futuershop/bestbuy extended service warantee

[wasabisashimi]

I need some honest opinion about Futureshop/bestbuy extended service waranty.

If you work at FS or BB, or know someone who works for them, you may be able to help.

I was looking to buy some electronics there (TV, laptop etc.)
Salesperson was not willing to negotiate on the price except that if i agree to buy a 399$ extended waranty for 4years coverage.

That made me wonder if they get alot of commision by selling waranty instead of the product. He told me the product is already on sale and there is no way to move lower. But he contradicted himself by showing me that he can make product lower by 300$ if i pay $399 for warantee. This way it looks like I pay $99 for waranty.

Any thoughts? Should I buy or walk. is waranty not worth it? There are storys that waranty actually helped if something is broken in year 2-3 when limited manufacture waranty expired

[- kT]

let me share a story with you

a while back, i got a new laptop from fs. the salesperson was really nice, and after we got all the stuff sorted out, he gave me a $90 printer for $10, and also gave me a discount on the warranty

cut to a few weeks later, i figured since i'd probably be buying a new computer of some sort before my 4 year warranty ran out, i'd cancel the warranty, so i went back and refunded the warranty

a few weeks ago, my laptops motherboard crashed, so i brought the laptop back (since it's still under the manufacturers warranty). i bumped into the same salesmen, whom i asked for assistance. he was really nice about it, and took me to customer service to talk to them. long story short, he found out that i had returned the warranty, and proceeded to turn away, and walk away laughing, muttering to himself "returned the warranty. hahaha" I kid you not, nor do i exaggerate. this was the worst customer service i have ever encountered, and probably the worst i will ever encounter. after that he not only neglected to help me any further, but on top of that, acted like i was a lifelong enemy

the way i figure, they make most money from warrantee, a warrantee that is usually not necessary.

another previous lesson taught me (when i was 12, something graphics card related was wrong with my laptop, so i brought it back under the extended warranty, and they proceeded to tell me that the problem didnt lie in the graphics card, it was something that wasn't covered under the warranty. they told me to fix this alleged "problem", i would have to pay $700, a price higher than the laptop i had at the time)

so key in point

fuck the futureshop salespeople, and fuck their warranty. if you're gonna buy warranty from anybody, buy it direct from the manufacturer.

[Presto]

Along with fucking the warranty, fuck the high-margin accessories they try to pawn off on you.

[mickz]

Originally Posted by - kT

let me share a story with you

a while back, i got a new laptop from fs. the salesperson was really nice, and after we got all the stuff sorted out, he gave me a $90 printer for $10, and also gave me a discount on the warranty

cut to a few weeks later, i figured since i'd probably be buying a new computer of some sort before my 4 year warranty ran out, i'd cancel the warranty, so i went back and refunded the warranty

a few weeks ago, my laptops motherboard crashed, so i brought the laptop back (since it's still under the manufacturers warranty). i bumped into the same salesmen, whom i asked for assistance. he was really nice about it, and took me to customer service to talk to them. long story short, he found out that i had returned the warranty, and proceeded to turn away, and walk away laughing, muttering to himself "returned the warranty. hahaha" I kid you not, nor do i exaggerate. this was the worst customer service i have ever encountered, and probably the worst i will ever encounter. after that he not only neglected to help me any further, but on top of that, acted like i was a lifelong enemy

the way i figure, they make most money from warrantee, a warrantee that is usually not necessary.

another previous lesson taught me (when i was 12, something graphics card related was wrong with my laptop, so i brought it back under the extended warranty, and they proceeded to tell me that the problem didnt lie in the graphics card, it was something that wasn't covered under the warranty. they told me to fix this alleged "problem", i would have to pay $700, a price higher than the laptop i had at the time)

so key in point

fuck the futureshop salespeople, and fuck their warranty. if you're gonna buy warranty from anybody, buy it direct from the manufacturer.

No offence but if you returned the extended warranty there's nothing the store's obliged to do for you.

My family's only purchased one extended warranty ever and it was the worst decision ever. Bought it for an eMachines desktop back in the day, letters on the keyboard started rubbing off and they wouldn't give me a new one because the warranty doesn't cover "cosmetic damages." Out of all the laptops and desktops I've owned I've never had a letters rub off on my keyboard EXCEPT for that one shitty eMachines.

