Geek Squad Replacement Phone

[david_jr]

Anyone ever use GSP to replace a phone. Bought the plan November 2014. Took phone into Geek Squad for screen problem. They said they are sending a replacement phone and we have to send the old phone back when we get it. Been doing a little reading up and looks like they send a refurbished phone. Some complaints that the refurb is in worse condition than the broken phone. That doesn't sound acceptable considering what I paid for the plan and the $159 fee I paid for the incident.

 

[david_jr]

Best Buy just sent me an e-gift card for $649 in lieu of sending a phone. We'll see I guess what it's going to cost for a new phone without service. Son whose phone it was wants a Samsung Galaxy S7 as a replacement.

 

[david_jr]

Best Buy is selling the S7 without a contract for $679. I will be ordering it online to save the hassle of driving an hour to my nearest BB (now that my local store closed back in October) to do the same thing. I believe I get free shipping on orders over $35 with my rewards membership. I'm afraid I won't be doing phone business with BB anymore after this. Need to have someone closer in case of a problem. So what it works out to is, we have 7 months left on my son's phone contract. So we shouldn't need any replacement plan for this phone seeing as the phone comes with a one year manufacturer's warranty. Right? If anything happens to the phone we can just contact Samsung for repair/replacement, and then when the year is up if it breaks he can just upgrade again. Sounds like a plan. I thought you would agree.

 

[EarDemon]

Never EVER buy Geek Squad Protection on anything. It's just a way to separate you from your money since Best Buy's profit margins are razor thin. After working there for a whole three months in-between jobs I had more then my fair share of seeing what a massive joke and rip off Geek Squad Protection and their extended tech support is.

I joined the cell phone world relatively late. It wasn't until the Fall of 2001 that I got my first phone, ever single one was purchased from a corporate owned carrier store or from the carriers websites. But now that I am done with carrier subsidies and refuse to partake in these new idiotic lease plans. Also I beyond refuse to pay activation fees. My Nexus 6P was purchased directly through Huawei. I cannot imagine buying a phone through a place like Best Buy..

 

[david_jr]

Thanks EarDemon for the input. Ok just to see this through to conclusion, I went to the Best Buy website to order the replacement phone. I found that the only way to order a phone without starting service was to order an unlocked phone. This may not necessarily be true, but I couldn't figure out a way so it is at least unintuitive if it is possible. So I order the Galaxy S7, which is $689, not $679 as I had earlier seen. So I end up paying $85 out of pocket in addition to the GS coupon for the difference in price and for sales tax (MA 6.25 %). The phone took a week to arrive and when my son tried to put his sim card in to use it it was a no go. So he took it down to our local Verizon store to see if they could help. They ad vise it is an unlocked phone and will not work with Verizon. Don't know if that is true, but that is what they told him. So I call GS again and they advise I can return the phone to their store and they will exchange it for a Verizon phone for no charge. So we make the hour trip to our closest Best Buy and are directed to Customer Service and then from there directed to the mobile phone section where there is no line, but there is also no one working there either. After about a 10 minute wait an attendant shows up and helps us. She seems to know what she is doing pretty well and agreed with me about the website not letting me buy a phone without a new contract and gets going on the exchange. This is an ordeal that I will not go step by step with but having to enter my SSN and PIN several times as she goes through the menus is just a pain. Finally she gets to the point of ringing up the transaction and the in store price ends up being $10 less than the online price I paid for the phone I brought in and the total shows a $10 credit with me owing a balance of $1.23. The CSR says that can't be right because the in tore phone is less I should not owe them money. I suggested the possibility that because I live in Massachusetts the tax rate is quite a bit lower than their store located in Albany, NY so even with the lower price the total is 11 and change more. She said she wants to ask a manager. So she calls and we wait. Then she calls again and we wait. Then she starts going to look around for a manage and finally finds one who confirms what I said about the sales tax being so high there. So after all that now she starts the phone info transfer which takes another 15 minutes so now we are close to an hour and a half just for what I thought would be a simple exchange. Sorry for the venting, but I was a bit perturbed at how long this took. So now I figure out the dollars and cents: I paid $240 for the Geek Squad PP, then had to pay $160 deductible for the service, then $85 for the difference on the new phone, then $1.23 in store for the added sales tax adjustment for the lower priced phone, leaving me having paid out of pocket $486.23 for a replacement phone from Geek Squad; a savings of approximately $200 over what I would have paid without the PP. Although if I did not have the PP, my son would have just had to make due with the old iPhone we had laying around from a previous upgrade that he used for the few weeks it took to get this whole thing sorted out.

So would I use GSPP again? Not a chance!! I have a 3 year square trade plan on my iPhone that cost $129. I hear that they have family plans and I am going to look into that for future insurance. Thanks for listening.