Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[kurtklaas]

OK, I see Best Buy tries to address warranty fraud customers have experienced. Since my warranty was denied yesterday, I did a search today on Best Buy Warranty fraud and found this site. So here is my story.  I purchased two Polk standing speakers on 3/11/11. As best as I can recall, I was told, by more than one employee, you should get the extra two year warranty, since my speakers tend to blow up.  This warranty, I was told, was a separate warranty from the manufacturer’s warranty that would start the day I purchased the speakers. If a speaker become damaged all I had to do was bring it into the store and it would be replaced by a similar speaker from in the store.  Sounded good to me.  When I went to pay for the speakers and extra protection, I received no paperwork for the supposed plan.  So I asked the clerk, do I get any paperwork for the protection?  She said that I did not need it because all the info was in their computers and all I had to do was bring in the sales receipt. The sales receipt states that the plan expires in 3/11/2013. At the time, there was no reason to be suspicious about not being given a document that spelled out the details of the protection. Would the employees lie?  It never crossed my mind.  On 4/7/2012 I bring a blown speaker to the Best Buy in Holland, Michigan, where I purchased them.  The clerk looks at the receipt, goes to talk to someone else, comes back and says the speakers need to be sent to the manufacturer and be repaired under their five year parts and labor warranty, 2-4 weeks. I said that is not what I was told when I got the plan.  She says, Best Buy employees should not have told me what they did and that what I had actually purchased was a two year extension beyond the five year manufacturer’s warranty.  I protested and another employee took over.  This person told me, first, that I was misinformed or misunderstood what I has been told originally.  Then I pointed out the expiration date of the two year warranty was 2013, as proof of what I was told. Why would I get an extended warranty when my thinking was that if the speakers would blow that would happen far before the 5 years was up, I asked her. Her response? The receipt itself was wrong and it should not say what it did!!!  The receipt was in error for some reason she did not know.  I got more furious but tried to stay calm and did not swear or yell.  Then the clerk tells me to calm down or they could not help me, after which I became more upset. I told her, you are telling me what I was told was wrong, that the receipt is wrong and that I should not be upset about the fraud I suspected. At that point I almost lost it but decided to accept their offer to have the speaker sent to the manufacturer and have them fix it rather than replacing it with the same in-store speaker after Geeks had checked it out. I come home and do an internet search on Best Buy warranty fraud, and the very first hit that comes up describes another customer who ran into the same fraud experience. But I see that Best Buy on its web site tries to address issues like this.  OK, let’s see what you do about my experience of fraud with Best Buy.  Are you going to tell the Holland store to honor the verbal statements made to me and what the receipt document states or not? I await your response and will be glad to post here that Best Buy has reversed the Holland’s store policy in this case and honored what your store employees and receipt stated. Thank you. Kurt.

[hydrogenwv]

First... The Best Buy plans run concurrently with the MFG warranty, starting the day of purchase.

Second... I'm not sure of the exact terms, but most of the BTP plans are, by nature, service plans.. This means that the first thing they'll do is attempt a repair. I'm not sure if the plan for those speakers would be a repair or a replace, so I'll let someone else clarify that.

Finally... Never.. Never.. agree to a contract without reading and signing it. The employee should have provided you with the details of the protection plan, especially when you asked. Next time, be adamant about recieving the documentation. This applies outside of Best Buy's doors, as well. Always read BEFORE you sign.

  At this point, We have your word against an employee's word, but we also have this agreement that you signed and agreed to. While I, personally, believe that you were misinformed, it's all just hearsay. It's hard to believe hearsay when there is a contract that you signed as evidence.. ya know what I mean?

  Unfortunately, the employees of Best Buy (and every other establishment) are humans, and some are prone to lie to benefit themselves... And, just as employee's may lie, customers may lie as well.. That's why Best Buy can't just automatically assume that the customer is tellnig the truth..

 From what I see, your BTP is still good, and you should be able to bring the speaker (if they were bundled, maybe both) into any Best Buy and it should either be replaced (if the BTP is a replacement plan for these speakers) or sent out for repair (if the BTP is a repair plan for these speakers). Good luck...

[Ryan-BBY Senior Social Media Specialist]

Hello kurtklaas -

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

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

Actuallys peakers work a bit differently hydrogen. They start after the manufacturers warranty ends. From the terms and conditions: Home speakers will be covered for a period of four (4) years beginning after the expiration of the
manufacturer’s warranty.
Either way, it is a service plan, not a replacement.

