Best Buy review: Don't ever shop at best buy! 11

According to the manager of Best Buy in Waldorf, MD. It is not Best Buy’s policy to check the identification of any customer when they use a credit card. Even if it is and expensive item and the credit card used has ‘check id’ written on the back they do not check any identification.

So I guess if you steal someone’s credit card Best Buy would love to have you as a customer.

Rich

Waldorf MD

I will prevent anyone I can legally influence from buying from Best Buy!

Below is a letter that I sent to Best Buy customer service after repeated attempts at online and telephone escalations. Bottom line as others have found, an arrogant "no escalation" approach to their return policy which in this case was terrible flawed.

Besides my restocking fee refund, what I really wanted, was to hear directly from a corporate officer, that they stand behind the final decision in this case despite the fact that I was able to demonstrate a failure in front of them. I am happy to report that I believe I have successfully influenced at least $100,000 in purchases to other stores just within my circle of friends and family. Having just found this website I hope to divert another $10m in purchases to other retailers...

"I purchased a Toshiba laptop for $1600 on Sunday from your store in Frye Road in Chandler, AZ. Two days later I had three technical issues that affected my ability to use the laptop.
1) Wouldn’t start up from off or hibernate with a USB device plugged into one rear port
2) Some keys wouldn’t register on the screen when I typed (known issue by the way based on other user opinions on web forums)
3) Audio output to external speakers would crackle unless the jack was seated just right

I went to return the laptop on Tuesday with original receipt. Upon bench screening, the tech and another person showed me how they went through their diagnostic script and couldn’t detect the audio or USB issue, and all of their typing appeared on the screen. Fair enough, I understand they have a diagnostic script and trouble tree to follow. I then typed a complete sentence in front of the tech and returns agent on the keyboard and it did not register about 6 letters in about 20 words. (been typing for about 20 years by the way and never saw this problem before, so I know my way around a keyboard)
Long story short I was told by a “manager” I guess in the returns dept that their diagnostic is final, the unit is classed as "No Trouble Found" and that I will be charged the restocking fee which in this case came out about $240.

I asked to speak to a senior manager and was told no she was the final escalation. Unless you have 20 year olds as GM’s for the store, I have a hard time believing there was nobody else to talk to and I am extremely dissatisfied and am prepared to never do business again with Best Buy.
I also told the folks involved that I was prepared to go back and pick out another system at the time by the way as an exchange and continue to do business with your store.
I recently purchased another laptop from you in December among many other electronics for the holiday season as well as many other major purchases over time.
On Sunday I had also signed up for your small business services as my wife is about to open up a business in the area and we will need approximately $10000 in professional services and hardware by May. I am also about to purchase a big screen TV in time for the super bowl and as usual Best Buy would have been my first stop.
Don’t waste your time quoting corporate policy around no trouble found and customer induced damage and how you need to recover the cost of an open box sale or return to vendor as No Trouble Found and get penalized by them. I get that.
I am responsible for all computing applications for returns and repair centers worldwide at a major electronics manufacturer through which about $500M in returns flows annually. Nobody understands more than me the impact and cost of invalid returns. In this capacity I spend much of my time negotiating No Trouble Found / Customer Induced Damage and diagnostics with OEM, distis, channel partners, suppliers, and end-user groups. You won’t find anybody in the industry working harder than me to reduce invalid returns.
(By the way just some general feedback, if you’re going to screen at point of return, you need to train your techs in customer service. These guys came across as smart-### with all of the answers and addressed me the customer as if I had some major burden of proof to provide to get a remedy.)
I didn’t even go into the point of a poorly designed keyboard which includes right shift key that is a fraction of the size of the left one. That to me is a design flaw that should be warrantable within itself since I as the customer was not satisfied, period. However I’m didn’t even bring that up and it is not a basis for my argument here.

At the end of the day, I had a unit that was defective in three areas, could prove one on the spot, in front of your agents.
Rather than get terribly upset I walked away absolutely stunned. I could not believe that I had just come away from any retail store in the year 2006 with that customer experience. I cannot even begin to comprehend how far off the scale that store is in terms of providing excellent customer service. I have to believe this is an anomaly and that your corporate strategy really includes wanting to be world class but correct me if I’m wrong.

Anyways unless I’m wrong and this isn’t an anomaly, and you stand by your decision to charge me $240 for a defective unit, I’d like to hear that directly from an executive staff member.
If you wish to provide me with a remedy so that I may continue to do business with best buy, nothing short of a complete refund of the 15% re-stocking fee that I was charged will suffice.
I would appreciate a prompt response directly to me."

