Tech and Talk > Gaming > PC gaming Tech > Right or wrong with Best Buy

Right or wrong with Best Buy

You were right IMO.

However when it comes to Busted Buy, were there ever any "good ol' days"?

When the first one opened up in my neighborhood I was impressed with all the stuff they had however, I was not impressed with the business itself.
--
"I like to refer to myself as an Adult Film Efficienato." - Stuart Bondek

reply to Mustang
I think you were justified in standing your ground--you did, after all, pay for a premium service (i.e. well above and beyond the manufacturer's warranty).

In the future, though, don't bother: those protection plans are sold as pure profit for the retailer. They don't actually anticipate that you'll ever use it. That's why they make it difficult for you when claiming issues that wouldn't normally be covered under the manufacturer's warranty (like a dead pixel). I worked at Best Buy one summer while I was a college student and we were encouraged in training to offer up the protection plan whenever possible--even to the point of engaging in "hard sell" tactics for big ticket items (which naturally carried more expensive plans). You won't usually encounter that, but there is the occasional employee who takes the company's welfare seriously enough (usually a manager or supervisor earning a respectable wage) to do it. On the whole, Best Buy is a fairly draconian company to deal with. Customer service is not a high priority; they rely upon slick branding/marketing and a cut-throat cost model, which has indeed worked well for them.

I actually thought long and hard about this event today on the drive home. What if the monitor I just bought had a dead pixel(s) out of the box? Its a new product that is not performing as advertised and sold.

Even if I didnt get the protection plan, would I be covered for a replacement?

I've always known the plans were a money earned for companies such as Best Buy, buy felt better knowing it would help with minimal help in case of a problem. I guess today proved thats not the case.

The interesting part to this is I'm in their Silver Rewards membership because a few big ticket items were bought last year. Doesn't seem to matter....

You need to read the terms\policy for a dead pixel before buying the plan. That is what would be used to determine what would happen.

Most manufacturers have a 8 dead pixel policy - no replacement till 8 pixels are dead - even if right out of the box.
--
Brian

"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain

reply to Mustang

reply to Mustang

reply to Mustang
You took it up the butt, really gave up the warranty?

I bought a stereo from BB, it was sent in for repair 3 times (and TBH I know I was killing it) Skip a few repairs....

After saying (this was my last return so 3ed) they would not warranty the damage as it was not from normal wear and tear (tbh it was not lol), they messed up the shipping and the one in the store did not match my serial number, so, of course I demanded mine back, next day "we can't find it" I go down to the store, I get $400 credit... go pick out the most costly system they had (was 399.99) brand new system WITH the remainder of the 4 year warranty still left on it. and this all after I been to the store 2 times before (2 other occasions but I'm sure it is in a computer), getting crap fixed on the same stereo.

Ya you got hosed. They made out, that thing is gona go back on the shelf, maybe $20 off... and they made out with your warranty money.

And as said, most places is 8 dead pixels... they consider it part of the manufacturing process that the screen may not be perfect.

reply to Mustang
I don't think my eyes are good enough to notice 1 pixel. Also, I never by anything LG.

reply to Mustang
ok listen up. i worked for circuit city doing repair work for 1.5 years. i dealt with this stuff every day. CC's warranty plan (through Assurant) was very similar to Best Buy's.

Here's the entire warranty system as i remember it.

standard store return policies:
15 day return on PCs/electronics/TVs and 30 for everything else (monitors may have been 30). during this period, you can exchange your purchase for anything without a reason. If you choose to return, all 15-day return policy items (PCs, cameras, etc) had a 15% restocking fee. all 30-day return items had free return and no reason required (even tho they'll ask you for a reason, it's only for tracking returns, you can say simply "i decided i didnt want it and we would take the return without blinking an eye).

standard product warranty:
usually 1 year on electronics. after the store return period is over, this is your next step. Contact the MFGer for repair/replacement of defective items. If there is physical damage or dmg beyond the MFG's warranty, go to the advanced warranty.

these sold advanced warranties, in my experience, are a little more lenient in what they will repair/replace, but if you buy a laptop with the standard extended warranty and you drop it, they will not repair or replace it since it's not covered under the more expensive accidental damage plan.

for computers and many other items, these plans cover repair of the product and then replacement if it's beyond repair. also, they often have a lemon policy, which would be 3 of the exact same issue on the same original product. For instance, if you buy a laptop and the CPU fan dies and the extended warranty program repairs it, then that same fan dies again, and they repair again, if it dies a 3rd time they probably have a policy to replace the whole laptop.

