How not to get Best Buy to fix your broken TV

We've all been completely pissed off with Best Buy for one reason or another, but no matter how infuriatingly incompetent their people can be, it's probably not a good idea to follow Marlene Anne Bagnall's strategy for getting what you want out of them. She found out the hard way that while pulling a gun on the Best Buy television repairman and telling him that, "You're not leaving until the TV is fixed," actually isn't a good way to get your TV fixed, it is an excellent way to get yourself charged with aggravated assault and false imprisonment. The repairman, who had already tried and failed to fix her TV several times, calmed her down by calling Best Buy and getting them to agree to give her a new TV, then left and called the cops.

[Snapple @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Don't you just LOVE the US? Where people go as far as pulling out a gun just to get their Television fixed!? Brilliant!

TV is the Devil!

[David @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

But she got a working TV! ;-)

[Carl @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

I'm currently pleased with them... currently.. I like their warranty plans..lol But damn,... didnt no Floridians got so damn angry... haha, what the hell did she have a gun in her car for? I mean I live in texas and I keep my guns where they belong; in a friggin gun safe.

[Et Tu @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

David,

She won't need the new TV where she's going. :P

[Yuppers @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Come on Carl, it's "know", not "no", try harder next time.

[jake @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

come on yuppers, arguing spelling or punctuation with someone that posts on an online message board is a losing battle.

and, it makes you look like just as big of an ass as they do.

[Carl @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

lol didnt even catch it; curse aim and having moronic friends who use "aim spek" , its infective...

[qp @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

So, is this legal in Florida now?

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050427-014730-6497r.htm

[Rudy Rodriguez @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Best Buy pissed me off once before for charging me a freakin "restocking fee" for an XM radio I returned. After that, only in an emergency- like buying a laptop battery not found at Frys- would I go back.

[Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

wow! that happened in the town i grew up in. That best buy is brand new... less than a year in that location.
I'm not surprised about this story with the "caliber" of people that come from Florida's Pasco County. (note I said that i grew up there... i was NOT born there. i moved there in High School and have since left!)

[boe @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

It would have worked if she remembered to cap his ass after he ordered the replacement TV. She could have removed the old body by putting it in the box the old TV came in. Most BestBuy employees can't differentiate dead bodies from TVs. Hell, it probably wouldn't be that big of a jump for the repair person, if they worked for best buy they were probably brain dead already so she would have gotten off with a warning.

Man I HATE "best buy".

[Bruce Wayne @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

So many Nut Jobs in the US, and they're allowed to own guns?!

Seriously, that employee should be lucky that they didn't get shot, because some of those gun owners are lunatics and will shoot first and ask questions later.

[boe @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Bruce - shooting a best buy employee first and then asking them a question won't change the amount of information you'd get from a best buy employee. Asking a best buy employee a question is about as useful as trying to get your dog to do your homework for you.

[Bruce Wayne @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

So many Nut Jobs in the US, and they're allowed to own guns?!

Seriously, that employee should be lucky that they didn't get shot, because some of those gun owners are lunatics and will shoot first and ask questions later.

[robotplague @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

ive had several horrible best buy stories, i'll never buy anything from them again. i'd rather go to a store and pay 10 bucks more for whatever then give them business. only in extreme cases might i go back.

[IE @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

LOL. And I thought the british were nuts for having crazy frog ringtone at the top of the charts.

[UFG @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

I had a TV under warranty and it died so they gave me store credit and I exchanged it for an InFocus 4805 movie projector and changed the bonus room into a movie theater. =]

50" 4:3 TV -> 108" widescreen, baby. =)

[Adam @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

I pull guns on Best Buy employees all the time. Quite often it is the only way to get any action out of anyone at that worthless store.

[Genius @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

I've had 17 things exchanged under warranty through bestbuy. You just have to know how the policies work. And find the one guy in the store who knows what hes talking about. Warranties are the bomb!!!!

