While many of you are still hanging around waiting to find out what happens to the stalwart Colonel in the nexus, I apologize, I will get back to that as soon as possible. In the meantime however, I thought I should ensure that you knew the end of the story on the Best Buy Saga that I’ve been blogging about.

The nice lady from Best Buy corporate sent me an email telling me that everything had been fixed, and the store called my back to say the computer was ready for pick-up, about five days after I turned it in. (Note that this is slightly longer than the guaranteed 72 hours). If I wasn’t satisfied, she said, the store would exchange the computer or give me store credit in spite of the return policy.

I arrived at the store after work, and as I approached the Geek Squad counter, a geek (professional title, not a slur) was standing behind the counter staring at the door. As I approached the counter he said, in a tone of voice that hinted at having said the same thing over and over for some time, “Are you Mr. Jervis?”

“I am.”

He sighed relief then turned like Vanna White to show me the computer, my daughter’s computer, on display behind him. It was connected to a printer and the internet, and he quickly showed me that all the programs worked, though he explained how many drivers they had to download and how the settings had been changed to allow running of older programs. He showed me a test page, then printed another for good measure. He surfed the web briefly.

“Is there anything else you’d like to see, Mr. Jervis?”

“No, I think that will do it.”

He began to disconnect the computer and get it ready for me to take away, then handed me back all of the programs that I had brought in. As he worked I stood there being further annoyed, but keeping it in check. All the talk about how this operating system would not run older programs, and how there was nothing that could be done, and how I had to understand that there would be a period of transition from programs that ran on older systems to newer systems, had been…well…wrong. They had managed to get everything to work, in spite of the number of geeks who had told me they couldn’t. They just needed a gentle corporate push in the right direction.

How much trouble could I have been saved if the manager had just interceded to allay my concerns in the first place?

I applaud Best Buy corporate for interceding in my dilemma after-the-fact, but I still feel that a better business practice would have been to handle the issue at point of return, without having to rely on an internet clean up crew.

The store gave my daughter a one hundred dollar gift card so she could purchase new software if there were other programs that couldn’t run on the HP. I will not take her back to the store to use it, I will not likely shop there again any time soon. My wife plans to take her there on a future outing, but isn’t too keen on it either. While the corporate office cleaned up the mess made by the store and ensured that my daughter’s computer works, they cannot take away the feeling that I was treated poorly in the first place.

At least they attempted to make amends…perhaps there is hope.

For those interested in the nitnoid details of my shopping experience with Best Buy I feel I owe you an update. As many have expected I contacted the nice Best Buy corporate lady after she left a message here on my BLOG. Her response follows:

Hello Jervis,

I read the Blog and I could tell that there is a lot of frustration involved in this experience. I’m truly sorry for any aggravation and inconvenience this situation has caused. As I said, I would be glad to look into the situation further and reach out to the appropriate management teams.

It would be very helpful if you could provide me with your phone number, service order number and/or the customer service pin from the receipts. This would help me locate the information in our system. Do you have names of any employees that you talked with? Is there anything else I should know about the situation?

Further, please describe where this is at as of now and how you would prefer Best Buy to resolve the issues. I will be glad to look into what possibilities there are and hope to find a resolution that is satisfactory to you.

Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Lisa
Geek Squad Public Defender
Executive Resolution Team

I answered her on Saturday. I believe that I was thankful and polite, but still clear in the fact that I was quite frustrated with her company. I identified some of the characters in my Blog post by name so that she could verify my story and gave her all the customer PIN numbers and receipt information I had, including all the exchanges of wireless cards etc. I also pointed out that it was already beyond the guaranteed 72 hours and I had not yet heard back from the geek squad.

Sunday late afternoon, Master Geek (the helpful and fairly competent one) called me back and said that he had been working on my computer. The good news was that he had the wireless adapter up and running. The bad news was the program I had left wouldn’t run on Windows Vista. (I knew that, that’s why I brought it in). I reminded him that his store had sold me the computer and said that I could run other software in compatibility mode. I then asked about the printer driver. He explained that he couldn’t fid the printer driver because I hadn’t brought the printer in. I pointed out that the printer was part of the HP package deal and that they had one in the store. I had brought in the driver disk in any case. He said he didn’t know the model number. I suggested that he look in the work order for the receipt number and look it up. He asked if I could just get the model number for him, but then acknowledged that he supposed he could look it up since he had my phone number. By that time I had the model number and gave it to him. He said I’d hear from them again when they had it running.

Monday mid day I heard from Lisa. She asked me to give her a few days to research the issue now that she had the data. I replied to her note again, thanking her for her interest and expressing hope that we would be able to work this out. I also suggested that I didn’t want to profit from this whole experience, I just wanted a working computer for my daughter and thought that having spent more than three thousand dollars in the store in a short period of time would allow me some understanding on the part of store management. By Monday night I assumed that Lisa would be working her way down to the store while the geek squad continued to work on my computer. I assumed I wouldn’t hear from Best Buy again for several weeks. So, here is where I become a roadkill on the highway to shock and awe.

The in service store manager called me this evening, let’s call him Mr Efficient. I’ll summarize the conversation since it was very long, very apologetic and very, well…efficient. Mr. Efficient explains that he was contacted by Best Buy Corporate today and that he had read my blog post and the information that followed. He tells me that others in the store have read and it will be used as a training example for remedial training for the staff. (I will admit this makes me feel more positive about the store, if it is true. If it isn’t true, it still makes me feel more positive about the store).

He tells me that he knows that Master Geek fixed the wireless adapter and he believes that he has fixed the printer driver, but that he wants to see it run the printer. He will personally check it out. He is very apologetic about the whole episode. He then explains that there is a problem with a lot of the software we want to run, because the HP is running Windows Vista and is a 64 bit system. Most of my programs are 32 bit programs. I explain again that I showed the programs I wanted to run to his staff before I got the recommendation on which computer to buy. He says he understands that and wants to work through it with me.

He says that within a year most of the software in the store will be running on 64 bit, but if I really want a 32 bit computer and won’t be happy with the HP even after they get everything running, and even though it is beyond the 14 day exchange period, they will take the computer back and help me find one that will work for me. He also says that he feels bad that this computer was for my daughter and she still doesn’t have it. He suggests that Best Buy make up for some of the lost programs by giving her a gift card with which she can buy new software that will run on the 64 bit machine. I explain that I am not looking to profit from the experience. Those who know me will know that I mean this. I am actually happier at the thought that they might train their employees better in future than I am about a gift card. Then he says the card isn’t for you you understand, but for your daughter. She will probably be studying and using the computer for school and she should have a computer that works. I accede that if Best Buy wants to give her a gift card, that would be very kind, but that what I really want is a functioning computer.

We talk through the options that remain. He will get the HP fixed to the best of his ability, personally checking that it is repaired before calling back and that it should only take a few days. If I am still not satisfied with the computer, he will take it back and help us select another. I suggest we take it one step at a time. I thank him for his time and tell him I look forward to hearing from him.

So. Will Best Buy live up to Mr. Efficient’s phone call? I’m actually believing they will. I certainly have to hope they will. My daughter was standing in the kitchen listening to the entire phone conversation and i could sense that she was trying to be supportive without looking too needy. She was really looking forward to a new computer for her birthday. At this point, that was five weeks ago. Let’s hope things work out for the best.

I do have one question though if the Best Buy web crawlers are still out there. Why is the nice Best Buy Lady’s job title “Geek Squad Public Defender?”