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iPod touch Best buy Protection Plan? Worth it??
- Thread starter BiikeMike
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I'm getting it, the have a lemon policy, if it breaks 4 times, they'll give you a comparable one that's available. I had a photo and they have me a video! Great deal!
I would get it. My sister got a camera from Bestbuy and a year later she dropped it and broke the lens. There is no way the manufacturer will fix that. But Bestbuy will replace it. Too bad she didn't get the plan.
She also bought an MP3 player with a plan, and when that broke, Bestbuy replaced it with a new one.
She also bought an MP3 player with a plan, and when that broke, Bestbuy replaced it with a new one.
yes they will give you a comparable one, or you can get a store credit for the full amount, if it breaks 5 times, not 4, they have to repair it four times then if it breaks again they replace it. the people at best buy dont know they can give you a store credit, but if you feel its worth your time you can, it took me 2 hours to get a store credit on a$299 ipod since they wanted to give the $249 video. I would have bought mine from apple but apples plan is the same price and only lasts 2years, best buy's lasts 3 years (2 years after manufacturer warranty expires)
Interesting....
Too bad when I called the Best Buy, they said they had sold out, even though their website said they have them
Guess I'll wait for Costco to get them in
they told me they didn't have any, but they did, the website is pretty accurate.
wait, so if it breaks 3 times the first year you have to go through apple and get no credit for their lemon policy?
I would recommend against these sorts of warranty protection. They can be notoriosly (the company NEW is horrible, never get their plan, although I believe Best Buy's is different) bad products with horrible support. This is not the same as something offered through the company (such as Dell accidental damage protection) but outsourced.
1.) to truely calculate how much it is worth, keep in mind the $60 price. If you use it on a $299 ipod you still only save $240.
2.) The retailer covers the product for 30 days in the case of Best Buy, and Apple for an entire year. Unless you break it accidentally you should be covered, especially with a company with a reputation such as Apple.
3.) These are outsourced, so neither Best Buy or Apple is trying to protect its reputation. Instead, it is a fairly nameless insurance company or subsidiary who just wants to make a profit. Imagine how bad other forms of insurance are, not make it worse because unlike health insurance, many people will get so frustrated they give up.
4.) They have horrible reputations for customer service. Do a google search and you will read horror stories from those trying to seek their services. If you deal with them the 5 times necessary to get a new product (hopefully the ipods will not break down that much) you will have wasted so much time and gotten so frustrated that you will wish you had just bought a new device. I can't imagine anyone surviving 5 encounters.
So, while I completely understand that it would be well worth $60 to guarantee that your ipod will work for the next 3 years (It makes me question it sometimes), that is far from what you are buying. Do a google search on AIG WarrantyGuard, or for a similar product that other retailers use (although they could be substantially different, look at this amazon link that has an average of 2 out of 5 stars http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cu...tronics&qid=1189886737&sr=1-1#customerReviews
Plus, read the fine print in the link, I think it says it doesn't coverage accidental damage.
1.) to truely calculate how much it is worth, keep in mind the $60 price. If you use it on a $299 ipod you still only save $240.
2.) The retailer covers the product for 30 days in the case of Best Buy, and Apple for an entire year. Unless you break it accidentally you should be covered, especially with a company with a reputation such as Apple.
3.) These are outsourced, so neither Best Buy or Apple is trying to protect its reputation. Instead, it is a fairly nameless insurance company or subsidiary who just wants to make a profit. Imagine how bad other forms of insurance are, not make it worse because unlike health insurance, many people will get so frustrated they give up.
4.) They have horrible reputations for customer service. Do a google search and you will read horror stories from those trying to seek their services. If you deal with them the 5 times necessary to get a new product (hopefully the ipods will not break down that much) you will have wasted so much time and gotten so frustrated that you will wish you had just bought a new device. I can't imagine anyone surviving 5 encounters.
So, while I completely understand that it would be well worth $60 to guarantee that your ipod will work for the next 3 years (It makes me question it sometimes), that is far from what you are buying. Do a google search on AIG WarrantyGuard, or for a similar product that other retailers use (although they could be substantially different, look at this amazon link that has an average of 2 out of 5 stars http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cu...tronics&qid=1189886737&sr=1-1#customerReviews
Plus, read the fine print in the link, I think it says it doesn't coverage accidental damage.
