In fact you signed at least 2 separate forms stating these among other terms and conditions.

OP has no legal recourse in this situation. You signed legally binding forms twice, maybe more than twice, that say that you agree to these terms and geeksquad will not work on your computer unless you agree to those terms.

Sorry, your out of luck. Best to read what your signing in the future.

1. always bring every scrap of documentation, receipts, work orders and all extended warranty paperwork that you get from them when you go in.

2. always ask to speak with someone that has more power. you get much further, much faster that way

i learned this when i had almost the exact same thing that happened to diana, happen to me (story to follow) about 7 years ago. luckily, i always brought all of the paperwork and documentation with me and it all worked out but it was a major pain in the balls.

at a best buy in columbus, oh, i bought a computer and a cd burner as well as the extended service plan and had the burner installed that day by their technicians. approximately a year later, the cd burner was not functioning properly and i took my tower to the purchase location with all of the necessary documentation in order to get the burner fixed or replaced. i was told it would take a day or two for the work to be done, received a copy of the work order and left the tower there. two days later, someone from the service department called to let me know that the work had been done and that my computer could be picked up anytime.

in a rare moment of foresight, i grabbed a cd and couple of blank discs and went to the store to check the work done and hopefully leave with my fully functional unit. i asked the guy working there if i could do a test burn and he kinda looked confused but obliged. when i booted up my computer it started up fine and i initially didn't notice anything different with the computer. when i tried to burn the disc the burner still didn't work properly. thinking it might be a disc problem, i then decided to try and burn a disc using mp3s that were saved on my hard drive. when i went to create a playlist i found that there were no files, music or otherwise, on my drive. i asked him what was up and why none of my music files, pictures or documents were on the computer and he informed me that the hard drive had been replaced.

i told him that i had never had problems with the hard drive and the work i requested and had a printed work order for (which i then handed to him), was for the cd burner to be serviced - nothing more, nothing less. he then went on to say that he had not personally done the work but that the order he was looking at was for the hard drive. he then said because i had installed the burner myself, it was not covered under the warranty. he offered to fix/replace it but it would cost me around $200 for the work. i then produced all of the warranty information with a receipt/work order for the original installation that was done at that very store and asked to speak with his supervisor since he was apparently not going to be able to work this out.

when the supervisor (store gm) arrived i handed him the work order, told him this was unacceptable and asked him why this hard drive replacement had been done without my consent and why the service that was to have been done had not been completed. he said he apologized for the inconvenience, that he would investigate what happened and that the cd burner would be fixed. i demanded to have my old hard drive put back into the computer and he informed me that the work was not done in-house he didn't know where the drive was. i then told him that since i've now wasted nearly 90 minutes of my life on this fiasco that i wanted the phone number of his regional manager because, obviously, he couldn't rectify this situation to my liking. upon hearing this request/threat, he called the regional repair location to track down my hard drive. after he spoke with the repair shop he said it might not be there and that the hard drive was probably unrecoverable - someone was going to try and find it but he couldn't guarantee it. he asked if i could leave my computer and he would comp me a brand new cd drive and have it installed and that he would call me as soon as he found out about the hard drive. about 2 hours after leaving he called to let me know that the hard drive had been 'found' and that i could come pick up my computer on friday anytime after the store opened.

that was the last time i bought a primary use computer from best buy.

You're right too, data recovery from a company like Drive Savers (only one I know of, and one of the major ones) can easily cost a few thousand dollars to recover data and they can do it in at least 90% of damaged or failed drives (even if submerged under water or from fire damage). Their costs are comparable to the work required though can seem excessive for some. A while back they even had a "deal" for just under a grand to recover just pictures from a failed drive. As far as I remember they don't charge if they can't pull anything off.

We would often replace damaged we found without notifying the customer, however, while we offered data recovery at the beginning (like BB did here) we would always call to make double check when a customer opted out of the data recovery when the hard drive needed to be replaced. If it was out of warranty the part would remain theirs, but as mentioned above we would have to send the part back in to the manufacturer or we would get charged. If the customer wanted it back they would have to foot that bill.

It's always important to back up data even for the most trivial repairs. A majority of the people must learn that the hard way. While I don't agree with what BB did, I haveno hopes for the customer getting their data back. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if they decide to purposefully make it difficult if not impossible for your data to be recovered.

Last of all, it can easily cost
places like Drive Savers thousands of dollars to recover a hard drive due to the work involved when opening up a hard drive. However, they did previoulsy have a deal where they would charge a flat rate for picture recovery only and wouldn't charge if the data couldn't be recovered.

You sir, deserve a beer from me.

Apparently in this case voiding the warranty would have been better than to be hit with the $1500 charge.

Time for an EECB!

the real question here is why they didnt replace the CD rom drive on site. there was no reason to ship the computer out to the service center for a CD rom issue when all they need to do is take it off the shelf and make sure to add the part to the service tags (unless things have changed drastically since i worked for best buy)

Also, there shouldn't be an issue for them at least giving your hard drive back to you allowing you to recover the data yourself (typically an external HD enclosure will do the trick).

The best buy policies suck, which is why I no longer work for the company. I have seen more than my fair share of issues like this and even though i was empathetic of the issues at hand, I was only the messenger.

The service disclaimer states that under PSP / MFG warranty Geek Squad can repair any defect found on the computer. This computer was sent to the service center where they DO NOT give old parts back. Only in-store are parts given back to the customer.

The charges are for data recovery which is not a data backup. It's more involved and there are several levels of cost which start at about $250 and go up into over a thousand.

I'm amazed that you used to work for the company and don't know this.

People should be responsible and read what they sign and backup their information if it's so important. Eventually when that failing HDD died where would they be? I highly doubt they would have backed it up ever.

"We bought a PC about 5 years ago, which has become our children's computer."

and

"We are losing thousands of photos of our children, and a lot of personal and professional files."

So it's your "child's" computer, but you're storing priceless photos and professional files on it? What kind of crazy are you? Should have never had that stuff on a kid's computer in the first place.

@Hanshiro: "Best Buy is the worst buy in town"

And now that Circuit City is out of the picture, Best Buy has no competition at all in some parts of the country. All we had around here were BB and CC....CC is gone, so all we have is BB.

Oh, one thing I forgot. If the computer is more than 2 or 3 years old, your better off letting the warranty go and fixing it yourself if you can. Given that you can buy a darn nice computer for about $400 these days (minus the monitor) you probably don't need to bother with warranties anyway.

@sljepi: Chances are that calling 911 to report something like this is only going to land you a nice fat citation for inappropriate use of 911 services.

Being a computer technician myself, I get so frustrated when I see people going through this kind of thing. It takes a good PC technician no time at all to back up data, and BB's $100 for that is beyond ridiculous.

Also, given that the OP requested a CD ROM replacement only, there was absolutely no reason whatsoever for BB to look at anything other than that, so regardless of any other "problems" that may have existed with the computer, a simple CD ROM replacement should not have required anything to be done to detect other problems.

It sounds to me like the "Geek Squad" just pulled a fast one on the OP.

My advice to those who are less computer savvy is to ask all of your friends and family if they can do the work for you *before* you take the computer to a shop.

If nobody can do the work for you, then avoid the big chains. Find a nice little Mom & Pop shop in your neighborhood. Huge chains simply don't care about you because you have little chance of getting them shut down. Mom & Pop shops, on the other hand, are going to do more to make you happy because one issue like this can can hurt their business severely.

When you are looking to buy a computer, do your homework! Don't just go to the nearest store and shell out money based on what the sales rep tells you. Determine what you will be doing the most with the computer and base your decision on price on that. If all you want is something to surf the net and check email, you do not need to go out and buy a $2000 PC.

Warranties are OK if you spend a lot of money on the computer and are not very handy with fixing them yourself. If you only spent $200 on a Netbook at Walmart, however, you probably don't need to spend the extra $100 on an extended warranty. Most warranties will have clauses in them that will say that if you open the case yourself for any reason, you instantly void the warranty. And believe me, despite what you might think, they have ways of finding out that you opened the case.

If you absolutely must take it to a big chain like BB, demand that they must contact you to authorize any repair that they deem necessary. Also, demand that it be in writing. If they will not accommodate this simple request, then your best bet is to take your computer somewhere else. By not having this in writing, they can essentially do whatever they want to your computer and you won't have much of a leg to stand on when they hit you with the ridiculous price tag.

Oh, and be absolutely certain to read the fine print before signing ANY document they tell you to sign. Hold up the line of people behind you if you have to. Making them stand in line for an extra ten minutes isn't going to kill them, and it is a HECK of a lot better for you than having to go through the same thing the OP here is dealing with.

I'm not saying that BB is going to be able to get their data back, but they might be able to get BB to do the data recovery for them if they can prove that the additional work wasn't authorized or if BB misrepresented their services to the customer.

Ask them why they didn't contact you when they ran into a problem with the hard drive and have them explain the exact nature of the problems to the judge.

This process will unfortunately take some time (sometimes months to get a date), but it will probably pan out in their favor and get their computer back while spanking Geek Squad a little for doing stuff that was never authorized.

Also bring up the fact that the additional work was never authorized, that's bound to be illegal in most states.

The police will not get involved unless it is a crime in THEIR book... this is not.

@BartleyR7: I agree with pre-authorization but to me, a "back-up" just seems to be a foregone conclusion in every instance.

@harvey_birdman: They get away with it because there are a ton of folk that just don't care or have other things to do than what we do and that is build PCs, game, etc. About three years I over heard this (this is true) a little old lady (LOL) at a counter in a Best Buy with an old PC in her hand that she bought from a garage sale (probably circa 1994?). She had purchased a peripheal device and if I remember, it was an external CD player. Now obviously we know that it was not capable of being connected to the PC, let alone the PC having the capability of even running any new software or driver, etc. It just was NOT going to happen even if there was a USB to connect the device to the PC. But this deuchebag behind the counter hammered on this lady about a $100 fee to "check both devices out" to see if they were compatible. I about jumped the fricking counter with a can of whoop-ass. She returned the device thank goodness but I should have mentioned to her that I build PCs. I would have built her a fine machine.

