best buy can eat my shorts (1 Viewer)

[george kaplan]

I bought everything I wanted this week on Tuesday except for The Simpsons Season 2. The set is $32.99 at Costco and $34.99 at Best Buy, and with the 10% off coupon it'd only be $31.49 at Best Buy. So I waited until today to go buy it at Best Buy.

Now, I have used these coupons in the past to purchase new releases at Best Buy that have been in their Sunday circular with no problems whatsoever. Today, however, the bitch
at the checkout counter tells me I can't use it with the Simpsons cause it's on sale.

Now, she may be correct, but all that Best Buy has done by doing this is lost a sale. Also the checkout girl was very, very rude about the whole thing. So I told her to Have a nice day, you fucking bitch
, went to the manager to complain about her attitude, and drove to Costco and bought it there.

 

[Patrick_S]

Unfortunately with your choice of words you lost all credibility with the manager. Once the employee relays your choice of words you’ll be dismissed as just another rude customer.

 

[David Lambert]

Unfortunately, Patrick is utterly correct. They were in the wrong, and you were trying to communicate your upsetness with your choice of words. But your complaint will be blown off when she tells him what you said.

Your best bet at this point is to go to BB.com find the thingie to e-mail to customer service, and describe what happened in non-vulgar terms. Explain that you were understandably upset, and used some harsh language as a result, but that this reflection of your upsetness doesn't change the fact that they made a mistake.

Point out that the mistake was that they lost the sale to Costco because they followed policy on the "no-double-discount" thing. That it's really not enough to simply match a price at that point, because if you wanted the other price you would have gone to Costco in the first place.

Point out also that their price-match procedure is too damn hard on the customer to make it worth the while to go to a separate area (customer service), have them call to verify a price, and wait forever for folks to give you a freakin' 50¢ or so.

In fact, maybe I should write such a note...

 

[Brian Kleinke]

Best Buy has changed their policy, you used to be able to use the 10% off coupons on any DVDs, but now only if they're on sale.
This has bit me before, but O well. It's Best Buy or Walhmart for me, we don't have a CostCo or CC around here :frowning:
Brian

 

[george kaplan]

Well, let me expand a bit.

First she looks at the coupon and tells me she thinks it's not good with the Simpson's. Then she gets on the phone and tries to call someone to verify. She calls three people. Each time she looks at me while talking, explaining that I am trying to 'rip off' or 'cheat' Best Buy, don't they agree? Apparently no one she talked to knew for sure, cause after the third call she comes back (she was one register over using the phone), and says "Well, I'm sure you can't use this coupon for this. We're not stupid enough to give you 10% off when we've already got it on sale.".

This was followed by my reply. Although to tell you the truth, I said the 'nasty' part kind of under my breath and doubt if she even heard.

Frankly at this point I was just pissed. I told the manager that she had been rude with very little detail about what had happened. I didn't really expect him to do anything about it, and I just wanted to get over to Costco.

 

[David Lambert]

Definately worth a letter to corporate, given all of that.

 

[Andre F]

Don't you hate poor customer service....

 

[Andrea W]

George,

Which Best Buy was this at? I just went to the San Pedro one tonight and used my 10% customer appreciation coupon with a couple of DVDs that were on sale (LOTR and Dinotopia). I would have used it on Wrath of Khan, if they had had any left in stock. (Had to run to Costco to pick that one up, since I wasn't going to drive all the way to the Forum Best Buy to get it.)

 

[Nathan A]

i think this is funny...

you say he lost all credibility because of his choice of words. think about it- what are the chances that the manager would have acted on the complaint even if he had been polite? small chance indeed.

i had a serious complaint a while back- i bought an open box CD player for my car. i took the time to install it (took forever), then it didn't work. had to yank it out and take it back. open box items say- "best buy will honor the manufacturers warranty" or something of that nature, so i went to get it replaced. they wouldn't give me a new item; they wouldn't repair mine. a refund is all they would do. that doesn't sound like "honoring the manufacturers warranty" to me, so i asked for a manager. i AM NOT a loud or rude person, and i was polite with all of the employees. i explained my situation to the manager, and he offered no help whatsoever. i laughed a little (quietly) because i deemed their position ridiculous and then they threatened to kick me out of the store.

what? from my perspective- i'm coming in with a legitimate complaint; i'm acting polite and rational; i ask for a manager and then they THREATEN TO KICK ME OUT OF THE STORE IF I DIDN'T LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. i was completely shocked; i was not making a scene, i was not raising my voice, i was not doing anything to warrant such a threat.

i then called best buy's corporate office who were of zero assistance. i politely explained what happened; the rep called the store and then got back to me- she told me that the store told her that the store clerk i encountered would never have said that. case closed as far as best buy was concerned.

this is just my opinion, and i know it can vary wildly depending on the particular manager at one store, but i think there's little to no reason to be polite at my best buy. i say complain in whatever way gives you the most satisfaction.

 

[george kaplan]

Andrea,

I think that's it. (I don't get there from San Pedro, so I don't think of it that way, but it's on 410 across from North Star Mall.

It doesn't surprise me that you would be able to do what I couldn't. I don't know for certain what the Best Buy policy is, but I wouldn't expect consistency from cashiers on something like this. I could have probably gotten in another line and been able to do it, or go to another Best Buy, but like I said, I was pissed at that point.

 

[Mike Friedrich]

BB is one of the rudest & most insulting stores when it comes to returns, that's why whenever possible I try to use a competitor when price matching.
I believe they've gotten so big that they believe that they are the only ones to purchase newly released or sale priced Dvd's at, so their attitude at times is you don't like it, ohh well.
Contrary I believe it's good to flow business to the competition as much as possible to keep BB in their place.
bodymov' n

 

[Nick_Scott]

As for sending EMAILS to customer service?

