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Do You Want Best Buy Opening Your New Laptop?
An anonymous reader writes "I went to Best Buy the other day to get a new laptop for a client. I didn't realize till I got it home that they had broken the seal and opened the box. They put a sticker on the box that said, 'Inspected by Best Buy.' I found they had created the user profile, recovery disks, and installed a trial of Trend Antivirus. Seems to me this is more of a marketing agenda than inspection."
Would you buy from Best Buy?
Life in Orange County
How do you know it wasn't a return? ( tho to be fair, even sealed you still don't know 100%. i got burnt like that once, another company took a return, resealed it and sold it as new, even tho what was inside the box was a far older item, covered in years of dust. )
What does that do to the warranty? What else did they install that you don't want?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
you have to specifically ask for an unopened one. They will then tell you that they do not have any unopened or unoptimized laptops. After this you can either speak to a manager (who will sometimes be helpful) or whip out your phone and order a laptop online for in store pick up. You will then be able to pick up an untouched laptop.
The entire process is designed for them to make a little bit of extra money either through bloatware or selling optimized laptops. Basically a scam. I'm actually surprised you weren't charged for the "inspection". I'd check my receipt if I were you.
I'd take it back and tell them it isn't new, then demand a heavy discount or an unopened/unstickered laptop. Better yet, I'd go somewhere else.
While you're at it, take some time to wonder why you're buying a client's computer at Best Buy. Are you really doing your client a favour by getting them a machine with a return-to-depot-and-you-probably-won't-get-your-data-back warranty?
One thing I despise on regular windows laptops is all the crap they add on. Apple does this aspect correctly (and for the price one pays, it should).
And no, I don't want BB touching my laptop. The recovery disk is nice (but should be there from the manufacturer anyway, cheap bastards), but I wonder what other bloatware they installed?
The average buyer will probably see this as the same as the car prep done when buying a new car... but I want no part of it. In that case, it should work out just fine, geeks generally don't buy at BB unless they need a part fast.
This article is from 2009. Why is this now hitting the front page?
Any big ticket electronics I buy from best buy gets unpacked, plugged in and inspected by the employee and myself as proof that the device works, that its not scratched, dented or damaged and we both sign off on it. The difference here is, they do it in front of you. They have asked me before if I want their shit installed on the laptop before I leave and I always decline. I've purchased 2 laptops for personal use and 5 for friends/family (not as gifts, just helpful shopping) and never ever had this happen
Tell me when they AREN'T doing shady practices like this and then that will be news to me...
"Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
I'm just going to format it and reinstall the OS anyway. OEM probably puts as much, if not more, junk on there than Best Buy.
Long signatures suck.
This article is from 2009. Why is this now hitting the front page?
Taco leaves and the place goes to Hell.
If I shop on NewEgg or Amazon, unlike at a brick and mortar store, I don't get a chance to try a laptop's screen and keyboard before I buy it. So if I find a keyboard or screen unusably unergonomic, I may have to pay a 15% restocking fee.
Back in highschool, I worked in Geek Squad before it was called Geek Squad (we just wore black polo shirts instead of blue, and we were called "Tech Services") and can confirm they've been doing this for more than a decade now.
This was standard practice when I had the unfortunate experience of working for Geek Squad. They would have us do some 'pre-setup' units that would also have a 'pre-installed services' bundle attached at the register.
If it was the only unit left, and you didn't want this service, you could get them to remove the cost by complaining, but otherwise they'd get you a unit that wasn't 'pre-setup'.
Of course they're going to hand you the pre-setup one if you dont specify, and don't check...
My first and last store-bought PCs were two eMachine Celeron 400s in 1999. (They lasted about ten years after I passed them on and one still works, amazing for an eMachine!)
The only things I buy with an installed OS are notebooks, and I make recovery media for my collection then wipe 'em to install Linux.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
If you KNOW what you are buying you can save money as an informed consumer.
I stick with Newegg since TD used to have a bad reputation and the Egg has excellent service. No objection to TD anymore, but Newegg has always been good to me.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Buying used games and selling them for less then you sell new games isn't evil, it's a perfectly reasonable business practice that helps the lazy consumer, (AKA ones who want to sell a game used but dosn't want the hastle/risks of ebay), admitted both of these companies are doing evil on their own, if I recall best buy used to not only open and install garbage on the PC, but charge extra for their superiour optimization that they ran on the computers, and trained their salesmen to say it sped the computer up by 50% or some crap (independent studies showed 3% increase at best and something like a 25% decrease in some cases). And to top it off if the customers didn't want to pay extra for it, they were usually out of the "unoptimized" versions, but wouldn't waive the optimisation fee without a huge arguement.
How about a link from this March or even
end of June? Within a month and a half recent enough for you?
At least they're honest about opening it.
