var json_comments = new Array("

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July 4, 2009 2:15 PM

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Yes, Geek Squad sucks and they messed it up. But I do take issue with claiming that there is a difference of $100 between the T7500 and the T7300. A quick search of google products and ebay confirms that they are actually quite close in current new selling price. In one example I found the 7500 selling for LESS than the 7300.

Not saying its right, just get all the facts straight plz.

15 replies

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David Schwartz

July 6, 2009 10:05 AM

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@Radi0logy: It's quite likely whoever did the repair saved considerably more than $100. Likely they had a T7300 CPU/mobo sitting around and didn't have the correct one and likely would have had to buy it new. It's much more likely that they didn't care that the specifications matched than that they didn't notice.

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July 6, 2009 1:06 PM

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@David Schwartz: Just because they already had the CPU handy doesn't change the amount of money saved. As each part still has intrinsic resale value, there is still a COST associated with each part. Just because it was already paid for doesn't make it FREE.

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drrictus

July 6, 2009 3:30 PM

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@Radi0logy: Actually, to BBY's accountants, if the T7300 was in inventory long enough to be depreciated fully, it is free.

Oh wait, that was for the Accountantist.com.

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July 4, 2009 5:25 PM

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@Radi0logy: this is a LAPTOP motherboard with a SOLDERED DOWN processor. you need to price the whole board, with the processor. this is not something you buy from newegg and slap into a socket

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racermd

July 5, 2009 11:09 PM

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this is a LAPTOP motherboard with a SOLDERED DOWN processor.

BZZZZZZZZT! Wrong.

The T7x00 CPUs were only available in what was known as Socket M. Unless Sony specifically engineered their own way to solder the Merom CPUs to their motherboards, they went in a socket, per Intel's specs. Not saying it's impossible, but it is VERY unlikely.

As for getting a lower-spec'd CPU, it's likely that BBY and GS had that model on hand and thought it would be 'good enough'. Heck, I was considering the upgrade in my Dell laptop (currently a T7200), but thought better of it when I saw the price of the new chip and how small of an audience I would have if I wanted to sell my existing one. The raw clock-speed difference is only about 8% and, being a multiplier on the CPU clock, doesn't affect any other aspect of the computer at all. Not saying BBY and GS were acting in good faith (far from it), but I can easily see where some mid-level manager made a decision after what was probably a huge internal debacle and wanted to just get it back out the door.

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July 4, 2009 6:34 PM

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@TheDude06: You fail at basic computer repair.

@Matthew Berkhan: If its not important enough for the time frame to get a mention in the article then it should be assumed that it happened within the past month. I know that the article about the guy that bought a Sega Genesis light gun at Computer City, and then couldn't return it was the exception to the rule, but there you go!

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ShiningSquirrel

July 4, 2009 7:33 PM

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@Radi0logy: Actually, TheDude06 is correct, so it may be you who have failed.
Sony solders most of thier processors, and even the memory and hard drives in thier laptops. I have several sitting on my workbench taht are completly soldered, no user replacable or upgradable parts.

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July 5, 2009 3:22 AM

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@ShiningSquirrel: I never claimed that it wasn't possible that there was soldering - simply that without being provided the model number for the laptop being worked on that there is no way to make this call. The claim from the OP is that it is the CPU, so that and that alone is all that should be taken into consideration.

Coincidentally, here is a post discussing what CPU upgrades a Sony laptop can take, doubly-coincidentally, that comes with the OP's same CPU. [forum.notebookreview.com]

The point of my reply was do not reply with such rock-solid certainty if you have no clue what you are talking about, as TheDude06 clearly does not.

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Taliskan

July 4, 2009 4:39 PM

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@Radi0logy: Also depends on when this incident happened. The prices are lower now than they were ago, etc. Usually when I new chip is on the market it's typically $100+ difference between the models. I'm also curious if they skimped on the motherboard model, fan, and cabling. There are cheap alternatives of those as well. That all aside, if they broke something they should have replaced it exactly.

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July 4, 2009 3:14 PM

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@Radi0logy: Rule #7,695 of the internet: Never buy electronics off of ebay, too many scams and \"I swear it was in one piece when I mailed it to you, you'll have to take it up with the post office..\"

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lotussix

July 4, 2009 9:34 PM

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@riverstyxxx: i bought an htc touch pro off ebay from a reputable seller recently. if i went to sprint and wanted the phone with no contract it would have cost me $579.99 - the $75 for being over a year since i last upgraded. i bought it for $230 shipped and have no further contract requirement.

never say never. i wouldn't buy from someone with a very low feedback rating who is selling a few items. power sellers with consistent inventory will win my bids.

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July 4, 2009 2:52 PM

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@Radi0logy: Um, going on eBay and checking pricing is hardly a scientific test. The T7500 was, generally, a $100 upgrade over the T7300 when buying the computer. There are multiple posts on multiple forums resulting from a Goolge search asking \"Is the T7500 worth the $100 upgrade over the T7300?\"

@SpruceStreetPhil - doggarn bike thieves: Actually, that is how Intel rates the performance of its processor lines. The T7200 < T7400 < T7600 for instance. Just because he found the T7500 selling for less than the T7300 doesn't mean it is in any way inferior. You can find better products for cheaper prices all the time...

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 5:08 AM

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@KStrike155: It's much easier for radiology and sprucestreetphill to mock people on the message boards though. That takes no thought and makes them feel better about themselves.

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July 4, 2009 3:27 PM

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@KStrike155: Please note that I never claimed that NEVER in the HISTORY of the world was there not more of a price discrepancy between the 7500 and 7300. The article was written in such a way that implied that Geek Squad was sneakily saving almost $100 on the repair by using inferior parts. And while the parts might in fact be inferior, they were clearly not saving that much money on it. Maybe they did it cause they are dumb, maybe because they figured the customer would be dumb, or maybe they just didn't have the right part in stock. But they weren't saving big$$$money.

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 5:10 AM

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@Radi0logy: Did I imply that they were saving big money? Since when is $100 big money?

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July 4, 2009 11:15 PM

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@Radi0logy: Or maybe they don't use Google searches for their parts and they have a certain suppler that they buy parts from; and there it costs $100 more??

