I’d recommend not clicking any other stories on the site — I spell like I’m 8 1/2 and there is a high likely hood it could kill you.

On an interesting side-note, I didn’t know until last year that it was “Congratulations” and not “CongraDulations” (with a “D”).

I’m totally going to start wearing a helmet when I type

Also, “likely hood” is one word, not two.

And it’s “delivery truck” not “deliver truck.”

“Your” and “you’re”…oh, nevermind. I was on a roll. Nice blog, just polish up the writing a bit and you’re golden.

But yes, Best Buy sucks. I miss BestBuySucks.com.

However, to show the mindset of BB, in my opinion, I’ll relate something tht happened to me a few years ago relating to a corporate transaction.

I wound up inheriting a computer setup when I moved into the office full time at my job. I knew they had bought at BB, unfortunately, but that was the boss’s call, not mine. A few months into the gig the monitor goes black. Okay, they bought an extended warranty, so off to BB I go. Their geeks took it and told me they’d work on it and I would hear something in several days. Naturally this promptedme to ask how I was supposed to run the business with no monitor. Now comes the good part. The geek in charge said I shouldn’t mention it was being used like that as it would void the warranty. A warranty, I should mention, that was sold to and made out to “ABC Company”. Yes, sold to and made out to the company itself.

Being a savvy consumer, and one who puts up with no bs I involved a manager immediately. Naturally, you get the attempted runaround, the “we’re not set up to provide replacements”, etc. I did manage to get another monitor, by paying for it – with the proviso that they would restock/refund if my monitor was repaired or allow me to keep it if mine was totally broken. Received the guarantee in writing because I’m no fool and it proceeded exactly like to the end of the process.

Still, I had to ask the manager how a warranty could be voided by commercial use if it was sold to a commercial entity. Not surprised when all he could do was kind of stammer and provide no answer at all.

I can assume the way you are by your comment, and your overblown generalizations, and YOUR initial presumption that you know something about the commenters here, as well as all the customers in the world. It’s almost amusing to read your pretzel logic working against you in your comment and your reply! You rant about how I don’t know YOU (which I never claimed to, I merely claimed to presume something about the way you THINK you know customers based upon your post), and in the same breath have the gall to claim, “but I however know the majorities of customers are all the same.” How ludicrous. That’s claiming that the majority of all people are the same.

I suggest YOU go “bark up another tree,” I’m making plenty of good sense while you are drilling your post with exclamation marks, accusations, and generalizations that make absolutely no sense.

I think your words and your reply to me speak for themselves and I’m pretty confident that I’ve held my dignity while you’ve frothed and fumed a bunch of nonsense. This thread was the result of LOADS of people who have had bad experiences at Best Buy. This isn’t about your vendeta against all those folks out there “ripping off companies” (there’s so much debate that could go on about that, how about companies that rip off customers?). You exist in a world of black and white and sweeping generalizations, when this thread was very specific to an experience with a SPECIFIC retailer.

You went on and on about how you don’t care what customers think or how much money they spend, and YOUR JOB DEPENDS ON THEM. Then in your reply you back pedal and claim to be good at your job–I doubt it. Believe me, anyone with a brain who runs a company had better care plenty. All of our jobs depend on other people, retail or not. And here’s another newsflash for you, we all deal with difficult people–some just handle it better than others.

As for your final rant, I’m very hopeful about society, and every day at the non-profit I work for I see beautiful, kind-hearted gestures from one person to another. It was odd to see your final lament about how people treat each other, when you should re-read your original post just a little more carefully and see how you treated each and every poster here–and how you suggest you view your customers. Quite frankly I make no claims to knowing anything about you except for what you ranted about here, and judging from that, I hope to God I never do. I also hope I never encounter you in retail … you must be a real joy.

Incidentally, I’m not coming back here so you can have whatever fun you want, but I won’t subject myself to your wrath again.

Has it ever occurred to you that those customers you claim are idiots and uneducated (which feels pretty ironic considering your post), have worked retail? Has it ever occurred to you that bright, intelligent, informed people make purchases? I loved working retail … I did it for many years, and I was good at it. Because I treated people with courtesy, realized that they had a choice on where they could spend their money and that my paycheck relied on that choice. I suggest that YOU grow up and take a good look around you, because it is a very different world you’ll be living in for the next few years.

Your post is very representative of why retail in this country is floundering so badly.

Their customer service is the worst I have ever dealt with. They will lie to you and don’t even try to ask for a supervisor, they told me that they would call me back within 24 to 48 hours 2 weeks later no call.

I got a gift card for Christmas and made the mistake of ordering an Ipod online. I got to the store and they said that they did not have the one I ordered in stock. They had another one in stock so I said I would purchase that one. The customer service(they don’t know what that means) person said that my gift card had been charged for the Ipod that they didn’t have and would not be credited for 24 hours. This customer service idiot said I could just pay for it and use my gift card later. I left the store pretty mad and started calling 1-800 best buy – don’t ever waste your time they are complete idiots. I went to a different store hoping a manager could straighten this out Best Buy has cornered the market on incompetent people. This manager couldn’t understand what the problem was.

I never got an answer to the question why did they charge my gift card for something they did not have.

I HATE BEST BUY!!!!!

