TL;DR: I drive three hours round trip today only to find out that Geek Squad broke my iPhone 13 Pro that I dropped off 5 days ago for a "quick, 2-hour" battery replacement and the customer service I’ve received has been a complete disaster.

I wanted to share my horrific experience with the Athens Best Buy and their Geek Squad, in case anyone else is considering trusting them with their devices.

For context, I live in Athens. I've lived here for 4 years. I'm only in Marietta to visit my Mom for Christmas.

Here’s the full story:

I originally brought my phone in on Tuesday, December 18th, for what should have been a simple battery replacement. They told me it would take two hours tops. It is now Sunday afternoon, and I am still without a functioning phone.

Today, I drove 1.5 hours from Marietta, where I’m staying with my mom for Christmas, to the Athens Best Buy to get an update. I rely on my phone for work (I work remotely), I’m dating someone long distance, and the cherry on top? I’m moving across the country in less than 10 days. Being without my phone during such a hectic time has been incredibly stressful. Thankfully I have iMessage and FaceTime on my laptop.

When I got to the store, Chris at Geek Squad was the only person in days to be honest about what happened. He explained that this morning, they tried replacing my phone battery again, but due to a repair error (his exact words were, “We don’t work on iPhones that often”), my iPhone 13 Pro is now broken. They only just ordered me a replacement phone today, but considering it took five days for a replacement battery they claimed would arrive via “overnight shipping,” I’m not holding my breath. After all this, they offered me a loaner phone, but it felt like a bandaid on a bullet wound. The loaner phone is outdated and doesn’t support the apps or functionality I rely on daily for work and staying connected. Plus, transferring everything over for just a few days, knowing I’ll have to switch back again soon, only adds to the hassle.

It’s ridiculous, disrespectful, and demeaning that I had to leave the comfort of my mom’s house during Christmas, drive three hours round trip, and only learn about this repair disaster in person. No one at the store thought to communicate any updates to me.

Even after reaching out to Best Buy Support on Twitter/X—where their own reps expressed frustration at how slow this store was to respond—it didn’t get better. William, the “Experience Manager,” finally emailed me, but not only did his email subject line have a typo, his response was completely useless, and he hasn’t answered any of my follow-up questions. Honestly, I don’t think he would’ve reached out at all if Support hadn’t bugged him.

Then there’s Brian from Geek Squad. Based on what I’ve pieced together, he likely botched the initial battery replacement, which caused my phone to break in the first place. I’ve emailed him multiple times since Wednesday, and he hasn’t responded to anything. When I returned to the store on Thursday to check on my phone he instantly looked away from me while helping another customer and refused to talk to me, forcing a Geek Squad employee who knew nothing about the situation to take over.

I’m not trying to be a “Karen.” For one, I'm a young guy. I just graduated college. I’ve worked retail and fast food, so I know dealing with customers can be hard. I get it. But this. This is beyond unacceptable.

• Why wasn’t I told they needed to order a new phone? (I still have received 0 email communication about this upon driving back home and wonder if they would've tried to hide it from me if I didn't visit in store today!)

• Why did I have to drive hours just to get an update?

• Why did a 2-hour repair turn into a week-long nightmare?

They are lucky my phone was backed up to iCloud. Imagine if I were a young mother who lost irreplaceable photos of her baby.

This level of miscommunication and disregard for customers’ time, money, and well-being is outrageous. If you’re considering using Geek Squad at the Athens Best Buy, DON’T.

If anyone has advice on escalating this further or getting compensation for the time, stress, and expense this has caused, please let me know. I’m at my wit’s end.