Consumerist
frustration
Posts Tagged “
Warranties
”
frustration
repairs
It Took 10 Emails, 4 Faxes, 40 Phone Calls and 7 Months To Get Acer To Replace Laptop
Scott in Ireland writes in with proof that it's not just American/Canadian consumers who get screwed by bad customer service. When his new Acer laptop went kaput, it took him over half a year to finally get a working, equivalent replacement—and after all that, Acer told him they wouldn't extend his warranty for the time he was without a laptop. More »
complaints
Why Does It Take IKEA Four Months To Replace A Defective Couch Cover?
Joyce has been waiting since December for IKEA to send her a replacement couch cover. IKEA admitted that the cover had a known defect, but since they were out replacements at the time, they promised to call Joyce a month later when new covers arrived. Joyce gave her information and asked for a reference number, but was told that one wouldn't be necessary. Wouldn't that have been nice? More »
ignored
Warranties: "It's Been 3 Weeks. I Don't Have Hot Water, And Sears Doesn't Care"
Reader Christina has a (broken) water heater from Sears. It's covered under a warranty, but Sears isn't willing to replace it. She's been without hot water for 3 weeks and Sears just doesn't care. More »
warranties
Dear HP: It's Been 6 Weeks Since I Last Saw My Laptop Can You Please Return It?
Reader D misses his laptop. A lot. He hasn't seen it in 6 weeks. Despite tirelessly working to escalate his complaint up the ladder at HP, he keeps getting shuffled back around to "Jim," an executive customer service rep who just keeps repeating the same old story about a delayed part. More »
rebates
The fine print on this Ice Dock hard disk enclosure rebate (PDF) offered through Newegg says, at the very end, "Manufacturer's warranty does not apply to ICY DOCK's MIR Free Promotional items." Our tipster cyberguy says he confirmed with Newegg that taking advantage of the rebate does in fact void the warranty. Has anyone else noticed this warranty-voiding language with rebate offers?
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Icy Dock Offers You Rebate Or Warranty, But Not Both
The fine print on this Ice Dock hard disk enclosure rebate (PDF) offered through Newegg says, at the very end, "Manufacturer's warranty does not apply to ICY DOCK's MIR Free Promotional items." Our tipster cyberguy says he confirmed with Newegg that taking advantage of the rebate does in fact void the warranty. Has anyone else noticed this warranty-voiding language with rebate offers?More »
warranties
It's Been 3 Months And 12 Days Since My XBOX Broke And Microsoft Still Won't Send Me A Box
Reader Dustin lives on a military base and Microsoft keeps telling him that they can't fulfill his warranty because UPS doesn't ship XBOXs back and forth from military bases. According to UPS, this isn't true. Dustin tried escalating his complaint and got some apologies, but months went by and still no box arrived for his broken XBOX 360. More »
warranties
An internal Best Buy training document sent to The Consumerist reveals Best Buy's position on the "Extended Warranty" debate. Best Buy says they don't sell those pesky "extended warranties" that get so much bad press— instead they sell "performance service plans." The document also instructs Best Buy employees on how to sell these warranties to Upscale Suburban "Barry" and "Jill." It's important for consumers to be familiar with these tactics so they are able to recognize them while shopping in a high pressure sales environment such as Best Buy. Understanding the sales pitch puts you on equal ground with the salesperson.
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LEAKS: Best Buy Internal Doc Says Their "Extended Warranties" Are A "Myth"
An internal Best Buy training document sent to The Consumerist reveals Best Buy's position on the "Extended Warranty" debate. Best Buy says they don't sell those pesky "extended warranties" that get so much bad press— instead they sell "performance service plans." The document also instructs Best Buy employees on how to sell these warranties to Upscale Suburban "Barry" and "Jill." It's important for consumers to be familiar with these tactics so they are able to recognize them while shopping in a high pressure sales environment such as Best Buy. Understanding the sales pitch puts you on equal ground with the salesperson.
More »
success stories
We Post, SONY Replaces Long-Languishing Laptop
After Daniela's SONY laptop was stuck in a warranty repair purgatory for months and a SONY tech screamed at her over the phone accusing her of warranty fraud, her story appeared on The Consumerist. Now she happily writes:Almost immediately after my article was posted on the consumerist, I received a friendly and extremely apologetic call from a Sony exec. Before even calling me, he had reviewed my case and agreed fully that they were in the wrong. He apologized and offered to have my notebook repaired immediately!More »
fraud
Best Buy Sells Broken PS3 With Mismatched Serial Numbers, Denies Return
Reader Daryl writes:"Bought a PS3 from my local Best Buy yesterday. When I got it home I found out it was broken. On boot up it would say "Need to restore hard drive, press X to continue". Pressing X would cause it to say "Restoring..." then after a few seconds it would restart, and would come up to the same exact thing, and repeat.More »
So, I take in my broken PS3 to Best Buy today, to replace it of course, and they refused to because the serial number on the console is different from that of the box. They accuse me of trying to trade back a different PS3 than the one I bought (I guess there are idiots that do that), in order to get out of paying to have it replaced. This, of course, is total crap because I bought this EXACT PS3 the night before.
