My wife purchased a digital camera for my teenage daughter's birthday in Oct. 2005. My wife and I would not normally purchase an extended warranty for a consumer electronics product because I believe it's a waste of money but the salesman pushed it and explained that if our daughter was to drop the camera it would be covered for three years over the manufacturer 1 year warranty.
When the camera failed, my wife returned to Best buy to get the camera serviced/replaced. The moment the sales person held the camera in his hand he told her the serial number could not be read on the camera and the warranty was void because of a California law.
The serial number located on the battery door was barely readable when she arrived but when their salesman got the camera he was able to use his finger to rub it off further. She was told by a different salesman that everyone knows about this problem and that we should have put tape over the serial number.
Why should I be responsible for a manufacturer's lousy method of applying serial numbers? He was very quick to inform us that we were out of luck.
Next the store manager claimed the camera had been dropped and was not covered anyway. I wonder how they determine the cause of these problems.
My wife called Best buy corporate offices to explain the problem. The head of their customer service department called my local Best buy and spoke to the manager and was able to conclude they were right and we were wrong.
The customer service manager Tina would not give us her last name but gave us a case number #28301187. When we asked to speak to her supervisor, she claimed she had no supervisor and that she was the top person.
For a customer service representative I found her rude and unhelpful. She acted as if we were trying to sell her something and replied to our questions with the same unhelpful and uninformative answers over and over. She was a broken record.
It is sad when big companies hire people for customer service positions that cannot keep their customers happy. Tina gave us no hope of a resolution. Tina actually hung up on us! Needless to say we feel ripped off! We have no reason to be shopping at Best buy ever again.
While it appears that the extended warranty was misrepresented by their salesman, and the serial number is difficult to read (not impossible), they could be a little sympathetic to the problem and claim some responsibility.
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