Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[jderouen]

I have a Westinghouse computer monitor I purchased in 2009. I also purchased the black tie warranty. The monitor stopped working, and I took it to my local Best Buy in Rogers, Arkansas yesterday. I've been buying from Best Buy for15 years, and I always get the warranties on monitors and televisions. In the past when I returned a monitor that I had purchased the warranty on, they verified that it was indeed not working and then told me to pick out a new monitor and applied the price of the broken monitor plus a percentage of the price of the warranty to the new monitor. Problem solved.

This time, however, they told me they'd have to send it off to be repaired. I asked why in the past they hadn't done that, the girl (Karly) just laughed and said condescendingly, "That's what they're supposed to do." I asked to speak to a manager and she rolled her eyes and said, "he'll just tell you the same thing." Another employee named Caleb finally showed up, and then the manager Dusty, reiterating what she said. I asked them to explain why this time was different than all the other times and they couldn't. I complaind about Karly, and Caleb laughed and said, "She's only 19." Like that gives her justification for being rude to a customer. I complained, and Dusty said there was no need to argue, and not to raise my voice. I again asked why this time was different, and again no reply. I said if there was a reason why they were doing things differently with this monitor than they had with previous returns I could deal with that, but I needed to know the reason. He refused, saying, "Other people must have made a mistake." I yelled at them, they yelled at me, and then Dusty said they wouldn't honor my warranty and that I should leave the store. I asked to speak to the district manager and he refused and said, "there is no one higher than me." I finally left, broken monitor in hand.

I am stuck with a broken monitor I paid $179.99 for and a warranty that I paid $29.99 for that the power-hungry manager resuses to honor. Whether it be a refund, a replacement, or whatever, I want something done about this. This happened yesterday early afternoon. I called the 888 # and talked to customer relations and filed a complaint, and asked to have a district manager call me. They assured me that he would, but no call. Today I called back and again asked for the district manager to call me, but no call.  I've spent probably an hour on the phone wading through options and being put on hold, not to mention the time driving to the store and arguing with these teenage employees, and no one will help me. The district manager won't call me, and I'm stuck with this broken monitor and a warranty that the manager refuses to honor.

Can someone give me advice or tell me what to do next?

Thank you.

Joe

[CrystalWoW Valued Expert]

You primarily have a service plan. They are correct that it should be sent out. Your protection plan says it must be sent out. District managers don't deal with customer issues in general. The thing to do next is go in and have geek squad send it out for service.

[AaronE]

If your older monitors had a Replacement plan and not a Service Plan/Black tie protection plan or they were non-servicable items at the time they broke they would have been replaced rather than serviced. It seems like you have a Service Plan/Black tie protection plan and a servicable monitor this time.

The solution is to bring it in and have it sent to service to be repaired under the terms of your Black Tie Protection/Service plan.

I don't believe the manager would have the authority to invalidate the plan. To my knowledge there are only a few things which will invalidate a plan one of which is fraud, I think biohazards and possibly insect infestation... typically that's up to the service center to make the call on and not the manager though.

[jderouen]

You don't work for Best Buy? I can hardly believe that. So, is it okay for the employees to treat customers like crap? And why on earth would customer service PROMISE me that the district manager would call me if "District managers don't deal with customer issues in general." Your response mentions nothing about the shabby treatment I received.

[CrystalWoW Valued Expert]

I mention nothing about that because there isn't anything I can do about that or inform you about that. No one knows how a situation escalated or how things were said unless they were there. The only thing I can say is your legal contract is a service plan. Not a replacement plan. They most likely were going to have the general manager call you.

[jderouen]

Aaron, it does have the black tie plan. I was even told at the time (as I have most times when buying the warranty) that if something goes wrong, they'll replace it. Apparently, that's a lie? I'm not sure if it is servicable or not, they wouldn't even plug it in to look at it. I asked them to plug it in and look at it and they refused.

At this point, I'm more angry with the way that I was treated than anything about the monitor.

[CrystalWoW Valued Expert]

There hasn't been a replacement plan on a monitor since well before 09 so it is a service plan. The community connectors can address how you were treated and they will be along, normally in 3-5 business days.

[jderouen]

District manager, general manager, whomever, someone needs to call me and deal with this. I'm amazed at Best Buy's terrible customer service and the shoddy was way their employees are allowed to treat people without reprecussion.

The Best Buy manager said he wouldn't honor the warranty, so taking it back there would do no good. That's why I want to speak to someone who has more authority than he does. Because I'm not going to just shrug my shoulders and forget about it.

[CrystalWoW Valued Expert]

They do have the authority to not have you come back to the store or ask you to leave, but your protection plan is still valid. I would suggest taking it to another local location if you have one to have it sent off.

[Dorothy-BBY Community Supervisor]

Good afternoon Joe -

Justin, from our Community Connector team, will be reaching out to you regarding your concern.  Thank you!