I wanted to share my story with what just happened to me at my local Beavercreek Ohio store.
I have been a long time customer of best buy. My wife and I have two credit cards with you. We have been reward zone premium for 2 years running. Our TV is purchased and warrantied through you, my HTC Touch Pro cell phone, and (I thought) my XBOX 360 as well.
I purchased my very first XBOX 360 at this best buy, after waiting 13 hours in the freezing cold on launch day. Since then I have bought another 360 (I gave the original to my brother and wanted a new one with bigger hard drive and HDMI). As always, I purchase the protection plan because the the employees are always making it seem so nice. Stating how even if a button breaks on the controller you can bring the whole system back for a new one etc etc. Since the 360's are not known for their reliability. I decided to get it.
This lead to me using the replacement plan in October of 2008 due to a faulty disc drive that was scratching my disc. The plan was honored as promised. I was then explained to by the employee that I should purchase the plan again, again stating all the nice reasons, being able to get a new console immediately, even if it's just a peripheral that's broke. So of course I said sure. This time the booklet I received with my warranty looked different. It said (Geek Squad Black Tie Protection). I asked the lady if this was the same and she said absolutely, just a differently designed booklet. I purchased the so called replacement plan and went on my way, to enjoy my new XBOX 360 for almost another year.
This past week my new 360 was again having problems reading discs and freezing up. I said to myself "no problem, I will take it back to the store I love, that always takes care of me, and get this taken care of. This is why I do the smart thing in purchasing that replacement plan".
I walk in and was greeted very nicely by the security lady, which marked my box and told me to head to customer service. When I get to talk to the customer service lady, she tells me I need to go stand in the Geek Squad line to get a rapid replacement (I said okay rapid replacement sounds good). I stand in this line for nearly 20 minutes until a member of presumably the Geek Squad in white shirt and black tie asks if he can help me. He takes a look at my plan and says sorry sir but this is a performance service plan not a replacement plan, and the best I can do for you is ship you a refurbished unit. We can't do the exchange here.
Needless to say, after all the promises of a year ago, I am flabbergasted at hearing this. I ask the guy why when I was sold the policy that the customer service person bragged about in store replacement and all the other perks of the previous replacement plan. He went on to inform me (and get ready for this) that most of the cashiers and customer service workers don't know the difference between a replacement plan and a service plan, and they are trained to say whatever it takes to get you to purchase one. This was an epic display of honesty that I could not believe.
I then said to the man. Do you think it's very fair that I am being ripped off now because of the ignorance of another employee? And he said sir all I can do is get you a manager and you can plea your case to her.
I then move aside and wait for a manager for another 15 minutes. Finally after the 3rd customer service lady comes over the check and see if I have been helped. I inform her that I have been waiting on a manager for 15 minutes. She has a short argument with someone on the radio about who the actual manager is on duty, and then a lady comes over.
I don't have her name for a couple of reasons. One is her name tag was worn out and hard to read, and two, she was so quick to dismiss me that I never got a chance to ask.
I explained to her everything that I explained here. She stopped me a couple times through my story to ask who I had been dealing with. She was clearly upset with the GeekSquad agent for telling me what he did, so she wanted me to point him out. Then she said she would speak to her team about how they sell their performance plans.
She then went on to inform me that replacement plans haven't been offered on the 360 "in a long time". She told me there is nothing I can do and I should go stand in the Geeksquad line so they can ship me a refurbished unit. I tried to fight back and explain how I have been wronged, but she just kept saying "Nope, nope, thats not been offered in a long time, there is nothing I can do for you. I can't even override it so I don't know what you want me to do".
Clearly this lady, who was somewhat short, middle aged, and had short sandy blond hair, was not interested in my problem, but instead interested in yelling at whoever caused me to even speak with her, and getting me out of her hair.
Now let me just explain one thing. If Best Buy decides it doesn't want to offer a replacement plan any longer on an XBOX 360, I am fine with that decision. You are a business and of course that is your choice.
My major problem is you as a business sold me a performance plan under the misinformation from your employees that it was a replacement plan. If I had knew that all the plan got me was a refurbished 360, I would have happily declined the option, and sent my 360 to Microsoft instead for service.
As I hope you understand, I feel very cheated right now. We have always been very loyal to Best Buy, spent tons of money there (we aren't rich but we spend enough to get the premium status on our reward zone) and we always trust Best Buy with what they promise to deliver.
Right now I am just feeling so disappointed. I guess I really thought that the manager would have done the right thing, and at least pretended to care. The warm feeling I used to have about Best Buy selling me quality products and protecting them as they promise is now gone, and it's a shame that there is really no where else to go. At the very least the manager could have offered to refund the protection plan, even though I think the fair thing to do is swap my XBOX 360 under the terms promised by the associate that sold me the plan. I was going to use the opportunity to trade up to a Black 360 elite since there has been a price drop, which was also a promised feature of the replacement plan. But I guess now I am going to go without my 360 for a month while I sent it to Microsoft for repair.
I am begging to whoever reads this to reach out to me and make this right. I love Best Buy and it would be great to be reassured that I was treated very wrong in this scenario. If this is really how it is meant to be then I just don't know what to think anymore.
Thanks for reading.
Rick
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Dorothy-BBY
@BBYGamerMom
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