So a buddy of mine was having computer problems and decided since he bought the computer at Best Buy he would take it back there for warranty. He had the computer 25 days when he took it in and he claimed it had been locking up like crazy from about day 10 but due to work couldn't get into Best Buy. The Geek Squad agent at the counter took the computer and told him they would give him a call when they figured out what was wrong with it. Finally on day 41 since his purchase they send it back with a note saying that he needs to re-install the operating system (Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit). Some how in the process of this he got soaked for a little over $60. Why is beyond me because he purchased it there and had it for under 30 days at this point. At this point in time he was upset because the computer, like most brand name systems, did not come with a disk. So he was clueless as to what he should do. Since I had a few people coming over anyway I invited him over and told him to bring it along and I would have a peek at it and see if it needed to be redone and also if there was a recovery partition.I was outside when he turned the computer on and came inside to find it idling on the desktop. It seemed fine until you tried to load a program or copy a file then it would hang for a long amount of time, finally resulting in a blue screen error. Since it was set to reboot on blue screen errors it went too fast for me to record any information so I waited for it to restart with the intention of turning the reboot on error setting off. Sure enough on reboot a message came up on the screen telling me that there was an imminent smart failure on the main hard drive and it was advised to back up all data. I pointed that out to my friend and told him I would run a diagnostic utility on the hard drive but it looked like the drive may just be toast. What does he say next except "The Geek Squad people told me thats why Windows needed to be reinstalled, I wrote it down and gave it too them already." I shook my head and grabbed a live disk to run a test on the drive. Sure enough the console was just flooded with errors, so I shut it down and told him that I would go with him in the morning to Best Buy.We went into Best Buy and went back to the counter where a young girl came up and I showed her the work order they had given him. She asked what the problem was and I told her first off why was he charged over $60 when he purchased the system here and it was under 30 days old, and second why did their tech recommend reinstalling Windows? She went on about viruses, spyware, malware, drivers and anything she could try to muster for a bit. I told her there was a Smart Failure being reported on the hard drive and she proceeds to tell me that reinstalling Windows will fix it. Really I wasn't even mad at this point I found it comical. I told her I was not happy with the diagnosis and I was positive as I am sure Gateway would be that the hard drive was defective and that I would like to talk to a manager. I explained the problem to the manager who was quite rude and after awhile of him blabbing I finally just told him look its a new computer. He said it was out of the grace period for in store exchange. So I proceeded to tell him that his "techs" mis-diagnosed it. He said he wouldn't deny it computers where complicated and it sometimes happens. I told him then they need to at bare minimum refund the $60 and after awhile he did. After he fixed that he asked somewhat sarcastically if there was anything else he could do and I asked if I could speak with his manager lol. Sure enough a guy in a business suit came out to the sales floor, shook my hand and asked me what he could help me with. I explained to him that they mis-diagnosed the problem with it, made up a fictitious work order, and charged for services that they shouldn't have. He asked if there was anyway he could help and I told him sure. Go out to the sales floor, grab another brand new laptop, exchange it, and we would be on our way. Sure enough he did no questions asked. Its not that the problem didn't get solved, but it took almost an hour of arguing with people that were clueless, on top of the 16 days they where in possession of the computer. What makes it more frustrating is its not like they had to use any brains. You turn it on and right there in your face the computer is actually telling you, hey look this hard drive is failing. :mad I could understand a mis-diagnosis if the problem didn't present itself so obviously, heck I have done it myself. But I really just don't see any excuse for this one. :rolleyes Funny thing is I was thinking about purchasing a laptop here in the near future, but Best Buy is certainly not getting my hard earned cash. :moon

This is one of the reason why I started my own business... I been there one time long ago... don't ever plan on returning to that... 8|

We had about the same thing with Best Buy .They do not have any one that is a REPAIRMAN that I know of at any of there stores!

And 'puters are supposed to make our lives "EASIER"?????? IMHO, not when the "end user/consumer" doesn't know how to diagnose anything!!!!! That includes me!!!!!

We had about the same thing with Best Buy .They do not have any one that is a REPAIRMAN that I know of at any of there stores!

Well its my understanding they use a couple different diagnostic tools however anyone that has played with computers long enough knows that diagnostic software can be hit or miss depending on the problem. Certainly there are times when they are good to have but not always. Running a diagnostic tool does not make you a computer repair man though lol. Home users can run these also, and many are free and open source. I have also heard that they do like Dell computers and use a remote desktop link to your computer. Personally I don't like the idea of someone in India playing around on my computer that contains personal information. I doubt most of the "Geeks" know any more about computer repair than their customer. :mad

I find it interesting that everyone always blames spyware or something like that. I am not saying it is not the cause of slowing down a computer, but that is the only thing I have ever seen it do, and that was only on XP. I have been to every single website good and bad ( :D ) with every virus and spyware application disabled (defender, and whatever was on the computer when I got it) and all I have is Avira, which uses next to no resources. I have never had any problems with the computer slowing down (any slower than it was from factory anyways LOL ) and I have never got a virus. Maybe I am just getting lucky. But that is good that you could get a new computer out of the deal. I think the arguing is necessary to stop people from going in, saying their computer is broke, and walking out with a new one instantly. Just think of how many people would be in wanting a new computer because their keyboard wont type a letter because there is an advil under the key. :smart >

He just got what he tried to buy 41 days before - a new computer. It did not work out of the box and the peons dried to intimidate him.His friend took the time to go and spend an hour to advocate for him - it took an hour because of the way the corp trains employees.What better reason to only go for their 'lose leaders' that are sold below markup to get people in the door. If you want to look at stuff, the corp is able to get their own bar codes so there is not a 'comp' in the market.keydl