Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[trailblazer]

I have read most of the horror stories on this form and have one of my own.  I have a Sony 55 inch television that went out the week before thanksgiving.  I called the 1-888-BEST-BUY to get a service technician out to fix it.  I told the service center exactly what was wrong with television.  The service technician showed up, who is a GEESQUAD technician, asked what was wrong with the television.  First, why is this person asking what is wrong with it when they should have a ticket saying what the technician is there to look at and second what is wrong with the product.  The lamp is out on the television and that is what is displayed on the front of the television down by the power light.  The technician didn't even know how to open the T.V. to look at the lamp.  So he get's it open and the lamp looks fine to him but we'll have to start there and get the lamp replaced.  So I'm told 3 to 5 working days to get it shipped to me.  So after 8 phone calls and 4 weeks to get the part, the t.v. still doesn't work.  So I go to the local store to talk to a manager to see if they can help me.  I had to convince that manager to even make the phone call to talk to corporate to see what is going on and what is the next step.    Now I have to wait another 3 to 5 days for them to authorize them to exchange the t.v. with a like product or at the same cost.  They must have a written order to tell all those that call that it will take 3 to 5 days to process your claim.  They are no better then the medical insurance companies that do the same thing.  I'm sure I'll be making more phone calls, having another technician come out to service the television because I'm not a authorized BEST BUY technician, before they'll finally say that the television is unserviceable before they'll replace it.  This extended warranty/protective service plan is a bunch of crap, not worth the extra money and the service center has no clue as to what there doing.  My money is going to going to another business to get the same deal that BEST BUY offers but with better customer service.

[trailblazer]

The protection plans are to protect BEST BUY, not the customer and there product.

[trailblazer]

O.k. so now 30 days since the first call.  Still no solution, so I send an email 2 days ago to try and get a response, since I'm not getting the phone call promised within 3 to 5 business days.  What do they do?  They send me a survey to fill out as there response.  I hope they weren't expecting a good response from me.

[Allan-BBY Community Connector]

Hey trailblazer,

I can tell you’re very frustrated with how your repair has gone so far, and I will say that after 30 days of waiting for my TV to be repaired I would be pretty frustrated myself. When a technician comes out to the house they should know what the described problem is, but they do often ask the customer what is wrong to make sure they completely understand before proceeding with the repair. The technician should then diagnose the problem with the TV, and if necessary order any parts they determine are needed to repair the TV. Once the parts are received another appointment should be scheduled to install the parts. Unfortunately sometimes the technician does misdiagnose the problem, and would then have to re-diagnose the issue and order any additional parts. Once again the technician would then come out to install the parts, and this process should continue until the TV is either repaired, or replaced.

It sounds like you have a Performance Service Plan (PSP) covering the repair of your TV, which is intended to repair the product it covers not replace it. There are three circumstances where a PSP would replace a product, and the most common reason a TV would be replaced by a PSP is if the TV is deemed un-repairable. Another way a PSP should replace the product it covers is if there have been three previous qualifying repairs, and a diagnosis by an authorized service technician that a fourth qualifying repair is needed. The last reason a PSP should replace a product is if the repair is determined to be uneconomical to repair. Once a product is submitted for replacement because of one of these three reasons it is true that it can take up to 3-5 business days to process the request. It can take less time, but since it can take up to 3-5 business days we don’t want to tell a customer the request will be processed sooner and then have it take more time. I would like an opportunity to try and get you resolution in this matter so I am sending you a private message. To check your messages you need to log into the forum, and then click on the letter icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Thanks for posting,
Allan
Community Connector
Best Buy® Corporate

[trailblazer]

The customer service center for BEST BUY is the WORST I have ever had the pleasure dealing with.  I have the extended service plan for a television.  It has now been 4 weeks since the last time I had a technician look at the television or a call from Corporate to get a status on the authorization to replace the television.

Any one that is making a big purchase from this establishment, I recommend not getting the extended service plan.

THEY DO NOT HELP YOU

[Missy481]

I totally agree with everyone's comments about this chain. I spent over $500 on my ipod and so called service plan. I brought my ipod in for service and was told I was covered, I even have the service order to prove it. My ipod was shipped off for repair and has been in their hold for an entire month. It was suppose to been back by December 6th. I have called twice to check on it and was told it was still in repair. I called today, a month later after I dropped it off, for them to tell me that my product is not covered by the service plan, and that the geek squad agent should not have told me so. I can have my product fixed for $160!!! They say they tried to call me ( a lie cause like I said I've called twice over the past couple weeks and was told it wasn't ready). B*llsh$t!!! The supervisor for the geek squad told me the agent who handled my repair order has transferred to another store (WOW, are you serious!!!) and he is sorry but there's nothing he can do. I asked to speak with a manager and he tells me the guy told me they would send it off to see if it was covered. (He wasn't even there when I spoke to this guy) Basically it won't be fixed. He didn't offer any compensation for me being told it was covered by their own employee. He didn't offer to cover half of the charges. He didn't apologize for the inconvenience. He was just a D*CK the entire conversation!!! I see why their company is struggling with sales. I don't plan to spend another dime with this company and will share this story with anyone who will listen. DON'T SHOP THERE!!!Good luck finding jobs when your store goes under.

[Missy481]

Oh, and by the way....The corporate office offered me a $25 gift card for my trouble!!!! Oh yeah... and I can't use it towards my service charges if I wanted to go ahead and have my ipod fixed. Thanks for nothing BEST...I mean WORST BUY.

[trailblazer]

Well at least you were offered something for your inconvenience.

[Missy481]

If it doesn't help me with the problem at hand then it didn't help with the inconvenience.