Unlike a certain game company that's fond of opening boxes and pilfering coupons...
Its called a PC-Setup and Restore. We (Im a Geek Squad Agent) setup the computer (perform system updates, tweaks, create restore discs, and install the anti-virus) so you can take it home and get right to work. We are not magicians and therefore must open the packaging to perform the work. We do charge extra for the services but considering the consumer benefits, its understandable and not unreasonable. I would have thought someone with ties to Slashdot would be alot less ignorant. We still offer computers unopened and unserviced. Next time, pay attention to what you purchase.
Agent Anonymous
Honestly, I think they're probably doing a favor to most of their clientele. Considering that they don't price themselves to sell anything to people who know how to use Google, they probably have a reasonable expectation that most of their customers have trouble setting up user profiles, making recovery disks, and installing antivirus software.
> Only after you've determined that all the components have working Linux drivers.
That's easy enough with a LiveCD or thumbdrive.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Do You Want Best Buy Opening Your New Laptop?
No, I don't. And I'd hope the security at the Apple Store is good enough to keep the Best Buy guys out!
is this news?
It's more history than news, considering this article is from 2009 . But lately that time scale seems par for the course. /. quality is declining.
[Rainier Wolfcastle mode
That's the joke.
[/Rainier Wolfcastle mode
That is not what he is complaining about. He is complaining about gamestop's practice of opening new games and still selling them as new. They did this to the new Dues Ex to remove an onLive coupon, They also do it when they let their employees play the games and still sell them as new.
I read a story from a girl who took her laptop in to Best Buy for work (Geek Squad?) and found that the video cam was routing output to one of their addresses. I never use mine and it's something I would have never even considered checking.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
I'd be pissed off, honestly. Too bad the only computer stores in my area are OfficeMax and Best Buy. :(
"...the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected..." - Dennis Ritchie/Ken Thompson, 1972
You do that before you buy it.
I hear this complaint over and over, all it says is that the person was too stupid to check first.
I haven't either, but every time I walk past the Apple store here it is slam full of people, plenty of whom walk out having bought something.
Apple makes a laptop, a netbook, a tablet, a couple of different music players, and a phone. That is it more or less, so I can't figure what those people are all in there doing. But never the less they are in there.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
It's news because a LOT of people still don't know about BestBuy and the crap they pull on an unsuspecting public. I have had people at my office come to me AFTER BestBuy people hosed them and their machines over. There are many things I have heard which I am sure cannot be legal.
CmdrTaco is gone, we're doomed.
And it was submitted by an AC no less, so not even blank trusted they editors to push through. Timothy, do you check anything?
The news is that in 2011, the vendor is taking something out of the package, claiming that the manufacturer is unfairly competing.
CmdrTaco is gone, we're doomed.
(scenes of chaos and mayhem ensue...)
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
had a camera covered by Best Buy warranty, one of those point-and-clicks (Canon Powershot SD400 or something). After a while, something mechanical failed --either the lens barrel wouldn't extend/retract, or the lens cover wouldn't close up. Also the slider switch (to select Photo/Video/Playback) was loose. It was covered by the 4-year warranty, so I went to Best Buy and they took it and sent it back for repair.
After a month, repair dept sent it back to my local store, and I picked it up. It was exactly the same: mechanical failure, loose slider switch. I showed the staff at Best Buy, that it was malfunctioning and I hadn't even walked out of the store after picking up the camera. So they sent it back for repairs a second time.
After another month, repair dept sent it back again. Again it was exactly the same, so I told the staff, WTF?? THey said they'd check. After a while, someone called and said, the repair dept could tell that I had damaged the camera, so the repair wasn't covered. What!? I spent almost an hour on the phone with some Best Buy headquarters person, saying, Hey, I just sent it back a 2nd time after having gotten it back from your repair department, and the 1st time there was no mention of damage, so it must have been the repair department that damaged it! (I was confident that it had not been I who damaged it.) The guy said that just because they send it back the first time it doesn't mean that they guarantee that it's in good condition, so it was perfectly valid to say that the 2nd time it was in crappy condition because it was already that way when they sent it back the 1st time.
I said, fine, what about the slider switch that was loose? The guy said, it was already loose, as I had given in my statement the first time I sent it in. That's when it struck me: if I had *NOT* told them about the slider switch, then *THEY* would have been responsible for fixing it since it would seem that they had damaged it during the repair process.
It was maddening, but finally I found a reason to send it back (I remember now: the first time the lens had gotten stuck in the retracted position, and now I could say that it was stuck in the extended position) and it went back. Of course it came back unrepaired, and I ranted and raved at the local Best Buy, saying that I had been missing my camera for 3 months now (in fact, it was a big deal since we had a birth in the family and I had wanted to take pictures). The local staff quietly upgraded to --well, an equivalent camera, but of course the model number had advanced since the 3+ years since buying the malfunctioning camera.
