Ripoff Report Needs Your Help!
X  |  CLOSE
Report: #390162

Complaint Review: Best Buy - Richmond Virginia

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Powhatan Virginia
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • Best Buy 1560 W Koger Center Dr Richmond, Virginia U.S.A.

Best Buy Not Honoring Their Warranty geek squad liquid damage warranty cheat Richmond Virginia

*Consumer Suggestion: Good

*Author of original report: They finally made good

*UPDATE Employee: sounds like geek squad laziness

Show customers why they should trust your business over your competitors...

Is this
Report about YOU
listed on other sites?
Those sites steal
Ripoff Report's
content.
We can get those
removed for you!
Find out more here.
How to fix
Ripoff Report
If your business is
willing to make a
commitment to
customer satisfaction
Click here now..

We bought a laptop in 2005 with a 3 year, $500 extended warranty. Shortly after buying the computer we began having problems. The screen would get static lines in it. We took it back to best buy and they sent it in for repairs and tell me it would be two weeks for repairs to be done. Almost two months later we got the laptop back and the problem was not fixed. It was even worse. The computer would not boot up most of the time and we got the blue screen of death. So we took it back again. They kept the computer for another 6 weeks. The computer seem to work ok when we got it back this time.. (after keeping our new computer for 3 months).

A short time after that the volume knob on the front of the computer started working loose and finally fell off inside the computer. Not needing an external volume control I let it go. I was not going to take the computer back and have best buy keep the computer for another 3 months. The computer continued to operate perfectly. I used the software volume control instead..

The computer worked fine up until a few months ago.

Two months ago the USB ports started failing on the computer and slowly the computer started shutting off. I took it to best buy and the clerk verified what I thought was happening. The fan had stopped working and it was overheating the mother board. So we sent it in for repairs. I get a call from the geek squad saying that the computer had "liquid damage".

I have NEVER spilled anything on the computer EVER! They want $1459.22 to repair my computer. I did a search on best buy and liquid damage and found a pattern of deceit and fraud. Best buy claiming liquid damage when there was none. Hundreds of hits on Google. I understand how this works. There is a strip of material under the keyboard which indicates whether it became wet. Over a 3 year period these strips can turn pink from humidity alone.I contacted corporate and got the same answer from anyone.. With people getting ruder and ruder as I went up the chain. I can't believe they are getting away with ripping off consumers. I am almost sure that they did not even remove the keyboard from the laptop because if they did they would have seen that there is no liquid damage. The keyboard works fine.

The last person "Hayland" said I had two options. Pay the money or get a prorated refund of my warranty. The way I see it I have a third option. I will put together a class action lawsuit with the other people that have been defrauded by Best Buy company. If you do research there is evidence that this is happening on a regular basis. I have been a regular reward zone customer of best buy for years. If Hayland thinks he is just going to lose one customer over this he is wrong. He will lose thousands.

I took my computer to a guy that repairs them and he verified that there was no liquid damage. Not a drop! And the volume know would not affect anything else on the mother board. My guess is the volume knob was damaged by the geek squad techs in the 3 months they had my computer.

In these times I can't afford $1459 to fix a $1000 computer. And to be ripped off by best buy is not only unethical, it could be illegal. If I don't get some resolution to this we will have to let the courts and the media decide. There is definitely a pattern of fraud.

When I picked up my computer last week one employee just shook his head and said this happens all of the time. It is a real shame that they can do this to people.

Thanks for taking the time to read my rant.

Powhatan
Powhatan, Virginia
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 11/11/2008 01:37 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/best-buy/richmond-virginia-23235/best-buy-not-honoring-their-warranty-geek-squad-liquid-damage-warranty-cheat-richmond-virg-390162. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

Search for additional reports

If you would like to see more Rip-off Reports on this company/individual, search here:

Report & Rebuttal
Respond to this report!
What's this?
Also a victim?
What's this?
Repair Your Reputation!
What's this?

Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
3Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#3 Consumer Suggestion

Good

AUTHOR: Matt - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, February 15, 2009

I'm glad the management of that store saw fit to replace the computer, even though they weren't really obligated to in the first place. One of the hard FACTS that shows there are two breeds of management in Best Buy: The "new style" that actually puts the customer first, and the "old style" that puts their metrics first.

Oh, and Solid Snake: Not sure what you meant by the comment that Best Buy's service plans and Black Tie Protection plans were issues by AIG... they are issued by Best Buy, backed by AIG, and administered by N.E.W. Oh, and the branch of AIG that backs the plans is NOT one that had to be bailed out.

Respond to this report!
What's this?

#2 Author of original report

They finally made good

AUTHOR: Powhatan - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, December 13, 2008

I was contacted by the manager of Best Buy last week and they ended up replacing my computer with a brand new one...actually much better than the one I had. I did file a complaint with the BBB.. along with pictures to prove I never spilled anything on it.. So things are all good now. All of the calls never did any good..the BBB complaint did the trick.. The manager was way cool. I was never given his name..always some lower manager. The cool thing was the the assistant manager that brushed me off before was the one that had to check me out...

Respond to this report!
What's this?

#1 UPDATE Employee

sounds like geek squad laziness

AUTHOR: Solid Snake - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, November 13, 2008

geek squad didnt honor the warranty their aka black tie protection. sounds like they dont care about the customers.
as a geek squad agent thats lame they pulled this and the 888 best buy(which is coporates number) didnt help you.
I do encourage you to sue. do your research you will see how much geek squad and best buy have shelled out in hush and settlement money( attorney general & consumer affairs reports).

they use deceptive tactics to make their money alot of bait and switching. in which management are trained to screw the customer & get as much $$ as you can get from the customer.

so the $$ u was out of. only way to get your $$ back is to sue geek squad. oh and do your research on geek squad you will see they are frauds. who know how to lie cheat steal & defraud the public.

Also their black tie protection( warranty) is insured by AIG. hint hint hint***

Respond to this report!
What's this?
Featured Reports

Advertisers above have met our
strict standards for business conduct.

X
What do hackers,
questionable attorneys and
fake court orders have in common?
...Dishonest Reputation Management Investigates Reputation Repair
Free speech rights compromised

WATCH News
Segment Now