Another time I went to Future Shop Lansdowne to buy a CRT TV, it was only $99.99 and for the price it was perfect for what I was using it for. The sales there told me there weren't any left because it was nowhere to be seen on the sales floor. I said I checked online this morning and called and they was in stock. They went to check on their computers and low and behold! They had two! I waited for almost half an hour for them to dig it out of their warehouse and then the bad news hits me. Both were open box. I said I didn't care, just give me the usual 10% off open box discount. The guy rants about how they don't offer the 10% discount anymore but how he can throw in this service plan and discount my TV... at this point I don't have time to deal with this douchebag (his name was Ian IIRC, asian guy) so he sold me the TV + extended warranty for $99.99.

What a scam artist. I went back a few days later and refunded the warranty and got 10% off instead. I asked the girl at the returns desk and she says they've never taken away the open box discount. So fuck you Future Shop and fuck you Ian. I wrote a letter and sent it via snail mail to the manager of Future Shop Lansdowne but never got a reply... never shopped there again!

[- kT]

Originally Posted by mickz

No offence but if you returned the extended warranty there's nothing the store's obliged to do for you.

Really now?

I was still under the manufacturers warranty, and I wanted the salesmen's help with product related things. He not only declined to help me, he walked away laughing.

I wasn't aware that when customers returned merchandise for which you get commission for, you could treat them like dirt?

[wix]

^ Professional sales man =)

[mickz]

Originally Posted by - kT

Really now?

I was still under the manufacturers warranty, and I wanted the salesmen's help with product related things. He not only declined to help me, he walked away laughing.

I wasn't aware that when customers returned merchandise for which you get commission for, you could treat them like dirt?

If it's under manufacturer's warranty at least you weren't out of luck. But to be honest I don't think the sales will help you much with things like this. You always have to talk to people with the power to make decisions.

I wouldn't consider Future Shop's sales associates that great with the products either. Most of the ones I've dealt with just read the specs straight off the sheet without knowing what they mean.

[wasabisashimi]

so can anyone tell me if waranty from FS/BB is necessary? How can FS/BB make money off that if they have to eat up the repair fees for broken electronics? It seems like they would lose more money by selling us waranty cuz somethings are make to be unreliable and repair fees are as high as buying a new one such as a LCD or plasma tV

[Mr.HappySilp]

Check with ur Credit card some credit card will extand your warrantly by 1year if u use that card to make your purchase.

[mickz]

Originally Posted by wasabisashimi

so can anyone tell me if waranty from FS/BB is necessary? How can FS/BB make money off that if they have to eat up the repair fees for broken electronics? It seems like they would lose more money by selling us waranty cuz somethings are make to be unreliable and repair fees are as high as buying a new one such as a LCD or plasma tV

The warranties Future Shop and Best Buy sell usually expire right before the item craps out. Even if something goes wrong during your extended warranty period, it'll most likely still be covered by the manufacturer's warranty or FS/BB will say their warranty doesn't cover you in this situation.

[q0192837465]

FS is commission based, so they want to sell u as much as possible.

And under the sales of goods act:
Implied conditions as to quality or fitness
18 Subject to this and any other Act, there is no implied warranty or condition as to the quality or fitness for any particular purpose of goods supplied under a contract of sale or lease, except as follows:

(a) if the buyer or lessee, expressly or by implication, makes known to the seller or lessor the particular purpose for which the goods are required, so as to show that the buyer or lessee relies on the seller's or lessor's skill or judgment, and the goods are of a description that it is in the course of the seller's or lessor's business to supply, whether the seller or lessor is the manufacturer or not, there is an implied condition that the goods are reasonably fit for that purpose; except that in the case of a contract for the sale or lease of a specified article under its patent or other trade name, there is no implied condition as to its fitness for any particular purpose;

(b) if goods are bought by description from a seller or lessor who deals in goods of that description, whether the seller or lessor is the manufacturer or not, there is an implied condition that the goods are of merchantable quality; but if the buyer or lessee has examined the goods there is no implied condition as regards defects that the examination ought to have revealed;

(c) there is an implied condition that the goods will be durable for a reasonable period of time having regard to the use to which they would normally be put and to all the surrounding circumstances of the sale or lease;

(d) an implied warranty or condition as to quality or fitness for a particular purpose may be annexed by the usage of trade;

(e) an express warranty or condition does not negative a warranty or condition implied by this Act unless inconsistent with it.