Best Buy did this to me back in '99. I had just finished my undergrad's in engineering and had all my papers, assignments, notes from school and I practically Aced every class. Best Buy replaced my HD but never gave me my data back. Back then there weren't over-the-counter HD that one could buy cheaply so that wasn't an option. Best Buy manager told me that I should have asked first. I told him that it is common sense to do a back-up in the first place because they're the ones doing the work. So I lost all my work. The next time I went into the store, there was a sign at the "drop-off" point stating for customers to please ask for a "back-up" disk of any and all data.

Good point shepd. Not only are they required to return damaged parts to on request, but I do believe that in most states, if an auto mechanic does repair work that you did not explicitly request, you don't have to pay for it. Maybe something similar to that would also apply here.

Having previously worked as a computer repair technician, I handled many warranty claims and have spoken with almost every major manufacturer countless times. The OP has perhaps two options with any chance of success. The first being to pursue that they did not properly ensure that it was UNDERSTOOD that their data may be lost. Unfortunately, they typically make it painfully aware as they try to sell you data backup. The other option is much the same but to the effect that it was not made sufficiently noticable that they were authorized to perform any and all repairs needed to ensure the product was 100%, regardless of what it was brought in for. On either front, I would expect the most the OP can hope for is the return of the defective drive.

Any time I submitted a warranty claim I always made sure my customers knew what would actually happen. Very few of them ever did. In the end, it is the consumer's responsibility to read the contract. However, it is also very important to the company's reputation to make that contract clear, clean and easy to understand.

It is a shame that a company's desire to fix EVERY problem, not just those reported (and consequently prevent further time/trouble/costs in relation to the product's warranty) should end up being the cause for such contention.

1. The computer was covered under a warranty, so any repairs done to the computer were covered free-of-charge. If Geek Squad found that the HDD was defective, they replaced it for the customer (which is more initiative then I would expect from them). While they should have contacted the customer to let them know, they weren't obligated to do so. They weren't charging them anything, and the customer had already signed away their data.
The technician could have discovered the bad HDD, saw that the customer did not want their data backed up, and went ahead and replaced the drive. While it would have been courteous for the tech to call the customer and make sure they didn't want anything off the HDD, the worst that the tech is guilty of is 'not going above and beyond the call of duty'.

2. The $1700 is what Best Buy wants to charge the customer to try and recover the data, NOT a charge for unauthorized repairs.

I do think that the customer should be given the old hard drive back, if the Geeks didn't throw it out. They could probably recover the data themselves.

To get to the point, if you take your computer into the Geek Squad literally anything can happen. They will do whatever they damn well please to your computer and expect you to thank them for it. I'm embarrassed for them.

Amid a similar incident with another big box store I commented to the manager that they had a lot of glass out front to be pissing someone off as much as they had me. 5 minutes latter they handed me my computer and there was no charge.

That said, the best way to get good computer help is to become friends with a computer nerd. They usually like to help out, and they do a great job.

/uses 12-year-old computer
//thanks nerds!

[www.fark.com]

A copy of "Upgrading and Fixing PCs for Dummies" and some replacement parts will set you back a lot less than a service contract, and avoid the risk of the Geek Squad -- or any repair shop -- taking shameless advantage of you. This stuff is easy. We've come a long way from the bad old days of jumpers and DIP switches and tweaking autoexec.bat. CD-ROM drive goes bad? Just go to Wal-Mart, buy a new one off the shelf, and follow the illustrated instructions. (hey, there are times you need a drive faster than NewEgg can ship it!) Really, it's not hard at all.

Also, computers are not delicate, fragile instruments that will fail if you look at them funny. No, carting your computer into Best Buy will not "break" the hard drive, at least not before it crosses the Geek Squad counter; after that, all bets are off. And they don't "wear out" in five years, either; the first drive I checked on the Best Buy website, a 500GB Western Digital selling for well under $100, has a MTBF of over a century of 24/7/365 usage. Yeah, I don't believe that either, but it's not off by a factor of 20.

$100 for a backup? A 5-year-old computer probably has a HD smaller than 500GB. Best Buy is selling an external drive that size for $75.99. Do your own backup. Your HD is bigger? Well, their 1 terabyte drive will set you back $110 ... but you get to use it over and over again, not pay $100 every time you get within a mile of Best Buy.

The rules, though, for ANY repair, whether it's your car or your computer or your appendix, are to do your research first, to always require a clear, plain-English explanation and estimate before you agree to let them do anything, and to require them to return your old parts (mark them if at all possible, so you know -- garages have been known to keep random old parts around to give to unsuspecting customers). You think I'm kidding about the appendix? Mark Wattson from Swindon would beg to differ.

Anyone who has done computer repair for at least a partial living knows not to do any repairs to a computer that have not been authorized by the owner.

I may be off base here, but I say somebody at geek squad damaged something in this computer, or erased something, and the "extra work" was done to cover up that fact.

What the hell is wrong with you?
Why don't you patronize the local computer shop?
Why don't you learn a little bit about how computers work?

It's not that fucking hard.

And a computer isn't an appliance, as much as people treat them like appliances.
You can't get a "warranty" on it, and get a guarantee that it will work like you expect it to.
You can get a guarantee that the hardware won't fail, but you can't expect to have all of your icons in the correct place and bitch and whine if your computer doesn't work the way you want.

I need more booze.
Goodnight.

I'm not blaming the customer here.

In my opinion, Best Buy has set up the entire (dis)service experience from the minute you walk in the door to when you leave, to extract as much revenue out of the customer by any means (including fraudulent ones) - including holding their data hostage.

How many stories do we have to hear of computers with working hardfiles upon entry into Best Buy magically and suddenly fail when Geek Squad start "repairing?" them.

I'd suggest to OP contact their state's attorney general's consumer division.

In my opinion, the only way to get Best Buy to straighten up is to organize a large class action suit for their fraudulent repairs.

BTW, Best Buy, you've been "Farked".

What the people at the store failed to do was inform the customer exactly what happens when a computer goes out to the service center for repairs.

When a computer is checked in and sent to the service center in Kentucky, service assumes that the store actually did their job of informing the customer what will happen. When a computer that is under a warranty is sent to a service center, the service center, under the legal paperwork that they are told to abide by, MUST repair anything they find wrong with a computer while it is there. This includes hard drives. No Geek Squad should send a computer out to service unless the customer knows that if ANYTHING is found wrong with the hard drive, it WILL get replaced, without question, when it is out at service.

This method will never change. Always have your data backed up before bringing in a computer to a Geek Squad.

The service center also does a part for part exchange when repairing computers under a warranty. They have what they call a CORE system, where defective parts are sent back to the manufacturer for recycling, and Best Buy gains a credit for the defective parts that are sent back.

Clearly, the Geek Squad didn't inform the customer that when a computer is out at service, there is always a chance that their data will be lost. The service center will not leave a defective hard drive alone even if the customer requests that it not be replaced.

That being said, the 1,700 recovery fee is because of the fact that service has diagnosed the old hard drive, and apparently have determined that the level of corruption is that of a level 3 data recovery, which is the most expensive form of recovery. That is why the Geek Squad is charging so much for the service. If it is refused, the old hard drive will be destroyed and sent back to the manufacturer for a credit.

What happened was a lack of communication before it was checked in. The old hard drive is not actually at the NH store, but at Geek Squad City in Louisville, Kentucky.

I hope this helps to shed some light on the situation. From my experience, the service center is very hard to deal with in sticky situations. They almost never deviate from the rules that are set down for them by corporate.

Sorry for the situation. As long as you know how the Geek Squad works, and have your data backed up first, then they're not so bad to deal with. It just that some store agents forget to really explain things first. Trust me, the in store agents don't like it when customers get angry, and they fight with service just as often as the customer does.

Good Luck.

Screw waiting. Go straight to small claims court and file for the max.

They also violated Best Buy/Geek Squad policy and that is that if there is anything else discovered that needs to be repaired, the customer must be called and the work must be approved by the customer prior to performing the work. If they did not contact you prior to performing the work then they need to return it to it's previous state, including equipment, and return it to you.

As far as your old hard drive, ALL old or replaced hard drives are to be returned to the customer, no questions asked. Unless the customers specifies otherwise. The reasoning behind this is because Best Buy does not want to be responsible for your data and get sued for your personal information somehow leaking out to the public.

Honestly, I've seen this crap happen before and I can honestly tell you that it is my personal opinion that one of the tech's messed up BIG TIME, and they are trying to cover their butts by making you think that there were more problems with your computer. I'd be willing to bet my next paycheck that they have lost your hard drive and that they more than likely messed up your computer somehow while replacing the cd drive and are now covering their tracks.

BB kinda had to reason to go poking at the other components if only the cdrom is being replaced. Hell, 9/10 times Windows will install the drivers itself without user intervention.

GeekSquad runs a hardware test with Eurosoft PC Check with every computer that comes in and if that program found any issue with her hard drive it would have been replaced under warranty at the Kentucky Geek Squad City where all service repairs go.

Learn to backup your stuff before you send it off.

It's been proven time and time again that they are incompetent. Does no one remember when the employees were stealing files- specifically porn, from costumers systems?

I just don't understand how people can even considering going into a place like Best Buy for any kind of computer help.

2.) Retail computer services are an even bigger rip-off. I've always recommended to friends to go to a local, small computer shop, or find a "computer repair guy" on Craigslist, or better yet, get someone they know to fix it. Personal connection, personal responsibility, etc. The "geniuses" in the computer store usually don't know what they're doing, don't give a damn, and are not responsible to anyone (or so they feel).

3.) People are scared of computers for some reason. Replacing a CD/DVD drive is a 5-minute procedure, requiring a Philips (cross) screwdriver. That's IT!
Open case, disconnect cables, unscrew screws, remove drive, slide in new drive, screw down, connect cables, close case. Done!

You're not repairing a particle accelerator, you're replacing pre-made components with other pre-made components - it's like Lego blocks. Don't be afraid, nothing is going to jump out and eat you. It's not Skynet, it's a bunch of boxes and cards connected by some cables. With a "Computers for Dummies" book in one hand, and a screwdriver in the other, even a total novice can perform 95% of computer parts swapouts.

"If you want it done right, do it yourself."

"We bought a PC about 5 years ago, which has become our children's computer."

"We bought the extended warranty for the computer so we brought the tower in to the (redacted), NH store to get the CD replaced over 3 weeks ago."

