Heiderino

I am currently irate.

Best Buy sold me a digital camera, and I bought their Best Buy Warranty, for three years.

My Fuji S3100 digital camera produced marvelous pictures for quite some time. Late in summer, the quality of the pictures declined. I took my camera back to Best Buy, confident that the Best Buy Warranty would resolve the issue with little or no problems.

The first time I took my Fuji S3100 in, I was informed that they would have to send it away, for up to four weeks. I wasn’t thrilled with the notion of being camera-less for three weeks, but if Best Buy has a policy to send things away for repairs under the Best Buy Warranty, so be it. The camera came back with a vague description - “checked components.”

It still didn’t work. So I returned to Best Buy, with my Best Buy Warranty paperwork in hand. They sent it away again. It came back again, with the same issues.

I took it back to Best Buy today, and they were going to send it to their Best Buy Certified Repair Center again. I got a voicemail from the Best Buy Geek Squad, however, that they solved the problem. They turned the setting to “Flash always on.” I pointed out to the person that I don’t always WANT the flash on. When I’m outside in daylight with my already pale children, I’d get ghostly images. He told me that, sometimes, the auto setting “messes up” on digital cameras. After going in circles with him about it, I finally asked to speak to a manager.

The manager picked up the phone and started the conversation with me in a very patronizing tone. He told me that they’d walked around the store and taken over 60 perfect photos with my camera. I mentioned that this technique is not the same as taking pictures of my children, in different light settings.

All I know is that I heard “Restored to factory settings,” “Nothing wrong with it,” “Did you READ the warranty?”, “This camera isn’t new - it’s over a year old” (ahem, why I bought the THREE YEAR Best Buy Warranty) and “User error.”

It all blurs together for me - I used this Fuji S3100 with NO PROBLEMS for many months. If, indeed, they meant to return it to factory settings, something didn’t work. This Fuji S3100 used to take great pictures, and now it does not. Period.

I ended the conversation by asking him to send it (once again) to a Best Buy Certified Repair Center. I think they owe me that.

I am VERY disappointed with not only the Best Buy Warranty, but the way in which I was treated by the manager. I feel I have a legitimate issue, and he’s telling me I’m crazy.

What’s next? I don’t know. A call to the local News channel? Call Fox 6’s Katrina Cravy?

At this point, I believe that the Best Buy Warranty is a total sham. I hope Best Buy proves me wrong about this, in which case I will write an apology. But in the meantime I’d advise anyone against paying extra for the Best Buy Warranty.

You may pick on me for judging a show without watching it, but when I hear lines like:

“I work in an oval office, yet I’m still backed into a corner…” and “You can’t even trust the back-stabbers,” I just can’t bring myself to watch COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

Okay. The latest trend for super models is apparently to don a 350 lb. “fat suit” so they can “see what it’s like to be weight-challenged.” Both Tyra Banks and Vanessa Minillo (ET) have spent hours in makeup and disguises to walk around town and get stared at, made fun of, and ignored.

According to Vanessa, she’s “Fighting for women everywhere…” (that is paraphrased.) I have some questions… 1) What is she fighting for? 2) What is she going to prove?

I may not be necessarily “weight-challenged,” but I take offense to this technique. If they truly want to see how an overweight person is treated on a daily basis, what about a hidden camera on someone who truly faces such treatment, rather than a SUPER MODEL??

I feel better now for venting about this. Thank you for listening, if you happened to do so.