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July 5, 2009 3:26 AM

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@SnoopyFish: Again, not information that the OP would have access to. He would have had to have based his claim of saving $100 on Internet searches, and either intentionally omitted important information, or simply did not know what he was looking for or how to search for it.

I seriously, SERIOUSLY doubt that Best Buy is going to tell the customer the true cost of different parts. They might quote their already inflated customer prices, but those are hardly to be taken seriously and do not accurately reflect what Best Buy is saving by skimping on a part.

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 3:42 AM

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@Radi0logy: Actually, the price difference estimation was based on what a Sony customer service rep told me when i was discussing my situation with him. The fact of the matter is, prices fluctuate not just from day to day, but also from vendor to vendor. You are right, I have no idea what Geek Squad pays for their parts; but to insult my intelligence because I didn't spend additional hours researching the exact price difference is pretty petty. The fact is, knowingly or not, they put in the wrong part. And yes, it was certainly an inferior model. There wasn't much difference, but considering everything I had been through with them already, it was quite insulting. Best Buy did, however, redeem themselves. I'm working on an email to consumerist with the details about that now.

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Matthew Berkhan

July 4, 2009 5:44 PM

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@Radi0logy: I think we also need to remember that there is a time delay on some Consumerist stories. Stories that are about current evens are always going to be given priority over stories that aren't time-sensitive, like this one. Just because there isn't a $100 price difference now doesn't mean there wasn't one when it actually happened.

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SpruceStreetPhil - in a new Pine flavor

July 4, 2009 2:20 PM

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@Radi0logy: but the 7500 is a BIGGER number, therefore by deductive reasoning it MUST be better

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 5:06 AM

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@SpruceStreetPhil - doggarn bike thieves: Actually, it is better. And before either of you go assuming that someone who posts here is automatically dumber than you, perhaps you should do a little research yourselves. Honestly, this shouldn't be a place for such immature comments.

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slickdealer

July 4, 2009 2:51 PM

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@SpruceStreetPhil - doggarn bike thieves:

By further deductive reasoning, we can easily conclude that a T7500 - T7300 = T200, so they must have saved themselves $200.

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WarOperationPlanResponse_GitEmSteveDave

July 4, 2009 4:00 PM

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@slickdealer: Don't doubt the T200. Skynet worked awfully hard on that model. Very efficient in killing.

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July 4, 2009 9:15 PM

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@BuyingPowerTools_GitEmSteveDave: Don't you mean the T2000?

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BuyingPowerTools_GitEmSteveDave

July 5, 2009 4:43 PM

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@Don't take anything aaron8301 says seriously: No. Arnold was a T800. But that's well after the T200 was created.

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July 4, 2009 2:31 PM

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@SpruceStreetPhil - doggarn bike thieves: Of course! :)

Far too many people, though, do go by just the the model number, or the raw processing speed, in determining what's \"better.\" If I have a quad-core at a lower clock speed, it's sure gonna beat the pants of a single core with more MHz.

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July 4, 2009 3:40 PM

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@supercereal: Thats only true if the programs you are running support using more cores and current most programs still do not so you would be better off with 1 faster core in that case.

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July 4, 2009 3:35 PM

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@supercereal: Only if the app your using is written for 4 cores. There have been plenty of tests that show that the core speed still matters and things that only use a single core will run faster on a higher speed single core processor than on your slower speed multi-core processor. Most things these days barely use 2 cores, let alone 4.

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Bog

July 5, 2009 12:02 AM

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But - you can direct the OS and other programs to favor the other cores this forcing the system to release or leave more resources available for the one core that the single core program is using.

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Framling

July 7, 2009 8:18 AM

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@Bog: Very few applications are going to be pegging even one core at 100% utilization. Typically, you're only going to be running one application that resource intensive at a time (unless you like to kick off a hi-res photoshop batch compositing job while you play Crysis or something). If that one application can't use more than one core, you're going to have a lot of idle clock cycles.

Source: I am a software engineer working in parallel programming tool development.

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July 4, 2009 2:57 PM

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@supercereal: That's not true at all. It all rests on whether to programs you're running are multithreaded to take advantage of the multiple cores in your processor. I have a Q6600 quad-core which about matches the performance of my T7600 dual-core in a lot of things, because the program is only single-threaded (meaning it's only using a single core).

As of a year ago, many people would get better performance gaming with a dual-core processor because the games weren't optimized for quad-core.

Sources: I'm a software engineer.

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July 4, 2009 2:26 PM

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Virtually nobody would notice or be affected by a slowdown of 200 MHz on a laptop. That said, if a company has to substitute, it's always gotta be \"equal or greater value.\" To step down in specs is really a kick in the pants.

4 replies

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July 4, 2009 3:42 PM

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@supercereal: I would notice. I encode alot of video. Hell anyone who burns alot of dvd's would notice when it starts taking longer cause the cpu cant keep the buffers full.

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July 4, 2009 3:38 PM

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@supercereal: So if you were in the same boat you wouldn't care? People like you are what help these companies think they can do wrong and get away with it.

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July 4, 2009 5:18 PM

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@Heresy_Fnord: ......

Did you lose the ability to read halfway through my comment? Maybe I was too subtle, but folks like WorldHarmony were able to understand the point.

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July 4, 2009 3:55 PM

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@Heresy_Fnord: Did you miss what @supercereal actually said?

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July 4, 2009 2:27 PM

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Difficult to use ebay as a reliable means of pricing components. Even NIB stuff there has a demand factor that will change the pricing some. Pricewatch shows the t7500 as $180 w/shipping, and a t7300 as $159 w/shipping.

At some level, that it only would cost bestbuy ~$25 to do the right thing and repair it back to spec makes this story more sad than if it really was $100 price difference between the two processors.

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Mooshie

July 4, 2009 2:41 PM

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Is anyone else but me actually surprised that they managed to fixed the computer?

8 replies

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David Schwartz

July 6, 2009 10:06 AM

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@Mooshie: They didn't fix it. They broke it trying to fix it. Then they sent it to someone else to have it repaired.

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Taliskan

July 4, 2009 4:40 PM

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@Mooshie: I was also waiting to find out it was loaded with porn.

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 3:46 AM

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@Taliskan: It wasn't. I knew enough to wipe the drive before sending it to Geek Squad ;)

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July 5, 2009 12:28 AM

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@Taliskan:
I just find it hilarious that they wanted 2 weeks to fix a faulty cooling fan! WTF?

