Best Buy, Mesa, AZ - HP G-85 multi-system - have been without machine for over a year due to it never operating properly

Consumer follow-up message - May 9, 2004 -

From: //

I previously submitted my complaint to you. I never received a response from Best Buy regarding my complaint through your posting. Additionally, when I contacted them directly again, they asked me to resubmit my service tag/reciept. I did that four additional times. Finally, their lawyer contacted me and asked me to submit the same information to her. At that point, I decided to take them to small claims court.

It took about another month and a half to get to small claims court from my date of filing. On that date, Best Buy was being sued by at least one other party. Best Buy's representative lied indicating that I'd received my HP G-85 but had no proof of the same. I prevailed over the company and received the attached 1) Notification from the court. 2) Letter from Best Buy reminding me of my "responsibility" to notify the Court that they've paid the judgement; 3) Check for the face value of the machine and Court filing fee pursuant to the Court order. Notice that Best Buy spelled my name incorrectly on the check, although they got it correctly on the letter. Above all, WHAT A HASSLE!!! Rather than doing the right thing and replacing my machine, which they had damaged and then lost, Best Buy management and Customer Service as well as their Legal Staff put me through a living hell just in my attempts to just have my machine repaired.

It was to no avail that I have had to go through all of this and through it all, they've never APOLOGIZED!!! Further, the judgement fails to pay for my legal fees or other expenses incurred in dealing with that insolent company!!!! As a result I've coined a new marketing slogan for 'Worst' Buy as follows: CAVEAT EMPTOR, CAVEAT EMPTOR, CAVEAT EMPTOR!!!

From: //

RE: Best Buy, Mesa, AZ - HP G-85 multi-system - have been without machine for over a year due to it never operating properly

The Best Buy store location with which I had a problem is Mesa, Arizona - Alma School Road. Best Buy, Northtown Mall in Blaine, Minnesota is where I initially purchased it. Thank you.

I took my HP G-85 multi-system/all-in-one to Best Buy for service back on 9/30/02 originally. Since that time, I've actually been without my machine for over a year because it's never operated properly. In addition to refusing to replace it under the lemon warranty, Best Buy has never properly repaired the machine. The no lemon warranty warrants replacement after four repairs.

My printer was damaged on at least one occasion when according to a service technician in Best Buy's Los Angeles Service Center (they're shipped their from the store in Mesa), it was dropped as they removed it from a truck. That was in October 2002 and Best Buy's management refused to replace it even in view of the damage, which was sustained. They even noted on one of my repair receipts "deep gouges scratches… damaged at service center." Eventually, they took the guts of my machine and placed it in another shell. It still had problems. After about 8 returns to the service center, I received the machine back in June. I took the multisystem back to Best Buy immediately upon return from the service center because it still didn't work properly. It had every order of problems, including poor print quality, misalignment of paper, paper jams, failure to power up and failure to fax legal sized documents. It was never a very good machine from the start.

Ironically, I had originally purchased a HP 1150C, which worked wonderfully. However, towards the end of my warranty, I took the equipment in to Best Buy in Blaine, Minnesota, Northtown Shopping Mall where I had purchased it. In addition to the repair and lemon warranty, at that time, I had a service agreement on the equipment, but I had it for some time and it never required repair, It worked wonderfully. But since I was close to the termination on warranty repairs and servicing, I took it in to have it serviced in advance of the termination date. When the service was completed and I went to pick it up, I noticed that it had missing parts. Best Buy, immediately replaced the missing parts.

When I got it back home, I found out that there were also broken parts internally. Best Buy accepted it for servicing and allowed me to purchase another machine for temporary use with an open receipt so that I could return it when my equipment had been fixed. Finally, it returned from the service center in Bloomington, Minnesota and the technicians noted it was improperly repaired, they immediately replaced it with the latest, greatest multisystem that they had in stock at that time: The HP G85, which has been a lousy, lousy machine from the start, just from the standpoint of the scanner feature alone, which doesn't provide near the quality of that old HP 1150C.

However, I lived with its deficiencies until the mechanical breakdowns ensued. When I submitted my machine to the Mesa store, it had been out on prior occasions for several months. This time around, after I checked it back in, in June. I'd been verifying with the LA Service Center in the interim to find out when I could expect the machine to be returned. They indicated that it was still in repair. Finally, I returned to the store on 09/30/03, a year to the day I first brought it in for repairs, not to exclude all of the successive occasions in the intervening period, and discovered that they had lost my machine.

Jon, a very friendly service representative in the Mesa store and one of the many whom I'd gotten to know over the course of the year, told me the machine had been sitting there for months. I told him, I've never received so much as a phone call to let me know that it was back again as was always the case in the past (my phone number had not been changed and I have an answering service). Further I'd checked with the service center in LA as in times pass and they told me it was still being serviced. Jon did some research and indicated that Best Buy might "do something with it, if it's been sitting around for a long time, but they always send out a certified letter first."

