Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[toeknee619]

Let me start off by saying I am a college student who is over an hour away from the nearest Best Buy and has no reliable means of transportation. I interacted with geeks from Kildeer, IL (near my house) Savannah, GA (nearest to my school) and Alpharetta, GA (nearest my roomates home).

I purchased a Asus G73SW-BST6 with black tie protection on May 29th, 2011. Between now and then I have only had the product for a total of apprx. 3 months. The first issue I experienced was a bad motherboard about two months after I purchased the product. Because you are required to bring the product to the store I was unable to bring the laptop in for about a month. Because it was the first issue I took it in stride and picked it up about 3 WEEKS later. 

The day after I picked up the computer and returned to school I realized that the backlight on the keyboards and the disk drive were no longer working. So I lived with this issue for a few weeks until I was able to get back to Best Buy. This time I enquired about a return policy and was told that I was out of the period but I was still covered by the Lemon-policy. I was told that 4 repairs and I would get my MONEY back. So once again I took it in stride and picked up the computer a few WEEKS later. 

Once again I returned home, this time for Thanksgiving so I was in IL, when a few days later I realized my computer was falling apart. The screw holding the chasis together was stripped. This time I took the laptop back to Geeksquad and spoke with a store manager because all of these issues were errors on their end which should never have occured. I was told that the screw was stripped because the case had been opened and close so many times for repairs and that they would have exchanged mine for a new one but the had none in stock. Just out of curiosity I asked about the lemon policy again. This time I was told that I would only get a REPLACEMENT computer and my black tie would roll over. 

Next time I picked up my computer back in Savannah and ran through every function and feature the computer had. Satsisfied, I returned to schools and was surprised that it ran for more than a week without encountering another issue. However, a few weeks later I noticed that blotches of pixels were starting to get washed out. For the FOURTH time i returned to Savannah and after a half hour waiting in line I am told that the lemon policy will only apply if the MANUFACTURER will approve it.  And this time I was told that the lemon policy would only get me a computer with COMPORABLE specs because mine was no longer carried and I would lose my entire black tie with no refund or even proration.

So now here I am sitting on the $150 netbook I bought, because I was so fed up with Geeksquad and Best Buy, waiting to see what will happen with my issue. 

Recaping: 4 repairs, 2 preventable but occured due to negligence, over 10 hours commuting, 5+ different geeks, 3 managers, 1 new computer at my cost, and 1 VERY UNSATISFIED CUSTOMER. 

Will update with details when I go back.
 

[toeknee619]

Forgot to mention I wrote complaint letters to Geekquad and Best Buy and still havent recieved even an automated response....

[Xanthis]

When a computer goes to GS for a repair, it can take anywhere from 2 - 4 weeks. So it seems as though you were within that period for all of your repairs.

For a No Lemon to be issued, it needs to have 4 qualifying repairs. Which basically means after 3 repairs, and you run in to another problem, GS sends it out for the 4th repair, and then determines if it qualifies.

As far as commuting, and purchasing a new computer to use during those repairs, that is entirely up to you, and not anything that GS or BB can do anything about.

It seems though that your plan is working as intended, your computer has been repaired a few times and they are looking in to replacing the computer. The plan would be used if a replacement is given, so wanting a proration on that is kind of like double dipping. That is what the plan was for, repairing or replacing your computer.

[Ryan-BBY Community Connector]

Hello toeknee619  -

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

[toeknee619]

@Xanthis

I am not neccessarily complaining about the policy or whatever. I am complaining about the service and information i have recieved from the geeks. Each person I spoke with told me different things and when i look in the terms and condidtions it says "After three (3) qualified service repairs have been completed on an individual product and that individual product requires a fourth (4th) qualified  repair, as determined by us, we will replace it with a  product of like kind and quality that is of comparable performance or reimburse you for replacement of the product with a voucher or gift card, at our discretion, equal to the current market value of the product, as determined by us, not to exceed the original purchase price of your product, including taxes."

 
Each person I spoke to maybe got one piece of the policy correct but no one was able to give me the full terms correctly. The only reason I bought a new netbook was because I was told that I would be able to recieve a reimbursement on a gift card, like it says in the terms and conitions, and spend it on something else. Because I was told by a GEEKSQUAD employee that I would be able to get the money on a gift card, GEEKQUAD needs to take some responsibility for their employees actions. 

GEEKQUAD and BESTBUY employees either need to be retrained or replaced if they can not even inform a customer about a protection policy CORRECTLY. 

[toeknee619]

also @Xanthis 

Also two of the repairs wouldnt have been needed had Geeksquad or the repair center done some sort of quality control test before they returned it to me.  

[Aaron-GS Community Connector]

Hi toeknee619,

Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention!  We rely on our in-store associates to provide detailed and accurate information regarding our service plans, so it’s disheartening to learn of situations where this expectation may not have been met.  Your disappointment at having to send your laptop out for service multiple times is also understandable, especially if you rely on the unit for schoolwork.

Like you discovered, our service plans do require that three qualifying hardware repairs be performed and a fourth qualifying hardware failure be identified before a product is eligible for an exchange.  Once approved, products may then be replaced with either a comparable replacement model or store credit – neither of which may exceed the original product’s purchase price.  This information should have been presented when you purchased your plan, but I apologize for any misinformation you may have received from the associates at our Kildeer, Savannah and Alpharetta stores.

Has your laptop been sent out for follow-up work yet?  If so, please send me a private message with the service order number provided by the store and I’d be glad to look into this situation on your behalf.  You can send me a PM by signing into the forum and then clicking on either my signature below or the letter icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

[Xanthis]

I did not mention that because I cannot comment on that aspect of what happened.

As far as the qualified repairs, Aaron has explained it very well. I hope everything goes well with your situation.