I know I’m probably boring some of you to death and you just want me to stop my whining. Others are following the story though, and I can’t let them down on this latest exciting installement. Besides, this episode even has a chase scene!
So I had mentioned that I had written the CEO of Best Buy, Brad Anderson. Actually, I wrote him twice. He didn’t answer, but Jill Nezworski, Senior Executive Resolution Specialist, did. Here’s what she had to say:
Dear Keith Peters:
Thank you for contacting Mr. Brad Anderson at the Best Buy corporate office. Mr. Anderson’s office has received your email and has forwarded it to my desk for review and response. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concern.
First, I was sorry to read of the difficulties that you described with the repairs performed on your Toshiba notebook. I understand that it is frustrating when an item requires repair, especially a laptop. I reviewed your service history and understand that you have three previous repairs that would qualify under our No Lemon policy. However, after running tests on the unit again, we do not feel that the unit has a hardware issue; rather software related. As you are aware, software is not covered under our Plan so this would be a billable service.
However, in recognition of your frustration with the delays and customer service, Best Buy will make a one-time exception. If you wish to have the restore completed by the Geek Squad, please send me a copy of the paid invoice and I will reimburse you for this service. My direct fax number is (XXX) XXX-XXXX and please put this case number on any correspondence XXXXXXXX.
Thank you again for contacting Best Buy. We appreciate your business and hope to serve you better in the future.
And here was my response:
Jill, Thank you for responding. However, this is unacceptable. The computer was working fine. Then it failed to power up. It went in for a hardware repair and they replaced the motherboard. I brought the pc home and it did not work correctly. It was reporting a “hardware conflict” when it tried to boot. I brought it straight back to the store.
1. This is not a software issue. You have already acknowledged it was a hardware issue by changing the motherboard. If this is a software issue, it is a something that was caused by the work you did.
2. The way they want to handle this is to reformat the hard drive. This is not “fixing a software issue”. This is a last ditch effort when you don’t know what else to do. A far more logical solution would be to put another hard drive in the pc and see if that still has a problem. Or, put my hard drive in another working pc, and see if it works in that.
3. They don’t even know if reformatting the hard drive will work. They want to do this to rule out any software issues before they send it in for more hardware repairs.
In other words, they don’t really have any idea what is wrong and they want to reformat the hard drive as an experiment, AND they want me to pay for this.
Simply saying that you will reimburse me for this after the fact is not a solution.
I have a call in to Mr. Chris Sipprell of Best Buy, who was the recommended person to contact listed on the Better Business Bureau’s web site. If this doesn’t get resolved soon, I will be filing a complaint with them.
What I want is hardly unreasonable. I want to be able to push the power button on my computer, have it boot up and stay running. It did this just fine before the motherboard died. I expect it to be returned to me in the same state. Is that too much to ask?
After a couple more smaller exchanges, I got this:
Hi Keith: I talked to our Geek Squad lead and they verified with two different systems that this is not hardware related. This is in fact a software issue and the restore can be done by yourself or if you would like, the store can perform it for $59. Again, I will reimburse you for this charge as a goodwill gesture. However, this is our position at this time.
Thanks for your time. Jill
There’s no way I’m going to pay them $59 to stick a cd in a slot, push “enter” and sit back and drink a cup of coffee while it reformats and copies the OS. So I go down to BestBuy and get my pc. The guy prints out a receipt and asks me to sign it. It says:
I, Keith Peters, recognize that repairs have been performed in a manner that is satisfactory to me.
I say there is no way I am signing that. He says, “Well then I can’t let you leave the store.”
You can imagine my reaction. I picked up my laptop, said goodbye and walked out. He chases after me and calls the security guards, who stop me at the door, and refuse to let me leave. So, I edit the form to reflect my actual level of satisfaction with the service, sign it, and leave. I suppose I could have pushed it until it became something physical, or the police were called, but I’m really not that confrontational.
I bring the pc home and pop in the Toshiba restore disk that came with the pc. Boot into the CD Rom drive, it asks me if I want to restore the pc to its original factory settings. I say yes. It wipes everything, reinstalls everything, and reboots.
When it reboots, I get this error message:
ERROR
Resource Conflict – PCI Network Controller on Motherboard
Bus:02, Device:02, Function: 00
Press
to resume, to Setup
I press F1 and it boots into Windows, then goes into this screen for a few minutes:
Then it freezes. Mouse, keyboard, everything just dead. Just like before.
I leave it exactly like it is, don’t even close the cover. Bring it straight back to Best Buy, tell the guy exactly what happened. (Same guy who chased me down.) Show him that it is frozen.
Can you guess what he does?
He offers to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the OS, all for the low price of $59!!!
I explain again, that I just REINSTALLED THE DAMN OS. I then press the power button and reboot it in front of him. It goes back to the second screen above. Resource conflict. I calmly explain that that is not a software error. He looks a little befuddled, goes into setup and pokes around. Finally decides the BIOS needs to be reflashed or updated. He’ll jump right on it at 7:30 am tomorrow when he gets in.
