Jerked around by a bunch of "Geeks" the squad that is!  

Originally Posted by jeffquadski

Hello, fellow AV enthusiasts. I am a member of a few different forums, Polk Audio, Acura TL, Spyderlovers.com to name a few. I have never ranted about a product or company before but I've experienced the worst customer "service" by Best Buy and their so called Geek Squad that I thought my fellow AV addicts should be aware.
I purchase a Samsung HP-S5053 from the Magnolia department at Best Buy in November 2006. Overall I've been happy with the purchase and enjoyed many late nights playing XBox360 on it. About 3 months ago I noticed some minor red, blue and green dots in some of the darker colors. I called Best Buy to take advantage of the "performance plan" I purchased and they scheduled an appointment for about 3 weeks later. The technician called in the morning and gave me a window that he would be here. He was late. When he did arrive my wife was leaving for an appointment of her own and the tech asked if "they" (Best Buy) had mounted the panel on the wall. I said no, he informed me that he could not remove it to service the panel because of company policy, I understand that but how could he have removed it himself anyway? What if I was not home? Point being even if (they) do intsall they are not equipped to remove it single handed. So ladies and older folks beware if you are not physically capable of lifting 100 + lb panel on and off your wall the "Geek Squad" can not help you. Back to my problems now, I delayed my wife and had her help me remove the panel and sit it on the couch. The tech asked me for an extension cord and removed the back cover. He said what I was experiencing was called "sparkling" and a simple voltage adjustment would do the trick. He performed this with the blue screen, showed me it was better and apologized that he could not help me re-mount my panel. He left, I grabbed a neighbor re-mounted the panel and viola..ten times worse.... the "tech" totally screwed my TV up. I called immediatley and was told they would expidite the return trip and call me on Monday. No call Monday, no call Tuesday, I called Wednesday and asked for a supervisor, none available, explained my concerns and was promised a call back that night. Thursday no call, Friday no call, Called Friday and spoke with a supervisor "Adriane" who was able to relate to my experience due to his mototrcycle being in the shop for 5 weeks. I acknowldged that stuff breaks and that I understand these things happen for no reason (sometimes) but that the failure to keep your commitment and return phone calls was inexcusable. Now you know he agreed and all that jazz but do you think he actually followed up and returned my call????????? Not a friggin chance! That weekend I went to my local Best Buy to purchase a new Bluetooth and camera case etc. I decided to sit in Magnolia and get a manager to listen to the pathetic excuse for customer service that his company had shown me. I got a nice guy named JohnO who listened and followed up with me regularly for another 3 weeks before the same tech was sent out again. He came in took one look at my TV, called Samsung tech support and was told to replace the panel...... Couldn't any one of these people made this call? So the tech orders the panel, says it is available and should take 2 to 3 days to get in and that I would recieve a call to schedule the replacement....I held my breath for another 2 weeks and now I'm dead. It's now been 10 weeks my TV is still jacked up and I decided I should share this enlightening experience so that others may save themselves from Best Buy's customer dis-service practices. I will never buy another TV from them (this was my third) and would recommend that anyone interested in protecting their investment to go with the more expensive manufacturers warranty. I guess you truly do get what you pay for. Sorry fot the lengthy rant, now go watch TV. I can't.

Originally Posted by jeffquadski

Hello, fellow AV enthusiasts. I am a member of a few different forums, Polk Audio, Acura TL, Spyderlovers.com to name a few......

Originally Posted by 42041

bit of advice: 95% of people aren't going to read that post because its a big block of text. paragraphs are your friend.

Originally Posted by jeffquadski

Hello, fellow AV enthusiasts. I am a member of a few different forums, Polk Audio, Acura TL, Spyderlovers.com to name a few. I have never ranted about a product or company before but I've experienced the worst customer "service" by Best Buy and their so called Geek Squad that I thought my fellow AV addicts should be aware.

I purchase a Samsung HP-S5053 from the Magnolia department at Best Buy in November 2006. Overall I've been happy with the purchase and enjoyed many late nights playing XBox360 on it. About 3 months ago I noticed some minor red, blue and green dots in some of the darker colors.

I called Best Buy to take advantage of the "performance plan" I purchased and they scheduled an appointment for about 3 weeks later. The technician called in the morning and gave me a window that he would be here. He was late. When he did arrive my wife was leaving for an appointment of her own and the tech asked if "they" (Best Buy) had mounted the panel on the wall.