Problem #1 - I have not seen an extended warranty (at Best Buy or anyplace else) that will cover something for 5 years.

"My husband would have replaced the CD drive himself, but then it would invalidate the warranty."

Problem #2 - I haven't seen an extended warranty that would be voided by doing something as simple as replacing a CD drive.

"We are losing thousands of photos of our children, and a lot of personal and professional files."

Problem #3 - You said originally that this had become the children's computer. What are thousands of photos, personal and professional files doing on the kids computer? Wouldn't that stuff be on, you know, YOUR computer?

Post your story on www.craigslist.com. Warn people about the Best Buy store. Post your story on www.ripoffreport.com as well. Let Best Buy know you are going to complain about them. I've heard stories from Geek Squad "agents" (gag puke cough) that said "Do not go to Geek Squad for help, because we are trained to do everything possible to charge people (suckers) more money. Otherwise, get a detailed estimate, on paper, including detailed instructions on what you (the customer) want to be done. Demand to be notified before any additional work is done. If Geek Squad or Best Buy refuses to do this, well, that's a pretty good indicator that they can't be trusted."

You can buy a 4GB flash drive for really cheap - back up your data on one of them. They charged you for an external hard drive that you didn't want? That sounds illegal to me. Lab fees that high? That means they are incompetent.

I don't know you but I'm pissed off for you. Please post a message on Consumerist.com if anything happens. Good luck.

BTW: Please add "attn:bumblefoot2004" to beginning of your message.

The hard drive was replaced because it was found to have failed. The $1700 charge is for data recovery off a non-functional drive. She declined the $100 data backup (which might not have helped her anyway, depending on when the drive failed), and as the waiver says when you sign it to sign in your unit, Best Buy is not responsible for data loss. And technically they're not obligated to call (but should anyway, they did drop the ball there) because the waiver also says that when they have your signature, they can replace all apparent defects under warranty. Since the repair wasn't going to cost the customer anything out of pocket and they've already expressed by declining the backup that they didn't care about the data on the drive, I guess that's why the tech didn't call before proceeding with the repair.

If the drive was mis-replaced and wasn't failing as bad as they claim, then it would be provable (or the data recovery service would probably be able to estimate that they could recover more of the data). She could go after them for that, perhaps. But she signed the waver that she could lose any data... And while Best Buy should have called to give the heads up that the drive was defective, the fact that they didn't doesn't mean they violated any permission... It would be just as bad if they just replaced the CD drive, then the customer takes it home and notices it doesn't boot because the hard drive gave up the ghost--I'd wager some fury would be pointed at Geek Squad for that, too, because they "missed it" or "broke it further".

To replace the CD drive, standard way to do it:
-- Turn on computer. Verify drive does not work by attempting to read a CD. If reading works, attempt to burn (if it is a CD burner).
-- If that doesn't work, obtain parts and replace offending drive.
-- Turn on computer and test drive.

At any point during this they may notice that the comp isn't working correctly and maybe the hard drive failed there... Afterwards, as per the signed authorization form for sign-in, they would probably run a full diagnostic (which they run off CD, so they have to fix the drive first) and fix anything that comes up. It will likely be written down on the sheet that the hard drive failed the diagnostic, and often what test it failed, as well...

She signed the sheet, she authorized them to fix anything that was wrong with it. They morally should have given her a heads up and told her what was up, and offered (again) to back up the data or try to... But again, that signature means that even if they don't (or couldn't get a hold of her to let her know) that they are able to do the necessary repairs to get her computer running 100% again.

And if it's just a part they pulled off the shelf under their PSP, sometimes they need to keep the old drive for accounting purposes, to prove that yes, this part was indeed replaced for this customer with this order number, and here's the defective part. Then they destroy them in a batch later.

It appears Geek Squad, in their diagnosis, found the drive to have failed or on its way to failing hardcore, replaced the drive, installed the OS, and probably very well could give back her drive if she asks for it... But they won't volunteer to give it back, because it's against standard operating procedure to do so due to warranty requirements.

You should also always back up your data.

That said, I spent two years working in the Geek Squad. The reason it costs so much money for the data recovery, and the reason that the cost is non-negotiable is that they use a third-party company. Yes, this is way too much money, and I really do believe that the OP has been ripped off. A large part of the reason that I no longer work for Best Buy is that I was forced to rip people off in this manner on an almost daily basis.

So I can see both sides of the argument. Still, I guess I side more with the OP than with BBY.

Because of agreements Best Buy has with the vendors providing parts, they would be in violation of their contract to give the part back to the customer. Best Buy can hold onto it for a short period of time during which data recovery may be performed, but they're not able to return warranty replaced parts.

They say something like:
"YOU AGREE TO REMOVE ALL MEDIA BEFORE BRINGING YOUR COMPUTER TO BEST BUY"

"YOU WAIVE ALL POTENTIAL DATA LOSS CLAIMS AND BEST BUY IS IN NO WAY LIABLE FOR ANY DATA LOSS EVER"

Stupid customers are why I left retail. As much as that place sucked, THE CUSTOMERS WERE WORSE!

"I AUTHORIZE BEST BUY TO REPAIR ALL APPARENT DEFECTS"

Diagnostic tests must be run before replacing parts. Apparently the hard drive failed a diagnostic test.

YOU AUTHORIZE BEST BUY TO REPAIR ALL APPARENT DEFECTS.

End of discussion.

Ahh.. the lab fees. I missed that part.. I know I'd be miffed if someone tried to do that sort of recovery without permission.

"You authorize Best Buy to repair all apparent defects".

Not that I like GS/BBY, but the customer should have taken this into account. It was a five year old PC, I would have bet cold hard cash that the hard drive would have failed SOME test, even if just for reaching the threshold for SMART errors.

Wait. What is the point of a warranty if you are charged THAT MUCH for replacement parts?

*boggle*

(though, I agree... one must read what one signs)

$100 to back up data is highway robbery for something that should only take someone a few minutes of buttonmashing and a bit longer staring at a little progress bar.

The fear of invalidating a warranty ought to teach someone not to bleed out the money for said warranty in the first place. Most reputable component manufacturers warranty their products separately. If you HDD goes out, contact Seagate, WD, or whoever for an RMA. If it's out of warranty, chances are it's ready to be replaced by something bigger anyhow.

If I found myself in this position, I am afraid I would have to tell BB to pound sand. Go ahead and file suit.. I guarantee it will take you longer to get anything from me than it would be worth, as well as a highly publicized account of the whole situation to enlighten potential customers.

With the stories about Geek Squad's shady practices that have already come out, (data theft, false claims of what repairs are necessary, etc.)it will only be a matter of time before BB either fixes things, or looses more business.

It's really too bad Best Buy and CompUSA couldn't have switched fates.. it's hard to find a good deal on computer components anymore without going online.

Part of the service agreement states:
"YOU AUTHORIZE BEST BUY TO REPAIR ALL APPARENT DEFECTS", which is obviously as determined by them. All a hard drive has to do is have a few SMART errors present for Best Buy to deem it defective. It fails one test, or fails during a test, and they have authorization to replace the drive.

@Tsubasa: There's a lot of confusion in this thread of comments, starting with you.

Best Buy is not charging the customer for the hard drive replacement.

In fact, Best Buy is not charging the customer anything. They can take their computer home right now totally free of charge, since their warranty covered all work done to the computer.

The consumer is upset because he wants his data off the hard drive that they replaced. He didn't expect them to replace the hard drive when he took it in, but under standard warranty work they checked out other things and it turns out the hard drive had some bad sectors or something so they replaced it. Best Buy is charging an absurd amount to recover data off the old hard drive.

That is the point of contention - if we are going to have juvenile arguing in the thread, at least get the two sides correct.

Part of the service agreement the customer didn't read states something along the lines of:

"BEST BUY WILL REPAIR ALL APPARENT DEFECTS"

"2) where you authorized any payments for any work other than replacing the CD drive"

They didn't authorize any payments, this was warranty work. Data recovery after Geek Squad bonked their drive is optional and they don't have to pay for it since the work was not authorized yet and therefore was not completed.

"3) Get a detailed invoice/work order of ALL work that they told you they verbally conducted.... If they refuse to give you your computer, call the police for failure to return items that were yours (stealing)."

Just as a note, I worked at Geek Squad and had customers call the police on a number of occasions. The police told them they couldn't do anything, which is true, and that this is a civil matter. The police then laugh once the customer is escorted out of the store.

These customers above CLEARLY did not do that. There are TWO very important lines I remember from the service agreement.

These are not verbatim, but I promise they're in there:

1. YOU AUTHORIZE BEST BUY TO REPAIR ALL APPARENT DEFECTS

>>Remember the fact that they replaced their hard drive? Their hard drive failed one of the diagnostic tests run, or quite possibly failed completely during the diagnostic testing. The computer was under warranty, so they were going to REPAIR ALL APPARENT DEFECTS.<<

2. YOU HAVE BACKED UP ALL YOUR DATA, REMOVED ALL MEDIA FROM THE DEVICE, AND YOU WILL NOT HOLD BEST BUY LIABLE FOR DATA LOSS.

>>Well, that one is pretty self-explantaory. Back up your data regularly, or you're an idiot. Back up your data before having other people work on it, or you're an idiot. Read the CONTRACT YOU SIGN, or you're an idiot.<<

So, while I don't care much for Geek Squad and they may have possibly messed up somewhere down the line, they're covered by THE CONTRACT THE CUSTOMER FAILED TO READ. The customer is an idiot and deserves what they got.

And no, they can't have the hard drive back due to the warranty agreement. Best Buy owns the drive once they replace it under the service plan, the customer does not. The customer would own the hard drive if they purchased the replacement part, similar to when parts in your car are replaced at your expense and the old ones are returned to you.

I'm very sorry for you. I would probably engage the service of a qualified attorney. I would think that a letter from your attorney would clear things up quickly.

Truly, from what I have read of Geek Squads antics I must opine that they are truly incompetent. I am sorry that you may lose your pictures, had you only know they were going to screw it up so badly you would have backed up twice!

Ask the attorney who does your other matters, wills or real estate or something like that. If you are a 'regular customer' he may just send the letter on your behalf urging Geek Squad to avoid a lawsuit. He may actually refer you to a colleague if you must sue, but it certainly can't hurt to ask.

