Best Buy return policies on broken LCD's

[Trevante]

A while ago, my friend got in on the Best Buy deal where they had an Acer AL2223W for $189. He bought two, and said he'd sell the other one to me. Fast forward a month and some days later, I finally buy the monitor from him.

I bring it home and decided I'd wait until the next day to hook it up since I was moving back to my dorm tomorrow anyways. But I decided to take it out and hook it up and lo and behold, there's a crack on the screen and I can't see anything except for maybe an inch on left side of the screen.

Now the receipt says that BB will only take back monitors within 14 days, and the fact that it's damaged doesn't bode well for me being able to get my money back. Has anyone been in a similar situation or have any insight as to what I could do/say to help ease the situation? I definitely don't wanna be screwed out of my money and I don't want to have to tell my friend to take the monitor back and give me back my money....

EDIT: they took it back, look on pg2

 

[MyThirdEye]

You're screwed.

 

[JJWalker]

Screwed.

 

[mooglemania85]

Get your $ back from your friend. or see if he'll go halfsies, since there is no way Best Buy is providing a refund.

 

[RossMAN]

You're definitely screwed.

Wasn't there a story about a guy buying something expensive from BB, came home and there was a brick inside? He went back to BB, freaked out and the cops were called?

 

[tatteredpotato]

Your friend definitely should have opened the thing.

If he wasn't your friend I'd demand a refund, but since he was trying to do you a favor I'd try to get him to split the difference.

You could always TRY to return it, just explain yourself and they might be forgiving.

 

[wetcat007]

Buy another new one, and then put this in that box and return it.(lol can't say I condone this) Although I'm not sure if they'll accept it for a cracked screen anyhow?

 

[chris7b]

If it was paid for by CC, you might be able to contact them for a solution. It was your fault for not checking before you paid, but it was your friends fault as well for not checking when purchased.

 

[0roo0roo]

school of hard knocks, never delay like that

 

[dethman]

Originally posted by: amjohns5
You're screwed.

 

[Captante]

I would talk to your friend & have him try to return it to Best Buy since he was the original purchaser ... if he's nice about it they may work with him to get the issue resolved

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: mooglemania85
Get your $ back from your friend. or see if he'll go halfsies, since there is no way Best Buy is providing a refund.

This is your only chance. Not accepting cracked LCDs for returns is a standard policy unless the thing came right out of the box within the time period that the company specifies. In the case of Best Buy, it is 14 days and they will stand behind it.

Then again, there is a first time for everything. The worst thing that BB can do is say no so I say go for it. Have your friend try to exchange it and tell him to bring a hot girl with him so the rep has something nice to look at. I know that is shallow, but you would be shocked how that could change the outcome if you catch the right rep.

 

[BKLounger]

Originally posted by: wetcat007
Buy another new one, and then put this in that box and return it.(lol can't say I condone this) Although I'm not sure if they'll accept it for a cracked screen anyhow?

can't do that anymore. Usually they will compare the serial number on the box to the serial on the monitor and the serial on the receipt and when they don't match they'll tell you to punt.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

S-C-R-E-W-E-D

 

[Capt Caveman]

Nothing to lose to have your friend try and get a replacement at BestBuy. Next try to get a replacement thru Acer.

 

[Roguestar]

IF, and only if it was damaged when your friend bought it and has not been used since, then you have a case to bring the monitor back as it was not sold in merchantable quality. HOWEVER, if it was fine when he bought it and it was he or you or someone subsequently who has damaged it then you're screwed, as helpfully mentioned by those above.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: BKLounger
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: wetcat007
Buy another new one, and then put this in that box and return it.(lol can't say I condone this) Although I'm not sure if they'll accept it for a cracked screen anyhow?</end quote></div>

can't do that anymore. Usually they will compare the serial number on the box to the serial on the monitor and the serial on the receipt and when they don't match they'll tell you to punt.

