CheapyD & Best Buy's Extended Warranty

Here is the text of an email I sent to the President of Best Buy regarding an very unpleasant experience I had at a Best Buy store this holiday.

[quote name='CheapyD']Last weekend, I purchased an eMachines M5312 laptop computer at your store on 86th and Lexington Avenue (Store #835) in New York, NY. Based on the response to this email, it may be my last purchase from a Best Buy store.

While my purchase was being rung up, one of your employees (Brian) tried to “sell” me Best Buy’s 3 year extended warranty for $250. Notice how I have placed the word “sell” in quotations. I think “bully” or “berate” would more accurately describe this ordeal that I went through. When I politely refused the warranty, Brian started verbally assaulting me, literally yelling at me, “You are making a big mistake. I guarantee it will break.” I remained calm and simply replied, “no thanks”. Brian then pointed to a section of returned and open box laptops and said, “your laptop will be here soon.” This continued for several minutes, embarrassing myself and my fiancée who was shopping with me. Let me be perfectly clear, this was not a sales process,this was an employee yelling at a customer because he feared there was no commission to be had. Eventually, Brian gave up and became so upset, he had someone else ring up the sale. He then walked away, shouting across the sales floor, “You’ll be back!” Upon leaving the store, I presented my receipt to the employee at the front door, and even he had to make a comment, “Oh, no extended warranty?”

What is going on at your stores? Why are your employees guaranteeing that our products will break? I realize that extended warranties are a profit center for Best Buy, but no customer deserves to be treated this way. I was so upset, I’m not exactly sure why I still purchased the laptop from your store. I guess I didn’t want to have gone through that whole nightmare with nothing to show for it.

I run a popular (video game) shopping discussion website called CheapAssGamer.com and I will most likely be publishing my experience at Best Buy in the next few days, but first, I wanted to give Best Buy a chance to respond. I am looking forward to hearing from you and would be happy to furnish any additional information.[/quote]
Here is the response I received a few days later:
[quote name='Best Buy']
Thank you for contacting Mr. Mike Keskey at the Best Buy Corporate office. Your email has been received and forwarded to my desk for response. If you could please email me a number that you can be reached or contact me directly at ***-***-****. I look forward to speaking with you.


Thank you,

**** ******
Best Buy[/quote]
I spoke to the Best Buy representitve a few days later and she was very apologetic. She basically told me that the salespeople are supposed to merely make the customer aware of the Extended Warranty and thats about it. She also mentioned the salespeople do not receive commission (my guess is they may have a quota or goal, though) on Extended Warranties.

When all was said and done, she told me I will be sent a $50 Best Buy gift card for my troubles and that the corporate office will be contacting my local store. I feel that Best Buy did a good job handling my complaint by dealing with it swiftly and by giving me "compensation" for my experience.


EDIT: I added the comic to this post on June 13th, 2006
CAG Comic #1

Alternate Ending

I find violence works better. You should have busted that cat right in his grill and then made sweet sweet love to your fiancée in front of him. That would have learned him good.

Good suggestion.

I also thought about purchasing the extended warranty and then smacking him over the head with the laptop and then asking, "Is this covered, biatch?"

That too would have been good and you probably still would have received the 50 bucks because Brain would never admit to getting waffled with a laptop.

wow its nice to see something about best buy not suck for once, the best buy i usually go to in pittsburgh never has anyone intelligent enough to comprehend what a gcc is, it always takes 10-15 mins to check out after i re-explain and get rung up about 6 times

I would have asked for a manager right there and read them the riot act. Sounds like a very bad sales person that needs to be canned. I have been offered several extended warrantees and when I say no thanks, that's always been the end of it. The only extended warranty I have ever bought from BB was for my GBA-SP since it was only $10 and I was saving $5 with the GGC I figured what the hell.

[quote name='CheapyD']
I also thought about purchasing the extended warranty and then smacking him over the head with the laptop and then asking, "Is this covered, biatch?"[/quote]

*sigh* such seperates men and legends

[quote name='CheapyD']Good suggestion.

I also thought about purchasing the extended warranty and then smacking him over the head with the laptop and then asking, "Is this covered, biatch?"[/quote] :shock:

Thanks for the laugh this morning...i needed that.