1. October 14th was my birthday. My husband and parents gave me the money to get a Viper 771XV remote start/alarm installed in my new car.

I had been looking at it at Best Buy and was very excited about getting it installed. I purchased the device and set up my installation appointment.

2. October 23rd I had the appointment to get the remote start/alarm installed. They told me it would take about four hours. After four hours I called three times and was told that it would be two more hours each time. I had left my car off at 10:00 AM, I got it back at 7:30 PM. I was told by the installer that the reason it took so long was because they wanted the “new guy” to learn how to install the device and he did not come in to work until 2:30 PM. I wish they would have told me this in advance. After waiting at the store for an hour, I called my husband and had him come from his work to drive me home where I waited and waited and waited.

3. October 24th When I got my car back and put it in the garage I noticed two dents in the hood. I called the store and they told me it was too late to do anything about it that night, they would call me back the next day. They did not call me back. But they did not deny that they had caused the damage. There were many dirty finger prints around the dents. It looked like they had been examining them.

4. October 25th I called the store and spoke to a manager named John. He had someone contact me to let me know that Best Buy’s insurance would contact me.

5. October 26th Heidi G called me and gave me a claim number [protected].

6. October 30th I got a repair estimate from Davidson’s Collision Center.

7. October 31st My husband faxed the estimate to Heidi G.

8. November 6th I called Best Buy to check the progress on my claim.
The person I spoke to, Darlene, was rude and told me there was nothing she could do I would just have to wait to hear from the insurance adjuster.

9. November 7th I faxed Heidi G with my information once more.

10. November 9th Heidi G called to let me know my claim was denied because there have been “hail storms” in our area. I keep my car in the garage and the hail in our area did not occur in my area. I asked to talk to her supervisor and I was told I couldn’t. I asked for the name of her company and was told I didn’t need to know it and she hung up on me.

11. November 9th After Heidi G hung up on me I called the Best Buy
Corporate office. I was given a confirmation number: [protected] and I was told to contact my local store or the insurance company.

12. November 9th I called my insurance and they suggested that I have Davidson’s Collision Center inspect the car to see if it was “hail” or other damage. Davidson’s Collision Center updated my estimate and said it looked like fist marks to them, and not hail damage. I went to the store with my updated estimate and they said there was nothing they could do.

This took place in August 2006, at the Best Buy in Leesburg, VA. I highly recommend avoiding the Best Buy Geek Squad. I brought my laptop in because the sound had stopped working and I couldn't get Macromedia Flash Player's latest version installed properly. I asked them to fix these two problems. The Geek Squad guy who examined my laptop to analyze its condition described it as "scratched" on the official paperwork - no other problems.

Problem 1: When I came in to pick it up, the first thing I noticed was that the disc drive would no longer shut. It was unusable. (The drive was not brand-new and no longer popped out on its own, but it was fully functional and had never given me any trouble in the year I had owned the laptop.) When I brought it up, the guy (whose name is Rashad, unsure of exact spelling) insisted that it was broken when I brought it in. I produced the paperwork, where he had written that the only problem was "scratched." He said that it was obvious when I brought it in that the drive was broken. I was appalled at this complete lie. He and I both knew that he would have written "broken disc drive" if it was broken when I brought it in. The manager came over eventually and did not help at all. I was told I could pay to have them ship the laptop away to have a new drive put in. I refused, of course, as there was no reason why I should have to pay more.

Problem 2: Rashad had not installed Macromedia Flash Player. That was a big reason why I had brought it in, because I couldn't see videos that were posted on Youtube and elsewhere online (the new version was required) I talked to a different Geek Squad guy, who was actually surprised that this fairly simple thing had not been done, and he was able to install it after a short delay. So, the problem was solved, but no thanks to Rashad.

Problem 3: I had just paid $30 for an additional year of Norton Antivirus 2005. Without asking my permission, Rashad had completely uninstalled the program, because it was "outdated." It was not outdated. Many people pay to upgrade the previous year's version without buying the new one, as I did. No apology was given and I was not refunded.

Problem 4: I did give permission for SpySweeper to be installed. The program simply did not work. I brought it to a computer expert at my workplace just to be sure and the guy told me that something had gone wrong with the installation. I was so frustrated that I simply uninstalled the program and didn't even add it to my list of complaints to Best Buy.

