Best Buy - Adding To The Toxic Landscape

Early last week my LG DVD Player/Recorder went on the blink with only two years left into a four year warranty plan. Purchased at Best Buy, I took the player there where I was told it would be two to five weeks to get it repaired. Three days later I get a call telling me it could not be fixed and that I could come in and pick out another model.

Could not be fixed? The DVD player simply froze up in the middle of a movie. I rebooted, but it still could not recognize any disk I tried putting in. Now, it's not like I broke off the DVD tray or a cat peed into the circuits or anything. I really could not understand why it could not be fixed. The girl behind the counter said that "sometimes it costs more to fix than to replace".

What? It costs more for who? Best Buy? I had a warranty plan. Isn't that what I paid for? For them to fix it? But instead of it costing Best Buy, I ended up shelling out the $22 difference between my old model and the new one. In addition, I stupidly purchased a two year extended warranty plan for the new u nit. The machine has a one year warranty anyway, so in essence, I am only buying one year of extra warranty. Oh, and by the way, they conveniently don't sell the four year plan anymore. Hmmmmmmm, I wonder why?

So where did my "unfixable" DVD player end up? Some remote region of China or India? Are six toed, three eared children being born from this toxic pileup?

Best Buy does boast a green page on their website where they will charge you $10 to take back a very limited array of electronic equipment.. and then give you a $10 gift card. This is an option I suppose. But I still can't help but see through their scam of somehow making money on their extended warranty plans while never having to spend any... they certainly made $52 on me today and didn't have to spend a dime themselves.. and the cost to the environment? or the three eared babys? two headed frogs?