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Best Buy "No Lemon" Buyer is Bitter

By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 12:06:14 AM PDT

Many of my readers think that you're more likely to be struck by lightning than to have an extended warranty turn out to be worthwhile. But one reader who bought into Best Buy's promise of a no-lemon guarantee on its extended warranties discovered that lightning can strike twice.

In 2000, our house took a lightning strike that took out the satellite dish receiver, VCR, TV, computer modem, parallel port, and HP laser printer," the reader wrote. "When replacing the equipment with new parts, I asked whether lightning damage was covered before purchasing the extended warranty since I had only been in the house for one year and didn't know if this could be a chronic issue. Best Buy touted their no-lemon warranty policy, indicating that if anything required more than three repairs, it would be replaced."

"The Philips TV I bought failed the first time within one year," the reader wrote. "The warranty covered the failure, Best Buy holding to their word to do in-home pickup. Second failure was about nine months later under the extended warranty. Third failure came about six months later. Now, each time, the failure required about one month or more before the required repairs were completed, so this was not a very satisfying experience."

"After the TV failed a fourth time, it was time to call in the no-lemon policy. I spoke with one of the warranty droids who assured me it would be taken care of. After several weeks, called again, got the story that they didn't have all of the service records. Sent them fax copies. A few more weeks (all this time I don't have a TV, and the repair shop has a boat anchor taking up space), call again, now they only have two of the three required records -- send the third one again. More weeks of waiting, finally (note: I'm always the one doing the calling, they never provided any information or requests for information on their own accord) call again, get told that the set will not be replaced because 'no lemon; does not apply."

"WHAT!??" the reader wrote. "The records indicated that on one of the failures, no soldering had been done, thus this did not count as a repair. So, after several months of watching a 20+-year-old 19" TV, they finally authorized the repair center to perform repairs (local repair company said they had their tech touch every solder joint just to be sure). That will be the last time I ever buy an extended warranty and now, when asked at the counter, I loudly proclaim, 'You want me to buy a warranty like the one you failed to honor the last time I bought one?' Hopefully it will save somebody else some money and cost a few sales."

Has a vendor told you to go suck lemons rather honoring your warranty? Tell us about it by posting your comments below, calling the Gripe Line voice mail at 1 888 875-7916 or writing me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.

< No Shame Over Bogus Eli/New Hill Subscriptions | Roxio Takes Vista Compatibility to New Level >

Best Buy "No Lemon" Buyer is Bitter | 37 comments (37 topical) | Post A Comment

2 Laptops in 4 yrs[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#1)
by Anonymous User on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 04:33:37 AM PDT

My girlfriend swears by those warranties from best buy. She's had 2 laptops replaced because of it. Essentially, she brought in the laptop, and on the fourth time they had to do something, they said go pick another laptop. They gave her store credit for the original purchase price (meaning no credit for tax and the warranty price). She's done this twice now in the past 4 years. As the article states, it is true that they do hold onto the laptop for about a month at least for each repair, regardless of what it is, and this is dastardly annoying. Also, she purchases the accidental protection plan (which is usually like $350), not the simple extended warranty. I'm not saying it's worth it (I just bought a thinkpad direct from Lenovo), but if you are buying a laptop from Best Buy, it is still something to consider.

[ Reply to This ]

Best Buy Warranty[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#5)
by Anonymous User on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 01:27:06 PM PDT

Interesting! My brother-in-law purchased a laptop and extended warranty from Best Buy. He has brought it in for service at least 4 times now because he keeps getting error messages upon booting up that say his OS cannot be found. He has not been offered a new laptop because the "Geek Squad" cannot replicate the problem. Each time he picks up his laptop in hopes of it being fixed, he finds that it has not and has to make another trip to the store. As the original post stated, he is always doing the calling to check on status and often waits days to get a response from anyone. How can it take days for someone to press the power button and see that the machine boots up?!

