Future Shop Scam
A non-political post here... a co-worker bought a brand new laptop from Future Shop for her daughter for Christmas... $1500. They bought the Future Shop extended warranty on it, and the screen died on it on day 34. They took it in... and the staff basically laughed at her, and told her it was going to be $800 to fix. Their claim was that it must have been dropped, therefore, it's not covered. They also told her that they, according to their policy on repairs and their current workload, have 60 days to get it fixed. Unless, of course, she wanted to spend and extra $24... then she'd be placed next in line.
From what I've seen in the tech sector, 1-5 out of every 1000 units are often defective when it comes to electronics. Also, can Future Shop prove that it wasn't dropped in their warehouse? If such defects are not covered, what is the point of buying the extended warranty?
Humm, their offical colours are red... figures. (okay, so I made it political after all...)
So, listen up everyone... when buying something from Future Shop, ASK IF THE MANUFACTURER OFFERS AN EXTENDED WARRANTY. If not, DON'T BUY IT, AND TELL THEM THIS STORY AS TO WHY YOU'RE NOT BUYING IT. My co-worker was told by Toshiba support that they offer their own extended warranty... which WOULD have covered this repair. Boy, is she ever steamed... the staff at Future Shop never mentioned the Toshiba extended warranty. Why not? Because they wouldn't make a dime on it, that's why.
It's all one big scam, nothing more. Stick it to Future Shop... you can't beat their prices because they make all their money on useless extended warranties. I'm a capitalist, but if your customer service sucks, you deserve to be put out of business.
Rant over.
From what I've seen in the tech sector, 1-5 out of every 1000 units are often defective when it comes to electronics. Also, can Future Shop prove that it wasn't dropped in their warehouse? If such defects are not covered, what is the point of buying the extended warranty?
Humm, their offical colours are red... figures. (okay, so I made it political after all...)
So, listen up everyone... when buying something from Future Shop, ASK IF THE MANUFACTURER OFFERS AN EXTENDED WARRANTY. If not, DON'T BUY IT, AND TELL THEM THIS STORY AS TO WHY YOU'RE NOT BUYING IT. My co-worker was told by Toshiba support that they offer their own extended warranty... which WOULD have covered this repair. Boy, is she ever steamed... the staff at Future Shop never mentioned the Toshiba extended warranty. Why not? Because they wouldn't make a dime on it, that's why.
It's all one big scam, nothing more. Stick it to Future Shop... you can't beat their prices because they make all their money on useless extended warranties. I'm a capitalist, but if your customer service sucks, you deserve to be put out of business.
Rant over.
posted by Christian Conservative @ 11:13 a.m.
6 Comments:
At Thu Jan 05, 01:05:00 p.m. EST,
RP. said…
This same scam was exposed on Street Cents a few years ago.
At Thu Jan 05, 01:35:00 p.m. EST,
Anonymous said…
When buying electronics from places like Future Shop - NEVER buy the extended warranty. If you like, take the money you would have spent on the EW and put it away in a seperate bank account, cookie jar or whatever. Do this everytime you buy something.
After a while if something does go wrong with one item, you will be self insured and easily be able to afford fixing/replacing whatever it was.
Your chances of collecting on an EW sold by these FS sales weasels is slim to none. They are a complete waste of money.
At Thu Jan 05, 02:36:00 p.m. EST,
rtsimplicity said…
This is why I buy Apple products directly from Apple and buy their own extended warranty! Been an Apple guy since 87 and will never ever cross over to the Windoze world... it is as dark and sinister as the "big red machine that thinks owns Ottawa and the country"! It is bad enough I have to use Windoze XP Pro (what does that mean? Friend said, "instead of Xtra Power it stand for Xtra Problems!")... I have to use it at work. Thank goodness for my five Macs at home.
Seriously, unless you dabble in hardware and software and networking... if you buy a top of the line product, see if the manufacturer rather than the storefront, has an extended warranty.
My G4 laptop had a bad battery... Apple replaced with overnight courier, and gave me a gift certificate for the trouble. 10 years ago when my 15 inch monitor blew a pixel, they delivered to my work door, a replacement monitor, and the courier took the other one back. That was next day service from GTA to Waterloo.
Apple rules! As they say, "An Apple a day keeps DOS and Windoze headaches away!"
Customer service is what keeps customers! I guess this election is about that too... 12 years of inept customer service from an inept party that is corrupt from the roots to the top and from the top down and all around! Time for the consumers to let this company know that they are "out of business"!
Sam
www.returntosimplicity.com
At Thu Jan 05, 03:30:00 p.m. EST,
Joan Tintor said…
Sorry about your bad experience. Generally, extended warranties don't pay. They are money-makers for the companies.
Most products have a manufacturer's warranty. Always check the manual and send in the warranty card if that is required to activate the warranty.
At Thu Jan 05, 03:31:00 p.m. EST,
Joan Tintor said…
Sorry, I didn't mean extended warranties don't PAY -- I meant they aren't worth the cost.
At Thu Jan 05, 05:49:00 p.m. EST,
Anonymous said…
Another scary story about FS... My friend took her laptop in to be fixed. They gave her a loaner to use while they fixed it. In order to get the loaner, she had to apply for a FS credit card and pay for the LOANER laptop with it. Since you have like 30 days to pay the card before collecting interest, they suggested she just come back in shortly before that time and they would REFUND the amount on the LOANER laptop and then sell it to her again, to keep her from collecting interest on a laptop they were LOANING to her while they fixed her other one. When her laptop was finally fixed, they would refund her the amount of the loaner. And for some reason this made sense to them.
It gets worse! The loaner laptop still had all of the personal info from the previous owner/user. FS hadn't wiped the hard drive, which as far I know should be SOP when giving out loaner computers. Further the loaner was infected with numerous viruses. My computer tech hubby cleaned it up a bit, but then told her to take it back to FS and complain. A loaner shouldn't have to be fixed before you use the darn thing!
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