Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[HalderZitzler]

I tried calling, but was put on hold for a very long time. I am writing this message instead.

I recently bought an iPhone 4S (10 days ago) and brought it in complaining of a dim screen and poor battery performance. Both complaints were acknowledge as a problem, but Best Buy refused to give me an exchange. I went to the Best Buy in West Covina, CA. The whole trip took 3 hours and wasted my afternoon. I had a couple of appointments that I had to cancel because of this.

The first issue, my screen was dim. This was confirmed against my girl friend's phone who had a brighter screen. Also, this problem was also confirmed with several employees at the store. I sat there and watched as half a dozen employees paraded by and compared their phones to ours. Is this proper operating procedure?

Next the battery problem. The following employee's helped me with my problem. Randy was testing out my phone for screen brightness. Manuel (the geek squad guy) was 'testing' a phone's battery in the back. While Randy and the best buy employees were testing my phone, Manuel was out back testing the battery on my replacement phone. After a few hours passed, Manual came up to me and explained the problem. He told me that there were minor variations in the phones and offered me tips on how to make my batter last longer. I told him that I had already tried everything he suggested. Some examples were turning off my bluetooth, wifi, and upgrading my software. I then mentioned that I did all that, and additionally i turned off my notifications, location services, and icloud. Futhermore, I had updated and restored my phone several times. He happened to show me his phone and I politely pointed out that his software version was out of date and that mine was the most recent. Manuel then told me that he did not find a problem with my phone's battery while he was testing it. I then mentioned that he did not test my phone because it was up here with Randy and the employees of Best Buy. He said, oh... okay let me test this one, and within 10 min came back and told me that I should turn my screen brightness down. I then think to myself, turn my brightness down?? I was here because the screen was not bright enough!!! He also, told me that I should fully charge my phone and told me that the from his tests, he saw that my phone has never been fully charged. To that I reply, I fully charge my phone every night to 100%. He then left without saying anything or acknowledging my comment.

I turn to Randy and another employee came up to me to tell me what was going to happen next. The person's name was Martin. Martin was very rude to me. He told me that they could not reproduce any problems and that they would not do an exchange. He said that their battery test came back ok and that he saw no problems with the phone. I acknowledged that the battery test came back ok. I then asked/told him, "I understand that the battery test is OK, but the fact that my phone has never registered that it was every fully charged is NOT a problem." Randy looked me in the eyes, and lied to me by saying, "The battery test is OK, and your phone never registering a full charge is NOT a problem. I cannot do an exchange" Furthermore he added, 'You should be grateful for what you have and not be so picky.' I found it to be very rude that he would assume that I was some sort of spoiled brat trying to pull a scam. I left soon after. Martin was no where around prior to his very rude intrusion and clearly did not understand the situation because he wasn't even around to deal with it. I was completely offended by his assumptions and accusations.

Best Buy, your customer service is horrible, and you did not help me when my phone was confirmed to be defective. The phone never registered a full charge. I think that is a defect.

[UncleDavid218]

So how were you profiled?

[HalderZitzler]

The guy thought I was some rich spoiled asian kid trying to pull a fast one...  ie "You should be grateful for what you have and stop being picky"

In reality, I am a poor starving graduate student who has been saving up money for the past 3 years and was finally able to afford an iPhone

They told me that I only had 14 days to do an exchange, and so on the 10th day, I tried to get an exchange so that I could have a proper working phone.

[Bagman]

Contact a Apple Store, They appreciate their customers!

[Apathy]

After reading through most of the nonsense that you wrote, like how you missed appointments, it was a three hour drive, the way they tested it and whatever else is irrelevant.  

The only legitimate point is that you were denied a return under the 14 day policy.  Keep in mind that they do have the right to refuse exchanges and with all likelihood the problems that you are describing isn't the phone being defective.  If you saved up for three years to buy an iPhone that's a huge commitment, people do that for cars, let alone a cellphone.  This means you probably are overly sensitive and see problems where they don't exist.  But anyway, I believe cellphones would go back to the vendor for credit so I don't know why they would waste all that time and effort testing and arguing with you, instead of just exchanging it.

