Oh Best Buy. We all know you and ESPECIALLY your damn Geek Squad division are both guilty of deceptive practices, but this is just too much. A dude by the name of Jorge goes and drops over $2000 on a brand new JVC TV. The aforementioned TV is supposed to come with a free stand, which of course Jorge doesn’t get. After dealing with a bunch of crap from Best Buy, he finally got his problem resolved – sort of.
He still has to drive 70 miles round trip to pick the stand up at a warehouse, but at least he was successful in his endeavors. Most people would have given up after a brutal Best Buy incident like his. Remember, don’t let big corporations like Best Buy rip you off and screw you royally. Fight back.
Official Incident Blog [via Digg]
Best Buy does indeed suck. I was sucked into their Black Friday shopping frenzy, and treated like one of their cattle. I don’t even want to get started on the Geek Suad.
Amazing story when you go to the link. He should have taken pictures of the two employees, that would have really sent the Geek over the edge. Completely unacceptable service/response but my guess is that Jorge was a little hot (justifiably) and Marc was the local “muscle” to make sure that Rinad didn’t get hurt.
BTW; a crowd of employees and nobody would just say “the manager’ name is __________?” or the manager is currently playing with a Wii; would you like to go over and have a boxing match with him?? What a brain dead group of people!
Interestingly enough, I had nearly the same problem with quite possibly the same TV. In my case it was the JVC D-ILA 56″ rear-projection set (the only other model was a “61). At the time (late December) it was offered with a $500 instant rebate, bringing it down around $1900 (before tax, natch). Nothing I saw online or in the store seemed to indicate that it came with a stand but when I went to buy it, I was watching the POS terminal the sales guy was using and saw a popup message stating that it qualified for a free stand. A custom (customer assembled) JVC stand no less.
The guy even took me in the back to show me the set since I was trying to figure out how I’d get the beast home and it appeard that the stand was actually shrink wrapped to the TV.
When I came back not 2 or 3 hours later, the stand somehow wasn’t with the TV anymore when they brought it outside. It took a little time but they eventually “found” my stand and brought it out after both the stock guy and a manager (I presume it was a manager due to the shirt) went to the back to find it. All in all, not a terrible situation and I didn’t even have to ask for a manager, they got involved as soon as the stock guy couldn’t find it.
Hey, free stand when I didn’t even expect one? Of course I’ll wait for you to find it.
That was probably a mistake, but it was resolved and you didn’t even have to raise hell. Not all stores are like the one that Jorge went to. The mistakes of a few stores shouldn’t damn the whole company. There are plenty of satisfied customers that come out of Best Buy. It’s the small percentage that are dissatisfied that create the biggest issue about it. If Best Buy was really that bad, they wouldn’t be the #1 Big Box electronics retailer.
I work at a Best Buy and I can tell you that the shopping experience and retail relationship between a sales person depends on 1. the sales person and 2. the customer. Being a line level salesperson in computers I’ve dealt with some of the best customer and some of the worst. The service I give depends if the customer gives me any kind of respect as A PERSON. You can’t believe the arrogance and stupidity some people carry into the store. Some days I go to work and I feel like the some customers might as well call me a condescending ‘boy’ by the way they treat me. The customers that come in and are polite, or at least not rude, I give them ALL the time in the world. I’ll answer questions about anything and even go into the history of companies or the state of computer retailers and why things are the way they are. If I don’t have an answer I try to find it online and learn with them. But I only shop at my Best Buy and a new one that recently opened (new fresh faced kids, not rude and jaded). I’ve had experiences at different Best Buys that make me refuse to shop at any other stores. I walk in there in plain clothes and I’m a polite person and I still get the worst service and condescension. Chris mentioned his experience and if he had gone into my store and if I worked in home theater, I would have TOLD him about the free stand and hunted down that damn stand or call a store with the stand and TV. That’s the kind of sales person I am and I know of others that I work with that are far nicer than me. It’s an issue of the store and the people. There are plenty of assholes in retail on the consumer side and the store side.
I am (was) a very good customer of best buys. I recently had my hard drive replaced, still under warranty. I purchased the product service plan and paid geek squad money to initially set me up on the internet, etc.
I paid them more money to install software and then was told my harddrive needed to be replaced (they can tell me anything because I know nothing about computers). When I received my computer back, I couldn’t get back on the internet. Now, Geek squad wants me to pay another $160 because this is a software problem and not covered. Like I said, I know 0 about computers, but if the replacment of my hard drive caused the interent failure, how can that be a software problem? I think this is a very dishonest practice and I will not spend another dime at best buys, and will be telling all my rich friends the same.
I’ll just say, don’t look at all of Geek Squad because of that. The warranty covers a new hard drive AND the OS restore which means it should be fully functional when its done, they handled that incorrectly. But sending out to service is not their fault, that stuff takes time. The water damage can be overturned depending on how nice you are to the manager.
check me out…Im the most corrupt Best Buy manager ever…No else comments needed…the proof is recorded on camera…request it through consumer affairs if you are in the Everett Washington area 20-30 min north of downtown seattle….
