Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[musicmansell]

No worries Hydrogen, and I didn't mean to come off rude, if you took it that way, I apologize.  Just seemed like you were really pushing for BBs side of things and trying to justify why they have such policies, when in fact you are right, you were just stating the facts of how it is, and sadly the truth of the matter is, Best Buy has become one of those companies that are so big they can't handle all the bad press and complaints and are forced to sell in quantity rather than quality.  Thanks for your insight.

[musicmansell]

Hey JackTen, thank you for taking the time to respond.  Just a couple things.  You mention it is sad I "can't trust the quality of the products (you) sell" then go on to say you sell the same products as most of your competitors.  True, but I was complaining about the quality of said products, not what brand name they were.  I bought a $200 flat screen cheap model from Target to go in the bedroom and so far it has lasted longer and worked better than the almost $1000 screen I got from BB.  Again, problem is in the quality of the products BB sells.  It's like you got the B-grade shipment.

You also mention "it took quite a while for these lines to show up"  the lines showed up within 2 weeks of me using the TV, and honestly they were so hard to notice that I wouldn't be surprised that I just never saw them before then.  This may just be me assuming things, so sticking to the facts I can verify that it was only a short 2 weeks before lines started to appear in what was suppose to be a perfectly working, just like new TV.  That doesn't seem like "quite a while" to me.

As far as your points regarding the protection plan, I can imagine some of the rude people you must have to deal with, and I am sorry you are cut off by them while trying to explain it.  Before you go advocating the good points of your Black Tie Protection, you should realize it has been widely publicized all over this forum, by BBs own sales staff, and yelp, that Best Buys warranty protection is nothing more than a way for BB to make more money.  Seriously, scroll through these forums and read for yourself...nobody seems to feel this warranty is a good idea.  If quality products were sold in the first place this wouldn't even be an issue.

Last, I guarantee you, Best Buys so called heavy testing must be a joke, because the salesman helping me honestly didn't understand the difference between LED and LCD quality.  I bet, if I walked in to a store right now and asked your sales staff to explain to me wattage, ohms, and ideal home theatre set up, they would have no clue about matching the wattage rating and Ohms of speakers to the proper receiver.  Don't believe me, then I challenge you guys to walk in to a store with me and quiz your staff on the spot, and we can see.  I will try your ideas of going to another location, and again I appreciate the response.  I just am really sad at the lack of knowledge, the over zealous press for the open box item being in perfect working order, and the basic lack of accountability on BBs part.  Like I said before, if BB is going to open these items up and slap a guarantee on them, at that point, BB should be held even more liable than the manufacturer considering they are the ones guaranteeing the quality.

Thanks again guys, and hopefully you all don't think I am just arguing to be arguing, I legitimately see a problem here and I am hoping this brings some awareness to it.

[Justin-BBY Community Connector]

Hi musicmansell, 

We always welcome valued insight from you, our customer. Whether the insight is good or bad, we appreciate you taking the time to enlighten us and as I've said before, your sentiments have been passed onward so they can be internally addressed. 

Sincerely, 

[musicmansell]

Here is some enlightenment:

BEST BUY'S CUSTOMER SERVICE IS TERRIBLE!

Okay, so I just got a call from Geek Squad (less than 24 hours before they are suppose to come out to diagnose and fix the TV) and they tell me the part is not in and they have cancelled the appointment.  So I guess I am SOL on the afternoon of work I managed to get off to be here for their repair guys.  If I want to reschedule I can call and sit through an automated system before speaking to an agent.  I do all this only to be told the soonest they can get out is next week on Tuesday.  I ask, "when is the part suppose to come in?" and she responds with Tuesday.  So you guys are scheduling the appointment for the same day the part is supposedly going to arrive?  You have just set your company up for failure at this point.  If the part does not come in, then you are going to have to call me the day of the appointment to cancel.  This will cost me another afternoon of work that I have to take off because Geek Squad can't have service hours that make sense.  

Seriously, you all expect people to take work off and wait around a 4 hour window for you to come fix your broken POS you sold me in the first place?  This problem is costing me more time and money now than it is worth.  

At this point, I am not even sad or disheartened over the situation, but instead, I am just down right furious with Best Buy and their customer service.  Justin sent me a private message saying Corporate would be calling me sometime before tomorrow evening.  They better have their ear plugs in for all the loud complaining I am about to do as well as a good set of knee pads if they plan on getting my business back, because they will need to beg.  Planning on spreading the word via Yelp and any other review forums that I can.  Probably won't make much difference, but hey, if I can even stop a couple people from purchasing poor quality products from Best Buy and having to go through the torture I have over this, then it will be worth it.

BEST BUY'S CUSTOMER SERVICE IS TERRIBLE!  

(I will post this at the top and bottom of all my further posts to be sure people get the point, even if they don't want to read the whole post they at least see in big bold letters what they should be worried about.)

[musicmansell]

So I searched this forum for other people having a bad experience with Best Buy and found plenty!  I chose to respond to each of them as well as providing a link to my posts as well, and guess what, Best Buy Deletes them and accuses me of flaming!  My response:

If you bothered to read through my posts you would see that each and every one was personally addressed to the individual and their problems they are experiencing.  Flaming is cutting and pasting the exact same post over and over.  If you all can not take the heat, provide better service.  Flaming is not what I was doing, While a portion of my post was the same, I made sure to read each individuals case and respond accordingly as well.  I was reading through the forum and replying to several other customers experiencing the same level of dis satisfaction with Best Buy and it's service and providing them a link to my experiences.  Removing my posts only shows that you all don't want people talking to each other and seeing that in fact Best Buy is the problem in all of this.