For future pruchases, I’ll give my money to a retailer who cares if I’m satisfied or not. We still have options and consumer power people–exercise it! I’m glad to see people retelling their stories here and elsewhere, trust me, there’s a person at Best Buy whose sole job is to read and analzye these sort of posts. My story can be read here: http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/1486/best-buy-worst-customer-service.

But I’d like to go further than just tell my own story. I want to encourage any consumer to think about who they give their money to. Target and Wall-Mart are far better options for many items you can get at Best Buy, as are TigerDirect or even Circuit City. I have dealt with customer service at each of these places with a far better result. Target in particular has amazing customer service. Returns are a breeze, and staff seems to be friendly and relaxed. And it’s not because they are being paid better–maybe they are being trained better? Maybe their corporate ethic just acknowledges that at least at this time, Americans have options as to where they buy.

I’m disappointed to read the snotty comments from current and former Best Buy employees at other sites, who complaining about complaints, and assert that customers are “too stupid” to figure out automated systems, or want money back for items they break. While I’m sure that is occasionally the case, these as well as legitamate customers, create their jobs.

These days there is a business model for these huge warehouse stores that we should really think about. Read how the CEO of Best Buy targets 20% of his customers as “devils,” and tells employees to focus on customers who don’t buy marked down products, etc.: http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/03/01/the-unethical-but-mostly-legal-retail-shopping-tactics-of-devil-consumers.htm

For me, I’ll shop where my consumer power is respected, where I’m presumed to be an intelligent person who deserves to receive products and services that I paid for in the manner the store describes, and where I’m not considered disposable. I am fairly sure that the more consumers hear that they are likely to be tagged as “devil customers” by a mongo chain like Best Buy, the less likely they’ll be to support Best Buy’s succcuess (or lack thereof) by giving them their money!

I’ve honestly not heard a customer-support story that bad before. Sony previously took the cake when it came to lying to customers about replacements and repairs, but it sounds like Best Buy trumped that — corporate-wide with a “screw you” policy and partner CS company.

I’m really glad to hear that in the end you put up a fight and got a replacement, but I agree 100% with your assessment of the company. I stopped shopping there about 10 or 12 years ago when these policies started to trickle in. It was slow at first — extra hassle when you tried to return a router, or some reason why you couldn’t return a hard drive… and it’s just devolved into this bullshit.

I usually don’t purchase extended warranties, because in my area, there are authorized warranty repair centers for almost every manufacturer. In this case I bought the extended warranty because it included in-home repairs, and the size of the TV made it impractical to transport.

The first TV was delivered promptly, but the delivery crew dropped it down a hill, end over end, to my house. When they removed it from the box, and the screen had come out of the tracks and had fallen off. One of the delivery men downplayed the incident and tried to slide the screen back into the tracks and punching it with his fist to get it into the last few inches of track, leaving permanent white crease marks in the plastic screen. Needless to say, I told them I wasn’t going to pay over $1900 for a TV in this condition, and told them to take it back. I wrote down the serial number, to make sure they wouldn’t repackage the unit and re-deliver it back to me.

The second TV arrived without incident, but only a couple of weeks later, there was a “pop” from inside the TV and nothing worked. I called Best Buy and they promptly sent out a technician to examine the unit. I knew I was in trouble when the technician said “Uh oh”, when he was looking through the circuitry. He told me it was going to be a problem because on my model, the tuner, video, and audio circuits were integrated onto a single motherboard. Later versions of the same model had separate boards for each function, and he said he couldn’t be sure they’d even be able to obtain a first generation motherboard.

The song and dance begins.

I went to the Best Buy where I bought the TV, and they told me that, because I bought the extended warranty, the store has no responsibility and I would have to make all claims through corporate.

The claim process began smoothly enough. I was told by a woman in customer service that they would send a voucher for a brand-new TV, and that I should have it in about 3 days.

After waiting a week and not receiving my voucher, I called customer service again. I was told that there was no record of my case, and that I would have to do it over again. Again, I was told I would have a voucher in about 3 days. After another week, I still received no voucher.

Called customer service again, and again, they had no record of my case. Began the process again, and this time I got the representative’s service number so I could direct my queries directly to her. Never got my voucher. When I called her back, all she could tell me was “You’ll have it in about 3 days.” This went on for 3 long, aggravating months. This is NOT why you spend an additional $300 for an extended warranty.

During the 3-month runaround, I went between the store and corporate, but neither were willing to help. I was actually planning to picket the store and spoke to local police on how this could be done legally. As long as I stayed off their property, I was told it was ok.

I returned to the store to decide the best place to stage my protest. I went inside to try one last-ditch effort to either get my money back or get a new TV. I spoke to a salesperson and told him the whole story. I heard what I expected, that it’s not their problem, and that because I bought the extended warranty I’d have to go through corporate.

I’m usually a calm person, but this time I lost my temper. I again told the story, and made sure everyone in a 50′ range heard my disgust. At that point I didn’t care if they tried to have me arrested -I was just too disgusted with being lied to for so long. To my surprise, the salesperson told me to pick out a new TV, and it would be delivered to my home and the broken one would be picked up.

I worked out the cost with them and received a new TV in a few days, but it’ll never erase the anger and disgust Best Buy put me through. I never shopped at Best Buy since, have never bought another Panasonic product, and will never purchase another extended warranty from any store.

God I hope you get that thing returned or replaced… dropping $2k on a busted TV that you never got to use is insane.