Misnomer: Best Buy Customer Service

Oh, my. What a trial today.

After staggering earlier this week, my computer monitor was kaput yesterday. A little short of cash, one of my sisters came to my rescue. "Best Buy has a program where I can pay for something online and you can pick it up at a store down there," she informed me.

Awesome.

The plan: I'd go to the local store this morning, look at monitors and pick one, make sure it's in stock and then call my sis with the particulars. She do the online bit, I'd wait around for it to clear their system and — voila — I have a new monitor, and pay my sis back when a couple of checks I've been expecting show up.

No problem, right? Well, I find the monitor I want... see that there are two boxed sitting on their shelves and text my sis with the info. She does, gets an email 10 minutes later thanking her for her completed order. Five minutes later, she receives an email that says the order's been cancelled because the store says that monitor is out of stock... except it isn't. She calls the store directly and tells them so. Customer service rep says she's wrong. "I'll look again, but there weren't any there the first time," she says, puts the phone on hold and returns five minutes later with "I just went back there. We're out of that monitor."
My sis holds her ground, tells rep that there are two in stock (at least), and from my info tells her exactly where they are.

The reps says "Well, if you have your brother come back, find that monitor on the shelf and bring it to the customer service desk, we'll complete the order."

I do. They don't. Instead, they say she has to go back online, fill out the info and I have to wait another hour for it to clear. Problem is, since they've told corporate that they have no more of those monitors, the website says the only option is shipping from the warehouse (a 2-3 day wait). Customer service's solution: "Gee. That's too bad."

We had to pitch a royal bitch — getting corporate involved — to get this to happen. Even then, we had to put up with some real fucking snottiness from people who fucked this process up from the beginning. At one point, when CSR chick said I must have hidden away the box I had later "found," I threatened to drag her by her fucking hair over to the department to show her where the remaining monitor still sat on the shelves. "I looked there," she said. Bullshit. I doubt she looked anywhere, just immediately replied to the original order with "out of stock" because she didn't want to be bothered.

Ultimately, before I gathered up my new monitor and departed, I left the two CSR idiots and one managerial Napoleon with one last thought: "You know, since you people screwed this up from the beginning, turning a simple transaction into a three-hour saga... would've been nice to hear an 'I'm sorry' somewhere along the line."

F*ckers.

 

I ended a 15-year relationship with a car dealership over their standoffish behavior and inability to say they were sorry after they turned me away twice in a row on service appointments because their computer spit the bit (even though I was able to present a confirmation receipt the second time).

The public has more options than ever in almost any category of retail or the service sector. Businesses need to practice saying "sorry" much more often, especially in this sucky economy.

 

I'll take the 2-3 day wait (buying from someone else, of course) before I would go through bursting a dozen blood vessels just to have a monitor today.

Then again, I'm on Day 8 of waiting to get my won't-turn-on iMac repaired.

 

Perhaps I'm lost here but what's the difference between your sister buying your monitor for you online and you picking it up and you and your sister going to the store, she pays for it at the store and you have your monitor without the drama?

 

Well, ape, I'm in Cincy. My sis is in Canton, OH. That's the point of the prpgram they offer - you can pay for something and have a family member or friend pick it up at their local store. In this case - properly handled by competent folks - it seemed a godsend since I was suddenly monitor-less with a couple of design projects due on Monday.

 

I can't remember if I tried it before at Best Buy, but just about every pick up in-store transaction I've ever done involved some level of incompetence. In your case, you had to do what you had to do.

 

Just have her give her credit card number to the store where you are at, rather than going online.

 

We thought that was another easy way to do it.

"We're not allowed to do that," was the reply.

 

My brother's battles with BB are family epic... He hasn't been in one by five years, but I can't remember if that's by his choice or their edict.

 

I haven't bought anything from a bb since 1994.

Its call customer no service by clark howard

 

I really hate those fuckers. Thank you for reminding me of my bitterness and why I will not return.

 

There was a story out here a year of so ago. I think it was Best Buy.
There were complaints about sale items never being available. Turned out that the employees were told to not sell the item if the customer refused to buy the extended warranty.
A TV news station sent in people posing as customers. The first one agreed to buy a specific computer, didn't want the extended warranty. The employee went into the back room, came back and said they were out of that model.
Ten minutes later, a different "customer" went in for the exact same item and agreed to purchase the extended warranty. The employee went into the back room and brought out the item.
The company PR person blamed it on the store manager. The manager, confronted by the comsumer reporter, quit on the spot. The next day, he went to the TV station's studio and said they were instructed by management to do that.

My Best Buy "customer service" story is, I bought a document shredder. When I got home, I was late for something and just put it in my garage. Didn't think about it for a couple of weeks, then I went to set it up and it didn't work. Right out of the box, it was defective.
I went back to BB and they said the in-store warranty only is good for a week, I had to deal with the manufacturer's warranty. I said, this product was defective right out of the box, just please exchange it. NO. They even tested it at the store to prove it didn't work, but they absolutely would not exchange it. I had to deal with packing it up, shipping it back to Fellowes and waiting for a replacement to be shipped to me.