I love Best Buy….But they are stressing the relationship.

[bob the goat]

I worked at Best Buy 4 years ago in Home Theater. I loved it there, except the management. I finished college and got a job. More disposable income means more Best Buy money. For those of you familiar with Rewards Zone, to give you an idea of how much I am there, I have I have gotten $500 back in those $5 coupons. Most of the local employees at the 3 stores I frequent know me on sight, and the guys at the one near work know me by name.

A year and a half ago I bought a Samsung DVD surround system in a box. I knew the system, and it was exactly what I wanted. Because it was a floor model I got the 4 year PSP (service plan). 2 months ago I brought it in because it was skipping and randomly pausing. A week and a half later they called me to come get it. I asked what was wrong. They told me that it was just dusty inside and they gave it a cleaning. Great. I invested $100 in a service plan so you can use a $10 can of air to clean it for me. Wonderful. I take it home. It seems to work better, but still occasionally has a problem. Over the past few weeks that problem has gotten so bad that it will not even make it through one movie without locking up, forcing me to turn it off and back on. I took it in a week and a half ago to be serviced again. I told them that apparently the cleaning did not fix the problem. I told them that the problem does not start for about 45 minutes into the disk. I told them that I would inspect the laser drive track for damage / wear. The guy said “well, it does look pretty dusty”. The fact that there is a pre-determined amount of time with no problems means that it is not dust again.

I get a call last night “I am the tech that was given your DVD player. I am done with it, apparently it was just dusty inside, so I gave it a good cleaning. It is all set to go.”

I made the following speech. “I told you when I dropped it off that it was not dust because the problem did not occur in the first 45 minutes of play. Did you test it beyond a few seconds of play…no…I thought not. I bought it a year and a half ago. 2 months ago, or 16 months since purchase, you did a cleaning because it was dusty to the point of not working. I have had it 2 months since then and it is now worse than the first time I brought it to you. Are you trying to tell me that in the past 2 months it has dusted at my house more than the first 16 months? Are you trying to tell me that the dust levels in my house have increased by %800 in the last two months? No. I thought not. How about this. Rather than stopping at the first thing you notice that may possibly be the problem, but I think we have clearly established that it is not, how about you actually investigate what the problem IS. How about you find what is broken and you fix it. I paid you to fix my electronics. If I wanted someone to dust, I would hire a maid. You are not a maid. You are an electronics repair department. How about you repair some electronics.”

He said that he thinks that he can investigate more.

[aqutalion]

What kind of DVDs were you playing? Commercial ones or DVD-Rs? If it's DVD-Rs, the problem could be the disks, not the player. If you put paper labels on DVD-Rs, the labels eventually cause the disks to warp ever-so-slightly. Gently bend them back into shape, and they'll play normally.

[fma_fanatic]

I made the following speech. “I told you when I dropped it off that it was not dust because the problem did not occur in the first 45 minutes of play. Did you test it beyond a few seconds of play…no…I thought not. I bought it a year and a half ago. 2 months ago, or 16 months since purchase, you did a cleaning because it was dusty to the point of not working. I have had it 2 months since then and it is now worse than the first time I brought it to you. Are you trying to tell me that in the past 2 months it has dusted at my house more than the first 16 months? Are you trying to tell me that the dust levels in my house have increased by %800 in the last two months? No. I thought not. How about this. Rather than stopping at the first thing you notice that may possibly be the problem, but I think we have clearly established that it is not, how about you actually investigate what the problem IS. How about you find what is broken and you fix it. I paid you to fix my electronics. If I wanted someone to dust, I would hire a maid. You are not a maid. You are an electronics repair department. How about you repair some electronics.”

He said that he thinks that he can investigate more.

*blink* Uh...I realize that Best Buy can suck horribly (which is why SO and usually buy our DVDs from there, and nothing else), but you know..that's really bordering on being a SC. I really hope that you get your DVD player in one piece when they tell you it's ready.

Remember - never piss off a tech. You may leave with more parts than you came in with.

[Crazeyal]

*blink* Uh...I realize that Best Buy can suck horribly (which is why SO and usually buy our DVDs from there, and nothing else), but you know..that's really bordering on being a SC. I really hope that you get your DVD player in one piece when they tell you it's ready.

Remember - never piss off a tech. You may leave with more parts than you came in with.

uh ..

WRONG!

I'm a service tech. Granted I'm a CCTV service tech, but I know canned BS when I hear it. He had a legitimate complaint and was given bad service. Perhaps this shouldn't be in the Customer's suck! area, but he was in no way a SC.

People who vandalize electronics are in the same boat as servers who put bodily fluids in SC's food. They are CRIMINALS. You get even with SCs' by being better than them, not WORSE.

[uknz76]

but you know..that's really bordering on being a SC.

I don't know about that.
As much as I'd like to blame all retail disputes on the customer, sometimes service just isn't up to scratch. At that point the customer should point out any shortcomings without being labled Sucky.

[Mango]

*blink* Uh...I realize that Best Buy can suck horribly, but you know..that's really bordering on being a SC. I really hope that you get your DVD player in one piece when they tell you it's ready.

I agree. It does sound like the tech was out of line, but it's possible to voice your concerns in such a way that maintains a professional tone...and doesn't involve calling names

I do that all the time with tech support. "Okay. See, what's confusing me is that the power light on the unit isn't even coming on. So before we reinstall the drivers again, could you help me just to get the unit to power up?"

[Crazeyal]

I agree. It does sound like the tech was out of line, but it's possible to voice your concerns in such a way that maintains a professional tone...and doesn't involve calling names

Okay.. non threatening tones... Where did he call the guy a name? Actually, he pointed out that the person IS a professional and requested he do his job properly. I bet that guy cursed up a blue storm after hanging up... but the tech was simply wrong. Perhaps I'm just interpreting it differant. It sounds to me like BtG kept his voice level, pointed out technical facts, AND was patient about the whole thing INSTEAD of going SC.