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July 4, 2009 3:35 PM

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@Mooshie: *fixed after first breaking it even worse.

That sentence makes much more sense now! hahaha.

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July 4, 2009 3:11 PM

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@Mooshie: @Mooshie: Me too. Im still wondering how long it takes before geek squad runs out of business. A month and a half to replace a fan, then breaking most of the internals? Amazing what type of jobs one can get because they dropped out of high school and used AOL back in the day, fancy themselves computer geniuses now. My advice to the employees is to get real jobs and stop being vultures.

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July 4, 2009 2:58 PM

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@Mooshie: Me! I'm surprised it didn't burst into flames when it was turned on after being \"fixed.\"

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Johnny83

July 4, 2009 3:06 PM

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@KStrike155: Im surprised more people don't google geek squad sucks before they take 3 times as long to fix it and break more then they were fixing in the process. Then they write all kinds of letters just to find out doing their homework would save them not only a lot of time but a lot of money.

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 3:45 AM

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@Johnny83: I bought the warranty two years ago. Sorry that I didn't know that Geek Squad sucked then...actually...they were only in the beginning stages of sucking then.

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July 4, 2009 3:14 PM

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I've had several friends who had their computers \"fixed\" by reducing the RAM...thanks, Geek Squad.

2 replies

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WarOperationPlanResponse_GitEmSteveDave

July 4, 2009 4:02 PM

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@rickatnight11: That doesn't surprise me. I know of a few computers that have Mobo's rated for xGB of RAM, but the system specs recommend a max LESS than that. I've also had bad sticks/slots that require you to remove memory to get the computer working.

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July 4, 2009 5:16 PM

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@BuyingPowerTools_GitEmSteveDave: I would also imagine that in those cases, you would return the RAM to the people who bought it, especially if it actually worked.

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HardRoc

July 4, 2009 3:25 PM

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\"However, there is an overwhelming amount of negative comments regarding Geek Squad's service.\"

We read about how GeekSquad sucks on daily basis on this site. Why is it that people still use their services? They're horribly overpriced, have horrible customer service, and they do a vastly inferior job. It's almost to the point that I have no sympathy for people who get screwed using their service as everyone (even my mom) knows they suck. We should make a point not to use GeekSquad when we need a computer repair and one of two things will happen: 1) They go out of business or 2) They actually get their act together and do good work for a good price.

13 replies

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tankearae

July 7, 2009 2:42 PM

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@HardRoc: I have only now vowed to never set foot in best buy again because I bought a laptop in '02...that required several replacements what were covered in full. Though I didn't WANT to go back, i had enough credit that I was getting a service plan for less than 100 bucks and not actually paying for the laptop. Was it worth it? Well:

The original: bought in late '02, three different technical problems leading up to a crack in the hinge that resulted in a replacement in '04. I only paid to renew the service plan.

The '04 machine: crashed a total of FIVE TIMES. The motherboard twice. Hard drive once. Two power cord issues, once with smoke. Then the motherboard went again. Because the ultimately had to fix the motherboard three times, I qualified for a new one under a lemon policy.

The '06: A better quality than the first two, but over the past year and a half...two power cords shorted out. Once was replaced with the wrong one which resulted in a battery refusing to hold a charge and again, smoke. Hard drive failure. (They replaced with a hard drive that was twice the size of the original, to their credit). Another power cord issue. With days left on the service plan, I pointed this out, geek squad repair ended up shorting out the fan and nearly frying the CPU...but with a little research, the damange was undone though the computer has not run the same since.

I'm not sure what to think of my experience. On one hand, it could have been worse. On another, it could have been better. But I see no need to ever go back. I was told I could have reupped my service plan for the low low price of 400...but it didn't actually cover...well..anything.

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Anonymous

July 5, 2009 9:21 AM

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@HardRoc: Because we, the readers of this site, and the readers of the comments, are The Internet. We KNOW how to fix our computers, or know other people who can, or at the very least have a base understanding enough that we can be talked through it by calling dell/ibm/hp/whatev. The vast majority of America (and, likely, the world) do not have this knowledge, but still need computers.

I like to think of computer repair as the new car repair. Most people NEED computers just like most people need cars. but they both can be finicky and expensive to maintain. Unfortunately, people who don't know enough about them to fix them themselves get hosed by immoral businesses and business practices.

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Bs Baldwin

July 5, 2009 5:00 AM

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@HardRoc: They are unfortunately the only computer repair shop people know of. People assume that because they have so many locations, that they do a good job for a reasonable price. This may have been true before BB bought them, but not anymore.

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PsiCop

July 5, 2009 4:22 AM

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@HardRoc: \"We read about how GeekSquad sucks on daily basis on this site. Why is it that people still use their services?\"

Good question! I'd say the answer is that the number of potential Geek Squad customers who read this site frequently, is too small to affect their market. That their chief competitor, Circuit City, recently went belly-up probably isn't helping, 'cause it means that B.B. stores are getting more foot-traffic than before, which means more feet walking past the G.S. desks, and more people who aren't aware of their reputation, using them.

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Brent Newland

July 4, 2009 10:20 PM

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@HardRoc: Stereotypes are what people use to justify things like racism, genocide, war... you really shouldn't use them.

Our precinct takes, between items done in store and sent out for service, probably 150-250 devices per week. Multiply that by the number of stores in the US, and you have a ton of computers getting fixed. Some are bound to slip through the cracks.

Why don't you take a little time to watch Geek Squad TV, right now they have some tours of our central repair facilities [www.livestream.com]

As far as saying that we all provide bad customer service, and that we suck and everyone knows it, I would say with the volume of computers we have that what you say is simply not true. People come to us because they trust us. There are bound to be some bad apples out there, but there are thousands of agents that strive to provide good service. And we are all individuals; we are regular people who go home at night, who read consumerist and digg, who hang out with friends, go to school, etc. Alot of our agents go on to work for large companies or government entities in their IT departments.

And as for the FEW incidents of data theft, or of the videotaping incidents, they are isolated incidents that have not happened for quite some time. We have people from corporate come to our stores monthly to walk through and make sure we don't have the items to perform these heinous acts. After some of those incidents, they sent a team to every store to take our computers and see if we had been stealing information - those people were authorised to fire anyone in the company, up to our top tiers of management. There were a few stores that were caught with customer information; they fired all the geek squad agents at those stores, and the entire store management. They take this stuff VERY seriously.

