Best Buy

Best Buy Deceptive Service Plans and Warranties Selma, Texas

20th of May, 2011 by User937768

I had been a loyal Best Buy customer for years until recently. The reason I liked shopping there is because they have a huge selection of products, the store always seems to be clean, the sales associates are knowledgeable of the products and they are also very nice. With that being said let me explain why I won't shop there anymore. In January of this year (2011), I purchased a very nice Garmin GPS unit. The cashier offered the normal array of additional service warranties at the counter and fortunately for me I went ahead and got the one year plan. I used the GPS unit for a week around town so that I could get a feel for it before the big trip I had planned. The Garmin GPS was working great. It was easier to use than my old one, had a bigger screen and more options. I was all set. Eight days after purchasing the GPS unit I went on a 1200 mile trip. I was 3 hours into the trip and my GPS went out on me as I was driving. I was able to stop at a Best Buy store that was nearby and exchange the unit. Sounds good so far doesn't it? Well, remember that one year service plan that I purchased for around $70? It is only good for one time if you exchange the product. The sales associate told me that 3-4 units are returned each month that just quit working on the owners. I hadn't damaged my GPS unit it was just a weak or defective unit that I was unlucky enough to have purchased. So I ended up having to by another 1 year service plan with the new unit they exchanged for me. Basically I paid an extra $70 for a defective product. Best Buy won't stand behind their product for even one week I also purchased a Toshiba laptop computer from Best Buy earlier this year. I am not computer savvy so I normally buy a middle of line laptop every two or three years when my old one breaks. This past week I turned my computer on to read my email and do some browsing a message pops up saying the my virus protection had expired and that I had all kinds of viruses on it. The next message popped up trying to sell me Window's Defender virus protection or something like that. My computer never gave me a warning that the virus protection was set to expire soon or that one or more viruses or worms had infected my computer. It just all happened at once. I decided to disconnect my computer from the internet and take it to the Geek Squad the next day during lunch. I got to the store the next day with my computer in tow. I had to wait for a few minutes as one of the computer technicians finished up with another computer but it didn't take too long. I got up to the counter and a young man named Curtis helped me out. I described what happened to Curtis as he patiently listened occasionally asking questions for clarification. It took about 15 minutes but finally Curtis had a good understanding of what was wrong with my computer and I understood what the Geek Squad could do to fix it. Curtis was able to deduce that my computer indeed had a virus and that it would cost $200 to remove it. Now that $200 is actually a service plan that allows me to bring in up to 3 different computers over the course of a year for various services. I couldn't just pay them to remove the virus. I would have just restored my computer to an earlier date and saved myself the money and 10 day wait period but i hadn't backed up my computer and I desperately didn't want to lose the data that I had on it. I should have backed up my computer on a more regular basis to keep me from being in that situation from the start. Now I back my computer on a regular basis. So I leave Best Buy and my computer with Curtis after having paid $200 to remove a virus and thereby saving my data (Itunes movies, 2010 taxes, and pictures). After a week had gone by a receive a call from one of the Geek Squad associates saying that they need me to come to the store and sign a form stating that it is okay for them to either back up my computer or restore it to its default state. Now I had just paid $200 seven day earlier for them to remove the virus and save my data. The Geek Squad associate on the phone told me that they could not remove the virus so that they would have to restore the computer to its default setting. He went on to explain that if I wanted to save my data that they could back it up for me for around $80. He quoted me that price because I told him that I had new movies on it that I had not backed up yet. Can you imagine paying Best Buy $80 dollars to back up $30 or $40 worth of movies? I already own an external drive and I know how to back up my data. So I ask the guy about the $200 I paid to remove the virus and save my data. He is probably an honest person who was just following company policy so he didn't really have an answer for me. Curtis, the Geek Squad associate who took possession of my computer when I dropped it off, had told me that the $200 would cover the cost of removing the virus. I didn't want a service plan and I wouldn't have paid for it. Computer don't last for more than a couple of years or they become outdated so I know that it won't be more than two or three years before I get a new one anyways. $200 is about 1/4 - 1/3 of the amount I will pay for a computer in two or three years. So now I find myself in the position of having just wasted $200 and still having a virus on my computer. All they did for me was restore my computer back to its default status which I know how to do and install a better virus protection program on it for me. I got ripped. I don't think Curtis lied to me I think he just kind of assumed that the other technicians would be able to remove it or he just wanted to make a $200 sale. Either way he did a poor job. If he wasn't absolutely sure about being able to remove the virus ethically speaking he should not have pitched their service plan. When I pick up my computer I will be speaking to the manager. He or she doesn't know it yet but they are about to have a bad day.
In summation, I hope that anyone who plans on shopping at Best Buy reads this complaint beforehand so they can make a more informed choice. Yes, Best Buy has a huge selection and fairly decent prices. However, the nickel and dime you to death on service plans. They will not stand behind the products they sell if the item(s) breaks. The sales associates are very friendly and knowledgeable but at the end of the day they still have to enforce the company's return policies. So even if the lovely young woman is smiling at you while she explains that your week old GPS unit or laptop computer can't be exchanged since you did not purchase the additional $80 warranty you will still be out of luck. No matter how nice they are it will not make you feel any better when you have shelled out a couple of extra hundred dollars to have your new computer fixed. By the way, I am not so well off that I had an extra $300. Believe me; the money that I used to have my computer fixed will leave me short in another area. I would really like to throw out some obvious accusations here but since I have no solid evidence I am going to bite my tongue for now and just send out a friendly warning to my fellow consumers. Good luck everyone and please pass on information like this so we can keep the big businesses honest.

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