[ Parent | Reply to This ]

he wouldnt fix the os[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#18)
by Anonymous User on Tue Sep 18, 2007 at 10:11:43 PM PDT

OS is software he proubally kept bringing it in asking for it to be repaired for free (ie under warranty). occasionally if you send it out service center will fix these problems if there are under lying hardware issues. this is not something covered under the warranty because it is not a hardware issue and something that could have been inherently flawed in the manufacting of his system. he will likely need an full os restore or possibly a bios update if he had his motherboard replaced. most likely he needs his operating system looked at and isnt willing to do anything not covered by service plan. just like people who think viruses should be covered thats plain stupid its software and not something the computer came with. you got them. geeksquad has seperate offices as well its not only a best buy thing but they do send out and work on things covered under warranty and service plan as much as can be done in the center. that would be a seperate service they are doing the work its not like they are magically paid to fix problem you come up with they are a service to you

[ Parent | Reply to This ]

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[ Parent | Reply to This ]

gdfgdf[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#59)
by Anonymous User on Tue Aug 12, 2008 at 04:07:46 AM PDT

ask[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#26)
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[ Parent | Reply to This ]

once upon a time, Best Buy was nice to me[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#6)
by Anonymous User on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 10:32:49 PM PDT

I bought a replacement plan for a shock resistant diskman from Best Buy once. It was before mp3 players stopped sucking, and I was supposed to be able to run with this thing strapped to my arm without it skipping. It had two kinds of skip protection, one of which had a manual switch because it ate batteries like cookiemonster eats baked goods.

Anyhow, I brought it back immediately because it skipped, and they gave me a new one which seemed to work. On the way home I slipped on some ice, fell flat on my back, and whacked it against the ground. It stopped reading disks completely. (I was fine, which is good, because I don't have a replacement plan for my head.)

So once again I came in and told them the actual truth, but they didn't want to hear it. They gave me a smile and a new player, and I walked out the door an amazingly short while later. The third device lasted a couple years until I started using other technology, and probably still would work if whoever I gave it to took good care of it.

The kind of service I got from that replacement plan probably didn't last very long. It was new at the time, and they probably hadn't yet trained their employees to be difficult.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]

Best Buy - good experiences[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#11)
by Anonymous User on Tue Jul 17, 2007 at 11:42:47 AM PDT

On the whole, I'm not particularly impressed with the general staff OR the 'Geek Squad' at Best Buy.

However, they do have good prices on occasion and I have gotten them to take their direct mail 10-20% off coupons on top of a sale priced item many times. So, my take is the price and availability (they're less than 1/2 mile from the house) outweighs the risk.

I bought a super cheap HP PC tower on closeout a couple of years ago. I normally build my own from Newegg parts, etc., but this thing was cheaper than a barebones build out, so I got it. Almost immediately, I got complete lockups requiring I pull the plug to recover. It was intermittent, but happened several times. I was past the 14-30 day window for returning it, so I let the Geek Squad take a look. They kept it 2 days and reported no problem. So I literally went behind the counter and ran browsers, games, etc. until it died. They went to the back and we did a box exchange; I got a new PC, the old one went into the box, and I was down the road. Not one problem since.

Since they sell ANTEC cases and power supplies, every now and then, they have a price that beats the e-tailers, so I'll grab a part there. In two separate cases, I've returned an OPENED power supply that failed on POST or shortly thereafter. In both cases, I was in and out in 5 minutes with a replacement...no questions or issues.

Now, none of these were extended warranty situations, but BB did take care of it in each case with no hassles.