So, we are officially on our sixth trip to the repair shop. No doubt they’ll find some reason to disqualify me from the no-lemon policy again. God forbid they replace their defective merchandise.
Anyway, looks like we’ll have yet another episode to the story. Stay tuned!
Keith, I just searched on the error and found another person.
http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-7813-0.html?forumID=69&threadID=93895&messageID=1062194
You might want to contact them.
thats an awful story – so sorry you are having issues like that AND have to deal with a gaggle of total morons. they should give you a brand new model laptop for all your grief. the fact that hasn’t happend yet is suprising.
best of luck on that laptop…
Wow Scott. That seems to be the problem. thanks.
Hey Keith sorry to hear you are still having problems with Best Buy but its no suprise. Here’s what to do if some tool at BB ever tries to stop you again – http://www.die.net/musings/bestbuy/
good luck.
Wow, I’ve been following this story (as well as brevity updates) and this is just completely insane. I’ve been ripping on bestbuy for their “service” for years without even personally having any contact with them. It seems like their “solution” to everything is to just reforamt the computer. I’ve known a lot of people who have brought their PCs in for “repair” because of really simple things and it seems like reformatting the computers is what they turn to first, not a last ditch effort. If that doesn’t work they move right along to selling you new hardware, I’m sure they make a lot more money by saying your drive is dead, you need new ram, etc.. than actually trying to FIX them.
Anyway, there was my BestBuy mini-rant. Good luck but don’t hold your breath for attempt #6. Maybe they will slip you a new laptop out of shame and pretend that they “fixed” it.
ha! just found this – http://www.bestbuysux.org/index1.html
Dujoducom, it’s funny, the guy in line in front of me the last time I went in, was trying to do something with his laptop. The GeekSquad guy pulled a usb drive off a string on his neck and plugged it in to the pc. The pc didn’t recognize the usb drive, so he recommended re-installing Windows. For some reason he didn’t offer to do it for him for $59 though.
Unbelievable! I am without belief!! This story actually needs it’s own website.
Keith — sorry to hear about your troubles. Keep us posted.
Btw – I think before any store or service can have the words “Best” or “Ultimate” in their company name, they need to have a certain number of years of excellent service and get signatures from 65% of the local community or their names will be be revoked or converted. BB is now “Not Such A Good Buy”.
Hopefully, it won’t come to you standing outside of Best Buy with a protest sign (which I wouldn’t recommend unless you consult with an attorney first)!
Scott, LOL.
Unfortunately, all my dreams of vengeance usually wind up with me looking like a really crazed fanatic. So I just blog about it. đ
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_21612373.html
try this
Well, theres quite a lot of us who read your blog, and I guess now beast buy is one more place struck off our list of visits. I wonder if the best buy management had chance to read this blog and reflect on the number of readers, a new laptop would not be very swift in being delivered.
Until then… lets increase the page rank of http://www.bestbuysux.org/index1.html once more đ
Chase scene!
Theres no way they could have legally stopped you from leaving the store without accusing you of shoplifting and calling the police, I think. Its the same as them having no legal right to detain you to check your receipt on the way out.
I won’t be buying any computers from best buy any time soon anyway đ
Yeah, I kind of regret that I didn’t keep walking and see if they would have actually assaulted me. I wouldn’t have had a problem with the police coming.
Then again, I’d look like the crazy, irrational nutcase, freaking out over signing a piece of paper. Amazing how poor service can drive you down into that state.
May I suggest submitting your story to http://www.consumerist.com/
OMG, what a pain the butt. Sorry Keith. Im caught up in this story as well. I really want to see you get some satisfaction.
I cant believe they cant just flash the BIOS for you while you wait after all the trouble you have been through, they should be bending over backwards to rectify things, Flashing the BIOS should take all of 5 minutes. At this point you might want to lodge a complaint with the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly about Best Buys practices and your treatment.
Take a look at the first few paragraphs of this document:
http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=1174
“Defective Goods
Mass. Gen. Law Chapter 106
Sections 2-314, 2-316A
When you buy a product from a merchant, by state law it comes with an automatic warranty which says that the product will function normally, for its intended purpose, for a reasonable period of time. This is an implied warranty of merchantability.
If the product is defective at purchase, or becomes defective during the period of the implied warranty, both the seller and the manufacturer are responsible for making it right.
Under Massachusetts law, a merchant cannot sell a product “as is.” A store’s regular return policy does not apply in the case of defective goods.”
And then this section in particular:
“Mass. Gen. Law Chapter 93A
940 Code of Mass. Regs. 3.05
When you buy from a merchant, you are entitled to all the key facts about the purchase before you buy.
A merchant is obligated under the law to disclose any fact, the disclosure of which may have influenced the buyer not to enter into the transaction to start with.
Similarly, sellers are required in advertising to disclose all material facts concerning the product or service which, if not disclosed, might directly or by implication, mislead the consumer.
