Another Dissatisfied Best Buy Customer

The BBQ Pit
1

So I bring my computer in to Best Buy because it’s still under warranty, and it’s running like shit. I can’t copy CDs, everything takes forever, stuff keeps locking up. Best Boy tells me I need to run Recovery. He tells me Recovery will wipe out everything. So I’m thinking…I have ten years worth of stuff on the computer. I get the recovery disks and tell Best Boy I want him to back everything up for me (for an additional $80!!). Great. It’ll be ready tomorrow.

So I go to pick it up yesterday, and the pinhead tells me they ran Recovery before Backup, so all my stuff is gone. :wally

Yes, I know it’s my fault for not running my own back-ups, but that is hardly the point. They gave me my money back for the backup (duh! I guess they would!) and I demanded my money back for the Recovery, which they gave me. But I’m not at all satisfied with that paltry accommodation. I want more than $60 for their mistake. All the family pictures, legal documents, poetry…everything is gone. I’m going to talk to their corporate office and see if they won’t try to square things with me.

I wish I had a better rant in me right now…I’m actually really pissed, but too exhausted with the whole thing to muster any fury at the moment.

2

Oh man, that sucks. Having had similar experiences in losing data (but not nearly to that extent), I can understand how you feel. My condolences.

3

What’s the moral of the story, poets should not shop at Best Buy.

4

Either that, or poets shouldn’t leave their poetry on my computer. Slacker that I am.

5

Not to defend Worst Buy here, but it’s not their fault you didn’t back up your important data, most service repair shops (mine included) have a line on the service invoice saying that we’re not liable for data loss, simply because it’s the CUSTOMER’S job to back up their data

it’s not like it’s that difficult, you have plenty of storage options, floppies (who uses those anymore :wink: ) CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW+R/RW (will Somebody please agree on a standard here…) multiple internal hard drives, tape backup, FireWire external drives, etc…

you’ve just encountered “Murphy’s Law Of Data Loss”, the chances of losing your data are inversely proportional to the data’s value, a box which all you have on it are saved games will never fail, wheras a business system will fail at the worst possible time

yes, the Worst Buy service drones were at fault for not performing the data backup that you requested, and they should have refunded you the cost of the repairs, but they’re not obligated to reimburse you for any of your “lost” data as it’s not their fault you didn’t have a backup

just so you know, i’m not completely cynical when it comes to customer data loss, wenever i’m working on a customer’s system, and i’m doing anything that might affect the data, i back the data up anyway, just in case, after the repair is completed, i offer to burn the data to a CD/DVD for the customer for a nominal fee (cost of media and maybe $20-25 for labor), if they decline it, i erase the backup, that way i don’t retain any “sensitive” customer data, do i have to do it, no, but i understand how unreliable magnetic media is and i take the appropriate steps to insure the customer’s data integrity is intact when the machine is in my care

then again, i see delivering excellent customer service as the most important part of my business, it’s what’s going to make or break a business

Worst Buy obviously doesn’t understand this fact, they worship the Almighty Dollar™

6

Well, I’ve already admitted I should have done my own back-ups. But that is 100% beside the point. I paid them to perform two specific services, and they did them in the reverse order. This is different from “hey, there might be some data loss”. They fucking did it wrong.

I’ll be backing up all my shit from now on, but that in no way lets them off the hook for being inept.

7

Sure, but this is entirely moot because they have accepted money from the customer to do the backups for him. It’s not the customer’s fault that they did the precise opposite of what they were employed to do, and they should be liable for the damage they caused.

8

Shouldn’t that be directly proportional?

9

agreed, they did it barse-ackwards and therefore should refund you the cost of the repair, i’m not debating that fact, we agree 100% on that, where i differ is the “trying to be reimbursed for the value of your data” the fact remains is that the problem such as it stands now, your loss of data, would have been reduced if you had a current backup of your data

i don’t know if you’re using a Mac or windows, but backups on the Mac are quite simple, drag the files in question to another drive or other form of backup media, sit back and let the machine churn away, if you want to do a full system backup in OS X, you can use Apple’s Disk Utility, the Unix “Ditto” command in the terminal, or use Bombich Software’s “Carbon Copy Cloner” app, which is a graphical front end for the “Ditto” command

in OS 9, simply drag one disk on top of another, voila! perfect backup copy

maybe i’m spoiled by using the Mac, how easy/difficult is it to perform a full system backup with windows?

10

Yes, I should have backed it up, but as it stands, I would not have lost any data had they not screwed up. My loss of data was significantly INCREASED by their error. They offer a service of “backing up data.” I was not contractually obligated to back up anything. They, on the other hand, were.

11

And because they were performed in the wrong order, you were reimbursed for both services.

Best Buy paid its dues. Now, learn to back up your data.

12

Hell, Best Lie lost my business a decade ago when I took in a computer for warranty repair (bad boot ROM), and they returned it unrepaired and unexplained.

Fucking Morons.

(Alas, the loss of my bidness doesn’t seem to have affected them any.)

13

Firstly, yes, you should ALWAYS ALWAYS back up, ESPECIALLY before letting anyone else touch your computer. I know everyone here knows that (hell, I need to backup NOW but I probably won’t…), but it bears repeating a lot.