As for myself, I don't buy extended warranties on appliances or electronics...in fact, nothing but a pair of new cars we bought this year. Even then, we typically put 100K miles (or more)on our cars before sale or trade, so it makes better economic sense to spend the money. We traded my wife's BMW in with 98K miles...and a new tranny paid for by an extended warranty...and got within $300 of the best number I had researched. Since the out-of-pocket cost for a BMW transmission was $2500 plus labor, I think the $800 spent 5 years earlier was a good deal.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]

yes[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#53)
by maderikapapa on Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 12:58:17 AM PDT

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[ Parent | Reply to This ]

Is this a re-run?[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#2)
by AnonymousUser on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 07:19:06 AM PDT

This BestBuy story sounds strangely familiar, especially the part about no soldering being done on a repair. Has it run before in the Gripe Line?

[ Reply to This ]

Re: Is this a re-run?[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#4)
by Ed Foster on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 10:01:17 AM PDT

It was posted by the reader as a comment to another warranty story a few months back. -- Ed

[ Parent | Reply to This ]

yes[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#54)
by maderikapapa on Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 01:37:45 AM PDT

What defines a "repair"[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#3)
by Anonymous User on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 08:26:20 AM PDT

So does the extended warranty agreement clearly define a "repair"? It would seem if it does not clearly state that soldering is part of that definition than the agreement could be easily disputed. I suspect any court of law would tend to find in favor of the customer since Best Buy wrote the agreement and their lack of defining what constitutes a "repair" is their problem, not yours. If nothing else you should be compensated for loss of function for the time period Best Buy had your computer when it was NOT being repaired.

[ Reply to This ]

What's a repair?[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#7)
by LasVegan on Sun Jul 15, 2007 at 07:28:39 AM PDT

I think I see what their position is: They want it to be something they actually fixed as evidence that it's a real problem. Otherwise someone could get a new machine by simply bringing it in for phantom misbehavior 3 times. Of course this causes problems when it's an intermittent like the guy's computer who sometimes doesn't see the OS.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]

Oh please....[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#8)
by Anonymous User on Mon Jul 16, 2007 at 06:42:23 AM PDT

What part of the last 10 years did this person miss? Everybody in the consumer industry has been saying that selling warranties is a pure-profit add-on by the store. They've said that once the warranty was sold the store had no incentive to follow through, because the consumers still go to the store that offers the lowest price (pre-warranty), so store reputation doesn't matter. So why, after doing what all the advisors said not to do is the reader shocked to find that they were right?

[ Reply to This ]

Let's see...[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#9)
by Anonymous User on Mon Jul 16, 2007 at 02:48:33 PM PDT

"What part of the last 10 years did this person miss?"

Possibly the part where they repealed the truth in advertising laws?

Oh, wait -- they didn't repeal the truth in advertising laws!

[ Parent | Reply to This ]

As the original poster[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#12)
by Anonymous User on Tue Jul 17, 2007 at 12:55:51 PM PDT

The reason I purchased the extended warranty was because it covered lightning damage, and I viewed the risk of the extended warranty cost to be lower than having to hit my homeowners insurance for future lightning strikes, should that have turned out to be a chronic problem. Our new house is on top of a hill and we get some fairly spectacular lightning shows. That was the only reason I purchased the extended warranty. The fact that I bought a lemon turned out to be a secondary issue. (Have been in the house now for 8+ years without a re-currence of lightning damage, so am no longer concerned regarding that issue).

[ Parent | Reply to This ]

Oh please please me[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#17)
by dmittleman on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 09:11:40 AM PDT

I have some undercoating I'd like to sell this person.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]

Best Buys Lemon Policy[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#10)
by Anonymous User on Tue Jul 17, 2007 at 11:06:55 AM PDT

I bought a computer from them. The the last repair that qualified for a new computer from them was for a heat sink on the CPU that had come off. Not only had it come off, but one of the hooks that held it on to the CPU was broken. It was just laying on the motherboard when the store tech opened the computer to check and he noted that on the work order. The machine came back from repair with the heat sink repaired and back in place, but with a repair note saying that they had checked the machine and found nothing wrong and therefore I would not be getting a replacement machine. I will never buy another major item from Best Buy again, no matter how good the deal!