Private party sellers, except in car sales, do not have the same obligation to disclose material facts unless asked.”
To me, with those two statues combined, Best Buy needs to make good on their warranty, and If Best Buy did not disclose to you those additional limitations of repairs needing to be all hardware based on not software based before they honor the portion of the warranty that provides you a full working replacement, then you have a good case against them. I would call or write Tom Reillys office and at least document how Best Buy has handled things.
Here is a link to the complain form: http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=1135
Best of luck!
Rob
Well, the GeekSquad guy said, and I quote to the best of my recollection, “I’m in at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow and this will be my first project.”
I called at 10:15 a.m. and he said he had not gotten to it yet. Had a bunch of meetings to go to.
In the meantime, Jill Nezworski, Senior Executive Resolution Specialist, saw this most recent post. She said, and I copy and paste from her email,
“I am so sorry. I will follow up with the store today and see if they can get it to function. If it is software, I trust that we can fix it. If they determine that it is hardware related, I will replace it under your Performance Service Plan (PSP).
I will get back to you by the end of the day.”
Hey Keith, some more info that may be useful if things aren’t resolved satisfactorily for you soon:
From the Massachusetts State Bar Association:
“Massachusetts has some of the strongest consumer protection laws in the country. The most important of these laws is the Massachusetts General Law Chapter 93A, the Consumer Protection Act. It is a very simple law that says that unfair or deceptive acts or practices by a business are illegal. This law allows you to sue for three times your loss if the business with whom you have a dispute is not willing to offer you a reasonable settlement. However, in order to file such a suit, a consumer must send the business involved a thirty day demand letter which explains how he or she may think the business has violated the law and the damages the he or she has suffered. For more information on how to phrase such a letter and a sample copy of one, call the Executive Office of Consumer Affairs at (617) 727-7780 and request their pamphlet “A Consumer’s Guide to the Thirty Day Demand Letter.””
Rob
Amazing story!! đ
Can you imagine how much money is already spent by their team? All the time Jill Nezworski, Senior Executive Resolution Specialist, has put in this, earning probably more than 200 dollars/hour… Very clever of you to edit the receipt and then signing it. You can file this. It’s still your laptop and actually they are the biggest thiefs.
sorry to hear about all the problems kieth but i must say it’s a dam good read and their incompetance is highly amusing. This blog and your entries must have easily damaged their reputation beyond the price of a replacement laptop…. give em hell Mr Kieth
James
I’d enjoy this read a whole lot more, if I hadn’t just turned my own labtop in for repair at the local BestBuy under my soon-to-expire PSP…
đ
Best of luck, Keith…
Glad I stumbled across this! I was planning on making a purchase at Best Buy and will now go elsewhere! Sorry you are having to go through this but thanks for sharing your experience and saving the rest of us from such a nightmare experience!
This story stings. BestBuy put my dad through the samething with his Toshiba. He could of bought two laptops for what they’ve charged him to fix the damn thing.
The sad part is we’re all too savvy for the crap that companies like BestBuy tries to pull, but not the average consumer (i.e. my dad).
Post the laptop on eBay ;o) and live in the Mac Hotel with your mac mini. When Christmas comes get yourself a MacBook Pro. I’m moving to the Mac Hotel as well and I am currently in the market for a MacBook Pro.
The scary part is the new product expansion deal between Apple and BestBuy. Yikes!
Good luck!
rob.
BestBuy is the WORST!
I have HORROR STORIES! I can’t even tell them here, I am scarred for life.
It truly amazes me in this age of information sharing and world wide communication that companies like Best Buy do not regularly evaluate the impact of their consumer policies and make changes for the better. However, I believe that the economic factors do not create an incentive for them to do so.
Looking at the sordid details of this saga I am reminded of the numerous examples of this type of business centric – consumer unfriendly behavior that is rampant, at least within the US. Sadly enough companies have lost any motivation to display behaviors that resemble the old fashion notion of genuine customer service. Especially the major public companies such as Best Buy. Consider (in no particular order):
1) Public companies are rewarded on short term goals. Results are measured almost daily (Based mostly on news reports and arbitrage information) and most profoundly at the quarterly and yearly intervals. CEO’s tend to stay with companies for incredibly short periods of time these days (I would say in no small part due to this fact) and their short duration of responsibility creates a reinforcing effect on the problem. If you can make short term decisions that increase profitability and revenue but will have longer term deleterious effects due to terrible treatment of your customer base why should you, as a CEO, care? Your compensation and reward are determined based on the last quarter and year. If your actions create immediate profit impacts and do not have an IMMEDIATE negative impact on revenue you can ride these decisions and then leave to go to your next opportunity (which will be plentiful given your glowing track record) only to leave your successor with the ensuing problems.
2) Why should companies care about service when it only manifests itself on a P&L in a DIRECT way as an expense? How do we, as consumers, vote our dollars? Cheapest price? Availability? How often do we end up going to companies that display terrible customer service based on the fact that they either a) Have the product at the cheapest price or b) Just are the only ones that have a relationship with the distributor and can even carry the product or c) Are simply close and easy to get to (God forbid we drive across town)? The cost in terms of real dollars or abstinence is more then the general populace is willing to pay. And the general populace is quite larger then those willing or able to pay more on the basis of principles.