I am proud to be a Geek Squad agent. It's what I've been searching for my entire life, and I want to move up in the company. There is a culture here that few people comprehend.

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Tiny Bug

July 6, 2009 4:34 PM

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@Brent Newland:

You're actually comparing criticism of Geek Squad's crap customer service to genocide?

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DJRanmaS

July 6, 2009 4:03 AM

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@Brent Newland: You're kidding right?

Listen... I was former Geek Squad and I was one of the best CIAs in that store before I left. I now work at the rival corporate tech store where 2 out of 5 machines were from Geek Squad.

And for the record, I'm not surprised that this customer's laptop got the wrong hardware in it. My best friend's laptop has been repaired 4 times, every time there's something wrong with it w/in a month. Plus it didn't help that the repair center swapped out her batter with a defective one either.

I used to be a proud CIA agent, until I saw what utter stupidity I was forced to work with.

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July 5, 2009 9:24 AM

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@Brent Newland: How seriously do they take \"this stuff\".... ? Yah, we've also seen here what that usually means.

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July 5, 2009 1:53 AM

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@Brent Newland: Wow... Leave it to a BB shill to compare a legitimate criticism of the joke that is GeekSquad with advocating genocide.

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July 4, 2009 9:06 PM

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@HardRoc: Because out in the middle of nowhere where my stepmum lives, they're the only option.

They drove a lot of the small, competent guys out of business, especially when they were first starting up and running all kinds of programs that usually waived the housecall fee.

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July 4, 2009 4:11 PM

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@HardRoc: Um.. because not everyone reads this site? Because many people take the advice of friends and family? Because people who've had good experiences with Geek Squad recommend it? Because Best Buy advertises their computer repair services better than local companies that provide the same service? Because Best Buy is a well-known brand and first-timers trust it?

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WarOperationPlanResponse_GitEmSteveDave

July 4, 2009 4:04 PM

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@HardRoc: Because \"WE\" read about it doesn't mean the vast majority of the public does. And one of their friends will have geek squad save their \"WHOLE COMPUTER\" after a relativly easy fix, and they go based on that.

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July 4, 2009 3:36 PM

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@HardRoc: And pretending I'm a moron and don't know all that...the stories about their techs videotaping people in their showers and whatnot are all over the news! Seriously! What happened to some good, old-fashioned sensationalism???

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citking

July 4, 2009 3:32 PM

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This was the last I saw of Geek Squad's work when teaching my computer hardware essentials course:

After I used her machine as an example of what computer work should NOT look like I believe she went and got her money back.

(BTW the machine was shot because the zip strip holding the power supply decided to rest upon the processor fan, thus ruining the fan, the CPU, and the motherboard. A perfect trifecta, Geek Squad!)

9 replies

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tankearae

July 7, 2009 2:45 PM

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@citking: Considering I had a similar issue with a Geek Squad member just NOT KNOWING how to repair a fan, I really wonder what kind of training these people get.

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July 5, 2009 6:33 AM

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@citking: That's a pretty bad fix. Then again, they screwed the fan onto the mobo of my dell. Screws+standard LGA 775 intel coolers= BAD FOR CPU. A month later, the machine fails to post because the CPU cracked from having all that pressure on it. I just went with geeksquad because their \"fix\" for a burned out fan motor would look better than mine when dealing with future warranty claims.

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Bs Baldwin

July 5, 2009 5:04 AM

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@citking: They zip tied the power supply in? What complete morons! With the public putting in so much trust with outfits like geek squad, every tech should be certified to work on a pc.

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Skaperen

July 4, 2009 10:15 PM

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@citking: I was expecting to see the power supply scorched and half melted. They seem to be improving.

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Zclyh3

July 4, 2009 4:44 PM

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Another reason not to get repairs at Geek Squad.

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WarOperationPlanResponse_GitEmSteveDave

July 4, 2009 4:06 PM

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@citking: I found a computer sitting on the side of the road that had the cpu fan twist tied onto the heat sink b/c the heat sink had a broken fin. still works, but this.....WOW!

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July 4, 2009 3:58 PM

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@citking: Holy @#%$! They used a zip tie to hold a power supply in place? They don't have any screws? Amazing!

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citking

July 4, 2009 10:01 PM

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@ColoradoShark: The case was a custom HP or Compaq case (you know, one of those that doesn't follow industry standards) so instead of giving my student the option to pay what would have been a lot for a power supply from them they zip-tied an OEM in there and said \"good enough\".

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July 4, 2009 3:43 PM

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@citking: Those are amazing pic...damn the geek squad

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itinsider

July 4, 2009 3:59 PM

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I would be interested to find out if this was done as an in-store repair or one sent out to Sony. I believe Best Buy's own policies dictate that this level of repair on a laptop should not be performed in the store, and must be sent to a service center. How much did the reader in the initial store pay for the repair?

3 replies

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 5:02 AM

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@itinsider: The repair was done at a Geek Squad City center. I didn't pain anything, I had an extended, accidental damage warranty. The final receipt said they spent about $800 fixing it.

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drbtx1

July 4, 2009 5:57 PM

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@itinsider: That's not a laptop.

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drbtx1

July 4, 2009 6:01 PM

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@drbtx1: my bad, I thought you were referring to the previous comment

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July 4, 2009 9:08 PM

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@drbtx1: Replacing a PSU isn't a \"level of repair\" that needed to be sent to the OEM in anyone's book, at least I would hope so.

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July 4, 2009 4:05 PM

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My friend purchased an eMachine desktop + extended warranty from Best Buy several years ago. The eMachine is equipped with an AMD XP 3200+ (2.2GHz) processor.

The original motherboard died, so he brought it to Best Buy to have them service it. When it was returned to him, he didn't notice anything wrong with the system since it runs.

But when he started playing games, the games would perform poorly. I inspected the CPU/motherboard and discovered that the replacement motherboard Best Buy/Geek Squad used detected the processor as a 1.1GHz. It isn't a CPU jumper setting issue.

The BIOS needed to be updated for CPU compatibility.