I can only assume that the $1500 was because the drive was sent out for an extracting, but don't hold me to that.

They screwed up and the liability is on them, so they have to eat the cost and give the drive back. As for HD replacing, they have to send the old hard drive back to the manufacturer in order to be reinburst for the price of the hard drive.

Now since we see a breach of contract here, so get a lawyer and goto town.

The second, in the case of a head crash or other platter-object contact, you actually have to (in a clean room, with appropriate handling devices) disassemble the hard drive, take each platter out of it, hook it up to some fancy-pants magnetic reader thing which copies the data in it's raw, magnetic form, reconstitute the data, and then write it to a new hard drive. And that's if the platters are in good physical condition. Any further damage takes even more work because you have to reconstitute the platters before you can get to the magnetics before you can get to the data.

I have a friend who works for OnTrack Data Recovery (in Canada, not the US branch) and she says that the minimum to be considered for a position is a BA or BS in Compsci and an A+ cert. That's why $1700 is actually fairly reasonable.

Yea i'm sure we are not getting the whole story here but from what we are told they just wanted to replace the cd rom. did not want nothing to do with the back-up cause nothing was wrong with the hd. as others have said the service rep was prolly irked that they didn't take the 100$ fee for the back-up and did it anyway and claimed they did 1700$ worth of work on it. i'm sorry but on that old of a computer i don't think you could do 1700$ worth of work on it unless they replaced everything with top of line gaming computer, they're more then likely just holding their hd ransom.

Best Buy service puts your computer and your data in jeopardy. Our experience is they are untrustworthy and incompetent to diagnose and service anything complex.
Our last incident with Best Buy had them waiting three weeks to return our PC as 'fixed' with all internal cables detached, the hard drive loose in the case and damage to the motherboard. When this was discovered carrying it out to the car (banging noises as the loose hard drive crashed about inside the case) They also blamed it on the manufacturers repair facility claiming it was returned to 'ACER' for repair but we found out it was returned from 'geek city' in that unusable state.
so not only do they not fix the computers, they break the ones they get and lie to their customers.

that is true everyone should all ready have backups. but they only brought it in for fixing the cd drive. i would think that if they were going to do anything else with it especially if it is messing your personal hd that they would contact you first that way you can think about it whether or not you want them to do anything with it. this is just horrible customer service. the couple should sue them fordamages to their computer and potential loss of important data when they only wanted the cd drive fixed.

its totally irresponsible for a service like the geek squad to do something of that magnitude and for that much extra money in fees without first notifying them.

She might not have realized she was giving permission, but before they sent it off, the standard GS forum that everyone signs and agrees to indicates that any other parts that need to be fixed will be fixed.

That way
1. Its portable- can plug into another pc and its all there.

2. Everything is off the pc so if it crashes nothing is lost.

3. If the external usb hard drive fails you have a backup.

There is free backup software out there (check C|Net. I use Uranium) if you want to schedule nightly backups

NEVER deal with Best Buy. I wouldn't buy a cd there. They have lousy customer service, uninformed employees and they will rip you off. Even I, a 20 year IT professional, was lied to when purchasing a laptop from them. Lesson learned.

I have seen numerous reports about how bad Geek Squad is. I'm a web developer and I do not trust anything from Best Buy. Yes it's a great store to go into and look around, but one of the worse places you can ever purchase products. To get a computer repaired you're better off going to a small mom and pops repair center.

I believe there was a news station in the Minnesota area that did a report where they unplugged the hard drive of an old computer and took it to 5 stores including 2 Geek squads. The first place was a small company ran by some friends and the technician found the problem in no time and didn't even charge for the quick fix. They took it to other small computer repair shops and got the same service. The last two stops were Best Buy where one store told them that the computer was unrepairable and would help the consumer purchase a brand new computer (mind you they just unplugged the hard drive) and the second store found the issue but came up with other problems they "fixed" and charged around $1000 for the hard drive.

So for anyone that needs a computer fixed, DO NOT TAKE IT TO BEST BUY/GEEK SQUAD the people that work there are high school educated persons that have an hour or two of "computer training." Take it to a real professional or their is always Google search that one can pull up anything about how a computer works or threads about how to fix things, from avid computer scientist.

Did they even call you to say, "Hey we messed up your hard drive during this CD drive install and now we will replace the drive and to get data off the old drive is $xxx."?

They are not allowed to proceed with anything other than the original request without at LEAST a verbal agreement to more work over the phone. You can at least sue them because they did work that you did not agree to (unless you did agree to it by signing some trap form). My husband used to work at the Geek Squad and knows how this is supposed to be done.

That being said, replacing a drive is absolutely non-destructive unless they did something to the original drive to begin with. If that's the case, then they most likely are trying to cover their tracks. Either way, a responsible company would certainly keep the old drive around until they were certain it was no longer needed.

Finally, BACK IT UP REGULARLY. It's not difficult, it's not expensive, and it will keep you safe if your hard drive fails on its own. There are services that *may* be able to do that, but they're time consuming and expensive ... and who wants to be over THAT barrel?

If I were them, I'd refuse to pay and send the hard drive to another data recovery service. Call around, even for the big name data recovery operations out there, hardly any are charging more than $1000 to recover data anymore (As long as you specify that you want their least expensive service).

what you learn to do with your data the day after losing all of your data.

the more i read this the less sympathetic i am to the OP. we really don't have all of the info here, so none of us can make an informed guess about what is going on in this particular situation. certainly it is possible the drivers for the optical drive would need to be installed on the hard drive. so some messing around with that drive and the os might have been necessary. swapping out a cd drive is really, really easy. however, the drivers do mean messing with the hd and os, so apparently that is where the problem crept in. and thats why thinking about the hardware swap, as easy as it is, is only half the story.

it does sound like they put a fresh install of the os on the drive. sucks since the customer didn't back up their data. that sort of solution inherently solves a lot of problems with windows computers. i can imagine a lot of ways that a 5 year old kids computer could get messed up.

mostly it looks like the OP needs to back up data and read the contract.

They did give us brand new laptop, Microsoft Office, and a 100 dollar gift card in repayment for the idiocy. So they at least made the effort to try and make it right.

We still do Best Buy....but no more Geek Squad.

(the following is my analytical view of what is missing...in my opinion):
#2 "Geek Squad replaced so much on the computer that the value of the work that they did is well over the amount of money that the computer is even worth! Hmmm...HDD $60 + DVD Drive $40 = $100 PC? Doubtful unless you purchased an E-machine...of course, that would explain everything :)

#3 Hard Drives Fail. Period. That the HDD failed while it was at Geek Squad does mean cause/effect like many people are insinuating.

#4 The person writing the letter doesn't mention that the agents called them but that doesn't mean that they were not. Most people writing a letter have a habit of selecting which facts to share and which ones not to share...Of course, I would not be writing this statement if they had merely written. No one ever called us about the hard drive needing to be repaired but the lack of this statement leads us to believe this which may not be true.

#5 The amount of money asking for return of the data would lead me to believe that the hard drive totally failed. Having asked a friend who is an agent about this I believe that the customer's Hard drive was so slagged that they had to rebuild it (disassemble the drive, put the platters in a new drive frame, then attempt to copy the information off the hard drive...all in a sterile environment...). That would match up with the charges that Geek Squad is asking for.

Of course we don't here about any of this in the customer's letter...

Also the fact that the store gave them $200 in a gift card doesn't mean that they admit guilt. It may just mean that they felt bad for the customer after they pleaded their case and wanted to do something for them to offset the costs. Yep it wasn't a $1700 gift card but it was something...

I'm sure I'll get all flamed for this but I like to play devil's advocate. The letter was very ambiguous as far as the information that was shared and there is usually way more info to the story than the person who feels slighted lets on.

You are possibly the least stealthy confederate for Best Buy that I have ever seen. Suggestion for next time? Pick one or two threads, and don't try to address every comment in all of them. This isn't whack-a-mole.

BB is trying to cover something up. Then to top it off, it was all illegal work that was not authorized..

BB, messed up by not authorizing the extra work and are trying to use corporate speak to not get screwed..

Hell, any half brain person in the store would just get the old HD and do the switch for free to save the bad PR storm.. That is if they actually swapped the drive..

Hopefully they listen and take BB to small claims court, or better yet get the local news to pick up the story..

1) She requested warranty service for a complaint of a non-working optical drive. That and the warranty make it reasonable that she has not only authorized but requested any service necessary to accomplish that.

2) There are NO additional charges for the warranty work. You misread that. The charges are prospective charges IF she wanted non-warranty data recovery.

3) A detailed service log of the repairs done would be in her file and is very likely available to her.

4) She very likely CAN get the replaced drive by paying a core fee. Technically it belongs to the warranty company but they will usually release it to you for the fee that they would have recovered from the hard drive manufacturer.

5) They won't refuse to give her the computer. There is no money owing on it and she's free to pick it up. The failed hard drive is no longer owned by her after the repair but can likely be obtained by paying a core fee. The police do not get involved in civil matters. There are no viable criminal charges so the police will not help her.

6) Her hard drive has FAILED. She can't "take it home and see what is missing".

The customer gets their repaired laptop back and should be able to arrange return of the failed hard drive with a core charge... If the customer wants to arrange her own data recovery service, more power to her. I don't think she knows what she's getting into.

But getting the hard drive returned is only half of the battle. She still has data recovery fees and the $1700 offer from BB may start to look pretty good. BB gets these services from big names like DriveSavers at corporate discount prices that aren't available to the public. It may be out of the frying pan into the fire.

She turned down the $100 data backup fee because she thought it was extravagant, and now turns down the $1700 data recovery fee because she thought it was extravagant. She's not doing well on her gambles. Best to cut her losses now. DriveSavers will cost her more.

Filing a chargeback is only one step. BB will successfully challenge the chargeback by showing your signature for the services. The attempt would be fraudulent and now the OP might well be facing criminal charges. Not smart.

If the OP gets the paperwork together that she signed and reads over what she signed she will find that she doesn't stand a chance of successfully suing. She authorized the repair, acknowledged the potential for data loss and assumed the risk of that loss. Case dismissed.

Non-warranty repairs are different since they hit the customers pocket.

