Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[mhm_68]

I just wanted to bring this to light and share the problem I've just run into with Bestbuy and the warranty. Back on 12/17/05 my wife bought myself a Samsung 930B 19" monitor along with the warranty for 3 years. I did have one problem fixed with the connection while I had the warranty. Fast forward to 12/16/08, 2 days before the warranty was to expire I end up with approx 3 dead pixel right in the very center of the monitor screen. I take it in and the geek squad guys look at. First response viewing them is those aren't dead pixel, that's just a smudge on it. He proceeds to get another members opinion while I stand their watching them look at it, the 2nd guy goes and get's a rag and cleaning solution and proceeds to wipe and wipe the area on the screen. Low and behold the problem is still there with the dead pixels.

The guy says ok, they are dead pixels, we can get it sent out for repair. I'm thinking awesome, I'm being helped. I took my mom and brother out there a few days later to buy him a new monitor with the warranty on it. I received a phone call saying my monitor was in on 01/09/09. Went in today, 01/10/09 to pick it up. I asked what did they do to fix it? The same geek squad guy that helped me said..... NOTHING!!! It did not meet the "10" dead pixel policy for repair/replacement by the manufacturer!!! I was like fine, signed and left very upset. I jumped on samsungs website to find out their site says "7" pixels and the monitor originally came with 3 year parts/labor warranty already on it!!!!!!! So not only did I pay for warranty thru bestbuy that did not give me any additonal coverage time since it was the same time as the manufacturer.... I feel really let down now.

I just got the Reward Zone Premier Silver status at bestbuy last month.. and now I'm rethinking about wanting to try to keep that status cause of this. I feel like I was taken advantage of. Most manufacturers warranties are for 1 year, and paying for 3 years isn't a bad deal.... but to find out that it already came with 3 years and I wasn't getting anything additional from Best Buy really takes the cake for me since I'm stuck with a monitor that no longer has a warranty and has dead pixels in about the worst spot ever.

[justathought]

mhm,

  I feel your pain, but my problem was with a NEW monitor I bought online from B*y.com. I read about it in a pc mag that I subscribe to and it was a really great deal, so I went for it. Well, I have purchased quite a few monitors and never had any dead pixels until now. I was disappointed as you were to find that these are actually considered "acceptable" in a brand new product.

  However, it is a beautiful monitor and as long as I'm not watching something with a black background, I can live with it. So, you are lucky that you got almost three years out of that monitor, really. I was really disappointed in this policy, but it's pretty much the same across the board with all the manufacturers. Sorry.

[Elizabeth-BBY Community Supervisor]

Dear mhm_68, 

Thanks for posting your concern on our Best Buy® Forum.  Your issue has been assigned to one of our Community Connectors for further review and response, and you should be hearing something within a maximum of 3-5 business days.  Please note that it may be sooner depending on the complexity of your issue and the current volume of posts.  Thanks for your continued patience as we work to assist all of the customers who have reached out to us on this forum.

[John-BBY Community Connector]

Hello mhm_68,

I’m sorry to hear about your frustrating repair situation.  One of the most confusing parts of manufacturer warranty or Performance Service Plan (PSP) coverage has been over dead pixels in pixel-based displays.  Under the PSP, Best Buy® has followed manufacturer guidelines for screen repairs where dead pixels are present.  As you might guess, this varies somewhat between manufacturers.  That’s one of the reasons why this coverage has been standardized under Geek Squad® Black Tie Protection: if there are three dead pixels in an area one-half inch square or five in the entire screen, the display will be considered defective and repaired.

It is unusual for a product such as this to have such a long-term manufacturer warranty.  While the PSP offers additional coverage not provided by the manufacturer’s warranty, such as heat, humidity, dust, normal wear and tear, etc., it is designed to cover the period after the manufacturer’s warranty has expired and provides its value in that way.

I’d like to discuss an offer with you that I hope you will find satisfactory to help resolve this situation.  Please look for a private message from me.  You may check your forum inbox by signing in with your user name and password and clicking the envelope icon in the upper right.

I’m grateful that you took the time to write to us.  I look forward to working with you!

Sincerely,