[rellarillear]

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hydrogenwv wrote:

First... The Best Buy plans run concurrently with the MFG warranty, starting the day of purchase.

---

As Crystal stated, speakers are different. They take over when the manufacturer warranty ends.

Reason being in most cases the GSBTP covers more than the manufacturer, and is used to supplement it, and make it more "complete"

With speakers there is no "extra" coverage during the manufacturer warranty, so it is an extension at the end of the manufacturer warranty.

[rellarillear]

Regardless, i'm sure very little of this information, is helpful to kurtklaas.

And I do understand where you are coming from.

You believe you were misinformed and have paperwork that contradicts what you are being told now, and I can totally empathize.

The reality is, that it is up to the store's discretion, and regardless of what you were "told" (he said, she said), there is a legal document that was involved, and is the consumer's responsibilty to be aware of what it entails.

I'm sure that doesn't make anything better, and only serves to frustrate more, as you were trusting the associates to give you 100% accurate information, but it is the truth of the matter.

A community connector should be along at some point to address this with you, and may be able to connect you with the appropriate channels, and at the least communicate it to the store level so that this doens't continue to happen in the future.

[Justin-BBY Community Connector]

Hello kurtklaas-

Welcome and I'm deeply sorry that your first post with us is over your Polk speaker troubles. You may already be aware by now, but your coverage plan with us provides for service repair, and if for some reason it cannot be repaired, then you would work with the store on finding a comparable product. With that being said, I cannot provide additional context about what occurred during your original purchase, however, I find it very troubling that there may have been some miscommunication about our Black Tie Protection plan coverage. I'll surely pass this onwards to the store's upper management to be internally addressed. 

I also have your service order details and will keep an eye on it for you. I'll let you know of any updates that arise by sending you a private message. To view your private messages, ensure you're logged into our forums and click on the envelope icon in the top right corner. Again, I'm terribly sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you. 

Best regards, 

[hydrogenwv]

Oops, My bad. Thanks for the clarification. Haven't seen many protection plan issues with speakers. Now I know. Any other product categories similar to this?

[kurtklaas]

To be sure, there are claims I make that cannot be validly proven in a court of law. Thus some of my claims are suspect. In the same way, some of the posts here by people trying to be helpful may be suspect in terms of the automatic assumption most people who read those posts would make that these people are not working for Best Buy or their interests.  But who really knows? Well then, let's stick to verifiable facts. Someone states never to leave a store having purchased a warranty without warranty contract details, as I did. Good advice. However, the sales receipt is itself a contract, even though very short.  The receipt contains proof of the agreements two parties made and identifies the parties, etc.  This  contract states that the additional warranty expires in 2013,  two years after I purchased the speakers.  Given what I claim I was told by store employees, this led me to believe that I had not purchased a warranty extension after the initial warranty expired. But now I am being told by Best Buy in Holland that is what I purchased and that the receipt should not state what it does.  In other words, from their point of view the receipt is in error.  Well, what Best Buy wants to spin as an error looks to me like evidence of fraud. It's very easy for Best Buy to weasel out of the fraud by claiming it's just an error.  To me it looks like outright fraud because the receipt contract makes it appear to anybody reading it that what was purchased was additional coverage having promises like the ones I claim where made to me, not an extension. I do not see how Best Buy can argue anything different, even though the Holland store does hold that position.  I am open to hearing one or two or three arguments that my argument is wrong, that there is no fraud and not even the appearance of fraud.  By the way, some claims made on posts may not carry the weight of evidence in a court of law, but anything posted here by anybody as to claims or other statements could become verifiable evidence in a court of law. I would not know the technical legal terms for this distinction, but all this stuff is in the public  domain and therefore verifiable as to what people have claimed or are saying.  Some of original claims cannot be proven, but if I am lying the statements I have made on this site are potential evidence that could prove I lied, if it is true that I lied. Knowing this, I try to be careful in the claims I make, which to be sure is proof of nothing, except perhaps the feel that might come across to people who read this stuff about my truthfulness or untruthfulness.  This still leaves the possibility of my having misunderstood what I was told.  But again, this cannot be claimed about the receipt.

Kurt

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

Regardless of the expiration, the process is EXACTLY the same whether you are under the plan or under the manufacturers warranty. Either way, best buy sends it off to geek squads service center and gets it repaired. There is no difference.