Best Buy Rant

[Hank Phillips]

I had a friend that was also called a liar by a manager at one of their stores. A salesperson told her one thing about an item she purchased, and it turned out not to be true... when the item stopped working, she complained to the manager about what the salesperson told her, and he told her that it didn't happen, "they don't give out advice like that". She eventually got the matter resolved, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Oh, and the Geek Squad? Most of them couldn't fix a computer well enough to compute their way out of a wet paper bag.

[Matt Meiser]

Where I used to work we hired a co-op in our group every semester. I won't say which University, but it is in Toledo. Anyway, it seemed like 80% of the kids worked at Best Buy computer repair. After interviewing and having some of these kids work for me, I'd NEVER let BB touch my computer. Sure some of them are good, but do you know which ones? Want to take the risk to find out?

[James Jaragosky]

Typical holiday run-around. Ordered something from the Best Buy website last night. Even though I entered my current address, the e-mail receipt specified an old address. I called Customer "Care". After waiting 25 minutes on hold, I was told they couldn't change the address on the order. Not being one to take defeat lightly, I re-ordered the product, making sure it was going to the correct address, then called back customer service again. Wait for 25 minutes again. Customer "Care" says they can't make the cancellation on their system. They suggest that I call an automated number, enter my order number and then I can cancel the order over the phone. I do that, only to get into a loop where the only thing I can do is confirm the order.

I go to bed angry, but resolved the fix the problem.

I call again a little while ago. Spend 40 minutes on the phone. Get someone on the phone who says she can't cancel the order for some reason and suggests I call back again in a few hours. Needless to say, I didn't think that was the right answer.

I told her that I would just call my credit card company and put the charge into dispute.

I used to feel bad sometimes about going into a Best Buy to browse for products and then buy them on the Internet. Not anymore. If this is customer service, this customer is heading elsewhere.

Coincidentally, Best Buy announced great earnings today. Apparently, their profits are now driven by extended warranties and the huge mark-ups they charge on Geek Squad installations and assistance. Buyer beware. No one's interested in serving the customer anymore. All about profit margins....

Thanks for letting me rant.

Jack

O MY GOD That Place is EVIL. EVIL I say.
My horror story goes like this,
I had a laptop that cost me $2300.00 it had the entire bells and whistles, huge screen independent graphics card 2 gig ram (you get the picture) any how it dies 3 days before its I year purchase date. (Graphics card died.) so I beat it up to the geek squad as they are recommended to me by the manufacture as the only approver service center in my area. The geek there can’t fix it and tells me it has to go to the manufactures service center. I get a recite and go home to wait 2 weeks for further instructions. Two weeks passes and no word and I start calling the store; I keep getting the run around and put off. This lasts another week. I finely get tired of that and go into the store for answers. St this time I am told they lost my machine but not to worry if it can’t be located they will replace it. I go back home to wait 2 more weeks. I am contacted by phone that they have located it in a bust buy in CA. and that it has been finely forwarded to the manufacture for repair. I get a call 2 weeks later that my machine is ready for pick up so I go into the store to get it only to find out that it has not been repaired.
The manufacture refused to repair it under warranty because they did not receive it until several weeks after the warranty had expired. I explained to the manufacture that it was not my fault I had a receipt from the service center that they recommended and I felt that they should honor their warranty. Well to make a long story a little shorter. Best buy claimed it wasn’t their responsibility and the manufacturer claimed that it was a best buy issue. I still have that laptop and I will not give them the $805 to fix it nor will I NEVER shop at best buy ever again.
Jim J.

[David G Baker]

This thread sounds just like the Best Buy horror story site.
I have been lucky, I bought an Emachine from them several years ago and it has been a good buy. This was prior to my reading about the bad things associated with the stores. The biggest complaint that I saw on the horror site was warranty repairs. James your story is pretty much the norm for their bad behavior.

[Chuck Saunders]

Best Buy ... somewhere else

[mark page]

I have only bought small things from them. The tv rant thread I have came from Circuit City. BUT I do have rants with them. I have built a gazoo many computers for people and myself. I knew their store and pricing better than the employees their did on computer components. I went in before Christmas to purchase some cooling fans and I believe a network card. I didn't bother looking at their ads for sale pricing. I knew the prices I would pay by heart. I was in there at least twice a week. They had things marked on sale for prices higher than what they were two days ago. Then I got to looking and they had raised their prices on everything for the Christmas rush. This kind of ruined them in my eyes. Cd & dvd burners, sound & graphic cards, network cards, fans, power supplies, ram, routers, the whole ball of wax was price increased. I stopped back in just to check after the holidays were over and pricing returned to normal. From then on I purchased most of my parts through NewEgg internet sales. They didn't lose any major appliance sales from me as I don't purchase them their, but they lost a bookoo of small sales that probably had a higher markup margin to begin with.

[Matt Meiser]

They didn't lose any major appliance sales from me as I don't purchase them their

We've found our local applicance store is typically less expensive than the big boxes, plus they offer free delivery, plus free haul-off of the old appliance, plus they have a service department. Best Buy and Lowes looked at me like I was crazy when I asked about converting a dryer to propane. The local place did it before delivery for the price of the conversion kit. My parents just bought a new washing machine and they beat Lowes price on the same model by $50. Plus Lowes would have charged another $50 for delivery.

[Chuck Wintle]

I have only bought small things from them. The tv rant thread I have came from Circuit City. BUT I do have rants with them. I have built a gazoo many computers for people and myself. I knew their store and pricing better than the employees their did on computer components. I went in before Christmas to purchase some cooling fans and I believe a network card. I didn't bother looking at their ads for sale pricing. I knew the prices I would pay by heart. I was in there at least twice a week. They had things marked on sale for prices higher than what they were two days ago. Then I got to looking and they had raised their prices on everything for the Christmas rush. This kind of ruined them in my eyes. Cd & dvd burners, sound & graphic cards, network cards, fans, power supplies, ram, routers, the whole ball of wax was price increased. I stopped back in just to check after the holidays were over and pricing returned to normal. From then on I purchased most of my parts through NewEgg internet sales. They didn't lose any major appliance sales from me as I don't purchase them their, but they lost a bookoo of small sales that probably had a higher markup margin to begin with.

Mark,
I rarely buy components from Best Buy or any other similar store. Always got the best prices through internet purchases or small independent computer stores. I was once looking for computer memory and went to Best Buy. Mistake! They only stocked the cheap generic memory and not one sales clerk knew anything about the subject of computer memory. At another big chain store I bought a digital camera. When I refused to purchase the extended warranty the clerk became irate and refused to process the sale. She told another clerk to complete the sale.

[Michael Gibbons]

I think the best bet is to do ALOT of research before heading out to buy anything. Also sometimes it's wise to seek out those mom-n-pop stores that care a little more and that specialize in one type of item like tv's or cameras.

[Denny Rice]

If Lowes is the "Borg" of the home improvement business, then Best Buy has to be their step child in the electronics business. I have not walked into a Best Buy store in over 4 yrs and do not see myself ever stepping foot in there again. For the same reasons as mentioned above, I will not purchase anything anywhere where I do not have the FREEDOM to return something because I DON"T LIKE IT, or the thing does not work. Most major purchases in the last yr have been made over the internet including my new LCD TV 1080P and a laptop. I like the way most internet sites have a traditional return policy, and I would say most of them I got out of giving "Uncle Sam" his cut and the free shipping thing too. Why would anyone shop retail?