<p>Does anyone have any experience with buying a laptop from Best Buy? I’ve always bought computers through the Dell and Apple websites. I’m thinking about replacing an old Dell laptop with a new one from Best Buy. My logic for this is that there is a Best Buy near our home and a Best Buy near S’s college (which is an 8 hour drive from home). I’m thinking that if something goes wrong with the laptop he buys at our local Best Buy, he can return it to the Best Buy near his college.</p>
<p>we, too, have only ordered from Dell/Apple websites, until this last May when we got a new MacBook from the Apple store.</p>
<p>D2 chose to get an Apple for college despite the knowledge that most of her small campus is PC-driven. However, the IT department is making great strides in providing training for Apples. This all concerned me a year ago when we were making the purchase, but I decided to go wtih it exactly because I knew there is a Best Buy near her school, and if the school can’t handle the problem, she could always resort to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. However, we bought the extended three year warranty, so we’re covered for most repairs.</p>
<p>Chances are, if anything goes wrong, the IT department at his school will be able to help, even if he didn’t get it through the school purchase program.</p>
<p>That was kind of my logic too. If I bought the laptop at Best Buy (here) and it broke (at college), and if it was something that was unfixable by the college’s IT dept., he could bring it back to Best Buy and the Geeks. Does this sound like a good idea?</p>
<p>We’ve only had Dells and one Black Mac. I thought this time around we would try HP. They’ve been having some great deals on them. I’ve heard some not so great things about Sony’s (even though the design looks really nice).</p>
<p>My laptop was purchased from Best Buy. I really like BB. We buy almost all of our electronics there & have had wonderful customer service.</p>
<p>I haven’t bought at Best Buy, but I did buy an HP laptop at the start of last year, and I really like it. I have had no problems at all with it.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I’m not trying to promote Best Buy or anything. I’m just trying to figure out if my plan to buy through them is a good idea seeing how there is also a Best Buy close to S’s college. Our computer experience has been limited to Dell and my new black Mac so any info or experience with other brands is greatly appreciated. I’m thinking about going with HP because they seems to be fully loaded for a decent price at Best Buy.</p>
<p>To the OP, keep in mind if you buy through BB that you will need to purchase their service plan if you think you can just bring the laptop in and have it fixed in the event of a breakdown.</p>
<p>That being said, we did a lot of research last year when buying DD her laptop. With the sale price at BB for her HP, even after adding the service plan (3 years unlimited coverage for anything other than obvious abuse such as laptop being immersed in water) we felt we were getting a great deal. Plus she gets a free new battery any time during the three years.</p>
<p>Have yet to use the plan, and I know this is where BB makes alot of its profit… but sending an 18 year old off to college who knows what can happen. It’s worth a few hundred bucks.</p>
<p>I personally hate Best Buy. The last time I bought a laptop there it took me 45 minutes to get someone to come and get it out of a locked case for me. I went in knowing exactly what I wanted and they were way more interested in upselling other customers who didn’t know what they wanted.
