Must buy protection plan for warrenty support

Question

Sad day for a 10 year old to learn a hard lesson. 21 days ago my son, after saving his Christmas and Birthday money, made the biggest purchase in his young life. His first time at Best Buy, which he chose because it was a real store and he could talk to salespeople and touch the computers. He bought an Acer Chrome Book for $199.00, sadly it turns out he couldn't afford the Best Buy Protection Plan.
About 14 days later a small crack appeared in the upper left hand corner along with black spots on the screen, Where the crack is its pretty obvious that it is a default and not damaged, he was devestated. Off to Best Buy we went and we just returned shortly. My son is very dissapointed, I am furious. He didn't fully understand the exchange between me and the manager, to him it was just they would not help him get it fixxed unless he paid them, As for me well I know a shakedown when I see one. We were told that we should of bought the extended warranty in the first place. but lucky for him even though it was against the rules they would sell it to him today and if he bought it they would send it out for repair if not well sorry too bad. After I questioned the manager if he was really sure this was how he wanted to leave it, I was told that this one time they would send it out for repair but they did not know how long it would take and he doubted they would fix it under warranty unless we bought the Best Buy Plan. Having lost all trust in them we packed up our defective laptop and headed home. On Monday I will contact Acer and resolve the chromebook issue. I will let the BBB be a neutral arbitrater in our dispute with how Best Buy supports what they sell. My son learned a lesson, Best Buy lost customers and I gained a hobby of spreading this tale to all who will listen.

Answer 1

Hey there, it sounds like your child did a lot of saving and got to their goal of getting something that means a lot to them! That being said to quote your last post you said " we bought it 21 days ago from BEST BUY not Acer they should of taken the unit and replaced it or sent in in for warranty repair. Instead knowing they had us at a disadvantage they took the opportunity to try to sell us a warranty, not help us solve our problem, going as far as giving us the false impression that buying an additional warantee was our only course of action" While yes you bought it from best buy, acer is the manufacturer so that is why they give a warranty on their product they distribute through retailers, so you are covered for as long as they feel you should be covered. Also from your first post you did say that the customer service rep that was assisting you said that even though it is not policy and is not something that would normally be offered (and this is true) they would sell you the protection plan and then send out for you. You also stated they told you they could send it out to the service center under the manufacturers warranty, but they would most likely not fix the issue and just either send you a quote to fix it or send it out, which from your description of what is wrong with the chromebook is also very true in what they associate/manager told you.
"Retailers need to be put on notice that they will stand behind what they sell or we as consumers will not buy from them and that outrageous behavior like what happened to me and my son today is unacceptable in the retail marketplace of 2014." This sort of situation would happen at ANY retailer you bought the chromebook from, not just Best Buy. How is it unreasonable? The product you purchased has physical damage to it. This could have been caused by any number of things. If you truly believe this is a manufacturers defect, you should definitely bring it up with acer directly (it would be best in this scenario since you said there is a crack on it, and best buys service center has strict rules to follow).
Everyone who does have issues seems to think Best buy (or whatever retailer that wont accept their return/repair under manufacturers warranty) is not standing behind their product. They do offer a 15 day return/exchange period so if you have any immediate issues you have time to take it back to them and get a working product or your money back, otherwise it needs to be brought up to the manufacturer unless the retailer can offer to service the product for you under their agreement with the manufacturer (like mbrguy stated). I know you are dealing with a frustrating situation overall and I hope a community connector can help out in some way shape or form. Good luck to you and I hope you get your child into a working chromebook!
PS: Just to note on the geek squad plans best buy offers, they are offered because they cover more than what a manufacturer covers and in most cases last longer than the manufacturers warranty. So you definitely save money in the long run, especially if your motherboard happens to stop working or if you sill anything on the unit (if you have the ADH plan, rather than just a normal part coverage plan). A motherboard alone in almost any computer to get replaced would cost almost as much as your machine cost all together! Any way enough rambling from me, good luck =)
Even though I work for best buy, my posts and thoughts are that of my own and do NOT represent best buy in ANY WAY.