3) These companies have so much buying power based on size that independent retailers simply can’t compete if price and availability are key concerns. A small proprietor will pay more per unit, be further down the distribution list and cannot afford to stock the innumerable items that a big box store can. In terms of inventory alone if a local Best Buy holds 200% of annual sales (just a value for arguments sake don’t berate me for this) in inventory what depth of product does that allow them versus a mom and pop? It simply isn’t comparable.
4) How many companies are there that you can take your business to? Why should they (Best Buy in this case) care that they provide poor customer service if all their significant competitors do the same? They just swap customer bases…for every person that they piss off each of their competitors does the same; it’s just a matter of getting the dollars of the new customer or waiting until the old one is pissed enough at their competitor due to the newness of the offending activity that they forgive the prior transgression in order to ‘stick it to’ the most recent offender.
5) We as a population of litigious bastards have contributed to the very environment that we despise. I certainly do not mean in any way to pick on Robert Hall but the laws that he cited that exist to protect consumers from inappropriate and often downright malicious behavior on the part of companies helps to create and reinforce these insane levels of stupid bureaucracy. Best Buy has these policies because they are trying to balance compliance with legal requirements along with providing some modicum of customer service (You can’t just brutalize your customers as the delay of impact to revenue and profits is too short…see point # 1). Heck, someone out there is considering at this very moment whether they should sue Best Buy for the fact that Best Buy offered to wave the fee for you that they had to pay. And Best Buy’s lawyers and executive team will attempt to ‘strengthen’ their defense against such frivolous lawsuits by creating even more stringent policies such that they can prove that it is not corporate policy to do these things and they may even fire the offending employees to show how serious they are. Now not only are consumers in jeopardy but so are the employees. No wonder they are reticent to attempt to help…God forbid they bend the rules as it may mean their services are no longer needed. In an odd way your very plight will create even more obtuse and convoluted policies to ensure that the next poor soul has even more loop holes and barriers to a simple replacement of a bad product. God knows that a)They have had to invest more money (in terms of real time and energy) into this then if they had simply replaced the laptop. b)Are already devising the equivalent to the shrink-wrap EULA such that you have to sign to purchase a product and the signature signifies that you have read and are willing to comply with all their policies.
I’m no econ expert but either due to all the legislation and stock market dynamics this is not a true free market economy and all subsequent arguments about how we need to find another economic methodology are null and void or the free market economy is bankrupt from a day to day consumer perspective.
Just my 2 cents worth consuming far more than 2 cents worth of internet space. Sorry for the long post but this is a rather tender nerve for me.
—
Best regards,
Rob
I’ve heard more horror stories about the Geek Squad.
You’ve probably already figured this out, but if BB does replace your laptop, don’t ever take it to BB for repair. Not even if the thing breaks a week after you get it. If that happens, either eBay the sucker or find a small local shop to do the repairs.
Hi, Don’t you have the two year Pick up & Delivery garantee from Toshiba for the notebook? I am not sure how these things are arranged in the US but here in Europe Toshiba says:
Depending on the model of the Toshiba Notebook you have one or two year Carry In or Pick Up & Delivery garantee. Of course, I hope you have the latter and you can just send it to Toshiba itself. I won’t annoy you with my terrible stories about Apple (they REALLY SUCK), and Acer and their friends.
Keith,
I know exactly how you feel. I ordered 30 headsets on Thursday last week. I ordered them “Next Day”. After they didn’t arrive on Monday by 5 I called best buy on Tuesday when only a partial shipment arrived. Their response was that I received the headsets the day after they shipped them so clearly it was “Next Day”. The fact that they didn’t ship them until Monday didn’t matter. Almost a third of the order was in shipping charges. According to the supervisors at Best Buy Customer Service they don’t have any responsibility to ship the product within any given time frame. Only to get it to you the day after they ship it. Thank-you to UPS for at least doing your part! As far as Best Buy on line or on the phone…..your guys continually underwhelm me.
Andy
Hi David,
Thank-You for follow up email. While I understand your explanation, clearly when a customer places a next day delivery order they would expect the delivery no later than the 3rd business day why else would it be titled “Next Day”. Obviously I have fallen prey to a marketing scam that is deliberately misleading. I deal with many different distributors and suppliers, without exception all of them ship the same or following business day (for Next day delivery) with delivery on the following business day. If they can’t they are quick to set the expectation of when they can actually have a product in my possession. Your explanation on the telephone of part of the shipment being on back-order for a “short period of time” is neither plausible or consistent with the information provided to me by the 4 other people I have spoken with. Nor did the product come from different locations as all of them have the same shipping address. Clearly your warehouse/shipping dept failed to ship the 8 headsets on Friday when the original 13 were shipped. Failure of your organization to perform in the manner in which you indicate on all of your marketing should warrant a reduction in shipping costs. Almost 1/3 of the total invoice was for shipping. Clearly no business person would agree to that unless the expectation was that they would have a product within a given time frame. Now that I have to ship these headsets out individually to each recipient I will incur additional costs. Clearly not a choice a reasonable person would make.
