F**k you Best Buy

[87e30]

$15/month for iPhone insurance?

I have my and my girlfriends insured for $650 each (cost of replacement with no contract) through my State Farm agent for $5/month, for both.

And it covers anything other then the device failing.

But, it's stops working, you call and tell them you lost/dropped it. Covered, your agent will even write you a check on the spot.

I had never thought about insuring random electronics through a dedicated insurance company. Sounds rather silly when I type it out like that, but cool to know.

[z31maniac]

I bought my iphone at bestbuy, I got their 14.95 / month insurance on it. So if it were to quit working or get damaged, i dont have to pay $800 for a brand new one. However if I require a new phone due to damage or device failure, and the insurance dosent deliver as in, like takign 2 months for a phone replacement, or large out of pocket expense for me to pay, I will never shop there again. I have no problem paying for the policy as long as Bestbuy does what it said it would in the contract, and do it in a timely manner, but if the screw me over fuck em, it will be the last electronic device i buy at their store.

$15/month for iPhone insurance?

I have my and my girlfriends insured for $650 each (cost of replacement with no contract) through my State Farm agent for $5/month, for both.

And it covers anything other then the device failing.

But, it's stops working, you call and tell them you lost/dropped it. Covered, your agent will even write you a check on the spot.

[nando]

of course, but spending $4000-5000 on a computer is a whole 'nother brand of stupid. :p

[Jand3rson]

the problem with these stupid warranties is the cost of laptops/computers has come down a LOT. if my wifes laptop were to die, I could buy another one for a little more than the cost of a warranty extension. Even if you used the extension, you still have a 3 year old computer that could have been replaced by a faster/better computer for the same cost or maybe $100 more. There's just no economic justification unless you're spending $2k on an uber machine, but the average ma & pa (who are buying a $500 laptop, maybe) get suckered by pushy sales people and scary stories.

You're right on the PC front. When I worked for AppleCare, we used to tell people that were buying Macs from Best Buy to get the AppleCare warranty AND the Best Buy warranty, because AppleCare doesn't cover accidental damage. You drop a Macbook, and you're out anywhere from 1-5k, depending on your options. And most of the time, the people buying Macbooks don't mind shelling out $500 for 2 warranties that combined, will cover damn-near anything.

I remember a call I got one time, the woman had a 17" Macbook Pro, that she had paid close to $4k for by the time all the options were said and done. Her cat pissed on the keyboard one night, and it sat there for 2 days while she was out of town before she came home and realized what had happened. We couldn't do anything about it, but her Best Buy warranty covered it. She had a new MBP within a week.

[ALYKZANDYR]

I bought my iphone at bestbuy, I got their 14.95 / month insurance on it. So if it were to quit working or get damaged, i dont have to pay $800 for a brand new one. However if I require a new phone due to damage or device failure, and the insurance dosent deliver as in, like takign 2 months for a phone replacement, or large out of pocket expense for me to pay, I will never shop there again. I have no problem paying for the policy as long as Bestbuy does what it said it would in the contract, and do it in a timely manner, but if the screw me over fuck em, it will be the last electronic device i buy at their store.

[nando]

And for shopping at best buy for a computer, previous to working at geek squad I would totally agree I would NEVER buy a computer from them. But I have 100% changed my mind for one reason, the warranty. This basically adheres to laptops for me because I don't have a desktop, and I would just build one if I wanted one. Anyways, most computers it's only $250 for a 3 year warranty with accidental damage. It's totally worth the price IMO. What's nice is if anything fails, you just take it in and we fix it on the spot. This is also true for MFG warranty's. If you buy a laptop from amazon or something, and the HDD shits out under warranty, you will have to contact the MFG, send it in (or they might send you a drive if you're lucky) and have it fixed. If you buy it at BB, you just take that shit back in and we fix it. Then with our warranty all that goes out to 3 years. Also after a year you get a new battery, yours doesn't even have to be bad. As long as you remember to call in before your plan is up, we will give you a new one. And the accidental damage is pretty good, it only takes one drop to fuck a laptop up, and $250 to fix anything would be a good deal.

/end

the problem with these stupid warranties is the cost of laptops/computers has come down a LOT. if my wifes laptop were to die, I could buy another one for a little more than the cost of a warranty extension. Even if you used the extension, you still have a 3 year old computer that could have been replaced by a faster/better computer for the same cost or maybe $100 more. There's just no economic justification unless you're spending $2k on an uber machine, but the average ma & pa (who are buying a $500 laptop, maybe) get suckered by pushy sales people and scary stories.

