Performance Service Plan

When you buy something at Best Buy, they have this thing called the PSP. It's usually somewhere between twenty and fifty dollars, depending on the cost of the item. Now, no one at Best Buy works on commission. This is why I shop there... I'd rather not get ignored while looking at an alarm clock/radio because some jerkoff is trying to weasel a 5% cut by selling a big screen TV. Anyway, the employees are apparently told to "push" the PSPs onto prospective customers. I don't know if this is true... I've never had anyone get even close to car salesman status with me.

What the PSP basically does is extend the warrantee. My DVD player, for instance, is guaranteed for three years, and if I have any problems with it, I have to mail it back to the manufacturer for repair. Best Buy's PSP on that model is a four year plan, with repairs done in-house if possible, and if repairs are not possible, I get a brand new item.

I've heard people say that this is bullshit... that a company would never give you a free replacement. My dad laughs his ass off when I tell him that I bought a fifty dollar service plan... but I've got proof that the system works: I dropped a VCR down a flight of stairs, absolutely fubaring it. I brought it back to the store, and they replaced it no questions asked. The pasty teenage kid in charge or customer service even joked with me that it looked like it had fallen out of an airplane. So, I paid thirty bucks for a PSP on the VCR, and then got a $200 replacement. Not a bad deal at all.

And if you think about it, it makes sense. It's not really anything spectacular - it's just an warrantee extension. You can sell one hundred of them, and probably only have to pay up on one, and economically, you're way ahead. I mean, how many boneheads go around dropping VCRs down flights of stairs?