Worst Buy: The Next Generation

So if you've read this blog and you've read my friend Ted's blog, you might be familiar with the angina that Best Buy has caused us.

Both he and I have had nothing but drama with their customer service.

Coincidentally, the drama surrounded problems with our plasma TVs. My drama with the plasma has been going on for over a year now. The picture on the TV has been screwed up for pretty much that whole time. At first, the screen would flicker and then go black. You'd have to turn off the TV and turn it on to the picture to pop up again. Called the repairman for that and that proved to be unsuccessful.

A part was ordered and a repairperson came by last summer to install it and it seemed to resolve the issue...until October...A new picture problem happened. The pixels weren't refreshing fast enough to the point where a couple of weeks ago, the pixels just went dead. An initial picture comes up on the television and then it literally dissolves and trickles away in a sea of green.

I called 1-888-BESTBUY last month to get a service person out to check the television. Simple enough...The repairperson (Juan) comes by to the apartment to check the television out. He orders a couple of parts for the television and says they should be in within seven days. Seven days pass...no parts...Two weeks pass...no parts and no call from Best Buy...Three weeks pass...ok, it's time to call them.

So, my roomie Scott calls Best Buy while I'm out in Florida for Thanksgiving. He called on a Saturday so they said we have to call back on Monday. I call on Monday and ask about my parts. They said that it was reordered that day. REORDERED!!! And nobody had the sense to tell me that the parts had to be reordered.

I ask to speak to a supervisor because this is really ridiculous. TERRY, the supervisor says that he is sorry for the inconvenience but can't give me an ETA on the parts arrival. WHAT?!? So, he's basically telling me that it could be days, weeks, MONTHS before I get the parts. I could go months without use of a television for which I paid a good chunk of change. It doesn't sway him. I ask if I can get the television exchanged just to get this over and done with. But alas, I'm not eligible to do this. In order to do this...

1) THREE complete repairs must have been done to the television - or -

2) The repairperson must deem the TV unrepairable

Grrr...It got to a point where we were talking around in circles. I asked to speak to his supervisor, but he had none. Yeah, right. I then ended things telling him that if I don't hear by the following Monday on the situation that he needed to have some alternatives ready.

Get a call the next day from Best Buy saying the part have been shipped and that I should be getting them later that day. That was indeed true and I called up Best Buy to set up an appointment to have the parts installed. I did so for Saturday.

Saturday morning, Juan the repairman was back and he installed the parts...All good, right? WRONG. The parts didn't help out. I asked Juan if this meant the TV was unrepairable. He said probably but he couldn't give me a definitive answer until Monday.

Grrr...Yesterday, 1 PM rolls by...no call from Best Buy....2 PM...still no call...I call Best Buy at 3 PM asking what's up with my television explaining that Juan was supposed to give me an answer about the status. The rep on the phone said that they had no record of Juan's report. I ask to speak to a supervisor. They put me in touch with Karen...who frankly came off as cold, and uncaring...Simply put, your typical steely, lifeless, soulless customer rep manager bitch who'll try to cut you down but do it with a sneering smile. * shudder *

Karen says that they can't do anything until Juan reports to them. I ask them if they can call Juan. They said they can only E-mail him since E-mail is how they communicate between departments. WHAT?!? INSANITY! I then ask if we can just simply matters by getting me a voucher to exchange my television since it's still under warranty. They then gave me the usual B.S. about the thing need three repairs blah, blah blah...

Then, just to amuse myself, I asked them what the process would be if the TV were deemed unrepairable...Well, they said that it would take THREE to FIVE business days for the voucher to be approved by their authorization department. OY. I asked if I could speak to somebody there. She said she didn't have a number and that they communicate through interoffice E-mail.

Seeing how I had to get back to work, I left it at that, got her name and number and well...this is where you come in...

In sort of a "Fight Back"/David Horowitz-tribute, I've decided to enlist all of you in the crusade against Best Buy and their deplorable service department.

Here is the number of Best Buy's customer service department:

1-888-BEST-BUY

Follow the options for TV repair. Say it's been over 30 days since the purchase.

Here are the names and extensions of the disappointing supervisors who were no help at all:

Karen (ext. 6514) and Terry (ext. 6226)

The customer rep. should be able to connect you to either of the above extensions...

Juan was the name of the repairperson who still hasn't reported back to them. And please feel free to give them a call and ask them, "WHY IN THE HELL CAN'T YOU FIX MANDEL ILAGAN'S 42-inch TOSHIBA PLASMA TELEVISION?!?"

* wrings hands *

Let the games begin...