Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[brycec1701]

Can somebody please help me out?

I just found out that I have been paying for this service since 2007.  I pay off my credit card every month.  I did not want this service and just discovered that I have been charged for it.  I put all of my bills on this credit card and it looks as if I have been paying approximately $40 a month.  This is very distressing!

I check my statements online right before they close to check for charges and such.  I haven't caught this charge because it posts on the closing day of the month. 

If someone could please contact me about a way to get a refund on this, it would greatly appreciate it.

[JustusRyan]

You would need to contack HSBC, as they are the bank that administer's the Best Buy credit card. The program you are refering to is called Account Shield and it has a 60 day refund period during your initial enrollment. If you've been paying since 2007 it may be too late to get a refund on Account Shield charges, however I would advise a call to HSBC to confirm if they can or can't do something for you. The number is 1800-365-0292, hope this helps.

[brycec1701]

What is on my credit card statement is shown as Debt Cancellation.  Is it the same thing as Account Shield?

Also, I noticed that some of the previous posters recieved a confirmation about whether or not they actually signed up for the service.  I think this has something to do with looking up the paperwork I filled out when I signed up for the card.  Is there any way you can check that for me?

[JustusRyan]

The debt cancellation is in reference to the Account Shield. Also, applications are not retained by Best Buy so contacting HSBC is your best bet.

[brycec1701]

Thanks for the information.  I was able to contact the Debt Cancellation Services.  The people there are very hard to understand, I think they cancelled it, but am going to call back tomorrow to verify it.  I have been a very loyal customer and my credit card transactions with Best Buy along with my paying off my balance every month proove that.  However, I have noticed that in other forum threads that people complaining about this same issue were able to talk to someone.  I am very frustrated with this as I know I did not sign up for this.  I would very much like to talk with a manager or someone about it.

If you Google search on the Internet, you will find many people complaining about the same problem.

[JustusRyan]

I'm glad that the situation seems to be taken care of for you. Talking to a manager at Best Buy however is not going to do much good because Best Buy has no control whatsoever over HSBC and their billing practices. Good luck to you in the future!

[spoco57]

Our experience in getting Account Shield/Debt Cancellation removed from our account was frustrating but in the end, successful. We dealt with HSBC's "offshore" staff and were assured multiple times that it was cancelled when it wasn't. In the end, people here on the tech staff were able to assist us.

We received a copy of our application. There was a line, which, if read carefully, signed the applicant up for Account Shield. It was not a check box, as has been alleged. My wife was simply told by the sales associate to "sign here, here and here" when she applied for the card. It was in the fine print above one of the signatures, and I had to admit that it slipped past her radar. The BB sales associate gave no indication that she was signing up for anything other than the card itself and of course, there were 3 pages of fine print. Either  the salesperson did not know, or she was not telling. Either way constituted a breach of trust between Best Buy's sales and ourselves. I will not purchase from them again and have warned many friends of this deceptive gimmick. 

We did receive an invitation to a class-action suit based on the allegation (apparently there is some evidence?) that Best Buy and HSBC conspired in what appears to be a scam. I did not think we needed to join the suit inasmuch as we were able to withdraw from it before losing money. 

[JoshSB]

Spoco, I am sorry for your troubles and I would heavily recommend avoiding that store if that did indeed happen (not saying it didn't).

I know at our store our Sales Ops are VERY heavily trained in offering the Account Shield but making sure that a client knows they do not have to get it under any circumstances.

Again I am sorry for your troubles and hope you have a better day.

~ Josh

[spoco57]

Thanks Josh. It was our fault for being in a rush to complete the process. However, there are enough complaints on this website about this very issue from many different stores, that I have to believe that your store is the exception, not the rule. As for the class action suit, it alleged that there was collusion between BB and HSBC, and that there was a sort of 'kickback' arrangement in place that made it beneficial for BB to sign people up for account shield. I'm glad that your store is proactive in alerting potential applicants to the fact that they are opting into or out of this feature, but I have to believe that it is certainly in the minority. Until BB the corporation takes this seriously enough to change the basic elements of this deal, these complaints will continue to crop up. Eventually, as we see the effectiveness of the internet in publicizing this stuff is really beginning to snowball, BB will take a pretty good hit in it's reputation. As a major online auction site that begins with E ends in BAY has helped us to realize,  100% positive feedback is like gold to a seller.  80% feedback or lower is poison. BB is making it's bed with HSBC and opting against the consumers who purchase its products and keep it from becoming Circ. Cty.  As long as that is where BB's priorities lay, they will be losing sales, eventually exponentially. 

[Nokia]

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spoco57 wrote:

that there was a sort of 'kickback' arrangement in place that made it beneficial for BB to sign people up for account shield.

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Of course there is. Why do you see a problem with that? BB signs someone up for a CC, they get money from HSBC. They add additional services, they get extra money. It's the same with any store that has a CC.