My friend brought it back to Best Buy and they told him that the motherboard in the computer is not the one they used as a replacement.

I told him in advance to not buy ANYTHING from Best Buy, but he refused, saying that buying online from sources like NewEgg.com is not the same as going to a major brick-and-mortar store like Best Buy where you can go and test the computers in person.

3 replies

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July 4, 2009 5:27 PM

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the real problem here is that $400 computers DONT GET REPAIRED. sad as it is, this is a disposable society. your cash is nearly always better spent on a new machine, then even spending $50 to get geek squad to look at it.

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July 5, 2009 6:36 AM

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@TheDude06: The problem is, computers, whether you like it or not, are disposable. It's just a question of how long. I have a Gateway Colorbook 2000. It's an Intel 486. It cost $8000 when I got it. It can't be upgraded to a Core 2 Duo with 4 gigs of RAM due to tech limitations.

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Skaperen

July 4, 2009 10:20 PM

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@TheDude06: And there is no value in an extended warranty on such a cheap machine, either. Just expect a certain percentage of them to die and roll the dice. If part of it dies, you still have some parts left. When the replacement dies, it might be a different part. Just swap them across.

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Ian Garrett

July 4, 2009 4:16 PM

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It reminds me of having a powerbook g3 fixed before there was an apple store. You had to send it to apple of course, but they refused to replace anything with anything that was the exact thing that was originally in the laptop. They used two different DVD drives at the time and one worked and the other was known for crapping out. I had them replace maybe 3 of them and then gave up on sending it (luckily after the first one they just had m send in the drive, since it popped out), bought an external drive and a second battery (this was when the powerbooks had two hots swappable peripheral slots and you could just replace the DVD drive with another drive or battery or this block of plastic that came with it).

Not entirely related, but I'm musing here.

1 replies

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July 6, 2009 11:56 PM

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Apple switches out parts constantly from their originals due to inferior original products. Such was the case in my 6100/66 and G5. Sounds like they switched vendors this time and you just got unlucky. My lombard (probably similar if not same model as yours since mine was the last design for the PB) never had any problems until OS X came around and they disabled the graphics card.

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July 4, 2009 5:42 PM

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Geek Squad does have some good technicians, but you will never see any of them behind the counter at a Best Buy. They are out driving around in the Volkswagen Beetles, working from home and trying not to remember that they work for Best Buy.
I've met a few of those guys, since they are my competition, and I often see their work. They're not bad. Some of they are actually quite gifted. I personally feel that a local company like mine provides better overall service and value, but the Geek Squad onsite techs I've met are surprisingly talented. (I used to train, hire & fire Desktop Engineers for a Microsoft Gold Partner firm, so I'm a harsh judge of \"talented\").

The \"technicians\" who aren't good enough to drive around semi-unsupervised are the ones \"fixing\" broken PCs and \"customizing\" new computers inside your local Best Buy store. Most of them are morons, unqualified at best. They are former floor salespersons who sold enough high-profit-margin software & peripherals to computer shoppers to earn a spot behind the in-store \"service\" counter.

Bottom line: I can't say that Geek Squad is unequivocally bad, because I have seen stuff in the field that was done absolutely right by their on-site techs. I can say, however, that their in-store service truly SUCKS.

3 replies

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July 5, 2009 3:29 AM

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@oldgraygeek: You used bold, therefore you must be right

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 4:57 AM

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@Radi0logy: And you are only capable of criticizing the smallest, most irrelevant details of someone's post, therefore you must be smart and cool. Seriously...are you that hard up for attention?

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July 5, 2009 1:56 AM

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@oldgraygeek: Exactly! Their hiring practices (They use a multiple choice sham of a personality test from UniCru) favor dumb people who will bend over to management.

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Derek Bentley

July 4, 2009 5:51 PM

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Here's a novel idea: replace the damaged part with the same part. Brilliant! Glad I thought of it.

Never use Geek Squad, they do more damage than good.

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July 4, 2009 6:33 PM

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I don't get how someone who knew enough about processors to know he had a different one couldn't just replace their own fan.

5 replies

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WiZZLa

July 5, 2009 1:31 PM

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@bigdave914: It's possible he ran msinfo32; better yet, he may have simply right-clicked on \"My Computer\" and chose \"Properties\" which will show his processor type, speed, and ram; he wouldn't need to know much about processors (the whole point of the Intel naming scheme).

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 4:05 AM

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@bigdave914: Because I couldn't. It was soldered to the motherboard. I had bought an accidental damage warranty through Geek Squad when I bought the laptop because I knew i was prone to accidents. Actually, I had already cracked the screen once and Geek Squad had put up several hundred dollars to replace it. Come on people...why do so many of you assume people are idiots just because they get screwed over by a company! Why the heck should I bother with taking the case of my laptop apart (anyone who has every worked with the case on a VGN SZ650N laptop will tell you it is a real pain to disassemble) when I have a warranty that covers such repairs??!

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July 4, 2009 9:14 PM

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@bigdave914: I know decently enough about computers (I built my own desktop, and would feel comfortable replacing parts in it and doing minor fixes)... I would never, ever try to fix my laptop. They're just different, and way to easy to screw up (so much stuff crammed in there just right) if you don't know exactly what you're doing, as Geek Squad and even the OEM repair centers have proven over the years.

That being said, a friend of mine works at a large tech firm, and they have in-house technicians who are great, and have helped me the two times something went wrong with my laptop, one hardware one software.

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July 5, 2009 3:29 AM

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@Wombatish: Other than the location and number of screws to remember the location, laptops and desktops are virtually identical. The real difference is you cant take a part from one and put it into another (with the exception of hard drives, memory, and *ahem*, CPU's). Don't be afraid of technology based on the size.

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 4:54 AM

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@Radi0logy: I'm sorry Radiology, but you are wrong. I've never run across, nor built, a desktop that had the cooling fan soldered to the motherboard! Notebooks, especially the particular model I was dealing with, are far more complicated to disassemble. This notebook was designed to be compact and lightweight (it came it at 5 pounds). Unless you have worked on this specific model (VGN SZ650N), I really don't think you have any right to comment.

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Jason Renda

July 4, 2009 8:26 PM

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@bigdave914: If he wanted to keep his warranty, he has to take it to an \"Authorized Repair Shop\". Especially with Sony.

