I want to get angry at Best Buy

But, I can't. All told, they're a pretty good store. I can, however get mad at the bitch customer service rep, that stonewalled me. I can get mad at the retarded "Geek Squad" as they're now known, in store repair guys.

iPod. It broke, AGAIN. The damn thing heated up as I was holding it, to red hot, and the screen faded and died. It never went back on, again. I brought it in, on October 23, for servicing, they said "a week, two tops" When I brought it in, there was one miniscule dent, in the lower left hand corner. I asked the guy "does this count as mistreated?" He was all "ohhh, nooo, that's NOTHING, when they say abused, they mean a cracked cover, or a really bad dent, that's nothing" K. Cool.

I called after two and a half weeks, it was still out. I called last week, they said it shipped, that it would arrive midweek. Mid-week came and went, and I'm getting annoyed. I show up today, and WHOA, there it was, waiting for me! It arrived November 19! (No one contacted me. I figured out why, later) I was like, well, I wasn't near the phone that day, perhaps I missed the call....no biggie, here I am now, gimme my thing back.

They were holding it at another part of the desk, three or four people were circling it, looking concerned. It looked like the buck got passed from one guy to another, to another, till this woman came out. Said "You signed off, that it was dented, they said they won't fix it, due to abuse." Then, I reminded them that THAT guy (who was way on the other side of the counter, investing himself deeply in shelf rearranging) said that it wasn't dented enough, to count as abused. This bitch pulls it out of the box, and WHOA HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT THE HELL IS THAT...there was an ENORMOUS dent in the lower corner, a nice scrape, even. I took one look at it, and said "THAT isn't my dent. I didn't sign off on THAT. I signed off on this one, this small one right here." (Meanwhile, the mister is starting to bubble. The mercury is rising) She said, "you signed off that it was dented, and there's dents, there's no way of knowing how badly or where" I said "What can we do?" She kept repeating over and over, about the fucking abuse, how it's dented, how the PSP doesn't cover mistreatment (yeah no shit, lady, it wasn't mistreated, it's a COMPLETE PIECE OF SHIT, this is the second one I've had to return for the same bullshit internal problems).

She stonewalled, worst possible customer service move, EVER. No "well, we can send it back to be fixed, but you'll have to pay for it" No, "how about you call our service desk, and they can help you better." No nothing. Just the "You broke it, we're not fixing it" speech. Did she pack it back into the box, and apologize? No. I didn't know what to do, it was just esclating, I kept repeating, "What can I do? What can we do? I need this fixed, I didn't spend over $600 on this thing and the accesories for it, to write it off, it's GOT to be fixable." She kept shuffling stuff, avoiding my eyes, and mumbling that it wasn't their problem, yet she wasn't offering me any solutions. As a matter of fact, becase the mister was pacing, and mumbling (no, I swear it, he wasn't yelling yet, which was exemplary restraint on his part, I think) someone called the Holmdel cops, yes, folks, a cop showed up. How's that for customer service.

The mister finally grabbed it from her, and the box, and paperwork, and stormed out, yelling "DON'T BUY SHIT HERE, THE SERVICE SUCKS THEY'RE ONLY TRYING TO FUCK YOU" on the way out the door. Some woman was buying a laptop, and he was like "I WOULDN'T GET THAT IF I WERE YOU THEY'LL BREAK IT MORE IF YOU SEND IT FOR SERVICE" as we left. The cop was outside, and followed us to our car.

I cooled down, after we got home, and called the customer service number, they agreed, that the store handled it poorly, and that it could be fixed, but I had to pay for it. I was like "ok, I can handle that, but is there any way of proving that it wasn't ME that put this enormous dent on it?" They said, not really, that it was all just heresay, and I'd have to find out the name of the asshole who took it from me in the first place, and if the service center had more thorough notes than "dented" like how and where, when it arrived, etc. Whatever, I'd rather just have it fixed, than get mired in all that bullshit.

What I AM gonna do, though, is when whatever place fixes it, I'm gonna get a copy of their service order, and compare it to the original problem, the heating up and dying thing, which is what I sent this one in for, heating up and dying. I'll prove that it wasn't the dent that caused it, because it didn't because I didn't put the goddamn dent in it... The Best Buy service people just took one look at it, said "dented, we're not fixing it" and didn't even bother to crack it open. That's on the notes that the customer service lady had. She said they should have diagnosed the ACTUAL problem, and called me (back when they got it, early November) with a repair estimate. Which I would have been annoyed about, but I would have done it. Not this bullshit.

You know what? I am going to call the Holmdel Best Buy, and make a formal complaint, too, against the Customer Service counter. Even the Customer Service rep on the phone said they mishandled it. That was a fucking nightmare. I have quite the tension headache now.

[Listening to: Zero Signal - Fear Factory - (5:56)]