Lesson: if there is more than one thing wrong with the camera, do NOT mention anything else wrong. Gives you more leverage when they try to send it back saying that repair is not covered, and you can say, "What about this here thing wrong? Did you cause this?"
Maddening.
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
Sounds like you may have gotten an item that had been set up by Geek squad and then dumped. That, or someone is boosting attachment numbers. Good luck returning the machine that *they* opened.
Back when I worked at Best Buy (15 years ago), my manager would send us to a back room to re-shrink-wrap returned merchandise. A lot of time has passed since, but it seems that Best Buy still incentivizes bad behavior.
I used to work for Best Buy Geek Squad (about 3 years ago, and for almost 5 years before that), starting when I was a sophomore in high school. And, I do hear this a lot, but not every "kid" that worked for a big box electronic store was terrible at their job. Geek Squad, yes, I know, I know. But that was a different time for me, so don't hate on it too much.
Anyway, I can personally tell you that we saw at least 1 DOA laptop for every 20 we sold (a certain brand or two I won't name that sold for cheap accounted for most of them). That being said, customers, especially the grumpy I'm-entitled-to-everything suburban kind, do not like getting home, opening their new laptop, and seeing either a blue screen or nothing at all. It pissed off the customer, and then usually the store ends up losing more money because of people who demand to be compensated for the time they spent bring the computer back to the store. Remember, computers don't have a high profit margin, so giving away anything more than 5-10% on a computer which usually end up in a loss for the store. You may have your qualms with this practice, but it keeps their average customer satisfaction up.
Now, in addition to that, I would also like to point out that when I was working for Geek Squad, we weren't installing trial versions of anything on there. In fact, back in the day, we used to do a free performance upgrade (registry fixes, bloatware startup-item removal, etc). I'm not sure why this particular part of the process has changed, but I'm sure there's a marketing reason for it.
Besides, the only people this would really irk is the extreme power user crowd (us), and most of us are wise enough (hopefully) to buy our electronics elsewhere, anyway.
vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
> The only things I buy with an installed OS are notebooks, and I make recovery media
> for my collection then wipe 'em to install Linux.
I bought a laptop for my wife this week (from Best Buy) -- and this is _exactly_ what I did (except I did leave a minimal Windows installation -- just in case).
Credo quia impossibilis -- Tertullian
Yup that is exactly how they roll, we used to do that at Circuity City (worked so well for them). Basically it was 30 minutes of my time to open the box, remove adware, install AV, clean up msconfig and burn some recovery disks. We only charged around 50-60$ though for the service, which was mostly the AV and a bit on the top.
I still think its sleazy but for some users in the area (red neck town) it worked out very well. The recovery disks and AV kept them from coming back two months later for an anti-virus removal that would run them 130$.
We need a replacement... maybe CmdrBurger or CmdrPizza.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Did they accept the EULA?
It's been a long day, and I probably should have spent more time in the preview dialogue.
vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
They're worshiping at the altar, my friend, worshiping at the altar. Apple isn't a company, it's a religion. I swear to god, they could put out the iTurd, a steaming pile of shit on a plate, and the fanboys would be in there bragging how they bought two of them or how they'd heard rumors about the iTurd 2! Of course, what's really sad is that a few weeks later, Samsung would be releasing TurdX, and would have it banned in the EU because it stinks like shit, and thus violates an Apple design patent.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
"I went to Best Buy the other day to get a new laptop for a client."
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
I knew I should have referenced Circuit City instead!
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
I bought a PC from there for work. I needed Vista Ultimate 32 bit on it instead of the Vista 64bit Home. But all they had left were PCs they had opened with Geek Squad "optimization" done on them. I told them I (my company) wasn't going to pay $75 for a service I didn't want or ask for, especially when what I was about to do was install 32bit Vista over it and wipe out everything their service had done. I am sure there is a reason why the only PCs of that model left had the optimization on them. People don't actually want to pay for that worthless service, but when all the "non-optimized" PCs are sold, Best Buy can still sell the service since they already put it on the PC before you ever walked in the door. Eventually I won the argument and paid the normal price for the PC. All was fine with me, because I was going to format it anyway. But if you plan on keeping the OS version it comes with, this current state of affairs where they "inspect" the PC would piss me off as well. They need to stop doing that shit. Full disclosure: I worked for Best Buy as a seasonal employee one year, and my girlfriend currently works for Best Buy selling computers. I am sure we will get in to an argument about this tonight as they have her thoroughly brainwashed that their services are a value to people. She even thinks Black Tie Protection is a good idea /facepalm.
So...exactly like he did, but not exactly..??
Burma?
They tried this with my new HP TouchPad but they couldn't find any software to install on it.
So it's second hand then. And they're marketing it as brand new.
