Testimonial #5: Anonymous Laptop Buyer

About a year ago I was looking to buy a Lap Top, and after shopping around for about a month I decided to check out Best Buy again. When I was looking at all the floor models I found a model that had everything I was looking for on it and was within my price range (a HP Pavilion N5475 for $1399.00), I told the sales guy that I wanted it and he told me about their great 3 year warranty, he went on to tell me that EVERYTHING was covered by Best Buy!! My wife at this point specifically asked "if this computer is dropped and shatters into a million pieces you will still replace it?" The sales rep who was standing next to a manager looked at us and said "This warranty covers it as long as you bring all the pieces of the computer" The manager who was still standing next to the sales rep nodded in agreement, with all this said I decided to fork over the extra money for the 3 year warranty.

When I got home I decided to try the DVD player out on the computer, I put a movie in and the DVD screen popped up showed it was loading then the computer crashed. I rebooted the computer and tried to play the DVD again with the same results over and over again. The next day I drove back to Best Buy and waited in line at their service center (ever notice the service center line at a Best Buy?????). After 45 minutes I got to the front of the line and told the service rep my problem with the DVD player, he told me he would have to send the computer to HP and it would be 2-4 weeks before I would get it back, I then told him that I just bought the damn thing the day before and I needed the computer NOW. After arguing with him and his manager for a few minutes the manager told me he would just replace my computer with another one, he went to the back room and came back to me with a laptop that wasn't in a box and had a scuff across the top of it, after I mentioned to him that the computer looked used he said it used to be the floor model but that was all they had in the store for me. Out of desperation to get out of the store and to get a working laptop I decided to go with the floor model laptop. Again I asked about the warranty and again I got the same answer "EVERYTHING is covered with the three year plan!

The laptop worked well for the next 4 months till one night it just died, I took it back to Best Buy and again they told me they would have to send it to HP and I wouldn't see it for 2-4 weeks, with no other options I had it sent off. A week went by and I hadn't heard anything from Best Buy or HP so I called Best Buy and they told me that my motherboard was bad and that something had been spilled on the computer. I have never spilled anything on that computer and my wife definitely didn't know what they where talking about either, Best Buy then said that since the warranty didn't cover the computer if we spilled something on it that I would have to pay $800 for the new motherboard, I was PISSED at this point and called the Best Buy grievance line and told them my story, the lady I spoke with told me I shouldn't have been so naive as to believe that a warranty would cover everything and that I had to be making the story up about the sales guy saying it cover it even if it broke into a million pieces. I was so pissed at this lady I told her I would call her back soon and hung up. I then got a tape recorder (that I bought at RADIO SHACK) and went into Best Buy and did some shopping for a computer, when the sales rep came up to me I asked him about the warranties and once again was assured that I could do anything I wanted to the computer and it was ALL covered!! This time I had the little bastard on tape, so I went back home and called the grievance line up again and played the tape for her, she then asked if I had got permission to tape the guy and tried to scare me with legal steps and since I could give a shit less what she thought she could do to me legally I told her she can press charges for invasion of privacy in a public place and ill press charges for fraud.

Two days later I calmed down enough to call Best Buy up again and talk to the management, and after a lengthy conversation with a number of people got them to pay for half of the motherboard.

A week later when I went to pick my computer up I told the manager I didn't want my crappy warranty and to pro rate it and take it off the cost of the motherboard, and after another argument he did prorate the warranty but had to send me the refund in the mail for. When I got the computer home I powered it up and tried to use some of the function keys only to find that when I pushed any of them the computer would instantly go into sleep mode or just crash. I decided I had been threw enough with Best Buy and that I needed to have the computer with me for work so I didn't take it back in, instead I called HP directly and was told by them I had a warranty on the computer with HP but it was registered to Best Buy over a year and a half ago and was to run out in a few weeks, at this I counted my losses and decided never to shop at Best Buy ever again.

I now live in the Phoenix area so I shop at Fry's electronics and have NEVER ran into any kind of problem with there service there prices are much better and they don't have to lie to you to get you to buy anything!!! You can also check them out at http://www.outpost.com.

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