Switched

how do you password protect your important files?

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I AM a former Best Buy Inc. tech and I can tell you from LOTS of experience, this happens all the time! One of the first things some guys do is scan the HDD for pics, especially if it was checked in by a chick. I am sad to say that more often than not they usually found something too, it seems this is becoming the fad lately for chicks to be taking pics of themselves (thanks Paris). First, this was but one customer disservice I witnessed there and by far not the worst, not even remotely close. They advertise their techs as "A+ Certified" and perhaps 5% actually are. Second, why anyone would take their computer in to be serviced knowing these pics are on there is beyond me, that doesn't justify the theft but come on people, a jump drive is $5! My advice: stay far, FAR away from Best Buy, Future Shop and all associated stores, and tell your family/friends too!

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You guys are arrogantly ignorant if you don't think the ANY male teen or twenty something guy isn't going to be looking for porn. REGARDLESS of where you service your computer. Is it right? Prob not, but it's human (male) nature. This article puts the spotlight on Best Buy because we are a HUGE corporate retailer. Agents are trained to report anyone with child pornography. Snooping and spying are crossing the line but if you take your computer in to get serviced, you're stupid if you think techs will put on blinders when they do set ups or what have you. and Best Buy is not the only place....

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I am having a problem with Best Buy as well. I submitted a claim at the end of July because the HDMI port on my Panasonic DLP failed and the bulb is starting to flicker.
First, I called in to get my TV inspected and they did not have an appointment until 8/18. I told them that was too far out and they said they could send out a 3rd party vendor and they would call back to set it up. I called them back 2 days later because I never got a call. They said, "sorry" and that they would call back with someone.
3 days later they still had not called so I called them and they said "sorry" again and that they would call back with someone. 2 days later I get a call from a vendor that advised me that they do not work on Panasonics!
I called them back and demanded that the Geek Squad come out to my house. Now it was after 8/18 anyway! They said that they would.
3 days later i get a call from another 3rd party vendor who says that they were dispatched to repair my TV! At that point i just wanted it done.
I told them the problem and they only had the HDMI issue listed, not the bulb, but they said that they would take care of it anyway. They called Best Buy back and started to search for the part.
They called and told the Repair Lady that the part did not exist because Panasonic did not make them anymore. Now, the main issue was because Best Buy did not keep track of what they were doing, Best Buy had to search for the part 3 times because they never documented that they already did it.
Finally, last week the repair person got an e-mail from Best Buy confirming that they could not get the part and they were going to send the request to the review dept (this was after the 3rd attempt to order the part) to replace my TV. I would probably end up with a voucher to replace the TV. She advised me that the process would take 3-5 business days.
I was fine with that because that would mean that I would get the voucher before the labor day sales and I started to look for a new TV. But, of course, Best Buy didn't document it again!
So this week, we find out that they have to reorder the part again!
I called and ask why they have to do it a fourth time when we have an e-mail confirming that they have already done it and they say that they just have to.
They wont accept the e-mail from their own company as documentation. They advised that they will have to go through the process again, and that once they verify the part is not in, the review will take 3-5 days.
I raise hell and get a supervisor, Ben, on the phone. He tells me that he will just get it over to the review dept, but it will still take 3-5 days. I still raise hell and says he will get it reviewed in 4 hours. that was today at 8am. I waited until 3pm and there was no call back.
I called and left a voice mail for him and still dd not get a call back.
I called on my way home from work and got another supervisor, Ricky on the phone. All he would tell me was that there was no such thing as a 4 hour turn around and that the first sup told me "misinformation".
He continued to quote me 3-5 days and said that the department that handled the review of the replacement did not take incoming calls. I asked him to call them and he refused.
I asked him to e-mail them to assist me and he refused. the most he would do was e-mail them to get them to call me, which I doubt they will do. I asked for a customer complaint line and he refused to give me one.
He also refused to give me his manager and refused to transfer me to another sup. I advised him that it seemed like they were looking out for their own interests more than mine as their customer and reminded him that we had a contract together. He refused to do anything that would assist me in any way shape or form other than quote me 3-5 business days for the turn around on the review of my claim.
I ended up calling back and got the corporate complaint line ans spoke to Leanne. I told her the issue and advised her that I was going to be out the sales on labor day because of their mistakes.
I asked her to assist and advised that I just wanted this to be resolved. I advised that I wanted assistance to expedite the process on the review. She started to argue with me! Talk about customer sevice! The only time I was hearing anything about good customer service from Best Buy was on their recordings when I was on hold!
Leanne went on to advise me that the 3-5 days was the expedited time frame! I said that this was not as everyone before her said that this was the standard time. She said that it was not and that there was nothing that she or anyone else could do.
I asked for the name of the CEO and at first she said that she could not release it as it was confidential. I had to remind her that it was public info and she finally advised me in an extremely rude fashion and we disconnected.
This entire experience has been one of the worst customer service experiences of my life! Every action has bee prompted by me, I will be losing out monetarily because of their inaction and poor handling. All I want is my TV and my time back!

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I work for best buy and i have many friends working in store in the geek squad department. Our store has no such employee's that would do anything like this.