Data loss is always a possibility with tech repair and the customer assumed the risk of data loss when she knowingly forwent the data backup. She assumed that her risk of data loss was low. She assumed badly. That $100 backup fee is looking pretty good in retrospect.

BB didn't purposefully screw her and she has no basis on which to make such an allegation other than to shift blame from herself.

There is no moral outrage here, just hopefully a lesson learned on why backups are important.

Fact of the matter is that the customer authorized the repair of the computer to fix the issue of the non-working optical drive. She was acknowledged the potential for data loss and assumed the risk of that loss. She received back a computer with a working optical drive, so the warranty repair was performed.

The customer has a seriously uphill battle in proving her case. BB will have a diagnostic report showing a failed hard drive, a warranty contract that requires them to replace that drive and the failed hard drive which can be shown to have failed. What does the customer have? She has to show that BB intentionally damaged her drive through willful malfeasance. How exactly is she going to show that? Open and shut case for BB.

They aren't requiring payment for the warranty work - they are requiring payment IF she wants NON-WARRANTY data recovery done. If she doesn't then there are no charges.

When you have Geek Squad perform work on the computer you sign a disclaimer that waives any responsibility for data loss. As a consumer it is YOUR responsibility to backup your data on a regular basis. If they replaced the HDD that means it failed testing and was failing. Just because it only has a bad CD-ROM doesn't mean there isn't other problems with the PC you are unaware of.

The cost quoted includes the labor to recover the data on the missing HDD, which can be an expensive and time consuming process. The fact that the GM offered a $200 gift card is more than generous considering the OP doesn't even deserve that. You give BBY the right to repair any and all defect on your PC at check-in. Next time backup your data on a regular basis and READ what you sign. You have no basis in small claims and anyone who writes otherwise isn't aware of the full situation.

If she wants the computer back with the failed hard drive, I'm sure they'll comply... but that other place will send the drive out for data recovery the same as Best Buy... only difference is who places the order.

Viruses, spills, drops, just plain bad luck all of these can make you loose data in an instant! This isn't a magazine where if you drop it or spill milk on it drying it out will allow you to use it. ITS GONE. (well, unless you pay the aforementioned giant fee)

If you want your data, BACK IT UP.

In the contract signed, on clause #10, states that if repairs are needed they will do so without any interaction with the customer and by signing the document she also releases all liability to the data that said computer.

As someone who worked with the customers and on the actual units, What could have happened which would make sense is the GS Agent checked the computer in for a cd-rom replacement and diagnostic, which are both free of charge.
Once the cd-rom was replaced they would do a diagnostic with the newly replaced rom drive, And if that diagnostic found that the hard drive was also bad. The agent at that point would replace the drive with something in-store or if it was sent out to be replaced with an OEM drive.
Most of the time we would do a courtesy call telling the customer if they wanted a data backup cos we found that there hard drive was found bad. But if she did sign a backup sheet and that sheet said "NO BACKUP NEEDED" then the agent could then just go ahead and replace the drive and restore the unit for the customer.

And as for getting it back. When I left BestBuy the new policy kicked in that no (old) hard drives would be returned because it was needed for credit from insurance policy the customer bought with the unit.

For hard drive data repairs, We sent out drives to ontrack.com

Future works will need to be protected as well. There's so much to think about.

You can't say that the repairs are unauthorized without seeing the warranty.

The question on whether to repair or replace is up to the warrantor.

They apparently repaired the laptop, so they held up their end of bargain. Backing up the data and any data loss after she has assumed the risk, is the customer's responsibility. Bet that backup charge isn't looking so bad now, huh?

The $1700 is NOT being charged by Best Buy for warranty work. It is for the non-warranty data recovery of her data from the defective hard drive. If the drive were not defective, she would have been charged for a data transfer - more like $150.

Here's a scenario: You take your car into the shop to have your oil changed. When you go to pick up the car, they tell you that your car didn't seem to be running very well, so they replaced the engine for you. They hand you a bill for $10,000.

You're saying you would pay the bill?

@Hanshiro: Hearted because you dropped a Click and Clack reference.

Still, interesting.

She's not telling NEARLY the whole story. What were the terms of the contract she signed for the warranty service?

What isn't clear and what needs to be addressed is, the language in the service contract. With out that the rest of this discussion is mere speculation and mental masturbation.

The letter leads the reader to believe that the contract was to replace the CD-drive. A part that could be replaced and tested with out a hard drive existing in the computer.

There is definitely something fishy going on here. Missing parts of the story. Why did best buy even boot the machine to the OS? Let alone replace a hard drive? What work costs $1700. Would a reasonable and responsible tech perform $1700 on a much cheaper machine? It is really strange.

If consumerist could, the following information would be very helpful in trying to figure out the rights and responsibilities of each party.

1. The service contract
2. The extended warranty contract.
3. What the customer actually requested from best buy.
4. What work best buy completed.

Given that the customer looks to have brought in a functioning computer, excluding the CD Drive, and were given a new hard drive and $1700 bill, I am skeptical about Geek Squad and their work.

It could be that the HD (dead one) hasn't been sent to data recovery yet, in which case, the customer can just go pick up their computer (decline the DRD service and make sure you get your old HD back and take the drive to someone else for a second opinion.

The $1500 is the most you'll spend at geek squad to recover data that's on a dying or dead drive, the least you'll spend is $250, it depends on the damage done.

-Good luck.

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: Yeah, they sure are! At least they are when you bring your computer in for a very specific, wholly unrelated issue and they just decide on their own to start poking around in it, making "repairs" that you never authorized, and which lead to the loss of your data. I would say that puts responsibility squarely on Best Buy.

Besides that, they took it there because that's where they had the warranty, and they didn't back up their data because no reasonable human being ought to think that a problem with a CD drive might lead to your HDD being replaced without your consent. I'm willing to bet that they'll back up their data moving forward, lesson learned and all that, but yeah, I can see why they may not have considered it.

Most data recovery places I know charge $5000 minimum for such a service. It really comes down to, "How much do you value your data?"

I think BBY understands that $1500 is a lot to swallow, but obviously they value your business right, I mean $200 is enough to buy... well that $300 PS3 comes to mind. haha Talk about upselling.

When you sign the DRD paperwork, they spell out the pricing the geek squad should of called you if the charge was more than $900 (it's under the "approved estimate" on your service tag, you know, the one you signed before leaving the store), then it's up to you to accept or refuse the price. Usually they do the work and send the drive back, if you refuse then that means you're not willing to spend the money to get your data back, I believe you can get your "dead" drive back at this point. If not, well maybe there's more to the story.

What have we learned here people? DATA BACKUP!

Hey, did you know that when you get a standard $99 geek squad backup you get a FREE year of 25Gigs of online data backup storage, for free?

People you have NOTHING to cry about when your HD goes down, and if you're crying maybe you've never had this happen before, well guess what, it'll happen again, educate yourself about backups, spend a little now, worry less in the future.

sheesh.

In fact, the Geek Squad replaced so much on the computer that the value of the work that they did is well over the amount of money that the computer is even worth!!

What that means is that MINUS the cost of the data recovery, the labor and parts cost itemized by BB for reimbursement by the warranty issuer is MORE than the value of the computer itself.

To use an analogy, this is like bringing your car Kelly Blue Book Valued at $900 in for windshield wiper repair under one of those scammy extended warranty companies, and when you come back, they present you with a receipt for a engine replacement at $2500 w/parts and labor which they are submitting to the warranty company. The engine you had in the car when you brought it in had aftermarket custom parts, and the mechanic tells you that you must pay HIM $1500 for him to give you the old engine.

Having been through the process. Theres 3 big things here that weren't mentioned.

-When you sign the service agreement for the warranty work, it specifically calls out that ANY data loss for any reason isn't their liability.
- From what I understand most best buys even have you sign a second form when they offer you a data backup that calls out the same thing again.
- The terms and agreements for the warranty basically says "When we get it, we'll fix anything thats broken".

We bought the extended warranty for the computer...

Most car service people have is non-warranty, in which case, as you note, they would be required to offer you the defective parts. The same is true for computers on non-warranty repairs.

She hasn't got a case.

@HogwartsAlum: Cool, glad to be of assistance.

Online backup services are the best in my opinion (if the backup sizes make sense for the amount of bandwidth you have). If you want to compare some others just google "Online Backup Service" there about a half dozen major players.

Good Luck!

your computer is still under warranty after 5 years? really? you sure about that?

should have spent $20 for a drive and put it in yourself.

We need to educate them!

@jeffs3rd: I'll run with your theory. The tech replaced the CD Drive, but the IDE port on the MB was bad, so to verify, he replaced the MB with a spare one he had in the shop...but the new MB had no IDE ports for the hard drive, it used SATA, so now he needed to replace the IDE Hard drive with a SATA hard drive, but he also needed new memory, and a new power supply because the new MB had different connectors. Thankfully, they were able to salvage the 28.8K baud modem, so they saved the customer $1.20.

Go into the store, and ask them to show you: 1) where you gave your permission to do anything other than replace the CD Drive, 2) where you authorized any payments for any work other than replacing the CD drive. 3) Get a detailed invoice/work order of ALL work that they told you they verbally conducted. Once you have the written invoice, and they can not demonstrate that they had authorization to charge you or replace components, request that they give you your computer and any components that were "replaced" (including your hard drive). If they refuse to give you your computer, call the police for failure to return items that were yours (stealing).

Next take the computer home and see what if anything is missing. It is likely that BB is lying saying that they need to do data recovery when there actually is no data that needs to be recovered. (Virus removal, if they did any) would likely only impavy system files, and would likely not attach itself to data files or photos.
If there are files missing, and you do not have the expertise to retrieve them, bring your computer to a reputable computer repair shop, and have them do the repair and provide you with a detailed written invoice of everything that they did to restore your computer. Take this receipt back to BB and ask that they pay you for the repairs for the damage that they caused. If they don't, sue them in small claims court and advise your state AG (and the media if you wish)

I am really so sick of hearing about Nazi Squad and their absolute econo-butt-raping and data-molesting of every single customer that goes in there. Our worthless Attorneys General should have shut them down years ago.

They probably think they're covered by some BS clause in the paper work that states they can wipe the drive if need be even if backup service is declined by the customer. You know, punish that customer for not knowing full well BB would extort them for anything and everything once they put their trust in BB. Clauses like that need to be tested in court, they're akin to mandatory binding arbitration, completely one-sided.