[JohnnyCashAK @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Yes I much preffer the brit's approach, where even the cops aren't packing.
"Tweeeeeeeet! Stop criminal, or I shall blow my whistle once more and shall be very upset with you!"

Although I'm sure this animosity makes sense considering the first time we yanks decided we should have the right to carry firearms, it cost the british an entire country. It only cost BestBuy a TV. Ouch

[Adam @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Who the hell sold that woman a gun?

[Roupen @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

That's kinda scary. I just recently got hired with Best Buy. Oh well I guess nut-jobs are bound to turn out everywhere...

[Petersrule @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Though it was wrong to do, I don't blame her. Best Buy is the devil. Bad selection, Incompetent staff that are usually teenagers or people with no tech skill or understanding of technology. Their staff doesn't like to work there and they could care less about helping you. They would charge you $200 to change a lightbulb if that was a service they offered. So don't ever get anything serviced there. They asked if I wanted a $20 service plan for a $40 phone. What a rip! I tried to complain about the service and a manager made me feel like I was being questioned in a murder trial. I felt guilty for the stores inability. CompUSA is much better. Even Circuit City is better. The only thing they have on the competition is better locations.

[Paul @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

You really think the NRA would allow them to pass a law preventing mental patients from getting a gun?

[RM @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Adam --
The guy who sold her the gun came to regret it. The first one he sold her broke and she came back to the store packing a TV.

[bt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

True story: buddy of mine (really, it's still true) bought a $2K TV from BB couple of years ago, but it kept breaking and needing repairing. Since he bought the extended warranty, he ended up "returning" it and using the $$ to get a new, better TV. I say "returning" because the thing is huge and BB needed to come by and pick it up. So, when the BB delivery people show up to drop of the new kick-ass TV, my friend points them towards the old, slight broken one, but they say "we don't have any record for a pick-up" and leave. End result: buddy spends $50 to fix the first TV again, keeps the second one, and basically get's 2 huge rear-projection TVs for the price of one. Now that's BB "efficiency" for you!

[oklarican @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Hey, I work at best buy...i dont like you

[oklarican @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

hey, i work at best buy...

[JohnnyCashAK @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

I have one that is almost as good...
So about a week after I buy a $600 sony suround sound system for my livingroom, a buddy of mine donates me a $250 dollar one he got as a door prize. He has a 2k setup, so what's he gonna do with this one, wire up his kid's treehouse? So over a case of beer one night, we realise that these two units look almost exactly alike. We come up with the bright idea of putting the cheap one back in the expensive one's box and returning it. We are both still somewhat intoxicated and show up at the place 15 minutes before closing time. After 'checking it out' the guy goes ahead and credit's my card. To add insult to injury, my friend and I were even able to 'good cop-bad cop' our way out of paying the restock fee to boot! So after splitting the refund I walked away with $300, and the original $600 surround system.

Thank you Sony for your crappy confusing product naming scheme. Cheers

[Logan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Ha-ha! That's great stuff. Latley quite a bit of national news has been hitting our town (I live in Tampa). I don't entirley blame the woman. Best Buy can utterly suck sometimes.

[pintomp3 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

you went to store drunk? i hope you walked...

[Boynamedsue @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

people get away with that kind of stuff all the time. My friend was one of the few compitent employees they had. He'd go through the returns that the girls at the counter accepted and find video game boxes with bottles of cologne or rocks inside all the time.

[Frangible @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Silly woman, only corporations can use force to enforce contracts.

[plebster @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

#21 - try *anything*, in the UK, with an object remotely resembling a gun (even a table leg - I sh*t you not) and you'll get an entire squad car of bobbies with HK's shooting at you in 60 secs flat. Our coppers may not carry guns, but their hard mates just round the corner do. And with all the cctv we've got running off is not an option.

[JaySee @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Carl,

I think you'll find "aim spek" is INFECTIOUS.. :)

John

[bluestate @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

#21 � i totally agree. that country needs more guns. i mean, like less than 100 gun related homocides a year? we can do better than that! in fact, that's why i voted for bush. 30,000 annual gun deaths is OK ... but with his help, i think we can easily double that.

