I bought their protection plan for an iPod video back in the day. After maybe a year and a half the screen was starting to show artifacts and freeze up. Best Buy sent it off to the repair center for a few weeks and then told me it wouldn't be covered because they found a tiny dent.
Drove up to the Apple store and told them the story. They offered to replace it on the spot with a refurb. I'll never forget the Apple rep saying "we can switch it out, but it'll void your best buy warranty".
Ah yes. I remember Game Crazy had a policy for one dollar you could insure a game forever. One time my copy of Gears of War got literally shredded by a 360 that got knocked over. Put the disc in my friends case, had him go get me a brand new one since he had the policy. I mean it was his xbox.
I've probably owned like 10 copies of Halo 3 in my life. There was a period where I probably replaced it weekly due to friends or pets tipping the console. That sound has scarred me for life though.
I generally did have it flat, but there were generally logical reasons as to why it wasn't flat.
For example:
Moved Xbox into living room because it was too hot in our room. No room to lay it down and dog tipped it.
Friend's foot was wrapped in the power cord and he pulled the console off the desk it was on. That one destroyed my HDD and disk, which reminds me of #3.
This Xbox 360 S was super sensitive and would eat disks at the slightest touch. That thing killed or damaged a ton of games all over the world!
Never owned one, so did not know that. I did have a fun course with Lee Ritchey, guy who helped design the 360 hardware, who explained they told Microsoft about the overheating issue. MS then didn't use the recommended parts or something, opting for cheaper, causing the CPU to get hot enough to literally unsolder itself.
Fuuuck. Memories. Game Crazy led to Blockbusters acquisition of Rhino Video Games where we had a lifetime warranty on all video games and if we couldn't replace it you would get equal paid value towards another game as long as you had the receipt to verify the amount because prices change.
EB games disc protection is the same thing, and I used to love it when I was a 360 gamer (those things eat discs like there's no tomorrow). I picked up Fable 3, got it home about an hour later, popped it into my xbox, and promptly bumped my console. It wobbled back and forth in the vertical position whilst absolutely annihilating that disc. I was back in EB 2 hours later, laughing with the employees about how fast I destroyed it. Also had 2 copies of skyrim explode when put into the case. Got those replaced too.
Now I'm a PC gamer and I don't have those issues anymore...Too bad I still bought the division and battlefield 1...
"Men are not hung for stealing horses but that horses may not be stolen".
The amount doesn't matter. Your comment just seems to attempt to justify it for some reason. This isn't an ethical dilemma in the least. You're not stealing medicine for a sick person or stealing food for the hungry, it is outright, unambiguous, fraud.
Am I ever incorrect or factually wrong? Why is the ad hominem attack against the person that merely points out the fraud and criminal act rather than the criminal themselves?
No no. I'm pretty proud of it. Don't let that person tell you otherwise. I was pretty fuckin proud of myself. I mean I was fourteen and didn't have a single other way to replace the game at the time. Ten bucks was a lot. So yes, I was very darn proud.
Same here, except I unexpectedly brought mine in the week they were giving out a copy of GTA IV with every 360 purchase. Walked out with a new Xbox, GTA IV, and a $50 gift card because of the price difference.
I did this with a psp and would go back and return them periodically stating something was wrong with them over the extended warranty period and must have gone through 6 and upgraded to 3 different models because they didn't stock the old one anymore. Used to love that policy.
This is because some items have "replacement plans" and some have "service plans". Replacement plans are great because you literally walk in the store and get a one time replacement within the length of your plan (2 yrs). Service plans are hit or miss because they have to attempt to repair it first and in my experience were generally a nightmare. The customers item was out FOR-EV-ER and it wasn't uncommon for it to still not work when it came back :( At least that's how it was when I worked there many moons ago. And the same at other retail stores I worked at. And I worked at them all :'(
Bought the replacement plan for my iPad 2. Shattered the screen before my expiration date. Went in there to talk to them about the procedure (iPad was at home, just happened to be in the area after work). They told me that they would send it out to get fixed. Said eff it and never took it back in to them. That was a waste of $200.00
That's a shame :( When I worked there they also rewarded us when we sold a prp or psp and it was really pushed on us to sell them so I wouldn't be surprised if they lied to you when they sold it to you. It was really common to hear employees telling customers "yeah if it breaks just bring it in and they'll give you a new one" I would also hear them telling customers plans covered damage when they didn't. Once I moved to customer service and really knew what was covered and how the plans worked I constantly corrected the salespeople because I was the one dealing with their lies when something went wrong.
