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03-17-2004, 01:12 PM
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#1 of 15 
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Local Time: 02:19 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 175
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My Terrible Best Buy Experience...
Here's an interesting little story for anyone who's bored. This is an e-mail I sent to BB a while ago:
I am very dissatisfied with a recent series of problems I encountered, all stemming from one purchase, at my local Best Buy store (store #156).
I went to Best Buy on the day after Thanksgiving for all the great sales. I got around $300 in merchandise, and waited in line for upwards of two hours. When I finally reached a cashier, I handed over $160 in Best Buy Bucks from the McDonald's Monopoly Best Chance game as part of my payment. The cashier told me that I was only allowed to use $16 in Best Buy Bucks per purchase.
I later found out that this was a blatant lie. However, it caused me to have to take back $136 in merchandise (the cashier allowed me to actually use $24 in BB Bucks). This was very inconvenient for me, as I had to wait two hours in line and ended up getting half of what I wanted.
Once outside of the store, I called the 1-888 number to ask about the validity of what the cashier told me. I was informed that, as it states in the official game rules, there is indeed no limit on how many Best Buy Bucks may be used. I then went back in the store and requested to talk to a manager. The manager insisted that McDonald's sent her an e-mail saying that Best Buy managers are allowed to set a limit on the amount of Best Buy Bucks that someone can use. She eventually let me use the remainder of my Best Buy Bucks for the products I had to put back, but I had to go back in line and wait another insane amount of time to finally finish my purchase.
This Best Buy store also had a special rebate offer -- a $20 gift card rebate for every $100 spent thay day, until noon. Both of my purchases (which should have just been one purchase) were over $100 and I got the $20 gift card rebate form for each one.
I sent out the forms for the rebates within a few days, and got my $20 gift card rebate for my second purchase. However, my other $20 gift card did not come soon after. So I called the rebate center and they told me it was sent out on January 26, 2004.
On February 9, I got a letter from Best Buy, assuming it was finally my other $20 gift card. Instead, it was a letter saying my purchase did not qualify for the $20 gift card rebate.
I again called the rebate center. After a very thorough and time-consuming call, they told me to fax over some information so they could investigate it further. I faxed over everything they needed that same day (February 9).
20 days later (February 29), I called the rebate center again to see if they had received the fax and what information they could tell me about it. I was informed that my purchase did indeed not qualify because the total before tax was $120.96 and there was $25 in other possible rebates from my purchase. However, they were unable to tell me what these rebates were.
I finally figured out that $20 of the $25 in rebates was a product I bought for a friend, and forgot about. However, it is very confusing because that specific product just rang up as the SKU number (instead of listing the item's name), so it was confusing me to figure out where that $25 figure came from.
However, looking at my original receipt, I noticed an error. This is the purchase that was handled by the cashier who told me I could only use $16 in Best Buy Bucks (but let me use $24). Instead of ringing up the Best Buy Bucks as a coupon (and thus, part of my payment), he price-adjusted one of my items by $24. I did a couple other purchases with Best Buy Bucks and no one else did it that way -- they all rang it up as a coupon. Ironically, this product was the source of the other $5 in rebates that made me "ineligible" for the other $20 gift card. However, as it states on the rebate form for that $5 rebate, if an item is price-adjusted, it is no longer eligible for that rebate (the $5 one). Thus, even as it stands there, my total did qualify (with an amount of $100.94).
In any event, my total on the rebate receipt should have read $144.94 (the $24 should not have been taken off of my actual purchase amount), making me eligible for the $20 gift card rebate, even after deducting $25 for other possible rebates.
I called up the rebate center once again and told them this. They said to go to the Best Buy store and get them to print up a new receipt, which would make me (FINALLY) eligible for this $20 gift card rebate. Thus, I went to my Best Buy (store #156) and spent about an hour with customer service.
The people working there had no idea what I was talking about, even though I had my original receipt and copies of my rebate receipts and rebate forms. Finally, someone called over a managaer and, after a while with him, I *finally* got my $20 gift card.
None of these problems would have happened if the cashier knew what he was doing when I handed him the $160 in Best Buy Bucks. Instead, I ended up spending hours and hours out of my time to fix the error he made. He was obviously told by the manager, though, that there was a $16 limit. This means that the management at this Best Buy violated the McDonald's Monopoly game rules, and it really impacted me.
I think this whole ordeal was terrible and would never have happened without the store's utter negligence for the official rules of the Monopoly game in regards to the Best Buy Bucks. I am a loyal Best Buy customer, and when something of this magnitude happens solely because of their negligence, it makes me reconsider whether or not I want to continue business with Best Buy.
I would appreciate if you would call up this Best Buy and let them know that they are not allowed to just twist the rules whenever there is a promotional event such as the Monopoly game. I also feel that I deserve something for the trouble I was put through, in addition to being subjected to a lack of compliance with the Monopoly game (be it Reward Zone points, another gift card, or whatever).
