WARNING!: Best Buy Reward Zone Purchases (1 Viewer)

[Albert C]

I just found out the hard way how Best Buy manipulates customer purchases using Reward Zone certs.

I purchased at one time a $20.00 software item and a $10.00 CD ($30 Total). I used $10.00 in reward zone credits and $20.00 of my own funds.

I went back to return the $10.00 CD, unopened. I was willing to accept a "store credit" gift card as the refund. However they would only give me a $6.66 store credit. They said the other $3.33 would be credited to future reward zone points!

I don't mean to get nit picky over $3.33, but does this sound right ot fair? Apparently a purchase using reward zone cards will proportionately spread the rewards to all items purchased. Oh, I raised all heck to no avail, unfortunately the store was almost empty. The manager was robotic. Why the $3.33 couldn't be applied to the store credit card sounds nuts.

This sounds like customer maniplution. I may never see that $3.33 again. These are $$$ points I had already earned....I thought.

I really liked shopping at Best Buy until this point. I spend 1000s there a year.

Results: I cut up my rewards zone card and will mail the remains to them when they send a renewal notice. I will purchase and price match at Circuit City any of their items or sales (not that they really have had many good sales lately, except for some DVD combos). I will have Best Buy price match a good competitors deal...maybe. I will only use Best Buy as a normal purchase of last resort. Oh, I almost forgot, I also won't be giving any Best Buy gift cards as gifts for now on.

All this over $3.33! Woo Hoo!

 

[TonyD]

best buy always has done this.

anytime you use a coupon of any type the am't of the cuopon is evenly spread out amoung the items you buy.

thats why i don't use coupons there anymore because it becomes a hassle trying to figure out what i should get back when i have to do a return.

if i do use a coupon it will be on one item at a time so all the % will come from 1 item.

 

[Malcolm R]

Welcome to the club, Albert. :frowning:

I also used to spend hundreds of $$$ a month at Best Buy. But due to their very open and obvious contempt for their best customers, I now do my shopping at Circuit City and online as well.

The only thing that will get me back in Best Buy is to use the RZ certs I'd earned before they told me to get fucked. And even then I guess I'll have to use them by purchasing a single item at a time in order to avoid getting shit on again.

 

[nolesrule]

I don't see why this is such a problem. You shouldn't expect to get cash back for the part of your purchase paid with a coupon of any type. The fact that your RewardZone account will get credited with the $3.33 means you aren't losing the value you received from having the RewardZone card.

Best Buy is using a proper accounting procedure to determine how the certificates get applied to your purchase by spreading it across each item proportionally to the value of the items. It's the perfect balance for cases like yours where a refund is involved.

If they applied the RewardZone certificate to the purchase in general, you would get no money back because your refund amount would be equal to the amount you paid with the certificates. If they apply it to the most expensive item, then you would get a full cash refund on the second item, basically allowing you to turn your certificates into cash by purchasing multiple items, using the certificates and then getting cash refunds.

Best Buy's policy is the correct balance for themselves and the customer.

 

[Malcolm R]

My understanding is that the $3.33 is actual cash discount from certificates he'd already earned. It sounds like they are not willing to let him take a $3.33 discount on another item, but instead are crediting it as points to his RZ account toward future certificates as if he'd made a $3.33 purchase (333 points). He's basically losing the majority of one of the $5 certificates he's already earned and is only getting a measly few points credit towards a new one.

To make it right, and to keep it within the confines of the RZ program, his next discount certificate should be for $8.33, instead of $5.

 

[Jimmy M]

I agree with Joe. This policy seems perfectly acceptable. I'm also glad I'm not one of your friends. I'd hate to not get a gift card to a place that I love shopping at because you don't agree with one of their policies.

(BTW, don't take the "glad I'm not one of your friends" personally. That is for example purposes only. )

Jimmy!

 

[nolesrule]

Well, if he only gets a credit of 333 points, then it's a problem. But if he gets a credit of 8325 points, then I don't see a problem.

 

[Albert C]

I can see everybody's point. I guess my point is the store should be set up to issue me a Reward Zone credit since I already earned it. I wouldn't mind being given 2 cards as a refund, one "store credit" and another "rewards zone credit" since that's what I may end up with in the end.

If I never reach a $5.00 RZ credit again, I'll never see my $3.33.....right?

Another concern I have is privacy. I have resisted even using my RZ card. Many times I haven't. They have a data base of everything I buy with the card. I don't want them to know I am/was a Best Buy junkie. Then again, I feel I am getting cheated if I don't use it. End result....I'll go elsewhere since I don't want to play their game. It's not my loss.