I am ashamed of all of you telling people to go to other places because a couple f-tards got through their hiring system. If their going to get tthrough best buy's hiring system its going to happen everywhere else. Best buy has changed the way their hiring system works completely.

This is completely bogus of ALL OF YOU saying that bestbuy is horrible because of this. And truthfully. You should have any pictures of yourself on a flash drive that you keep hidden or on your person instead of having the pictures on your desktop or in your pictures file.

It is so easy to hack into a computer its not even worth it to set permissions on a file. I can get into your computer in ~10 minutes if you have a good password...if you have one without special characters that number turns into >3 minutes and im not even very good at it.

stick to a thumb drive plain and simple.

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My tax information, SS# and documents about my kids are on my PC. Medical files, report cards, savings accounts, etc.

Little freaks should be prosecuted not just fired. But that would alert the world to the liability that BB faces when these things happen.

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If my recent experience is any indication, the Consumerist.org story is just the tip of the iceberg. After a laptop computer that I entrusted with Best Buy Tenleytown DC store was stolen from the store (I believe by an employee), I was lied to week after week by Geeksquad/Best Buy Customer Service employees about the repair status and location of the phantom computer. 3 months into the process, 1 employee finally came clean, confessing that "there was no indication that the computer EVER shipped from the store." The loss of my computer and its contents is a significant one, but it is nothing compared to the cost and concern that I must carry for years to come for protecting myself against identity theft. Involvement by the DC police, DC Attorney General, Better Business Bureau, etc. produced nothing but an insulting lowball compensation offer and equally insulting statements from Best Buy that they feel that they have addressed the situation "appropriately". Not once in the process did any employee or company representative prioritize (or even acknowledge) my vulnerability to identity theft.

I've filed criminal charges against the store, and have filed a major lawsuit with the hope that it will draw attention to Best Buy's systematic disregard for customers' property and personal information. I'd welcome comments from others who may be aware of similar incidents -- court and public scrutiny may be the only way to get Best Buy to take this issue as seriously as it should.

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to Lux Magna: Ok yes, looking at porn that is obviously on a customers computer is obviously stupid. This day in age if you are putting you SS and tax documents in files that are viewable without protection, you deserve for it to be stolen, you idiot. Why would you take it in without a password protect on you imporant files. Wake up.

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Under normal circumstances, you might be right, but given that the reason I had to take my laptop in for repair at Best Buy was because the machine stopped turning on (malfunctioning on/off switch), I didn't have too many options. Under normal circumstances, customers do have responsibilities, for sure, but Best Buy has a legal obligation to safeguard customers' property against theft, disclose the theft to a customer immediately, and notify customers of potential exposure to identity theft as soon as they are aware of it. The issue is the company-wide failure to fulfill privacy protection obligations, not password protection.

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Similar to the story in the article, about a year ago I took my laptop to a geek squad in a best buy and when I got my laptop back it came with a CD-R professionally packaged and taped to the machine. I figured they had just saved some of my files after reformating my machine, instead it was porn.

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u never know who is watching u!!

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smile, ur on candid camera!!!

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I know it's been a while since anyone has posted anything here but I feel like I have something important to add. I'm speaking as an X Firedog Tech for CCity. I know everything that goes on in there, and it isn't good. It's like going to a car shop. You have to know you can trust the person not to screw you. For the most part the only thing we were ever interested in in the customers computers was the music. Some other techs would look for pictures, but mostly it was the music.
On the other hand, a lot of the problems that we fixed involved a format with some data recovery. In that case we didnt have much of a choice but to look at all the personal files including pictures, documents, and music in order to transfer only the necessary items.
As for your computer disapearing rcdc, its sad to say that it does happen but it is very rare. And most of the time its not stolen by tech because it would be too easy to be caught. Usually it will be stolen by someone else in another dept. However, its not to say though that if a computer is taking weeks to come back from repair its because it was stolen. A lot of times computer CAN take weeks to come back from companies like HP/Compaq.

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I agree with the password protect on your important files. I have passwords on all my important data even if the computer is running fine, so that when the event happens that I have to take it in, I know those are in place.

Also, I don't think everyone is seeing these people who work at Geek Squad in the correct light. Of course computer geeks look at porn, and who else would the Geek Squad hire but computer geeks? I am not surprised at this, just taken aback that they would steal purchased items from someone else's computer. Even if it is porn.

And they have to check ALL the files to make sure there is no data corruption when they retrieve files or restore them. If there is a password in place, they know the data is fine, and move on, but if there is no password, they have to check, it's their job if they don't. And a hidden corruption if they don't check could mean a total loss of data the next time something goes wrong with your computer.

So if you don't want people peeking at your files, PROTECT THEM. Don't blame the Geek Squad for doing their jobs, fixing your computer when something goes wrong. I'm not absolving everyone who works there of blame, but you find these people working everywhere, and you have to always be on your guard. The people who are under the spotlight for wrongdoing should indeed be fired and possibly prosecuted, but the majority of people who work for Best Buy and the Geek Squad are decent, upstanding folk who are there trying to help you.

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