I'd like to see them try to pull that stunt here in the UK.
"We live in a global world" - Harvey Pitt, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
If you buy a Vostro you get business-class support. I called in because my fan was making a funny sound, they had a tech with a part there the next day.
Now if you buy an Inspiron, then you get consumer-class support.
Not only that, but they up the price by about $80. Granted, getting the recovery disks (THAT I SHOULD ALREADY BE GETTING) almost makes this worthwhile, but I'm gonna be irritated if I have to uninstall even *more* crap.
I went to BB to look at an HP G4-1117DX and all they had were the ones with this treatment.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Um, that article is from 2009:
"By Phil Villarreal on September 28, 2009 2:10 PM"
I'm sure Best Buy is still doing this, but why are you digging up things that are nearly two years old?
CmdrTaco is gone, we're doomed.
(scenes of chaos and mayhem ensue...)
Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!
Mayor: All right, all right! I get the point!
And: "Yes, it's true. This man has no dick"
After a wipe, fresh OS and some 3rd party utilities it ends up being even more better.
More important issue is why would you buy from BB in the 1st place?
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
That is not what he is complaining about. He is complaining about gamestop's practice of opening new games and still selling them as new. They did this to the new Dues Ex to remove an onLive coupon, They also do it when they let their employees play the games and still sell them as new.
On the other hand you could argue that since gamestop opened the package the 'shrinkwrap' license does not apply. (Not that I would want to spend several years and no telling how much money in order to test this legal theory.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
MK = stagnated.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
You know what? Best Buy can *keep* the user profile, recovery disk, and antivirus. And they can discount the price of the machine because they used the copy of Windows that I would have returned for a refund.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
The last time I bought a Laptop from Fry's, they gave me $70 off the price simply because it had been opened and powered on once (but not set up).
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
I realize this is an old article, but at my store (and others in the area) this was $29 service that you would have to pay for, not something they just did. It sounds like this store was just throwing it in for their customers. We would create the restore disks and run an optimization. We would also (at least I would when I was moved up to GS) clean up all the crap that was preloaded on the machine. If the customer purchased AV/AM protection, we would load that too, update it and setup a scan schedule. Of course most of this was automated :-).
You just brought up old memories of Food Fighters. Oh God. It burns.
Cool post bro, highfive \o
At least Nero asks before it installs unwanted junk. As far as I'm concerned I would that it back for a refund. I have no idea what they might have included!!!
Believe me the decline is nothing new...
Witnessing the rise in noise to signal ratio for quite a while.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
So now, refurbs are new.
...you have to get the Best Buy warranties...because they already invalidated the manufacturer's warranty!
Yep, I'd return it, ask for a discount, free warranty for 2-3 years, etc. There's no reason for them to do that.
It's one thing if you signed up for them to do that - it's another for them to assume you want it done.
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
I used to work for geeksquad and what you got was a pre-optimized computer. The Trend is actually bloatware from the manufacturer, but the restore disks is a service that they offer. When I worked there they would pre-optimize/other services on a selection of their laptops especially the sale laptops. They didn't use to let you buy them without paying for the services, but they ended up getting into some legal trouble and the vendors got pretty irritated about the practice. I don't do that kind of work anymore (I'm a network engineer), but after working for Geeksquad for a couple of years I can say that there are people that really need that kind of service. Although I will agree that $200 for a clean install is a little excessive. I met person after person that knew noone that could do basic computer work. Not stupid people though. Doctors, lawyers, nurses and people with various other intellectually demanding jobs. They just weren't computer people. Also I've seen more people than I can count that got completely ripped off by freelance IT. People who had people take their old parts taken during upgrades, and people that were lied to about the condition of their hardware and what they were buying. At least with Geeksquad you have a company to sue if they rip you off. After that job but before I got out of the client side IT stuff I charged around $30-$50 for that kind of work, based on my general idea that I charged around half what geeksquad would.As a geeksquad agent you're expected to maintain a productivity of around $60/hour, but you also need to make up for the people that are in the back not selling. So it really ends up being more like $80/hour.
When I buy a new laptop, I set it up, then, shut down the computer, pop out the hard drive, put the expiration of the warranty on it with a sticker. Pop in a clean drive and set it up the way I want. If something happens during the warranty period, I pop the original drive back in, before sending it in for warranty work.
Honestly, I've *never* seen an extended warranty that was truly a "good deal", in the sense that it saved you money over any of your other options. Extended warranties are like insurance policies though; you agree to pay a certain price for a certain length of time of coverage, ensuring that if anything breaks, you're not out of pocket a large, surprise amount of money to get it working again.
