Best Buy, Madison Heights, MI - poor extended warranty experience with compaq computer

# 33 for May 29, 2002

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on May 28, 2002:

From: Giri K [Email User]

RE: Best Buy, Madison Heights, MI - poor extended warranty experience with compaq computer To Whomsover it may concern,

I bought a Compaq presario (5300US/Cel1.1/256/20/40X) from Best buy, Madison Heights in Michigan some time in Dec 2001. I also purchased three year service plan with the ccomputer. The hard drive crashed on 04/30/02 and I immediately went to my nearest Best Buy store and had a service done. They had to ship my computer to Best Buy Service in Chicago and got the hard disk replaced. They gave the computer back to me on 05-14-02.

After few days, when I was trying to install another network card in my computer, I found that there was only one strip of 128 MB RAM in my computer, instead of one strip of 256 MB and also two of the case screws were missing. I went to Best buy store again and showed them what I have in my computer. The technician told me that he will ship the computer back to Chicago again and get my computer's memory back to 256 MB. I didnot wanted to wait for another 3 weeks to get my computer back as I do my research work at home on my computer. I cannot lost it for another 3 weeks because of Best Buy's mistake. I said I will talk to the manager there.

They asked to come back the next day. I did come back next day with my computer to the Madison Heights Best Buy and talked to the manager and told him my situation. He finally told me that he will talk to the service people in Chicago and make them send me the 256 MB RAM. He also said he would call me back after he calls the people in Chicago and he never called me back. I think this is very unfair and I should be given some kind of compensation for this. I am not even sure if I will get the memory back also or not.

I again tried calling the tech service manager at Best Buy, Madison Heights and left a message to remind him to call Chicago Best Buy and make them send me the memory. I also asked him to call me back once he does that. He never called me back till I called him again. I called Chicago Best Buy myself and told them my situation. They told me that they never got any request from Madison Heights for sending me the memory. They also told me that Madison Heights Best Buy here should compensate for my loss. I had to visit the Best Buy store with my computer at least 3 times. I had to call them atleast 3 times and Chicago twice (long distance). I had even given a complaint (complaint call number is C1025958) I never got any possitive reply. I wanted to try out for the last time before going to the small claims court. I went to Best Buy Madison Heights, to talk to the manager again.

He recognized me and was a bit rude towards me saying that he already told me that he cannot do anything unless I get my computer shipped to Chicago. I again called Best Buy Chicago and they told me that they got my service done with Compaq people and they might be the ones who stole the memory. I called Compaq and came to know that they never did recieve any service order from Best buy for my computer.

I had to make another conference call with Compaq and Best Buy to clear this out. Best Buy finally realized that the service was done in Best Buy Chicago only and they again wanted me to call the service technician at Chicago who had done the first service to my computer. If this will not be succesfull, I will be forced to take this issue to small claims court. I was totally breached out with Best Buy's rude and careless attitude.

I will not consider any kind of products or service plans or any service from Best Buy anymore. Thank you.