Burned by Bestbuy. Watch out of that famous line any problems bring it back.

My father always encourages me to buy online because it’s cheaper but I tell him that I want to support local businesses in my area.
It’s always my custom to ask what if it doesn’t work, or what’s the return policy on any type of electronics I purchase. So a few weeks ago I inquired about a DVD player for my car. My car is a very limited production Acura NSX so I was very cautious about what type of stereo system I wanted to get. I talked with the salesman who was very nice about the car for quite a while. He was very familiar with the setup of the car and what I wanted. He assured me that if it did not work for any reason just bring it back. No questions asked. Since this purchase is nearly $500 I wanted to make sure that if anything happened there would be no problems at all.

I got the item and the next day called my friend Craig Hardy who is a professional car audio installer at a local shop called Autohaus in Hayward. He just happens to be one of their top installers doing car audio and video at dealerships for the last 12 years. Doing dealership work requires that things be perfectly installed because they are installing what looks like factory options.
Craig did the install and the DVD player worked great. Right after he left I hit the eject button and the DVD was stuck inside the unit. I could hear a clicking noise as the eject mechanism failed.

I didn’t worry though, because the item was only purchased a few days ago and I know buying from a reputable company like Best Buy should be able to take care of me. This did not turn out to be the case though.
I went into the store with the unit and explained what happened to the customer service representative. He got the sales guy and we went over and talked about how the item broke. I was looking at possibly getting a little more expensive unit because the unit I had was now sold out. As we were talking the customer service representative came back to us and told me that the warranty on the item was voided. So we went over to the desk and I asked him how?
This DVD player has a wire that needs to be wired into the parking brake in order for the DVD player to play. This is a safety feature. The wire is Yellow with a blue stripe. He had said that I had wired that wire into the Ground wire which is a black wire. Upon inspecting the black wire, there was a grey wire wire tapped into it. Not the Yellow and Blue wire like he said.

I asked about that discrepancy and he said the installer cut off the wire. Yet I asked for the proof and he didn’t have it. They insisted I voided the warranty. My system was hooked properly into the parking brake like the diagram had specified. I even told them they can come out to my car to see the wire but they just brushed me off.

I then asked to talk to a manager on duty. As a person she seemed nice, but had no technical ability at all. She also lacked any type of customer service skills. I had explained to her the situation but she just sided with the customer service rep. I had asked her how she felt about losing a great paying customer like me for life over some silly mishap like this. She just said “Oh well, there is nothing I can do. I can’t see how a billion dollar company would have a problem trying to keep a customer happy in a time of need!

I haven’t been that angry in years. I was literally getting furious. I kept my cool though and just left.

I left the product at the store in Tracy, Ca. I did not get my money back or a new product. This way I couldn’t so call “tamper” with the wiring.

A few things I would like to point out about this so called voiding the warranty.
1.There was nothing on the box. There should be some stickers stating something.
2.Nothing on the receipt.
3.Nothing on the walls.
4.The sales person didn’t mention anything. He just said bring it back for a full refund if ANY problems at all.
5.If it was a critical wire it would have a fuse to protect the system.
6.I felt bated and switched. I was reeled in hook, line and sinker.

The night managers name was Mercedes. After numerous calls to corporate they said they could offer me $300 for the unit. I told them forget it. I finally went back and got my dvd player from Bestbuy in Tracy. After that I just went to their Dublin store and took the unit back. They didn’t give me any problem. Although in the end I was able to take my unit back, I had a hell of time taking it back. It was worse than taking something back at Fry’s Electronics, and we all know how that is!