That's NOT how a warranty works!

[Sapphire Silk]

*Gives 360 to a friend*
I had my 360 stolen. I believe I'm entitled to a new one!

Sorry, did you buy insurance?

Have to say that has to be one of the worst consoles I have seen. And I hope that the owners of the console got their dog to the vet after it had eaten through the battery.

Please tell me this was not accepted for trade in . . .

[ozcatbug]

Please tell me this was not accepted for trade in . . .

If it got to me, it was a trade-in. I don't work in a store, I work at head office in the warehouse. So that means someone (had to be a SC) actually asked to trade-in a console that, well lets be honest, I would not class it as a console, the worker had to accept the trade and give the SC his trade-in value (personally think $0 would be acceptable), then the console had to be packed up and shipped to head office. Once it got to head office it was scanned in by one CW as received, sorted by another CW and placed with all the other DS Lites, another CW collected the box of DS Lites and brought it upstairs to the tech area, where it was put into a tray with 9 other DS Lites. I then picked up the tray and went WTF! Usually with consoles that are written off we can get some used parts, but with this one there was absolutely nothing that could be saved. So some in-store co-worker has traded-in a console that has passed through 4 or 5 peoples hands within the company (not including shipping workers) for it to be written off. Actually it was more like 20 odd hands as it was passed around the department. No one could believe that someone would have the nerve to ask to trade-in that piece of garbage, or that some store worker would actually accept the trade.

I have no idea how much money that console would have cost from accepting it from the SC to the point it was written off, what with packaging, posting, not to mention processing. I know I spent almost 10 minutes trying to work out if there was anything that was salvageable. It was really not worth it for the company to accept that trade-in, and any fool could tell that.

(Looks at forum name) Oh yeah, forgot where I was again.

[emax4]

For modded consoles, are you able to refer the customer to someone else that can possibly fix those? In the name of customer satisfaction, it would be helpful if the counter person inspecting the consoles could know that information, but this isn't a perfect world. It's not the responsibility of the worker to go so far as to research as to who or what company can repair them, but when trying to defuse a potentially difficult situation, that information might be handy to the original owner.

Ex 1: Years ago I had to have some engine work done on my beater, an '85 Nissan Sentra. I took it to the local Pep Boys to drop it off and have them give me a diagnosis, which was that it needed a new head gasket. One staff member called me and said that they can't get involved in heavy work like that, but the guy knew someone closer to me that did that kind of work. I contacted my friend who sold it to me, who initially referred me to someone else that he knew that could do it for cheaper, but he ended up doing it himself for a few hundred bucks. Basically, networking with multiple people gave me more results on who would do the work, and without it I wouldn't know the right person for the job.

[PepperElf]

What a warranty usually covers:

- Replacement of parts of product due to NORMAL WEAR AND TEAR

Seems simple enough. Unfortunately SCs don't get it, they think...[list 1 - 5]

O yes. I've seen a few of those

1) customer-damage to item.
Heck, I've seen some customers try to pass it off as if it was a manufacture's defect. Customer that comes to mind tried acting like his mouse wasn't working, and was livid that when we sent it off it hadn't been repaired. ... turns out the repair center declined it due to extensive liquid damage to every single component. So no, this isn't a manufacturer's defect.


4) unlimited repairs forever
O yeah, now most people actually accepted when the warranty was expired - even people who had the extended warranty. But every so often we got someone who felt it should be repaired for free anyway, or who had a hissy fit at how the repair process worked.

and of course over at PFB/M3C. heck i've seen people complain about 10 year old stuff. Or like one recent letter where the letter-writer apparently thought the warranty expired date would automatically extend when he got a refurbished replacement... and how astonished he was to find out that yes he has to pay for repairs now.


5) I had customers who thought their extended warranty covered loss / theft of the phone. They were NOT happy when they found out the answer is "no".

[icmedia]

At my cellphone shop, I clearly and pointedly explain to each customer, as they are buying their phone, how insurance works vs. warranty, what the warranty does and doesn't cover, and what the cost to replace the handset is without insurance vs. the deductible if they choose insurance.

Then, to cover my own ass, I make them sign a form that states EXACTLY the same things, and whether or not they opted to pay for insurance. The form also has a place for their Stae ID or Drivers License #, so they can't say that it wasn't them who signed the form.

Yet, people STILL come in thinking that a cracked/shattered screen is a manufacturer's defect. :P I had a guy 2 weeks ago argue that the glass screen was too brittle from being hardened (to resist scratches), and THAT was why the warranty should cover his replacement. Nice try, buddy.

[blas]

One of my boyfriend's friends was due to get a new (free) phone, and I guess he had to wait a day or two, and meanwhile, one night we were all drinking, and he decided it'd be fun to see just how much he could destroy his phone, then try to bring it back to Verizon and say he dropped it or whatever.

He was no longer getting a free phone when Verizon saw that.

[wolfie]

Yet, people STILL come in thinking that a cracked/shattered screen is a manufacturer's defect. :P I had a guy 2 weeks ago argue that the glass screen was too brittle from being hardened (to resist scratches), and THAT was why the warranty should cover his replacement. Nice try, buddy.

That guy must have glass and steel mixed up. I've never heard of a hardening (to resist scratches) process for glass, and the tempering (toughens the glass, and if it does break you don't get jagged shards) process does NOT make it brittle (quite the opposite, in fact). It's steel that becomes more brittle when hardened (and tempering takes away some of the hardness but makes it less brittle - why a screwdriver won't snap as easily as a drill bit).

[icmedia]

Gorilla Glass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_Glass) is hardened, but he WAS grossly mistaken about its fragility. If anything the hardening process makes it LESS likely to shatter.

[An Haddock]

We offer 1 - 3 warranties on refurbished computers but I've learned I have to give people my "3 rules" speech when they purchase because there's ALWAYS that one idiot who doesn't know how to properly take care of a laptop

1. don't pick it up by the screen. I've seen more thumb prints and fixed more screens because of that than I care to admit

2. don't use it on a soft surface - pillow, couch cushion, mattress, even a thick carpet. get a tray, use it on a hard, flat table or put it on a book thats wide enough to hold it. otherwise the heat has no where to go and can back up and damage your processor, not to mention getting dust, hair and lint in the fan's intake

3. if you have a dvd burner you can't go to a Blockbuster video (do they even still exist?) or a Redbox, rent a movie, and copy it. yes, it's against the law but I don't give a crap what you do with your personal property. that's not why I'm warning you. it's because commerically-produced DVD's have copyright protection that most dvd-copying software can't get through.

We also have to warn them that our protection coverage doesn't cover user error - i.e. spilling liquid on the keyboard, dropping it and breaking the screen or knocking something loose, or downloading viruses.

A couple of years ago before I started doing the speech I had a dumbass woman not only infect her system but she would use it on her couch and she pretty much killed the processor chip doing it.

[ShootMePlease]

While I never stick up for customers, in their defense they may have been lied to by a salesperson about what the protection plan covers so they could get the sale. We all have quotas we must meet, and some take less than honorable routes to achieve this. I can attest to this, and I'm sure Mike Taylor can, too. While I'm sure most of the customers are full of shit, there might be a few there who were lied to and misled.