Like another person said, bring it to an Apple store and they may exchange it.

Also, stop with the false profiling accusations.  You didn't describe ANYTHING that suggested your race had anything to do with it.  If an employee said or acted in a disrespectful manner towards your ethnicity, I'm SURE you would have included it in your original post and you didn't.  This lying and deceitful behavior would further indicate that you probably are exaggerating problems with your phone that aren't really there...

[HalderZitzler]

Sorry for the confusion... I just want to clarify a few things

1)  I did not say anything about RACIAL profiling.  Please don't make any assumptions or jump to irrelevant conclusions.  I can see how you were mislead tho, and I apologize.  The best buy employee came up to me and assumed that I was a spoild rich kid because I was purchasing a fancy iPhone.

2)  The iphone was recognized as being defective by the Geek Squad employee.  He told me that my battery was fine, but for some reason it has never registered as ever being fully charged.  He gave no further explaination and left.  

3)  I did not waste my time arguing.  The drive was only about 15 min.  I sat around patiently for 3 hours while my phone was being 'examined', have several employees compared their phones to my own, for the Geek Squad guy to test the battery on a phone that was never intended to be given to me (apparently), and to be greeted by a rude employee who came out from no where to insult me.

I agree with you.  I do not know why they did not exchange it.  I thought Best Buy was well known for their customer service, but I guess I was wrong.  I am going to try and see what Apple can do for me.  

[Apathy]

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HalderZitzler wrote:

The guy thought I was some rich spoiled asian kid trying to pull a fast one...  ie "You should be grateful for what you have and stop being picky"

In reality, I am a poor starving graduate student who has been saving up money for the past 3 years and was finally able to afford an iPhone

They told me that I only had 14 days to do an exchange, and so on the 10th day, I tried to get an exchange so that I could have a proper working phone.

HalderZitzler wrote:

1)  I did not say anything about RACIAL profiling.  Please don't make any assumptions or jump to irrelevant conclusions.  I can see how you were mislead tho, and I apologize.  The best buy employee came up to me and assumed that I was a spoild rich kid because I was purchasing a fancy iPhone.

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I'm sorry, I'm not aware of the, "spoiled rich kid" profile.  The topic said you were unfairly profiled, so you're saying that because they thought you were a spoiled rich kid they wouldn't exchange the phone?  That doesn't even make sense.  You threw in asian, why wouldn't your race have anything to do with it when you specifically mentioned it?  So yeah, I wouldn't call that making irrelevant conclusions, but it was an assumption.

Remember, the iPhone wasn't found to be defective.  You think because he said it was never fully charged and you claim to have charged the battery completely, that the iPhone is defective.  That doesn't prove anything.

I didn't know that iPhones were considered fancy... those menacing Best Buy employees, hating on people who own nice things! Fancy things! 

Another alternative is if you're within the 14 day return policy still, you can return the phone because you aren't satisfied with it, and they shouldn't be able to deny that without the phone being damaged in some way.  They may exchange it to avoid the return.

[Ryan-BBY Senior Social Media Specialist]

Hello HalderZitzler -

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

[Douglas-BBY Community Connector]

Hello HalderZitzler,

Thank you for buying your iPhone with us.  It would make me uncomfortable to be told something along the lines of “you should be grateful.” A statement like that does come with some implications and I apologize that we put you out.

You have 30 days to return your iPhone (though you may be locked into the contract with your carrier after 14 days), but we aren’t always able to exchange it for a like product if we aren’t able to identify anything wrong with it. If you’ve had the chance to discuss this with your local Apple store, I’d love to hear how that turned out.  We definitely don’t want you to feel penalized by shopping with us in any way and want to make sure that you end up with a phone you’re happy with.

Additionally, I would be glad to discuss this further with Randy and our team from West Covina if you can send me a private message with the Customer Service Pin number from the bottom of your purchase receipt.  You can send me a private message once you’re logged into the forums by clicking on the envelope in my signature below.

Cheers,