Jon went away to speak with Jeff, a manager and returned to look through the stack of certified receipts as well as letters returned undeliverable, but was unable to locate mine. Jon returned to Jeff and ultimately to Brenda Kies, the store's General Manager. Jon returned sometime later to say, "look I know you've been through a lot with this machine, I can't understand why they're giving you such a hard time over it, but don't worry, if we can't find your machine, Brenda will fix you up with a replacement, she's checking inventory right now for an open box machine to replace it with." At that point, I was simply out cold and figured that any comparable multisystem, even an 'open box' (likely a demo, or something, I supposed) would be better than continuing to be without one altogether. I waited eagerly and anxiously about a half-hour for Brenda to come at any moment, with my replacement equipment. I was eager to see what sort of left over equipment the store had available that she was going to attempt to push on me. Notwithstanding the same, it was still going to have been better than being without my equipment altogether. When Brenda never showed up, I asked Jon to follow-up with her, to find out if she even knew I was still there, waiting. Jon followed up and let me know, "Brenda will be with you in a moment, how much time do you have? Can you stick around for a minute?" I reminded Jon that since I was moving back to Minnesota and was in the process of moving that very day, (I was wearing overalls so my appearance gave me away) I needed to resolve this immediately. Jon was quite reassuring and again explained to me "When this happens we just replace it, Brenda will fix you up." I said okay and waited for another 5, 10, 15 minutes, 30 minutes finally after another 40 minutes, I asked Jon what was going on. He checked with Brenda again and explained to me that she wanted to see my purchase receipt.

Well, I didn't have it with me, it was packed away in some box, sitting on my moving truck, I never needed a receipt to pick up my equipment before, because they always had it in their computer system and I just signed a receipt for Best Buy acknowledging that, yes, I have picked up my equipment. In fact what's always troubled me about that process since my Multisystem was never repaired properly is that they make you sign a disclaimer stating that 'I agree with the repairs.' Now, Brenda, via Jon was asking me to produce my purchase receipt and one, which I could not readily get my hands on. To add insult to injury, my seeming advocate, Jon, had already been working overtime on that day, September 30th, 2003 and told me that he wouldn't be there to help me if and when I returned. Nonetheless, I returned home, retrieved box, upon box from the moving truck, searched each of them and located the receipt and returned to the store. I requested Brenda and fully expected her to note that I had purchased my HP1150C for $899.00, eventually had it replaced with the HP G85 Multisystem at which time I spent a couple of hundred dollars +- on a new warranty and thus legally held title to the lost equipment in question. After waiting about 35 minutes, I met Brenda Kies, in the flesh. From the moment my eyes set sight on her, her body language and facial expression betrayed her fallen countenance. Only, I was perplexed: was she vexed because of my persistence at waiting so long, (by now collectively several hours) to see her? Was the extended wait times to conclude some simple communications a ploy to tire me out?

Had she been searching for an 'open box' Multisystem replacement and been unable to find one to give to me? What gives? As she approached, she didn't say 'hello' or 'sorry for the wait' she abruptly requested: "You're the one with the multisystem? Got the receipt?" I provided her with the receipt and she said "I'm gonna have to make copies and I've got to research this, it's going to take at least a couple of days!" 'A couple of days?!' 'I don't have a couple of days, I'm in the process of moving as you can verify by my outfit…I'm moving back to Minnesota.' 'Well, it's going to take me a couple of days to research it!' I explained to Brenda that Jon said "Brenda will fix you up.' Brenda asked: "Fix you up? What do you mean, fix you up."

I explained to her that Jon indicated that she'd provide me with replacement equipment and that I just needed to bring in the receipt first. I went through painstaking efforts to locate the receipt and needed to get this taken care of. Brenda returned to the hurry up and wait game, she asked "Well It's going to take a while, you got a minute?' I explained that although I really didn't have time, waiting for her to resolve the issue today, beats the alternative of leaving the store empty handed.

Brenda went away for another half-hour or so (It seems as though Best Buy or at least Brenda is fond of those half-hour increments, seemed to have formed a pattern). Brenda finally appeared behind the counter looking through the drawer filled with green certified receipt cards and undeliverable mail that Jon had searched through earlier, and Jeff, another store manager besides. At that point, I think it was confirmed that Brenda was only searching for a way to deny my fair request that Best Buy either produce my defective machine or its replacement. Finally, after much dilly dallying, Brenda returned with the following information " Our records show you stopped by in April and that's where our record ends. We'll have to complete some more information, I'll give you a call." Calmly and respectfully, I submitted, that I thought this was ridiculous. Brenda indicated, "it's just going to take some time, I'll give you a call tomorrow or the next day." For the most part, I never expected to receive that call and the following two weeks when that call was never forthcoming, I called Best Buy's customer service line, the reps are located here in Minnesota.

I talked to the first rep that indicated that he would look into the matter and give me a call back. I explained to him that this has been going on for over a year, I've actually been without my equipment for over a year and wished to speak with a manager or someone in authority who would resolve the matter by giving me replacement equipment.

Eventually the supervisor came unto the phone, very dryly, and unpleasantly he stated "I've been on the phone with Mesa and talked to Jeff, the store manager, he said you've done this before and you have a habit of making unreasonable requests, there's nothing we can do." I restated the fact that it was Best Buy which failed to properly repair my equipment, damaged it at some point and finally lost or otherwise disposed of it. Nonetheless, Best Buy has refused to replace my equipment. Apparently Best Buy has a standard practice of notifying customers via certified letter prior to disposing of any equipment. I never received so much as a phone call and had been told by the service center that the equipment was still in repair and three months waiting time was not unusual, I'd twice waited that long and longer on previous occasions. They could not find any record of a letter or phone call, because they simply never contacted me. The obvious resolution is for Best Buy to replace my equipment with a comparable machine and to compensate me for a year's time lost under the warranty since I have not been able to use my equipment for that period of time.

Monti K

Blaine, MN 55434