I purchased a new IPOD for $250 plus $60 for a Product Service Plan from the Mansfield, TX Best Buy on February 10, 2007 to give to my wife on Valentine’s Day. As luck would have it, 368 days after the purchase, she began to have trouble with the USB connection, which would only work if you hold it in exactly the right position while it synchronizes and charges.
We brought the IPOD back to the Mansfield, TX location and spoke with Tim (too gutless to give his last name). Tim informed us that contrary to what the salesman originally indicated, the Service Plan does not provide for immediate replacement or repair, but that the IPOD must be returned to Apple for exchange; a process which typically takes 5 business days.
I explained to Tim that this was in direct conflict with that which was clearly explained at the time of sale. I further informed Tim of the story told by the salesman where the battery in his wife’s IPOD went dead twice during the PSP period and that Best Buy had replaced the unit with one from inventory at the time of each claim, at no charge.
Tim indicated that this was not true and further explained that the 3 year Service Plan would expire upon my surrender of the IPOD and would not continue if the refurbished replacement happened to experience a failure during the remaining 2 years. He said that if I wanted protection on the replacement, which was refurbished, I would have to purchase another 3 year plan.
I expressed my disappointment, told him that this had the appearance of fraud and asked to speak to the manager. Tim informed me that he is the service manager and did not report to anyone else in the store. I took my concern to the cashier and requested the presence of the manager. I was told that there were several store managers, but that Erik Jackson was the regional manager.
When I requested to speak with Mr. Jackson, I was intercepted by another manager who asked me to repeat the entire sequence of events. She then informed me that Mr. Jackson is not the regional manager, but simply a store manager. Parenthetically speaking, I have never experienced such disorganization, mis information and apparent fraud at Fry’s.
Mr. Jackson demonstrated little interest in helping us rectify the situation. Evidently he had more important things on his mind. We left the store frustrated and determined to make this problem known throughout the DFW and Internet communities as well as to Best Buy Corporate in Minneapolis.
Since then I have found thousands of similar complaints about Best Buy on the internet. In addition, I have discussed the ills of the Best Buy Service Plan with several customers inside that and two other store locations in the DFW Metroplex and found that many were not likely to purchase such a seemingly worthless and fraudulent plan.
Surprisingly, for a company whose sales are already lagging from the elastic demand of electronics, whose stock price has plummeted by almost 50%, with industry competitors filing bankruptcy and closing stores, I would expect the retail staff at Best Buy to try a little harder to please their customer base. Do you really think it is a good idea to alienate customers in such a shaky economy? I don’t think so.
