Wow, all this crap for GhostDragon when he is the only one here sane... amazing.
Well, I know he does not work at BestBuy. How? Because I do, and I circulated a memo asking if anyone going by the name "GhostDragon" was on THG Forums talking to a kid about his Laptop PSP. Maybe the dude never reads Talkback or his email, but Im pretty sure I would of had some response since I posted this immediately on Ghostys comments date.
Anyway, here is the problem: the PSP specifically states the any replacement of the product is to "equivalent technology." That is, they will not replace a P4 computer with a Core 2 Duo. If no equivalent computer exists, then they have to give the OP a computer that is closest in tech to his current machine. Likely that will be an cheapo AMD machine, but still better than his current rig.
Eric54, stop acting like some legal badass. You are not a lawyer, you are not even employed as CS at a big box! I know you can read wikipedia, but so can we all.
To the OP: stop taking everyone's advice, I suspect some of them are just either anarchists or the people who blame corporate anything for their problems.
To get your machine fixed, realize a few things:
they will not replace your machine with a brand spankin new one that is far better
punching that LCD was not a wise idea, because the PSP does not cover damage related to user mis-use (defined in the policy as the user physically damaging the computer by his/herself).
The reason you have not had anything fixed yet is because you kept asking for repairs, not replacement.
You will not win in court against BestBuy. Do you think their lawyers, you know, the students that were better than the State Attorney in school and are now the ones who are higher paid, would allow an insurance document to be drafted with the loophole that you can sue them over this? They too have proof they have done work on your computer, and btw to Eric54, the fact that the OP was out of a computer for any amount of time while under service does not constitute anything that can be legally described as "loss of business," or any other term that says the OP was negatively effected by the time of service. After all, it was the OP who asked for service and besides, Sony is technically the one responsible for the lemon product. BestBuy cannot be responsible for a computer going bad and not being able to magically make it work when in the PSP it says that it may have to go to service and be away from the OP for a while.
So now the steps you, the OP, can take:
1. Go directly to customer service, skip GeekSquad altogether and say you would like an exchange based on your purchase of the Service plan, and that the computer is not working.
2. When they say they will try and fix it, show that it has been in attempt to fix it in four previous incidents. I will ignore that you broke the screen and defrauded BestBuy.
3. At that point, a replacement product needs to be furnished if this attempt to fix it fails. That is the only time in your instance legal action could be taken if they attempt to return the computer to you, unfixed. Because to all my knowledge of the Service Plans, if it cannot be fixed in four instances you get a new one of equivalent technology for free. The PSP money will not be refurbished to you, after all you HAVE taken advantage of the PSP.
*Note*: I am not sure if the new computer will come with a PSP on it by default, due to your owning one that led to the current computers exchange.
And now for some personal baggage, as everyone seems to unload theirs at BestBuy, I will do the same.
BestBuy should stop offering the PSP, and stop offering that stupid 30 day return policy. Right now if you buy something at BestBuy you can return it for any reason in 30 days(with the exception of unopened software and some other items, which have 14 days).
The problem is customers who think because BestBuy is some huge corporation that it will "take care of them" in ways small stores would not. Take last week:
A woman purchased a TV stand and it did not come with all the correct parts (it had to "5" parts instead of a "6" and a "5"). She contacted BestBuy and asked if WE would replace it. Why would BestBuy replace it? Its not our fault that the manufacturer did not put the right parts in the box!
Anyway, we told her that she can call the manufacturer and they will send her the right part for free, that is straight from the user manual. Or she could return the whole thing and we will give her a new one (we can send the old one back for service and either get compensated by the manufacturer or get the problem fixed). But no.
She wanted to build the stand "today," so she would not bring it back. She wanted BestBuy to take the fall for what the stand maker, Bush Industries, had done. Now why we would take the fall for someone else, why BestBuy would lose money just because of someone elses mistake, I do not know.
But we ended up doing it anyway because she bitched enough.
Or another example: A man bought a JVC head-unit for his car, and we installed if for him. Well when we fired it up, the unit smoked and burned out. So we gave him another one, free of charge, and installed it, free of charge (we were going to bill JVC for the faulty unit, which had not left the store yet). Then we installed the next one, and IT burned up. Shoot, what? So then we gave him a THIRD unit. Thats right, number three, and IT burned up.
So we said to him "listen, this is a product problem, they are new, and we have never had this problem before." So our services manager went above and beyond by giving him OUR FLOOR UNIT, of a better model! The customer had paid $150 for the unit but he was going to walk out the door with a $220 unit from Pioneer! Ipod ready! The unit worked grand (Pioneer brought tears to our eyes with its ownage), and he was happy, we were happy, hell the installer was near orgasm (he did the install the same as the JVC units and it was not his workmanship after all).
