We have finally recovered from our technical difficulties that we experienced over the last couple of days at our house. Hubby had been having some issues with his computer, and since everything is attached to his (phone, router, webcam) – when it went down it was a bad scene. After completely giving up on trying to fix the whatever the issue was ourselves, we broke down and went to the ‘Geek Squad’ at Best Buy. Now I at one time vowed to never use them. I once told a Best Buy employee that if he mentioned the phrase ‘Geek Squad’ again, I was going to leave and head over to Office Max and buy the computer I had in my hands there, and he would get no commission (I had already said no – three times – three is all you get with me, ask the cashier at Kohls.) There is also the problem I have with them making my Mother feel like an idiot (and taking advantage of her alittle bit) when she was buying my Dad’s laptop. But, with desperate times come the need for desperate measures. We bought the year service plan, which entitles us to coverage on both computers, and all we would have to pay for would be parts if there is a problem. It was alittle expensive for my taste, but I can’t imagine anyone else would have been cheaper. Trust me, there are some things wrong with my laptop that will make that money well spent!
In my long on-going struggle to educate people on customer service, I do have a couple of complaints and one compliment. Their customer service could use alittle work. First of all, don’t tell you will have an answer for by 7:00, and then call me at 9:15, if you don’t have an answer at 7:00 call and tell me that. Don’t wait until I call you (actually, Hubby called, something about me yelling and giving them a customer service lecture) at 7:45 for you tell me that you don’t have an answer yet. Here is the other issue with the ‘Geek Squad’ if your problem stretches over multiple days, you do not always have the same tech working on your computer. So here is how this went down.
On Saturday night (9:15 remember) ‘Mike’ calls to tell me the problem, and that I need to pick up some parts at CompUSA for the computer to be fixed. Just drop them off at the store (more on this later.) Okay, so we go to CompUSA on Sunday morning, and pick up the parts and head to Best Buy to drop them off. First, the young kid behind the counter has
zero customer service skills, it was awkward trying to explain to him (as he stared at us) why we were there in the first place (went something like this, me: we are here to drop off some parts for our computer you are working on, him: ummm okay, do you know what we are doing to it? me: would you like to see our receipt? him: ummm yeah I guess…)
So, finally we ask for Mike, turns out it was a different Mike than Saturday, but no problem. Both of them seem to be surprised at the notes on our computer, and that said they would be replacing our motherboard and processor, to quote the young kid to Mike “we are really going to do that?” needless to say that left me with a high level of fear that we were never getting our computer back in one working piece. Note to everyone in retail, do not say that in front of the customer, say it to Mike in the back, not in front of someone who is $342.17 in already on a repair. So I sat all day Sunday, wondering how my computer was doing, and what my response was going to be when they told me that they needed me to go and pick up more parts. Side note, we had to call them again around 5:00 (6 hours after we dropped off the parts, and I understand that it takes a long time to make this repair, but again, follow-up) to see if we would be able to pick up the computer by the time the store closed.
Okay, here is the compliment. I am sure that Best Buy has vendors they work with to purchase motherboards and processors. I am also sure that there is no way for them to get those parts on a Sunday to fix a computer for a customer. Although I was alittle upset about the follow-up (or lack there of) skills, I was extremely pleased that Saturday Mike gave me all the information I needed to pick up the parts at CompUSA so that our computer could be fixed on Sunday. I thought that was great, of course I cannot confirm that this how it works at Best Buy, maybe they do have access to parts like that, but I am sure that would have delayed the repair to Monday or even Tuesday. So, I’m sending out a Big Thank you to both Saturday and Sunday Mike for helping us out.
So, in the end, it was fixed on Sunday and we were up and running by Sunday night.
So I guess as the saying goes, alls well, that ends well….
Have a Great Week…Later
~Cyn
