Best Buy and Geek Squad Took Our Computer and Ruined It

In 2004, my fiancee received a wonderful gift from her parents - a HP Pavilion zv5000 notebook with a three-year warranty from Best Buy and the Geek Squad.

It was a decent performer - it wasn't a cheap or inexpensive notebook by any stretch of the imagination.

That three-year extended warranty expired last month, and right on cue, this computer is going to have to be replaced soon. We got great use out of the warranty though, as the computer was sent off for several repairs, five of which were for exactly the same issue.

That's right - the same issue.

The issue stemmed, evidently, from a loose DC jack, but I also attribute it to a poorly designed case, poorly designed power adapters, and poorly trained Geek Squad geeks.

You see, after about four to eight weeks of usage, the DC jack would presumably become loose - we'd have to wrestle with the power cord to get the computer to charge, and at this point, the cord would start getting damaged. Then, we would take the computer into the Geek Squad office inside the Best Buy in North Little Rock, Ark., who would then send the computer off to a repair center in Kentucky for several weeks while it was "fixed."

They could not process two work orders simultaneously - as a result, to get a new AC adapter we had to wait until the computer came back from its repair. On at least one occasion this left us without an AC adapter for about two weeks. The computer has since gone through six cheap house-brand AC adapters and two HP adapters. That is about $800 worth of AC adapters per the price Geek Sqad quoted us for each one - thankfully, they picked up the tab.

One of the first times we got it back, my fiancee picked it up from the North Little Rock store. It was wrapped in plastic - she signed the paperwork and took the computer home. Later that day, she opened the plastic, and a large chunk of the front speaker grill casing, about 3 inches long, fell off. It had been broken during the repair and was deceptively positioned inside the plastic so that it would not be noticed at first glance.

Obviously, since she had signed the paperwork and the computer was out of the store, we had no proof. But we never made that mistake - not opening the plastic inside the store - again.

The very next time we took it in for the same issue and they sent it off to replace the DC jack, we opened the plastic in the store and booted up the computer to make sure everything was okay. Unfortunately we didn't think to check the stereo sound.

The right speaker was not functional.

In addition to the repair trips for the AC adapter issue, the computer had a few more trips for issues such as a hard drive failure, replacing the hinge on the case, and fixing a problem in the optical drive bay. It also was subjected to the exploding battery recall, but that didn't require a send-off.

It was a complete lemon of a machine. Thankfully, the warranty payed for all the AC adapters that it burned through as well as the replacement battery and all the DC jack replacements. In the end, however, we were left with spending a lot on gas to drive two hours to the Best Buy store several times and had to suffer a lot of downtime without this computer while the good folks at Geek Squad City in Louisville put a beat-down on the machine that my fiancee's parents spent their hard-earned money on.

Yes, the warranty does have a lemon clause. Unfortunately, it sets the bar unbelievably high.

It requires, if my memory serves me correctly, five "qualifying" repairs. After the fifth repair, when you bring it in for the sixth repair they give you a new computer.

The hard drive replacement wasn't a qualifying repair. The hinge replacement wasn't a qualifying repair. Most of the DC jack replacements were qualifying repairs, but one was not, and we can't get a straight answer as to why.

When we tried to bring up the lemon clause to representatives at the North Little Rock store, they reiterated the facts to us and then agreed to check our paperwork on the computer to see if we qualified. We did not.

After spending countless afternoons on the phone with Best Buy corporate, pleading with the North Little Rock store, and pleading with the Geek Squad management, we have raised the white flag. We surrender.

The service we received throughout the experience was incredibly poor, and there is absolutely no excuse for returning a computer to a customer damaged. We will not be utilizing the services of Best Buy or Geek Squad again, and urge other consumers to use caution when dealing with these entities.