As for the different stages you indicate of the four stages you list half of them were completed before the completion of the order. As for your organizations responsibility to take a product off a shelf, place it in a box, and put a mailing label on it, have it loaded on to a shippers vehicle. I can understand how that can take part of a business day however to tell me that your company can’t ship product on time after verifying that the product is available then say that you met the “promised delivery date” when even your web site listed Monday June 12 as the last day for delivery. Obviously even your website listed the information incorrectly. Your organization should be willingly to be responsible for the information that they post to their customers.
As a customer I shouldn’t give two shakes of a lambs tail about the process of order fulfillment. I should be comfortable with an on-line purchase and feel secure that your company will do what it says, for the price it says, in a stated time-frame. In this instance Best Buy as failed on all three accounts. Your inability as a supervisor to take ANY steps to rectify this is indicative of a larger problem within your organization. Clearly Best Buy should empower the “Supervisors” to be able to right obvious mistakes or failures of your organization. But to stand behind terms like usually and generally and try to them as the “out” for failing to meet your organizational responsibilities simply exacerbates the entire situation.
I can say that through my entire 1 hour and 20 minute conversation with you David you maintained your professionalism and I do appreciate that.
As far as my being a proponent of Best Buy on line, on the phone, or Best Buy for business. I will do my best as a business owner to make sure that share my rather remarkable experience with every customer, potential customer, friend and or relative that cares to listen to help ensure that they Never use any of the on-line/telephone service offered by your company.
Andy Fisk
— “customercare@bestbuy.com” wrote:
> Andy,
>
> I am David, a Supervisor with Best Buy Customer Care.
>
> We are unable to refund your shipping charges.
>
> I see that the additional eight headsets was shipped from our warehouse
> yesterday on June 12 via UPS Next Day and is scheduled to be delivered
> today. This delivery date took place within the promised shipping
> timeframe.
>
> Shipping time is calculated from the time the item is shipped from our
> warehouse and does not include order processing time or Saturdays and
> Sundays. When an order is placed, it goes through several stages before
> it ships. We verify credit, check inventory, pick the product, and pick
> it for shipment. Depending upon inventory availability of an item, the
> time it takes for an order to process varies.
>
> I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We look
> forward to your next visit to one of our stores or to http://www.BestBuy.com.
>
> Sincerely,
> David
> Best Buy Customer Care Team Supervisor.
>
Your story is all too familiar.
I too have a Toshiba laptop with many problems that I purchased from Best Buy.
I got tired of the run around and filed a complaint with the BBB and since the Ohio Attorney General has a current case pending against BB, I filed a complaint with them as well.
Haven’t hear back yet — filed a few days ago.
Hopefully they will take it more seriously.
The arrogance of BB is astounding.
Good luck!
Wow, what a shitty story… I feel for ya bro. I am all for taking issues like these up with the BBB. Once they get involved, problems seem to get resolved pretty quickly. My last use of the BBB was for a Motorola i95 cl cell phone which konked out. Motorola said they would send me a data cable for my troubles… how awesome!… a data cable to use with my broken phone! Thanks Motorola. After a couple emails and phone calls with Motojoke-o I called the BBB, filed a complaint, and had a new phone with a box of “complimentary” accessories at my front door within a couple days. Funny how a the thought of a mark on your business reputation can help companies realize that dicking over the consumer is not good business. đ
Good luck!
-MT
did a google for a similar fault on a tosh sat pro l20. error message before booting windows.
it’s so not a software issue. just fixed the one i was working on by removing the wifi module. booted up fine and found the onboard nic.
shutdown and reinstalled the wifi module and all ok now.
give it a shot.
andy
That’s all cool, but I don’t really care what the problem is/was. The point is the computer was under warranty and BEST BUY was supposed to fix it. I’m not supposed to be the one researching obscure toshiba hardware problems and taking my laptop apart and removing the wifi module. That’s why I paid them $99 for an extended 2-year warranty. They fix it or they replace it. The problem was, they couldn’t fix it and they wouldn’t replace it.
At any rate, I have a new pc now, and the Geek Squad can sneak my old Toshiba out the back door and sell it at a flea market to supplement their income, for all I care. đ
Wow! You are not going to believe this – I purchased my HP laptop from Best Buy 3 years ago and within the first 17 months I had 3 harddrive crashes as well – Sure enough, when I brought my computer to Best Buy they continued to replace the harddrive BUT at the same time they were insisting to me that it was software problems. Well not only have I had these problems, but I have had problems with my Sony CyberShot camera as well. I am qualified for the no-lemon policy and Best Buy is REFUSING TO HONOR THEIR POLICY!!!! I sent the following to the corporate offices recently:
June 14, 2006
To whom it may concern:
I am writing with regard to the Best Buy Performance Plan that is offered on your electronics at the time of purchase. I have always been a huge fan of Best Buy, making all of my electronics purchases there, including televisions, multiple digital cameras and my laptop a few years ago. At the time of purchase for each of these items, I was highly encouraged by the Best Buy staff to purchase the extended warranty, also known as the Performance Plan. In 2003, when I purchased my laptop, I purchased the Performance Plan as I was told that 3 repairs within the 4 year time period would result in a replacement laptop of equal or lesser value, no questions asked.
