I seriously doubt they'll replace the battery annually. Anybody know the validity of THIS statement? They have a tendancy to lie about things like this, too.

Every now and then I go to Best Buy and hang out looking at the routers just to listen to the employees try to force feed this kind of crap down the throats of uninformed consumers. Great way to waste an evening.

They will tell you anything to make their quotas. If it's not in writing, it's safely ignored -- heck, Best Buy half the time won't even fulfill what they DO put in writing.

It is $500 dollars just check their website.... no no not that one, the "special" one.

When I bought my laptop from them in 2003, I was told the same thing... about the battery replacement, not the 500 clams price tag.

I knew how much a battery would cost, did the math and figured if they would give me a new battery every 365 days it was worth it. One year later, went in to customer service and brought my receipts and asked for my new battery. They gave me a reference number and told me to call the 800 number. Did that, gave the CSR the reference number and she shipped me a new battery.

A year later, I went back in with all receipts to get a new battery order and the kid said I needed to bring the battery so he could test it to prove it no longer held a charge before they'd replace it. So I brought in the original battery that came with the laptop... at 2 years old it definitely didn't hold a charge. So they got me the reference number, I called 800 number and a few days later I receive a refurbished battery. WTF. I didn't complain at the time, but the thing quit holding a charge after 4 months.

I didn't bother getting a new battery before my contract expired... just bought one from Ebay for much less than $500. :)

@Dick.Blake: Ya, well i just ebay-ed a battery for my laptop for $550, so THERE. Of course, shipping and insurance added another $60, but if you want a digital battery, you know... :-(

BTW...isn't there a law against this type of behavior? I bet there is a consumer protection law in most states that cover misleading a customer. At the very least it is fraud to state some of this stuff we are hearing...

That's what you get buying a computer from a TV store.

@Crymson_77: It's Best Buy. The real question is, do they care? If I need to answer that, then...

I purchased a double-capacity battery for my laptop for $85. Best Buy sales kids (and make no mistake, most of them are kids) will say anything to sell that extended warranty. Unless it covers accidental breakage, they are generally not worth the paper they're printed on. There's so many exclusions that most items will generally have to spontaneously burst into flames before the extended warranty kicks in.

@swalve: I thought it was a cable and battery store... don't they charge $20,000 for an HDMI cable?

It's a go look at the tv and sound systems, pick out the one you like best, and go home and buy it online store. I call it "Best Look." That way im sure i'll like the sound/video/etc, and I get a good price

the info the stores give to the sales people actually make claims like that. The dumb sales people fall for it and feed that info to customers. at compUSA the sales people are given "tap cards" that claim a laptop screen will cost between 600-1000 to replace and a battery around 350. This makes it look like that 300 warranty is nothing.

Damn, my $595 laptop has components worth $3600! What a bargain!!

Last month, I had my laptop stolen. Cops found it on the side of the information highway. The battery and the screen had been stripped out, but otherwise it was ok.

Yeah, I had something similar happen to me at CC when we were shopping for a DLP TV. He said the service plan was $400, and that whenever "we felt" like the picture wasn't so good and needed a new bulb, we could call and they would have somebody come out and replace for free.

Pretty good deal considering the bulbs are about $220 a piece and if you get two, it's paid for the service plan.

Anyways, I start to think and like this guy, I suspected the guy was fibbing a little b/c it sounded too good to be true. Went online, pulled up their service contract (which was in a box smaller than this consumerist window but was 28 pages in Word) for their DLP tvs and they would provide ONLY ONE bulb replacement and ONLY if it blew or became defective.

The guy was real genuine about it too, so I want to think he didn't know any better.

Best Buy DOES sell service plans that cover accidental damage.

I heard this exact same line about the $500 battery used on a customer the one time in recent memory that i actually set foot in a Best Buy, so it does seem like it may be something the kids are told to say as part of their extended warranty spiel.

Who knows, maybe somewhere there actually is a laptop battery so advanced, intricate or obscure that it really does cost $500. Somehow I doubt it tho'.

Personally, I've always wanted to just go in one of those Best Buy/Circuit City/etc kind of places, stand around and wait to be approached by one of their sales drones and then when they ask if they can help me find anything, tell them I'd like to buy an extended warranty. No product, just the warranty. I'm curious how they'd react that one.

Lol, that's great.