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bbb111

July 4, 2009 8:39 PM

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The cost of the board in consumer venues doesn't determine the actions of the Geek Squad - they will use whatever is cheapest and easiest for THEM. If they have a case of one board in stock and none of the other, they will use the one in stock (especially if they don't expect to be able to sell/use them all. plus there would be a cost time/paperwork to order a board). The beancounter wants the lowest cost...the tech wants the quickest/easiest solution. [then you have to insert the ethics (or lack thereof) of each into the situation.]

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P_Smith

July 4, 2009 10:40 PM

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This is yet another argument for users to take the time to read the manual that came with their computer and learn their computer's hardware. If I can do it, I'm sure other people can.

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July 5, 2009 12:38 AM

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Those blaming OP - The guy ended up getting cheated and you're saying he asked for it because he took it into Geek Squad? Like somehow that makes it justified?

Best Buy sucks, yes, but not everyone has a myriad of options for computer needs.

3 replies

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P_Smith

July 5, 2009 5:17 AM

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@dimndgal1: I don't expect you were specifically talking to me, but my point still stands: computers are relatively easy to fix if users take the time and care to learn how.

It's just like car maintenance - if you don't know what's under your own hood and don't even know the basics of how it works, it's easy for a \"mechanic\" to screw it up or screw you on the bill and leave you hanging.

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drrictus

July 6, 2009 3:44 PM

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@P_Smith: OK, doctor. Help me out:

My PC worked before I moved. Movers moved it. I now push the power button, and electricity flows, but the BIOS isn't run. This renders the PC inoperable.

I just reviewed the thin manual that came with the motherboard, and it doesn't cover this behavior. I know of no way to diagnose the problem, or what needs repair or replacement.

What do you suggest I start with? I'm an avionics engineer, so I can decipher tech talk.

(I'm not being snarky. I'm really looking for ideas!)

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bw57570

July 6, 2009 12:44 PM

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@P_Smith: Again, I have been building and repairing desktops for over ten years now. I know what I'm talking about! I probably could have repaired the thing myself. But why the heck should I if I have an extended warranty? Anyone who has tried to open this particular model will attest to the fact that it is incredibly difficult to take apart. It was designed to be small and lightweight. The fan was soldered to the motherboard (see, I'm not too dumb to open the case...wow...an OP who's not an idiot?! What a concept!) The fact is, it would have taken me far more time than I had available to get the part and repair the computer. Now please, in your infinite wisdom, explain to me why I should have put in the time and pain to repair this myself when I had already paid for a warranty to get someone else to repair it for me? In HINDSIGHT, I may have been better off doing it myself. However, I had sent the thing off to Geek Squad before to repair the screen that I had cracked and they repaired it and got it back to me in under two weeks. Are you honestly faulting me for not being clairvoyant enough to predict the problems I would have this time? Even mechanics get other people to do small repairs on their car sometimes.

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July 5, 2009 12:46 AM

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From what I've heard from people who did tech support jobs in college... this is VERY common.

Often repair shops will stock some parts of common laptop series so that they can offer speedy repairs (essential if you want people coming back, or corporate gigs). Most of those customers just want to see the machine work. They will never check to see if the specs changed at all. So while Dell or Lenovo might have 20 varieties in a given series... the repair shop will have 1 model of motherboard, often the lowest end.

If someone complains... they can deal with it, or shoulder the charge to repair it right, but in most cases, nobody will look.

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Levi Martin

July 5, 2009 2:33 AM

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I've had a really horrible experience with Best Buy deceptive practices and piss poor customer service just yesterday, and I am NOT happy. I fired of an e-mail to their online customer service and am waiting a reply.

Needless to say unless this gets resolved to my satisfaction I will only shop at Costco, Target and Amazon.com from here on out.

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July 5, 2009 3:34 AM

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Geek Squad tried to rip me off too, only this was 4 years ago before Consumerist existed. My P4M processor overheated the 60 gig hard drive in my laptop, and they sneakily tried to replace it with a cheaper 40 gig model without Windows XP installed. Needless to say I told them their repair work was unacceptable and got them to fix it again.

I got the distinct feeling they thought they could slip the changes past me since it was a warranty repair. What did they think, that I wouldn't notice there was no OS when I booted it up in front of them?

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Anonymous

July 5, 2009 3:37 AM

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I am an In-Store Agent. I can tell you that we do our very best to fix the problems of every client's unit correctly and in a timely manor.

With that said.....I would agree that not every Agent is the best in the world. The average Agent on the Service floor or In-Store GS. I personally call them \"Service Monkeys.\" I know only what is posted but here is my take. It was said that the client didn't get the unit back for a month and a half. This tells me that the unit DID go out to a service center. However the unit was damaged, it was damaged. This happens and there is nothing you can other then try and make it right. If a unit needs a part and it isn't in-stock, it is ordered. We are at the mercy of the manufactures and have no control over when we get the parts. If they couldn't get the T7500 in a timely manor but had a T7300 in-stock, I could see anyone using it as a sub. I personally do not think this is right and do not agree with it. However, be in the shoes of the Agent at the Store that you are yelling at for just one minute:

Your the Agent......Client comes in wanting to know the status of their computer. You see that it has been out for over a month now. At no fault of your own, you need to tell the client that it is waiting on a part from the manufacturer in order to fix it. There is nothing you can do other then e-mail the service center asking them to hurry up. That falls on deaf ears for the most part and does nothing. Would you rather tell the client the unit is waiting on that part, or it is currently being shipped back here for them to take back?