Secondly, it sounds like they were paid to backup his data. And repair his disk. And they did one, muffed the other, and refunded both. But you can’t just say “Oh, well that’s ok then.” <hysterical over-the-top example>Say you go to the doctor, and buy a local anesthetic and an eye op, and he does them in the wrong order. Is a refund sufficient? Or you go to a bank with some important documents, and pay to have them put in a safe deposit box. Instead they burn them. But they offer a refund. OK?</> Seriously, IME, companies won’t promise to save your data, and often won’t, but I think they SHOULD, and furthermore, if you pay them to keep it, definately should.

14

I’m going to have to side with ** kalhoun ** on this one. If he had just brought the computer in to be fixed and they hosed his data, that would be one thing. After all, they do make a disclaimer about not being responsible for lost data.

But when your paying for a specific service to back up your data & they lose it all, there should be more than just a refund. That data is now unrecoverable due to their negligence.

15

IANE at all, but I recall reading in more than one place that the data is still there, you just need some unorthodox means to get to it. IIRC, this is what lets the FBI find shyte on your computer that you deleted.

16

Kalhoun–

Despite the fact that I am entirely sympathetic to your loss, the very magnitude of your loss is an illustration of why Best Buy cannot be held responsible in proportion to the data’s value. That value is determined entirely by you, and is 100% outside of their control. To ask them to compensate in proportion to the value of your data would be to ask them to treat you differently from another customer with whom they’d made the same mistake, but who DID back everything up. I think that was unclear, but do you see what I mean?

Customer A: gets his data trashed by Best Buy, but had remembered to back it up. Therefore he hasn’t “lost” any data, so Best Buy has cost him nothing, and owes him nothing.

Customer B: gets his data trashed by Best Buy, but did not remember to back it up himself first. He estimates the value of that data–just a few snapshots–at $13. Best Buy cuts him a check.

Customer C: same situation, insists his data is worth thousands of dollars. Best Buy compensates him proportionately.

Seeing the pattern here? How can you ask a business to blindly accept financial responsibility for something wholly outside of their control?

This is why, for example, Walgreen’s (or whoever) promises ONLY to replace the roll of film if they screw up your pictures: they cannot be held responsible for the value that each individual customer places on their own pictures. One customer was just taking pictures of his feet. Another customer dropped of film she’d paid a photograph $12,000 to shoot at her wedding. Why does Walgreen’s owe the second customer more than they do the first customer?

I work for an architecture firm. They have a standard (industry wide) clause that says they are not responsible for any collateral expense caused by their breach of contract. (Not the actual wording; working from memory, and this isn’t my department in the first place). The point is, subsequent damages are completely outside of their control, and are therefore totally impossible to insure against. A recent client, unfamiliar with such clauses, was totally taken aback. You mean, if you quit, or you get too much work or something, and you drop us halfway through the process, you’re not responsible for subsequent damages? Say our opening is delayed by three months and we lose three months worth of income?

And of course, we can’t be responsible, because the subsequent damages are impossible to predict and control. Back to the wedding pictures: say the bride decides to get the pictures re-shot. She flies out her great-great aunt again, so she’s included in the photos, and the plane crashes. Should Walgreen’s be sued for wrongful death? What if the aunt dies right before she changes the will, and the bride doesn’t get the millions that her aunt promised her?

Where do you draw the line?

17

I always uploaded my poetry to a website. Kept me from losing it all a few days ago. Of course, I lost a bunch of angsty poetry about suicide or depression or setting babies on fire or anally assaulting old people with their own canes from 2001, but that’s stuff I’d rather forget, and the good stuff from recently was saved on the website. I do this with everything I write. It’s a good idea.

18

I see what you’re saying, and agree, which is why I understand, though wish otherwise, that companies don’t guarantee anything when repairing a computer.

But, now please, seriously, correct me if I’m wrong, but he did pay best buy to back up his data. It sounded like they said they could do that…

Q. Can you fix this?
A. Sure. Of course, you’ll lose all your data.
Q. Can you back it up first?
A1. Sure, that’ll be $$$$ please.
A2. Sure. Of course, as soon as we touch it there’s a 50% chance we’ll wipe it all before we get a chance to back up. Is that ok?

I’m thinking A1 is bit misleading here. Is that what happened?

19

There are probably ways of getting the info back, but they’re not ways Best Buy would be capable of handling, I’m sure. What they should do to make amends is have you take it to a data-recovery firm, and pay the bill for getting your info back, if it’s possible.

However, with Best Buy’s record in customer satisfaction, I’d count on the chances of that happening being slim to none, personally.

20

I wouldn’t have thought to back up my data either. It doesn’t make sense to pay someone $80 to back up your data, and do it yourself as well - you may as well not pay the $80.

I had to take my computer to get fixed a couple of years ago. I didn’t think to back up because it was a problem with the CD Rom - when I got my computer back there was a completely new OS and everything was gone. Called them up, and it turned out some braindead trainee had wiped everything - oops!

It was awful at the time, but thankfully I only had mildly sentimental things on it. On the plus side, they were a very small business and I got mum to pull all of our business from them - four computers that are completely upgraded every several years.