THE GREAT BEST BUY FIASCO (aka Best Buy? I think NOT!)

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

To those thinking about reading this...it is a rant (that's for sure) but may provide some much needed information should you be considering giving your hard earned cash up to this outfit. Think of it as a CONSUMER REPORTS extra! lol

On 'Black Friday' (the day after Thanksgiving as it is referred to by retailers in the US) I went shopping for a new Plasma Screen TV to replace my 50 inch projection TV. After looking all over Kansas City I found myself going back to Best Buy (that name will never have the same ring to it again). They had what they referred to as a 'DOOR BUSTER' sale on a Toshiba 50 inch Plasma HDTV for $1699.99, which is a real good price. We couldn't beat it...so we decided that although we preferred the Samsung 50 inch Plasma HDTV, we just couldn't pass up the deal on the Toshiba which WITH THE STAND was about the same price as the Samsung.

First off we were greeted by the slippery-est saleman imaginable (this guy reaked of the 'used car salesman' vibe). Who tried to tell me that D-Sub was a better way of hooking up your PC to a TV than DVI! He also tried to push us to a Panasonic that was $1999.99 and even briefly tried to argue that the picture was better than the Samsung or Toshiba (like we couldn't use our own eyes to make that comparison). A smarter man might have taken this as a precursor of things to come and taken his money elsewhere...but as you might guess...I didn't! So we bought the Toshiba and since you can't lay a Plasma TV down (it MUST be shipped upright in the box to avoid damage), we scheduled delivery for yesterday (November 30th). The day before the scheduled delivery the shipping service called to tell us that they would be in our area to deliver the TV sometime between 1pm and 3pm.

That night (the night before our delivery date) we had freezing rain and the streets got covered. But most of them got cleaned up prior to the start of the next business day. Some neighborhoods were still a bit slick. Ours was slightly messy...but was negotiable for our Mailman as well as all my neighbors and several other large delivery vehicles. As you might have guessed though...our delivery time came and went with no word from the delivery service. So I began by calling the store we bought the TV from. They gave me the number of the delivery service which I called. The answering machine said "push 1 for tomorrow's deliveries or push 2 for today's deliveries). Pushing 2 resulted in a message that said "The party you are trying to reach is unavailable". The service then rerouted me back to the original message.

I called the store again and talked to a different person in Customer Service that told me that she never gets through (they never answer) if she pushes 2, and she advised me to call them back and push 1 instead, which I did. I got the same "party in unavailable" message on that line.

So lets recap so far...

I bought a TV and stand and paid $2189 in total for both and the delivery charge and now my TV was on a truck...but nobody could tell me where. They obviously were running late, but nobody could tell me how late or IF or WHEN I might be getting my merchandise. Sure, the weather played a part...but it wouldn't have taken much for the delivery driver to call and tell me what the deal was, and it would have avoided me getting pissed off and having to track them down. But it gets better...read on!

So I called the store back again and blew up on the customer service person and demanded to speak to a manager. They had to take down my name and number because he was busy (probably with another customer that was wondering where their stuff was). So I sat stewing in my madness and waiting for an answer to the "when will I get my TV" question. When the manager finally called me he didn't know anything more than I did, but he promised to keep calling the service until he reached them and said that he would have them call me or he would call me and let me know something as soon as possible. That was the last that I heard from him and to today I still have not heard from him.

I kept trying to contact the delivery service and FINALLY got through to someone. He informed me that they were SWAMPED with late deliveries and rescheduling calls. He said that they couldn't get into my neighborhood (a lie as nobody else had any trouble including the friend of mine that came to pick up my other TV that same day with his truck).  He offered to reschedule for the next day (today) but said that he couldn't guarantee that I'd get it then. WHAT?! He told me that he would figure out where they could fit me in and would call me back...he NEVER did. So although Best Buy and the delivery service had been paid...nobody could tell me when I MIGHT get my TV. NICE customer service there Best Buy!

