Does anyone recommend buying from Best Buy

[anicholas7]

I went there the day of the Thunderbolt launch and spoke with one of the salesmen. He was telling me about their phone warranty as opposed to assurion from Verizon and it sounded great. (lost, dropped in water, broken screen etc.. you get another device and no copay) He also told me about the trade in warranty where you trade in your phone at the end of the 2 year contract and they credit you the amount you payed for the phone towards a new phone.(up front $30 fee for this program)
Is this what others have experienced in dealing with them. Is it worth it and has anyone had problems with them.

 

[lilpadfoot16]

I can't give you any experiences, but I do know if they told you they cover lost/stolen devices, this is a lie. Water is also tricky; they may or may not cover it if the device was fully submerged. I personally have the BB insurance because I'd rather not pay a deductible and get a refurbished phone when I can get a new one free.

 

[anicholas7]

Thanks for the post. I am going back there today to see if I can get a copy of their agreement so I can read it.

 

[Officerpolabear]

although, I have insurance, I have never really dropped my phone in water, break the screen, and etc. But I will tell you that they usually have good employees

 

[Moscow Desire]

I went there the day of the Thunderbolt launch and spoke with one of the salesmen. He was telling me about their phone warranty as opposed to assurion from Verizon and it sounded great. (lost, dropped in water, broken screen etc.. you get another device and no copay) He also told me about the trade in warranty where you trade in your phone at the end of the 2 year contract and they credit you the amount you payed for the phone towards a new phone.(up front $30 fee for this program)
Is this what others have experienced in dealing with them. Is it worth it and has anyone had problems with them.

I've only had 2 experiences with Best Buy. And neither so good.

1. If your purchase is over $100 and you pay by CC, and you decide to return the "unopened" item for a refund, you get the reply, "we will send you a refund check within 30-60 days".

2. Upon buying a Notebook, I found I could not register it for warranty on the manufactures web site. Something about Best Buys 3rd party warranty system. Not so convienant when you live overseas.

Although my experience is not related to an Android purchase, well, I would stay away from them.

 

[MikeBinOK]

I've had only one "out of the ordinary" experience with Best Buy, and it was a good one. When I bought my Palm Pre almost two years ago, I had a problem with a crack in the USB connector develop four months after I'd bought the phone. This was a very common hardware problem for that phone, and was the fault of Palm, not Best Buy. It was four months since I'd bought the phone (June to October), but I tried taking the phone back to Best Buy anyway, despite feeling it was probably much too late for a store exchange. But they did do a store exchange and gave me a totally new Palm Pre (I babied the USB port on it by going to a "Touchstone" charger, and despite Palm's crummy hardware it lasted till I bought my EVO the following June).

This was excellent customer service! Other than that, I've had no experience with Best Buy beyond "I gave 'em my money and they let me walk out with the product".

 

[srkmagnus]

I've purchased phones through Best Buy as upgrades to my current Sprint contract. Nothing but good customer service and the instant rebates are a plus; though Sprint is soon to offer this and Verizon already does. No experiences with the insurance policy since I use the Carrier provided policy.

If you go through Best Buy make sure to have them price match the phone to Verizon. You'll pay taxes on the entire costs of the phone that Best Buy lists, which is generally more than what the carrier charges.

 

[andropomorphic]

I work at Best Buy. When I was being trained I was taught to tell customers that our accidental damage from handling warranty covers "everything except loss and theft" (it's easier than saying "heat, dust, humidity, normal wear and tear, water damage, use as frisbee, target practice, drops, cracks, pixel burn in, blah blah blah"). The brochure says "spills", but I've never heard of a problem processing an item to be returned or exchanged because it was dropped in a pool instead of just spilled on.