Next time they try to pull that, you should ask to purchase an extra battery. Refuse to buy the product without one.

One battery replacement during the extent of the service plan. Laptop accidental plans cost approx $100 more than normal plans. I used to handle the redemption of these things at best buy, so I would know. Stock batteries in most laptops at Best Buy cost about $60-$120 to replace yourself from sources that don't rip you off.

When I was at BBY and CC most salesmen would quote a $250 price tag on battery replacement since that's what the Sony batteries we had hanging in the department cost. I'd usually say "between $130 and $180" since that's what the HP/Compaq batteries cost. The same for DLP/LCD projos: when CC changed the plan to only cover one bulb, I started telling customers "we cover one bulb replacement" rather than advertising limitless ones. I did as well as any of my coworkers on selling service plans; sometimes a little honesty works just fine.

i bought an open item laptop there for 75$.

they told me that if i could find a battery it would run me around 200$ possible i figure if i ordered it from the vendor.

i still don't have a battery for it. but it works just fine plugged into the wall.

When I worked for the company, we would search for replacement parts from this site: [bestbuy.partsearch.com] So, for instance, if we found 3 batteries available for a cellphone/pda/laptop, we would take the cheapest, OEM "equivalent", and use that as the replacement battery. As far as I remember, we could do one battery per year of the service plan...

I am SO glad I have a MAC. Batteries for MACS are only $119.

Except of course if you purchase them from Best Buy.

Then--Five hundred.

@swalve: See, and I want to buy a TV from a grocery store, so it all works out.

They over-value the price of the battery, but last I checked, Best Buy will replace the battery under the service plan. As long as there are no limits to the replacements during the plan duration, the plan is actually a pretty good deal... on laptops anyway.

Extended Warranty's are mostly a joke. Just read the "fine print" details and you will see. Because I like to sue companies in small claims court that try to screw me, I carry one of those small voice recorders to record every word that is said to me whether in person or on the phone.

Is it legal. I have know idea. But when I send the certified letter announcing my intentions to sue the company for unfair businesses practices, I tell them I have a recording from the salesperson and even if it is illegal, I would rather let a judge make that decision when we appear in court.

I always receive a letter or phone call with a settlement offer.

Most warranties, including extended warranties only cover 1 year on the battery. And replacement batteries should cost around 75 smackers. 500, that's funny.

while i expect a certain level of snarkyness & general hating of big boxes, i do expect things to be balanced out somewhat by actual fact. that being said, i actually find the 'Many Best Buy managers used to work at Domino's and McDonald's so this type of behavior is understandable' a bit offensive. and almost out of line. seriously, why the hell am i sticking up for best buy (and mcdonalds?!) maybe its too early in the morning. or maybe some people have to take a shitty job from time to time. however, i think the line between making jokes & actual unnecessary hate has been crossed. do you guys also think just because a lot of big box managers / employees are different colours & ethnicities your car is going to get stolen in the parking lot? come on, give me a damn break. how about some REAL issues being discussed for a change. . .

@homerjay: I used to be a instore tech supervisor/manager. When I was there, it was up to the technicians at the counter to determine battery was bad or not. We felt bad for most of the people that came through the door who said "my salesman told us we can say the battery is bad and we will get a new one". A service plan for 249.99 (as I dont know what they are going for now) got you a battery that was made by a thrid party company and not branded like you would find getting a brand new battery. But it is true, at least when I was there, management does tell sales people to make it seem like batteries are expencive for laptops and if they ask to see the price of one, to go to a site and show them a double capasity battery and not let them know that is what they were looking at.

I used to work there and managers and supervisors would tell us to tell them similar things. With margins on products like computers so low Best Buy was always digging for more cash. I try to never by these things. If something is that broke then its probably just best to replace it with your own cash or quiet buying them.

Props to Consumerist for plugging NewEgg.

@3ZKL: Whoa. No one said anything about race. When I picture these liars, I always think of the one who told me I needed to buy printer cartridges right then and there because the ones in the box were samples that would run out after ten sheets. I knew it not to be true, and it wasn't. White kid, maybe twenty. I don't think it's much excuse that they're told what to say, if in fact they are. If they're not knowledgeable enough to know when they're being fed bad information to rip people off, they aren't knowledgeable enough to be selling electronics. Period. Ethnicity is not a factor. And I daresay that if my car were stolen from the parking lot, my insurance company would treat me better than Best Buy's service department would after they'd ripped me off. That would be why I don't shop there anymore.

