Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[zslavis]

I bought a Black Tie protection plan about a year and a half ago on a brand new Droid cell phone that I bought at Best Buy. The Black Tie protection plan costed $9.99 /month which would automatically be deducted from my account, and was supposed to be a warranty in case my phone broke.

About a month ago, my cell phone stopped booting up and would show me an error message every time I turned it on. I brought it into my local Best Buy, and I talked to the person in the cell phone sales department, They couldn't find my "information" in the computer for quite some time, it took them 30 minutes to finally find my receipt in the computer, which showed that my warranty didn't expire until October of 2012. They printed out the receipt and broughtme over to the Geek Squad desk.

The Geek Squad desk went ahead and looked up my warranty information, and said they couldn't find it, because I wasn't in the system. They told me that I probably didn't pay one of the montly bills, and that I had to call the Geek Squad billing hotline during normal business hours (This was at about 6:15pm. I was actually at the store since 5:30, but it took them so long to locate my warranty info). I told them that I payed EVERY bill, because they AUTOMATICALLY CHARGE me every month. I even brought up my mobile banking application to show the most recent charge which was just a couple days before. They said they couldn't help me.

Because I needed a phone right away, and I was due for an upgrade on another one of the lines on my family account, I just went straight to the Verizon store and bought a new phone. I went back to BestBuy the next day during "normal working hours" and the lady at the cell phone sales desk helped me by calling the GeekSquad billing department number. I wanted a complete refund of my phone, since I should have had a WORKING phone if the warranty worked properly. They said they could only refund my Black Tie warranty payments, which came out to 16 months, or just about $160.00.

Well, it took them 30 minutes to go through and find all 16 payments, and they said I would get a refund. I waited four weeks, and I still HAVE NOT BEEN REFUNDED. 

It seems so convenient that BestBuy can easily CHARGE me every month, but then when I come in with a broken phone, to NOT HELP AND WASTE HOURS OF MY TIME. NOT ONLY THAT, I AM STILL WAITING FOR MY REFUND. BestBuy took complete advantage of me. Not only did I not get my refund, I spent MORE MONEY on a new phone since BestBuy couldn't honor the agreement they made with me. I am telling all my friends to never shop at BestBuy again.

[Ryan-BBY Senior Social Media Specialist]

Hello zslavis -

Jacob from our Social Media team, will be reaching out to you regarding your concern. Thank you for your continued patience!

[Jacob-BBY Community Web Planner]

zslavis,

Needless to say, this should absolutely never happen. By design, if you're being charged monthly for the plan, it should definitely exist. I'm very frustrated to hear how this situation was handled in store and that you're still waiting for the refund.

I was able to locate your BTP plan records within a few seconds. So, I'm not sure what the issue was at the store. If they had issues locating the plan in store, they should have called their support phone number to get help finding it. I'm so sorry they did not help you as much as they should have.

I'll be looking into your refund status and plan cancellation. I'll get back to you as soon as I hear more. Thank you for your patience!

[zslavis]

Any update on the refund?

[Jacob-BBY Community Web Planner]

I just submitted a new request for the refunds. I'll let you know where we're at next week.

I'm so sorry this is taking so long. We've ran in to multiple issues, unfortunately.

[Jacob-BBY Community Web Planner]

By the way, the refunds were completed on the 19th. Let me know if there is anything else I can help with!

Thanks,