12/6/2015
I bought a Lenovo laptop sku #4577800 on Nov, 30/15. From the first day I brought it home there were wifi connection issues. The only way to get a decent reception is to attach the Ethernet cable. I thought this was an issue with Windstream, and they could not find the issue, and informed me that it's probably a Windows 10 issue. After 3+ hours on the phone with Windstream they had me try moving the modem, replacing the modem, rebooting the modem, and none of those “fixes” worked. I was using the Lenovo in the living room approximately 5 feet away from my roommates’ older Toshiba laptop with windows 8.1 or earlier. His laptop had no connectivity issues while my brand new Lenovo wouldn’t even stay connected to the wifi. This was after spending all that time, 3 + hours with Windstream.
I contacted Geek Squad at approximately 10 this morning (12/6/15), and at 1:30 the technician said that I would have to take it to a Best Buy Store to have Windows 10 removed, and Windows 8.1 installed. This was after performing windows updates, driver updates, and I’m not sure what else.
I also asked the “technical support” guy if a wifi range extender would help solve my problem. He explained to me what it does, how it connects, etc.., but I needed to know why when I look online, some of these devices cost $25 others over $200. He informed me that he wasn’t that “tech savy” and couldn’t answer my question……are you kidding me?!??!?! This guy has remote access to my computer, is making changes to the system, and he said he’s not “tech savy” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I took the Lenovo to the Gainesville Georgia location, and the geek squad technician said doing that probably would not help, but they are going to try that anyway (uninstalling windows 10, and re-installing windows 8.1, that is). He then asked me why I just didn’t go back home, grab the box and external cd drive, and make an exchange for another laptop. (the Gainesville store is 32 miles from my house, one way!!!) They also informed me that it would take a day, maybe two to perform this (they weren’t really sure) The technician wasn’t wearing a name tag, so I did not get his name, but the Service Order number is 01071-285971193 / Confirmation number GCS82580.
Before turning over the laptop to him, he asked me to try and see if the internet would work any better at the store. I explained to him that I exchanged a different laptop approximately 2 weeks earlier, I wanted to test the laptop at that time, but The customer service representative told me that the wifi service was lousy, and not worth hooking up to. (same Gainesville Georgia store) I also explained to him that I have spent over 3 hrs with a “certified” geek squad technician, who wasted my time, and I really wanted to go home. I also said what good is it going to do to hook up the wifi at the store if I’m not going to use the laptop at the store, I want to use it at home!!!!!!
He also informed me that it was going to be $90 to back up the files, even after I paid $150 for a year of geek squad protection. I told him that was never disclosed to me at any time during the last 5 exchanges and purchases I made in the last month. I only had my resume’ and cover letter on the laptop and I had transferred those to another computer, so that wasn’t a big issue, it’s just the fact that no one at Best Buy told me about the extra fee for backing up files. Plus, I had the laptop for less than a week, I haven’t had a chance to have that many files on the computer.
I previously mentioned previous exchanges and purchases. Since Oct. 25th, I have exchanged / purchased 5 different laptops at Best Buy, all of these $700 or more. That’s insane!!!!!!!!!!! I first bought a “CERTIFIED GEEK SQUAD” refurbished laptop, an HP Envy. In less than a week the power cord kept falling out of the socket, and two of the corners were starting to delaminate, so I exchanged it for a new HP Envy laptop. This one performed flawlessly for just over two weeks, then a graphics driver error message, then the graphics card failed. When the laptop came out of standby, all I would get on the screen were lines. I took it to the Gainesville Store, dealt with the same geek squad rep. I dealt with today, and told me it was the graphics card, and it would take 3 weeks to ship out, repair, and return the laptop. I told him that wasn’t acceptable, and I wanted an exchange, he sighed, said he had to get manager approval. I showed him the receipt and showed him where I could exchange the laptop with NO HASSLES!!!!!!!!!!! Up until Jan.15th. I exchanged the laptop for the same model, and in less than 24 hours, the same thing happened to the next HP, driver error messages, and failed graphics card .
I took it back the next day, and exchanged the HP for a Dell. The exchange was the same price, but the Dell didn’t have a numeric key pad, had terrible graphics, was quite slow, and got quite warm on the bottom in less than 10 minutes. In less than a week, the “P” key started sticking, and after several reboots, would not stop sticking.
Another trip to Best Buy. I bought this Lenovo, and as I mentioned earlier , from day one, I have had wifi issues.
What this boils down to, I’m happy with the return / exchange policy at Best Buy, but I am N O T H A P P Y A T A L L, with the quality of laptops being sold.
I am still using a 3+ year old Toshiba that I paid $250 for. It has been dropped, had beverages spilled on it, and the thing still works. It is quite frustrating to have 5 separate $700 + laptops to have issues in less than a month!!!!!! As I mentioned earlier, the closest store is over 30 miles one way.
Can a manager of some sort please explain to me why buying a good laptop is so inconvenient?