The ASUS, the Geek Squad, and I, Part 2 (or, “Southglenn Best Buy sucks, again”)

Huzzah!  I got a phone call, then an email, from the Geek Squad, saying my machine was ready to go!

Your product is complete and ready for
pickup at the Geek Squad® Precinct
within your local Best Buy store.

Thank you for putting your trust in us.

Geek Squad

No comment on what they’d done, but the communication was cool.

So we headed over there, late afternoon.  This is the Southglenn (Centennial, Colorado) Best Buy, store 1171.  And who should be manning the pickup desk than Hardware Guy.

I hand him my receipt.  He goes back to the “Mission Accomplished” rack (I kid you not) and brings me out my notebook.

I start booting it up to see if the Bad Noise is gone.

He fiddles around with paperwork, printing out my final receipt.

“So,” I say, as the machine is booting, “what did you guys end up doing?”

“We ran the diagnostics and stress test.  Your machine is okay.”

Huggawhuh?  “What about the loud noise the fan is making?”

“Well, it’s still functioning.  If it weren’t working, then it would have shut the machine down.”

“But it’s a really loud noise.”  I bend down.  Yes, over the loud ambient noise of the store, it still has the Bad Noise.

“It’s really not that loud.  This is a gaming laptop. The fan on it is noisier than other computers.”

“I know that.  I’ve had it for a year.  This is a different, and much louder.”

Shrug. “We ran the diagnostics on it.  I recommend you blow some air into it.”

So they hadn’t even opened it up to see if there was a problem. They just “ran diagnostics.”  I count to ten. Quickly. “So you haven’t really done anything to fix the problem I brought it in for, while it’s still under warranty.”

Margie adds (she was with me), “And if it breaks after next week, it’s out of warranty.”

“You have thirty days from now, after this service.”

Yumpin’ Yimminy.  So, bottom line is, the machine is actually still working, so the loud fan is not something they can do something under warranty. Replacing the fan is, apparently, out of the question.

“All we could do is send it in to ASUS for service.  We just use the tools that ASUS gives us to diagnose problems.  So they’d charge us for anything they’d do.”

Crikey.

Like hell.  I start to write next to the sig line, “The computer still makes the sound that I brought it in for.”

“If you write on it, we can’t give you back your computer.”

“Excuse me?”

Hardware Guy then tried to explain that what I was signing was that I was satisfied that they had actually done the repairs noted, which (I then saw) said:

Full diagnostic was run; all hardware and all software passed. If fan is louder than usual then a cleaning is recommended //TM

Since they actually did what they said, I had to sign, otherwise they couldn’t give me back the computer, because what if then some other person came in to claim the computer?  When I noted that I was not, in fact, satisfied with the repairs done (since nothing was, in my definition, actually repaired.

I have to say, in my contemplations of what all might come from this particular service (they break my computer, they send my computer on a slow boat to Taipei, they order the part and fix the problem), I never thought the actual outcome would be their saying, “You don’t have a problem.”

Margie noted that, yeah, we could take the computer now, but if the fan died in a week or so (after the 19th), we’d be out from under warranty.

“No, you have thirty days after the service.”

I seriously — seriously — considered raising a stink.  Taking the computer without signing the form and let them call the damned police if they want.  Really.

But I didn’t.  We had dinner reservations, and, ultimately, it wasn’t going to get the computer fixed.

So I signed invoice, picked up the computer and left.

Now … we had actually planned (which is why Margie was with me) to do both some camera shopping and, probably, pick up a new Yamaha A/V receiver for our home entertainment  center (my Fathers Day gift).

Um … no.  I don’t think so.

As we were heading away, Margie spotted someone not in a Geek Squad shift or a Blue Polo Shirt behind the returns counter.  “Excuse me, are you the manager?”

She smiled, excused herself from what she was doing and came over.

We gave her a succinct description of our unhappiness with the situation and service, and how, as a result, the store had probably lost a $300 purchase.

“I’m sorry,” she said with a smile, but in a tone of voice that said, “And don’t let the sliding doors hit you in the butt on the way out.”  Certainly there was no note of sympathy, of actual apology, or any desire to see what she could do to make things right, or at least make us feel better about it.

Oh, she did ask if we had purchased the Geek Squad Black Tie service.  When we said no, she just nodded.

And so we left.

And, yes, had a marvelous dinner out, which did much to improve my mood, until I sat down to write this …

So, as I see it, we have a number of things we can do:

1. Margie has offered to contact ASUS to tell them how dissatisfied we are with the Best Buy service (service provided mandated for ASUS machines purchased from Best Buy).
2. I can try to determine the part for the fan myself, order it separately, and install it myself.
3. I can plug the machine in and run it 24×7 from now on, hoping the fan will fails in 30 days before the sound drives us batty (though I suppose we can put it in another room).
4. I can just take the machine to the local ASUS shop and eat the cost of a repair job.

And/or … hmmm … there’s a survey at the bottom of the receipt.

Geek Squad values your feedback!

Hmmmm … I take the survey, and it asks at the end if I want them to contact me.  Yes.  Yes, I do.

Apart from that, I suspect we’ll do #2-3.

So, in summary (for those who want to take note and/or find this via Google):

1. ASUS notebooks (at least mine) may get premature fan noise problems — not just intrinsic loudness, but unusual, serious, grinding loudness problems.
2. If you bought an ASUS from Best Buy, you must take it to their Geek Squad for warranty service.
3. All they will do is run some diagnostics on it to determine if it is, in fact, working.  Something like noting that the fan is suddenly making a very bad sound and may fail in the near future is not something they can, or will, do anything about.
4. Any attempt to disagree or complain will be met by lack of any interest in your dissatisfaction, and threats to hold onto your computer if you don’t sign that “repairs have been performed in a manner that is satisfactory to me.”

I’m not sure when I will next go into a Best Buy to actually buy something.  They do have the advantage of convenience — but, honestly, I feel no compunction about using them as a hands-on center for browsing, then purchasing something online through another source.

I can certainly say (as I did in the survey) that I will never do anything, so much as as it is in my power, that requires me to make use of the once-burned-twice-shy-thrice-enraged unhelpful and, so far as I can tell, technically limited Geek Squad folks.  They charge exorbitant amounts for non-warranty service, and their warranty service is as pro forma and minimalistic as they can contractually get away with.  And, all the while, they’ll be pushing for various add-on services to get your money, preying on the technically ignorant to boost Best Buy’s bottom line.

(Yes, Les, you told me so.)

I have worked in computer tech support, in an internal IT department.  I know what is, and what is not, a normal sound from a computer.  If I had responded to a help desk ticket about a computer making a sound like that, and basically said, “Hey, it’s a machine that’s supposed to make a loud sound, and it’s still running, so go pound sand,” I’d expect to get a Quality of Service survey result that would stink on ice, and to be called on the carpet by my boss.

Of course, I never worked in a for-profit tech support organization.  So maybe that’s the difference.

Thank you for putting your trust in us, said the email from the Geek Squad.

Yeah, more the fool me.