Let me tell you a little story about Best Buy’s “Product Replacement Plan”. For those of you not familiar with the "product replacement plan" it is more or less a extended warrant on a product where Best Buy will replace the product should it become defective during the warranty period.
For validation purposes we purchased a XBox 360 game console for my 16 year old son from Best Buy on 2/4/08 along with a 2-year Product Replacement Plan. This may be verified by referring to Best Buy's Service Request number 23838881.
To make a very, very long story short the Xbox 360 became defective 1/15/09 and as of date of this letter (3/5/2009) I have no idea if we will ever see this XBox 360 again. Since this affair started Best Buy has lied to me, deceived me, stonewalled me and has made my life so miserable it is totally unbelievable. I have spent countless days on the phone with them to no avail. Here is how the plan is suppose to work: I send the defective product back to Best Buy. Best Buy sends me a gift card for the total purchase price plus sales tax. The gift card must be used at Best Buy. It sounds pretty simple and enticing doesn't it? Here is how the plan actually worked....
Best Buy send me a pre-paid return label via the United States Post Office on 1/18/09. It took the XBox to the Post Office on 1/21/09 and asked clerk two things. Is this insured and is there any way to trace the package to make sure is gets delivered to Best Buy? The response was no and no. Hmmm ... sending a $400 XBox back to Best Buy with no insurance and no way to trace it ... scary isn't it? It gets worse...
Being concerned about the XBox getting there safely I called Best Buy several times to check if they received it. I was met rudely every time. Best Buy would not even talk to me for 14 business days from the date I mailed it. Period.
After waiting patiently for 14 business days, on 2/9/9, I called Best Buy again. Yes they had received it back. I was told a gift was in the mail on 2/6/9 and it would be in my possession in guess what? 14 business days. I queried Best Buy's customer representative about the "14 business days". The response again was somewhat rude. I was told that it might take the Post Office up to 14 business days to deliver it. I explained to the representative that there were not two points in the continental United State that the Post Office took over 6 days to make and queried further as to where this gift card was mailed from. Virginia. Three days away via the Post Office. It didn't make any different to the representative. It was once again Best Buy's policy not to act on or do anything for 14 business days from the time they mailed it. Period.
I knew in very short order by 2/27/9 that the gift card was either not put in the mail, was lost or was stolen but no one would talk to me for 14 business days from the date they mailed it. On 2/27/09 (14 business days) I called Best Buy yet again and asked them where my gift card was. The reply was "We don't know. Who ever told you that it was mailed on 2/6/09 was incorrect. That is when we started processing the gift card. It wasn't actually mailed until 2/10/09". Oops! I was told they had no idea what happened to the gift card but they would stop payment on the first one and issue another one". We confirmed my mailing address and I asked if they could ship the second gift card either UPS or FedEx, something traceable. No way. They couldn't do it. No exceptions. Period.
Now knowing full well how Best Buy operates it was clear I had t stay on top of this situation daily to make sure they did their job. Here is where the real nightmare started. On 3/4/09 I called them again. This time I was told that the original gift card they sent me had been cashed and there was nothing they could do about it. They send a $400 gift card via U.S. Mail. Un-insured, un-traceable and if it gets lost or stolen it is no longer Best Buy's concern. I am out $400 and there is nothing they can do about it!
As it turns out half the people at Best Buy were looking at a incident over a year old. The other have were looking at the current incident. How is that for running a business? It turns out that the original gift card was return to Best Buy by the Post Office as being un-deliverable sometime after 2/10/09. So here we go again...
For the first time since this nightmare began someone finally found out what happened to the first gift card. It was undeliverable by the Post Office. We confirmed my mailing address and again I made the plea not to send a $400 gift card by the mail. I pleaded with them to use UPS or FedEx so I could trace it along the way. Their response after what
I have been through? They can't do it. No exceptions. Best Buy is going to try sending the gift card again. Same method, same address but this time they are expecting different results. Forgive me but isn't the definition if insanity doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results? Will I ever get the gift card and in turn will my 16 year old son ever see his XBox 360 again? We won't know for 14 business days!
So here is the bottom line. Best Buy dictates the shipping method. I have no choice. They send hundreds of dollars of merchandise via the U.S. Post office with no insurance and no was to track the shipment and the absolute bottom line is that if they don't actually put it in the mail, it gets lost or stolen they don't care. I'm the one that is out $400 not them.
Does Best Buy sound like a company you want to deal with? Me either. I am just hoping and praying this gift card actually shows up so I never, ever have to deal with Best Buy ever again ... but as stated I won't know for 14 business days will I?
Elizabeth-BBY
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