In many cases, yes, the client would NEVER be able to tell the difference between a T7500 and T7300. If I was the person at the service center I can honestly say I don't know what I would do. Personal opinion, has nothing to do with Geek Squad or Best Buy, is this:

I would call up the Client and tell them that we don't have the part needed to replace the damaged part. We can either wait to get that part or replace it with what we have. If it is a lesser part, explain to them why and what the difference is. The ball is now in the Client's Court. Do they:

A. Wait for the part to come in from the Manufacture

or

B. Take the lesser part that will work just fine and they will never really see a difference

I would make it the client's choice. I personally hold myself to a very high standard and know that all of my fellow agents do as well. We hate hearing things like this and are working very hard every day for the clients. Not everyone is the best, like with every company. I can say that we do what we can to weed those people out and have no one but the best. Perfection is what we strive for, even though it is impossible to obtain. All I will say and ask is this:

We understand that your upset when things don't go right. We are like Car Mechanics, No one is ever happy to see us when they walk in the door. Know that most of the people behind that counter are good people doing a job and care a lot about you and your problems. Your the reason we have jobs. You have every right to be upset and mad about a situation and problem. Just try not to take it out on that poor Agent behind the counter that really only gets yelled at every day he comes to work. Most Agents love there jobs except for two things. The Best Buy Managers that don't understand what they do other then \"Make Money\" and the clients that do nothing but yell at them. Be upset, be mad, and tell them your problems. However, please don't yell and above all else, don't curse. I can't begin to tell you how many times I have seen grown men yell the F Word with 3 year olds 10 feet away. I am sure these kids here it in other places, but they shouldn't have to hear it like that.

Sorry for my little rant and off topic a bit. Please take what I said into consideration and know that 99% of the Agents that are there are at least trying to help you and if something goes wrong, ask what we can do to make it right. Thanks :-)

1 replies

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bw57570

July 24, 2009 12:46 PM

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@SeymourPatroclus: I agree with you 100%. Almost every interaction I had with individual agents was very pleasant. I don't fault the agents. I fault the company and their policies regarding communication with customers. I think the idea of asking the customer if it's ok to replace a part in their computer with a different part is wonderful; however, my experience with Geek Squad City was that they weren't very interested in communicating clearly with the customers or even their own local or national agents. Everyone I spoke with had to go to entirely too much trouble just to get basic status updates on my repair and often those updates were several days old. Much of my anxiety could have been ameliorated had the customer service agents I spoke with been able to confidently give me some clue as to what was going on. They didn't, however, and that doesn't reflect well on any company.

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 4:16 AM

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Seriously people....I'm not an idiot! I bought an extended, accidental damage warranty two years ago when I bought the laptop. Back then, the suckiness of Geek Squad wasn't quite as evident.

1. Why didn't I send it to the manufacturer? Because the manufacturer's warranty had expired. Why should I pay them to repair it when I have a warranty through Geek Squad to do it for free?

2. Why didn't I repair it myself? Go try to disassemble a VGN SZ650N and then come back and ask me that question. Also, the cooling fan is soldered to the motherboard.

3. Why did I say that the price difference was $100? The prices for these models vary greatly depending on where you look. The price I posted came from information obtained from a Sony customer service rep. Perhaps not the best source, I am smart enough to realize that, but why the heck does it matter how accurate that number is???? Why would you be so picky as to call me out for that little discrepancy? Sorry, next time I will spend several additional hours on the phone with Geek Squad to determine EXACTLY how much it saved them.

Really people, this should be a place for us to voice complaints and hopefully warn others about shady business practices. Why would you devote so much time to trying to insult and tear down people whom you so arrogantly deem to be less intelligent than you? Should your vastly superior intelligence be spent on something more important or are you really just that bored?

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serke

July 5, 2009 8:31 PM

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I used to have a HP laptop that was bought at Best Buy. The first time something went wrong with it, they sent it to their Ohio service center and it came back fine.

The second time something went wrong (something to do with the motherboard) they told me it was standard policy to wipe the hard drive and I could pay them to back up my data for some ridiculous fee (that would have been even more because I had more than the standard backup amount on my HD). No matter how much I argued that a) it had nothing to do with the data on my HD why would they have to wipe the drive? and b) they didn't mention this at all the first time, and didn't wipe the drive... they wouldn't budge.

I ended up going to the CompUSA that used to be around here and buying another HD and an external case, and switching my HD out for the new, blank one before handing my laptop over to them.

I promised myself I'd never use the Geek Squad again, and never get a computer from Best Buy again either. I've heard too much on top of my experience.

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Extended-Warranty

July 6, 2009 3:17 AM

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I asked a friend that works at Geek Squad about this. He said that this is rare and 10 to 1 that this was shipped to Sony. Sony generally wants to fix all of their own computers and takes over a month. Generally, repairs are no more than 3 weeks.

1 replies

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bw57570

July 6, 2009 12:35 PM

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@Extended-Warranty: No, it was not sent to Sony. I've talked to Geek Squad enough over the last two months to know that. I asked repeatedly whether or not it was sent to Sony and was told repeatedly it was not.

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Hobz

July 6, 2009 12:26 PM

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To the OP, the difference between the T7500 and T7300 is only about 200 MHz (as was mentioned earlier about 8%). Unless you are a heavy gamer I don't think you would notice the difference in speed with Office apps, email and browsing. I would look else where for your performance issues and make sure that BB and GS replaced everything with its original components. They may have given a cheaper motherboard or slower memory or LESS memory than you had before.

2 replies

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bw57570

July 6, 2009 12:46 PM

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@Hobz: Oh, and I actually am a heavy gamer. But I didn't typically use that computer for gaming.

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bw57570

July 6, 2009 12:34 PM

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@Hobz: : @Hobz: I know it's not much of a difference. It's the principle of the thing. It's the fact that they had my laptop for nearly two months because someone at the repair center had broken it and then they tried to replace one of the parts with an inferior part. And yes, of course I checked everything else out. @Extended-Warranty

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July 6, 2009 1:29 PM

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My husband and I were motivated to write a book- Digitally Daunted: The Consumer's Guide to Taking Control of the Technology in Your Life -- because of a series of articles about Geek Squad and the like. People often cede control to things they don't understand. You don't have to be a geek to ask intelligent questions or to smell something fishy. I do have a lot of sympathy for those Digitally Daunteds out there, but they need to educate themselves about the basics or they will be taken advantage of every time.

2 replies

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July 6, 2009 3:55 PM

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Link to somewhere we can find your book? Or is it not out yet?

I would definitely read that.

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July 9, 2009 6:54 PM

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@HogwartsAlum: Any store can order it, and it is at Amazon. Cool.

