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What an absolutely BRUTAL experience I had with the Batteries Plus branch on Williams St. in Fredericksburg, VA!
I called ahead and spoke with two people, one the manager, about programming an automotive FOB I had purchased. The Manager told me she could program it and to come in. So I make the 30 minute drive to the store, give he my master key FOB and the new blank OEM Fob to program. She looks up the car programming information, confirms they can program it, and rings up a $75 programming charge, which I think at the time is reasonable.
The exchange is very quick and she sets out to program the car...
About 30 minutes later she comes back inside and says,
"I can't get the FOB to accept the programming."
And proceeds to hand me back my Fob. I ask her if she intends to refund the programming charge which she only now tells me,
"That is not refundable since we are programming your Fob. But we can program the Fob we sell for this car, but its not in stock."
[Thanks for sharing your policy UPFRONT on your policy of 'no guarantees on programming third party Fobs (which most all are btw)'!]
SO I order a new Fob from them for ANOTHER $75 and drive 30 minutes back home to wait a week until the new Fob shows up. When I get home I discover that a slew of electronic systems in the car have been reset, no doubt to some programming gaff. I am able to straighten them all out and figure I would bring this up when the new Fob arrives...
A week later, the new Fob comes in and another individual phones to tell me the Fob is in. Before I drive down I ask him, "If this Fob does not accept your programming, will you refund the money spent on the programming which I had paid previously?"
He goes away and huddles with his Manager and says that since the programming was paid for the other Fob, they would not refund the programming then either - and this is the Fob I just ordered from them! But he says, "If it the new Fob does not accept programming they will refund the money on the new Fob, but not the programming."
I explain that makes no sense and that perhaps its best they just refund the money on the Fob so I can save the hour long round trip since my risk remained the same that this was a continued dead end to program a viable Fob. The counter guy on the phone then tells me that I have to come back in anyways to run the card to return the new Fob charge.
I then tell him that since I have to drive back down there now they might as well try and program it since there is nothing to lose at this point. I tell him I will be in in about an hour...
So back I go, and 30 minutes later I walk in the door only to be immediately told that they will not attempt to program the new Fob and will only refund my money for the Fob! Seems they had reservations that they could program the car after all - even with their own Fob. They could have said that in the first place.
Scam! alert!
What an absolute waste of time and money believing anything that comes out of the mouths of this bunch. It is simply incredible the level of incompetence surrounding this store. I have been to other Battery pus branches over the years and this is easily the WORST I have ever been to.
My advise to all reading this review is to:
1.) Ask (many, many) questions upfront because they will not be forthright or upfront with you.
2.) Believe nothing they say, and fact check everything they tell you.
3.) Save your time and money and find an honest vendor that actually gives a damn. These folks absolutely could not care any less - though they do work at that.
Hard, hard, hard PASS!
Recommendation: STAY AWAY!