I used to work at Radioshack back in the 90's and this was the one reason why their service plans were worth it. Well for cell phones anyways. Before they had a lot of LI cell batteries the Nickel Cad's would go out in about 6 months and would cost around $60. If you had a service plan we would give you a new battery once a year for 3 years.

I went to the Best Buy in Bel Air to drop off my laptop for repair and didn't get it back until over a year. I guess they haven't changed in the 3 years since.

My wife and I like to set an over/under on how many minutes into the sales pitch the BB kid will switch from talking about how great the gizmo is (to sell it) to talking about how it'll fall apart in six months (to sell the extended warranty for it). Then we tell him/her that if the quality is that bad, we don't want it.

It's cheap entertainment.

Ahhh yes, Best Buy and their "batteries". They tried this on me when I bought my Toshiba laptop a year ago. The sales drone offered a service plan that included a free battery replacement after 1 year. Ok cool. So I decided to ask a few questions about this "free" battery. Here's what I found out:

You have to bring you Laptop back to Best Buy so they can "check" the Battery. How do they check the Battery you ask ? They send it out. Not the battery mind you but the entire laptop. It is gone for a minimum of 2 weeks. If (notice the term "if" here) they determine that your battery will not hold a charge (of course they do not tell you what the percentage of charge determines if a battery is replaced or not), they will replace it. Otherwise you laptop is returned to you with the same battery. If they replace the battery, they will use a OEM battery and NOT the Manufacturer's original battery. You get to repeat this wonderful experience over-and-over until you finally get the replacement battery.

As for the price, yeah they tell you that a replacement battery will cost you about the same amount as the service plan BUT they will clean your laptop every time you bring it in !!! Woot! Oh yeah, now for the bad news: they will, in fact clean your laptop *only* if you leave it with them.

Being that the internet is my friend, I did a look-up on the interwebs to find out exactly how much it would cost me to replace my battery. I found out the average price was about 120.00 dollars for a battery. Mind you that Best Buy wanted 250.00 dollars for their service plan (but they will clean your laptop you cry!!!).

Whenever anyone asks my advice about buying a computer (or any electronics for that matter) I tell them to absolutely DO NOT BUY THE *#&$%@ SERVICE PLAN !!!! IT IS A RIP-OFF!!!

Of course some do not heed my advice and 20 years experience in the IT business and go forth to buy the service plan. These rubes deserve everything they get from Best Buy. But hey! at least their machines will be clean right ?

Just checked the battery price for my laptop (Sharp Actius AL-27.) The price on-line is $69 plus $13.50 shipping. The original battery stopped holding a charge after two months. Thank God I use mine as a desktop so it is always [plugged in when I'm using it.

Just wanted to put in my 2 cents about newEgg. I will never use them again. I tried to buy parts for two computers, one for me and one for my wife. It took months for all the parts to arrive, most of them arrived broken, and newEgg doesn't pay return shipping. the "replacement" parts that they sent me were the same parts I sent back to them (I marked them with an invisible ink pen), and they wouldn't pay return shipping on that either. I ended up paying hundreds of dollars extra and waiting a couple extra months because they can't ship working computer parts.

I always go to Fry's. Even though they're incompetent morons for the most part, at least I can force them to test the devices before I buy them.

@Bobg:

That's most likely why your battery couldn't hold charge. By always using it plugged in, you never allow the battry to drain to empty and it probably developed a charging memory effect as a result. Its a laptop, use it on a battery or remove the battery if you use it plugged in all the time.

why the props for newegg.com? i've had horrible experiences with their customer service, and you know about those experiences, ben. don't give out props to a company that so willingly screws their customers, too!

I can replace the battery in my dell laptop for $129, direct from Dell. Which is better than my old Dell laptop, which used two batteries for the same operational time, at $89/ea.

Also, most laptops now use Lithium-Ion batteries, which do not have a memory issue, and many laptop charging circuits have a method of working around this as well.

I worked for a battery store and in order for them (the owner) to make a profit and then make another profit on top of that profit, and then make another profit on top of that profit, and then... oh you get the idea... they overcharged at least 300%.

