Complaint Review: Best Buy Cincinnati Ohio - Cincinnati Ohio

Don't Waste Your Money on Best Buy's Warranty

In March 1, 01, I purchased a Hewlett Packard PC from Best Buy, totaling $3000. Along with the PC I also purchased a 19 inch monitor. Because I was purchasing it for my small home-based business, I also purchased the warranty which covered both the monitor and the PC. As soon as I connected the PC I started to have problems with it.

I literally could not get on the internet and after contacting HP, they had me to delete some of their existing files that they had loaded. After doing that it ran okay, but was still very slow and I also kept receiving error messages which required me to reboot. After contacting both HP and Best Buy without any assistance in fixing the matter I gave up and started using my old PC again.

Several months later I attempted to use the new PC again and it crashed. After trying to do a restore, etc., they told e that the hard drive had to be replaced.

At that time, I informed the technician of all of the other problems and he stated that perhaps the hard drive replacement would do the trick. Specifically, I told him that the writer wasn't working They came out and replaced the hard drive but the writer still did not work. In July of 2003 the Writer still was not working and so I contacted Best Buy again. They ordered a new writer and came out and I was told by the technician that they had ordered the incorrect one.

I asked him to see the one that they had ordered and no where on it did it say what the configuration was. Consequently, they had to order another one. That particular unit came in and they installed it but the problem remained. This time they said that they would order the original writer instead of the one they put in and the phone tech said he would also order the original software. They ordered the original, came out to install it, but again that didn't work. Therefore, I suggested that since he had the Nero software to give that a try and see if that would work. The technician refused and said that he had tried everything and would not install the software.

While the technician was in my home I contacted Best Buy and told them about the problem. Immediately the phone tech input a new order to re-order another writer. He told me that they would have to do the research to make sure that they had the correct one this time. The stated that they had had this problem before and couldn't remember what exactly the problem was. I waited and waited and waited and never heard from Best Buy so I thought they were having problems with finding the writer. Also, on each visit I would ask the technician for a copy of the service request and each time I was told that I could not have a copy, I was required to sign a piece of paper for billing the subcontractor but they would never leave any paperwork.

In September the monitor went out. At that time I did not call the service repair in because I was waiting to hear from them. With the monitor going out, this would have been my 4th parts replacement from Best Buy. After reading my contract I learned that on your 4th parts replacement, your PC is considered a lemon and is supposed to be replaced. In December since I hadn't heard from them I called to inform them of my monitor going out and of the fact that my contract called for PC replacement under their lemon agreement.

After speaking to a Manager, he emphatically told me that noone was going to give me a new PC and laughed about it. I told him that I had had this PC and that the write HAD NEVER WORKED! I also told him I didn't find it humerous that I hadn't heard from them and asked him what happened to my writer order. He said that it had been canceled in the system because a technician had tried 4 times to contact me and since he hadn't they cancelled it.

I informed him that the last thing I heard from them was that they were ordering the part, and that noone had ever had any problems before contacting me so why would they cancel the order. I also told him that I have an answering machine and had not received one message from Best Buy. At this point I found it odd that they had cancelled my third replacement order even though the writer had not been fixed.

The Manager did say that he could replace my monitor and I said that I wanted to speak to someone who care about my problem and needed both the monitor and pc to be replaced. At this point I don't know what to do. I am completely exhausted from dealing with them. I will, of course, never do business with them again but in the meantime my PC is still not working and neither is my monitor.

I have a contract that is up March 1, 2004, and even though they have been out here on 4 different occasions and replaced the writer 3 times, I am not hopeful that the problem with the writer will be resolved. Now the monitor is out and I need to have that replaced.

I have tried everything but can't get anyone from Best Buy to help. I keep getting the runaround and everyone keeps reminding me as a matter of fact that my warranty is up in March. They all find it rather humorous. After some research on the internet I found a web site called www.w3.ripoffreport.com. It is basically a consumer site where there are similar horror stories about Best Buy's warranties and lack of customer service. They basically state that the warranty is a joke and so is their customer service after the sale. I guess it's their way of telling people not to shop there and not to buy the much marketed warranty.

On December 22, 2003, I contacted Best Buy's Cincinnati, Ohio, office and spoke with Stephanie Davis. She seemed to be appalled as well that I had not had anyone respond to my calls regarding service, and that my PC still had not been repaired. She informed me that she would fill out a report and have someone contact me. She said that Lynn Greco was the Manager of Technical Support. She also said that either Lynn Greco or Brian Guntor would be contacting me.

On January 9, 2004, I again contacted Stephanie Davis because I had not heard from anyone. This time she sort of snickered and said that she had filled out the report on the 22nd and was again surprised that I had not been contacted. She said that she would contact the Manager and give me a call back. She called me back and asked me what type of computer I had and I gave her the model. She then said again that Brian Guntor or Lynn Greco would be contacting me.

Today is January 21, 2004, I have not heard again from Best Buy. Nothing! I was told on the 9th from technical support that someone would contact me by the 21st regarding installing a new writer but haven't heard a thing. I was also told on that day that I would be receiving a call regarding my monitor and have not heard a thing. The problem as it remains is that my warranty expires on March 1st! Could it be that they are holding out until D Day I need help before this happens. Please help me

Terry

Cincinnati, Ohio
U.S.A.

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