If you never ran software update and bought it the first day it was available then they are correct. If you ever updated the OS - even just once - then you had the patch for the recovery mode that had the bug.
But even with the bugged first version of macOS, the laptops are still recoverable - you just need another Mac with Apple Configurator 2 to get around the bug. Something you would think the Geek Squad should be able to handle (yes, that was sarcasm).
All you really needed to do was boot into recovery mode, launch disk utility then nuke the disk. If they want to re-install the OS, let them. I ended up taking my Air back to Apple because it turned out I really do need more than 16GB for RAM for a few things (shoot!) and I just nuked the drive. They didn't even bat an eye.
But even with the bugged first version of macOS, the laptops are still recoverable - you just need another Mac with Apple Configurator 2 to get around the bug. Something you would think the Geek Squad should be able to handle (yes, that was sarcasm).
All you really needed to do was boot into recovery mode, launch disk utility then nuke the disk. If they want to re-install the OS, let them. I ended up taking my Air back to Apple because it turned out I really do need more than 16GB for RAM for a few things (shoot!) and I just nuked the drive. They didn't even bat an eye.