Problem 5: I had zero success getting in touch with the Geek Squad by phone. Repeated attempts over a number of days had the same result: the phone would ring and ring and no one ever answered. Other departments at the store would answer, but not the Geek Squad.

Problem 6: After a long conversation, the far from sympathetic manager said he would order a new disc drive and I would get a call when it came in. This was August 2006, it is now January 2007. I'm sure not holding my breath that he will ever call. In the meanwhile, I bought a disc drive fairly cheaply on Ebay and had my dad install it.

I spent close to $300 for the Geek Squad work. (They supposedly did a scan and removed some spyware also.) The only thing that was actually done right initially was the sound, which was fixed. Other than that, it was a nightmare and I lost $30 on the uninstalled Norton, $30 on the unusable SpySweeper they installed, $60 to buy a new disc drive, and $50 to buy a new antivirus program.

What were frustrating was both the very poor and shoddy work, and also the deception of Rashad. He broke the drive, and he knows it. So here's my advice to anyone with computer problems: Support a small business and find a privately owned repair shop. You won't be sorry to avoid the Best Buy Geek Squad.

I agree with many other reviewers. Best Buy is not customer friendly. The extended warranty is useless.

Purchased from Best Buy store 52 inch LG TV with extended warranty. TV broke Nov 2006. Best Buy 1-800 number gave EMFA Electronic Ft. Worth,TX. Unable to get TV back from EMFA. Best Buy 1-800 extended warranty supervisors no help --state must investigate but still no answers or return calls. Each time I call--10 so far there is no records of previous complaints and Best Buy answers they will investigate?

Be careful and save your money on extended warranty from Best Buy.

I fully agree that best buy gives poor service of items purchased at their stores. I purchased an Insignia 37 inch lcd tv, within 5 weeks the entire sound board burned out, then, with extend full service contract, it took many weeks to get service and then they could not get the parts. The store finally gave me a new tv, which lasted 5 1/2 months and now the picture has gone and they tell me it will be until May 31st before a tech will even look at it. So again my wife and I have no tv until they get around to fixing it. I have purchased numerous item from Best Buy but this is the absolute last time as their customer service is garbage.

I will never shop best buy, by far the most unprofessional customer service I have ever recieved. This is my first post in a forum, and if I encourage just one person not to shop bestbuy, then I feel this is well worth it.

Quote from Rhino
"I purchased a Toshiba laptop for $1600 on Sunday from your store in Frye Road in Chandler, AZ. Two days later I had three technical issues that affected my ability to use the laptop.
1) Wouldn’t start up from off or hibernate with a USB device plugged into one rear port
2) Some keys wouldn’t register on the screen when I typed (known issue by the way based on other user opinions on web forums)
3) Audio output to external speakers would crackle unless the jack was seated just right"

Simple solutions:

1) Common feature to boot your laptop from a keydrive, you can change this function in your bios. You either didn't have a bootable key drive in the port OR you did not have it formatted properly. If it was another device, your computer will still try and boot from it until you've changed your bios settings. Nature of the beast, not a malfunction.

2) Research any electronics device before you purchase. (easy as pie) You wouldn't hand someone 1400 to slap you in the face, so why would you throw the money at someone to give you a box with a product that you don't know much about?

3) It's your speakers. Test another set of speakers, testing both active and passive sets. If the problem doesn't go away, then sure, faulty port, but more than likely, it's the speakers... clipping issue is common in defective or underpowered speakers.

Uhm.. I think everyone's problem is this: If you buy something, and it's defective, return it in the alotted time. Common sense. As for the 'Fridge complaint... don't be stupid. Best Buy didn't design the product. If you didn't like it, you should have returned it when you realized you didn't like it. Seriously... What do you expect the STORE to do? It's not THEIR product... and after it's been used, do you seriously think they're going to try and resell it to someone else? I mean come on, you already said it was broken, so why would they waste their time? You're the one who decided to keep it, maybe you should have used some sense. Don't blame your own poor consumer judgement on the store. It's not their fault you have no common sense.

I agree with MyNameIsIshmael. Common sense people.

Sorry, but I've had very good experiences with Best Buy. I've done my homework so I knew exactly what I wanted and what the prices are. Because of this I was able to get the product I wanted at a fair price. Depending on my knowledge of the product I may of may not get an extended warranty. If I have problem after the normal warranty is out, it's my problem, not theirs because I made the decision.

Of course, now I will be accused of working for them. Nope, just a satisfied customer.