Purchased HP DV9008nr laptop 1-10-2007. Took it back to bestbuy 2-23-07 for keyboard problems. Instead of replacing it they sent it off and now claim it has water damage and is no longer under warranty and trying to charge $600 on service! We all know what the problem and the cause is in the electrical engineering department and it was not water damaged as claimed! We still have not received the computer back for us to reanalyze and further our documentation. 3-10-07
Purchased HP DV9008nr laptop 1-10-2007. Took it back to bestbuy 2-23-07 for keyboard problems. Instead of replacing it they sent it off and now claim it has water damage and is no longer under warranty and trying to charge $600 on service! We all know what the problem and the cause is in the electrical engineering department and it was not water damaged as claimed! We still have not received the computer back for us to reanalyze and further our documentation. 3-10-07
A week ago I got 2 x $100 Best Buy gift certificates. So I browsed the Best Buy website for something cool. The Creative Zen M caught my eye. “Th4t5 lik s0 c00l!”, I said to myself. Then I saw that Circuit City had a sale on Creative MP3 players. The Creative Zen M was on sale for $199.99. You may ask, “Your gift certificates are for Best Buy. What are you going to do now?”. To that I respond,”OMGZ Best Buy th3y lik3 p|2ic3m4tch and stuff!!111!!”
I drove over the Circuit City store and grabbed the flyer advertising the Creative MP3 player sale. Then I went over to Best Buy (which was less than a mile away. heck, I could walk from Circuit City to Best Buy in 2-3 mins). I went over to see if they had the Creative Zen M. They did for a mere $249.99.
So a Best Buy employee came up and asked me, “How may I help you today?”
I replied, “d0 j00 lik3 p|2ic3m4tch and stuff.”
He said, “Yes, we do.”
I said,”m3 w4nt Creative Zen M, but Circuit City h45 @$199!!!111″
So we went over to the Customer Service. I was quickly informed that Best Buy Policy for price matching is that the store that has the item on sale must have the said item in stock. That meant that the Customer Service guy will call Circuit City and ask if the Creative Zen M was in stock. The customer service guy called Circuit City and asked if the player was in stock.
I was then told by the customer service guy, “I’m sorry they don’t have it in stock. We can’t give you a price match.”
I was all like “0uch th4t i5 t3h sux0|2z!”
I was thinking maybe the Circuit City people made a mistake. So I go over to Circuit City (WALKING DISTANCE), and I look to see if they have it in stock. To my suprise, it was in stock. There was one player left. I went back over to Best Buy (WALKING DISTANCE).
I went over to the customer service counter and talked to the same guy.
“d00d it5 lik3 in stoc|
“d00d it5 lik3 in stoc|
To that the customer service guy said,”The Circuit City employee told me that the player is not in stock. I can’t give you a price match.”
I responded,”C4n’t j00 ch3c|
He gave me some crap about the employee at Circuit City on the phone has verified that it is out of stock, and can not price match. At this point, I was a bit frustrated as this person refuses to believe that I went over to Circuit City myself and checked that the player was indeed in stock. So he called his manager over to speak to me. I told the manager that I was at Circuit City and the player was indeed there. The manager then told him to check again. He called a second time, and told me AGAIN that the player was not in stock. At this point I just gave up and left the store. No, I didn’t make a scene or anything I just left.
So I go back over to Circuit City to check AGAIN if the Zen was still there. Indeed it was, so I asked the employee to purchase the player. The employee at Circuit City said, “Sure, but someone is going to be mad?” I’m thinking why would anyone be mad at me buying the player. Being extremely curious I asked him, ” Y w00d ne1 b3 mad?” He told me that a couple people had called and inquired if the player was in stock and he had told them it was about a few minutes ago so he assumed that this person would be coming to buy the player. I promptly told him that it was probably the customer service from Best Buy calling.
So in the end, I didn’t use my gift certificates. *SIGH* Is it so hard to just tell me that Best Buy won’t price match, and if you ask they’ll feed you a bunch of crap.
I say we all start slapping employees of these stores. Pick any employee and just smack the shit out of them. Hey, they represent the company that is hurting you, right? Well hit them back. If big old coorporate america can’t treat us any better them treat them like they treat us. If you can’t hurt them financially then fuck em up in the face. After working for shit companies like Adecco and Hewlett Packard, it’s a wonder I haven’t started the campaign long ago. Slap on and slap well oh wronged gay brothers in arms. Slap well and on target!
Woohoo. BB sucks almost as good as I do. Love those big ones.
If Best Buy refuses to sell you something could that be considered discrimination? I have a friend that has them on film saying that they will not sell him an item that is on their shelves. Anybody else could have walked out of one but they will not sell one to my friend. It’s effed up!
Best Buy in Idaho actually has stock people who take extras off of the item being purchased. These items are sold later. I happened to work at REI and often spoke with employees at Best buy who bragged of the practice. Go boys and keep being sexy males. Meridian rules for Nambla!
Can BB employees be shot for being liars? Just asking. Stop payment on BB checks and they can’t do a damned thing about it. They won’t sue and can’t place you on a check list as it’s a stop payment and not a bounced check. Phuuuck Best Buy.
I actually work at a Bestbuy too.. This is not usual service I must admit.. But Best Buy as a company is pretty damn corrupt. The managers do not care for the employee’s needs, and the HR department is not any better. The only number for the HR department sends your phone call off to India, where the people can barely speak english.. If your lucky.. Im getting sick of corporate America and their constant need to make things Cheaper, because it also ends up making things Sh!ttier too. I have worked at bestbuy for a few years now… And its NOT A GOOD PLACE TO WORK! Beware..
I bought a 10 in laptop from Bestbuy and a week later it stop working I took it back and they directed to the “geeksqad” . The “geeksqaud” were trying to charge me $169.99 to fix it when it was on all the warranties time line. All it needed was the F9 to reset the laptop back to factory settings. I called the store manager (the one in Florida City), I was on hold for 15 minutes and I disconnected, called back and told the person on the line I had been on hold for a long time and she put me on hold again. After another ten minutes, she came back on line and told me the Manager was out to lunch. Well, I think you entire company’s out to lunch and while you are there more customers like me will be spending our money with your competitors.
I will never again purchase anything from best buy, f them and the geek squad. Best Buy… SUCK IT!