Testimonial #85: Best Buy laptops burn up in a few years.

Love your site- Best Buy is the AntiChrist and I will never shop there again

My story starts with The Wiz about 8 years ago. My mom bought me a video camera there and purchased the extended 3 year warranty (similar to the Best Buy Warranty). My mother explained to the salesmen that I would be taking this camera snowboarding and it might get damaged. The salesmen told her she could smash the camera on the floor and they would return it. About 4 months later the camera stopped working properly. I tried to take it back unsuccessfully, and had to spend hours calling headquarters and the manufacturer. I went back to the store 3 times, and on the third brought my mother with me. She yelled at the employee and manager and raised so much hell they game me another camera. This camera lasted only a few months, and the same problems occurred. They referred me to a shop who could fix the camera and they would pick up the bill. That shop told me the main board of the camera had cracked due to condensation collecting inside the camera then freezing when I took it out in the winter.

So knowing this camera was trashed, and that the wiz people would never understand why, I decided to take a strange course of action. I called the Wiz and asked to speak to a manager. I told them I fell on my camera and it was completely smashed. I said I landed on a rock and the screen was shattered, and it was obviously ruined due to a fall. I told him I had the warranty and asked if I could exchange it. He told me absolutely and bring the camera in right away and they would replace it. So I smashed the camera on a rock and drove to the wiz. When I got there I found the manager I spoke with and he took one look at the camera and said it was broken due to neglect. I explained to him that I had just spoken to him and he said he would exchange it, and I asked him why he wasted my time. He just walked away.

Next day I filed with small claims court and waited for my court date. A few weeks later I received a check from the wiz for the price of the camera less the cost of the warranty.

Any who, I am, needless to say, very skeptical of service warranties. Those warranties offered by Best Buy are carbon copies of those offered by the Wiz and similar tech stores. They make a ton of money off them and they cover nothing.

I went with my sister to purchase a laptop at best buy. The little prick salesman went in the back and brought out the laptop in the box. I looked at the box and saw the corner was dented, and I explained to the salesmen that it looked like somebody dropped the box and I wanted another one. He said it was not dropped and it was fine. "are you kidding me? Go in the back and get me another. I’m not buying this one" I told him. So he vanished to the back for about 10 minutes. Then the power went off in the store. Every employee scattered like cockroaches, and they were yelling not to let anybody out of the store, and that everybody should collect in the front where they could keep and "eye" on us.

15 minutes later the lights sort of went back on, and the little prick salesmen reappeared with the notebook and handed it off to a big prick near the service desk that would ring us up. He started to push the warranty on us and I told him I wasn’t interested. He asked me to explain why, and I didn’t want to, I just said I didn’t want it. He proceeded to give me the bullshit story so eloquently quoted by Ryan in "An actual Store Protest" in your hate-mail section. I told him the warranties don’t work and are a scam and he laughed and got real cocky with me.

Some quotes from this encounter

BB asshole: "Are laptops getting smaller or bigger"

Me: "Are you kidding" (blank look of disgust on my face)

BB asshole: "Are laptops getting smaller or bigger"

Me: "Smaller"

BB asshole "Are laptops faster or slower then the were a few years ago"

Me: "Faster"

BB asshole "That’s right. There faster and smaller- and they burn up really quickly. Your gonna have to replace this laptop in a few months because it will burn up"

Me" "I don’t want the warranty, and this computer wont overheat because the P4 chip will shut down if it gets too hot."

BB asshole "We fix these all the time because they burn up."

Me "Whatever"

BB asshole "What if a key falls off your keyboard"

Me "???" "are you kidding?"

Etc...

More bullshit ensues

BB asshole "If we can’t repair it after 3 attempts, then on the fourth we’ll exchange it."

Me: "You’re telling it will take you four attempts to fix this if it breaks?"

More bullshit ensues

After arguing with this guy to finish my purchase so I can get the hell out of that store, he starts with the software. He tries to sell me all kinds of crap I don’t want, and when I told him I didn’t want it he walked towards the back of the store waving his hand to come with him. I yelled I didn’t want any software and he kept waving his hand. My sister gave me a weird look and started to follow him, so I went too. He showed us the steaming pile of crappy software and I again told him I didn’t want it.

At this point I was ready to walk but my sister really needed the laptop. I figured this guy has got to give up and sell me this thing. Then he started with the broadband. I told him we have broadband and he started to explaining to me how my broadband was a rip off and was slow. Blah blah blah…

So between the store wide power failure and shifty salesman, it took us almost an hour to buy a laptop and to convince this jerk-off we weren’t going to buy any extras. Good riddance Best Buy. I have not and will never set foot in another again.


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