[CrimsonRain]

---

musicmansell wrote:

So I searched this forum for other people having a bad experience with Best Buy and found plenty!  I chose to respond to each of them as well as providing a link to my posts as well, and guess what, Best Buy Deletes them and accuses me of flaming!  My response:

If you bothered to read through my posts you would see that each and every one was personally addressed to the individual and their problems they are experiencing.  Flaming is cutting and pasting the exact same post over and over.  If you all can not take the heat, provide better service.  Flaming is not what I was doing, While a portion of my post was the same, I made sure to read each individuals case and respond accordingly as well.  I was reading through the forum and replying to several other customers experiencing the same level of dis satisfaction with Best Buy and it's service and providing them a link to my experiences.  Removing my posts only shows that you all don't want people talking to each other and seeing that in fact Best Buy is the problem in all of this.

---

You even copied and pasted this... Awesome.

[musicmansell]

It is called efficiency...you are not a part of the solution obviously so please don't bother commenthing in my thread any further unless you have something beneficial or useful in solving mine and others problems with Best Buy.  I posted this in my thread as a direct response to the moderator, as well as a private email, and started a new thread considering it seems to take these types of drastic measures to get any response out of BB worth anything.  If you bother to read any of my previous posts you will find that I am actually pretty reasonable in my complaints.  When BB starts pulling the same old stuff of cancelling appointments in less than 24 hours and costing me money because I have taken work off that day, you better believe I am going to say something about it, and make sure it is heard.  I am sorry if you don't like to hear negative comments regarding Best Buy, but if you step back for even a second and look at the volume of complaints on this forum and the common thread between them, it is obvious that my statement in bold is not false.  Best Buys Customer Service is TERRIBLE.  Deal with it, the rest of us have to.

[musicmansell]

Update:

So it looks like I was right in my methods, because Best Buy suddenly started responding to me.  I guess the squeaky wheel really is the one that gets the grease...to bad mine was more of a sludge they gave me.

So the store manager Chiroc calls me up (or rather, has his assistant call me up, I guess he is too busy for a lowly complaint like mine) and offers me the Black Tie warranty after the fact.  I ask, so does this mean once I purchase this, I can simply bring the TV back and get a new one, because that is how the sales rep described it to me before telling me not to bother buying it.  The answer, nope.  Instead I am just covered on it breaking for an additional 3 years, and if the tv has 3 or more problems, THEN I can exchange it.  So basically, you buy the warranty and pray that your TV has 2 more issues over the next few years.  What a waste.  So as to seem like I am not arguing and trying to work with BB and its policies I went ahead and purchased it and asked for a receipt and the details of the Warranty to be emailed to me.  5 days later, and a phone call every single day to the Burbank Best Buy, and I still have only spoken with Chiroc once for less than 5 minutes regarding this, and I still don't have a receipt or explanation.  Does Chiroc ever actually come in to work?

Second, Geek Squad came out to finally fix the TV.  They lay it down on the ground open it up and literally replace the entire inside of the TV.  EVERYTHING!  The only parts not swapped were the plastic frame and the board with the connectors for the TV.  Guess what, TV still has the same problems.  The repair guy says, he will have to order that last part and because they have already serviced it once, they must expedite the shipping so it should be in by Friday and they can be out on Saturday.  I ask for a phone call to set up the appointment or at least confirm with me that it will happen.  He tells me he will call me personally that evening.  The evening comes and goes, no call.  I call Best BUy in Burbank to ask what is going on, why, even after I have escalated this to a corporate level, am I being treated so poorly?  Why can no one do what they say they will?  

One other thing to note.  Geek squad came out and replaced the ENTIRE insides of the TV with the exception of the cheap plastic frame and connector board, and now they are about to replace the last board with the connectors.  In essence they have replaced the whole television.  So my question is, why would they not simply swap it out in the first place, instead of wasting 2 and a half weeks of my time, spending extra cost on expedited shipping, pay geek squad to try and repair it, etc.  This all adds up to pointless costs, bad customer service, and makes your company look down right incompetent.  So I am back again to saying...

BEST BUYS CUSTOMER SERVICE IS TERRIBLE...PERIOD.

[Justin-BBY Community Connector]

Hi musicmansell, 

Thanks for your input and I'm continuing to work on your situation. I'll keep you posted with updates as soon as possible. 

Sincerely, 

[musicmansell]

Justin,

Your Burbank store is obviously terrible in dealing with customers in a timely manner.  Please get this taken care of by the end of next week.  At that point you guys will have had 4 weeks to resolve a simple issue of either swapping out my TV, or fixing it.  At this point I have even given you guys more money and purchased this so called "Black Tie" protection, so there is no reason not to get this done immediately.  Any thing beyond that time is out right laziness and or apathy on your company's part.  Absolutely ridiculous it is taking this long, and the service has been so disrespectful.  After this, I can honestly say, I will never tell my friends to shop at Best Buy.  In fact I have actually already stopped two of my friends from purchasing their living room  systems from Best Buy, based solely on the way myself and the others on this forum have been treated.  That's 2 TVs, an xbox, PS3, and 2 stereo surround systems, plus all the cabling you guys are missing out on selling, because your store in Burbank can't hire knowledgeable people who follow through with what they say.  One of my friends ended up dropping over $3500 at Fry's after looking at your forums and seeing how awful BB is.  Please get this done and try and save what little bit of reputation BB has left.

B