Note that most of these plans are primarily repair plans, where they try to fix the issue. If they can not fix it, they will replace it with a refurbished unit of identical or similar specs. Rarely they will issue gift cards to the owner for the original purchase price for store where it was purchased. This was very rare in my experience but did happen in special circumstances or a lot of complaining.

Many of the extended warranty plans for small electronics or low-dollar items are straight replacement plans right in the store. Walk in with the product, prove it's broken and covered under the purchased warranty, and walk out with a replacement.

LCDs are a very special breed. under the store return policy, dead pixels are irrelevant since you dont really need a reason to return/exchange. MFG's warranties almost always have very strict dead or stuck pixel policies. These include minimum #'s of dead pixels (ive seen some warranties with 8 minimum required for replacement), and some have a minimum dead pixel PLUS maximum grouping. This means it would have to have at least, say, 4 dead pixels within the space of 5 square inches.

Extended warranty plans are usually much better with dead pixels, and many plans are straight replacement plans where they dont bother trying to fix the screen first. However, they too may require a certain minimum # of dead pixels to quality for repair/replacement.

Finally, ALL EXTENDED WARRANTIES OF ALL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS (that i've seen) END WITH THE REPLACEMENT OF THE ORIGINAL UNIT. If the unit had been repaired under the warranty, the warranty plan would continue as normal (usually with a 14, 30, or 90 day warranty period on the repair if the warranty would have naturally expired). But, like i said, if the unit is replaced, even if it was replaced with a refurbished product, the entire warranty is considered fulfilled and is ended. They will often ask if you want to purchase a warranty on the new item, and it would work exactly the same way.

I dont think either party was wrong. It's apparent that the manager felt you didnt qualify for the replacement, but a repair instead. If he was correct, you made out very well.

If he was wrong and you should have gotten an exchange (exchange always only covers original purchase price, you pay for the difference) then you still didnt lose anything. the manager caved in and may have even taken a hit on the replacement monitor depending on the proper procedure for the extended warranty. (if you truly didnt qualify for the replacement then his store took a straight up hit on your new LCD (minus the difference you paid) and will have to hope they can get your old LCD repaired or sell it used for very cheap.

you didnt lose in any way. at all. This was your best case scenario.
--
»valid.canardpc.com/cache/screens···7860.png

reply to Somnambul33t

reply to Mustang
You got screwed by Best Buy. Welcome to the club. I got about $200 in gift cards for Best Buy from various people for Christmas several years back and pocketed them until I had a use. When I finally went to Best Buy, the barcode had faded enough (still visible, but barely) that their barcode scanner couldn't read it. I was out $200. They wouldn't do anything about it. The numbers below the barcode were still readable, but they said there was nothing they could do.

Two lessons learned: Never buy anyone gift cards and never do business with Best Buy.
--
»will.mx

That you should have elevated to store manager. If the numbers were visible, they could have manually typed it in, like they do with credit cards that have the same problem.

reply to Mustang
Its very possible that BestBuy employees are just to damn lazy to type the numbers manually.
--
It is true that liberty is precious, but is it so precious it must be rationed?

reply to matt5

This has been interesting and I appreciate everyone's feedback on the subject.

I did get an email from someone in Best Buy Rewards program who claimed this was well below the level of customer service expected from their stores. On my behalf they filed a complaint with the District Manager.

Well that was several weeks ago and I haven't recieved a call or anything. But it has me thinking and while they have won a battle they certainly lost the war. I am in the market for another monitor in the next month or so and possibly laptop by the end of year. Where as I would walk into Best Buy by default, its no longer necessarily so.

Following the advice of Cyclon Red I'll look for company with consumer friendly rules such as a 1 dead pixel policy. And yes I agree that there should be no question that part of a new product doesn't work but it can't be returned.

Sad day for consumers all in all.