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July 6, 2009 1:32 PM

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ALL Sony product is sent to Sony in San Diego to Sony's own service center. Anything involving replacing a processor is NEVER, EVER done in store, so Geek Squad employees never touched this laptop except to ship it to Sony. From my experience with this, direct-to-vendor repairs with Sony take forever and I am not surprised it took this guy over a month to get his unit back.
However, this is just Consumerist baiting. Did the OP get a raw deal on his processor? That's up for debate. Does Consumerist not have its facts straight? Also, yes.
Agents in store would never touch a laptop to that degree simply because they do not have the tools and parts to replace internal laptop parts other than RAM/HDD. Anything more involved goes to Geek Squad City or in the case of Sony, directly to San Diego.
So please, be pissed at Sony this time. Per our vendor agreement with them, we can't touch the innards of any of their machines!

1 replies

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bw57570

July 6, 2009 1:46 PM

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@wellfleet: I'm sorry, but this is not what I was told by several Geek Squad customer service agents. One agent even went so far as to give me the phone number for Geek Squad city because he was tired of their lack of communication. My computer went to Geek Squad City.

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fjellt

July 6, 2009 2:34 PM

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Brent, as an OG Special Agent (#140 to be precise), I have been embarrassed with the level of competence since BB took over, which was why I left. BB doesn't want store agents to take initiative, but use the corporate created cd/dvd to troubleshoot problems.

It took me eight years to get recognized and interviewed to get my job with the OG, now all you need is a manager at a BB that has significant pull to get you in a GeekMobile. Try to tell me you have not been embarrased a single time by someone who was promoted to Agent status.

I have friends at BB and GS Precincts AND still have friends with corporate BB, who have told me stories that I haven't seen here. I give all of those guys crap every time I hear a new story (using a badge to get out of paying a prostitue, setting up a camera to record a teenager in the bathroom, not knowing how to install a printer driver while at a client's house, DO I REALLY NEED TO GO ON?).

If my winter leather GS jacket was in better shape (the liner inside is in rough shape), I would sell it in an instant, along with my badges and everything else that I got with the previous mentioned articles. It has been four years since I left, I was told I was leaving at a bad time because things were going to get better. I wonder when that is going to happen.

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July 6, 2009 3:37 PM

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Oh I see what the problem is, he bought a Sony laptop.

1 replies

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bw57570

July 6, 2009 3:55 PM

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@Froggmann: Actually, Sony has some of the best rated laptops on the market. Every laptop I have bought from them has been solid. I don't fault them for a cooling fan going bad. I've bought so many cooling fans for desktops that I am well aware of the random dependability of the bearings that go into those things. That was the ONLY problem my Vaio had in two years of use. I've seen HP, Gateway, and even Macs that have given me or my friends far more trouble in a shorter period of time.

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Aristotle-or-PlayDoh

July 6, 2009 3:38 PM

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Everyone always beats on Geek squad- many times with good reason. The only time I've used them they were quite good.
My video card had gone bad, and I had no way of knowing what the problem was, as I had no display. Brought it in to the Geeks. He did a full diagnosis on the spot, for free. I asked him if they had dual monitor cards for sale, as I'd buy one on the spot. He said yes, but they were overpriced, and that I should go over to Tiger Direct and buy one. Great experience.

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tankearae

July 7, 2009 2:33 PM

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I had a couple days left on a service plan when I dragged my laptop in due to it getting freakishly hot and shutting itself off. Considering I'd already gone through THREE universal power cords, I wanted to have them check to see if it was the wrong cord that was causing a surge. Because that had already happened, and resulted in me getting a new battery. The tech didn't particularly listen to anything I had to say, which was annoying but not unexpected. What was really annoying was he pointed out that the issue was the fan. Fair enough. He then suggested I get a universal adapter and offered to clean the fan.

Now:
1. I had a universal adapter. It said that on the cord. And its in the service plan info.
2. He cleaned the fan by putting the laptop upside down and blowing the air downwards. This shorted out the motor, and the CPU began to burn out within a day or two. Fortunately, I brought a friend along who observed this and was able to figure out how to fix it which saved me some cash...but really? I'm laying out the problem and the history of the problem for the guy, he doesn't listen and then can't actually figure out how to fix a repair that took about a half hour to do properly.

Also, earlier on a service plan I had a tech tell me its \"against the law to cover a full replacement of a computer.\" I played dumb and told him that was interesting. I then went to his manager, told him what he said word for word and pointed out that I'm a lawyer. The manager said something to the effect of \"I'm sorry, he lies like that sometimes.\"

Needless to say, now that my warranties have run out...I will NEVER buy anything from Best Buy again.

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Anonymous

July 12, 2009 1:43 AM

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So let's compare apples to apples...Geek Squad is the largest computer repair brand anywhere!!! So wouldn't it be expected that they make mistakes every now and again? Clearly the upset customers are going to seek out ways to defemate the brand and make it seem they suck. And why would any business break a client's product? That is just stupid to hear. It is costing them more money if they do. Couldn't it just as easily been an overheating issue because the fan was actually bad? WOW, common sense. The true problem is people expect the world and want things to happen instantly. Two weeks for repair compared to 6-8 weeks which is what it took for me to go to the manufacture directly. It's like comparing a car manufacturer repaires to a mom and pops repair shop. Mean people just suck is all.

1 replies

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bw57570

July 24, 2009 12:30 PM

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@anKristi: I'm sorry that this wasn't clear in the original post, but Geek Squad admitted to having accidentally broken the motherboard and processor. The processor never overheated (I monitored it constantly). The bearing was beginning to go bad and was therefore very noisy.

As far as the two week repair comment, it didn't take them two weeks, it ultimately took them two months. Again though, there is a followup to this story that I wish the Consumerist would post.

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WillG

July 14, 2009 3:16 PM

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m S sck f th blm th P, P s Lyng, P s nt tllng th whl trth, P s jrk pstrs tht 'm rdng ths brd lss nd lss.

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July 23, 2009 3:36 AM

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Why ddnt h jst snd n th thng t th mnfctr t rpr? mn HNSTLY.. GK SQD!!?!?!? WW

2 replies

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bw57570

July 5, 2009 4:07 AM

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@rwalford79: Because the manufacturer would have charged a substantial amount of money to repair it. Do you think I didn't look into this first?? The manufacturer's warranty had expired...I had an extended warranty through Geek Squad.

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July 4, 2009 9:15 PM

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@rwalford79: That's quite possibly what Geek Squad would have done/did (doesn't sound like it in the story, but it doesn't say one way or another), but probably after they poked around in it and broke everything else in the process.

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