Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Thank God for extended warranties

Normally I think extended warranties are a scam and should be avoided. However, I've made a hobby of breaking mp3 players, usually due to the wear and tear I put them through in the car. So, about three and a half years ago I bought an Archos Recorder 20 from Best Buy. Thinking about how I would use it, I purchased their four year protection plan, knowing the chances were pretty good I'd be using it. For the most part, the unit performed well with my only issue being that the batteries seemed to not handle very many charging cycles before having to be replaced.

Then, about two weeks ago, I bought some new music. I ripped it to mp3 and connected the Archos to copy it over. My Linux machine didn't seem to want to recognize the device. Usually issues like this are due to my constant fiddling with drivers and whatnot, so I booted my Windows PC, but found that XP would only say the device was malfunctioning. So, after digging through my archive of receipts and finding the right one, I headed for Best Buy. I figured I'd get some kind of flak or runaround; something about some technicality with the protection plan that disqualified me from redeeming it. To my surprise, the Geek Squad tech (complete with shirt, tie, and pants) told me the unit was malfunctioning, and under the plan I would get a similar replacement.

Also to my surprise, this tech also happened to be the most knowledgeable person I've ever dealt with in a Best Buy. He offered to help me select a new model since I had done no research. He recommended a couple models that were his personal favorites. When I mentioned Linux, he nodded and told me which ones would and would not work, since he runs Linux at home.

So, I walked out of Best Buy this evening with this, at no cost to me, since it priced exactly the same as my old unit when I bought it. If anyone has any comments on the Philips, please let me know, good or bad.

Ah, your unit was not repairable by Best Buy service center according to the computer, so you got lucky and they junked it out

I used to be on Geek Squad. Typically when the computer said "NOT REPAIRABLE" we would just tell customers to get whatever they'd like. Sometiems this is nice, other times customers get reamed, which is one reason I quit that place


IF your unit was repairable under Best Buy Service Plan, your unit would have been sent to Service Center, sit in queue for about 1.5 weeks, get assigned to a tech, tech looks at it, says it was restored and unit is now operational, put on the finish queue to send back, sits there for 4 days, goes in shipping, takes about 1.5 weeks again, then sits in Geek Squad recieving queue for awhile, then sits in "To be called" or CommQueue for ages unless they are nice enough to get a GS Tech who calls people every day...

So averages around 1 month without the product, longest I've seen was 2 months, quickest was a rarity - 2 weeks. Just my personal experiences

Forgot to mention - they don't fix the unit, they "look at it" and say customer needs education how to use it. It sometimes takes 2-3 resends to get it fixed...