Most of the computers Best Buy sells are models more liable than average to break and need service in the first place, so I'd argue that rather than paying hundreds more for their extended service plan, it would be smarter to buy a better quality machine from the start. (I hate to name names, but the Toshiba Satellite and Satellite Pro series I've seen MANY people purchase at Best Buy stores over the years seem like they're always going back in for some kind of service work -- from dead motherboards to overheating issues to bad video chipsets, to broken CD/DVD drives and trays. A number of the HP Pavilion laptops I've seen people buy there had issues too - especially with power adapter jacks that came loose or again, motherboard failures.)
When you're talking about a large investment like a car or truck purchase, I can see more justification for the extended warranty, assuming it really covers enough potential problems and it's being sold by someone reputable (manufacturer's own are probably safest). In those cases, you're probably doing financing over as long as 5 or 6 years anyway - so it's relatively painless to cough up the several thousand dollars so it's rolled into the monthly payments. Even if you only have 1 or 2 claims over the life of that ext. warranty plan and they total up to, say, $800-1500 less than you paid for the plan? You essentially paid for peace of mind that beyond that initially agreed-upon monthly finance payment, you wouldn't get stuck having to come up with $1000 or more all at once or have a disabled vehicle you were STILL paying the bank for until you could come up with it.
With a laptop computer, you likely paid under $1,000 for it from Best Buy in the first place, right? If it lasts through the 1 year factory warranty period (and if not, will get fixed free by the manufacturer, presumably), you're probably in a good position to either A) resell it while it's still in good working order, and just over 1 year old, so you can recoup enough cash to put towards another new model, or B) use it until something DOES break and find out how much that repair costs. It may be possible to buy another identical (broken with a different problem) laptop off eBay or Craigslist and use parts from it to fix yours inexpensively. If it's just a failed hard drive or bad RAM -- no big deal. $100 or less in most cases to replace that stuff. If it's serious like a bad motherboard, just eBay it for parts (screen might still be good in that case, for example) and buy a new machine.
I'm betting that if you always stick to my above strategy, you'll come out ahead of trying to hang onto an older system that has extended warranty left on it. There's some value in having a new (likely faster) machine that you miss out on if you keep fixing that older one, and disadvantages of waiting to get a broken one back from the shop if and when it does break and you use that extended warranty on it.
B&H is the bomb. It is the newegg equivalent for camera gear: they have practically everything, ship fast, competitive prices, no hassles. But generally they don't offer any warranty except what the manufacturer provides. And for some equipment that is rather limited (for Canon it is 1 year). Not a problem for me but YMMV.
Wow, I mean, just WOW!
Either you pay to have the anti-virus put on, or you pay later to have the anti-virus removed. Wait, I may just be a red neck, but I see something wrong here.
"For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice" -- God
They had to open it to put the second-hand OnLive coupon in the box.
-Dave
They made the recovery discs. I don't know any normal user who did that on their new PC... and I know many users who missed those discs.
That's what chargebacks were created for.
Learn to love Alaska
Being among the shadiest companies with aggressive policies on squeezing their customers for everything they can, this is a surprise?
I'm curious as to how this impacts the EULA acceptance that is typically a part of setting up a new laptop? Would BestBuy be accepting it instead of you in order to install software on your laptop.
I would never buy an extended warranty on a new car, either. If you know even a smattering of how to take care of a car yourself, like replacing batteries, alternators, radiator hoses, belts and so forth, then you are very likely to be better off without the warranty. They will show you average cost of repairs over the life of the vehicle, but the cost they show you assumes that you pay the dealerships shop rates, which are much higher than an independent mechanic and infinitely higher than your own labor. Also, on Auto warranties, they generally just extend bumper to bumper to last as long as the drivetrain manufacturers warranty. This is because they know that most of what they will be covering is stuff that is either going to be broke out of the box or work long past the manufacturers warranty period.
I went with a buddy to buy a car and couldn't talk him out of the extended warranty onsite, because they said he had 30 days to cancel. However, once he got it home and went over it for about a week, he came to the conclusion that it was a waste of money. He had a hard time getting them to let him cancel, but he is pretty hardheaded himself, so he eventually got them to honor their word that he could cancel.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Why else is OP posting a 2 year old article?
Because today we had an article about Gamestop opening retail boxes and pulling out online coupons. This article undoubtedly made it through because of the similarity.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
I wouldn't urinate on the place if was on fire. Hell no I wouldn't let them in / on / around my equipment. If I don't know how to fix it the, I guess it's boot 'n nuke time. If that doesn't work then it's time to take the computer out to the rifle range.
So they opened it and installed it, therefore they agreed to the EULA not the end user. I would think that this means that the end user is not responsible for the agreement....
