Complaint Review: Best Buy - Sioux Falls South Dakota

I am reporting best buy to the Ripoff report because I feel strongly that the issues with the Performance plans and warranties and so forth are like a trap to unsuspecting people everywhere, not just here in Sioux Falls.

I had decided to purchase a computer since my old laptop from school was dying on me thanks to GAIN (another despotic evil company, but that's another story). Since I needed to upgrade my system anyway and since Best Buy was good to me when I purchased my PS2 half a year earlier, I decided to buy a SONY VAIO media center from the store in Sioux Falls. For those of you who don't know what a Media center is, this is a computer that usually has the ability to record and view live TV and so forth. When I went to the sales associate to purhcase, he really tried to push the PSP (Performance service Plan) and other cute trinkets on me to buy. I did purchase the $24.99 optimal performance plan where they install a patch (what? gimme a break, I worked for Gateway and they never did this) that provides extra security or something.

Anyhow I went along with the patch and as soon as I brought the unit home the keyboard and mouse would not work. I was peeved a bit having spent $1,400 on this system when I finally got the thing to work. Included was a set of speakers (big and bulky given the price and advanced technology), your keyboard and mouse, and an IR receiver (also part of a Media center) which didn't work. I eventually got the system up and running when it would freeze up on me about two weeks after the i bought it. (Makes you wonder why Best Buy has a return policy of two weeks) This was especially frustrating as i would have to restart the system, an Intel P4 at 3.0 GHz, and sometimes it would load strange or the speakers were too sensitive.

This is not the end. The drivers on the system were acting strange, the computer would tell me on the Taskbar that two removable drives were present even though I only had one flash drive plugged in. Also, it seemed to take forever for my printer to be installed (an HP 2410) and the back of the tower would get real hot even for such a powerful computer. Now I know that most computer problems are because of software but Sony should consider using a more powerful cooling system on the VAIO next time. Speaking of which, the Norton Internet Security and Microsoft would keep popping up and pestering me on the screen so much that I deleted Norton out of my system along with AOL (AOL is a junk ISP)and the bad thing is that I did not recieve any recovery disks with the system, you have to make those. I made the recovery disk but that went bad and the Trail offer of Microsoft Office kept casuing problems with the files I worked with so I had to convert my files into MS Works files and delete the trial files out. Also the TV Tuner programs didn't work at all.

Not the end of the nightmare. I told these problems to Best Buy three weeks after I bought the unit when the machine would go grindingly slow and lock up. They basically told me to chase my tail and I went in several times to talk a manager. He told me that there is nothing we can do about it that i must talk to Sony unless I get their PSP. I told them I wanted a different unit because the unit is a lemon and they said that they can't do that unless I bring in the box which I threw out because you really shouldn't have to rebox up a unit that is bad, you should get rid of it and get the customer a new one.

After fighting with customer service, the GEEK squad, and management for about a week, I finally called and spoke to a technician and told him my dilemma. I was mad because that day this POS system wouldn't reinstall my printer (i had to delete it out because it would act weird). He laughed and tried to push that BS PSP and I told him that if Best Buy didn't fix the problem I would sue them. He said come down and i'll see what I can do. I took the unit down there and they said they can get me on the PSP and they can exchange the unit. I paid for the PSP and they gave me a new unit. This unit works fine (still acts weird with my printer) but I didn't get the $24.99 option on this computer. I then began to wonder if the technicians deliberately or accidentally (more like deliberately given Best Buy's mentality and attitude towards many of the people here on Ripoff report) did something to my computer when they were 'configuring' it. More like the Leech squad if you ask me.

It's been about a week since I traded in my defective unit and I still think that both Best Buy and Sony need to get their act together. I was pushed into the Best Buy rewards club which is okay, but I hate it when they shove that Best Buy credit line/card/ whatever bull down your throat. I suppose since Best Buy is like Sears where they make money off the PSP's and credit cards this shouldn't be new to me. I cannot shop at Best Buy anymore because my trust was breached and I feel that the top management at Best Buy really need to get in the real world for once. For those of you who are reading this I hope that you think about what you are doing before you make any purchases at Best Buy.

Al

Sioux Falls, South Dakota
U.S.A.

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