If the hard drive was failing, they should have explained that to the customer only AFTER the customer came back to pick up the computer (with a fixed CD-ROM drive, that is) and given them the choice about whether to proceed or not.

I find it extremely hard to believe that the hard drive was broken at all, especially since the customer had not reported this issue to them when they dropped off the computer. I think we've read enough stories of Best Buy employees trying to screw over the customer to believe that this is one of those cases.

The customer should demand to receive the computer back in its previous condition (with the "broken" hard drive) and get someone else to back it up.

Can you recommend one?

Another line that stood out for me is:

We bought a PC about 5 years ago, which has become our children's computer.

I wouldn't trust non-backed up data on a childrens computer. And certainly not on one I took to any computer repair place.

In regards the OPs dilemma, did they sign anything? I'm pretty sure that BestBuy makes people sign something for this very problem and they may have no luck with suing them. She should at least get the damaged/formated drive back.

@RichasB:

My first computer had 4MB of RAM and an additional 4MB would have cost me $120 additional if memory serves me correct, so I declined. Of course thats the reason why MS Word took about 2 minutes to open up.

Also, why the hell is anyone going to geek squad to change a freakin CD drive? And a CD-drive?! Get a DVD-ROM for like $25.

Anyone that knows how to work a screwdriver could change a cd-drive. This is totally the customer's fault here. Let Geek Squad keep the crappy 5-year-old computer and go get a laptop with an SSD.

There is even a separate little section on the order form where you are required to acknowledge that your data may have to be destroyed to fix your computer. They read that, they signed it, it's THEIR PROBLEM.

I feel no sympathy for them at all on this. They were warned their data could be irrevocably destroyed. Data recovery is not cheap, and $1700 to get your data back is a bargain.

Whenever I have to take a laptop in for service, I do two things:

1) I clone my hard drive, or pull it out and replace it with an empty drive.
2) I wipe the drive. Entirely.

This solves the problems of stolen data ... lost data ... privacy ... etc ...

When I get the system back, I put the data back on. It's that simple.

I would never drop my computer off to solve a software problem. It would be better to wipe the drive, and start over.

Why can't people understand that?

Get a lawyer and have him go see the manager of the Best Buy where you took the computer for work. If that doesn't work then sue Best Buy in court for the same amount $1700 AND DO NOT USE THE CERTIFICATE FOR $200, If you do you are agreeing with what they did, this is a ploy used by a business for you to accept liability...

This is what I did with a car dealership and won also ask for attorneys fees and court cost

@secret_curse:

"When they signed the service waiver form, they 100% authorized Geek Squad to fix anything that was wrong with the computer that was under warranty."

...if that is true it is:

1. Utterly moronic - no way in hell should anyone ever be stupid enough to sign such a thing.

2. Not in the article above, so I had no idea.

But seriously - OMFG to even have such a thing in a contract, and OMFGWTFBBQ to sign said contract.

Seriously, what kind of drooling nincompoop does additional work on someone's computer without first talking to them about it? Even when I worked at Best Buy and I found something else wrong with a system that might cause data loss I'd first contact the customer to let them know what else was required and give them the oppurtunity to backup their stuff themselves or pay us to do it for them.

If Best Buy refuses to make right on this situation my next course of action would be to obtain the old hard drive and send it to a business like drive savers then turn around and sue Best Buy in small claims court for the cost of data retrieval. Single spindle data retrieval usually falls well under the Small claims court limit. If Best Buy refuses to return the old drive (in my state at least) you'd sue them in JP court for the return of the drive (small claims is for money only) + an amount sufficient to cover data retrieval.

Just a question, if, as the OP says, "We bought a PC about 5 years ago, which has become our children's computer," why would it have irreplacable data on it?
Frankly If it had become the Children's PC I would have expected all those valuable files to have been backed up and moved by now...

@floraposte: @mbd: And MOST certainly never take your computer to be repaired by a $8 / Hour tech that thinks they know a whole lot more than they actually do.

I wouldn't let a Geek Squad tech blow the crumbs out of my keyboard.

This is not a comment on who is right or wrong in regards to this story, but this should serve as a warning to anyone that doesn't already...

BACK UP YOUR F*****G DATA!

Personally, use a service called Mozy. I pay $5 / Month and a little client runs on my PC that backs up an unlimited amount data to redundant data centers around the world. If my house burns down, I just log into the web interface and either download the individual files, the entire backup or even request a DVD (or several) to be delivered to me anywhere in the world.

I am not a Mozy spokesperson, but I simply love the product.

BACK UP YOUR F*****G DATA!

BACK UP YOUR F*****G DATA!

Why would you even TAKE a computer with ANYTHING important on it to Best Buy (let alone anywhere else) unless to get your data recovered in the first place?

No excuse not to have a backup. Well, excuse #1, stupidity.

Being a FORMER but honest Geek Squad employee I can already tell you what happened and it is unfortunate but not Geek Squads fault technically.

She brought it in to get the optical drive swapped. Being under warranty they did a free diagnosises as they are supposed to do. Found that the hard drive was failing, be it mechanically or the platters themselves. Geek Squad is NOT reponsible for lost data which it states in their warranty brochure and on the form you sign when you check in your PC. The hard drive must have been mechanically dead (which can happen at any time, not GS fault again) and they replaced it and resoted her OS for free as they were supposed to under the warranty.

She did not have her data backed up, she declined to have it backed up. GS didn't know that the hard drive was gonna fail nor did the customer. GS in my opinion did more than the fair thing by offering a $200 gift card. This is no ones fault really, but it was the customer who had no back up. GS went beyond what was required....

There are two Sections. Things Best Buy Agrees to, and things YOU agree to.

By signing that form you are requesting that your computer get repaired. Further down the form, numbers 9 and 10 (in BOLD) state that Best Buy is not responsible for data loss and it is your responsibility to back up data before dropping it off.

Also, if they are requiring $1700 to get the data back that means the drive is already at their data recovery facility. IE you may be able to get just the HDD back. However, even if you get the drive back $1700 is the fee ontrac charges for a completely dead drive that has to go into a clean room (IE off the shelf software wont do anything).

Finally. This whole thing sounds fishy. Why would they store important data on their kids computer? The Geek Squad employee even offered them a data backup before sending it out.

Penny wise and pound foolish?

I agree that she probably passively authorized the additional repair with either the purchase of the warranty or the repair request itself, but I think even if that's the case they should at least cough up her old hard drive so that she can make her own repair attempt plans. Yes, the terms probably make the replaced part theirs, but otherwise it looks so bad that they're just stupid if they persevere in insisting.

2. Take old hard drive to a mom-and-pop repair place. If it was functioning when you took it in, the data should be easy to recover.

3. If Best Buy refuses to give back the old hard drive, consider:
A) filing a police report for theft
B) Filing a suit in small claims court
C) Reporting the whole incident to the BBB

If by 'bagel' you mean 'man parts' then we have a lot in common.

I would HIGHLY recommend covering the tray hole so it doesn't become a horizontal guillotine when it decides to randomly close. Not that I have any experience with that mind you.

@RichasB: 1984 had a lot less RAM. My spankin' new desktop in 1995 was top of the line with 16MB.

This is BBY's fault and that is clear.

Just another reason NEVER to buy from Best Buy, and certainly never buy an extended warranty from them.

Backing up everything should only take a total of about 5 hours per year with these basic methods. With the flash drive trick, you also have your most up-to-date documents with you at all times.

I would suggest OP look at not only the data backup waiver she signed, but also the work order she signed. I think she'll find a clause that says that all needed repairs will be performed under warranty. READ WHAT YOU SIGN! I'd be willing to bet that best buy was well within their rights to fix all apparant problems with the computer. if you bring your car into a dealership under factory warranty for a check engine light, and the breaks are bad and can be fixed at no cost to you, do you think that the dealership is going to call you or just replace them?

And to reply to some of the other comments, it's fully possibly that she had a warranty on a five year old computer. best buy sells a three year warranty that you can extend at the end of the warranty period.

While it is simply good business to keep the customer apprised of any work being done to their computer and to only do work that is approved by the customer, the customer has most likely signed a document that basically says "I really don't care what happens to any of my data."

I am sincerely amazed at the number of people who -- even now that so much of our lives (as music, photos, emails, legal documents, etc) is stored on our computers -- still fail to back up their data and then have the gall to point fingers at anyone but themselves when that data is gone.

Hard drives fail. If something is valuable, make sure you have an additional copy of it somewhere. Even if your computer is working perfectly.

Fact of the matter is, the customer expected a specific type of repair with a specific cost to be done, and Geek Squad took it upon themselves to execute far, far more than the customer ever expected they would do. This is hugely unprofessional behavior, and unless the customer signed something authorizing an endless string of repairs, is probably illegal.

I meant to say that has nothing to do with the HDD needing formatted and replaced.

Being a computer repair tech, this is just shameful. If the tech replaced parts without calling the customer first to get authorization first, then that tech should be fired.

I had a personal experience where a desktop CD drive stopped working because the IDE port was shot. I had to replace the motherboard on that unit to fix the problem. But, that had nothing to do with the HDD going bad.

At most, this should have been a CD drive replacement, then, if that didn't work a motherboard replacement. Nothing involving the HDD unless the tech screwed up. Which it is obvious he did.

Sorry Geek Squad, you lose on this one. Give the customer back their PC with replaced CD drive and old HDD for free because you screwed up.

I agree with everyone saying do it yourself, take Worst Buy to court, etc.

I can't help but wonder though, if it's an old computer you've given the kids to use, why in the hell would you have kept your "thousands of photos of our children, and a lot of personal and professional files" on it without moving it to the new computers I'm assuming you replaced the old one with?

IMHO, replacing the HD without permission is Worst Buy's fault. Loosing "thousands of photos of our children, and a lot of personal and professional files" is the complainant's fault.

Sounds like they formatted the drive and now they would try to recover the data... Which costs alot of money!!!

@Betsumei: Yes, because to install Symantec, reboot, Run Back-up now and make an image of the computer doesn't take 30 minutes TOPS.