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
I have no idea where you get your cars from or what make/model you purchase but with that aside new car purchases with the extended warranty are worth it in most cases. Regardless of how knowledgeable you are about cars/trucks, etc., there are still instances that a warranty is a must have. for example replacing or repair of a transmission (it can be done and I have done it but it is easier a maybe quicker in most instances to have someone else do it), electrical issues, repair of rear axle, bodywork, and engine repair are all reasons to have a warranty. Yes some people can do the diagnostics and repair but even then certain issues require special tools or need a lift to repair the issue in a timely manner. Also for most people it can save thousands of dollars depending on several factors the least of which are locations where you drive, number of miles per year you drive since increased wear and tear can be a big issue in a few years. Additionally the warranty requires the owners to get proper maintenance (either they do oil/filter changes, transmission fluid, coolant, and checks for tire wear, etc. In almost all instances, unless you are a mechanic and do this for a living or have more then one car you can use during the repair and/or have plenty of free time to properly do repairs in addition to normal maintenance then a warranrty/extended warranty is a good idea. This is especially true considering the low price of most extended warranties. Extended warranties don't just extend the standard bumper to bumper, at least in all that I have seen, they usually include a minimum of 3-10+ years of warranty coverage and some cover accidents that cover the difference between what your insurance pays and what they would pay (he manufacturer). Obviously extended warranties aren't for everyone especially those that only have a car for under 5 years since the standard warranty will cover most issues and any recalls. Extended warranties come in many kinds but in general the ones that are worth it are those that have little to no deductible, covers wear and tear (not just failing parts), and roadside service/breakdown coverage, etc. It can and is definitely worth it depending on what you get and for how long you are keeping the vehicle as well as how many miles you generally put on it. Saying that you would never buy an extended warranty or saying that some issues can readily be repaired by yourself is just being ignorant. Each person has different requirements and extended warranties vary wildly depending on where you buy, from which car manufacturer you buy from, and most importantly who is actually providing the extended warranty. As far as other extended warranties, most are rip offs and will never be needed or it's cheaper/better to just buy the same product again. In some specific cases it may be worth it but in general they aren't. Every person needs something different but aside from car extended warranties (from a reputable company) most others are just crap. It's just ignorant to group everyone in the same boat and then say that everybody should do what you do.
I love how you guys say Newegg yet pricewatch will typically find the same part at a cheaper price.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
if so then who cares unless they put another frack'n Windows sticker around the keyboard.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
The PC was probably returned and BestBuy restocked it. When I worked at Staples we even repacked boxes of pens with a shrink wrapper in the bank. Some money is better than no money and everyone does this. When you return it you say whether it is broken or not and if it is not broken they simply restock it. No biggie. FYI all the computers from bestbuy have crapware installed including the horrible BestBuy software installer.
My Asus is one of them and I know because when I do a full system restore from DVD backup it reinstalls it. It is a contract requirement from the company and not the Geek Squad kid opening every laptop and installing god knows what.
Just install PC-Decrapifier and get rid of it. Thats what I did with mine.
It was annoying but lving in Alaska, I had no other outlet to buy electronics and BestBuy does buy them in bulk for a discounted price.
If that still bothers you ask to exchange for another one and have Geek Squad open the box to make sure it was not opened before you buy it.
http://saveie6.com/
I bought a Blu-ray player from there earlier this year (was on sale and cheaper than newegg/amazon). It was taped up in the "inspected by best buy" sticker tape. When I got home and set it up, I noticed the batteries were nowhere to be found. I called the store, and they said to come in; they'd give me some. I told them I wasn't wasting my time to go all the way back and wanted them to delivery them to me. Just as they got my address, my phone call dropped. I was too pissed to call them back. About a week later they arrived in the mail.
...
While I am not a Best Buy employee, I do work in Best Best and personally I think they undercharge for the PC Setup and Optimize service (I realize this will be unpopular but I'm willing to jump on that dagger today).
Could the average joe user learn to do the same stuff they do, yes. Does the average joe user care about doing that stuff, not really. They just want it to work, without consideration of what should be done as preparation to be used (i.e. system updates, adding anti-virus, setting up username with strong passwords, etc.) Yet, when something goes wrong they are quick to blame the vendor. Best Buy has pre-setup and factory-setup systems available for sale. If the customer indicates they want a Best Buy setup system, then they should pay the price, if not they can state otherwise. If the only systems available are pre-setup ones then, the customer can wait or pay the difference.
Some of you "brains" (I do mean that in a positive sense) forget that not everyone can / or care to take the time to do preliminary work. Others of you fail to understand that Best Buy is in the business of making money through a wide variety of business strategies. This is just one of them. Were it me, I would charge more, because I think that the extra $99 dollars is low. Again this is just my opinion and I realize it will not be popular, but when you run a business (especially a public company); revenue needs to be generated and operating costs need to be paid.
Regards,
MBC1977,
I work at Geek Squad.
Before I worked here, I abhorred the Geek Squad. But I needed a job, so I took this one. It's not really that bad.
