About a year and a half ago, my fiancee bought a laptop and decided to protect it with the extended warranty. I know that usually they aren’t good investments, but when I did my research, getting one for a laptop seemed to be the right thing to do. When it failed to work in early September, she was happy she had gotten the protection.
However, since then, it’s been a nightmare. Best Buy sent it out for repairs and four weeks later it returned with a new motherboard that, without the protection, would have cost more than what we paid for the computer. We hadn’t been home for 15 minutes, before the monitor failed, a new side-effect of the fix, I surmise. We brought it back to Best Buy and again they confirmed the problem and sent it out for repairs. Just yesterday, it was ready for the second time. We had it home for about 20 minutes this time before it froze on us… three times. I’m a software engineer, so I know this just isn’t normal. On reboot it gives a blank screen for 10-15 minutes before it decides to get to the initial Windows loading screen. It’s funny because when we took it back to Best Buy that’s about exactly how long it took for the technician to get the manager. Just when the manager shows up it works, go figure.
He wanted to run an overnight diagnostic on it, but at this point, I think it’s time to honor the extended warranty and replace it. Even if he does it get to work at this point, I want them to extend the extended warranty because at this point, I’ve lost a lot of confidence that it’s going to continue working. I expect it’s going to die the day after the warranty is done. The most frustrating part of this is that for 6 weeks now she’s been without her computer. Someone needs to come up with a loaner plan like they do with cars.
One thing about laptops is that their mobile nature makes me think they would be a little more likely to fail than say an Xbox.
The thing with the laptop is that they’d have to hold out for another 15 months. Otherwise, I’d think just like you, that they are just trying to buy time. Today, I stopped by and talked with an associate and he said that it was marked as exchange, meaning that I would indeed get a new one. I asked them if they’d transfer the data and he said that it was a $159 charge. I told them that I’d take the old hard drive and do it myself. The associate said that he wasn’t he could do that. That got me fairly mad. He suggested that I wait for the manager who was on his way to approve the exchange.
The manager said that they’d do the data transfer for free, but he did first ask the technician how much they usually charge. Why he did that, I can’t say. I don’t think it’s overly difficult, probably something that’s very automated.
Anyway we have to go back with the receipt and when I have more time than my lunch break to finish the process. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but I can almost seeing a clearing up ahead.
I recently purchased an xbox 360, but before I did I researched the heck out of the thing. I came to realize that a lot of people were having trouble with the systems failing on them. This led me to conclude that I had to get some sort of warranty on it so that I would be covered in case mine failed. I read everything I could about extended warranty plans from the main stores such as circuit city and best buy, and I found that, for the most part, they’re totally worthless. It sounds like they’re trying to fix your laptop for you, but why not just replace it already. I mean, come on! They probably have your warrantly expiration date posted on your account, and I’m sure that the employees say, “Well, if we can hold out for another X months, then he’ll have to buy a new one.” Anyhow, I just feel that the extended warranties are basically a ripoff when it comes to the major store chains. Of course, sometimes they work flawlessly, but most of the time they’re worthless. Only my opinion. I’m sure some would strongly disagree, and I’m sure some would strongly agree. What does everyone else think?
$159 for data transfer, that guy’s got to be kidding !…or Best Buy is really screwing it up for you.
I think you should scare them by telling that the disk holds time sensitive data of paramount importance to the state and see how they react. And thats not lying if they have asked you $159 for data transfer.
That’s the standard price that Geek Squad charges. The amazing part is that they just move the stuff from My Documents folder from one hard drive to another. I would have tried to scare them, but I had already gotten what I wanted.
I currently work for Geek Squad, and a data transfer is not an automated service we really have to manually transfer whatever you want. We can’t just click a button and watch it go. The transfer price of $159 should have been to back it up to a disc with data exceeding 9.4 GB of data. If the exchanged PC was available immediatley the tech should’ve transferred data for $99 with no limit of data.
We can’t just give a customer a old Hard drive so that they can do it themselfs because the computer is now propertly of bestbuy, how do we know if you will return the Hard drive?
And as for customers complaining about not getting a replacement immedialty, remember it’s called a Service Plan, not a Replacement Plan. I’m sorry if the problems still go past the first repair, but think if you didn’t have a plan, then the bill’s out of your pocket.
Thanks, but a data transfer should be an automated service… I’ve done one-touch backups myself in the past – sorry if Best Buy isn’t efficient.
“We can’t just give a customer a old Hard drive so that they can do it themselfs because the computer is now propertly of bestbuy, how do we know if you will return the Hard drive?”
Does Best Buy really care about the old hard drive? The value to them is about $10 – especially it has to be sold as refurbished. If Best Buy wants to be fair take a $30 deposit and return it when the hard drive is returned… problem solved. It doesn’t need to be used as an upsell for an inefficient data transfer.
People rely on their computers… two weeks without a computer is a ridiculous demand… what do you expect people to do in the meantime?
It’s a little like car repairs… if you have your car repaired under a “Service Plan” (not a Replace Plan), they give you a car to use in mean time. It’s not unusual to think the same plan applies.
My 2 sons got a zune for christmas 2 years ago with the extended guarantee from Best Buy. Since then he had problems and replaced it twice for a different model the first time,the second time they offer to replaced it for an ipod because they didn’t have the zune in stock, everytime he replaced it the guarantee starts again. For the extra 15 dollars not bad.
I personally never buy extended warranty I think the manufacture warranty should be enough to tell you that whatever is it that your buying is worth the money or not.
But in this case it was worth to buy the extended warranty.
NEVER buy warranty service from best buy doesn’t honor their warranty best buy does not honor their warranties
had a computer expert diagnose system = bad hard drive, geek squad said no, it was a virus and tried to charge me $100, called the genius, he said do NOT pay, that i should sue, he scanned, there were no viruses or rootkits
best buy would NOT replace my drive. the drive died within a week
My laptop extended warranty is over in a couple of days. It needs a new adapter jack, has to be sent out for two weeks and yeah no loaner plan,the screen sometimes is just blank when booting or rebooting after on hibernate and sometimes you have to keep opening and closing the stupid thing and press the power button. This takes forever, I had to buy another adapter for around $80 and they said to return it after I get the warranty customer service to send one in the mail to me. I can also have the keyboard replaced, oh yeah, the keys popped off very easily, go figure.
I’m not rough with this thing but you would think that to replace the machine would be less taxing. I won’t get that but again I would have to call the extended warranty customer service people, have them mail the keyboard and then take it back to best buy to have them install it. Otherwise I’m without a laptop for weeks. Now I don’t know about you guys but I’m in school, everything pretty much I do except math is on the laptop. My accounting is online for the homework. I can’t live without it for 2-4 weeks without a back up!
I have to get this done before the warranty expires but just like everyone else I’m busy as anything and I think they count on you just not care enough to follow through or just not be able to. It’s going to kill me but I’m going to follow through. We are supposed to get another laptop so maybe I will do that before the warranty expires and then renew for this one and send it out. I would be lost however if anything happened to them. I don’t know if it’s worth it totally but just like everything else there is always a cost.