[quote name='CheapyD']Good suggestion.

I also thought about purchasing the extended warranty and then smacking him over the head with the laptop and then asking, "Is this covered, biatch?"[/quote]

LOL!

[quote name='CheapyD']Good suggestion.

I also thought about purchasing the extended warranty and then smacking him over the head with the laptop and then asking, "Is this covered, biatch?"[/quote]

...

BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHA...a man after my own heart. Although, I probably would've added, "PWNED!" afterward.

[quote name='punqsux']wow its nice to see something about best buy not suck for once, the best buy i usually go to in pittsburgh never has anyone intelligent enough to comprehend what a gcc is, it always takes 10-15 mins to check out after i re-explain and get rung up about 6 times[/quote]

I hear ya, punqsux. Everytime I try it, I'm subjected to the same Best Buy incompetence that most people suffer. However, they usually only have to rering it 4 times for me after typing in some stupid code 20 times until they realize that it doesn't work, then try something else.

I wonder if Best Buy gets a tax write-off for hiring dumbasses that meet some low IQ test score? Anyone have to take an IQ test to work at Best Buy?

It's not just you, CheapyD. Best Buy employees (at the store nearest me anyway) are some of the most duplicitous salespeople I've ever seen. Some fun facts I've gleaned from them:

1. To a woman shopping with her younger son: A Direct X upgrade message requires a new video card to fix.
2. To an elderly couple: A warranty is really a given on a dvd player, because the new lasers they're using to read dvds are so hot they were known to melt discs inside of them.
3. My personal experience: when I went to buy an Xbox they tried to sell me a memory card back in the games area, then that salesman followed me to the register up front and then called the manager over at which point 3 people were trying to badger me into getting a memory card. I explained to them "no, I know it has a hard drive and a memory card is useless" to which the manager told me (paraphrasing a little here) "you know that Microsoft is going to start online games soon, right? Well, when you install that software it defrags your hard drive and you lose your saves. The only way around it is to either get a memory card or send your console to Microsoft so they can defrag it for you. It will cost 120 dollars plus shipping both ways." My friend and I were wide-eyed and mouths gaping at this point. I refused again and the manager gave me a sigh and head shake then walked away, like I was making a huge mistake. Needless to say, I called the corporate office like CheapyD did and they send me a gift card for 50 dollars also, so I'm guessing it's enough of a wide spread phenomenon that they have a standard drill for dealing with it.

Anyway, the next big purchase I go in for there I'm thinking of having some fun. "Sure, I'll get the warranty...if you can tell me why I need one without using the letter 'e'."

actually, in my experience with bestbuy, their products ARE guaranteed to break.

With the exception of a microwave, it hasn't failed me yet-- everything breaks

To make matters worse, they're not real good about keeping the receipts on file like they claim they are when you do by the extended warranty

I got shafted on my PS/2 extended warranty, because they refused to honor it as their computer lost the record and I didn't have the receipt -- despite having the exact date of purchase, approximate time, and even the offer to contact my bank for their records of the purchase. Fortunately, Sony fixed my PS/2 for free , but had a broken slightly earlier the wouldn't have as this was in the beginning of their"free repair" program and you really had to negotiate hard to get it.

Now remember that PS/2 extended warranty bestbuy said didn't exist, because it's important

From the same store, I bought in xbox on launch day -- with the extended warranty.

when it broke down, they were able to locate its warranty with great difficulty -- but at least they were able to do so, and momentarily restored myfaith

when the voucher arrived for a new system, it was stamped "PS/2 extended warranty replacement"

In other words, it was never really lost at all, although it kind of makes me wonder what happened to my xbox warranty ;-)

CheapyD Best buy employees do get commission a few of my friends have worked for them, unless they just changed their policy. Also with all the walmart scaming going on... Im not saying its the right thing to do, but I sure wish I could rip off best buy a few times, I hate that place.

