Off Topic / Feedback

[Tronages]

Well, Future Shop has officially convinced me to never buy another product service plan again, and they may have lost my business for life.

I bought a new computer at the end of January (a gateway tower, big mistake), 2 weeks later it blue-screened on me with a boot error code. I figured I wouldn't return it outright, because after rebooting it seemed OK, and I had the PSP if it caused any more trouble..

It got worse over the next month, happening more frequently and then eventually it wouldn't turn on at all, and so I ended up bringing it in for "repair" about a month later. What they forget to mention to you is that FS doesn't actually do any of the repairing themselves, they just send it to Gateway. So, OK, I have to wait for it to come back. FORTY FIVE days later I get a call that it is ready for pickup... amazing.

I go get it, bring it home, and 2 weeks later it happens again, the same error. I take it back, frustrated, and am told that they will send it away again! Wow! What a great plan already! This of course made everything better and completely restored my faith that it would be repaired properly. I am told at this time, however, that if I have to come back a third time, they will just replace it for me.

So, another 2 weeks of waiting and it's ready to be brought home for the 3rd time.. It breaks again, after probably 4 days of it being plugged in. (Although it was sitting unplugged for awhile due to our floors being redone). So today, I brought it back, again, expecting to be able to exchange it for one that actually works, as any monkey that can feed itself would realize that this is a dud, and will never work properly..

Nope! The "policy" as it turns out, says that there must be 3 failed repair attempts before an exchange can happen.. Are you kidding me? Is there a hidden camera in this store right now? So away it goes to Gateway (who would have been repairing it anyway under their year long standard warranty) for the third time. Gee, I bet they will fix it this time! What a fantastic service plan!

Everyone, please do yourselves a favour and never buy a product service plan from future shop. My mind has been officially blown.

[kweiler]

I'm not sure what you're outraged about. The plan is an amazing service that protects -exact- situations like this. Future Shop cannot repair the computer themselves as it's not their product. It's Gateways. So it is sent to them for repair. The duration of the repair cannot be controlled by Future Shop as it's not in their hands. But there is a clause in the PSP that states if a repair takes longer than 60 days it will be replaced. 

It is very unfortunate that you've had this many problems with your desktop so soon, but take a second to think what would have happened if you didn't get the PSP and this series of problems started happening a day after Gateway's original manufacturers coverage had ended...you'd be liable for shipping/diagnositc charges plus any repairs for -each- situation. Future Shop is going to cover these problems for the length of your term, unless a new unit is replaced. 

That sounds pretty great to me. Seems like a lot of the things you're mad about is directed at the wrong company.

[Drax86]

Unfortunately even with the PSP the first year is still actually covered by the manufacture that is why it was sent away.  Futureshops PSP doesn't actually take effect until the manufacture warranty has ended