‘No Size or Weight Restrictions’ in $14.99 TV Haul-Away Offer, Best Buy Says

With little fanfare, Best Buy began imposing a $14.99 TV haul-away fee for customers who buy a new replacement TV at Best Buy and take the retailer's free home delivery option. Best Buy began imposing the $14.99 fee in late March, two months after it began charging a $25 take-back fee to customers who carried an old TV to a Best Buy store for recycling (see 1602010053), spokeswoman Paula Baldwin confirmed in a Tuesday email. The $14.99 haul-away fee, like the $25 take-back charge, is to help cover the increasing cost of responsible TV disposal in light of the drastically declining commodity prices of recycled CRT glass, Baldwin said. For the $14.99 charge, Best Buy places “no size or weight restrictions” on the TVs it hauls away, Baldwin said. “However, the service is available only to customers who are taking delivery of a replacement TV purchased at Best Buy.” Best Buy doesn’t know for sure what proportion of the TVs it hauls away through the home delivery option are bulky, old CRT TVs, she said. “We track recycling by weight and product type, not by in store or haul away stream, so that’s difficult to estimate,” she said. In setting the $14.99 haul-away policy, “we wanted a simple, easy way for our customers to know that it will cost $14.99 any time we haul away anything from their homes,” she said, noting that the $14.99 charge “is consistent with our appliance haul away program.” Best Buy continues “to recycle hundreds of items for free in-store,” she said.