Best Buy Associates lied about protection plan through Geek Squad

Question

I finally have the time and energy to re-address the ongoing issue that I am having with Best Buy and their geek squad. Before the Thanksgiving holiday of 2013, my sister came to visit me from Virginia. She is currently in the military and came home for a final visit before a 9 month deployment. She was in a need of a new phone, so being the loyal Best Buy customer that I am, I took her to Best Buy and signed up for a new 2-year agreement so that she could update her phone. The rep was nice enough to explain that there was a Geek Squad protection plan that I could purchase through Best Buy that would cover the phone if ANYTHING were to happen to the phone. I was told that I could just bring the phone in and they would either fix it or replace it. Previously I would always get my insurance from my cellular service provider, but this Geek Squad protection seemed like a great deal. I was satisfied with my purchase and the Geek Squad protection, and returned later on in the week to purchase a new phone for my Mother as an early Christmas gift, and I was sold the EXACT same Geek Squad protection.
Every month over the next several months, there was $20 dollars deducted from my account, $10 for my sister’s phone and $10 for my mother’s phone. My sister had since been deployed overseas and had an accident with her phone where it is completely un-responsive. Feeling fully confident that we had insured the purchase and that Best Buy would uphold their end of the bargain, I had her mail her phone back to the United States.
I took the phone to Best Buy and explained that the phone is not powering on and that I was covered under the Geek Squad warranty. To my complete surprise, I was informed that I was misinformed. The Geek Squad agent told me that the Cell phone group was misinforming customers and that in fact the protection information that was relayed to me, not once, but twice was the incorrect information. This is a big issue because I was given this false information twice and I have been clearly misled.
I was given a number to the Geek Squad line. I called and explained the situation and the woman basically said that there is nothing that she can do, so I inquired about a refund of the money that I paid for the protection plans. The rep stated that she would put a case in. When the case was settled, I received $20 dollars for the current month. I paid for the insurance for more than one month, I paid for 5 months. After the $20 dollar refund, I decided that instead of continuing on with the back and forth, I would just keep the insurance that I had been misled about. So I called back. Low and behold, just a few days after the initial call, I was informed that they could no longer assist me because I had dropped the insurance. I was given a corporate number who told me they couldn’t assist me and that they didn’t know why I was given their number. I went around the entire loop again and was referred to the store manager, who left a VM that I would need to contact the geek squad 1-800 number.
Just as this is a long letter, imagine the time and energy it took to go through this entire process. Lying and misleading loyal and faithful customers is bad enough, but to know that when my sister who is serving our country overseas, and who has been doing so for the past 7 months will come home to a phone that doesn’t work is very upsetting. I was tempted to let this situation go but being a loyal customer to Best Buy should mean something to the store and to the management. If I am a future best buy customer will be dependent on how Best Buy handles this situation. Customers shouldn’t be lied to and mislead.

Answer 1

Hello CM2014,
Staying in touch with family members is difficult without a phone, even more so when a loved one is overseas. It was very nice of you to make sure your sister had one while on deployment, so I can imagine your frustration if we denied her request for service when you brought in her mailed phone for repair. I’m not sure of the exact reason as to why this might’ve happened; however, there are a few reasons why a Rapid Exchange repair underneath her Geek Squad Protection (GSP) plan wasn’t an option.
With Rapid Exchange, a damaged or non-working phone should be sent out for service. To save our customers valuable time, a service order is simultaneously created from our service provider to ship out an already repaired phone. These phones go through a rigorous refurbishment process to make sure that a customer receives a phone meeting its manufacturer’s standards.  If a smartphone is damaged though, we do request that a $149.99 deductible be paid to receive a repaired phone. This fee will also be applied should service be needed after the manufacturer’s warranty has expired. You are limited to three claim submissions after which the plan would be considered fulfilled.
Our GSP plan should cover any hardware issues with the phone along with liquid spills or damage such as a cracked screen. Please know that it wouldn’t cover products that have been submerged, dropped from extreme heights, or have been run over by or fallen from moving vehicles.  Having said this, our associates should be fully explaining why a phone was rejected for service, and I’m sorry if this wasn’t the case. If you don’t me asking, what was wrong with your sister’s phone?
To see how I may help with this, I pulled up your account using the email address attached to your forum profile. I did notice though that the GSP plan is underneath a name other than your own, and due to our Privacy Policy, I’d be unable to discuss the situation at hand. Please have the owner of the phone and plan create a forum profile and private message me with their contact information so that I may see what options we may have available from here. To send me a message, please have them sign into their profile, and click on the button in my signature below.
Thank you for posting,
Alex|Social Media Specialist | Best Buy® Corporate
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