least there is a line in the BestBuy sheet you need to sign that gives them permission to erase your data or not, and if you don't sign that line they can't. (Although if its neccesary for the repair to be done they will tell you at the desk or contact you later).. I dont know if its the same where you are though.

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Why in bloody heck did you allow her to use Geeksquad??

Exactly. If a particular component broke I'd rather deal with the manufacturer than a group of poorly trained self-taught kids who charge way too much for their services.

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Ok. Whats done is done guys, don't give him hell for something he can't change now.

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' date='Jul 30 2006, 04:46' post='587746098']

bestbuy has terrible customer service. I doubt they would go that far. I overall have just had terrible experiences with bestbuy. I still can't believe on the day after thanksgiving they only had one freaking register open for 100 people. They don't give a damn.

I had bought a laptop from them and got a 3 year extended warranty with it. 9 months later I was having all kinds of problems. The drive would read anything the screen was doing weird things, and the sound was gone.

I took it back and they tried to tell me that according to their record that I did not have an extended service plan. I had the copy of the service agreement with me and they still insisted that I did not have one. It took me 4 months to get it fixed. It was another 3 months before I had the laptop returned. Everything I had on the HD was still there. Surprising though.

I also had bought a HDTV from them. I got the service plan for that as well. BB sent 5 different people in as many times to fix it. None of them could figure out what was wrong. I took the TV back and ased for a replacement as per the service agreement. I was told that they didn't carry that model anymore and if I wanted mine replaced then I'd have take a lower model that they still sold and eat the price difference or I could go for the next one up and have to pay the difference.

The only things I ever buy from BB are mice and CDs/DVDs. That's only if it's a have to case. I steer everyone I know away from BB. They should seriously be investigated for their actions (www.bestbuysux.org).

To the OP: Never take anything to BB. All that place ever does is screw the customer.

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hm.. in canada when you take in a laptop for repairs you sign a waiver saying they are not responsible for data loss and the two times i took my laptop in (they did bigger repairs than in your case) no data was lost. but you do sign the waiver and it is on the receipt.

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To the OP: Never take anything to BB. All that place ever does is screw the customer.

9.5 times out of 10, this is exactly correct. Have to give them a little room to breathe, I mean, they aren't as bad as say Tiger Direct. :p

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if they had to reinstall windows xp just to have the cdrom fixed then BB realy need to employ some people who know what they are doing.

maybe someone needs to teach a bestbuy worker that all DRIVES are plug in play

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You should read the form when you submit your pc for maintenance. There IS a statement about "not being responsible for data loss" even if you pay for the data backup service.

Ultimately, you are responsible for your own data and it's security - no matter who works on your pc. So while you're ****ed and want to cuss at someone - do it it front of the mirror.

And, no...I'm by no means a fan of BB.

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...

Now I only hope they backed her files up or imaged the drive.

...

That is the user's responsibility. I know that never helps after-the-fact, but if a user thinks their data is important, they need to keep their own backup. If BestBuy was responsible for that, then that would add extra time/effort (backup to a optical media? If the PC doesn't have any, then install one temporarily? What if there are bad sectors, would they need to run advanced recovery utilities to retrieve that data?) It gets ugly for them, quickly. And once they start accpeting the responsibility for user backups, then that is just another avenue for legal attack by the sue-happy people in this world.

It's a shame the data was lost, and it seems that BestBuy did do the erasing... But... :no:

...

Lesson learned? Think twice before you buy anything from BestBuy and let GeekSquad touch your files. Also, always have a backup. You'll never know when someone decides to screw you over.

You got those reversed.

Always have a backup should have been the lesson.

What if the drive just failed on its own (things like this do happen, you know ;))? What would the lesson be then? Think twice before storing data on a Toshiba/Maxtor/Seagate/whatever hard drive? No. Again, it would be always have a backup.

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Well that\'s life. The only way you can get compensation is if you have something in writing, that directly states: save the data. Otherwise, it\'s your word against theirs, and deniability on their behalf usually becomes their best friend in these types of situations.

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I wonder what kind of bull they'll pull to depend themselve.

probably the old "we were cleared to do it because of that contract you signed but didn't read" line. oh, those crafty geeksquad'ers.

you give your machine to a stranger, this is what happens. deal.

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another catch is they do have permission to do this. if you read the paperwork that you have to sign. it is written right on it the fact that they think that post problems can be solved by reformating a computer. so the first thing they do before looking at the computer itself is reformat it and then they try to fix theproblem. hince the reason you never ever take a computer to and common repair shop always do it yourself. even if you have a warentee.

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Back in my noob days, I had about 100mb left on my hard-drive and it was decrasing daily for no apparant reason, so I went to Future Shop and they asked for my recovery CD's, and 2 days later they gave it back.

All they had done was a 12 minute recovery disk thingy with all my files gone, but none of it was important except my music. :| Then again at that time I didn't know anything about computers, including formatting and etc.

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maybe someone needs to teach a bestbuy worker that all DRIVES are plug in play

No they aren't. You're talking about the old dell laptop days with the swappable cd drives. Newer laptops have their drives built in. For instance: most vaios and all apple notebooks.

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<<<<<<<<<< I mean, a dumb computer user buys their computer at BestBuy and something like a CD-Rom drive breaks while under warranty, do you really think most people know how to properly back up their data?>>>>>>>>>

I"m sure Geeksquad would be willing to back up the data for the dumb user, maybe for $200 or so hehe. I remember seeing their price list...very high, but then again, they got to pay for the custom paint jobs on the new volkswagens that come out to your house.

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How important could the drive content been if the owner parted with it without backup? I wouldn't even send it without doing backup and then securely wiping the whole drive.

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' date='Jul 30 2006, 08:39' post='587746077']

Sorry guys but bestbuy's geek squad policy clearly states that you should back-up all important files prior to sending computers in for repair because data may be wiped or lost at any time. I see it on all the stickers when I go in there.

Wasn't the initial issue the CDROM drive? If BB and their infamous GEEKsquad had some intelligence they would have ran some diags and confirmed the drive was dead. Swap it out, load the drivers and voila.

Now I'm no big city computer whiz but what I do know is that you sure as hell don't need to wipe the drive and reinstall for something that was diagnosed as hardware.

Maybe it's me but I'd be threatening to take legal action, regardless of their policy. Escalate to a manager from the computer department there, find out who worked on the system and grill them. It's lost data that should have no effect on the hardware. It's obvious that who ever worked on the system had no clue and was probably using their well known 'fix it' discs which just installed the OS over again.

Regardless if the data was backed up or not, a CDROM that is out for the count has no effect on the OS from my experience.

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