24 October 2008
VIRGINIA

REF: GEEK SQUAD ORDER #341003 | Letter of Complaint

Dear Best Buy & Geek Squad Customer Service:

Draw your own conclusion from your investigation into the facts as presented below:

· BestBuy.com provided a contact number for its computer repair service: Geek Squad, which I contacted on or about 15 October to schedule repair service (virus detection and mal/spyware removal) for a relative in Philadelphia, PA.

· Geek Squad’s dispatcher informed me of its $299+tax fee and the next available service date would be 23 October. The service date was confirmed via 3-way teleconference with my relative. The dispatcher and I also confirmed under no circumstances should the repair costs be discussed with my relative; I would be providing the credit card number. It was mutually agreed upon, Geek Squad would contact me when payment was required; and contact the relative if an earlier service date became available. She’s a college student without her much needed desktop computer.

· On 23 October, a Geek Squad agent contacted my relative and stated they would have to reschedule the original service appointment to 24 October. This information was relayed to me by my relative and accepted by default.

· On Friday morning 24 October, my relative called me and indicated Geek Squad telephoned her and stated--a credit card payment over the phone was not permissible. Further, the agent stated to her, if she still wanted the repair service it would cost $318 onsite. Since my relative didn’t have the money available, but could borrow it from her mother to pay Geek Squad; what should she do? She called Geek Squad to re-confirm the appointment at my request.

· Needless to say, I WAS NOT A HAPPY CAMPER (correction, I WAS LIVID)!!!

· I called Geek Squad to complain; and immediately thereafter emailed a complaint to Best Buy.

Notwithstanding the week wait and last minute rescheduling, specific instructions regarding payment procedures were blatantly disregarded. The dispatcher verified the instructions were on the service order record and could not explain why they were not conveyed to the field service agent. Amid countless “We do apologize” and “I’m sorry’s” she contacted the scheduled service agent and confirmed that he could only accept a physical credit card for in-home service and again apologized for the miscommunications. However, only moments into the complaint call, the dispatcher had advised me to have my relative contact me for the credit card number so she could provide it to the onsite agent.

· “Is your organization unfamiliar with its own policies?” from me. “We do apologize” from the Geek Squad dispatcher.

· I wired $318 to my relative via Western Union at a cost of $42.

· This experience is not what I expected from Best Buy and Geek Squad. In fact, I was mortified.

· After the service call, my relative informed me Geek Squad’s recommendation was to perform a full system restore with the OEM CD (not available) without performing a system virus detection scan first – as discussed when placing the service order with Geek Squad.

· Desktop still offline. No Charge by Geek Squad. NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED.

· Think GOOGLE. I had no idea there were so many complaints posted online about Geek Squad until this situation caused me to investigate.