Newfound hatred of Best Buy
Without getting into too many details, I now hate Best Buy. The system they have set up for in-store pickup is idiotic. I drove to pickup a new laptop after calling to verify its arrival at the store, only to find out that in fact there was no laptop waiting for me. So to make things better, Best Buy said they could get one for me in two days, but it would cost $129 more than I paid because it had some kind of Norton package installed (the same package I chose not to purchase originally). They never really explained how the whole mix up happened and I told them I wasn't happy with their efforts to correct the system or to make me happy. They said there was nothing they could do. After spending an hour and a half at the store, and an hour driving to the store and back home only to be told I could do it all over again in two days... commence boycott of Best Buy.
Brief update.
I called their main customer service line to let them know I was unhappy with the service I received in-store. They promptly said they would send a $100 gift card in an effort to keep me as a customer. Today the gift card came as promised. In fairness to Best Buy, I thought that information should be included here.
joe.shearer : RE: Newfound hatred of Best Buy More..
So you had to pay $129 more than you thought for the laptop, and they gave you a $100 gift card.
In other words, to keep you as a customer they only charged you $29.
Well, it sounds like he didn't actually pay the extra $129 or buy a laptop from them yet, so basically he got a $100 gift card for his troubles.
I have my own Best Buy stories. The first one happened several years back. I bought a desktop computer bundle for my parents for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving that had separate rebates for the monitor, computer, and printer. The whole package was $200 or $250, I forget which, after rebate. Originally $400-500.
Anyway, my parents already had a monitor, so I decided to take that back and not send in the monitor rebate. I sent in the desktop rebate and the printer rebates and got a letter back saying I didn't qualify for any rebates, because I had returned the monitor. Seems silly to me. I called them to complain but never received any rebates and overpaid for the system, which definitely wasn't worth what I paid.
More recently (within the last few weeks) they had a desktop PC bundle on sale but the website showed it out of stock everywhere in Indy. I didn't want to miss out on the clearance deal, so I but the bullet and ordered online, paying $60 shipping. I got an e-mail back saying the item was on back order for 2 weeks.
On a whim, I decided to stop at Best Buy on my way home from work to make sure the website was accurate. Turns out, their online item tracking sucks, because the package was actually in stock. Since it was back ordered online, I went ahead and bought it in the store, happy to save the shipping costs.
When I got home, I found an e-mail in my inbox that the computer was magically no longer back ordered online and had already shipped. Now I had the option of taking this computer back to the store for a refund (minus the shipping costs), but I decided to just keep it, as I liked the first one and decided to hook the second one up to my TV as it has HDMI output and makes for a DVR 100 times nicer than TIVO.
I didn't mind this too much, but I do think it's worth pointing out that their website item tracker is worthless. Calling is also pointless, as the often clueless employees will leave you on hold for 10 minutes and come back on the phone to tell you that don't carry that model. Then when you go to the store and point out the model on the floor to them, they mumble something about how it must be new.
I did end up buying a laptop from Best Buy. I did not pay the extra $129 though. I would have returned the laptop had I been able to buy the same model anywhere else for a similar price. So I basically got the gift card for threatening to return the laptop before I even took possession.
joe.shearer : RE: Newfound hatred of Best Buy More..
I have a recent story that is much more minor than both of yours.
I wanted to get my brother a copy of "From Dusk Till Dawn," so I went to Best Buy first. The site said the Castleton store had a copy, so I trekked up there to get one the day before my brother's party only to find that they did not. Luckily I was able to find it at Fry's, which subsequently became my preferred DVD-chasing outlet because it has about 3x the selection of Best Buy and a big discount selection as well.
5 comments