BEWARE OF “BLACK TIE protection plan” FRAUD AT BEST BUY STORES
My wife and I have purchased over $10,000.00 dollars in electronics from Best Buy within the last 10 months or so. We've purchased 4 big screen t.v., 2 lap tops, 1 camera, 1 g phone and service with warranty. This review is about my experience with the Gphone on t mobile that I originally purchased from the Sunnyvale Best Buy store on El Camino. When I initially purchased the phone the salesperson asked me if I wanted to purchase a "warranty" for the phone. I asked what kind of warranties do you have available? He told me they had a warranty from Best Buy that would repair a damaged phone or replace it if it could not be repaired. He told me the cost would be $10.00 per month for the warranty. I agreed and purchased the warranty. After having the phone for several months and dropping it a few times, the case was cracked slightly and I was thinking of having it repaired. I called T mobile to ask about the warranty and they told me this; Your warranty is with the Best Buy store," We do have our own warranty that is sold through the store for $5.00 per month, our warranty covers any damage or loss of phone". The Best Buy warranty does not cover loss of phone, but more importantly the salesperson at Best buy never told me about the T-mobile insurance option. As I found out later, the Best Buy insurance is more profitable to the salesperson then the T-Mobile insurance option. So my first complaint is that I was misled by the Best Buy salesperson into purchasing an inferior insurance product for more money.
Then recently I called the Sunnyvale store to bring my G-phone in for repair or replacement and was told that none of the stores in the South Bay will service the T-Mobile accounts any longer, and that I would have to go to Mt. View or San Carlos to do this. Keep in mind, I actually live in San José less than a mile from the Almaden Best Buy.
(The reason I purchased my G phone in Sunnyvale to begin with is because the initial salesperson there spent about 30 minutes demonstrating the G phone to me and I wanted to make the purchase from her, which by the way, the day I went to purchase the phone, she was on lunch).
In any case, I drove to the Mt. View Best Buy and met with Matt Medina. Matt was unfamiliar with the process of handling the returns for repair or replacement,. He asked another associate to assist him, that associates name was Brain Ogata. Brian told Matt that he would show him how to handle this situation. In the time being other customers came into the department and Matt went to assist them. During that time Brian went to customer service to pull up my purchase receipt for the phone, which they successfully did.
Matt was still assisting other customers. Brian after some research told me that my insurance was the Best Buy black tie insurance, which required an up to 4 week repair period. Brian periodically left the department, while he was away I place a phone call, he returned while I was on the phone and asked me if I wanted to proceed with the repair process. I told him one second please, and he said he would return after my mind was made up. I completed my call, and he returned, I told him I was prepared to proceed. He told I would have to wait until he took care of another customer who came into the store about 20 minutes after my process began. I told him I was there before those people, and he told me that I lagged in making a decision therefore he went to the next customer.
What happened after that is interesting. Brian goes over to Matt, talks to him for about 5 minutes. Matt comes back to the department and after 5 minutes or more says to me "I'll be with you in a minute". After about 10 more minutes he returned to tell me that they will send my phone in for repair and that it will take up to 4 weeks. In the time being Best Buy will give me a loaner phone, which is comparable to the phone being repaired. It’s been about 45 minutes at this point but so far so good, the process has begun. Then Matt proceeds to tell me that "I" need to fork over $150.00 deposit on the loaner phone, which will be reimbursed to me when my phone is repaired. I told him I already paid $100.00 to date on the insurance and that I was not paying Best Buy another dime, particularly since they conveniently forgot to tell me about the T-mobile insurance which would have been better for me. He then suggested that I purchase a "GO" phone, or one of those throw away phones. Once again I told him no-way. I already paid over $200.00 for the phone that I was leaving with them for repair and I already paid over $100.00 for the insurance to date. And furthermore, nothing I was given by Best Buy indicated that I would have to fork over more money for a loaner phone if I decided to bring my phone in for service on the Best Buy Black tie insurance warranty. Then I aksed to speak to the Store manager, a young lady who only identified herself as Michelle, came over to explain to me the policy of Besy Buy in the loaner program. The policy was something to the effect “That no phone can leave the store without a sales receipt”. That is the problem of Best Buy since they are selling insurance and not relating this information at the time of the insurance sale. This is clearly Fraud on behalf of Best Buy, its sales associates and it's executives who created this insurance plan.
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