Recycling (Going Green)

[Allan-BBY Community Connector]

Hi Everyone,

As an advocate of recycling I loved it when Best Buy® decided to rollout its recycling program to all of our stores in the U.S., but if anything is better than recycling it is reusing.

Best Buy® has had a trade-in center on BestBuy.com for quite some time now where a customer can mail in gently used electronics, and in return they would receive a Best Buy® gift card in the amount that was agreed upon.

We have now gone a step further, and as of 9/27/2009 all Best Buy® stores in the U.S. now accept specific gently used electronics purchased from Best Buy® for trade-in at their store. The product categories that are accepted in our store for trade-in are Laptops, iPod’s, and Mobile phones.

In return for your gently used electronics you would receive a Best Buy® gift card in the amount agreed upon, or you can opt to receive a check in the mail for a reduced amount.

To trade-in one of these products you should get an estimate done on BestBuy.com, print the estimate and bring it into the store with you, and go to the Geek Squad® precinct in the store. The Geek Squad® should verify the condition of the item is the same as described in the estimate,  verify that you originally purchased the item from us, and issue you a Best Buy® gift card in the agreed upon amount. If you would rather have a check for the item we would mail one out for a lesser amount within seven days.

Thanks for recycling,

[soxfan]

On the trade-in website when you select to trade in items NOT purchased at Best Buy and complete your online estimate, it gives you the option to print out a estimate number and take the item to Best Buy for immediate payment (for cell phones/laptops/mp3's). I did this and went to two local stores to try and complete the transaction. However, once in the store, the Geek Squad personnel couldn't figure it out how to do this. The last store I went to suggested I call 888-best buy, so I have tried to do that, twice now. Each time, I was transferred and placed on hold for a total of 40 mins over two phone calls and never spoke with anyone. If this is not possible to do (take cell phones to the store for trade in), then why have the option available during the "check out" procedure?

[Allan-BBY Community Connector]

Hi soxfan,

It sounds like you did everything right on your end to be able to take advantage of our trade-in program in our stores. Although this is a new program in our stores, they all should know exactly what to do to process this type of transaction. If you haven't already gotten this taken care of I would love to have the opportunity to take care of this for you! If you want my assistance in this matter just send me a private message with your name, your phone number, and the specific location of the store that you would like to trade-in these items at. I truly am sorry that you have encountered issues with trying to take advantage of our trade-in program.

Thanks for posting,

[Nokia]

Allan, he said the items were not purchased at BB. Isn't the in-store trade-in program only for items purchased at BB with a receipt?

[bsprite]

Is there a link for where this is? I checked out the trade in program page and there isn't a spot where you click to say whether or not your product was purchased from best buy.

I bought a laptop there last fall and the screen is cracked (not under warranty) and they won't do a trade with a cracked screen in best buy. But I was told by a geek squad associate that I could go on the website and they will give me money for electronics (broken or not)

Geek Squad quoted me 400+ dollars to replace the screen, and it would take like 2 months, and I did not have time for that, so I bought a new laptop, and am now trying to recoup my losses by trying to sell it back to best buy. Honestly, all it needs is a new LCD screen. It was a 1400.00 laptop, and can still be used.

[Nokia]

If you go here, you can find out the value. However, if the screen is broken, you'll probably get around $20 for it.

[Allan-BBY Community Connector]

Hey Everyone,

We are always trying to find out ways we can better serve our customers, and because of this I thought I would update this thread with the fact that most of our stores now accept items for trade-in without a receipt. To find out if you’re local store accepts items without a receipt just go to the drop-down menu on our trade-in center, select go, and under the store's information it should state if they accept Hardware for trade-in without a receipt.

Thanks for helping!