This is true but I have heard of others getting away with swapping the serial number sticker on the hardware itself and then returning it. Sometimes they don't bother with all three of the above and only check two of them since the serial on the receipt and the box is the same. I know a lot of the stickers are designed so you can;t do that without it looking really obvious, but I guess some companies go the cheaper route lol

 

[magnux]

Was the box still factory sealed when you got it from your friend? If so, you need to ask yourself how good of a friend he is and proceed accordingly.

 

[tasmanian]

With bb being a horible company i doubt you will get your money back.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: tasmanian
With bb being a horible company i doubt you will get your money back.

I think it's funny how many people here accuse Best Buy of being a horrible company with draconian policies. Yet many of those same people sell on eBay and have far more restrictive policies than Best Buy.

If you sold something to someone, and more than 2 weeks later they came to you and said they JUST opened it and it was broken, would you believe them? Or would you assume they broke it and are trying to make you pay for their mistake?

It's unfortunate that the OP is probably going to lose his money here.

 

[imported_Mike]

Originally posted by: mugs
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: tasmanian
With bb being a horible company i doubt you will get your money back.</end quote></div>

I think it's funny how many people here accuse Best Buy of being a horrible company with draconian policies. Yet many of those same people sell on eBay and have far more restrictive policies than Best Buy.

If you sold something to someone, and more than 2 weeks later they came to you and said they JUST opened it and it was broken, would you believe them? Or would you assume they broke it and are trying to make you pay for their mistake?

It's unfortunate that the OP is probably going to lose his money here.

Best Buy has a record of every single thing you've purchased unless it was with cash and under a certain amount. So when you want a little bend in the rules b/c you feel you've been loyal and they hang you out to dry? It doesn't make you all warm and fuzzy inside.

If someone buys 10+ things from me on ebay and on 1 thing he/she says they received it broken....refund on the way.

 

[Trevante]

They exchanged it for another one. Unfortunately, the only unit they had in stock of the same model was an open box, but it works just fine and they gave me $30 for it too. Not too shabby. I think the girl that exchanged my monitor didn't really care because she didn't ask any questions at all. Overall, I think I just got lucky.

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: Trevante
They exchanged it for another one. Unfortunately, the only unit they had in stock of the same model was an open box, but it works just fine and they gave me $30 for it too. Not too shabby. I think the girl that exchanged my monitor didn't really care because she didn't ask any questions at all. Overall, I think I just got lucky.

Glad to hear it!

Honestly I've never had a bad experience at Best Buy & in fact the ones in my area take good care of me. I had a similar situation where I bought a 30 inch CRT HDTV from them, but I couldn't install it for a couple months after purchase. It faied on me about 2 hours after I turned it on & Philips was going to take months to fix it, so I call BB & much to my surprise they told me I could exchange it with no hassle at all. I took it back & received store credit for every penny I paid, which I put towards a 34 inch Sony model thats working fine to this day.

Keep in mind that people who get treated badly write 99% of the reviews online, while the ones that are fully satisfied are busy using the stuff they bought ... of course YMMV & I'm sure service quality does vary quite a bit from store to store.

 

[Kelemvor]

Originally posted by: magnux
Was the box still factory sealed when you got it from your friend? If so, you need to ask yourself how good of a friend he is and proceed accordingly.

That's what I was wondering too. If it wasn't factory sealed, I'd get your money back from your friend. If it was, tell BB that it was a gift and you just opened it up. Bring a witness along to the store too so your friend can vouch that it was not opened up until now.

Good luck.

 

[mooglemania85]

Originally posted by: Kelemvor

Originally posted by: magnux
Was the box still factory sealed when you got it from your friend? If so, you need to ask yourself how good of a friend he is and proceed accordingly.

That's what I was wondering too. If it wasn't factory sealed, I'd get your money back from your friend. If it was, tell BB that it was a gift and you just opened it up. Bring a witness along to the store too so your friend can vouch that it was not opened up until now.

Good luck.

*cough* just 2 posts up...

Originally posted by: Trevante
They exchanged it for another one. Unfortunately, the only unit they had in stock of the same model was an open box, but it works just fine and they gave me $30 for it too. Not too shabby. I think the girl that exchanged my monitor didn't really care because she didn't ask any questions at all. Overall, I think I just got lucky.