Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[Sassums]

So on March 14th, I took a printer into Best Buy for my mother, as it had been acting up for a while.  I brought in the printer (which had the duplicater), the powercable, and the printer had newer ink installed.  She had the service plan on the printer, and they informed me they would have to send it out for service, taking up to 2 weeks - which we agreed to.  She later picked up the printer when it returned to Geeksquad, they informed her they had replaced the printer itself with a new one.  The agents gave her the printer in a plastic bag, the power cable, and the duplicater, which on the new one, was not attached.

She took the printer home, and let it sit until I returned home once again, maybe 4-6 weeks later (not sure when she picked the printer up from the store)

I unwrapped the printer, took all the tape off, plugged it in, attached the duplicator, and happened to look at the directions that fallen out.

Turns out, the printer Geeksquad had sent us, came with "Dummy" ink cartridges installed, the directions explained they were fake, and I needed the ink from my old printer, which of course I did not have.

So I went to the store, and explained what had happened, the agents claimed they had never seen, or heard of something like this.  So I told them I would drive home, grab the ink, and bring it back to show them I was not joking.  The printer used the 02 series ink, and on every ink cartridge it says "O2" on it, on the ones installed in the printer, it said STL or something.

So I brought them in, and both agents seemed to be just blown away at such a thing.  So I basically asked "so where is my ink, if you don't have it, what are you going to do"

The agents then went to the general manager, who then informed them to tell me that I was basically out of luck.  He explained to the geeksquad guys that the printer had been replaced, and that it would be expected that I would need to buy new ink for it.

Who else finds this a bit odd?  Being a former employee, instead of losing it at such a stupid statement, I calmly told him the following:

"I bought the printer with a service plan WITH ink installed"

"Printer breaks, I bring it into best buy with ink INSTALLED"

"You replace printer, and give me a printer with no ink"

"Tell me how that makes sense"

So the agent went and got a different manager, who stated that if the ink was purchased recently, they would give me new ink.  If it was older ink, they would still take care of me.  Thnakfully, the particular MOD was my boss for the longest time, and had I not been a former employee, im not sure what would have happened.

But as a newly promoted customer, I was very upset that the GM of the store, basically told me I was out of luck because Best Buy failed to remove my ink and install it in the new printer, or failed to inform me I would be getting a replacement printer with no ink.

Also, nowhere in the service plan, does it state that when they replace your printer, they will shaft you on the ink.  

Come on, I mean really.

[Starflyer59]

I had to exchange a HP printer once, but I delt directly with HP. They sent me a new printer and it came with new ink.

We have to replace printers alot at Work and Dell sends us a replacement printer without ink. We just use the toner cartridge from the bad printer.

[indisguise]

well the thing is that you should have taken the ink out if it didnt come with the printer, the protection plans cover what came in the box when you first bought it. And they try to repair the printer, but if they cant or its cheaper to replace it then they do so.

[Aaron-BBY Community Connector]

Hey Sassums,

While indisguise is correct that neither our service plans nor most manufacturer warranties include the replacement of consumable accessories (ink, batteries, memory cards, etc.) whenever a product is exchanged, I’m rather surprised that your local store would not have pointed out this exclusion prior to service. Still, I can imagine how disappointed you must have felt if this did not occur - especially if you had expected the original ink cartridges to be returned to you.

I’d like to help you find a resolution to this issue, so please keep an eye on your private messages for further communication.

[Sassums]

Thanks Aaron I did respond back.

And to everyone else - the printer did come with ink, so I should have gotten a new one with ink.

Or they should have informed me they were going to replace the printer, and the new one would not come with ink.