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Robot - 1 Best Buy - 0
Entered on: August 8, 2008 6:51 PM by RobotSpider

With an almost eerie irony, it was not 24 hours ago that I was feeling kind of like a sucker for having divulged to Bunky, Edge, and I think JayB that I had purchased the Extended Ass-Raping Plan for my 360.  I have only ever bought them twice; once on my Bravia, and on my 360.  So, I turn on my 360 tonight to start the ritual, and I have a single red light (lower right) and a multi-lingual (but no English, oddly enough) message on the screen.  WTF?!  I played it not 2 hours ago??!! 

So, expecting the worst, I put on my Teva's and my angry consumer face, pack everything in the box but the hard drive and power supply.  And yes, I kept the original box and ALL the bags and manuals, right down to the twist ties.  I'm not going to give them any excuse not to fulfill this thing. 

To make a LOOONG story short, I spoke to the first "tech", and he proclaimed that since I didn't have the power supply I'd have to drive home and get it.  I said, "You mean to tell me in this whole electronics 'super-store', you don't have one 360 power supply?"  "Nope."

Three techs, one manager, and 40 minutes later, I'm walking out of the store with my new 360 Elite.  They found a power supply after I asked enough people.  Also, the first techs I talked to said they would definitely do the exchange, but they wanted me to drive home for the power supply.  I even offered to BUY a new 360 and use that supply, and the tech panicked and said quickly "but it won't be returnable..."  I just stared at him until he got his manager, who took care of it.  BONUS: I got a new controller out of it.  Since my black one was starting to drift in neutral, that's a good thing.

Bottom line: Yes, service plans are a loser's game, most of the time.  This still doesn't mean I like Best Buy, but they did do what they said they would.  From what I've heard, you want to make sure you get the extended replacement plan, not the extended service plan.

Suck it, loser.

NEWS 554 - 4 Comments
From: Ross Entered on: August 10, 2008 6:24 AM

I'm cornfused... why didn't you bring the power supply?  I know that when you have MS replace the unit due to red ring of death, they don't want it, but if you're using another warranty I'd assume they'd want it all (possibly including the hard drive which would be pretty annoying).  Or is this just a case of hindsight being 20/20?


 
From: Swerb Entered on: August 10, 2008 10:36 AM

I'm convinced Best Buy employees have to spend a week at a How To Be A Dick seminar as part of their training. My dad just bought a laptop there, and the guy wouldn't answer his questions because he wasn't buying the 129 dollar (or however much it is) Geek Squad installation plan. Amazingly, he didn't tell the guy to fuck himself and take his money elsewhere, which is what I would have done...


 
From: Ross Entered on: August 11, 2008 7:41 AM

I agree - I keep telling my dad to never talk to the Best Buy douchebags - not only do they not know what they're talking about, they often deliberately feed you misinformation.  When I bought my TV stand, the guy didn't want to sell it to me because I made the mistake of questioning if it would fit in my car.  I had the dimensions of my trunk space ready to compare, but I had to fight him just to let me measure the box.  He insisted it wouldn't work, but after enough arm twisting, we got it outside and it dropped into the trunk like a glove.  I drove away with middle finger extended. 

It was the same cocksucker who tried to convince me to buy another TV (I didn't buy mine there but I went there to see it in person before buying online for much cheaper) - they didn't even have it turned on, because they sold so well, they were overstocked in competing models.  This asshat kept telling me how the other types and brands were so superior, blah blah blah - yet everyone there looking to buy a TV knew the guy was full of shit and just trying to make a sales quota. 

F the Buy!


 
From: RobotSpider Entered on: August 11, 2008 8:18 AM
Ross said:

I'm cornfused... why didn't you bring the power supply?  I know that when you have MS replace the unit due to red ring of death, they don't want it, but if you're using another warranty I'd assume they'd want it all (possibly including the hard drive which would be pretty annoying).  Or is this just a case of hindsight being 20/20?

The only reason I didn't bring the PS was that I have it stitched away neatly in my wall-console, all cord-wrapped and routed with the rest of the power/network/signal cables.  I only had about 45 minutes until Best Buy closed and didn't want to disassemble the whole thing.  Admittedly, it was a gamble on my part that it wasn't the power supply.  I was also going out of town on Saturday, so I wanted to get it taken care of on Friday night.

I agree with your 'F the Buy' motto.  But I still think if you know exactly what you want and don't have to rely on Team Douchebag to help you make your decision, it's one of the only places left in GR when you can actually go to buy stuff like that.  That's why, when I do have to go in there, my trips are always short.  "Hi, my name is Ricky, what can I help you with today?"  "I'm buying this, Ricky, now be a good boy and carry this to my car."

 


 

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