I work at best buy. Nobody gets paid on commission. The regular employees dont get shit for selling replacement plans or services. Managers however do get bonuses for good numbers in their departments. So us salespeople are constantly being told by the higher ups that we need to sell that crap even though we don't get anything for it. At the store I work at the people in media have to keep scorecards. So if I make a sale of $150 or more I get 1pt. If I sell cd storage I get 2 pts. If I sell a service I can get anywhere from 5-10pts depending on the service. What do these points mean you might ask. They tell us the person with the most pts gets our name on some trophy and we get a couple free dvds. However, thats bullshit. Its been 3 months and no trophy. Also because I think its bullshit to try and push services onto people when they aren't interested I don't get many hours. The people that score the highest get more hours. They are also using the scorecards to determine who gets to keep their jobs once the season is up. The supervisors also do customer service evaluations on us. The last one I had done to me I got a poor score because I didn't ask the guy what type of internet he had so I could sell him gamefly even though he said he was just looking around and didn't want any help.

"I wonder if Best Buy gets a tax write-off for hiring dumbasses that meet some low IQ test score? Anyone have to take an IQ test to work at Best Buy? "
While the majority of the people there are stupid not all of us are. I am only working there to help pay for college.

yea everything I buy from there gets a warranty after my DVD player (200 bucks) broke with not only one type, but I even switched to a diffrent brand and it broke

I used to work there, we never recieved any commision. This was back in 95-96. however they leaned on the employees about selling them and gave "prizes" sometimes for selling the most usually it was praise and a cd. They also determined the employees being employeed as well. non performers were let go regularly. plus the store meeting were also nothing more but a management bulying the employees into selling the damn things.

Hehe ryan, so next time I'm at Best Buy and someone asks me for a rebate, can I say (no offence intended to you, but to other Best Buy employees yes)

"How many points is that? 2? Got the trophy yet?"

and will they get mad or embarrased at that?

"I used to work there, we never recieved any commision. This was back in 95-96. however they leaned on the employees about selling them and gave "prizes" sometimes for selling the most usually it was praise and a cd. They also determined the employees being employeed as well. non performers were let go regularly. plus the store meeting were also nothing more but a management bulying the employees into selling the damn things. "

I work there now and its great to know nothings changed.

I currently work for bestbuy. we do not get anything for selling warranties. we do get praise from our supervisors though.

i bought my ps2 at best buy a year ago last june, and the woman who tried to sell me the extended warantee explained that I would get credit from it to put towards the PS3, which would come out September 2002.

I really hope her day job isnt working at Sony.

[quote name='CheapyD']Good suggestion.

I also thought about purchasing the extended warranty and then smacking him over the head with the laptop and then asking, "Is this covered, biatch?"[/quote]Well be ready next time you go to best buy and bring a camera along. This would certainly qualify as a kodak moment.

Sounds like you had better luck with writing a letter to Best Buy than I did.

Last year when Best Buy had those Nintendo coupon booklets out and 1 coupon said "$5.00 of any Interact video game accessory" with a picture of a GCN to GBA link cable on the coupon.

I picked up a $2.99 Interact GBA case, and handed the cashier the coupon, she said it only applies to certain accessories. I asked to see the manager and he said I couldn't use it on that item. I wrote a complaint letter typing word for word that the coupon had no restrictions and it said ANY Interact accessory.

What was Best Buy's answer? That sometimes manufacturer's coupons only apply to certain items and if the manager said the coupon was not valid on that item, that was the end of it.

It was a Best Buy coupon, not a manufacturer's coupon and they ignored how I pointed out there were no restrictions on what the coupon could be used for other than it had to be an Interact accessory.

I didn't feel like writing back over a $3 item but it was the principle of it that got me very annoyed. I am guessing the manager and cashier didn't want me to get a free item even though I was entitled to with the coupon.

Cheapy, I woked at Best Buyt for over 2 1/2 years and let me tell you this guy was probably a supervisor or senior in that department. We did not receive any commision, the pay there is straight hourly, but the constant harassmant by managers is what caused this. Most of the employees there do not even believe in the "PSP" or extended warranty. In my personal experience leave or quit Best Buy, because they could not take any more of the harassment. from the managers if they did not sell enough of these. I left that place over a year ago once I graduated from college and to this day I still dont walk in there; I go to CC. Here are a few tips for avoiding these Best Buy tirades.