[ Reply to This ]

experience at Circuit City[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#13)
by Anonymous User on Tue Jul 17, 2007 at 01:03:22 PM PDT

I bought my wife a SanDisk MP3 player at Circuit City, and I purchased the extended warranty, which was $20 extra. My wife broke the connector in the player. I called the warranty hotline; I received an RMA number and shipping instructions. Mailed it off the next day. I had a refund of the cost of the player on a gift card in 10 days. Note that if they do not repair the product, the warranty is finished. Their warranty is essentially no-fault.

[ Reply to This ]

Extended Warranties[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#14)
by ShelleyP on Wed Jul 18, 2007 at 12:11:47 PM PDT

I purchased a "Roomba" floor cleaning robot about two years ago. It came with a one year warranty and although I usually decline the offer for an extended warranty, in this case I thought it might be worth the money. After about 18 months, there was something wrong with its electronics in that it would only clean in a circle. When I returned it to our local Best Buy, the exact model was no longer available. So, they immediately asked me to go to the appliance department and pick out whatever model seemed closest to the one I had. The bottom line is we picked up a newer model and they kept the old one AND the extended warranty transferred to the new device. The entire transaction took less than 30 minutes.

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Maybe it's location location location[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#15)
by Anonymous User on Wed Jul 18, 2007 at 01:34:28 PM PDT

I wonder if good experiences cluster at individual stores and bad experiences cluster at others, in which case local management could be the real problem.

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Local vs. Distant[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#16)
by Anonymous User on Wed Jul 18, 2007 at 04:31:39 PM PDT

I have wondered the same thing. If some Best Buy stores choose to not honor the maintenance contracts for which they accepted money, they have clearly demonstrated their disregard for the integrity of their Best Buy brand. Surely someone at their corporate office is responsible enough to see beyond the bottom line and realize that the Best Buy brand is at least as important in value as the bottom line profit.

I have seen little reported on the effort to work these support issues through the Best Buy corporate organization. If they are not responsive, then the next rung up the corporate ladder is to the owners, i.e. the stockholders. Bad news on the stock exchange brings more pressure for change upon the heads of CEOs than any gripe from a company's customers.

Two good examples of stock holder pressure creating change have just been observed at Dell and Jet Blue. When there is enough groundswell of displeasure from the real owners, the stock holders, then real change will happen at HP, Sony, Microsoft, Ford Motor, etc., etc.. Now all we need is a little organization to consolidate gripes until they come out of the woodwork in great numbers such that they reflect a massive trend of dissatisfaction. Ed's column is a good gathering place to start but there are not yet enough contributing readers to create a groundswell that can be channeled toward Wall Street.

Savvy CEOs clearly understand that the damage done to their stock price by a groundswell of displeasure is not easily turned around without a tremendous effort on their part and a significant duration of calendar time.

So, who wants to play this game? The game is played with high stakes and a clear possibility of win-win for everyone. It also can be lose-lose for everyone if one of these companies tanks or is severely damaged. But right now, many of these companies have clearly demonstrated to all of us over and over again that our opinions carry no weight with their CEOs. So perhaps, this game just needs to begin without regard to the eventual outcome.

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This sounds very familiar....[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#19)
by Anonymous User on Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 07:07:05 PM PDT

I purchased a service plan on my canon powershot camera. It has been serviced 4 times. On the fourth time, we asked that the claim be reviewed for the no-lemon policy. The associate hardly listened to us, and we clarified that he had indeed requested what we had asked. When I called 2 weeks later to see what the status was, I was told that my camera was being repaired. I told them it was not to be repaired, and they said that there was nothing that could be done. I talked to several people at the corporate headquarters and was told that there was nothing that could be done since a no-lemon policy was not requested. I have recently been told by them that I have to wait for my camera to break again to get a replacement. I will think twice before I buy anything from Best Buy, and I will definitely never purchase a service plan again.

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tjjj[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#20)
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