I said no, he informed me that he could not remove it to service the panel because of company policy, I understand that but how could he have removed it himself anyway? What if I was not home? Point being even if (they) do intsall they are not equipped to remove it single handed. So ladies and older folks beware if you are not physically capable of lifting 100 + lb panel on and off your wall the "Geek Squad" can not help you. Back to my problems now, I delayed my wife and had her help me remove the panel and sit it on the couch. The tech asked me for an extension cord and removed the back cover. He said what I was experiencing was called "sparkling" and a simple voltage adjustment would do the trick. He performed this with the blue screen, showed me it was better and apologized that he could not help me re-mount my panel. He left, I grabbed a neighbor re-mounted the panel and viola..ten times worse.... the "tech" totally screwed my TV up.

I called immediatley and was told they would expidite the return trip and call me on Monday. No call Monday, no call Tuesday, I called Wednesday and asked for a supervisor, none available, explained my concerns and was promised a call back that night. Thursday no call, Friday no call, Called Friday and spoke with a supervisor "Adriane" who was able to relate to my experience due to his mototrcycle being in the shop for 5 weeks.

I acknowldged that stuff breaks and that I understand these things happen for no reason (sometimes) but that the failure to keep your commitment and return phone calls was inexcusable. Now you know he agreed and all that jazz but do you think he actually followed up and returned my call????????? Not a friggin chance! That weekend I went to my local Best Buy to purchase a new Bluetooth and camera case etc.

I decided to sit in Magnolia and get a manager to listen to the pathetic excuse for customer service that his company had shown me. I got a nice guy named JohnO who listened and followed up with me regularly for another 3 weeks before the same tech was sent out again.

He came in took one look at my TV, called Samsung tech support and was told to replace the panel...... Couldn't any one of these people made this call? So the tech orders the panel, says it is available and should take 2 to 3 days to get in and that I would recieve a call to schedule the replacement....I held my breath for another 2 weeks and now I'm dead. It's now been 10 weeks my TV is still jacked up and I decided I should share this enlightening experience so that others may save themselves from Best Buy's customer dis-service practices.

I will never buy another TV from them (this was my third) and would recommend that anyone interested in protecting their investment to go with the more expensive manufacturers warranty. I guess you truly do get what you pay for. Sorry fot the lengthy rant, now go watch TV. I can't.

Originally Posted by jeffquadski

Hello, fellow AV enthusiasts. I am a member of a few different forums, Polk Audio, Acura TL, Spyderlovers.com to name a few. I have never ranted about a product or company before but I've experienced the worst customer "service" by Best Buy and their so called Geek Squad that I thought my fellow AV addicts should be aware.
I purchase a Samsung HP-S5053 from the Magnolia department at Best Buy in November 2006. Overall I've been happy with the purchase and enjoyed many late nights playing XBox360 on it. About 3 months ago I noticed some minor red, blue and green dots in some of the darker colors. I called Best Buy to take advantage of the "performance plan" I purchased and they scheduled an appointment for about 3 weeks later. The technician called in the morning and gave me a window that he would be here. He was late. When he did arrive my wife was leaving for an appointment of her own and the tech asked if "they" (Best Buy) had mounted the panel on the wall. I said no, he informed me that he could not remove it to service the panel because of company policy, I understand that but how could he have removed it himself anyway? What if I was not home? Point being even if (they) do intsall they are not equipped to remove it single handed. So ladies and older folks beware if you are not physically capable of lifting 100 + lb panel on and off your wall the "Geek Squad" can not help you. Back to my problems now, I delayed my wife and had her help me remove the panel and sit it on the couch. The tech asked me for an extension cord and removed the back cover. He said what I was experiencing was called "sparkling" and a simple voltage adjustment would do the trick. He performed this with the blue screen, showed me it was better and apologized that he could not help me re-mount my panel. He left, I grabbed a neighbor re-mounted the panel and viola..ten times worse.... the "tech" totally screwed my TV up. I called immediatley and was told they would expidite the return trip and call me on Monday. No call Monday, no call Tuesday, I called Wednesday and asked for a supervisor, none available, explained my concerns and was promised a call back that night. Thursday no call, Friday no call, Called Friday and spoke with a supervisor "Adriane" who was able to relate to my experience due to his mototrcycle being in the shop for 5 weeks. I acknowldged that stuff breaks and that I understand these things happen for no reason (sometimes) but that the failure to keep your commitment and return phone calls was inexcusable. Now you know he agreed and all that jazz but do you think he actually followed up and returned my call????????? Not a friggin chance! That weekend I went to my local Best Buy to purchase a new Bluetooth and camera case etc. I decided to sit in Magnolia and get a manager to listen to the pathetic excuse for customer service that his company had shown me. I got a nice guy named JohnO who listened and followed up with me regularly for another 3 weeks before the same tech was sent out again. He came in took one look at my TV, called Samsung tech support and was told to replace the panel...... Couldn't any one of these people made this call? So the tech orders the panel, says it is available and should take 2 to 3 days to get in and that I would recieve a call to schedule the replacement....I held my breath for another 2 weeks and now I'm dead. It's now been 10 weeks my TV is still jacked up and I decided I should share this enlightening experience so that others may save themselves from Best Buy's customer dis-service practices. I will never buy another TV from them (this was my third) and would recommend that anyone interested in protecting their investment to go with the more expensive manufacturers warranty. I guess you truly do get what you pay for. Sorry fot the lengthy rant, now go watch TV. I can't.