You basically don't need to extended warranty. Flash them the sales of goods act & they'll back off & fix it for u. Well, at least this is the story my prof told me.

[wasabisashimi]

i thought FS/BB advertise they are not commision based sales team

[vapour_lock]

BB is not commision based. fs is. if you're looking at electronics, if its gonna fail, its gonna fail within the first few months which is usually under the manufacturer warranty. otherwise it'll run for years. warranty is a scam.

[Presto]

Extended warranties are heavily pushed by corporate. It's basically an item that's pure profit. Employees are not only encouraged to offer extended warranties, they probably have a lot of pressure to do so. There may not be commission, but there are probably incentives for selling a lot of extended warranties. When I worked at Office Depot, they did the same thing. I couldn't care to sell them, though. They tried to brainwash us with corporate videos touting the awesomeness of a Product Protection Plan, too.

EDIT: I've purchased a few extended warranties in the past, but I never had to use them. Unless you're buying a known shoddy product, chances are it will break down before the mfg warranty, or it'll last a long long time.

[Dragon-88]

BS and FS is all about making money... If you do not buy their extended warranty and still have a manufacturers warranty they will ask you to pay up front to get it sent out... Also if you are to go with their extended warranty, there is always some way that they try to cheat you out of you money... All my customers that buy notebooks from them all have bad experience they hate how it takes 1-2 weeks for them to fix a simple hard drive problem or even to say all they have is a virus.. How the hell does it take 1 week to get rid of a virus??? All in all everyone I know stays away from fs and bb... That and because their shitty comps are acctually shit!

[winson604]

Bottom line buy the laptop and TV elsewhere. FS and BB may be everywhere and easy to get to one but they don't have the best prices on anything really.

[willystyle]

Instead of purchasing extended warranties, how about save yourself money and apply for a good VISA?

RBC Visa offers an additional year of warranty on top of the manufacturers. I make all of my big ticket purchases with my VISA.

[Jmac]

Visa's just as bad at finding ways to screw you over on a warranty ... The only difference is you didn't have to pay for it (well, not as much) ...

I buy my TVs from Costco, which gives you 2 years of warranty. Only downside is the lack of selection or free delivery (bring a truck).

[Cman333]

heh heh warranty aka PSP

You need to understand there is HIGH PRESSURE to sell waranty. If you don't sell enough you lose your job. Hence why sales people at FS are a little pushier on warranty. Also the commission on the warranty is higher. You sell a $2000 TV you might make $20-30 commission, you sell a $399 warranty you make $50+ commission. If you're job was on the line, I'm sure you would all push the warranty.

I worked there for a few years, and I saw how it was. But realisitcally ANY sort of sales industry are like that. You sell what makes more money, it's a no brainer.

FS/BB has pretty strict regulations on discounting, you're basically not allowed to unless price matching. Head office tracks each stores performance, if your warranty sales are low then the manager gets flack and either relocated or fired. But if your store's warranty sales are HIGH, you can bend the rules and discount. Hence why salesmen discount the product to sell warranty.

All in all, thats just the way those big box chains work. High pressure to sell everything. The "perfect sale" is when someone makes a big purchase, then buys all the top of the line accessories, buys the maximum length warranty + makes the purchase on their Futureshop card with zero discount.

Personally I never buy warranty anymore, I did when I used to work at FS on my appliances and TV only because it was much cheaper than retail and it shut my managers up. The way I look at it, if you bought warranty on every electronic item you own you would've spent thousands of dollars. For what? Nothing. Those thousands of dollars could've just bought you a replacement item anyways. ALSO, extended warranty most of the time does not replace items based on PRICE value. Based on features only. They don't give you the equivelant model, they give you a model thats equivelant in features. It can work for or against you depending on what available when your product dies.

[Cman333]

Originally Posted by willystyle

Instead of purchasing extended warranties, how about save yourself money and apply for a good VISA?

RBC Visa offers an additional year of warranty on top of the manufacturers. I make all of my big ticket purchases with my VISA.

I've heard both good and bad stories with the Visa warranty. Alot of times they ask you to run around to get multiple quotes (which cost YOU money each time) from different places. So for small ticket items, it's not worth it. If you bought your top line LCD TV on it then it should be somewhat worthwhile, but still troublesome.

[nns]

Originally Posted by Jmac

Visa's just as bad at finding ways to screw you over on a warranty ... The only difference is you didn't have to pay for it (well, not as much) ...

