Here's the story, with cliffs at the end"
About 2.5 years ago, I bought a laptop from a local Best Buy for personal use with school and homework when I started college. That laptop was a HP model and the original price was $1999. I bought the 3 year extended warranty. A month after I bought it, it developed a problem with the touchpad and I returned it for repairs. They replaced the laptop because they were untrained on the new model and couldn't repair it. That laptop developed the same problem 2 months later, so I returned it again and got a similar Toshiba model.
The Toshiba had a widely known issue with the DVD drive where it would not read DVDs 50% of the time. I returned the laptop 4 times because of the same problem with the DVD drive, after which they replaced the system with a Gateway model worth $1499 with similar specs. The extended warranty specifies that if a 4th repair is necessary for any one hardware issue, it must be replaced. The Gateway laptop, which I still have, has another fairly common issue where the screen flickers intermittently because the monitor's wires are pinched in the screen hinge. I have returned it 3 times so far for this issue, and in the last week it's begun doing it again. They have replaced the screen, screen cover, power inverter for the screen, and screen wires, but did not rearrange the wires so that they weren't pinched. I haven't taken it back yet because the flickering isn't very bad yet and they may not be able to diagnose the problem.
I'd like to know if I have any options when I return this laptop for another replacement. At this point, I would like to be able to get a cheaper laptop for about $600-700 and take the rest in store credit or something, because in the last year I have built myself a desktop system to help me keep current on schoolwork between repairs. All of my schoolwork is done online or in Office, and I found it annoying to have to borrow others' systems to get work done or find time to get to school to use the computer lab. I don't rely on the laptop as much or require the amount of power this Gateway model has.
When a 4th repair on the Toshiba laptop was necessary, I wrote to corporate customer service with this story and got in response a FAQ sheet about the extended warranty. So far, every Best Buy employee I have dealt with have adhered strictly to every policy that applies, and I really can't complain about the way I've been treated, but at the same time I can hardly believe that Best Buy is benefitting from doing all these repairs instead of listening when I explain the issue.
Cliffs:
1. buy a $2000 lappy from BB 2.5 years ago
2. has problems and gets 2 replacements
3. has more problems which require 4 repairs, then another replacement
4. has more problems and am on the 4th repair
5. emails BB account rep for my company's business account and asks for a little help
6. account rep goes postal on the BB managers that have been giving me the runaround
So here's the deal. The story posted above is the message I sent to the BB account rep who handles the account for the company I work for (I cleared this with my supervisor first). He is nuts about providing us with the best experience possible, so I thought he could help. He was more upset than me about the runaround I'd gotten and called the store manager. He got concerned about it and handed it over to one of his associate managers to deal with. The associate manager emailed me and said to come out ASAP and get it replaced. I said OK. I'm backing up stuff now and will be leaving to take it back in 30 mins or so.
Who do you think will win the 12th round? Will I get what I need?
Results to come shortly.
EDIT: Round 12 because this is the 12th repair/replacement
UPDATE:
After waiting 1.5 hours for the manager to get out of an interview, he exchanged the system for a HP DV8235. This is a huge upgrade. 17", two 100GB HDDs in RAID 0, TV tuner, Core Duo 2300, etc.
I guess I won that round. I didn't have to send it out for the 4th repair.
About 2.5 years ago, I bought a laptop from a local Best Buy for personal use with school and homework when I started college. That laptop was a HP model and the original price was $1999. I bought the 3 year extended warranty. A month after I bought it, it developed a problem with the touchpad and I returned it for repairs. They replaced the laptop because they were untrained on the new model and couldn't repair it. That laptop developed the same problem 2 months later, so I returned it again and got a similar Toshiba model.
The Toshiba had a widely known issue with the DVD drive where it would not read DVDs 50% of the time. I returned the laptop 4 times because of the same problem with the DVD drive, after which they replaced the system with a Gateway model worth $1499 with similar specs. The extended warranty specifies that if a 4th repair is necessary for any one hardware issue, it must be replaced. The Gateway laptop, which I still have, has another fairly common issue where the screen flickers intermittently because the monitor's wires are pinched in the screen hinge. I have returned it 3 times so far for this issue, and in the last week it's begun doing it again. They have replaced the screen, screen cover, power inverter for the screen, and screen wires, but did not rearrange the wires so that they weren't pinched. I haven't taken it back yet because the flickering isn't very bad yet and they may not be able to diagnose the problem.
I'd like to know if I have any options when I return this laptop for another replacement. At this point, I would like to be able to get a cheaper laptop for about $600-700 and take the rest in store credit or something, because in the last year I have built myself a desktop system to help me keep current on schoolwork between repairs. All of my schoolwork is done online or in Office, and I found it annoying to have to borrow others' systems to get work done or find time to get to school to use the computer lab. I don't rely on the laptop as much or require the amount of power this Gateway model has.
When a 4th repair on the Toshiba laptop was necessary, I wrote to corporate customer service with this story and got in response a FAQ sheet about the extended warranty. So far, every Best Buy employee I have dealt with have adhered strictly to every policy that applies, and I really can't complain about the way I've been treated, but at the same time I can hardly believe that Best Buy is benefitting from doing all these repairs instead of listening when I explain the issue.
Cliffs:
1. buy a $2000 lappy from BB 2.5 years ago
2. has problems and gets 2 replacements
3. has more problems which require 4 repairs, then another replacement
4. has more problems and am on the 4th repair
5. emails BB account rep for my company's business account and asks for a little help
6. account rep goes postal on the BB managers that have been giving me the runaround
So here's the deal. The story posted above is the message I sent to the BB account rep who handles the account for the company I work for (I cleared this with my supervisor first). He is nuts about providing us with the best experience possible, so I thought he could help. He was more upset than me about the runaround I'd gotten and called the store manager. He got concerned about it and handed it over to one of his associate managers to deal with. The associate manager emailed me and said to come out ASAP and get it replaced. I said OK. I'm backing up stuff now and will be leaving to take it back in 30 mins or so.
Who do you think will win the 12th round? Will I get what I need?
Results to come shortly.
EDIT: Round 12 because this is the 12th repair/replacement
UPDATE:
After waiting 1.5 hours for the manager to get out of an interview, he exchanged the system for a HP DV8235. This is a huge upgrade. 17", two 100GB HDDs in RAID 0, TV tuner, Core Duo 2300, etc.
I guess I won that round. I didn't have to send it out for the 4th repair.