Originally Posted by ainlawls

I love it when people paint an entire company red for what happened with one store.

Now back to that issue. Service calls on Televisions are supposed to be made through corporate, not the store, it sounds like you called the store and they apparently didn't think to put you through the right channels?

Second: Service Plan turnaround should never be more than a few days, so it sounds like you must have gone through the stores troubleshoot service, which wasn't the proper channel.

Third: Why are you still dealing with the store? Why did you not call the corporate office to deal with this? Which store was it? (store number available through websites store locater)?

Fourth: Of course the tech isn't going to pull your TV off the wall and remount it. If he were to drop it, or if two technicians were to drop it, or any little thing were to happen to the TV, you would sue the company, like every other american would. Don't blame Best Buy for having this policy, blame our country and its court system for making it necessary. They will, however, remove it and remount it for the entire duration of your service plan if they install it, thats why they offer those services.

Originally Posted by jeffquadski

Thanks for the grammar lesson but I was pissed when I wrote it.

Originally Posted by jeffquadski

How they sent 1 tech who is not capable of removing it? I understand the policy what would he have done if I was incapable of assisting him and they had installed it? Shouldn't corporate have asked whther or not they installed when I made the service call? Why did the tech not have a source to apply to the TV to verify his repair? Why did someone after the first attempt not call Samsung, I waited another 3 weeks to have the only tech in San Diego (3 million potential customers) verify my TV was jacked and make a phone call. He didn't test or do anything other than make a phone call. Couldn't or shouldn't corporate have done that? Wanna keep going?

Originally Posted by jayhawk11

And this attitude is why people hate our employer, ainlawls. Whether or not he went through the proper channel to get a service plan rolling, or if the tech should or should not pull the unit off the wall, doesn't change the fact that his TV was defective and needs to get replaced.

Originally Posted by chadmak09

I had a simliar situation with Circuit city.
I paid almost 500 bucks for the warranty.
My KSR60XBR1 broke and the "service tech" they sent me took the chassis out of the TV and kept it for over 3 months.
I went thru over 3 months of phone tag so finally one day I just called CC customer service and started getting loud and downright mean. I had just gotten sick of it. They authorized the replacement right then and there.

These service plan need to have conditions in them that state "if the TV cannot be repaired by XXX amount of time, then the TV will be replaced."
Period.

what really made me mad was that the warranty was for 5 years and the tv broke within the first year and Circuit city had Sony replace the set since the manufacturers warranty was still in effect.
Then when i got my replacement, I figured that the 5 year warranty would just transfer to the new TV. WRONG!
They told me that the warranty will only replace a set one time and that is the total liability of the warranty.
I then said "but Sony replaced the TV not circuit city" and they said that did not matter and that I needed to buy a whole new warranty for the replacement set.
I don't think this was right at all.
I basically wasted the money buying the circuitcity extended warranty becasue sony would have replaced it for free. What a ripp off!!