I will never buy anything of any size at Best Buy. I made the mistake of buying a laptop computer from them. When the floppy drive died, I wanted to take it in and have them replace it in the store, but they insisted they would have to ship it off somewhere. This was back in 1998 or 1999. A coworker at the library where I work told me never to let them have a piece of equipment--that literally they have a crew of pimply-faced 19-year-old boys who just throw stuff into a truck to send it off. Bring in something that looks great but needs work and you're liable to get back a scratched and dented piece of equipment. So I insisted they couldn't have it, but I wanted it fixed. After making a big stink I finally got the prorated part of the service plan (this was back before I knew how to take my computers apart and fix them myself). I took it to CompUSA and they fixed it there in the store. My MA thesis, as yet incomplete, was in that computer on the hard drive. I had backups that I'd emailed to myself at work to keep current copies of my writing, but with all of the other associated stuff, the bibliography software and such, I couldn't risk their formatting my drive or something.

And those warranties--they are a ripoff. Sears pushes them really hard also. I ask them if they so distrust the quality of their own merchandise that they must sell them? It usually stops the pitch right there. You'll lose the sale if you head down that path. The only one I've paid for recently was when I bought a CD player for a 12-year-old for Christmas. That piece of equipment is liable to be put to some severe paces in the next couple of years.

SRS