Check out resellerratings.com. Newegg has a 9.91/10 6 month rating. I've personally spent over $4k with them since ~2002 and never have been disappointed. But my experience aside, overall I'll take the aggregate view that they are a top retailer over a few anecdotes. Fry's, for example, has a 6.58 rating.

An OEM LiOn battery should last for about 3 years if you take care of it. LiOn doesn't have memory, but they will self discharge if they sit on the shelf and go unused for long periods(this can cause the safety circuitry to open the FETs in a self protect mode). So if you have 2 packs, alternate using them to keep them healthy! The best way to keep your battery in good condition is to occasionally (a few times a year) run them down and let the gas gauge IC inside the pack reset it's internal counter as to how much charge the cells can hold(this helps your little windows gas gauge's accuracy). That being said, LiOn is superior to Nickel based batteries but it will still eventually wear down and hold less charge over time. So if you plan to keep your laptop over 3 years you will probably end up buying a new pack, which you can usually buy an OEM certified one from your laptop manufacturer for much less (cost, time, frustration, etc) than from BB or CC. Always avoid generic LiOn packs, they're cheap because they often skimp on the safety IC that prevents the pack from melting down... So as others have said avoid their service plans, if something is going to fail, it'll probably happen in less than a year and the manufacturer will cover it, after a year go to the manufacturer directly and you'll probably get the best cost on repairs.

I found a couple things at best buy on clearance or with coupon deals that beat Newegg / Tigerdirect by A LOT. Just be a smart shopper and do price comparisons before you go into the store, and if you happen to have a web enabled cell phone, do a price check directly with the shelf price while you're there. Hell, even get them to check the price at the register before they ring it up.

Point being, Best Buy isn't ALWAYS evil, but a lot of the employees are certified brain dead, idiots, or zombies that just repeat whatever they are told to repeat. Most likely with good reason - they would like to keep their jobs.

@homerjay:

No, that is a lie. There is no money in itfor them to replace them every year whenever a customer wanted. Batteries don't cost $500, but in the bare minimum $40-$50. I doubt Best Buy would absorb such a cost. If it was true, they would never be replacing them with new batteries, but just old ones they removed previously and refurbished.

Most warranties allow for a single battery replacement throughout the entire term of the warranty. Even if they cover more, they are not going to be new unless they are third party. And yes, they will place stickers to make it seem like it is not.

@lax2prg:
and
@ManiacDan:

First of all, you are some of the few according to:
[www.resellerratings.com]

Second, items received broken tend to be the shipping carrier. As for return shipping, I ordered an entire computer, (not assembled) from Newegg. Only one thing did not work, that was one of the hard drives. I contacted Newegg, they sent me a pre-paid label. If an item is received DOA, they will step up and take care of it.

If you wait days or weeks on end and then something breaks, you can't expect them to pay for return shipping, almost no company ever will do it at that point.

As for them shipping you the same parts back, the chance of that occuring is slim to none, it could be seen more as a ranting lie. You can tell what is not new because it is not sealed. Newegg only ever replaces items with new items, I know this because I have had them replace items.

When it comes to returns, they do a good job. I attempted to return an item direct back to the manufacturer, could never get in contact by them via email or phone. With Newegg, no problem.

When it comes to malfunctioning parts, you need to take into consideration that these are how they come from the manufacturer. THey are not pre-tested, Fry's don't pretest them, nor does anyone else without some special fee. Going to a local store you might get a chance at that, but they are not going to test things like motherboards, perhaps simple stuff if you got a nice manager, but this seems more along the lines of your previous ranting lies.
Sure Newegg may not be the best company in the world, but I have had nothing but good overall experiences with them. I have bought computer components, a TV, game consoles, and various other cables and accessories. Sure there have been issues, malfunctioning component here missing item there, but I just call up Newegg and the issue is alleviated without any headaches.

But, a company can not satisfy everyone. There will always be those that scream and yell for something, and if they don't get it, they whine and complain later.

Wow, I didn't know laptop batteries would fail like that. I bought my Compaq laptop in Fall '03 and what was drilled into my head was that the screen was going to fail (Yes, I bought from BB). I never took it in to be serviced, although the screen did get fluky about a month after my warranty ran out - then it started working again two months later. My battery doesn't hold the charge as well as it used too, but it's not really a big deal.

Best Buy told me the same thing and that the screen was half the cost of the laptop.
So I got a $1100 laptop. $500 for the battery, $550 for the screen. The rest of it costs $50?