I agree, it sucks - but these people would have been informed about data recovery costs before the drive ever left the store, they would have probably signed an additional document relating to data recovery, and paid a deposit on the data recovery - and there are a few clauses relating to Geek Squad not being responsible for the integrity of your data, which would be standard for any computer repair shop.

Depending on the data it could be worth more than that.

chances are it's they're fault the data was lost and that the hard drive is damages

I have a few recommendations for everyone:
1. DON'T USE Best Buy/Geek Squad for computer service. They're overpriced and incompetent.

2. ALWAYS back up your data before taking your computer in for work. ESPECIALLY IF IT'S TO THE MANUFACTURER.

3. BACK UP YOUR DATA!!!! This can't be said enough. A couple of hundred dollars' investment and you can back up all your computers and avoid the potential of something like this happening.

If we want to get into what they should have done we start with best buy warranty: want a warranty get one from the maker.
Next they didn't back up their data. Do this always :-)

True, but saving a $300 (bad) investment in order to pay $1500 doesn't make a whole lot of economic sense ;). They shouldn't have gotten the warranty in the first place. And, if we're talking about the "enhanced protection plan" or whatever Best Buy is calling it nowadays, that's a 4 year warranty. The computer's 5 years old, so the warranty's already expired. The only possible warranty we could be talking about here is the warranty on the new CD drive provided by the drive's manufacturer. And installing the CD drive would not void that warranty.

But if we read other statements in the complaint letter, it seems that these individuals are in a state of extreme confusion over anything regarding this machine. They're surprised that the value of the work done now exceeds the value of the computer. Trouble with that is that if Best Buy had only charged them a diagnostic fee, they'd have been bumping up against the value of the computer. They store apparently priceless, irrecoverable photographs of their family on their childrens' computers. Dunno about you, but I'm not going to trust my only copy of important photographs in the hands of kids, who are probably collecting a boat load of viruses and malware as they bop around the web looking for games and porn. In short, the OP did several very stupid things with regards to this computer, not the least of which was letting the Geek Squad anywhere near it.

But, just because our victims weren't very smart in how they dealt with the computer, doesn't mean that Best Buy is now at liberty to rip them off. I would be very surprised to learn that the hard drive suddenly failed while on the workbench. It probably didn't fail in transit because hard drives have been just fine to transport ever since they eliminated the need to manually park the heads. It's a very safe bet that this particular Best Buy smelled the sweet aroma of ignorant customer in the air and decided to pounce. Even if the improbable is true, and all this other stuff was broken, Best Buy still carried out unauthorized repairs, and so they should be held responsible for the consequences of them.

One = none
Two = one
Three = (even better) one plus a spare.

We don't put our seat-belts on only when we think we are going to be in a car crash. We don't go out and buy fire extinguishers just before we think we are going to have a fire. So why do we think we can only backup our data when we think we see a problem coming?

I have no love for the Geek Squad (I wouldn't trust them to help me find the "any key"), and agree that in no way should replacing a CD-ROM have required the replacement of the hard drive and resulted in the lost of data. (Same on you Geek Squad!) But that doesn't change anything. Backup, backup, backup! It isn't that hard, it isn't that time consuming, and it doesn't cost that much. If you are not already doing it, start now! There are only two kinds of people in this modern, on-line, information world; those who backup and those who are going to lose all their data someday.

Geek Squad has sales/revenue goals just like the other departments in BB, and if they're not hitting them, then the guys working there don't get their bonus and/or get fired or transferred to a worse department. Ever wonder how someone comes to be an appliance or cd salesman at BB?

So when the OP came in with a specific problem and refused the upsell, I'd be willing to bet that they made sure they'd get their pound of flesh off of her PC. . .

Man I hate what BB has become. . .

Fortunately for me I'm my own geek service.

if i go to the hospital needing a kidney transplant and they give me a new heart instead will my insurance cover it?

Inb4: Firedog looks at you junk :p

This is why you shouldn't buy the warranty because even if you get the repair for free they will find a way of way overcharging you for the work done.

@floraposte: Someone else down in the comments said that it was their practice to have you sign two different wavers regarding harddrives and backing up data. So I'm imagining that she is actually out of luck.

Especially because of the reason you said.. it was warranty work. I'm sure that gives them different rights than a cash paying customer.. even though it shouldn't.

Seems like the best idea in the future, besides backing up, was gStein's: keep your drive if you give your computer over to Geek Squad.

what warranty? The computer's 5 years old. Stupid thing is probably worth 50 bucks. If you're talking about the warranty for the CD drive, first, I've never seen a warranty clause for one that says it has to be installed by Best Buy, and second, it's $35. Who bothers with warranty claims for something that costs less than dinner at a decent restaurant?

My gf and I took her macbook in to BB a few months ago. It was a warranty repair that I would have attempted if it weren't under warranty, but it was quite involved (backlight on the screen had gone out). There is no Apple Store nearby, and I thought BB just checked the item in, and shipped it off to Apple. During the check-in, the Geek Squad guy really tried to sell us on purchasing another macbook because the warranty was almost up, and the cost to fix this would effectively total the computer. I patiently explained to him how warranties work, and then my gf, who is otherwise quite intelligent, said, "But if there's only two weeks left in the warranty, and it takes more than two weeks to fix it, will I have to pay for it?" I started to explain to her how warranties work, when the Geek Squad guy said, "Yeah. Possibly." I turned to him and said, "Shut up. Write up the repair, and quit talking to us about buying a new laptop." At the end, I waited for the next customers to talk to that agent. They had an issue with their wireless router that could be fixed by power-cycling it. I waited for the guy to quote them an $80 fee for the visit, on top of how long it took for them to fix it and then jumped in to the conversation. I offered to fix the issue for free, over the phone. And if I couldn't, I would come over and fix it for free. The GS guy told me to leave, and I threatened to go to his manager and tell him how he just tried to lie to me.

In the end, BB (not Apple) fixed the issue, put a screw in wrong, and broke the bottom case. Apple fixed that for free. (This time we took it to the nearest Apple store, 100 miles away. The moral is, don't ever go to Best Buy for repairs. Sure, there are people who have had fine experiences with them, but when they fuck up, they go big.

Outside of that, small claims court makes sense. They did not call you to authorize repairs.

Did you read the article at all? Did you miss the part where they say "we brought it in to replace the CD Drive". Even if it is under warranty, BB has no right to perform other tasks to the PC. I'm pretty sure, as a former BB employee, that someone in Geek Squad got mad that they wouldn't pay $100 to back up their data, so they decided to make them pay for it. . .

@Kimaroo - 20% More Kitty Added!: Did the OP authorize any additional work on the PC other than replacing the CD-ROM? If not, they Best Buy took it upon themselves to do it and thus have no legitimate claim for reimbursement.

This has small claims court written all over it.

@floraposte: She signed a waiver authorizing any repairs up to a stated quote. She wasn't charged anything for replacing the failing hard drive, so she had authrized the repair. Maybe not orally, but she sure did in writing. And the form has BIG BOLD LETTERS WARNING THAT YOU MIGHT NOT GET YOUR DATA BACK SO YOU BETTER BACK IT UP BEFORE CHECKING IT IN OR GET RIPPED OFF BY PAYING $100 FOR A BACKUP.

If she didn't sign the waiver, she has a small claims case and an employee will probably become an ex-employee for checking in the computer without the signature. If she signed the waiver, she's hosed.

@YouDidWhatNow?:

Actually, I can see it, in some circumstances. When customer asks for a cd drive to be replaced, what I believe many people are /really/ asking is "can you make this computer have a functioning cd drive?" If the cd drive doesn't need to be replaced, and there's some easy mecahnical/software fix--you do that. IOn the other hand, the cd drive may be malfunctioning, in whole or part, because of other components. True, I agree that if that's the case, they should undoubtedly have gotten the OP's authorization, but I don't think it's as cut and dried as you're making it out.

@BartleyR7: The person should've signed a waiver authorizing repairs up to a quoted amount. If the cost went above that amount, they would be called. The hard drive repair didn't cost any money, so they weren't called. When they decided they wanted the data off of the hard drive, they were quoted the price for data recovery.

@YouDidWhatNow?: When they signed the service waiver form, they 100% authorized Geek Squad to fix anything that was wrong with the computer that was under warranty. The tech probably ran a full diagnostic test on the computer and found that the hard drive was failing and replaced it. The $1,700 fee is for the lab work involved in recovering data from a physically failing hard drive. It really sucks for these folks, but they should've read the waiver they signed.

And if they didn't sign the waiver, they should go to small claims court and tell the judge they only authorized the CD drive replacement. If they signed the waiver, they probably don't have a case because Best Buy would just need to send a rep to read the waiver that specifically says you may lose data during the course of any repair.

I've had plenty of times when I worked for BBuy that I would call a customer, explain the situation in plain English with costs, get an over the phone authorization and then the customer would be 'surprised' when they came to pick up their PC and receive a bill.

@Rat_Race:

Oh, agreed, I am assuming it, but, to be fair, so did the victim in this instance --("apparently, there was more wrong with the computer...)

I should have said, "the hard drive was indeed replaced based on Geeksquad's representation that it was necessary for a complete repair." In other words, I don't trust Geeksquad, either, but the fait accompli the op is being faced with is the notion that the hd is bad.

@treimel: For all we know, the drive just needed to be defragged or they are just flat out lying, leaning more towards latter as that is something that happens at computer repair places all over. Geek Squad doesn't exactly require A+ certification or any kind of degree to work in.

@AstroPig7:

No, you RTFA! the hard drive was indeed corrupted:

"We found out this week that there was actually more work done to the computer than just what we had requested. In fact, our entire hard drive was replaced, thus all of the data is now gone! Apparently there were other things wrong with the computer than what we thought and the Geek Squad thought it would be in everyone's best interest to replace the hard drive."

@The_Red_Monkey:

...you think I have reading comprehension issues? Just exactly where in the request "please replace our CD drive" do you see any information about "please dick with our hard drive and actually just put in a new hard drive and then charge us money for getting data off the old hard drive, even though none of that has anything to do with the CD drive?"

Can you pay them to get your stuff back and then file in small claims court -- especially to get possession of your old hard drive?

Can you pay them with a credit card and then work with the credit card company to file a chargeback?

Something on the Bbuy end smells fishy. Either they did work without consent and are expecting to be paid, or the depo techs wiped the drive by mistake. I've seen both. A unit go in for service to replace a touchpad and they depo techs wiped the HD.