costly
Consumer Reports Calls You A "Pushover" For Buying The Extended Warranty Sales Pitch
Consumer Reports makes no secret of the fact that they think extended warranties are a big old waste of money for consumers, but now they've actually launched an advertising campaign against the warranties, says the New York Times.Not surprisingly, the car dealers who sell the extended warranties disagree. A spokesman for the National Automobile Dealers Association likened the warranties to insurance for which, of course, policy holders as a group pay more than they get back to protect against the rare problem that is ruinously expensive.More »
complaints
SONY Doesn't Repair Your Laptop For 3 Months, Accuses You Of Warranty Fraud
UPDATE: We Post, SONY Replaces Long-Languishing Laptop
Daniela writes:
I purchased a sony vaio notebook 3 years ago, and about 1 year ago I purchased a sony $500 extended warranty. One day my computer was giving me a "blue screen" so i called sony to have a technician to come check it out. After canceling on me 2 times, mixing up dates, and rescheduling, I finally had a technician from Sony come check it out. He spent about 20 mins with the computer 1 on 1, and came to the conclusion that it was a failed hard drive (as did the other technician from my PC support at work). I was told to send in the computer, which I did with the box and information they provided me with. Soon after, I was receiving repeated emails from Sony telling me my estimated repair cost was $500.00. Surprised, considering I was under an extended warranty, I called Sony to clear the confusion...More »
lawsuits
Reader Sues Best Buy In Small Claims Court And Wins
Should it take several months and a small claims lawsuit to get Best Buy to take back their defective washing machine? No, but that's what it did take for reader Keith. More »
hidden fees
DirecTV Thinks You Need Protection Plan, Won't Take "No" For Answer
Brooks is a DirecTV customer, and he wrote in to warn other DirecTV customers to watch out for a shady "Protection Plan" the company signed him up for against his permission:Read Brooks' full DirecTV encounter after the jump. More »
- I was not told anything about a "standard policy" to sign me up for the protection plan upon having warranty work done.
- I specifically declined to sign up when pitched on the idea.
- I was signed up anyways.
- I received the letter stating that there would be no charge.
- They attempted to charge a cancellation fee for canceling a plan I never agreed to.
- I had to waste time and energy to haggle to get the charges off, when it really should have been a simple fix.
warranties
Wiliam writes in to point out something he noticed in the fine print of Best Buy's Product Service Plan: it begins as soon as you purchase the item, and doesn't cover anything covered by the manufacturer's warranty. If you have a one-year manufacturer's warranty and a two-year PSP, you effectively get only one year of coverage out of the PSP.
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Best Buy Overlaps Their Product Service Plans With Manufacturer's Warranty
Wiliam writes in to point out something he noticed in the fine print of Best Buy's Product Service Plan: it begins as soon as you purchase the item, and doesn't cover anything covered by the manufacturer's warranty. If you have a one-year manufacturer's warranty and a two-year PSP, you effectively get only one year of coverage out of the PSP.More »
warranties
Not Even Geek Squad's CEO Can Get Your Computer Fixed
On May 3, 2007 a reader wrote in to explain an issue he was having with Best Buy's Geek Squad. His computer was randomly shutting off and generally acting crazy. His warranty was with Geek Squad so he took the computer in for repair. Geek Squad wiped his hard drive and returned the computer without fixing the problem. More »
geek squad
Best Buy Switches Laptop Cover, Then Accuses Customer Of Fraud
Jed's Gateway MX6030 laptop worked pretty well for a couple of years, then the problems started—faulty power adapter, kaput motherboard, dead hard drive. Luckily, he'd bought a 3-year extended service plan. Unluckily, when his motherboard was replaced, the bottom of the laptop—where the serial and model numbers are located—was swapped out with one from a different model, so that when he brought it back for the hard drive repair, the store manager accused him of fraud.
He was able to "prove" that it was indeed his notebook via the sheaf of repair papers he'd held on to from the motherboard replacement—the repair description noted that the bottom of the case had been replaced. But when Jed asked the Geek Squad people to help fix the problem—either make a note on his account that the model number was no longer correct, or update his warranty with the new serial number—they refused: the technician working on the laptop said he still thought something "shady" was going on...
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