Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[WowWashington]

Hehe, then there will be no repair - the Local Best Buy was ok with selling the unit at $65 but not any lower, suggesting a low junkout price!

[Agent_Will]

Average Cost is considered confidential information, so I am unable to disclose it for this product.  Rest assured, however, it is substantially higher than the price you paid.

[pacheco]

Hey WorldOfWarcraft Washington, I can see what is going on here. You went into a store, purchased a Home Theeter system that was $130 for $25, if I read that correctly. You say you paid $65 but then had the price reduced $40 for the cost of a new remote. So. my guess is that the service center saw that you needed to have your unit exchange exchanged because the cost of the repair would exceed a new one/cost. However, they also saw that your unit was purchased on the 4th yet sent to be repaired on the 5th. Then they inquired at the store level and determined that you had purchased the unit a day before it was sent to service.

Maybe the store/service decided not to repair your unit and refund you everything you paid because it would cost more to have it exchanged rather than send it to the manufacturer for credit. I think the reason you are so upset about this is because you did not get an awesome DVD/Home Theater system for $25, and are angry because you got called out. I bet you are the type to complain to every single person that you come across that bestbuy is the worst place ever because they would not let you defraud them. This type of stuff shows who really has morals.

Rock out Brobe Bryant! (#24, one better than Michael!)

[WowWashington]

Naw "WOW" was a named used two decades before 'World of Warcraft" and years before Compuserve.

No, Mr know it all. I'm angry as the unit was held for 30 days on the premise it was to be repaired, verbally told it would be repaired, sold a warrantee that suggested it woudl be repaired and then returned without any comment by the Geek Squad Management. Upset that they did not explain that it could be returned for credit or I could handle the manufacture return immediately instead.

What am I going to do with a broken DVD player? sit on it, ooho this $25 DVD player feels so smooth, turn off the light and enjoy? No, I'm going to call the store, they told me to bring it in and they would take care of it - where am I doing wrong there when I bought it under their guidence, returned it to the store under their guidence and waited for 30 days under their silence?

I paid $25 for the unit, $40 for the remote that originally sold with the unit yet was incorrect, $40 for the Geek Squad Black Tie service and $20 for shipping the unit off to Samsung. Thank you for your amazing math skills that places my cost as $25 when it's actually $125 + tax + multiple trips to the store for no reason, which takes the price to 1/3rd of the normal price - but remember, THEY SOLD IT ON SALE - key word "sold"

Even better that the experience questions the $300+ spent for the same coverage for a brand new full priced laptop - if a Manufacture repair (at no cost to Best Buy) gets denied, then what would a repair for a current model full priced expensive laptop be?

It'd be great if you posted with information that helps the forum instead of your own little rant and ideas.

If the question comes back to the price of the unit, then in fact it should never have been sold, or should have been sold with an As-Is sticker, and sold without an invalid remote that did not work with the unit - gee, wouldn't that have saved alot of typing and saved your time as well!

Keep rocking out!

[pacheco]

To me, it seems the bottom line is you paid $25 for a player (after all was said and done) that originally cost $130. BestBuy did whats best for them, return you all your money rather than spend an extra $130 to replace the unit. Since this repair was being done at a BestBuy service center, BBY would be the one taking the hit on the bottom line.

I don't know how you got $125, if the receipt says $25 on the item line for the player, then you paid $25 for it. It doesn't matter what you worked out with the employees at the store. In the service plan agreement (extended warranty) it says something akin to that you'll get a comparable model or your original purchase price refunded. In your case I believe it was $25 plus whatever the service plan cost ($40-50?) I do not know why you just didn't take the refund of everything you paid for the player, remote (if you bought it from BestBuy), and service plan.

Was it or was it not a "Too good to be true" deal? Whoever set up that display should be the one to take the blame for this. Also, wouldn't an open-box item be considered as-is? Its open, comes with no warranty besides what BestBuy decides to give you and what the manufacturer will honor.

Peace in the Middle East, brohiem.

NOTHING I SAY IS THE OPINION OF BESTBUY OR GEEKSQUAD.

[WowWashington]

Thank you, much better tone in this one than the first one.

I had already assumed you were a Best Buy representative by your defense of the business.

I clearly labeled how I got to the $125 - and based on the conversation with the sales floor manager in the TV/DVD area - had ordered the remote from Samsung $29 +$10 - remember the DVD player is unique and a Universal remote does not control all the features. I did play around after ordering it online and then discovered the DVD was faulty. I as the consumer am not going to eat $40 by returning the DVD player for my money back and being out the cost of the remote. I don't care if one argues I got a great price - they sold it, the sales man assured me that I would get full coverage.

