SS -Circuit City and warranty computer repairs

[thekidrocks]

Ever buy a computer from Best Buy, and if it's under warranty - they either repair or send it out for repair for you.. ditto for anything you buy there.

Not Short Circuit City! Bought a laptop there in August, one of the keycaps broke loose and could not be put back on again. So I take it in, expecting them to send it to a repair shop... nope. Since I didn't buy their overpriced service contact, too bad. They will ship it for $40.

Of course I call HP when I get home, deal with someone who is polite, and they have FedEx coming to my home tomorrow to pickup the laptop for free - fix it for free, and return it - expected turnaround... 3-5 days. I can live with that.

Now I realize that Staples, Office Depot, Office Max and the like have no service provisions, but I thought CC - like rival BB, did. El-Wrongo. They suck!

[_=DeltaForce=_]

well if you dont buy the service contract, they wont SHIP it back... NO unless you get the warranty from best buy, they wont ship it to the manufacturer too. After 14 days, you are on your own. Best buy also works the same way. THEY do no ship anything out unless you get the warranty. Someone gave you the wrong info. I seriously dont understand when people buy a product from a retailer, think that they have the 1 yr warranty with them and bring it to the store. Thats why they sell the warranty. Thats how they all work.

[AlpineJay]

well if you dont buy the service contract, they wont SHIP it back... NO unless you get the warranty from best buy, they wont ship it to the manufacturer too. After 14 days, you are on your own. Best buy also works the same way. THEY do no ship anything out unless you get the warranty. Someone gave you the wrong info. I seriously dont understand when people buy a product from a retailer, think that they have the 1 yr warranty with them and bring it to the store. Thats why they sell the warranty. Thats how they all work.

Not true. I just had BB ship out a speaker to the manufacturer for repair (or was it their own repair facility? I don't know..) and I did NOT purchase any contracts from them. Best Buy and Circuit City for that matter too are both authorized service locations for most major retailers, and as such, should take customer's products so long as they're under warranty - no questions asked. I worked at a Circuit City for two full summers and am familiar with how this process is supposed to work.

That being said, I am surprised that they didn't take your product to ship it to HP. I know I've had customers that came by with a broken computer/camera/what have you and my customer service reps had no problems having them fill out a service slip and ship it out to the CC's authorized repair center, free of change, no questions asked. Their turnaround might be much longer than dealing directly with the manufacturer but there's absolutely NO reason why they should charge you a "shipping fee" to have it sent to the manufactuer - that's total bull. I think they were screwing you there.

[LPMiller]

that depends on the brand though. Some brands authorize the retailer to take the product. HP does not, and will not, and in fact those service contracts do not ship back to HP but to a 3rd party repair shop.

I do this for a living, see...

In most cases, you are better off dealing directly with the company, then going through the retailer.

[Butch]

I had a good experience with CC - though it was for extended warranty repair on a product I did not purchase there.

I accidentally spilled water on my laptop keyboard - killed the damn computer.

Basically, it was my fault . . . they knew it . . . they shouldn't have helped . . . but they did. In the end, I didn't get my computer all fixed up, but I did get about $1,000 towards a new computer.

[_=DeltaForce=_]

well I was talking about computer service not about electronics. I have bought laptop from bestbuy and circuit city and both time when I had trouble, THe manfacturer sent me the box and I had to ship it. As far as I know Circuit city in terms of computer service was never a authorized service center...

[bachviet]

I wouldn't let those "so-called" technicians working at BB to fix my computer/laptop anyway.