However, unfortunately this was not the case. From 2003 to 2005, I had to have my hard drive replaced not once, not twice, but three times by Best Buy. Because I was using this laptop strictly for academic purposes, it was very difficult to lose all of the information and documents that had been stored on my laptop due to a hard drive crash. I understand if the hard drive crashes once, it could be a problem with the computer, but when my hard drive crashed for a second time within a month of picking it up from Best Buy for the first repair, I was appalled. Not only did I lose all of my information again, but I needed to take my laptop back to Best Buy for yet another repair. This time, when I returned to Best Buy, the âGeek Squadâ insisted that this was not their fault, and that I needed the computer to be sent out to the service center for a second time. However, what really upset me was that they did not have my first repair on record, and I had not been encouraged to keep my paperwork from that first repair. Because of this, I was still on my âfirst repairâ according to Best Buy. I was willing to accept this fact, as long as my computer would be fixed so that I could use it for school again âafter all, it had only been a year since I purchased the laptop.
A few months after this repair, I was working on a paper, and my computer shut down. Sure enough, the hard drive had crashed again. I am no expert on computers, but I think it is safe to say that if a computerâs hard drive has crashed three times within a year, then either it is not being sufficiently repaired, or the computer itself it defective. However, when I brought the computer to Best Buy for repair, they insisted that it was a common problem and they sent it out for repair again. When I picked my laptop up from its third repair, I came to find out that it was still not fixed, and that it simply was not worth my time to continue dealing with the Geek Squad, as they were obviously not fixing my computer, and I was yet again without a laptop that I had spent over $2,000.00 on. I decided to simply discard of the laptop that had been purchased at Best Buy, and to purchase one directly from Dell, a company who came highly recommended for their exceptional service. I have had my Dell laptop, which cost about half the price of the one from Best buy, for about a year, and I have yet to have even one problem with it.
The laptop that was purchased from Best Buy was not the only problem I have had with the Performance Plan. In October of 2004, I purchased a Sony Cybershot camera from Best Buy (it was my third digital camera purchase from Best Buy over a period of 2 years) and I bought the 4 Year Performance Plan for the camera. At the time of purchase, I explained my laptop problems to the sales representative and he said that the policy is stricter with laptops because they are larger purchases, and that with digital cameras, I would receive a replacement camera if there were 3 repairs performed within the 4 year time period. After a few months of having my camera, I noticed a problem with the LCD screen, so I took it to my local Best buy and had it sent out for repair. When I got my camera back, I was told that they had fixed the problem, and my camera was ready to go. A few weeks later, when I was using the camera, the same problem occurred â the camera kept power cycling and when it would stay on, the LCD screen was flickering and obviously defective. Yet again, I brought the camera to Best Buy for repair. This time I was rather upset because I had just had the camera repaired a few weeks earlier, and I had to go 3 weeks without the camera while it was bring repaired then, and now I was going to have to endure another 3 weeks without the camera for the exact same repair. I use this camera for work (I work for an online business) so it is an essential part of my job. After the second repair, I found that the camera was still performing poorly when I went to pick it up. I hadnât even left the store yet! The Geek Squad member that I spoke with apologized for this (as he clearly knew that nothing had been repaired over the period of 3 weeks that my camera was gone) and wrote a manual request to the service center asking âwhat was done to this camera?â (I have this manual request with my Repair paperwork) As expected, I never received a follow up to this request, and I sent my camera away a third time for repair â the same repair that was supposed to have happened twice already. When I picked up my camera for the third time, I inquired about the âlemonâ policy, and I was told that because I have had three repairs, the next break would result in a replacement camera.
