Best Buy Incompetent Warranty Service, Wost Customer Service Ever, Awful Testing Procedures Montclair California

After purchasing a product you would figure that if anything would ever go wrong, the problem would be rectified or even at most been given the proper attention that the product needs for the specific problem reported. It seems that once you purchase a product from Best Buy that will be the last time that you will see a smiling face.

I purchased an AIWA Hide-Away Face stereo unit from Best Buy as well as getting an EXTENDED WARRANTY due to the fact that I was going to be installing this unit myself and if anything would go bad on the unit I would be covered. Low and Behold after having installed this product in my vehicle about 5 months from the time that I installed the unit, the Hide-Away Face would stay hidden for a day or two. Sometimes the Hide-Away Face would come back so I would be able to change my radio stations. The stereo still played the last CD or the last radio station that I did change when the face was showing, but once the car would be turned off and turned back on again, I would have to be hope that this unit would have the face showing for my next trip.

Time is very crucial for everyone that has a busy schedule and doesn't have all the the time in the world. Since everyone was always smiling when I would purchase an item I figured I would get the same treatment when I would be returning a product for an exchange of the same product. It turns out that I had to go into the store to be directed to the service area and which I had to walk out of the store in the heat and all the way around to the back only to receive attitude from Scott the installer and not a second to listen to the problem.

Scott took the unit from me tested it for 1-2 minutes and determined the unit non-defective. I tried to tell Scott that this problem doesn't happen all the time and can work for a full day or two and not work the next day or two, but would not listen and told me to come back when the face hides again. It so happens that I do not have all the time in the world to be coming back and forth from my home to the store and connecting and disconnecting the unit back and forth. I then decided to talk to Judie who is the Operations Manager.

Judie was about as much help as Scott and tried to direct me back to the service department and not listen to what I had to say. I then now understood how the management at this particular store reflects upon the employees. Being an electronics technician and a supervisor for my department I do understand that electronic circuits can cause what is know as Neusance errors as well as understanding that the customer is always right.

After finally getting a little bit through to Judie, she finally decided to have one of her installers test the unit, but then informed me that my unit would not get much attention since they do have installations that they have to attend to (my thoughts are to make more sales and not service customers). The installer informed me that he would check the unit as follows:

Would hook-up the power wire and memory wire together on the tester, and hook-up the ground wire to ground. Turn off the unit, then turn it back on and repeat this 20-30 times to see if the problem occurs. I informed him that this would not be the proper way, since that is not the way that it is hooked up in my vehicle. The way that it is hooked up in my vehicle is as follows:

Ground wire to Ground, Hot Wire to on/off ignition switch, and Memory to constant power source. The technician said it didn't matter the way that I had it hooked up and would test it his way. I could not get through to him and left my unit to let them give it a shot, even though I was under the impression that they were not going to even test it at all or that would test it only for 1-2 minutes.

I returned to the store the following day only to hear what I had already heard, that the unit tested fine. Not only did I waste time in driving to this store, but I had to wait 45 minutes to get my stereo back after they told me that my unit tested fine and that someone would be bringing my unit back to me. It would have taken me about 2 minutes for me to walk over to the install department and pick it up, but they had to have someone bring it to me.

It seems as if you are purchasing a product, that is the only time you will get proper service. If you ever purchase a product from Best Buy, please do not expect to get the same service that you were given when you were purchasing the product. THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME THAT I PURCHASE A PRODUCT FROM BEST BUY. Next time I will purchase a product from either Circuit City or Good Guys before I even think about going to Best Buy.

Jose
Chino, California
U.S.A.

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