Having worked at Best Buy, yes lots of the employees are bad, but not all of them. (If you were there recently - think holiday hires who got NO training...)
Best bet for computer solutions is to actually ask them to get you the guy that knows the most. Or, ask for the "Double Agent" that's the guy who actually goes into people's homes for Geek Squad, and tends to be the best of the bunch. Oh, and yes they are just kids making $8/hr - the nicer you are to them the more helpful they will be getting you to the right person.
If your store has a Magnolia Home Theater, those guys tend to be better trained than the rest and will also likely know who on the computer side of things is the most helpful.
As for the service center - we EXPECTED things to come back just as broken as they left. Things that can be done in-store are fine but if they have to send it out that is dangerous.
rolleyes