Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[typesdriver]

Hello everyone, first post here! I purchased a Panasonic 50" Plasma from Best Buy (love Best Buy, get all my stuff there!) on 6/16/08 and also purchased the 4 year PSP to go with it. Well, recently the speakers seem to not like certain sounds. We could be watching tv, dvd or dvr'd stuff and certain tones cause the tv to vibrate/buzz quite loudly. So this past Tuesday I called 888-Best-Buy and had someone tell me that a local shop could send someone out on Saturday (today). Great! That's quick service I thought. So the guy came today and, to my surprise, the tv actually made the buzzing noise for him. So he says to me "OK, we need to take the tv to our shop so we can take it apart and determine whether or not it's fixable". So apparently, much to my chagrin, I'm going to have to be without a tv until "middle of next week". So I tried calling the 888-Best-Buy # again to find out if I really had to go without a tv for all that time. They weren't picking up after I spoke with the initial person who transfers your call to the right area, and the guy had to get going. So we are setting up another appt for next week. Here's where my question lies. The Best Buy rep whom I purchased the tv from told me that if anything ever goes wrong with your tv, they will provide in-home service so I will never have to be without a tv. So yes, they did come to my house, but now they want to take my tv for at least 5 days. Shouldn't I get some sort of loaner or replacement? SHOULD I GET A LOANER OR REPLACEMENT TV IN THIS SCENARIO? OR DO I HAVE TO GO WITHOUT A TV UNTIL "middle of next week"? I've already read plenty of horror stories online about people's fix taking WAY longer than they were told, and I don't want to be without a tv that I purchased a "performance service plan" on. Thank you in advance to anyone that can help/direct me to the right place!!!

[Nokia]

While GS does provide in-home service, a third party repair shop may have to take the TV with them.

[typesdriver]

Yeah, I kinda figured that when the guy told me he needed to take it with him. My question is how long am I supposed to be without a tv? It's my only one, and I bought the psp specifically for this reason...I didn't want to ever be without a tv.

[BartStar86]

Don't feel bad, its not just you, they lied to me too, the salesman that sold me the TV also told me I would get a free loaner and in home service, the salesmen lie just to make the sale.

The way this works is the Independent TV Repair Shop will troubleshoot it, then he calls Best Buy for approval for repair, BUT ,,, Best Buy is very slow in getting back to him to approve the repair. If it needs parts the TV Repair Shop won't order the parts UNTILL he gets approval , then there's another wait for the parts to come in.

When you buy the PSP, you gave ALL control to Best Buy on how THEY want too and how long they can take to fix your TV and there's NOTHING you can do about it!

Don't blame the TV Repair Shop , he wants to fix your TV and get it back to you as soon as possible, but his hands are tied by Best Buy.

[Dorothy-BBY Community Supervisor]

Hello typesdriver -

Allan, from our Community Connector team, will be reaching out to you to provide some clarification on your concerns. I appreciate your patience until he is able to contact you.

[Allan-BBY Community Connector]

Hi typesdriver,

I can definitely understand not wanting to be without a TV for any amount of time, and I am sure this is especially true during the holiday season.

The associate that sold you the Performance Service Plan (PSP) for this TV was correct that the plan is intended to repair your TV in your home. If there is not a Best Buy® technician that services a customer’s area we will request that a local repair center perform the repair for us. Since these local service centers are a completely separate company they sometimes have different policies and procedures that we do. It has been my experience that some of them do not repair products in a customer’s home, and requires the product to be brought to their service center for repair. It does state in the terms and conditions of your PSP that “Some products may need to be removed from the home to be repaired”.

Your PSP does not provide for a replacement or loaner TV while your TV is out for service, and as in any repair it would be impossible to say exactly how long the repair would take. There is no limit stated in the terms and conditions of your PSP as to how long it will take to repair your TV, but I can assure you that we would not make you wait indefinitely to get you a working TV.

I would like to offer my personal assistance in this matter, and I am sending you a private message to start that conversation. To check your messages you should log into the forum, and then click on the letter icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Thanks for posting,