I suppose you are wondering why I have pictures that look the same today. If you look really close you will realize that they are the same dress, but you can see the difference in the quality of the pictures. The first picture was taken with my Canon camera and the next one was taken with Rick’s Nikon.
At one time I had a very good point and shoot camera that was made by Kodak and it took great pictures until one day it just died and because the warranty was still good, we replaced it with the Canon. From the time I got that camera it just didn’t produce the same quality of pictures, but to begin with I just assumed that it was the photographer’s fault and that I just had to get used to the camera. However, as time went on I realised that was not the case, but by then I could not replace it, although we had purchased the extended warranty.
And that brings me to the point of this article. The camera did actually go bad and when we purchased the extended warranty we were told that if anything went wrong that we would get a new camera. Well….that is not what happened. We took the camera for replacement and were told that it would have to be repaired 3 times before there would be a replacement.
If you have ever purchased an extended warranty you know there is no chance to read the contract before you put out the money. You have to take the salesperson’s word for what you are buying. Never again will we do such a thing…what you are told and what the contract really says just are not the same.
The first time we took the camera in for repair we were told that we probably would get a replacement because it appeared that it would cost too much to repair it. We were told a few days later that it could not be repaired and that we would be called to come in and pick out a replacement if we didn’t want the same type camera. However a couple days later a box was left on our porch and inside was the old camera, which they said had been repaired. We had never been told that they were sending it to our house, only that if it was to be repaired that we would pick it up at our local Best Buy store.
Things just seemed to go down hill from that time forward. We had purchased a 4 year extended warranty and during the first 2 years the camera was taken in for repairs 3 different times. Then just a few weeks ago we got the camera back after the third repair and I took 3 pictures with it and before I even got home with it, the darn thing would not turn on. We checked the batteries and sure enough, it was not working…again.
Here we go back to Best Buy and expecting to get a replacement, we were told that it would have to be sent off again for repairs. That is NOT what the contract says, but we let them send it off again. We did speak with a store manager and he told us that we would get a replacement or if we did not want another camera that we would get the full price that we had paid earlier in the form of a gift card. He also told us that we would hear something within a couple of days. Wrong again…
A week went by and still we had heard nothing, so I called the store and was told by one of their employees that all we had to do was come in and pick up a gift card. I told him that he had better check on that statement because the manager had said he would have to have an authorization number from the company that does the repairs before he could issue a gift card. After being put on ‘hold’ for a few minutes, the employee came back and said that the manager was correct and that we would hear something probably by the next day.
Wrong again… So we went into the same Best Buy store again and asked to speak to the manager. Out comes another man who said he was the store manager (how many does each store have?). We were told that the company who does the repairs would have to make a determination as to whether we would get a repaired camera or replacement. We tried to explain that was not what the contract stated, but we would just have to wait again.
Again we waited another week and I called the store again. This time we were told that they had received the authorization number and all we had to do was come in and get another camera or a gift card. If only things were that simple. When we arrived and began the process, the employee told us that we could take another camera or a gift card in an amount that was $100 less than we had paid for the other camera. We asked to speak to the manager and would you believe….a different manager came out. How many managers does it take to run a store anyway? No matter what, they were not about to let us have what we were told by the other manager or even what the contract stated.
So… we spent about an hour spending the ‘gift card’ because we just did not trust going out of the store and later trying to use the card. Believe me, we spent every single penny of that card. I will have enough ink and paper to last for a while.
I hope you have had better luck than we did with the Bristol, Va Best Buy store, however since our experience, I have talked to other members in our family and they have had similiar experiences with them. I won’t say that I will never purchase anything from them again, but I will say that I will never purchase a major item from them and for sure never purchase an extended warranty, because they do not honor the warranty. I believe they should also train their employees better, because each time we spoke with someone there we were always told something different.