Tons of people actually want this service. They pay $100 for us to turn on the computer for the first time, go through the Windows out-of-box experience, uninstall the Norton/McAfee 30-day trial, install 1-year (or more) Trend Micro/Kaspersky/Webroot of their choosing, burn recovery discs (since the OEMs don't include them anymore), and install all Windows updates.
All this takes about 2-3 hours and we use automated software to do this stuff.
We "preset" computers as well, meaning we take them out of the box, perform all of these services, and then rebox them up and badge them as "Set up by a Geek Squad Agent." We are only supposed to pre-set up a certain percentage of our stock, however, a lot of what we agents call "cowboy managers" (managers who break standard corporate operating procedure) make agents set up 50% or more of the stock, hoping that people will be more inclined to purchase setups if they are already performed and they're all that's left.
A lot of times at my store we give away the presets because the client doesn't want to pay and the preset stock is all that's left. It sounds to me like you got one of the preset units and they never charged you for it.
By the way, the only two types of tape available in the entire store are "Inspected by Best Buy" tape and "Geek Squad Priority" tape. The tape says "Inspected by Best Buy" because it indicates that Best Buy is the one who sealed the box last. It doesn't mean that the presetup process is an "inspection."
Given the high demand by some to buy their computers pre-set up, I don't think it's such a horrible service anymore. Some people are just stupid and want to turn on the computer for the first time and just click IE. The out of box experience, as silly as it sounds, can be confusing to many users, and they would rather walk out the door knowing that the antivirus is installed properly, even if that isn't hard to do at all.
Before you go hating on Best Buy, keep in mind that margins in PCs are extremely low. Best Buy _loses_ money if you buy a non-Apple computer without any Geek Squad services. This is called selling a "brick." The PC sales market is extremely cut-throat. Office Depot makes its money by hoping you never send in a rebate or send it in incorrectly. Best Buy makes its money by attaching services. Without this, the price of buying a computer from these stores would go up.
Scorta futuere amo!
"I went to Best Buy the other day to get a new laptop"
as we all know thats not possible; many have tried.
Best buy is designed to sell the idea of technology to the elderly. its a well established government program. many "stores" give this away by their pedantic treatment of customers, and rigorous bureaucratic structure.
you can confirm this fact simply by mailing your taxes to best buy, which will gladly be forwarded to the proper federal agency on your behalf.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Waiting right now for a replacement for the Asus Eee Slate that was DOA from Amazon UK.
They do this ALL the time. YOU CAN find a laptop without their crap. When you do, they charge you less. They put it on there because they want to sell you their crappy Geek Squad tech support. I reject it. The bad thing is that sometimes YOU CAN'T GET THE SALE PRICE WITHOUT THE BLOAT!
Gorkman
Sometimes they don't give you the choice though since they do all sorts of presetup. Setup that doesn't need to be done.
If you want computing easy...don't buy a laptop. Get a tablet or iPad.
Gorkman
I was going to mention that Consumerist has had stories like this for years. Then I noticed that the link in the story is to a Consumerist story...from 2009. Slashdot -- always up on the latest trends in commerce and the internet.
This isn't just a marketing thing, it's an upsale. BB charges you for this system prep "service" and frequently tries to make it look like it's a required bundle with any laptop purchase, which it isn't.
We are the 198 proof..
... is doing the same thing and charge you $99 for it! So when the laptop you want has only "prepared box" left, you have to pay the "fee", or walk and find it elsewhere.
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
B&H rocks, and not just for cameras. I'm pretty happy with the netbook I bought through them last year, and it was cheaper from them than anyone else, even with shipping.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
A few years ago I went to Best Buy because they had a good deal on laptops and I needed one for a very particular function. Before I left they opened the box and and turned on the machine.
At the time they had a policy of a restocking fee for opened boxes. They told me this after I purchased the laptop. It turns out I did not need the laptop so I tried to return it and argued that BEST BUY opened the box. I could not have returned it without the fee even if I never left the store.
They eventually relented and refunded the fee and started posting very large signs with the return policy.
Moral of the story -- if they open the box before you leave get the manager's name and promise that they will give full refunds.
Uh, that was a computer that had a Geeksquad set-up with restore CD service done to it. I did like 12 of them today, you just got a free $100 (semi worth it) service for free, quit bitching. "Oh no! free anti-virus!"
But is it a service you wanted? If the answer is no, then there is a problem - especially if it is no for a majority of buyers. In all honesty, they should ask you whether you want it done or not and give you one accordingly regardless of whether they charge you for the service as it otherwise effects warranties, contents, etc. Manufacturer's (e.g. Dell, Gateway, HP, etc) could pick up on this and rightly refuse to provide service - saying that BestBuy needs to do it since they broke the contract with between you and the manufacturer. So there really is a lot more at play.