1. Buy it online and have it shipped to you.

2. Go when it is busy, throughout the sales process tell him that you do want it. When you get to the register tell the register person that you dont want it anymore.

3. Tell them that you are a specialist in whatever youre buying. Tell them that you repair them for a liiving and that you are actually contracted by that company to do in home repair

4. NEVER, tell them you dont want it before they actually go and "look" for the product , becuase when they come back they will say "we dont have it"

haha....what i trip.....you deserve more than $50 for that story cheapy

When I bought my $70.00 car CD player they told me to give this to the cashier when I checked out. I didnt look at it and I thought it was just like the rebate information. I get up there and check out and my total was like 170.00. I asked where that extra 100.00 was from and they said it was the warranty. I then proceeded to ask them why I would want a 100.00 warranty on a 70.00 CD player. He just kind of stared at me and took the warranty off.

As a current BB employee (I teach fulltime and work at BB for the discount) I can echo the fact that we do not work on commishion but we are "encouraged" to set our customers up with PSP and PRP's when possible. We, of course, receive no recompense for this. In your situation, Cheapy, the salesperson was totally out of line, however, as a computers associate I can say that the only time I really preach the benefits of service is on a laptop. This is based primarialy on the fact that your batteries stand a good chance of decreased performance over the three years, if not outright failure and BB will replace them for you ($180-300 value). Your salesperson should have made the benefits clear to you and allowed you to make your own choice, bullying never helps anyone and it's just plain bad business. By the way, fantastic site! I've thoroughly enjoyed my short time here.

here's my $.02 on Best Buy and their Warranty's:

I bought a TV on november 18th and paid with my Best Buy card. I also purchased the extended in-home warranty for $249.00. They did not have my TV in stock and it was to arrive on December 22. When I picked it up I inquired about the warranty beginning on 11-18, the date of purchase. (I had plenty of time to re-read my reciept while waiting in the customer service line) I asked them to change the warranty to begin on Dec. 22, (the day I picked it up) and they refused. They said the day of purchase starts the warranty, not the ship date.

My explanation to the manager was that even though I paid for the TV on 11-18, the transaction was not complete until they delivered the goods. Legally, they can't offer a warranty on merchandise they haven't provided. This all fell on deaf ears and the manager offered to return the TV if I didn't like their policy.

Sorry this is so long winded, but the point is this: What if they backordered my TV for another 2 or 3 months? I'm paying on a credit card for a TV I don't have, and using warranty on an item that's never been delivered to me. If anything goes wrong with this TV they will be getting multiple service calls from me, and perhaps even a replacement TV under their "lemon" policy.

Has anyone else ever had to deal with Best Buy warranty service? Now I'm afraid, very afraid.

[quote name='bmulligan']here's my $.02 on Best Buy and their Warranty's:

I bought a TV on november 18th and paid with my Best Buy card. I also purchased the extended in-home warranty for $249.00. They did not have my TV in stock and it was to arrive on December 22. When I picked it up I inquired about the warranty beginning on 11-18, the date of purchase. (I had plenty of time to re-read my reciept while waiting in the customer service line) I asked them to change the warranty to begin on Dec. 22, (the day I picked it up) and they refused. They said the day of purchase starts the warranty, not the ship date.

My explanation to the manager was that even though I paid for the TV on 11-18, the transaction was not complete until they delivered the goods. Legally, they can't offer a warranty on merchandise they haven't provided. This all fell on deaf ears and the manager offered to return the TV if I didn't like their policy.

Sorry this is so long winded, but the point is this: What if they backordered my TV for another 2 or 3 months? I'm paying on a credit card for a TV I don't have, and using warranty on an item that's never been delivered to me. If anything goes wrong with this TV they will be getting multiple service calls from me, and perhaps even a replacement TV under their "lemon" policy.

Has anyone else ever had to deal with Best Buy warranty service? Now I'm afraid, very afraid.[/quote]

The manager was bluffing. If I were you, I would call them up now and get them to change the date. If they refuse, tell them they can pick it up and give you a full refund. "Why would I get a warranty for an item I do not yet own?"

i'm starting to get ticked off at the incompetence of bb employees myself. and the 2 cc's near me are a catastrophe. pretty soon i'm going to have to find a new place to shop.

