Best Buy Price Match Bullsh!t:

[LonghornXP]

The wife is she enrolled when she got her laptop, for the extra $9 we got back 120 in reward coupons we got back $50.

The reward zone is a pretty good deal and on this purchase above I got 175 bucks back exactly. I should say I will be getting back. At least now the reward zone allows the coupon to be sent via email in about 30 days instead of waiting 6 weeks for the mail coupons.

 

[CWS_kahuna]

Is anyone a member of Best Buy Rewards Card ?

I do have the rewards card. I buy most of my DVDs & CDs at Best Buy so every so often I will have a coupon from the rewards program. I try to avoid major purchases there if I can. The other major store near me for DVDs & CDs is Circuit City and that store is even worse than my local Best Buy.

I can't believe they don't pricematch their own online store though.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok as I posted earlier my man home computer died over the weekend.

The Medion Brand is only sold by Best Buy here in the US. I called Medion Support and was told to bring it down to my local Best Buy and they would take care of the problem for me.

So I went down to Best Buy and took my machine.

Went over to the "Geek Squad" service Desk. Put down my pc on the counter. The person came over and asked me what the problem was, so I explained it to him. Then he asked me for my receipt. I explained to him I purchased it from Best Buy Online and did not get a receipt.

He told me that without a receipt he could not help me. And he also told me they do not support purchases made from BestBuy Online. I told him this was bull sh*t as the computer has the 1 year Best Buy support included with it.

He told me I would need to contact corporate and get them to issue them an email for permission for them to work on it. He said this happens all the time and they will get permission in 7 to 10 working days.

I blew my fuse and started yelling. A couple and their older kids were next to me talking to a sales guy about buying a computer. I started yelling out "Why do you guys sell stuff you don't support, its even on your owne extended warranty and you won't honor it, I would NEVER buy another computer here again." The couple heard me stopped talking to the best Buy Guy and left, walking by me and thanked me for warning them.

Next thing I heard over the loud speaker was "MOD to customer support center stat."

Over to me came the store manager (in no time flat) here was some 24 year old kid. Who told me sorry sir, we can not help you without a reciept, how do we know you purchased it here? I asked him if he knew ANYTHING about the products they sold, he looked like he wanted to kill me I explained to him that they were the only place in the United States that sold Medion Computers. He said he did not know that and that he would need to call corporate.

By the time he was done flapping his lips I already had corporate on the phone. I explained to corporate what the problem was and they asked to speak to the manager.

The manager was red faced. And got off the phone with me and appologized. He did not know that it was a best buy only product. He then told me they do not service these PC's there, that they send them out to some place in New Jersey. He told me the adverage turn around time was 2 to 4 weeks.

I then asked the manager if I could speak again to a tech. I explained to him what the problem was and explained I thought it was a video card issue. The manager was trying to be friendly to me and said he would send over his best tech. The tech came over and we went to work on my PC with the manager watching in the backround the entire time.

Again I explained the problem and the tec hooked up the computer to a keyboard mouse and monitor. One long beep emitted from the computer. The lead tech said it was a memory problem or a video problem. I explained to him I thought it was a video problem, because when I got up I was hearing the sounds of getting email but had not video. I asked him if if he had a video card we could try, he popped mine out and said he did not have a PCI Express Card to test in it. But got another Old video card popped it in and the computer booted.

The tech told the manager it was a video card problem and the manager said see what we can do to get him a new video card. He got on the phone and the tech was not happy. He then wispered to the manager and the manager got on the phone and started yelling at whoever was on the other side... He kept on saying that solution is unacceptable is there anything we can do for this customer.

After a few moments the manager came over to me, he said that they no longer have the Nvidia 5200 card so they can't swap it out for me. They would have to send the card in to corporate then corporate would need to send the video card to germany for testing by Medion, and if they found a problem with it the card would then be sent to Nvidia who would send it to Medion who would send it to corporate who would then send it to the store. Total turn around time was 6 to 8 weeks.

So then I asked if they had any PCI Express Video cards in stock and was there anything they could do for me.

They only only had 2 card to choose from, 1 being another NVIDIA (6600 Series) and a ATI Card. I chose the NVIDIA http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6970968&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01151&id=1099392683173

The cost of the card on the shelf was $249. The manager gave me some kind of discount and was very appologistic, I paid like $220 for it when all was said in done after taxes.

So advice is do not get any major items from Best Buy and use their Extended Warranty program. Its NOT worth it.

 

[Neutron]

You shouldn't have had to buy the video card. That right there was Bullsh!t.

Sorry to hear that you had that bad of an experience but it happens everywhere, which is very sad. I've toyed with the idea of opening up a shop and if something like this were to occur you can bet I would have taken care of it right away instead of making excuses.

What did the sales guy who was helping that couple do after they left? I would have loved to see that.

 

[riffjim4069]

Total turn around time was 6 to 8 weeks.

Of course, by the time it returned your extended warranty would have expired and they would have held your PC hostage. Seriously, Best Buy has for a long time been on my Top 10 List of Places to Avoid.

 

[LonghornXP]

Well I can say that Dell and Apple onsite support is very good. Now I got around the Apple protection plan in Florida because I bought it as a business user which I am. When I had the watercooling on the G5 Powermac break as in freeze dry all the key components the onsite tech issued me a form that I could bring into an Apple store to get a replacement PowerMac G5 at the same price I paid. So I ended up getting a better Mac but that to me was great support. All it took was a trip to Apple. Oh and the onsite tech said that in these cases when repairs just can't be done and that a replacement is cheaper and easier for them they don't bother sending a new one by mail when you have a local apple store close by. The Apple Store was very nice and said sorry many times about the watercooling problem and they offered me a 25% discount on any computer over 999.99. So I took them up on that and got a powerbook which I got 500 bucks off in addition to the replacement. I just can't say how great they are and that discount got them a 2 grand sell they wouldn't have got.