Then the dudes wife came in. And hell opened up. She claimed we had sold her husband a stolen unit (because there was no box). After an hour of "talking" to her (more like us trying to be civil and her cursing, yelling, and driving fingers at our chests), we offered to refund all the money, even the install. But we'd take all of our stuff back, the head unit, the mounting bracket, everything. And we would reinstall all the stock stuff.
Nope. Not good enough for this bitch. She wanted us to refund her money and she was keeping the head unit! Why this would ever happen in the world, where she got the idea that any store would refund the money without repossessing the goods, is beyond me. We told her this.
So then she goes outside, grabs some cardboard and writes "BestBuy ripped me off" on it. She proceeds to stand on our property and yell that to everyone that passes by. Well she cannot protest on private property, but she has all rights to do so from the street corner, as that is public. Nope, she would not do that. So we called the cops and she then took off. A few days later I saw her post on bestbuysux.com
WTF is wrong with people like that? Worse, I have to deal with them every day. I work in the Home Theater department in Liberty, MO. And everyday someone thinks that BestBuy should reward him/her for either their own neglect or we should take a shot to the leg because of something that went wrong with a TV when its the manufacturers fault. I had one woman on Thursday complain that a TV she purchased 8 months ago was not working and BestBuy would not take a return. Or sure, lets just let everyone use the TV for a few months, return it and buy another one. BestBuy would not make a dime if that was possible.
Hell, years ago there was no such thing as a return policy on a TV. You bought it and any trouble was between you and the manufacturer. There are still smaller stores in existence with this same policy: you buy it, its your problem unless WE break it while putting it in your car. People should be happy BestBuy is different AT ALL from those guys.
I really hate the people who think they buy a TV and they should get money off the sticker price, even if its already on sale. A little truth for ya: its been decades since a TV was made in China for $20. And that is especially true about Plasma and LCD tvs. Want to know how much we make on the TV?
I'll give it to you straight: the most any TV in the whole company actually makes us is $750. Thats on the Sony XBR line, and only on the larger TVs. In LCDs, the average is $257, and on Plasmas, the average is $300.
There you go, there are BestBuys margins. "Your still making $300!" you may say. Well I will tell you to go f!ck yourself if you think we are fleecing you then. We are a BUSINESS, businesses have to make money. And that $300 is not AFTER expenses either: that is just the difference between what we buy it for and what it sells for. Everyone in that store needs paid, so do the truckers who bring us the stuff and the people in the offices (the vast majority of which are NOT millionaire CEOs). We have to advertise, to market and to pay taxes.
BestBuy also offers lots of benefits, TONS of them in fact. It has to pay for employee stock purchase: if an employee buys stock in Bestbuy, the company will (at the time of sale) knock 15% off the purchase price out of its own money. So if I buy stock at $50 and then 6 months later (the maturity date, Bestbuy is not going to let you just buy and sell immediately), even if the stock only went up say a dollar, Bestbuy will refund me 15% of $50. ALL employees can take advantage of this.
It also offers 50% matching on a 401k for ALL employees up to a few thousand dollars, then 8 cents on the dollar after that. That is FREE MONEY BestBuy gives its employees for retirement.
It also offers full time employees at ANY LEVEL health benefits, including dental (ever wonder why the people in our commercials have such good teeth?). Oh yeah, thats another thing: all our commercials are produced internally, the people you see there are actual Bestbuy employees, either studying at the Minnesota Campus OR actual retail level people.
$300 a TV does not sound like a lot anymore huh? No, its not. Bestbuy makes money attaching services like our installs (which while valuable to the consumer, only cost us hourly labor) and accessories like cables or DirecTV service. And just because we make more money on the cables does not mean they are not worth it: ask anyone who has ever had Monster cables and they will tell you its worth the money. Compared to Acoustic Research, Rocketfish (our own instore brand) or anyone else for that matter). DirecTV and cable companies pay BestBuy to sign you up for their service as well: you may get $150 off a TV for DirecTV (getting the same programming and pricing DirecTV would give you directly), but BestBuy gets a $250 kickback.
All of that and remember: we do not sell 15 of these a day. More like 2 or 3.
And just try buying it for less at a smaller store. Online stores notwithstanding, some people still argue that small stores have better deals if you buy it all at once from them. Wrong. I've done the comparisons myself. Sure, BestBuy maybe will not give you a package deal, but small stores prices are higher to start, then they take off the extra money and it usually comes out roughly the same as Bestbuys lower prices already were or its HIGHER! Only in two cases in the KC area have I found small stores that would sell me the exact same stuff at a lower price for buying it all there at once. Two. Both of them only after tons of haggling.
.....
Wow, that rant was absolutely huge. Sorry, I guess I had a lot of venting to do.
they can't fix that
.
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