I'll send Jimmy a CC card....goooo Indy!

Albert

 

[Dane Marvin]

One point I agree with here is that Best Buy SHOULD be set up to issue immediate Reward Zone certificates. And that should go for anytime you earn a certificate. This waiting for weeks and delivery by snail mail is something from out of the dark ages. A store that's all about technology and such should use modern technology to its advantage. I'll bet that, not only would automatically-issued certificates in-store be more customer-friendly, it'd probably realistically cost Best Buy less in the long run.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

While I agree it seems the RZ program has obvious flaws, I still believe it's almost found money.

I have not shopped at BB any more or less than I did before I got RZ, but now I'm getting $5 for every $125 I spend. I would have very likely spent this same money at BB anyway, so even with its flaws I find it hard to knock this program. I essentially walked out of BB last month with a free Alien Quadrilogy and DS9 season 7 because of money I would have spent there anyway on previous purchases. I hope they continue the program indefinitely.

 

[Dick White]

Seems to me that this has the effect of a second long delay in receiving your "reward" for past purchases (and a small risk of losing it by not reaching the next milestone). It doesn't anger me to the point of dropping out because RZ is still a good deal for those of us who shop there regularly. And I don't return things often so it will seldom apply to me (my wife is a different story). But it does remove a little of the glitter of the program in my eyes and makes some large purchases I am considering a little less attractive. I was already concerned about having a big pile of certificates that I may not want to spend before they expire.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Best Buy knows exactly what you buy, unless you pay cash, even if you don't have a RZ card. I had bought discs using checks before RZ started, and when I made a return without a receipt was surprised to find that they were able to pull up my entire purchasing history from them. So don't think you're somehow staying out of their computers by avoiding RZ, unless you only pay cash, which they can't trace...yet.

But the terms and conditions of the program plainly state that there's no cash refund, so taking the disc back and expecting to get money for the certificate just isn't playing by the rules.

 

[Albert C]

I've made a lot of cash purchases at Best Buy. I go out of my way to get the cash to make refunding easier. You know if you use a check, they mail you a check if you do a return within 10? business days. Even if they KNOW you spend $50,000 a year there, they don't care.

I suggest any reward zone purchases be done for one item and as close to the reward zone value as possible. If you buy three $50 items for $150 and pay $120 in cash using $30 in RZ certs, you're only going to get $40 in cash back if you return any one of the $50 items....just buy one $50 item with the $30 RZ certs and do the other two $50 items on a separate transaction. Also, use the RZs on something you are not likely to return for a refund...or an item not low in stock because if you make a return and the item is not in stock for exchange, you get screwed again!

I won't play Best Buy's game anymore. It's like selling your soul to get a few shifty coupons. Heck, I still have their December "Three-Day Sale 10% Off" mailer here unopened. They don't excite me anymore either since their so restrictive. I've found much better tech deals through Staples, Office Max, Office Depot and Dell...to name a few...and I feel much more appreciated.

Albert

 

[nolesrule]

I've never had a problem with Best Buy's "games", except one time when I used a coupon that didn't exclude game systems to buy a game system, and the only reason that caused a problem is because 99.9% of the time, a coupon will exclude game systems.

 

[JustinCleveland]

This makes perfect sense... because you could use 150 dollars in RZ certificates to buy an item, return it for cash, and that would negate the point of the system, to encourage business loyalty... etc. It makes good sense to mee.

 

[Albert C]

Hi Justin,



So if you buy a $250 TV and a $250 stereo receiver, spend $350 in your own cash and $150 in RZ certs, find out the receiver doesn't work, take it back, none are available for exchange so they give you a $175 refund on the $250 receiver (even though they have $350 of your cash)....you wouldn't feel in least bit dissed walking out the door?

 

[TonyD]

albert thats why it was suggested by me in the post exactly under your first post and someone else in this thread that you should use all the rz certs on one item as a seperate transaction then buy the other item again as a seperate transaction.

 

[JustinCleveland]

A bit, perhaps. But I also realize that there are a lot of people who could, perhaps, take advantage of the program so they need to close that loophole. In retrospect, since they are not stealing your money (i.e. they are going to send it back to you in RZ Certificates) it is much the same as seding you a refund for a check purchase through a check. It might take a bit longer, but the concept is the same.

I guess I'm just not as outraged as you are. Sorry!

 

[Albert C]

 

[jimbo w]

Albert, funny stuff !