Nowadays they ask if you'd like a 2 Year Extended Warranty on a $20 PS2 controller! And the best part is, the warranty is an extra $8! I mean WTF?!

I'm also currently a college student employed at a Best Buy. I'm a cashier and we get goals set for the product replacement plans that we sell. It usually works out to about $15/hour worth. I'm probably towards the lower end of the spectrum for sales because I tell the customer about the replacement plan and if he/she says no, I accept it and refuse to harass or piss off a customer. This is probably why I've only worked 6 hours per week over my Christmas break, and it's pretty hard to live on $40 per week, even with my parents paying my bills. We receive no commission for selling the plans and the only thing employees receive is praise from a supervisor and their name at the top of the dry erase board. While it is a good idea to get the replacement plans on video game systems, controllers, and phones, I really wouldn't recommend it on much else.

I don't care for our replacement plans too much, but the $5.99/2yr one for controllers isn't a bad deal. As a cashier I've been told that even if the buttons start to stick you can use the warranty to get a voucher for the purchase price back. And since there's no way to tell the difference between controllers, you could theoretically return your 4 year old PS2 controller in the box of the one you just bought last week.

I love to hear people on this forum complain about the crappy service at BB or CC or whatever. Or how the employees at retailers are so "stupid."

You allow stupid employees to be hired because you shop at the stores regardless of the service quality. I bet that if next week Best Buy had, say, Prince of Persia for $14.99 most of you would be there to buy it, even if the employees aren't as smart as you are.

If you want good service, go to a local independent game store. Yes, you will probably pay more, but at least then you don't have to post messages about "stupid" employees on this forum. If you want to be a real cheap ass, however, just deal with the crappy service as a cost of doing business.

CheapyD: In your case, the service was poor by any standard. I'm not trying to defend the employee you encountered. I'm glad they resolved it to your satisfaction.

Here is my way of getting out of hearing the extended warranty pitch: I tell the salesperson that the item I am buying is a gift. It usually shuts them up pretty quick. The one time it didn't, was at best buy when I bought myself a laptop! The guy went on for ten minutes trying to get me to buy a $200 extended warrenty for my "brother's" laptop. In all honesty, if you are going to use a laptop battery a lot, an extended warranty is not a bad idea. But in my case, I rarely use the battery, and even if I did , I would just exchange it for another one at work

Thanks for all the comments...

Next time, I'm just whipping out my CheapAssGamer.com business card (yes, I really do have them, they cost about $30 for 250)

That should shut them up pretty fast.

wow, ive never had any problems with best buy EVER. My parents got a tv there as did I, and we were both offered the extended warranty. When we declined, that was the end of it. it was never brought up again. maybe im just lucky ::jinxed:: crap

My $50 gift card arrived yesterday.

[quote name='CheapyD']Next time, I'm just whipping out my CheapAssGamer.com business card (yes, I really do have them, they cost about $30 for 250)
[/quote]

You're paying too much for those. I get mine from Vistaprint.com.
250 cards for about $7.00. Granted, they're not fancy, but they get the job done for my cheap ass.

The Best Buy closest to me is CRAZY. I think many of them are, so it must come down from corporate. This one (Reston,VA) had someone arrested for writing prices down for comparison shopping (on TVs). The cops actually came and arrested him. I had a little run-in also but didn't get arrested, although I felt that they had their fingers on the 911 speed dial the whole time.