I buy my TVs from Costco, which gives you 2 years of warranty. Only downside is the lack of selection or free delivery (bring a truck).

Here's my experience with my VISA insurance. Around last August, I had noticed that my mp3 player that I bought almost 2 years ago was starting to fall apart. I though to myself, here's a chance to test my VISA warranty. VISA automatically offers double the insurance that the manufacturer offers. So I call the insurance line, I speak to someone and explain that I felt the product was faulty/poorly made/something like that and that I wanted to see what the insurance company could do for me. The person agreed, and asked me to mail in the mp3 player, along with a copy of the manufacturer's warranty (Creative, in this case), the original receipt, and a copy of the VISA bank statement for the month that I bought the mp3 player.

Lucky for me I had all of that. So I mailed it in (the great part was the insurance company was in Downtown Vancouver so postage was cheap) and waited for their response. About 2 weeks later, I received a cheque in the mail for the full amout I paid almost 2 years prior for that mp3 player (about $220).

From that point on, I've been telling people to avoid FS/BB warranties and the like because it's so unnecessary, when credit cards like CIBC VISA offer free insurance.

This is also a strong argument to keep all boxes for big ticket items, as well as the monthly credit card statements that come in the mail, because they're both important. 2 years of bank statements takes up less than half a drawer, and that's including the evelopes. The boxes, just flatten them and throw them in a spare closet. Tape them up should you ever need to mail something in.

[Presto]

Excellent information, NNS. Thanks!

[wasabisashimi]

Originally Posted by winson604

Bottom line buy the laptop and TV elsewhere. FS and BB may be everywhere and easy to get to one but they don't have the best prices on anything really.

please let me know places that will have better price than FS and BB. I thought they are big coorperate having buying powers to negotiate better price, while small shops buy small quantity at a higher cost.


I don't want to shop at FS and BB, but alot of times the big appliances sich as TVs, fridges, and washers are really cheaper than say the bay, sears....etc.

I would like to help out smaller businesses but i also need to keep my own budget. If a corner TV shop sells the same TV at 200dollars more than FS and BB, its no doubt i can't spend my money on them.

[R8]

Just bought a laptop + 3 yr psp with bestbuy.... :P it depends on your experiences with them, from the past, they have done their done their job perfectly so I have no complaints.

[winson604]

Originally Posted by wasabisashimi

please let me know places that will have better price than FS and BB. I thought they are big coorperate having buying powers to negotiate better price, while small shops buy small quantity at a higher cost.


I don't want to shop at FS and BB, but alot of times the big appliances sich as TVs, fridges, and washers are really cheaper than say the bay, sears....etc.

I would like to help out smaller businesses but i also need to keep my own budget. If a corner TV shop sells the same TV at 200dollars more than FS and BB, its no doubt i can't spend my money on them.

For appliances I don't know shiet so can't help you there. But for lets say computers and TV's I tend to see them cheaper at other places or some places will have the same or higher price but you can totally negotiate it down with ease.

For computers or computer stuff I always go to computer stores like Anitec, Atic, A Power, NCIX etc...

For TV's I've had good experiences going to Visions and I forget the name right now but it's on Main and 33rd. Old TV store thats been around for years. At Main and 33rd never had issues paying zero tax and getting them to knock off hundreds off posted price. Paying in cash of course. At Visions the same thing except you have to pay tax. Visions knows they can't compete with FS and BB so they just try to move their shiet even if they make less. Last time I bought my 32 Sharp Aquos FS and Visions were both selling for about $1399. I walked into Visions and straight up said I want to buy a Sharp Aquos 32, how much can you give it to me for. He brought me over to their PC and showed me what their so called cost price was which was somewhere around $1050. He said $1100 plus tax and it's yours. I wanted to weigh my options so went to FS. They said sure we can hook you up if you buy extended warranty. Sorry if I have to spend hundreds more on somethign I don't want just to save some money on the item I do want then no thanks.

Bottom line is although FS and BB are giants it doesn't mean shit. Before you want to buy something look around first. More often then not you can find the same item cheaper elsewhere. Most of the time these cheaper places aren't exactly places where only joeblow knows about. Sure some items I won't bother too much like videogames, dvd's etc.. I won't go the extra mile just to save a few bucks. That's what those hardcore redflag deal peeps do. Some of those guys will drive across town just to save $2