I've gone that route a couple times, and they always send me a "we are sorry" form letter.

Anyway, the most irritating thing I find lately is whenever I try to use a coupon, or comp, I'm told that they are no longer allowed to do them at the registers- I must go to customer service, and wait in line for a 1/2 hour!

-nick

 

[Andrew Grall]

Definately worth a letter to corporate, given all of that.

Sorry... that one's funny...
I have had MAJOR problems with Best Buy in the past that make this sound like a pleasant experience... I wrote letters to the district manager and to the corporate offices. Never received a single reply...

 

[Sean Dayton]

Sorry... that one's funny...

So true. The Best Buy southwest district manager was the worst person I ever had the displeasure to deal with. Luckily I documented everything and sent a quick email to one of our local TV news consumer advocate section, and they did a short segmenton the local news over the issue. I ended up with a corporate apology and 1000$ store credit. Now when I purchase anything from BB, its only loss leader promotions. BB will never get another penny in profits from my purchases.

 

[Karl L]

After reading these posts I just had to chime in with my Best Buy experience. I was at the register, paying for some new releases, when I asked for a price match on two of the dvds (thanks David Lambert!). The price match would of been two dollars total amount. The cashier said that the dvds were already on sale for a great price, and I said yes but that they were still cheaper over at Circuit City. He then asked if I had the ad to prove this. I didn't have the ad, and have never had an ad when doing a price match of such minor significance. He said that the store had a strict policy of requiring the competitors ad for a price match. If I would like to see the rule in writing he could go get the "rule book". This would be fine and dandy if I had been asked for a competitors ad in the past. However, I shop at the store every Tuesday (like most of you I'm sure), have dropped who knows how many countless thousands of dollars there, and have not once been asked for the competitors ad. It was this discrepancy that led me to press the issue further.

There was a long line, and he asked if I wanted the discs at there "great" price or not. I refused to budge, and told him to please get someone who could help me out. Of course that was to much to ask for, and the situation just grew more uncomfortable. Finally the security guy (!) signed off on the two dollar savings price match. I then told the cashier that if he wanted to keep his line moving without incident that he should keep in mind that problems such as these were easily solved. He then asked if I was threatening his job (!), and if I was then he would have to ask me to leave the store. I told him instead of beating around the bush to just go ahead and tell me to leave, which he then preceded to do. After asking for his name, for the purpose of writing a letter to hq, I was told by security man that they don't give out employees last names, due to privacy issues. He said he was also the cashiers supervisor and that he would have a talk with him later. Man was I ever ticked, but of course never wrote the letter since I'm a lazy bastard, and know how futile it would of been. Ah well, thanks all for listening to my somewhat pointless sob story.

 

[nolesrule]

This reminds me of the previous coupon weekend to this one. There was an error on the cashier instructions of the 10% off up to 5 CD/DVD coupons where it said that the cashier was supposed to take 2% off each of the 5 units. The cashier said that would add up to 10%. I argued in a very calm voice that the instructions were wrong, because taking 2% off 5 items was still 2%, not 10%, and that I've used that coupon every time I get one in the mail.

Then, the cashier had the gall to tell me not to raise my voice at her. I was talking at a perfectly normal level, with my wife standing next to me (who is almost always with me when I use those 10% coupons). Then she ran off to speak to a manager. When she came back, she unhappily took the correct percentage of the discs without another word.

The good news is they got the instructions right on this weekend's coupon, so I didn't have a similar problem.


For another Best Buy strange occurance note, I went to their midnight LORT sale here Monday night and the DVD rang up $19.99 instead of the advertised $15.99. I wqas second in line at the cashier and caught it on the transaction in front of me. They had to manually adjust the price for every single sale...and there had to have been at least 150 sales that night.

 

[DanaA]

George should have registered a volcanic eruption for what that jerk of a clerk put him through. What ever happened to courtesy toward a customer? Is it now acceptable for them to treat us like crap and unacceptable for us to react in kind. There's a scene in Five Easy Pieces where Jack Nickolson goes ballistic on a wattress that's giving him a hard time over an order. I applaud Jack for doing so. I applaud George for reacting the way he did. I applaud all of you who stood up to Best Buys, although the one where I live is amazingly great. If I'm treated rudely, which is extremely rare, I register my dissatisfaction. Otherwise, there's nothing stopping them from doing the same thing over and over to other customers. Things like what Joe, Karl, Sean, Andrew, Nathan, etal. have gone through is just not acceptable.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Karl: You don't say how long ago the incident occurred, but you should still write the letter. It is never proper to be treated that way and things won't change if you don't take the time to point them out.
Think about how many others that guy will have a chance to try and intimidate. Or, maybe he'll run into you again!

but of course I never wrote the letter ......know how futile it would of been.

It's not futile, you'll be doing good.

 

[Andrew Grall]

Karl: You don't say how long ago the incident occurred, but you should still write the letter. It is never proper to be treated that way and things won't change if you don't take the time to point them out.

Unfortunately, it seems corporate doesn't give a rat's ass about complaint letters... They go unanswered and perhaps even go straight to the shredder...
Want to read about my old Best Buy experience?
Click here!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Unfortunately, it seems corporate doesn't give a rat's ass about complaint letters... They go unanswered and perhaps even go straight to the shredder...

I understand completely. That's why its always best to go to the top guy in any B&M...when the incident happens. If he/she doesn't want to make it right, take a walk. And, let them know they're losing a customer forever...and that you will let others know.
But I stand by the idea that you HAVE to make your feelings known, or else clerk rudeness will grow exponentially unchecked.