i got it from best buy. i cant say this enough about and big money electronic purchase......GET THE GEEKSQUAD COVERAGE!!!!!!! the full coverage will cover dropping it, or almost every other kind of accidental mishap. for a little less than a third of the purchase price your comp will be completely covered (hardware wise) for 3 years. my last work laptop i had to have them replace it due to drop damage 3 times, (saving me the 800.00+ i paid for it originally 3 times) i paid a little extra each time to continue the coverage on the new comp and i was good to go. you cant beat the best buy warrantee plan anywhere.
Sean look into the Nook instead of the kindle, costs equal or less but does alot more!
Wife and I tonight have had somewhat less of a shining review of Geek squad or their extended coverage.
Word to the wise.
If you do this. If you bring it in for so much as to have a blemish wiped from the screen. You dont want them working on it. You want it sent out
Wife picked up a laptop 6 months ago. Its since been to geeksquad 4 times for the same thing. It will lock up and you cant turn it on or off. and connecting to the internet without an thernet cable attached is intermittent at best
the first two times it was brought in. the guy fiddled with it there. (No paperwork) told her it was remedied and then let her take it home the second time telling her that it shouldnt happen again but if it it did to reseat the battery.
The last time she had me bring it in a week ago this past Sunday. Seems she has an objection tyo having to re seat the battery every time she wants to use her laptop. which to be quite honest. She really hasnt used all that often. Cant say as I blame her though.
Explained to him the same situation was happening and the polite young gentleman filled out some paperwork and told me he would be in touch in "3-5 days." after checking the tracking # from the email I got for 9 days (was giving them the benefit of the doubt) on the 10th day I called them where another polite young gentleman took down my info for cross reference, put me on hold a minute and came back and said "uhh as a matter of fact you can come pick it up ni about an hour. They looked at it and found alot of dust inside, cleaned it out and ran a "stress test" on it and now it no longer locks up." The dust line was BS and I knew it but didnt say anything. I know because I checked that myself before bringing it in. But they claimed they had it fixed. So we went and picked it up.
Got it home and sure enough. it worked. Even had wireless access.
Today I get home from work and sit down at my machine when suddenly form the other room the wife calls out "Will you take the ride with me to bring this back again?"
Ok, why?
"Its doing the exact same thing. It wont power up or down."
Well this is now the 4th time going in for the exact same problem and now she wants a new machine or store credit. She doesnt even want a refund. Really she just wants a machine that works. Cant say as I blame her.
Well we get there and explain the situation and she's like "This machine obviously either hasnt been worked on or cant be fixed. this is the 4th time I want a new machine."
They tell her (us) that it has to have been sent out 4 times before they will offer an exchange or refund. And they only have it listed as having been in there once. (no paperwork was done on the prior 2 trips before it was left for 10 days as they just did a quick looksee at it and declared it fixed.
Well the wife has a bit of an Irish temper. At one point I figured we were both going to jail for the night. Her for creating a disturbance by telling about 10 people what she just went though. And me for knocking out whatever security guard or cop that was going to try to physically remove her from the store.
The sight must have been comical from an outside perspective. she told him what she was going to do then walked off. the Manager whom at this point she had demanded to talk to all the while trying to follow her around. And me running interference keeping the manager busy talking to him and telling him that we all knew she was right. and complaining about the length of time kept without a status update and the fact that if it was supposedly fixed after having it 10 days 2 of them spent running their "stress test" Then why did it suddenly go back to doing it again? And that if I was going to have to deal with her at home. He was going to have to just deal with her here. Eventually he reached her area but by then she had run out of people to tell.
Eventually he just kinda wandered away and we didnt see hide nor hair of him for the rest of the next 45 min we remained in the store.
Back again at the Geek squad desk she demanded the phone number of someone higher then the manager. then used their phone for the call. which turned into her asking t speak to a higher and higher power. Eventually it came down that corporate is supposed to be giving me a call tomorrow and to ask the manager about a loaner. She the guy at the store ended up saying that store doesnt do. So. Out of other options for the moment we sign it in again to be looked at. While we are doing that a thought struck me to ask. "So now that its been in once and we're sending it in again Its going ot have to happen 2 more times before your willing to honor the policy?"
Nope. This time only counts as the first time because its the first time its actually going to leave the store. And its only the times it physically leaves the store to be looked at that count. So its going to have to happen 3 MORE times on top of the last 4 times in the last 6 months (including this one) that we have had it in for repairs for the exact same problem. For a total of 7 times.
While waiting for the paperwork. I then proceeded to tell the next 3 people in line to make sure they had their stuff sent out and not simply looked at by Geek squad.
They may be great when its something they cant get out of. But if they can string you along till the warranty is out...
