Held hostage by retailer warranties

Ah, the good old days.

You bought an item at a respected retailer, paid full price, and took it home.

And if the thing fell apart for some reason that wasn’t your fault, you took it back to Harry’s Hardware (or wherever), and the store gladly replaced the faulty item.

Or if they couldn’t find anything comparable, they’d give your money back.

But now …

Well, these are not the good old days.

In fact, there’s nothing good about them if you’re making an important purchase at some big-name retailer.

Let’s use Best Buy on U.S. 95 as an example, because hey, that’s where I learned the latest gimmick for emptying a buyer’s pocket.

I also need to say I’m not upset at this Best Buy store, which was only working with corporate policy.

What’s more, management treated my complaint with common sense, and sales consultant Jesse Hubbard walked me through the process of using a store credit to my best possible advantage.

The reason we had to jump through all these hoops, however, left me steaming — and furious that average folk generally wind up paying a hefty premium when they buy something.

The whole episode began when I bought a snazzy Sony headset for $139 plus tax.

A couple months later, the plastic arm of the left-hand speaker broke. I was frustrated, but the headset still functioned and I could use it if I was careful whenever I handled the thing.

Fast forward a few more months, and the OTHER side just snapped, even though I’d been treating the thing with more care than a Ming vase.

Enough was enough.

I packed up the busted headset, along with my receipt, and hustled over to Best Buy.

“This was an expensive headset and it broke in two places with just normal use,” I said. “I want my money or a headset that doesn’t fall to pieces.”

No luck.

See, almost all large retailers now can hold you hostage with any expensive purchase. If you want them to stand behind the thing, you have to buy a damn expensive warranty.

THE CLERK explained that since I hadn’t paid a hefty fee as insurance, my only recourse was a complaint directly to Sony.

“What, I take it to Japan?” I said, blood pressure rising. “You sold me a headset from a huge global company, it fell apart and you won’t stand behind something on your own shelves?”

The answer generally would be no, but either because I was making a slight fuss or the manager decided to do the right thing …

They wound up giving me a store credit for the amount of the headset.

Jesse took me through the entire routine, explained how the protection policy was now standard among large retailers (SquareTrade is a leader in this new warranty industry), and he found me a better headset for a few bucks extra.

No harm, no foul.

Not for me on that day, at least, because our local Best Buy played fair. But the whole corporate scam of holding customers hostage to fate unless they pay for this “insurance” is just plain greed.

I mean, look, if they trust Sony enough to sell its products, they should protect the customer without ripping him off for the privilege.

If you’re selling quality stuff, we shouldn’t need insurance for it.

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Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press. A Brand New Day appears weekly from Wednesday through Saturday.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com.

Twitter: @BrandNewDayCDA