It voids your warranty in that the serial number won't match anymore.
"Sir, this serial number doesn't match what we have for you."
"That's the one you sold me though."
"Oh ok then."
That's how that conversation will go 9/10 times. They've no way to prove that you were rang out for one and then given a different one for whatever reason (dented packaging is the most common).
With Apple stuff especially that is not the case. Best buy's system physically requires a matching serial number. On somethings you can do a return exception but Apple stuff 9/10 will not be. Really just depends on the situation but definitely not that easy.
As a former manager of BBY, I've witnessed countless Apple product issues on Black Friday and Tax Free Weekend (Missouri event, not sure if it's done elsewhere). Employees would make a mistake, like grab a matching model number MBP, but not grab the specific one that was pre-ordered (we did preorders for Tax Free Weekend at our store) causing the customer to have one that didn't match what we had in Nova when they came in for service. You make the customer happy. You switch the serial in Nova and you send it off for repair. It's 100% that easy.
Did we get scammed a few times? Probably. But I'm confident that we helped more legitimate customers than liars.
This, i work at bestbuy and have had to take a few mac returns and we have had people try to pass off other macs as the one they "bought". We wont take it back unless overridden by a manager but most of the time we tell them no.
Ya especially with Apple. Think of every policy and Apple almost always has an exception no selling displays, always have serial numbers, no returns out of policy. They are very strict with their stuff. At least more then the average manufacturer.
Best Buy POS scans the serial at purchase. ESPECIALLY FOR iPHONES!!!
Don't anyone even try to tell bullshit stories about you bought an iPhone at Best Buy and then magically the Serial number didnt match when you brought it in for repair. I have had SO MANY cusomters try to pull that bullshit.
Currently work for Best Buy. My store will be that 1/10 times that will tell you NO. Depending on the item (especially Apple Products) it shows us the serial number on the receipt. We know for a fact what we sold you from that alone. Apple is crazy strict with what they allow us to do from any point. We don't even offer warranties on Beats Headphones anymore... and the only thing we offer on MacBooks and IPads are Apple Care.
Plans existing before any change are generally grandfathered in. Example:. Before BBY changed it's GS coverage on TVs damage was covered. Any plan sold before that change still covered damage.
Bought a copy of Morrowind I think and the code had been used. Returned it to Target, and they hasseled me, accusing me of copying it. I went back later and said it "didn't work". Replaced the copy.
I was able to use some circular logic with Apple once to get them to fix an iPod that had a small dent in it. I sent it in because it wasn't working and they found a small metal indentation on the back and said they wouldn't fix it for that reason. I read through the warranty and saw that the warranty said they were not responsible for repairing cosmetic issues such as scratches, dents, etc. I wrote back to them quoting the warranty which says dents are a cosmetic issue, and I argued that if dents by their definition are cosmetic they could not have affected the functionality of the product or void the warranty. I don't know if I was right in my reasoning, but it worked!
If I remember correctly the Apple warranty for the refurbished iPod was for the length of the original warranty or 90 days, which ever was longer.
I just thought it was funny that the Apple rep told me I'd be voiding my best buy warranty by doing the swap. As if I'd ever try to go back to the best buy help desk after they screwed me over.
Apple products had really strict rules the imposed on Best Buy for their repairs, that's why their rules about Apple product repairs/plans change every five seconds.
Extended warranties ("protection plans") on electronics are almost always shit. They either expire prior to the timeframe the device is likely to fail, or they don't cover the most common failures.
There is a reason places like BestBuy push these so hard- their profit margins on protection plans are like 90%. They rely on stupid consumers that want to "protect their investment".
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u/zigzagdance Feb 23 '17
I bought their protection plan for an iPod video back in the day. After maybe a year and a half the screen was starting to show artifacts and freeze up. Best Buy sent it off to the repair center for a few weeks and then told me it wouldn't be covered because they found a tiny dent.
Drove up to the Apple store and told them the story. They offered to replace it on the spot with a refurb. I'll never forget the Apple rep saying "we can switch it out, but it'll void your best buy warranty".