I’m sure everyone has heard horror stories about the lack of customer service at Best Buy. I have an incidence to add.

I bought a laptop from Best Buy. It would periodically close or minimize open windows while I was working on the computer. This happened every few minutes at first and then a little less often the next day. Obviously, I do not want a computer that is going to close windows I am working with. As a student, it’s important not to lose my papers as I’m typing them. I called Sony, the manufacturer, but they did not know what to do. Since the problem occurred whenever I moved my finger across the mouse pad, I thought the problem might be the mouse driver, but there was no newer version of the driver available.

I packaged the laptop just how it came in the box. The day after purchase, I took the laptop to the local Best Buy store. The customer service representative told me there is a $250 restocking fee unless they could find something wrong with it. They told me to come back in a few hours. I told them the problem occurred very frequently when the computer was right out of the box and told them to use the reinstallation CDs to reformat the computer back to how it was at the time of purchase. The customer service employee said they would. I came back a few hours later, and they said the computer was fine. I asked if they had reformatted it as promised, but the employee said “no.” I asked for a manager, but the manager said there would be a $250 fee applied to the return. The manager said that if the box is open, they cannot give a full refund. However, the Best Buy tech staff actually opened the box at the time of purchase per its own policy.

As a previous electronics salesman at an office supply store, I was dumbfounded when even Best Buy’s corporate office would not do anything. After filing a complaint with consumer protection groups, Best Buy sent me a $100 gift card, which felt like a slap in the face. A few months later, a relative told me he was having the exact same problem with his Sony laptop. I searched online and found many others having the same problem with windows closing on this particular computer. By this time, there was an updated mouse driver that fixed the problem.

Stay away from Best Buy.

William McMullin is a resident of Mount Morris, Mich. Please send comments to [email protected].