Customer Catches Best Buy Breaking Law, Gets Banned From Store

[Ian David]

Customer Catches Best Buy Breaking Law, Gets Banned From Store

Some companies sure are sore losers. Take for example the folks at Best Buy, who were not only caught violating consumer protection laws, but who then banned the customer who called them out in court for doing so.

Here's the story from Consumerist reader Jed:


Back in January, I broke the digital-audio-in port on my Sony home theater system's receiver. I looked into repair option, and found I could mail it to Sony or take it to my local Best Buy. I opted for Best Buy, and I paid Best Buy the $34.99 non-refundable deposit, relying on the following three statements by their Geek Squad agent, Joe: (1) that my receiver would be sent from the store to their repair facility; (2) once at the facility, it would be diagnosed and I'd get a call telling me how much the repair would cost and requesting my authorization for the repair; and (3) the estimated completion date for the repair was February 1, 2011.

February 1st comes, no word from Best Buy. I called multiple times over the next few days, couldn't get through to a live person and got no replies to the messages I left. On February 6, I got through to a Geek Squad agent and I was told my receiver was sent from the store to their repair facility, then sent on to Sony on January 26th. He was not able to give me any more information or give me an updated estimated completion date.

<snip>

I felt Best Buy violated three consumer protections: First, I was told my receiver would be sent to Best Buy's repair center. If I'd known they'd just send it to Sony, I'd have done that myself. Second, consumer protection laws and regulations (at least in every state I've lived or worked in) say you can't charge someone for work they didn't authorize. Third, all they had to do to avoid violating the completion estimate regulation was inform me of the revised date before the previously stated date passed, which they didn't do.

More:
http://consumerist.com/2011/04/customer-catches-best-buy-breaking-law-gets-banned-from-store.html

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Citizen Catches Country Breaking Laws, Gets Perplexed

[Angry Dragon]

2. 'Citizen Catches Country Breaking Laws, Gets Perplexed'

and then gets thrown in Gitmo or solitary confinement

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Webster Green]

4. Now he should sue them for banning him.

Just keeping the lawsuits coming till he owns the place. Then he can sue himself for awhile.

[provis99]

9. I think he would have a good case for suing them over the banning.

[rustydog]

10. A retail facility can ban any person for any reason except race,

religion, etc

[IDemo]

5. Rather than let Geek Squad work on your PC

You might be better off letting a 4 year old mess with it, or just resort to hitting it repeatedly with a hammer.

[BlueJazz]

6. Amen....I'm a tech...also...and I had a Geek Squad person tell me last year..

(When I was buying a hard drive) "It's impossible to put 2 operating systems on one hard drive"

Gosh...I thought that's what Partitioning is for. :)

[Leftist Agitator]

11. They actually told you that?

[Posteritatis]

12. A lot of places like that will screen out people with "too much" understanding of the stuff

They'd have to pay them more that way, you see, and they might recommend people buy the wrong things. The end result is people claiming you can't install two OSes on one computer, or my ISP's tech support asking me "have you installed any viruses lately" when calling them about physical damage to their lines.

[Dappleganger]

7. Worst Buy is nothing but a ripoff place...

the only time we ever buy something from them is on a Black Friday sale on loss-leaders. Otherwise, they can stuff it.

[madrchsod]

8. they were nailed to the wall for advertising products they did`t have

and now they pull this scam.

i went in a best buy for the first time in 20yrs...the place still sucks ass.