Jason Crowther’s Blog

As you’ve probably guessed by now, nobody called me back after that last check in. So, I figured it was time to try to talk to someone in person. Last night, I checked in with my local Best Buy (the actual location where I purchased the TV.)

I explained the situation… His first reply was to just bring it in and we’ll take care of it. Bzzt, this is an in home plan, getting that very heavy tv repaired is your problem. He took my warranty documentation and disappeared for a while. A few minutes later he was dialing up someone and waving me over to the phone.

I didn’t see the number he dialed, but I’m guessing it was the same exact number that I was using. He said he was an employee and he was trying to help some get service. Amusingly, there’s not much of a security process to validate you’re an actual employee. The only non-public info he told them was the store number. Maybe I’ll pretend to be an employee next time and see if that gets me any further.

After obviously being placed on the hold (been there myself), he chats it up with a service tech and tries to explain the situation. After a few more minutes, he hands the phone over to me and says that the tech wants to talk to me. This can’t be good…

I chat with a tech named Eli for a bit. He confirms my details and then starts down the path of what’s the problem with your TV, blah blah blah. I’m severely irritated at this point because this is the kind of stuff that should be in my original service request. I said, forget that crap, my problem is that you guys should know all this stuff already and the real problem is that your local service center never calls me back as promised.

Eli says to hold on and he’ll do a conference call between us and the local service center. I said yeah, that sounds good, but can I call you back from home, its hard to hear you in the middle of this store. He gave me his extension and said to use that get back to him.

So, I flew home and dialed up my favorite number again. The first humanoid directing calls said that they can’t route to an extension, then assured me that someone in the service department could redirect me. Ok, whatever.

Another 10 minutes of Zamfir’s pan pipes and a service tech pickups. I tell him the situation and ask to be transfered to extension XXXXX. He says, OK, lemme try that… What a sec, extensions normally have 6 digits. Great, guess I won’t be talking to Eli again.

He starts down the whats your problem, blah blah blah route. He seems to understand the problem and puts me on hold while he looks up my account details. He says he’ll try calling the local service center directly and puts me on hold again.

He checks in a minute later and says that nobody is answering (which usually means I’m not really trying to call them, I’m just faking it) and to hold the line. He checks in again another minute later and asks if I have the number for the local service center. Ah, nope…

He then drops the bomb that I’ve been waiting all along. My local service center has nothing to do with Best Buy, its just a local electronics repair company (United Radio). I had this suspicion that there really never was a Best Buy repair team. He went on to say that he was forwarding them my details (which may take 24 hours to make it there) and that I should call them to make an appointment.

Part of my problem is I’m way too patient. I’m gonna give them until Monday before I call so I don’t get that sorry we didn’t get the paperwork excuse.

Next time, I’ll call UR first and tell them to bill the repair straight to Best Buy.

Last time I talked to Best Buy Service, they said some one will call me back in 5-7 business days. I wasn’t all that surprised that after 7 days elapsing, that I still didn’t hear anything from them.

So, I figured it was time to check in again. Dialed ‘em up, waited five minutes for humanoid to direct my call. Another 2 minutes and I was talking to someone in the service department. They start down their spiel of confirming all my account details and I immediately put the brakes on.

“Yo, I’m not starting from scratch here, I’ve already done this step. You guys some one would call me and they haven’t.”

They say sorry and put me on hold while they ‘pull up my records.’ They come back after a minute or two.

“Sorry sir, my computer is really slow today.”

Yeah, what ever.

“Looking at your file, there are no service requests outstanding.”

WHAT?

“Ok, lemme recap the story for you. I called on 10/13, someone took my info, and said the local service center would be in touch in 2 business days. I let 2 business days elapse. Didn’t hear anything back. So, on 10/18, I called in again and that person the first person lied, it really takes 5-7 business days for the call back. So, as of 6 days ago, there was a service request in the queue. What happened to that?”

“I’m sorry sir, I can’t find that request.”

She went on to say that it should really on take only 2 business days to get a call back. At this point, I think they’re all full of crap and just trying to avoid doing any more work on the call themselves.

“I’m sorry sir for all this trouble…”

blah blah blah.

“I’m going to make your request gets in the queue tonight and you should get a call back very soon.”

Note there was no quantifiable time period in there.

“Ok, can you give me a reference number for this support case?”

So the next time I call back you can tell me there’s no such request.

“Let me put you on hold and so I can look it up.”

Argh… Expectedly…

“I’m sorry I don’t have a number to give you.”

At this point I’m so frustrated I don’t really care any more.

I’m gonna give them until Friday to get back to me. If don’t hear from them by then I’m gonna go down to my local Best Buy and raise me a ruckus. I doubt it will do much good, but maybe some other customers thinking about buying extended warranties might see the fine service that I’m getting.

If I get some time to mess around with it, maybe I’ll set up Skype on my pc and start taping these calls. After all, they say, “This call may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes.” Doesn’t say by who…

This time its not Time Warner, I promise…

Recently my Sony TV (32″ HD) cashed itself in. When you hit the power button, all you get is a blinking red light. What does the manual say about this condition? If when you power on the TV, have no picture, and the status light blinks red… (wait for it…) your TV may need service. Nice to know Sony manuals are written by Captain Obvious.

Hmm, that TV is not that old. Against my normal policy, I did buy the extended warranty plan (only because the actual TV they gave was the floor model). So a few days of fervent searching for the service plan details, I dug them up. Phew! The TV is in year 3 of a 4 year plan.

So, I dialed up the Best Buy Service number. I was pleasantly surprised how well their phone tree was organized. I was on hold for about a minute when someone picked up. They were pretty helpful and seemed to ask all the right questions. At the end of the chat, they said the local service center would call me in 2 business days to arrange an appointment.

Hmm, 3 business days later, no dice. So, I called them back again. Hmm, their phone tree changed. This time, I talked to a humanoid who promptly directed my call. Another 10 minutes on hold and I was talking to someone in the service department. Explained the situation and she said, “I’m sorry but the call back time from the service center is usually 5-7 days. I’m sorry that the previous tech told you otherwise…”

Annoying. I really don’t care, but it would be nice to get the story right the first time, people.