I went to buy the gamer cards with the $5 coupon. I wasn't even being a cheapass, I wanted $10 a piece on them (5 gcs). The woman who rang me out told me I couldn't put only $10 on it because it's a $5 off $20 coupon. "Ok, how about $11?", I asked. She said no. I told her it's a gift card and I should be able to put any denomination I wanted on there. She runs off without saying a word and about 10 minutes later comes back and huffily tells me, "You can only get 1". I told her that was ridiculous and I had never heard of any store refusing to sell gift cards to their customers before. She calls the manager over and I have to argue with both of them for five minutes. I finally raise my voice (luckily, I have a pretty loud voice). Finally, the manager says 'just do it' and runs off. The cashier then rings my purchase up on that big yellow piece of paper where you have to fill out your info. I just put some random crap down for my info. I'm sure the cops would have been knocking on my door if I had left the correct info. The story gets even more bizarre. After I leave Best Buy, as I was walking to my car, some random woman gives me this look of contempt and demands $5. She doesn't ask, she just says, "Give me five dollars". I said no and she gave me a death stare (honest!). I don't know where she came up with that figure. Usually people who ask for money go for $1 or two but who would just give someone on the street $5? I don't think she particularly had anything to do with BB but since she was in their parking lot I lumped it in.

[quote name='bmulligan'][quote name='CheapyD']Next time, I'm just whipping out my CheapAssGamer.com business card (yes, I really do have them, they cost about $30 for 250)
[/quote]

You're paying too much for those. I get mine from Vistaprint.com.
250 cards for about $7.00. Granted, they're not fancy, but they get the job done for my cheap ass.[/quote]

Thats where I got mine too. They are black on both sides and have the cheap ass gamer colors on them. It was getting the back to be black that drove the price up. That price included shipping too.

Hey Cheapy, can you put a scan of the business card up?

I've witnessed and have been victim to the best buy extended warrenty deceptions.

- I heard the girl at the register claim that if a guy buys the extended warrenty for PS2, he will automatically be upgraded to PS3 when it comes out in 6 months (this was last christmas).

- At the same best buy, I saw a sales person trying to convince a woman to buy the warrenty on a Gamecube, she refused 3 times and he kept pestering her until she finally agreed.

- I purchased a shaver for my father for Father's day several years back and the clerk told me the extended warrenty covers replacement blades and covers. When I got home, I read the agreement and it states that the warrenty does not cover wear and tear from daily use.

- (Non-warrenty related) One woman wanted to buy and Xbox, but didn't know if it would be compatible with her television. She described her TV as having two connections, one for video, and one for audio (mono). When she asked if her TV would support Xbox, the sales person said she would need to purchase the high definition pack ($50). I jumped in and told her to just plug one end of the supplied cable instead of wasting her money. The sales person gave me a look and walked away.

Reasons like this are why I refuse to go to Best Buy for anything other than DVDs. All my electronics are purchased at Circuit City because the sales people there are more honest. They either know what they are talking about, or will find someone who knows.

Fortunately, in my local Best Buy, they're rather apathetic about the warranty (I haven't had that kind of pressure applied to me yet), but if I were in CheapyD's shoes, I would say, "If this thing is such a piece of crap that it's GUARANTEED to break, I don't want it. Go put it back, I'm taking my business elsewhere."

Why should anybody have to put up with that kind of treatment?

[quote name='hardwo0d']4. NEVER, tell them you dont want it before they actually go and "look" for the product , becuase when they come back they will say "we dont have it"[/quote]

Now THAT is some shady shit! :shock:

I agree with HeartburnKid. I have vowed to not return to BB unless there's a real deal going on. At the time of purchase, if they lambast me about the warranty again, I'm planning to tell them I'll buy it from a place that sells quality products. They tried to convince me my GC was a POS when I bought it and the laser was going to go bad on it. After that, I swore of the place. I should have stopped going when the 32" TV I bought had to be returned b/c its tube was just totally dorked up. This happened twice. They were surprised when I didn't want to pick up a third one and haul it up a flight of stairs to see if I actually got a working TV. CC got my money (more actually b/c I bought a better TV there) thanks to BB's strangely crappy TV quality.

Lots of interesting stories in this thread... thanks for posting them.

However, you are not alone or unique. You are not a precious snowflake. There are legions of others like you.

Visit http://www.bestbuysux.org for some fascinating insight into the seedy world of BB.

dude you might wanna edit out your name, it's in the letter he sent you back, you edited the end of it but it's in the body of the message, Mike.

LOLOOOLLLOMGOMGROFLMAO WTF CHEEAPYDS NAME IS MIKE!!@@!!!1

BWWAAAHAHAHAHA!!!@11

Oh wait, no. That's the Best Buy guy's name.

Blast!

Curse you all!