Best Buy Return Policy for Cell Phones

Question

I bought an LG G Flex on 1 July. I rooted it when I got home. A couple of days later, I found out that I would have to unroot it in order to get the KitKat update, so I returned it to stock condition and tried to get the update. It booted into Jellybean fine, I made sure that the recovery was back to stock, and I made sure that the SU binaries were not present.
I ran the update for KitKat, and my phone ended up shutting off and not turning back on. I had a full battery at the time. I'm not entirely sure what happened during the update process, but it looks like a partition got corrupted. I couldn't tell, because I couldn't turn the phone on. I figured I'd exchange the phone for a new one. I checked online to see if any of the Best Buy stores in my area had any G Flexes left in stock, and they didn't. I had to drive about an hour and a half away to Schaumburg, IL to try to do the exchange. While they were going through the process of trying to fix the phone before exchanging it, I told them that I could have fixed it if I could get it to boot into Download mode or recovery. They then asked me if I had rooted my phone. I told them that I had, but I returned it to stock in order to take the KitKat update. They refused to do the exchange, so I had to drive to the Best Buy in Arlington Heights, IL. At this store, a "multi-channel sales supervisor" named April {removed per forum guidelines} told me that they wouldn't be able to process the exchange because they couldn't turn the phone on. She directed me to call 888-BEST-BUY, which I did. The customer service representative looked at my account and told me that she had no idea why I was told I couldn't exchange my phone. By this time the Arlington Heights Best Buy had closed. I had to drive back out there the next day to get the issue resovled. It took me an hour and a half to get there. I was able to do the exchange at that time, and I saw April at the customer service counter and told her that the CSR I spoke with over the phone had no idea why I was told I couldn't do the exchange. She then told me that she had received an email from the Schaumburg store that I had rooted my phone and to not do the exchange. She then kicked me out of the store.
Firstly, the return policy says this regarding mobile device returns:
If you decide to return a phone or device with a plan, you are responsible for canceling your service contract with the carrier, and for all carrier charges.
There are two ways to return your phone or device and cancel your service:
• Return your device to a Best Buy store. Be sure to tell the store associate that you want to cancel your service. Carrier service cancellation policies may vary.
• Call Best Buy Mobile at 1-877-702-2211 (6 a.m. to midnight, CT) for instructions on how to return the device by mail. Let the phone associate know that you want to cancel your service.
There is nothing there about rooted or jailbroken devices. If Best Buy wants to exclude those devices, all it takes is adding one sentence: "Mobile devices with custom or altered firmware are not eligible for return or exchange under this Policy." Because there is nothing in the stated return policy against returning such a device, the Schaumburg store should have accepted the return. At the very least, they should not have notified other stores, seeing as I wasn't trying to get anyone to violate the return policy.
Secondly, I don't appreciate being lied to, and I feel that April lied to me. She was also incredibly rude to me when I asked about why she had directed me to call customer service. If she had told me that Schaumburg had told her that my phone was rooted, I could have dealt with the Schaumburg store and spoken with their manager. Asking me to leave the store for trying to figure out what the hell was going on (and after she had found out that I had already gotten my phone exchanged) was even more rude. I was not looking for a fight. I just wanted answers, and perhaps a little consideration for the fact that I had to waste four hours of my life dealing with this when it should have been dealt with the previous day.
These experiences, along with an ongoing problem with an online order that is not relevant to this topic and which I have explained in a thread that was about a similar problem, are making it incredibly unlikely that I will ever shop at Best Buy again. Not even for things that I have an urgent need for, like replaement charging cables when mine crap out. I can wait two days for Amazon to ship them to me. I am also more likely to tell my friends and family to avoid shopping at Best Buy because of these experiences.
The employees of the Best Buy stores in Schaumburg and Arlington Heights certainly seem like they actually want this:
into this:
{removed per forum guidelines}

Answer 1

Hello again Sloppy_Carlton,
I’m glad to see you are utilizing the forums to reach out to us about multiple experiences, although I am sorry to see that neither of the experiences you posted about left you feeling delighted.
Per our Return & Exchange Promise, we may return or exchange almost everything; however, devices that are damaged would be excluded. It seems the unauthorized modification (rooting and unrooting the phone) may have been the cause of the phone not turning on when attempting to update your operating system to KitKat. We would not be able to accept this device for an exchange or return as it would be considered damage from the unauthorized modification.
That being said, I’m glad to hear you seem to have been provided a one-time solution to this experience. We truly value your insight and the time you have taken to share these insights with us. If you should need any further assistance, please feel welcome to reach out to us.
Thank you for posting on the forum! 
Tasha|Social Media Specialist | Best Buy® Corporate
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