[Grippa @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

#29
So basically you're telling us that you are a liar & a thief!. Your parents must be very proud of you.

What ever happened to morality?, what's the difference between you selling yours for 300 bucks & a crackwhore?

[Dan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

#34 Only the government can use the threat of violence to enforce a contract/law. Corporations have no such power.

#37. I believe if you look at the "blue" states it is there that you will find the high gun death numbers (i.e. those states with draconian gun restrictions) while the red states, especially those with the least restrictions, have much fewer gun related crimes per capita. Restrictive gun laws have been proven time and time again to CAUSE crime to increase.

http://johnrlott.tripod.com/op-eds/IBDGunConFailure.html
http://johnrlott.tripod.com/op-eds/BritainToyGunsWSJE.html

The Marlene Anne "I've had it with Best Buy and I won't take it any more" Bagnalls of the world notwithstanding, law abiding gun owners are not the problem, over-reaching governments seeking to remove the citizenry's right to self-defense clearly is.


-B

[Grippa @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Sorry #29, I meant #30

[William @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

#38
Well, a TV will last a lot longer.

(unless it's from BB, then BOTH TV's will last longer. :))

[Neal @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

I don't think I've ever had a problem with Best Buy.

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Repair-people take note - We will get our stuff fixed or you will be held accountable.

Retailers take note- either hire competent help or keep 'em out of my house.

( insert evil laughter here )

[Ed Tapanes @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

I like potatoes.

[StarLog @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

I just bought a Tivo from Best Buy, did not notice the box, had been resealed, until i got home.
Someone took the CD's from the box, and left the empty jacket inside. Now, should I take my gun.?
I live in Florida.....lol

[Carl @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Et Tu you mean the seemingly approaching endless trial period? I dont no I'd like a TV in there.. Shes not in jail.. I wonder who paid the 10k bail bill?

[TxdoHawk @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Yeah, stuff like this is why I'm glad I don't work retail anymore. I had my life threatened over a case of Snapple, true story.

[Cisco Kid @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

www.bestbuysux.org Googled

[Galley @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

I recently spent seven weeks getting a faulty network adapter in a laptop fixed. After sending it to service for three times, they finally managed to fix it, but stupidly put the keyboard back in crooked, causing the keys to get stuck. They had to replace the $1300 laptop because of the "no lemon" policy. This was after they had already put $400 of parts into the old one. D'oh!

[tim @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Dan (#39),

Perhaps you didn't notice that you linked to an op-ed piece, as in editorial / opinion.

And while the excel graphs he uses as statistics are quite impressive, both articles are just partisian rants based on conservative gun nut ideology and not based in any reality that we live in.

I mean christ, can't you at least link to something that appears credible?

But you are right, law abiding gun owners aren't the problem. Gun makers and the NRA lobby that would make guns avaialble to everyone are.

This woman is a perfect example. When you get pissed at Best Buy for being super crappy, is it really smart for everyone to have guns?

[el_nerd-o @ Dec 19th 2005 12:16AM]

Hum this seems like the repairman was at the customer's home trying to repair it. This is even more scary. I used to work for a local PC repair co. who had a contrac w/ a warranty company that does the actual repairs for sears, circuit city, and best buy (i don't think b.b. has been with this warranty company for a few years though). There were times when I didn't feel comfortable in people's homes. I would always have my toolbox with me but have a nice logn screw driver in my pocket (holding it) while i was walking in and out of the house. If it wasn't me, it was another tech that would have to get the problem fixed. So whoever ended up at one of those weird-feeling-homes, we just did our job as quick as possible and leave. Sears had a good policy stating that if we didn't feel comfortable, we could leave the site without performing any repair. i only ended up doing that one time at a home that was very very very i mean very dirty to the point where you couldn't set foot anywhere without stepping on trash.