Thursday, December 4, 2008

Best Buy?

It's that time of year, the time of year when people get really frustrated and customer service starts to tank.

In today's economy, I don't understand why things are getting worse instead of better. I guess for the local BestBuy it's because CompUSA closed it's doors and Circuit City is in Chapter 11. There isn't really any competition around.

That can't even be an excuse because I order online all the time so that I can STAY OUT of the stores around Christmas. My UPS guy despises loves me.

Last year, I ordered Guitar Hero III from BestBuy for the boys for Christmas. A week before Christmas we are coming home and as we are pulling in the driveway, we see this sitting on the front porch.



How thoughtful of them to save a tree and all but somewhere in the thought processes of someone's brain there should have been a red flag.

Something like "Hey, it's the middle of December and this MAY BE A GIFT!?"

"Nah, it's not a gift, just slap a label on it and on to the next order."

This year, The Oldest Boy dropped his new Canon 40D he got for Graduation. The UV filter broke on the lens and scratched it. It also can't be removed.

We took the camera back to BestBuy, (we bought the accidental breakage protection) and they told us the camera and lens had to be shipped off. That was 11/22/08, it was supposed to be back today, 12/04/08.

According to the website, they didn't get it in for repair until 12/2/08. So much for being here today. And exactly where was it until then?

Last weekend I ordered a 1T external hard drive from them and specified that I would pick it up at the store. This was an INCREDIBLE deal at $149 and the very next day and even today it is selling for $259.

I get to the store last night (they give you 8 days to pick it up) and guess what? They can't find it.

Luckily, there happened to be one on the shelf.

So I ask you guys this, when BestBuy starts to go under in this economy, are they going to be asking us the Government to bail them out?

Are we going to sit back and be treated the way we have been treated by GM, Ford, BestBuy or whoever and then SAVE them to keep them from going out of business?

Who saves the small guy, the local massage therapist, family photographer? If they treat their customers like crap, no one bails them out.

But hey, I may be wrong...maybe I'm the only person ever screwed by Ford, or BestBuy.


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6 comments:

Legal Diva said...

Oh dude! Best Buy screwed me on a dvd system they installed in my car. It quit working after about 6 months, for no reason. I had them look at it several times and they kept telling me to "reset it". Well, I can't very well do that with a carload of screaming kids while I'm doing 70 on the interstate. Then, when they finally agreed there was something wrong, they no longer sold that model, so even though I had the service/replacement contract for the same or similar model they told me it would cost me $300 to get a new one put in. I called their customer service and bitched to no end, with no results. I finally found a good deal on one at Electronic Express for $350 installed and spent the money there. They hardwired that sucker in and guaranteed it- its been 2 years and I haven't had a problem with it once. So much for service- I refuse to buy anything at Best Buy. :)

Beck said...

I HATE Best Buy! Seriously, I HATE that store more than anything! They have the WORST customer service, the LONGEST lines, RUDEST employees, etc. I avoid Best Buy at alllll costs. We have been screwed by them more than a few times and they never can do anything to fix it! Thay always take the 'sorry, nothing we can do' attitude. UGH, HATE them!

Heather said...

We've always referred to Best Buy as Mediocre Buy ever since the first one opened in our neck of the woods and Hubby and I went to check it out out of curiosity more than anything else. I rarely if ever shop there and the only times I have are when I've noticed something on super sale there.

We have had the same issue with the online shopping and delivery of Xmas gifts, except with the added pressure of having a kid who still believes in Santa. Thus far, 99% of the packages have arrived while Kiddo's at school so she never sees them, and the few that have shown up when she's home have been in the plain, brown Amazon boxes. She hasn't caught on yet that Daddy doesn't usually get THIS MANY packages for "work" in a few week span......

Pam said...

not had too many problems w best buy in store or online, but then again, we haven't bought anything major online. i had 2 yr replacement on my 1st gen nano & that came in handy when i couldn't ever turn the darn thing off! i was able to get it replaced w a 2nd gen nano. but omgoodness..service? forget it. i hate when you want to upgrade the OS or any kind of computer repair, takes them a LONG time. exactly how hard is it to put windows xp on a laptop replacing windows 2000?

unfortunately, they are the closest electronics store. offer way more than walmart or target. i'm surprised no one stole your guitar hero III :-/

carrie said...

I think you make perfect sense!

I can't believe they sent you that without some paper bags at lest taped on. Duh. :)

Daughter said...

I had the worst customer service experience of my life at Best Buy, but I wouldn't say they had the opportunity to screw me because in fact I found it impossible to make a purchase due to the fact that all sales personnel were either smoking by the dumpster out back or "testing out" the XBox 360s.