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
1 remove the unneeded trials (both OEM and BB)
2 Check the settings to make sure they are "correct" for your purpose
3 then they are liable if the restore set fails i would guess
as long as they didn't A Charge for the "inspection" B Put anything "Funky" on at the same time i would say this is a nonissue at worst and may be a convenience at best
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Had the wifi work on one laptop with the Live CD, but wouldn't work in the full install with a whole lot of wrangling. This was about 4 years ago, but still a weird issue.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
I've worked for the company twice: FEB98-OCT00, NOV06-DEC10. (Got laid off and had to return to the Beast.) First time I worked in Media, mostly selling software, this latest time I worked in the warehouse of my store.
Frequently as we stocked the truck, we'd have Geek Squad people getting the laptops we were stocking so they could do all the prep work on them. There was even a point where they were checking the quantities of each SKU so that they could grab as close to 40% of each SKU as possible. (I don't say this as a dig at the GS guys; most of them were decent.)
Why did they do this? Because someone at District said that they had to to that to 40% of each SKU.
I can't speak for the other stores in my district, but what ended up happening at our store is that most people wouldn't want to pay the extra money for that service, the unmolested laptops would sell out first, and a few days after we received our shipments, all that would be left were the 40%. It got so bad that some models, week after week, wouldn't sell any modified laptops, so we'd have 20-30 of the modified laptops that were weeks old. Any customers who came in at the end of the week (especially if it was a model on sale) would find only the modified laptops. And these laptops were, of course, more expensive than the tag price they were looking at in front of the model.
Then, naturally, since management was desperate to make sales, if a customer complained about it just a little, the managers would waive the service fee and sell a serviced laptop at the original price.
And they wonder why they keep making less and less money.
It definitely was an interesting practice. I should add that at the time we only did this to a percentage of the PCs, you could still buy an unmodified PC for normal cost. Typically though the custom set-ups were quite popular, given the general lack of computer knowledge in the area. We had one guy bring in a PC for troubleshooting that had two inches of "dirt" in the bottom of the case, in addition to a bunch of razors and a fair amount of human(?) hair. They was a deeply disturbing tech support experience for me.
I've had my share of bad experiences with best lie but recently I bought an HDTV from them and got it home only to find that all the mounting hardware was MISSING, no bolts, no screws, no cables - nothing but the TV and the base. Despite the fact that when I bought it they got me to pay for their unwanted geek squad warranty by ganging up on me three salesmen to one customer and every time I said NO they pretended I said YES to buying the warranty, I got so frustrated I caved in and bought it. They got away with it because they were the ONLY electronics place around with a deal I could afford even with the warranty but they lost a LOT of business from me. Nine out of ten times I think of shopping at best lie I don't because I get angry when I think of what they did. I go there and a salesperson says something I want to slap them and call them skum! Despite this after the TV incident I would still rather them open it to make sure some idiot didn't leave something out of the box. They claimed my missing hardware was not possible. I would hate to open a new laptop to find it damaged, cracked or missing and have to try to prove to those jackasses that I didn't do it. I'd rather they not install their crap ware on it though.
www.Migrainesoft.com - Computer giving you a headache? We can fix that!
Some people don't have the money to do that, unfortunately. Seeing a computer at a B&M that fits the specs of what I need and is at fire-sale prices is hard to pass up, when what I really want would cost about 5x as much from HP business. And about 3-4x if I built it. Granted I don't get the warranty you do, but I can buy one of these every other year with upped specs each time, and never had one crap out in less time than that. But I don't let people install crapware on them either.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
I bought my first laptop years ago from best buy and they opened it in front of me a did a quick power on, ran though some diags and tested the screen etc. At first i was put back, kinda like wtf i wanted to open it up... but when i thought about that gave me piece of mind the laptop was sound. My last two laptops have been different, i get handed the box unopened.
..just because you can, doens't mean you should...
you're an ignorant hypocrite.
Is that why I post at +2 and you post at -1? To me that sure looks like I'm not the ignorant one in this discussion.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Would this not constitute an open box/used item since Best Buy open the item created a profile and load their crap on the system?
I usually snag any family member's laptops there but bypass any of the crap they try to offer. Then once I'm home I do a clean wipe, toss antivirus/teamviewer/chrome on it, and hand it over. I've bought about three laptops so far and haven't seen a sticker yet though.
I worked at Best Buy. A lot of laptops come with crapware installed on your computer, and they all need to be removed to optimize performance. Best Buy taught me that Norton is a joke, and should never be installed for any reason as it is worse than the viruses sometimes.
I personally don't run with any anti virus on my home PCs. The trick is just not installing untrusted aps. So I'm sorry you have any antivirus at all.
Geek Squad was a joke of a job though. I took it because I couldn't find any C/C++ or Java programming positions. The world is a strange place where you can be a master at a trade, but Human Resources won't even give you an introductory position.
God spoke to me