How many of those same people pay EB Games the extra $20 or whatever for disk scratch protection? what a joke!

[mattdk318i]

www.newegg.com is what i use. You can get a "Combo" and build it yourself for way cheap. And it makes a good pc.

[mitch500]

fuck best buy... i bought a camera worked for 2 months crapped out on me... took them 8 months in the repair shop ( mostly cause they said it was fixed then it would come back with the same problem) finally i went ape shit on them and they gave me a new one... will never ever shop there again.

[Flash]

Somewhat on topic, but i always though computer stuff was hard, but pretty much damn near everything you need to know about computers, troubleshooting and building, even setting up windows etc....is all documented on the internet.
I stopped asking a computer friend for the most part how to do things because all the information needed is not out of reach, but people want the convinience of it all. Building a computer and getting all of the parts is not even hard, its just a couple hours of research at most....

[equate975]

I work at geek squad, and this is what I think. My goal isn't really to defend them, because I disagree with a lot of their practices and prices.

First off, the quality of your repairs can vary a ton depending on what geek squad you have, it's a total crap shoot. I'm very sure there are some out there that sucks total balls, full of incompetent tech's who can't do anything but re-install windows and send computers to our repair facilities. That being said, some (like ours) are pretty damn good. We have a few local repair shops that I get a ton of overflow from with really angry customers. I've had one of them do some work for me in the past at a previous job when I didn't have the time to do everything myself. Anything that got past a simple PSU or HDD failure they spent days trying to figure out, only to give it back to me and have it fuck up for the same thing again. So compared to our areas shops, geek squad is #1. Myself and 2 other techs do all the "renew" which basically is fixing broken shit. When I came on I was surprised at how good the other techs that did renew were, this was the first time I could actually hold a conversation about a computer with another employee and have them understand wtf I mean, not only that, but be able to do everything I can do. So basically, some geek squads suck balls, some don't. The entry test to get hired is a fucking joke, so it's no wonder we get incompetent techs.

Secondly, as far as optimizations go... It's for lazy people. I would assume majority of the people on this board have at least 3 brain cells fully functioning. If you have those, you can setup a computer. I had to fill in for computer sales before x-mas, and obviously I was selling computers with our packages. The thing I told people, was you can do it all yourself no problem. But, if you have us do it, you can go home, open up your brand new toy, turn it on, and be ready to go. People pay for the convince, not the difficulty of the job. How many people here would pay a shop to change your air filter for you? I doubt many people at all would. And even if you did, it would be out of convince, not that it's too hard to figure out. I can guarantee most drivers on the road will pay someone to do it, just so they don't have to figure out how and do it themselves, even though it's easy as hell. People pay for it, because it's convenient.

Also, in the article, they said the $39.99 optimization is the same as the $69.99 one with AV. FWIW, it's not. The AV trial is only 30 days, not 6 months.

And for shopping at best buy for a computer, previous to working at geek squad I would totally agree I would NEVER buy a computer from them. But I have 100% changed my mind for one reason, the warranty. This basically adheres to laptops for me because I don't have a desktop, and I would just build one if I wanted one. Anyways, most computers it's only $250 for a 3 year warranty with accidental damage. It's totally worth the price IMO. What's nice is if anything fails, you just take it in and we fix it on the spot. This is also true for MFG warranty's. If you buy a laptop from amazon or something, and the HDD shits out under warranty, you will have to contact the MFG, send it in (or they might send you a drive if you're lucky) and have it fixed. If you buy it at BB, you just take that shit back in and we fix it. Then with our warranty all that goes out to 3 years. Also after a year you get a new battery, yours doesn't even have to be bad. As long as you remember to call in before your plan is up, we will give you a new one. And the accidental damage is pretty good, it only takes one drop to fuck a laptop up, and $250 to fix anything would be a good deal.

/end

[nando]

people are actually stupid enough to pay for that?

wait, I mean, of course they are. Shopping at Best Buy for a computer pretty much assumes that.

[accident]

Geek Squad is a joke, I make so much money cleaning up their mistakes for pissed off clients.

I should get in to this.

[pureaudio]

Geek Squad is a joke, I make so much money cleaning up their mistakes for pissed off clients.

[Restoman]

I refuse to shop at Best Buy after they put up a cattle shoot at our store to direct customers when checking out. The could care less if you have to walk 300 feet when no one is in line. It's like going to six flags when no one is there. Their salespeople are crap and so is the store.

[accident]

I got my laptop there in December, but i think i got lucky. I did Site2Store and got a decent deal. Walked in, picked it up, and walked out.