There was an offer by the sales team to order the remote for me - but they would have had to pay the same amount so they said it was easiest to discount the device further and I could order it directly from Samsung.  Would I still be in the wrong if they paid out $40 to Samsung to get me the remote that was intended to be sold with the unit? (yes, someone screwed up and put the wrong remote with the device, and it sold and walked out the door when it should not have) They would have sold it for the same price $65 - $40 for replacing the remote - only the paperwork would look a little diffrent.

The interesting thing on the repair - they did ship it to Kent Washington - the Best Buy repair depot for the area and the part ordered as Jacob stated above - instead of shipping it to the manufacture! They told me it would go to Samsung when I called and then when I dropped it off. So there should not have been a cost involved - After picking up my player from Best Buy I called Samsung and they recognized a valid warrantee for this system and honored it. But this repair was delayed by 30+ days by Geek Squad’s mistakes/errors and not mine.

It was a great deal, yes! - they were doing a "Managers sale!" 50% off the last marked clearance price, therefor the sale of this unit had Management's backing - yes I would have bought this device at the full $65 had it been marked as-is and I would have been ok with it, but being sold an extended coverage and being told "we'll fix it!" and then it being held for 30 days and returned unfixed is not something the consumer should have to put up with.

As for open box,  their sales staff at the Bellevue Store states that anything sold as clearance/open box is fully covered - the only caveat is that if you buy it at a low price and it fails to work, you can only get credit to the sales price and not a comparable product -which is clearly identified in their fine print. Open Box=fully covered for repair AFTER 30 days, and can sell with a Geek Squad black tie coverage.

The Manufacture has been paid for this product when Best Buy added it to their inventory - they got full price so they are covering the unit the same as any Samsung product sold in a store. They don't see the $25 or $125 - they see their product as having an issue and taking pride in their product repairing it.

[WowWashington]

So before you post anything suggesting that i should take a hit or it's my fault that they sold me this at a cheap price and shouldn't expect service for it - let me ask you the following:

1) Did you notice that i accepted the last comments from Jacob and considered the issue closed - after they agreed that the service contract is valid and on file and that I have reasonable expectations that it will be valid in the future. Corporate also sent me a $25 certificate to reimburse for my having to ship the unit to Samsung -this was not asked for and was done after this was posted. I also denied a second certificate while at the store.

2) With the acknowledgement that the sale is valid and I did nothing illegal in this purchase; your arguing that I did wrong or had invalid expectations of the sale is not going to help the image of Best Buy especially for Sales, and would cause the average person to avoid Best Buy open box/returned products - can you imagine that hit in sales?

3) Further arguing the point that I paid too little for the product creates questions on what is the cut off point for what is covered and not covered when anything is sold as "On Sale" at Best Buy stores

     3.1) Creates further questions on what is the % discount before a product should not be sold with a Geek Squad Black Tie Service Plan

     3.2) Where is the written posted notice that Open Box items are sold "as-is" or should be expected to be not covered by Best Buy or the Manufacture when sold off the Best Buy sales floor? There were no such signs when I purchased this device.

     3.3) Where is the Best Buy policy stating they can make promises to the customer for coverage and then deny the repair without even explaining the reason to the customer? 

Would you really want to make any further comments that suggest Best Buy may not honor the promises made both pre-sale and post-sale for products off their sales floor?

I agree whoever setup the sale is the starting point, but the sale and expectations of a working product were upheld long after the sale. It took management to select the product, set the price for the product and approve the transactions. 

Your last comment "comes with no warranty besides what BestBuy decides to give you" They sold me Black Tie Coverage - wouldn't that be enough for a consumer to have expectations that it's a working and covered product? The Black Tie Coverage for this DVD Player was a second transaction - the DVD player and Coverage went through two seperate transactions - not just a single person failing Best Buy policy.

Do you really think that a Judge would rule on this as "He paid too little for the product to expect that it functions and the $40 extended warrantee should be ignored, he should eat the cost of the remote control and be denied the coverage because he got it at too good of price" 

End result - Best Buy needs to be more transparent with their policies and have a level of trust created with the customer - to sell a product with a upsell to their extended coverage and then deny based on price is a shady action and this is not the only thread with people having issues with contracts and behavior like this on this forum.