Letting out the fact that you are annoyed at poor service is far from being Sucky. Being unprofessional and cursing someone who has no idea what the problem is/was/ and has no connection to said faults IS sucky. This Tech got off easy. He was being lazy and giving a stock answer that 90% of people will roll their eyes at and shrug off. No-one deserves to be treated rude. Getting your own incompetance pointed out to you? Fair game.

[powerboy]

Oh you rule. The tech, should have done his job, and not pussy foot around. I am sure if you thought it was dusty, that you would have used the dust-cleaning can on it.

[Broomjockey]

I agree. NOT SC. He said at the start when he brought it in, "It's not the dust. Please fix it."

They then proceed to dust it and call him telling him it's fixed. Reminding them they aren't a maid service, but technical professionals, and should therefore being a technical investigation of his problem is perfectly acceptable. Now, to demonstrate the true SC method of pointing this out, I shall tap into my evil side:

*Ahem* "What the F*** do you mean you dusted it, I told you M*****-F*****s that is wasn't the dust, and you F***ING DUST IT?! WTF?! I'm giving you TWO DAYS to fix it properly or I'm going to have your A** in a sling. F***ing retard."

Gah. Now I feel dirty.

[bob the goat]

Yeah, I work in a custmer service-ish position now, so I am always level headed and calm when dealing with others that do the same. I pointed out the obvious, and wanted to let him know that I'm NOT the average mouth breathing customer with an IQ only slightly higher than their shoe size. I am a technical person. The only reason I didn't crack it open myself is 1) I paid them to do it, and 2) doing so would void the service I paid for.

I have a policy of only getting mean with managers that are making bad decisions that voilate their own rules. For example, I threw a complete bitch fest when a manager decided to repair my TV for the 4th time rather than envote the "no lemon guarentee" that kicks in after the third repair. That poor fool felt the wrath of God. While I was berating him loud enough people in other stores could hear it, he lost 17lbs and got 3" shorter.

[Boozy]

Broomjockey summed up my feelings...if I had been put in bob the goat's position, I would have had to choke myself to hold back the cursing.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the techs at this particular location blow the dust out of everything, declare it fixed, and then hope the customer takes it and doesn't complain. Well, this one did. And he put together a very concise and convincing case, I might add.

Voicing a complaint is not being an SC, nor is letting them know in no uncertain terms that you are upset and expect them to deal with the problem.

[draggar]

I'll agree, the OP is not a SC. He brought it in to be serviced (the first time) and they caid it was dusty inside and they claned it out, not too far fetched and very possible (especially after 2 years of usage).

It did not fix the problem and it worsened in 2 months. The OP brought it back and seeme drespectable (even though annoyed) that he had to bring it back in. The point where BB lost credibility when the tech told him the same story the OP had 2 months ago. The OP had a right to complain.

As a tech, I would feel I didn't do my job if someone came back in with the same problem (exceptions being abuse, corrosion, dropped calls, or battery life). My job is to fix or replace the customers' phones, not dick them around with a song and dance. And yes, I do also look at previous tickets and see what was done with the phone.

This is why I have DVD cleaners (those discs with brushes on them), when my players (DVD, DVD-ROM, CD etc..) start to act up, I run that though it and if it solves it, good, if not, time to buy a new one. (Plus I also have a disc cleaning kit and I'm glad I do considering the condition of the discs I get from BlockBuster online).

[Polenicus]

I've done tech support work in an unrelated field, but the one thing I can say that IS related is if a fix has been tried before and didn't resolve the issue, then their are two possibilities, and ONLY two. One, that the first tech was a retard and didn't do the fix right, or Two, that the fix did not solve the issue and there is a more serious problem here.

I personally don't know anyone retarded enough to screw up DUSTING.

This was a case of the tech not reading the notes from the previous visit, not reading the notes that SHOULD have been left when he dropped it off, and not doing a thorough diagnostic. Granted, most problems don't require a full checkup, and are generally simple issues, but if the device has been brought back with the same problem in a short period of time, it's time to go beyond the basic checklist stuff.

[Shabo]

I've done tech support work in an unrelated field, but the one thing I can say that IS related is if a fix has been tried before and didn't resolve the issue, then their are two possibilities, and ONLY two. One, that the first tech was a retard and didn't do the fix right, or Two, that the fix did not solve the issue and there is a more serious problem here.

I personally don't know anyone retarded enough to screw up DUSTING.

This was a case of the tech not reading the notes from the previous visit, not reading the notes that SHOULD have been left when he dropped it off, and not doing a thorough diagnostic. Granted, most problems don't require a full checkup, and are generally simple issues, but if the device has been brought back with the same problem in a short period of time, it's time to go beyond the basic checklist stuff.

Yes, that is true. But if it takes 45 minutes for the player to lock up, and the person logging the background info into the system doesn't note that, no one will let the disk run for 45 minutes before declaring it resolved. They might let it run for 10 minutes, max, but they're not going to let it sit for 45. So it might not entirely be the tech's fault. I think we would need to know what exactly was put in for notes on the system before we go blaming the tech for having a standard fix-all.

*Don't shoot, just playing Devil's Advocate here!*

[bob the goat]

Nix that. I have a copy of the form that the person that took my player filled out. There is a box that says something like "reason for service". It states that the player would lock up sometime after 45 minutes of play, it states that the thing was in 2 months ago and was dusted and that that was not the problem, it also has my hypothisis that it could be the laser drive or track that is screwed up, since it always occurs after playing for so long, and that I can re-start a movie after it locks up 45 minutes in and re-watch the first 45 minutes without an error, so it is not heat build up.