Thank you for looking over this complaint. I am looking forward to your reply.
**
In a happy ending, BB replied and sent me a $20 gift card for the trouble I went through. But sheesh...what a mess!
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03-17-2004, 01:30 PM
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#2 of 15
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Local Time: 02:19 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 43
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typical of best buy. Where I used to work they had a program where you could turn in work bucks for a gift card. I chose best buy. Well the cashier at BB never seen it before therefore it wasnt valid.
and I wont forget any of the gift cards I was supposed to get with the purchase of a TV and Computer equipment that I have never gotten even though I did numerous phone calls/emails to BB customer support.
I look at it as a life lesson. The lesson = DONT DO IT AGAIN!.
Glad everything worked out for you.
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03-17-2004, 01:38 PM
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#3 of 15
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Member
Join Date: May 1999
Local Time: 03:19 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 1,118
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Are you serious? Yours is not a happy ending, IMHO. I'm glad you got your gift card, but your time worth more than that.
This is what kills me about the WalMarts and Best Buys of the world. Training of their employees seems to be non-existent.
You are to be commended for your tenacity. Most would have given up and that is what BB is counting on. The reason the sales people called a manager over to help you is because you did not just walk away and say "Forget about it." They had probably never seen anyone like you before. You can almost see it in their eyes as they are thinking "He really wants us to solve this problem. Where is he from?"
The state of retail today is truly amazing.
Peace,
DM
"We all end up dead, the question is how and why."
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03-17-2004, 02:36 PM
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#4 of 15
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Local Time: 02:19 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 175
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Yes, I know what you mean. Once in a blue moon, there will be someone who knows what he's doing, but that is so rare. I try to be optimistic about things, which is why I said it was a happy ending (I guess it's more bittersweet).
Yeah, I am surprised at how much effort I went to to get that gift card, but I am glad that I did. I knew I deserved it, and it just made me unusually upset (I'm normally a shy, un-arguing person).
Actually, here's another story about Best Buy's ignorance that I encountered:
I recently bought a dishwasher, range, and refrigerator from BB. They came by to deliver them on March 1. It was disgusting how ignorant they were. It had been raining pretty hard right before they came, so there was mud everywhere. They made no effort to cover up our carpet or anything. In fact, they left their cart sitting on the clean, white carpet while they were talking about something. So I am left with piles of mud all over my living room.
That's not the worst part. They installed everything, and several hours after they left, my brother said he smelled gas. Long story short, they put the wrong thing to connect the range to the gas, and we had a gas leak! Ultimately, it could have killed all five of us (had we gone to sleep with the leak on -- it's winter so we had no windows opened).
Fortunately, we were able to fix it, but that's a pretty gross level of negligence on their part!! After several calls to Best Buy (most of which were "I'm filing a case report. Someone will contact you in three to four days" with no attempt to contact us again) I got a measely offer for BB to pay to have our carpets cleaned, and a refund on our delivery/installation charge (a whole $35 which we had a full mail-in rebate for anyway).
I know someone's going to say to sue them, but we have no proof of what they did, and I'm not sure if there's even anything we could sue them for...
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03-17-2004, 02:53 PM
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#5 of 15
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Member
Location: Rensselaer, NY
Join Date: Oct 2001
Local Time: 03:19 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 13,978
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[shakes head] sigh... [/shakes head]
There's Jessie the yodeling cowgirl. Bullseye, he's Woody's horse. Pete the old prospector. And, Woody, the man himself. Of course, it's time for Woody's RoundUp. He's the very best! He's the rootinest, tootinest cowboy in the wild, wild west!
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03-17-2004, 04:28 PM
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#6 of 15
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Member
Join Date: Feb 2002
Local Time: 03:19 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 9,651
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Ahhhh...fresh blood! 
Yep, Best Buy cashiers are just let loose on the populace without any training whatsoever. Very annoying and a huge reason why I seldom go to Best Buy anymore except for the most basic purchases. They can barely handle basic transactions...and God forbid you hand them a coupon!  
Quote:
| The state of retail today is truly amazing. |
Because retail is a minimum wage world. You get what you pay for.
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03-17-2004, 06:57 PM
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#8 of 15
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Member
Join Date: Jun 1999
Local Time: 07:19 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 302
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Time is money. For me sometimes rebates and gift cards are just not worth the hassles. However MarkDude's case is rather extreme.
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03-17-2004, 10:31 PM
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#9 of 15
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Member
Location: New York
Join Date: Jul 2003
Local Time: 03:19 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 1,615
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What a story! wow.
I don't wanna be the one to stick up for BB, but my local store has always been good to me. Never had any rebate problems or anything. From what I've read in a few areas, it seems like I have the only decent BB around!
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