Kelli bought an HDTV from Best Buy, and the set broke in June. Now it’s almost November, and despite scads of phone calls and appointments, her TV is no closer to being fixed today than it was way back when.

She sent this email to Best Buy:

On January 2, 2009 I bought a Samsung 46″ 8 series television. I love it! In June, the motherboard had to be replaced.

About a month and a half ago I noticed that when I would turn my TV. on I would have lines that went up and down on both sides of my television. I called the Geek Squad to get someone out here to look at it. I ended wasting an entire day waiting for the third party to get here. I had told them to call me before they got here so I could make sure to be home since I had to go get my son from pre-school. Well he showed up, never called, and left. I missed him by 4 minutes! Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with the third party and Best Buy, what a waste of a day!

I called the Geek Squad that day to reschedule with the Geek Squad since that is who I wanted in the first place but, I was told when I originally scheduled my appointment with the third party that the Geek Squad was booked through November so a third party was a better option. A week later when my appointment with Geek Squad was supposed to be, Geek Squad never showed. I called the Geek Squad at noon to figure out when they would be over since I hadn’t heard from them. I was told that I never did have an appointment and that I wouldn’t be seeing the Geek Squad that day since I didn’t have an appointment. I thought I did have an appointment since that is what I had been told by a Geek Squad agent. Another waste of half a day.

At this point I told the customer service agent that I didn’t mind going with a third party I just didn’t want to go with the company that I had originally scheduled with. They found me another third party in the valley and I scheduled an appointment with them for today, the 28th. The gentleman showed up this morning, replaced the part that they thought was going out. That didn’t work, I still had lines on my TV, in the process of trying to fix my television he scratched the cabinet the TV was sitting on and then blamed me! Not only was my TV not fixed but my cabinet was now scratched, furniture isn’t cheap, I was pissed off.

I called the Geek Squad to figure out what the next step was and they told me that I had to wait and see what the manufacturer wanted to do since my TV was only 10 months old and being fixed under the manufacturer warranty. At this point I am wondering why exactly I paid for a Black Tie policy if it wasn’t even being used. I was told by the Geek Squad and by the third party that they next step would probably be to replace the LCD panel. Unacceptable!!! I didn’t pay top dollar for my TV to have a new motherboard, and a new LCD panel replaced after only 10 months. I don’t want a hodgepodge of new and replaced parts.

I called the 888-Best-Buy this afternoon to lodge a complaint. I feel like I have been given the run around by not only Best Buy, shame on you, but by your third party as well. In my mind your third party is a direct reflection of Best Buy and should also live up to your standards. When I get substandard service it makes it so I don’t want to do business with Best Buy anymore, there are too many other options for me to have to put up with this.

If you’ve gone through similar hassles with Geek Squad and lived to tell the tale, please drop your knowledge in the comments.

(Photo: The Joy Of The Mundane)

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