Complaint Review: Best Buy

Unfortunatly all your problems are due to a VERY misinformed or UNinformed employee. This I am sorry for. Had the employee known the terms of the Service and Replacement plans. None of this would have happend since you would have known what to expect from our service plan. I too, did not beleive in service plans. One reason is because I was burned by one of Best Buy competitors on an item one time, and for two, I figured it was a waste. NOW, I purchse service plans on EVERYTHING I purchase at Best Buy. I am a FIRM believer in the service plan know that I know everything there is to know about them.

Guys,

Thanks for your response. I have a few things to share. First, I did repeatdly ask the salperson if it was unlimited as long as you are within the plan coverage, and he said yes. I normally dont get service plans but if that was true it was a good deal. He even said if a controller breaks just bring it in. As long as was in the two years. The second thing was that , the rep told me to just buy another controller, save the receipt, and return the defective one to get my money back. Although I see she was just trying to make me happy, that wasnt the solution.

Plus I did not feel right doing this even though I was upset at Best Buy. I made a call to their Corporate office. They put me through a customer service liason. Who read me, albeit verbatim, a statemant about their policy regarding this, leading me to believe the majority of calls to him are of the same type. He treated me with total disrespect and as if I was trying to beat them for a controller. 4 emails to Best Buy Corporate went unanswered. I guess they figure I will just go away if they ignore me long enough. So all I can do is tell everyone I know, to go to Circuit City, that will do a lot more damage than them just giving me a $29 controller to make things good on their end. I had an business associate just put a $12,000 home entertainment system in his house, and even thought he lived closer to Bust Buy, he went to Circui City on my recommendations. I know a lot of people socially and trough business, and I will make sure I do the same. Here is a copy of my email I sent:

Case # 13887698

Dear Sir,

I bought an XBOX in Sept 2003 at your Best Buy Store in Warwick. I was told if anything happens to the unit or the controller for 2 years they would replace it an unlimited amount of times if I purchased it. My controller is not working and I took it to the store with my service plan on 11/10/04. I was told if I replace the controller the warranty will then become void. I told them I just want a new controller as promised to me. What I was told by the associate is buy a new controller then put my old broken one in the package and return it. This is not what I want to do I just want a new controller without having to void the remaining 11 months. I was lied to just to buy this plan. That's deceptive sales. You should honor it. I called your corporate and asked for Richard Schulze, your CEO today to voice my dissatisfaction. Dana, a liaison denied me access to any management. By his "script" he sounded like he handles hundreds of these types of calls per day. I am going to write the Attorney General and the FTC about this practice. Dana just passed the buck to the underwriter of the plan. I want to speak to someone in executive management. Not a representative. There are many posts about Best Buy and this problem on ripoffreport.com, and I will voice my problem there too. I bought 2 TV's there in the last 3 weeks; I spend a lot of money in your store. I don't appreciate Dana assuming I was lying when I told him what was said to me when I was sold the protection agreement. I would like to speak to Mssrs. Shulze, Lenzmeier, or Kesky regarding this matter.

Robert Golomboski
401 301 3895

Jon, I agree with you. Its a shame when an employee is there just for a pay check. This is where confusion comes from. Employees that will just tell you what you want to hear. "Sure, with the PRP you get free XBOX games everyday." These are people who DO NOT care about the company and do not care to have a future with the company. These people need to be weeded out. our store just opened in October. We are doing 100% great. We have great employees that have ALL been with us since DAY 1. They helped set up the store when it was nothing but empty shelves and carpet. These are the people that care. 97% of them are still with us. You will NEVER walk into our store and NOT get service. We do things like a good business should. We got 100% of ALL Best Buy training. We know PRP's PSP's and products IN AND OUT, you have a question we will answer it. and Not one of those "I think it comes with all the stuff you need, I don't really know... " answers. If you are ever in south Georgia Come by out store in Valdosta off I-75 exit 16. You will be treated right. We have the right leaders and a great GM who cares. No I'm not sucking up! :)

All replacement plans I have ever seen are just that. They replace the item wich fulfills the terms of the contract. On lower priced items it is usually not that great of a deal. On higher priced items though (say a $149.99 X-Box) you use the plan to replace it then all you have to pay for is a new replacement plan on the item they replaced.

As far as Best Buy employees not being truthful, I have heard this and even seen it myself time and time again. Most of the time this is either due to poor training or the emplyee just really doesn't care. Regardless of what they have in writing, if you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the salesperson told you this word for word, I would think you have a leg to stand on.

Best Buy seems to be the worst for this. Most of their other competitors will help you out as best they can if one of their employees hands out false information. Best Buy jsut doesn't care. They still have millions of customers and are still making tons of money regardless of issues like this. Why should they care?

The only way they are going to change their ways is if they see a noticable drop in sales. Untill then it will jsut be buisness as usual.

IF it is presented well. Some employees, mostly who are new, don't care about working at Best Buy. Those are the people that are just there to get paid. There are people like that at EVERY job. The PRP is great. But it DOES expire when you use it. The reason being, is that you get a NEW unit for basically the price of the PRP. 19.99 sure beats 149.99 for a new XBOX. Using it on a broken controller may not be wise however the switch method would be ideal. For them to suggest that is wuite odd.