At any rate, if its the same as it was when I was there, they signed a waiver saying their data may be lost and they are not responsible. Sucky situation. I wish I could give more, but I can only speculate on what the causes may be.

I hope you get something out of them.

What it may not have been replaced with is authorization.

Really? Or is Best Buy just trying to milk you dry? Who gives them the right to start checking your computer for issues when you clearly gave them the computer only under the assumption that they would be replacing the CD-ROM drive and nothing but?

What YouDidWhatNow? said sounds about right. That "extra work" (I'd love to see an itemized bill) was not authorized at all. Extortion is a good term for this.

@shepd: She really needs to move fast on this one. There are really 3 possible scenarios:

1. They've thrown out the hard drive, like you do with most bad old parts. 0% of her data is recoverable no matter what they say.

2. They have the hard drive sitting on a work bench somewhere. It's probably fine, though they'd be loathe to admit it, but it will be thrown out soon anyway. 100% recoverable, until someone decides they want to sit there to eat a sandwich at lunch.

3. The computer got dropped while working on it, and the hard drive had a head crash. They may have it and may know not to throw it out, but it would need to be disassembled in a clean room by a 3rd party company with extremely specialized tools to get any data off. $1,800 in charges can easily accrue to do this, as Best Buy would have to send the computer to *real* computer technicians.

In any of these three steps, Best Buy's most likely option is to throw the disk out, as their liability is most likely limited to the cost of the physical drive itself. In other words, move fast to get that drive back into your physical hands. Once you have the old drive, either you can find a friendly neighborhood geek to recover the information easily, or it needs to be sent out to a hard-drive disaster recovery place, whose cost would then have to be recovered from a small-claims-court suit against Best Buy.

But either way, Get That Drive.

Its another case of an uninformed consumer blaming the company and this site rallying against them.

Wow...It's a damn CD tray. Computer doesn't need to be powered on even. It's such a basic job.

That said, the OP should have just requested the drive back. Best Buy had no right to remove it without consent of the owner. Hard drives are critical to people, they know that, which is why holding it hostage is easy. The "lab" is probably that little back room where they are looking at all your pictures hoping for any naughty bits they can find, lol.

Either way, what Best Buy is doing shady and the OP needs to get together all the paper work she signed regarding the repair (mainly to verify that she didn't approve the hard drive replacement) and get ready to sue.

Every computer repair shop I've been to calls and says "This is what we found, this is what it needs, this is what it costs, what do you want to do?"

Best Buy and Geek Squad's blatant disrespect for consumers should be severely punished.

@Bitter_Old_Punk:

I'm sure that $1700 is for data recovery, not the computer parts, since that's covered under warranty. Still seems expensive, though.

It's an old computer that she gave to her children. If the disk happened to die at Best Buy, that's not Best Buy's fault. Another possibility is that the disk could have been damaged in transport to Best Buy. She doesn't actually say what she was charged for the repair, so who knows, Best Buy could have given her the new disk for free. So calling the cops? Going to small claims court? I'm sorry, but you people are crazy.

@harvey_birdman:

Stupid consumers. The vast majority of people in this country, and really the world, are utterly clueless.

You guys don't realize what they are charging the money for. $1700 or whatever the initial cost is for lab recovery fees. They send the hard drive off to be recovered, if the drive is bad and cannot be recognized by a machine or by adapters it gets sent to a lab for recovery. Price can range anywhere $300 to $2500. I've worked part-time for GeekSquad for two years and I have seen people pay a lot of money for crashed hard drives that cannot be read or recovered by the client or in store.

This scenario is different, I understand the OP being upset, they SHOULD have been called and told something was wrong with said HD and their options.. However I know at my store, the client signs 2.. yes 2.. forms Declining data backup, which at that point, its declined. I always call a customer if a HD is failing to double check if they would like it backed up, we usually work out a deal if they don't have an external and give them a discount on the hard drive since the service is $99. You think $100 for data backup is expensive? People pay $100 to get their oil changed in cars.. If you can't do it yourself, you'll pay someone whatever it takes to get it fixed.. My girlfriend is like that with her car.

Carry on with your bashing, Best Buy won't be going anywhere anytime soon people. Sorry about all your bad luck with the stores and service. I assure you, every store is different, so nothing is going to be perfect everywhere.

They have cops in some stores to monitor for theft, but why couldn't you call the cops on a business who steals from you?

@I_have_something_to_say: 3. If you have a technical question regarding your computer put it into a Google search immediately. Your question has already been answered and there's probably a youtube video demonstrating exactly how to do the thing you want done.

$100 to back up data!!!!!!! Seriously, how the fuck do these guys get away with it?

The consumer's major beef seems to be that recovering data from a failed hard disk is expensive. That's not Best Buy's fault. That's just the cost of data recovery. And it all could have been avoided if she had backed the data up herself.

It's complicated, because just getting the old drive back quite likely won't solve the OP's problem, and frankly I don't have a lot of faith in Geek Squad's ability to restore data (though they may outsource that); nor is anybody going to 100% guarantee recovery.

But she needs to decide what she wants to ask for.
Her original hard drive back, an external hard drive comped, and $xxx to cover data recovery at a specific, named more reliable place for it? Then probably the best thing to do is to take it both up the Best Buy chain and to the NH attorney general's office--though if she finds she signed some kind of waiver when she purchased the warranty or brought the computer in it may not go far. If she signed nothing, though, and gave no phone authorizations, that sounds pretty overreachy on Best Buy's part to me.

Small claims is the only way to go for these bastards.

What's this about voiding the warranty on a 5 year old computer? Did they pay extra for a 5 year warranty on a computer? If so, why didn't the warranty cover the CD drive? If not, why are they worried about voiding an expired warranty?

I hope they get their data back, and I hope this article serves as a reminder of the importance of backing up your data regularly. Leaving the only copy of all of your personal pictures and professional files on the computer you gave to your kids... [skepticalteacher.files.wordpress.com]

Interesting thought here. I wonder if BB isn't just asking an astronomical price knowing that they wouldn't pay it, for the original drive has been discarded; and they know not of it's where abouts..

I understand the frustration with Best Buy and the various locations. There are five within about 30 miles of me, and they range from one I absolutely hate to the store that has done nothing but good things for me.

Another lesson (if you want to call it that) that others could take away is to always backup your data, no matter what. I don't want to blame the OP, and I hope this doesn't come across like that, but I think it's a good idea to backup your important data (pictures, music, personal data, and work/research) frequently. I take my backups to the extreme and have both on-site (external HDD) and off-site (via the Internet) backups of my important documents.

"Never Buy Best Buy" has a nice ring to it, and in this economy, apparently, they've resorted to extortion and a middle finger to their customers.

Just as Click and Clack advises people never to take their cars to JiffyMidasLube, so you should never trust Best Buy.

'Hostage Buy?'

Now the hard drive mysteriously needs to be replaced, and some kind of data recovery service will need to be used to get the remaining data back. As others have stated here, getting the old drive back would tell a lot of the story, unless the Geek Squad decides to sabotage it to further cover their mistake.

Just my theory.

@LupusGray: True, but the damage is already done. What's their best recourse NOW?

@LupusGray:
That's not really helpful, since the damage is already done.

I think small claims is a good idea. They had no business replacing that hard drive without at least a phone call to the client, especially after the client declined to pay $100 for them to backup the data.

Exactly. Even corrupt auto mechanics have to give you the replaced parts on request. This sounds suspiciously like an intentional ripoff to me. it wouldn't shock me to learn that they back up the data on hard drives belonging to customers who won't pay the backup fee, then format their hard drive, claim to have replaced it, and require an exorbitant fee to put things back the way they were.

The OP's next phone call should be to the attorney general to acquire the proper forms to file a fraud report.

And, this is a good illustration of why it's a very good idea to learn how to install simple computer components yourself. For $35 shipped our victim could have bought and installed a DVD/CDRW drive. It's 2 screws and two cables. Not difficult, and it wouldn't void any warranty because anyone who thinks they have a warranty on a 5 year old computer has already been ripped off.

...how in the world does BBY even think they have any due cause to present them with such a bill?

No such work was authorized, in any way, shape, or form.

I would personally call the police and report them for extortion.

Or, as noted, take them to small claims court. Chances are BBY won't even send anyone, you'll get a default judgement, and make part of your claim for them to pay for the court fees too.

Also, contact the BBB and local news/newspapers too. Get BBY as much exposure on this as you can - if it doesn't hurt them, they'll keep doing it.

Picket outside the store. $1700 for a 5 year old computer? Did they drop 2 TB drives, 8 MB of RAM and the latest super graphics card in there? No, they dicked around, did stuff they didn't need to, etc.

And stop [redacting] locations, people need to know where the rip off stores are. Even Best Buy has good / bad stores.

"If we thought there was even a chance that our data was in jeopardy, we definitely would have backed it up ourselves"

and

"Now know that we should always back up our data, but honestly, we were just getting the CD drive changed!"

ALWAYS assume your data is in jeopardy. Hardrives fail. You may have damaged it yourself bringing it into Best Buy.

@shepd: To me, whether or not they actually replaced the drive isn't the issue. It's the fact that thousands of dollars of unauthorized repairs were performed on the system without notifying the owner or obtaining consent to perform the services.

Seems to me that small claims is the way to go in this case. Considering Geek Squad should have given the OP a work order estimate for replacing the optical drive it would show nothing about replacing additional system parts.

Seriously Best Buy, just give up already. Please need to learn a few basic rules regarding computers. Let's start a list:

1. NEVER take your computer to Best Buy for service.

2. Do not use the motorized tray for beverages.

..

Does she say if she signed any sort of waver that said they could format the harddrive if they deemed it necessary? I've used Geeksquad before (It wasn't my choice.. ugh.) but I don't recall if they have you sign anything like that.

I know Gateway did have you sign something like that back when they would actually service my laptop. Even though the problem had nothing to do whatsoever with the harddrive. (They were supposed to replace part of the outer housing.)

She needs to go over all the paperwork she signed.

Either way.. it sucks.

Time to see if this applies to all repair situations. Tell them you want that old hard drive back or you'll be suing. You can then check for yourself if the drive is actually destroyed or not.