Oh and I love the PowerBook and they still don't know why the watercooling snapped and broke on the PowerMac.

 

[John W]

I am a stockbroker by trade but my hobby is computers. I started out just fixing for friends but eventually got tired of doing stuff for free. I finally started charging $75 / hour min and did some work for the building management that I work in because their IT guy couldn't be there till the next day. They liked what I did and would refer people in the building to me. I always like a challenge and would jump on projects that presented challenges. I would turn away work (always calling a fellow IT guy to pick it up) if I couldn't make enough money or it was not a challenge. I make an extra grand every month for very little work. With idiots at places like BB my clients have no problem paying a premium to get good work done and done when they need it. It probably helps that I don't spread myself too thin. while I am working on the computers there is always a lot of downtime and I can run back to my office on the top floor and continue with my trading. Of course I always have my laptop with me so that I can work from any location anyway.

Basically these BB idiots keep those of us who want to give quality work in business

 

[John W]

Back to the original subject of the thread. I had a similar experience with CC. I was buying a Pioneer Avic N1 DVD, GPS, XM etc head unit for my truck. They had it for $1999 in there store but $1799 on there website. They refused to match the price so I went over to one of their computers, ordered for instore pickup and got the price. Now that is just stupid

 

[kbohip]

Ok as I posted earlier my man home computer died over the weekend.

The Medion Brand is only sold by Best Buy here in the US. I called Medion Support and was told to bring it down to my local Best Buy and they would take care of the problem for me.

So I went down to Best Buy and took my machine.

Went over to the "Geek Squad" service Desk. Put down my pc on the counter. The person came over and asked me what the problem was, so I explained it to him. Then he asked me for my receipt. I explained to him I purchased it from Best Buy Online and did not get a receipt.

He told me that without a receipt he could not help me. And he also told me they do not support purchases made from BestBuy Online. I told him this was bull sh*t as the computer has the 1 year Best Buy support included with it.

He told me I would need to contact corporate and get them to issue them an email for permission for them to work on it. He said this happens all the time and they will get permission in 7 to 10 working days.

I blew my fuse and started yelling. A couple and their older kids were next to me talking to a sales guy about buying a computer. I started yelling out "Why do you guys sell stuff you don't support, its even on your owne extended warranty and you won't honor it, I would NEVER buy another computer here again." The couple heard me stopped talking to the best Buy Guy and left, walking by me and thanked me for warning them.

Next thing I heard over the loud speaker was "MOD to customer support center stat."

Over to me came the store manager (in no time flat) here was some 24 year old kid. Who told me sorry sir, we can not help you without a reciept, how do we know you purchased it here? I asked him if he knew ANYTHING about the products they sold, he looked like he wanted to kill me I explained to him that they were the only place in the United States that sold Medion Computers. He said he did not know that and that he would need to call corporate.

By the time he was done flapping his lips I already had corporate on the phone. I explained to corporate what the problem was and they asked to speak to the manager.

The manager was red faced. And got off the phone with me and appologized. He did not know that it was a best buy only product. He then told me they do not service these PC's there, that they send them out to some place in New Jersey. He told me the adverage turn around time was 2 to 4 weeks.

I then asked the manager if I could speak again to a tech. I explained to him what the problem was and explained I thought it was a video card issue. The manager was trying to be friendly to me and said he would send over his best tech. The tech came over and we went to work on my PC with the manager watching in the backround the entire time.

Again I explained the problem and the tec hooked up the computer to a keyboard mouse and monitor. One long beep emitted from the computer. The lead tech said it was a memory problem or a video problem. I explained to him I thought it was a video problem, because when I got up I was hearing the sounds of getting email but had not video. I asked him if if he had a video card we could try, he popped mine out and said he did not have a PCI Express Card to test in it. But got another Old video card popped it in and the computer booted.

The tech told the manager it was a video card problem and the manager said see what we can do to get him a new video card. He got on the phone and the tech was not happy. He then wispered to the manager and the manager got on the phone and started yelling at whoever was on the other side... He kept on saying that solution is unacceptable is there anything we can do for this customer.

After a few moments the manager came over to me, he said that they no longer have the Nvidia 5200 card so they can't swap it out for me. They would have to send the card in to corporate then corporate would need to send the video card to germany for testing by Medion, and if they found a problem with it the card would then be sent to Nvidia who would send it to Medion who would send it to corporate who would then send it to the store. Total turn around time was 6 to 8 weeks.

So then I asked if they had any PCI Express Video cards in stock and was there anything they could do for me.

They only only had 2 card to choose from, 1 being another NVIDIA (6600 Series) and a ATI Card. I chose the NVIDIA http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6970968&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01151&id=1099392683173

The cost of the card on the shelf was $249. The manager gave me some kind of discount and was very appologistic, I paid like $220 for it when all was said in done after taxes.

So advice is do not get any major items from Best Buy and use their Extended Warranty program. Its NOT worth it.

For all the reasons above and more, I'm SOOO glad I build my own computers. Scott, thank you for saving those two poor souls from buying from Bad Buy.