Best Buy: The Rantening
Our story thus far: As regular readers know, I have had some woe dealing with Best Buy concerning an air conditioner I bought from them mid-2005. It broke down last August, we took it in to be repaired, we didn't get it back until late-November, when we didn't need to hook it up. We hooked it up this May, only to find it was still broken, so we took it back again... and never heard from it again.
Today I went down to Best Buy to find out what's what.
And Now, The Conclusion... sort of: The guy checked our order, disappeared into the back room for about 30 seconds, came back out and said, "Geez, somebody should have called you about this ages ago. Your air conditioner can't be repaired." He went on to say that normally they would simply issue me a free replacement, but it being the end of summer and all, they don't stock air conditioners any more. So they'd give me my money back.
Well, okay, thinks I, I guess we can buy an A/C somewhere else and never do business with Best Buy again.
Except.. they don't quite give you your money back. They give you a Gift Card. So apparently I will be doing business with Best Buy again. About $402.49 worth of business, apparently. On the plus side, the card doesn't expire. That's about the only plus involved here, so I'm clinging desperately to it.
The gift card covers the cost of the air conditioner, plus taxes.. but not the $30 I paid for the extended warranty. Apparently, then giving me my money back is only because I had bought the extended warranty. Them giving me money back for a goddamned busted air conditioner was "our fulfillment of the extended warranty contract". So basically I paid Best Buy $30 to give me money back for a machine that broke while it was under its original warranty (and buy "give me my money back" I mean "force me to spend $400 at their chain"). The best part was when she chastised me for expecting any differently: "You bought his machine in 2005, Mr. Clubber, it's now 2007. The unit is two years old. We don't normally refund on units this old." Well, lucky fucking me. I'm so goddamned grateful they're giving me my money back I could just throttle someone.
I aaaaargh, my eyeballs are throbbing.
♣ ♣ ♣
In other exciting Best Buy news: Because I now have a $400 gift card, we decided to get mrs_clubber's laptop hard drive replaced at Best Buy. I had this exact conversation with Jeff at the Geek Squad counter:
ME :This is a three-pronged request: we want a new laptop hard drive; we want it installed in this laptop; we want any data recovered from the fried drive if it's all possible.
JEFF:You're looking at three weeks.
ME :Well... okay, I guess...
JEFF:You want to leave your computer for three weeks?!?
ME :Err.. no-o-o... but if that's the only option...
JEFF:It's a minimum of three weeks. It could be more. It will probably be more.
ME :Uh...
JEFF:How old is your laptop?
ME :About three years.
JEFF:It's probably too old to even take the newer hard drives.
ME :Okay, are you trying to drive me away?
JEFF:No, I'm not trying to drive you away.
ME :All right. Could you at least see if the drive would be compatible?
JEFF:Fine. Let's go take a look.
[We go to a conspicuously vacant-looking shelf]
JEFF:[smirking] It's not looking goo-oood...
[We go back to the counter, where he checks the computer.]
JEFF:Nope, just like I thought: none in stock, none in transit we aren't expecting any in any time soon. We can't help you. Nearest store with stock is... the Heartland store, in Mississauga. On Mavis road.
ME :Mavis road.
JEFF:Yyyyyep!
ME :Fucking awesome, Jeff.
I'm pretty sure ol' Jeff was trying to drive us away. He complained a few times about how backed up they were with "all this back-to-school stuff"; I think they were so backed up that Jeff didn't want anything more added to the queue.
And so, as a prisoner of Best Buy, I will now drive out into Mississauga tomorrow to drop off mrs_clubber's laptop, with the vague hope that it comes back before, oh, I'm gonna say March.
Just another example of the sterling service I continue to recieve from the folks at Best Buy.
Today I went down to Best Buy to find out what's what.
And Now, The Conclusion... sort of: The guy checked our order, disappeared into the back room for about 30 seconds, came back out and said, "Geez, somebody should have called you about this ages ago. Your air conditioner can't be repaired." He went on to say that normally they would simply issue me a free replacement, but it being the end of summer and all, they don't stock air conditioners any more. So they'd give me my money back.
Well, okay, thinks I, I guess we can buy an A/C somewhere else and never do business with Best Buy again.
Except.. they don't quite give you your money back. They give you a Gift Card. So apparently I will be doing business with Best Buy again. About $402.49 worth of business, apparently. On the plus side, the card doesn't expire. That's about the only plus involved here, so I'm clinging desperately to it.
The gift card covers the cost of the air conditioner, plus taxes.. but not the $30 I paid for the extended warranty. Apparently, then giving me my money back is only because I had bought the extended warranty. Them giving me money back for a goddamned busted air conditioner was "our fulfillment of the extended warranty contract". So basically I paid Best Buy $30 to give me money back for a machine that broke while it was under its original warranty (and buy "give me my money back" I mean "force me to spend $400 at their chain"). The best part was when she chastised me for expecting any differently: "You bought his machine in 2005, Mr. Clubber, it's now 2007. The unit is two years old. We don't normally refund on units this old." Well, lucky fucking me. I'm so goddamned grateful they're giving me my money back I could just throttle someone.
I aaaaargh, my eyeballs are throbbing.
♣ ♣ ♣
In other exciting Best Buy news: Because I now have a $400 gift card, we decided to get mrs_clubber's laptop hard drive replaced at Best Buy. I had this exact conversation with Jeff at the Geek Squad counter:
ME :This is a three-pronged request: we want a new laptop hard drive; we want it installed in this laptop; we want any data recovered from the fried drive if it's all possible.
JEFF:You're looking at three weeks.
ME :Well... okay, I guess...
JEFF:You want to leave your computer for three weeks?!?
ME :Err.. no-o-o... but if that's the only option...
JEFF:It's a minimum of three weeks. It could be more. It will probably be more.
ME :Uh...
JEFF:How old is your laptop?
ME :About three years.
JEFF:It's probably too old to even take the newer hard drives.
ME :Okay, are you trying to drive me away?
JEFF:No, I'm not trying to drive you away.
ME :All right. Could you at least see if the drive would be compatible?
JEFF:Fine. Let's go take a look.
[We go to a conspicuously vacant-looking shelf]
JEFF:[smirking] It's not looking goo-oood...
[We go back to the counter, where he checks the computer.]
JEFF:Nope, just like I thought: none in stock, none in transit we aren't expecting any in any time soon. We can't help you. Nearest store with stock is... the Heartland store, in Mississauga. On Mavis road.
ME :Mavis road.
JEFF:Yyyyyep!
ME :Fucking awesome, Jeff.
I'm pretty sure ol' Jeff was trying to drive us away. He complained a few times about how backed up they were with "all this back-to-school stuff"; I think they were so backed up that Jeff didn't want anything more added to the queue.
And so, as a prisoner of Best Buy, I will now drive out into Mississauga tomorrow to drop off mrs_clubber's laptop, with the vague hope that it comes back before, oh, I'm gonna say March.
Just another example of the sterling service I continue to recieve from the folks at Best Buy.