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Onion person is right. In general, these buyer protection plans are pretty poor. Some are OK, most are pretty bad places to place your money at all.
But throw Best Buy into the mix, and you have a protection plan not even worth the paper your receipt is printed on. Best Buy is NOTORIOUS for not backing up the terms of their protection plan, and making it extremely difficult to even get the work done.
Google is your friend; look up "Best Buy warranty protection" or something similar... and there is the always fun-to-read bestbuysux.com. A little bit of research, and you will see the Best Buy protection is a bigger gamble than doing nothing at all.
Buy it with Amex, or get the Apple Care- both of those are better buys, and much better protection than the crud BB offers.
But throw Best Buy into the mix, and you have a protection plan not even worth the paper your receipt is printed on. Best Buy is NOTORIOUS for not backing up the terms of their protection plan, and making it extremely difficult to even get the work done.
Google is your friend; look up "Best Buy warranty protection" or something similar... and there is the always fun-to-read bestbuysux.com. A little bit of research, and you will see the Best Buy protection is a bigger gamble than doing nothing at all.
Buy it with Amex, or get the Apple Care- both of those are better buys, and much better protection than the crud BB offers.
Dude. My cousin had it for her ipodmini. It wasn't difficult at all. She walked in, told them what was wrong, shoes em her warranty+receipt, she left it with he geeksquad people, they gave her a date to pick it up. And you only really have to deal with these people after your apple warranty is up.
Apple has its crappy end of customer service as well. Example. My brothers iPod photo was having charge issues after about 9 months of use. He as stillunder warranty. We took it to the apple store he bought it from. We took it to the genius counter and the refused to look at it because it had two small dents on the rear of the device. The dents have been there since a month after purchase. It was pretty retarded
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Not Worth It, Unless you sleep on $$$
I would not recommend any protection plan from Best Buy at all. Unless they cover heat and water damage to the device, that will be their excuse if they do not want to fix your device. Make sure you ask that. Most company like Apple will cover the device for 2 years if it breaks down. I have two friends who brought the protection plan; the so call geek took one look at it and told them it has water damage (same excuse for both of them). They contacted the manufacture and were able to get it fix free. Unless you have money to waste, I would not bother with the protection plan.
I would not recommend any protection plan from Best Buy at all. Unless they cover heat and water damage to the device, that will be their excuse if they do not want to fix your device. Make sure you ask that. Most company like Apple will cover the device for 2 years if it breaks down. I have two friends who brought the protection plan; the so call geek took one look at it and told them it has water damage (same excuse for both of them). They contacted the manufacture and were able to get it fix free. Unless you have money to waste, I would not bother with the protection plan.
Water/heat Damage
I used to work there, so they made me memorize every protection plan. If the person you mentioned didnt buy the right plan, then that would be why they denied her a fix. There are ones that cover everything, and ones that basically cover what manufacturers cover, only for an extended period of time. On computers, there is the more expensive plan with "accidental" coverage, and covers water, heat, drops, etc.
All in all I think its a good idea, especially because its easier to talk to a geek squad rep, than call up some manufacturer, and get bounced around between reps for a few hours.
I used to work there, so they made me memorize every protection plan. If the person you mentioned didnt buy the right plan, then that would be why they denied her a fix. There are ones that cover everything, and ones that basically cover what manufacturers cover, only for an extended period of time. On computers, there is the more expensive plan with "accidental" coverage, and covers water, heat, drops, etc.
All in all I think its a good idea, especially because its easier to talk to a geek squad rep, than call up some manufacturer, and get bounced around between reps for a few hours.
In a word, no. It isn't worth it. I had to of their protection plans, one on a very expensive DSLR and another on an expensive set of headphones. They covered nothing on either one because they claimed they "could not reproduce the problem." Convenient. The camera I sent back three times and finally gave up. Not worth the frustration or the money IMHO.
I would not recommend Best Buy's protection plans. The Geek Squad is horrible to deal with. I had it in my daughter's laptop. The lemon policy is bunk. It has to be a qualified repair, not any repair. we had her laptop in there 7 times and though I argued with them, they did not swap it out because not all the repairs were the right kind of repair. It's easy profit for them.
In general, if you can afford it, you should "self-protect". It's nice when you have to use such policies, but unless you can't afford to replace it, then you are probably just giving them extra money for "peace of mind". They don't make a killing off selling these policies for nothing...