It has now been a few months since the third repair, and while using the camera last week, the problem occurred again. The LCD screen was flickering. Along with this, the camera was not performing correctly â when it was set to the âpictureâ mode, it displayed the pictures that have already been taken, and when it is set to the âmovieâ mode, it powers off. On Sunday, June 11, 2006, I brought my defective camera to the Fenway Best Buy in Boston, Massachusetts, along with all of the repair paperwork from the past year and the original box and packaging for the camera, with hopes of finally receiving a replacement camera so I would not have to deal with the repairs any longer. Much to my surprise, I was told that the camera would have to be shipped to the service center for a fourth time before it could be authorized for a replacement. No where in the Performance Plan manual that I received at the time of purchase does it explain that there is a fourth service center requirement. I was very upset, and upon asking to speak with the store manager, the employee informed me that the manager was not there; I found this to be odd, but the employee then reported me to the sales manager. I spoke with the sales manager about my situation, and he agreed with my argument, but insisted that there was nothing he could do but send it out for a fourth service. I proceeded to show him the Performance Plan manual that was given to me at time of purchase, and how it did not explain anything about having the camera sent out for a fourth repair before a replacement could be issued. He was speechless, and kept saying to me âyou are absolutely right but there is nothing I can do.â
I then proceeded to ask him how Best Buy could possibly up-sell such a âwonderfulâ extended warranty and fail to honor its promise of a replacement after three repairs. He described that because my camera was a Sony camera, he could not authorize a replacement. He insisted that Best Buy had specific agreements with different brands and that with Sony there was nothing he could do but that if I had purchased a cheaper brand camera, such as a Canon, I would have been eligible for an upgrade on the spot. After explaining this to me, I was shocked, and the sales manager admitted that he should not have told me this information. This fact appalled me â Best Buy sells the exact same performance plan on all of its digital cameras, and the customers are not told about the fact that there is actually a different policy for different brands. I donât even know whether to believe this, but if it is true, than the Best Buy Performance Plan is a true fraud. If I would have known about this difference between brands, I would have purchased a Canon, because not only was the Sony Cybershot more expensive, but I would have saved myself a lot of time and effort. (I will be contacting Sony directly to inquire about the validity of this policy as well)
At this point, I requested to speak with a store manager, and the sales manager failed to honor my request â he insisted that I just send the camera out for the fourth repair. I have experience in retail, so I am aware of the chain of commands. When I originally asked to speak with a store manager, the Best Buy employee insisted that the store manager was not in that day, but that I could speak to the sales manager; later, this sales manager claimed that he was the store manager (his name tag said sales manager, so I do not know who to believe, the employee or the sales manager). Anyhow, when I was unable to reach a store manager, I asked for the contact information for the regional manager, and was denied that information. I was told that the only other option I had was to call 1-888-BESTBUY to comment or complain. I was very angered by this â how can a company as large as Best Buy refuse to provide the contact information for its management at a paying customerâs request?
The sales manager proceeded to âhand me overâ to a Geek Squad member, who processed my fourth repair, and I am again without a camera for 3 weeks.
Aside from all of these troubles, I have never been treated with respect while dealing with the Geek Squad â I constantly get referred from one person to the next, and all of the Geek Squad employees seem clueless, so I eventually end up dealing with a manager with every instance. I am constantly told that my camera is repaired, only to find out later that it is not qualified as a ârepairâ by Best Buyâs standards under the lemon policy. Correct me if I am wrong, but if I send a camera that is broken to a service center and it comes back fixed, then the camera was repaired. Although the notes in my paperwork state that the camera was âcleanedâ the service center is obviously performing more than a cleaning if the camera that previously was not working is now working.
I want to know what can be done about all of this. Because the sales manager in Boston refused to guide me in the direction of contacting upper level management, I am left in the dark, with a useless performance plan, a broken camera, and a lot of anger and stress. I will be sure to tell everyone I know about this unfortunate situation, and I will no longer be making any purchases from Best Buy, a company which I used to love so much, but have unfortunately grown to hate. I would like to know if there are any steps I can take toward receiving the replacement camera that I deserve. Over the period of 17 months, my camera has been repaired for the same problem three times, and I have produced all of the paperwork and original packaging as the Performance Plan manual requests. Why is Best Buy still refusing to honor my extended warranty? Will I ever have a functional camera, or have I truly been scammed by your company?
Please contact me as soon as possible.
Regards,
Heather
Does anyone have any other recommendations or Best Buy contacts that I should send this to???
Also, I sent a letter to Sony to explain the ridiculous claims that were made about Sony while I was arguing with the Sales Manager at Best Buy.
You are an idiot. The only reason that you had such a hard time is because you are an asshole. If you would learn how to speak to people in a professional manner you would not have these problems.
Does “speaking to people in a professional manner” include calling them idiots and assholes?
Man I had no idea there was so much hate towards BB until my own episode. AMAZING. Truely a horrible story about the laptop. I have been going through hell with my 52″ JVC DLP which either doesnt work, or has nice little green lines all across the screen. BB customer service however is “powerless.” Except to schedule maintenance on it over and over.
