Beware the Best Buy "Buy Back" Program

I've noticed that Best Buy is running a less than usual commercial. In it are people working with their latest gadget only to look up and see a newer faster gadget available. Quote in the commercial are "I just bought this one," or "stupid, stupid, stupid."

We all know that feeling, especially if a recently purchased item is obsolete within one to three months. To be honest, I'm not happy if my gadget is less than a year old and obsolete, but I'm getting used to that feeling.

If you are a regular reader of my articles you know I think you should avoid buying a tablet computer for a while. Especially since Apple will be announcing the iPad 2 in the next few days.

You can read that article here if you wish. It's called Navigating the Tablet Market.

This isn't the great deal it sounds like. I should have known too. The ads are so slick and funny that should have been a tip off that "advertising good-will" would be substituted for a good deal.

So if you are considering running down to Best Buy just because of the buy back program you might want to reconsider.

It's not that great a deal. In fact you'll only get 50% back if the device is in perfect condition and no more than six months old. On top of that you have to pay a fee to be part of the program.

What a deal!

Look at the table below to see what the program will cost you by device type.

Probably not as much as you'd like. Frankly, you could take the item back to most stores in the first ninety days and get a full refund.

Of course you want to check this with each store you might buy from.

But I know from personal experience that some cellular providers typically give you a thirty day "trade-in/trade-up" grace period.

You could also sell the item on the Internet and get a better deal. The table below is what percentage of the price you paid you can expect to get back. Best Buy breaks this down by time periods.

The commercials sound great, but one should always be suspicious if the advertising doesn't mention particulars...and this ad doesn't.

My advice is to ask around at other stores. Chances are good that other "big box" stores have much better policies on returns.

As policies go this just seems to be another profit center for Best Buy; not a fair service to the customer.

The author was not compensated in any way, monetarily, with discounts, or freebies by any of the companies mentioned.

Though the author does make a small profit for the word count of this article none of that comes directly from the manufacturers mentioned. The author also stands to make a small profit from advertising attached to this article.

The author has no control over either the advertising or the contents of those ads.