So, I of course tried calling the store again and complaining to the manager who was curiously unavailable. At the end of the day I had talked to many people (including at the end the slippery salesman that had sold me the TV) and gotten no satisfaction. Nobody could tell me when I might be able to get my TV. The only thing they COULD say is that I had gotten such a good deal on the TV that they would HATE to see me cancel my purchase to get my money back, but since they had lost money on the TV, it wouldn't be hurting them to get it back to sell at a higher price! Think about that for a minute...is that really something that you want to tell a customer if you are a retailer? So I'm gonna be the one that loses? I think I've already lost my time, my patience (certainly) and all respect for Best Buy.

To sum things up, I paid a lot of money to get the run around. All of this confusion could have been avoided if the delivery service had simply called me to explain that the weather was getting in the way. But instead I had to track them down. NOT good business practice!

So it snowed last night in the south of the city (which of course is where the delivery service is) and FINALLY the delivery service called me this morning to reschedule. Since they claimed NONE of their trucks were running today they offered to set up delivery for me on SUNDAY. Not tomorrow!? When I questioned this the IDIOT told me that they were rescheduling yesterdays deliveries for SUNDAY and today's deliveries for SATURDAY! WHAT!? How the heck does THAT make sense? I sumarily told them that was OK, but also said that I would have to discuss this with the store and make a decision on wether or not to just cancel the whole thing and get my money back.

To say the least...this whole experience has been BAD BAD BAD. It was handled badly by everyone associated with Best Buy and we will most certainly NEVER buy anything from Best Buy again. Furthermore, I'm advising that anyone who reads this and has a choice takes their money elsewhere. Shop at Circuit City or just buy online. You'll be LOTS happier in the end and you won't have to worry about where you're stuff is at.

All you've got to do is talk to any of their 'computer experts' and you'll know that they don't know a THING about the stuff that they are selling. For years Best Buy has been a 'take your chances or know what you're buying' kind of place. Now for us it's a 'NEVER GO THERE AGAIN FOR ANYTHING' kind of place. I hope that reading this helps you to avoid the same such treatment.

BEST BUY=NOT! 

[sX5Fe_giZM0o]

Paul

About 5 years ago I was looking for some part-time evening work to get up and out from behind my PC.
I knew a girl that was a manager at Best-Buy and she said I would be great for their Comp dept.
I figured since I already did a lot of consulting, that I would be an asset.  It would also be fun to help others go in the right direction.

WRONG!!  I lasted 5 days and told them they were crooks and that they needed to be concerned about repeat business.  I got chewed out for recomending a Toshiba lap-top to an older couple.
My boss told me and I quote her "We can sell the Toshibas w/o selling them!  You need to push the compacts with the Celleron CPUs and then give them the 5 point walk around"  The 5 point walk around consisted of selling them $200 Service contracts (most came with a 1 year manufacturer warranty), USB printer cables extensions, Ink cartridges, paper and crappy software. I won't mention all the other crap I saw in my week there.   I have never been back.

[ElDiablo (Paul)]

Yeah they only want guys that will parrot whatever they tell them to say. It's obvious. I went there once a long time back with VMX_PanicRev (Glen) to check on some RAM for his computer. They tried to tell us that there was NO DIFFERENCE between SDRAM and DDR! In fact...the guy who sold us our TV tried to tell me that D-Sub (the normal monitor connection) was a better way to hook up a PC to a TV than DVI (Hi-Def for pc's)!

The guy argued with me for a bit until I told him what I did for a living and finally I told him if he wanted to PROVE it to himself all he needed to do was walk over to the PC Video Cards and look in ANY hi-end video card box and see what kind of connectors it has! To this day I'm not exactly sure wether the guy REALLY thought D-Sub was better than DVI or not.

I figured that they had orders to push certain things...it's crazy that they want their CSR's to push crap to old people. That IMO is reason enough to hate them and never go back. I've considered creating a website called WorstBuy.com to blow the whistle on places like this. Might have to think about it some more!