And yes, if you do buy from BB get the service plan. Without it you are no better off than buying the Dell or Mac and using the computer IT people.</p>
<p>DS got his laptop through the school from Dell with their complete care “covers everything” service plan (he is a bit hard on computers.) The price was as good as or better than I could get as an employee. When his hard drive died the new one was there the next day, with the school software on it no questions asked. That was the benefit from getting it through the school, all the software needed was free and preloaded. When there was another issue the next year that was completely different, the repair person was there the next day with the part. That’s at least as good as anything you could get from a BB, and I have friends who have waited much longer than that for their repairs… </p>
<p>Check your school to see what plans and discounts they may have.</p>
<p>I would carefully compare the warranties offered through the school and BB. I got my old laptop from BB and my dog ate the keyboard - literally. This wasn’t a warranty repair of course, but the time they needed to do the work was about twice as long as the little computer shop down the street and twice as much. Find out what you can about the turnaround time on repairs. D got her Macbook Pro through the school and they have a loaner program if there is a huge problem. My homeowner’s policy covers pretty much anything that Apple doesn’t.</p>
<p>I would never buy anything from Best Buy. A friend tipped me that the store has an abominable return policy and atrocious customer service. I Googled “Best Buy complaints” and found the store has long had a terrible reputation. There is just no need to buy here when so many other wonderful stores exist.</p>
<p>I have had mixed experiences with Best Buy. They have gotten a lot of well deserved criticism for their customer no-service in the past, and they are known for pushing their overpriced and hard-to-use (and oftentimes unnecessary) extended warantees, but we recently had a very positive experience, buying an LCD tv (not a laptop) there, with a very nice sales guy. My s had carefully researched tvs for quite a while, and this was by far the best deal out there. So we bought it, and its been fine. Didn’t buy the extended warantee and they didnt push.</p>
<p>As for laptops, many colleges offer discounted purchase programs through the school website, and there are lots and lots of great deals out there (search the college laptop threads) and most colleges, as has been mentioned, offer on campus repair. No need to deal with transportation to get to the Best Buy, and it’ll probably be fixed a lot faster on campus. Older s had a Dell all through college. Younger s is the first “turncoat”-- wanted an Apple. It arrives tomorrow (we ordered it through his college website-- with a moderate discount, and there is a deal right now for a rebate on either an Ipod or a printer. We took the free $100 printer. He has an Ipod and needed a printer).</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the info. I’ll take some more time to think it through. His school does not have a program where you can buy computers through them. You can use their school code for a discount through the Dell website. Although we’ve had great luck with Dells, he wanted a change. He’s comfortable using a windows laptop and doesn’t want a mac. He currently has a 2 1/2 year old Inspiron 6000 running Windows XP. It’s plugging along but it’s huge and heavy. We’ve replaced the keyboard once. It’ll probably get him through one more semester but it would be nice to replace it before he goes back to school.</p>
<p>Links to old threads on this topic:
(they didnt hypermink for some reason-- go the the “revolving threads: linking hhe old with the new” at the top of this forum and go to post # 16
computer deals, suggestions, pc vs mac, macbook vs Dell, etc
Best deals for computers? College deals or vendors?
Computer suggestions?
Computers and Vista for College
Need some laptop help
found an awesome laptop deal or coupon? share it with everybody.
deals on macs
Laptops
MACBOOK (not pro) or a DELL
Best notebook/laptop for college</p>
<p>desktop vs laptop
College computer choice - desktop vs. laptop?
Desktop vs. Laptop</p>
<p>Great experience…I bought my laptop at Best Buy last December. They had the exact one I wanted on sale at the time. While the first one we went to was out of them, they called ahead to another store and located two of the same laptop at the store about 20 minutes away…and had one reserved for me. I picked it up from the other store. I didn’t buy the extended warranty from Best Buy (only the warranty that came with the computer) and so far I haven’t had any problems at all.</p>
<p>Two laptops and four chargers from BestBuy. The Geek Squad is the greatest.</p>
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<p>I believe that’s what most schools offer. But if you buy it through the Dell website, with the school’s code, they also load any programs that are specific to the school’s internal web system.</p>
<p>Was at Best Buy again, today - my new BlackJack is not pushing up my e-mail to my phone, so I ‘consulted’ with them. Had three guys troubleshooting; we were all having a blast, kidding each other back and forth, brainstorming, etc. I told them after today that I thought I earned a key to the store.</p>
<p>We were able to buy the Mac directly from the school bookstore so it was nice to be able to actually try the different models. The staff seemed very knowledgeable. We ordered it on orientation day and received it in less than a week. I have had a couple of questions since receiving the laptop and they have been very responsive on the phone. I hope this continues after school starts.</p>
<p>I am not a fan of Best Buy, and have stopped buying anything from there, due to some sad experiences with their “protection” plans. If you google it, you’ll find many others with complaints. If you do plan to buy something from BB, please be fully aware and make sure of what that protection plan really covers. Some sales people will promise you this and this is covered, but it’s not in the plan’s generic language, and that plan is being used on anything from high-end electronics like laptops and tvs, to dishwashers, and other appliances. It becomes quite easy for them to say that whatever you’re bringing to have fixed is not covered in that plan. The charge for just looking at it and doing some diagnostics is not cheap either. Lots of good quality stuff there at great prices and deals, but beware those protection plans. Just some friendly advice.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone.</p>