Well looks like nobody has posted here in a few months. I am in a tangle myself with Beast Buy right now. I bought a computer CTO, that was custom built back in 03. Well the first month thedvd drive went out. I took it in and the repair was done with in 24 hrs…well next a few months later the other dvd drive went out…that was odd to me cause I hardly ever used it…took it in and the replaced it. Next a few weeks ago I was playing a game when the computer rebooted and it was going crazy..so I took it in and they took a quick look and said they would have to call me in an hour. I told them I would be in the store so just to page me. After about an hour they did page me and told me that they would have to send it down to Miami for service because the video card, motherboard, and both dvd drives where bad…HOLY COW!! Well I had them send it down and after almost 3 weeks got it back….I should have had them check it there to make sure it worked before driving home 20 miles away. I got it home and hooked it up and noticed that something was wrong with the colors…Well the video card they put in was the wrong one and they didn’t install the drivers for it. I had a 9800 pro and they put in a 9800 SE. Plus the hard drive error was still showing up. I called the store and the guy said he was sorry and to bring it back and he would fix it. I took it back to them and told him what it was doing on the HDD and he booted it up and just like magic the HDD showed the error….He said oh I know what that is and he said it was just the MBR and it will be fixed in just a few mins. I said ok and waited. well I knew that if you reset the computer a few times it would finally boot. He said it was fixed…well I should have known…I took it home again and booted it up and BAM!!! it was back…”Please insert disk.” I was mad as hell at this point and reset it 4 times to get it booted up…so far I have drove 80 miles that day for this computer. I went to work the next day and delt with the HDD a few more days hopig that it would fix itself…no luck. I was sitting there about to kill the last boss in MC on WOW when the screen went black and then rebooted. I must have scared the nieghbors with my yelling and screaming. So the next day I took it back to the store and they guy took a look at it….the computer was not seeing the HDD. Finally it had died. This was the 4th time and he said it would have to be sent out again for the no lemon thing and so I wait. Ending comming soon…in the mean time…”PLEASE INSERT DISK!”
I have had the WORST experience dealing all all levels with Best buy. I don’t blame the lower management, they are only doing their job on the pecking order of how they are trained by the management. But I had a CDMan that stopped working on the first day and I took it back, the customer service rep gave me such a hard time, then I had to deal with “Karla,” watch out for her. She doesn’t care about the customer. Her job is to be a wall of bureacracy. Finally, I had to write letters to the Director, and he told me my walkman would be replaced. But then when I came, they changed their mind. I ended up getting so upset at Karla’s attititude that I ended up just giving her the damn walkman and walking out. I don’t EVE plan on going back.
Best Buyer BEWARE!
Just an update…I now have channel *,Fox 13, the BBB, and the Ag looking into this..the AG said that he may file charges against Best Buy for fraud, theft, Unfair trade practices, and extortion without monetary gain. I plan to take this to the Max.
I have had a similar problem with Best Buy not fulfilling any responsibility to repair a XBox360 after 6 months of usage – It simply failes to boot up – meaning it is useless – I bought it online – called the online service center and have been getting the run around for months. First they insisted I needed the receipt – well I bought it online – I had the shipping label which verifies the purchase – Then they have had me on hold for several months saying they would search in some area called “RESOLUTION ” and have the receipt pulled – A month later – I called in followup and my case had been “closed” – What” I am simply awaiting a receipt that they could no longer pull online – The next time I called March – again new order for the receipt – knowing full well the XBOX eas still under warranty – but I was following the protocols they set up for online purchases – To make a longer story short – BEST BUY now says the warranty has now expired and you are left to do what you want with the defective $600 XBOX console – I am levied and ready to file a small claims against this company – I did file a complaint with the BBB in Minnesota – no luck reaching Brad Anderson or Chris Sipprell – If anyone out has contact information – please forward another BURNED BY BEST BUY!! THE BBBB
Hey all. Not only has the Geek Squad effed up my computer and I had to fix it myself, and they have sold me a monitor that has been defective as well, but currently, I have another problem with them, and this will be the “last straw”, I refuse to enter that store again. Anyway, last night, my friend went into best buy to look around. For weeks I have been telling him I’d like to purchase a nintendo wii. Anyway, according to my friend of 20 years, they had one wii left on the shelf, as of 8:30 pm last night. Well, I called Best Buy to confirm this and they outright lied to me telling me they have not sold any wiis since christmas. Best Buy has ruined my wanting to purchase a wii, I think I’ll just buy a PS3 now….
I actually used to work for this shit hole of a company and yes they actively figure out little loopholes to prevent a no-lemmon exchange. I tried my hardest to get people no lemmon exchanges and was written up by a manger. F*** this company. DO NOT SHOP THERE.
I was also fired because I was told a very racist remark and called the person out on it. Unfortunately you shouldnt call out someone who has a higher topography than you.
I used to work for Best Buy as well, and after working for other companies such as Block Buster, and Wal Mart, I found them to be the best corp. to work for. I enjoyed my experience there and we didn’t try and screw anyone out of anything. Maybe its just who happens to be the manager of the store? Either way, I do think its funny that people just assume Best Buy sells crappy merchandise as if they themselves makes this stuff in a shop in the back somewhere. I also thought it funny about the one comment several posts up about the gentlemen claiming how bad bestbuy was terrible for how they treated his father, and then they turn around and sell a bad laptop on ebay? what the heck is wrong with that situation?
well, this blog has been dead for long, has to fill some new air, been going through same situation with BB, and am going to BB store again today to take my laptop, and if they told me to send it for repair, i am definitly going to talk to my attorney on the coming monday.