Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[Nemesiis]

At the top of this community there is a post regarding "Insignia's Breakthrough 2-year warranty". That post does not allow comments. A previous post regarding my TV and the issues I had was merged into another thread. This post is in response to Insignia Breakthrough 2 year warranty.

Repeated attempts to utilize the warranty failed. Insignia did not provide even one of the services that were promised in this "breakthrough warranty".

As soon as I brought my TV home I noticed that the picture occasionally went black, it happened more and more the hotter the TV got. I was never able to get a technician to come to my home to diagnose the TV despite the "in-home service" that is promised in the warranty. I was specifically told by the technician that didn't come to my home that he "doesn't care what the warranty says" he's not giving me a loaner TV.

Insignia will not honor this warranty. 

I've made two separate attempts with different email address on the Insignia website. I can't post in their forum regarding the issues that I had with my TV and Insignia's failure to provide the services they promise in the warranty.

Has anybody successfully used this warranty??

[Allan-BBY Community Connector]

Hi Nemesiis,

I truly do apologize for all the problems you had trying to arrange for your defective Insignia TV as you already shared in your previous thread.

As I stated in my response to your initial thread we sometimes have to use local services centers to perform repairs on our TVs, and as I said in that post these local services centers sometime do perform the repair in their service center rather than in a customer’s home. This is actually true for all manufacturers that have warranties which state the repair would be performed in a customer’s home.

The reason for this is that sometimes there is only one service center in a particular area that is authorized by the manufacturer to perform repairs on their products, and although they are authorized to repair their TVs they are a completely separate company and thus have their own individual procedures to repair TVs.

It is true that the warranty on the Insignia TV you purchase should provide a customer with a loaner TV if the problem isn’t resolved upon the initial diagnosis, but if the repair is being performed by a local service center (not a Geek Squad® technician) they would not be the ones providing the customer with the loaner TV since they are not directly affiliated with Best Buy® or Insignia.

In this case the customer should contact 1-888-BestBuy and ask for our TV repair department, inform the representative they speak to that the technician didn’t resolve the issue upon initial diagnosis of the issue and that they would like a loaner TV delivered to them, and the representative should make arrangements to deliver a loaner TV to their home.

If you need any personal assistance in this matter just send me a private message by clicking on the link in my signature.

Thanks again for posting your experience,

[poytboy]

Good luck with that, I hope you don't face 53 days ahead with no TV. Wow a loaner TV, I haven't heard of that. I have posted that concept in my thread and no one has informed me that someone has that in their warranty. Good to know because I know first hand how long it takes to get a repair done. Actually that's not true, I'm still waiting to find out! 

[Nemesiis]

Allan,

I appreciate that local services centers are sometimes utilized for the repair of TV's.

Saying that "these local services centers sometime do perform the repair in their service center rather than in a customer’s home." seems to be in direct contrast to the warranty stating "To obtain in home service for a television with a screen 30 inches or larger call 1-888-BESTBUY. Call agents will diagnose and correct the issue over the phone or will have an insignia-approved repair person dispatched to your home."

Regardless, when the technician informed me that he would under no circumstances be bringing me a loaner TV, I did in fact follow your suggestion and contact 1-888-BESTBUY. I spoke with Martha in the TV repair department on 11/10/09. She told me she was requesting a 37" Insignia loaner TV using a special form. She gave me order #3016468.

On 11/12/09 Jodi from the Warranty Services dept at 1-888-BESTBUY called me at 0730 to tell me that loaner TV's were only good for 14 days and that after 14 days my broken TV would be returned to me.

I never received the promised loaner TV. Nor did a technician ever arrive as promised to inspect the TV. On 11/13/09 I received a mysterious call from a worker named Carlita who told me "my part was in transit and it would arrive on the 20th of November, between 12p and 4p". This call was mysterious because all 3 technicians had failed to show up because the "problem with my motherboard was unrepairable" and suddenly here comes not the loaner TV I was expecting but put a part for an "unrepairable" TV. Who ordered this part and how could they possibly know what part the TV needed without looking at it? The mysterious part, like the technicians and the loaner TV, never arrived as promised.

I don't think that 1-888-BESTBUY is set up in any way to actually honor the contents of this warranty. It does not appear that the staff is aware of the promises Insignia is offering.

Additionally, Insignia's message board bragging about it's 2-year warranty WILL NOT ALLOW POSTING. There isn't a single post from a member of the public on the Insignia website regarding this warranty. Insignia will not approve me as a member despite my multiple attempts. Nobody can post in this forum besides Insignia staff.

Best Buy's Forums Home Theater section also advertises this "Breakthrough Warranty" yet does not allow posting regarding the warranty to be placed in the same section.

Both Insignia and Best Buy are advertising this warranty despite being fully aware that it is not possible to utilize it.

Once again Allan, I appreciate your continued dedication to providing excellent customer service and I wish that it extended to the rest of your company.

[Nemesiis]

Poytboy,

It's a great idea! It completely sold me on the Insignia TV that I ended up buying. Unfortunately the warranty turned out to be beyond useless and more trouble then it was worth.

I never received the loaner TV that was promised, nor did the technician that was promised ever show up to inspect the TV.

I recommend an online site like New Egg (dot com) that has free delivery, and in-home service that actually happens.

[rbrantg]

Insignia and bestbuy both are terrible companies to deal with. No support from either and insignia just makes bad tvs.