Best Buy, Worst Experience
This goes in the category of ‘You really don’t care about your customers, do you?’ Recently, some chip went out on my iPod, and I was ‘forced’ to get a new one. I’ve never been a very patient person, so I decided that rather than order the iPod directly from the Apple store, I would just pick it up at a local retailer.
The only store to have one in stock, as far as I researched, was Best Buy. So, wanting to make sure they had one available, I went to their online store and purchased one using the ‘in-store pickup’ option. According to their website, I should wait about 45 minutes for the store to confirm the product was in stock.
Well, 2 hours later, still nothing. I called, and after being transfered to someone who seemed quite surprised I was asking them about an in-store pickup, I was told that my iPod was available, and would be ready when I arrived. Great. I head on over during my lunch hour, and go to the service desk. Being a prepared customer, I handed them my order number, photo id, and purchasing credit card. They guy behind the counter typed some things into the computer, and then picked up the phone, and told the relevant department to bring my iPod to the front counter.
Now, seeing that I placed the order for in-store pickup almost 3 hours ago, and everything was confirmed, shouldn’t my product be at the service counter already? But anyway… After another store employee brought the wrong iPod about halfway, and then turned around to get what I really ordered, my new toy was sitting on the counter. The guy at the service counter looked at the computer, and told me that ‘The order never really cleared from BestBuy.com, so I’m just going to ring you up again here, and then you can just cancel your online order when you get home.’
What?
That’s really your solution to this? I think this was the nice/lazy way of saying ‘Yeah, it seems like we messed up, so let’s double your credit card bill, and then make you fix the problem yourself.’ I didn’t have the time to argue, though I would have loved to, so I just gave in, bought the iPod AGAIN, and cancelled the online order when I got back to the office. If the iPod wasn’t in my hand begging me to open it, I would have loved to say ‘No Thank You’. Sometimes something you really want can screw with even your best judgement. Let’s just say that I’ll never let my desire to ‘have it now’ ever lead me to buying anything at ‘Best Buy’ ever again.
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Published November 12, 2005 by:
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Oh yeah. I ordered my iPod last Wednesday night from Apple’s online store because no local stores carry the iPod, plus I was suckered into getting the ‘free laser engraving’. The next day there was no progress (so it said). The day after that, however, it showed me that my iPod had indeed shipped…the day after the current date. Baffled by this I soon found the answer: my iPod had been shipped from Shanghai, China, where it was already ‘tomorrow’.
All of FedEx’s times in their tracking thing are interesting. Since my package is changing time-zones so much, it has often arrived at places before it left the previous place. It went from Shanghai to Anchorage, Alaska, and is now in Indianapolis. I live in Florida and so I still have a wait as it goes South.
In my invoice it tells me explicitly that Apple (or at least the portion of their store I ordered from) does not ship to non-U.S. addresses, so wouldn’t you think since their customers would be state-side that they would have a plant in the states?
Anyway, four days later and no iPod. I don’t know which of us came out of our orders the best.
November 12th, 2005
It’s probably a good thing you don’t plan to buy anything from them again, and that you didn’t argue, because if you had they’d have simply noted you in their database as a “devil” — yes, they really do this, using that term — and pretty much instruct their clerks to give you intentionaly inferior service and drive you out of the store. WSJ covered it; their archives are pay-only, but there’s a reference to the wsj article here:
http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/category/3/73/ (search the page for Best Buy)
They’re pretty much the textbook example of everything that sucks about big-box retail and modern marketing.
November 12th, 2005
Im laughing over here. You had to buy the iPod 2 times? Wow. That’s some bad service. And here in Finland, there isn’t any stores (well, there is one in Helsinki), that sell Apple’s products. But, the service is bad in Finland, too.
November 12th, 2005
Not good. But if that level of poor service causes you to boycott a store, you won’t have anywhere to shop in a couple of years…
It could have been worse – sent away until it cleared from bestbuy.com…
November 13th, 2005
Oh… And what about the iPod video? Can you suggest it?
Regards
November 13th, 2005
Rob: Wow. That is amazing. How do they get away with that? Especially if the event that got you tagged as a “devil” was completely their fault. You get punished for their incompetence? I guess it is justified that it is not their incompetence, but your own self-control and reaction to their incompetence.
November 13th, 2005
I had a similarly bad experience at CompUSA (surprise, surprise right). I checked the website and called to make sure that they had a particular tablet PC in stock. The website said that they had 4 in stock and the person I talked to on the phone said they had 4 in stock. When I arrived at the store, I didn’t see the product anywhere on the shelves. When I asked an employee about it, he said that they did indeed have four in stock, but three of those were the result of returns or exchanges and the other one was already reserved. I don’t know why they chose to count computers that had been returned in stock. It was a very frustrating experience.
November 13th, 2005
@Dan: Yeah the local CompUSA in Panama City here went out of business and had to close. I guess their service was so bad that all people stopped shopping there. CompUSA doesn’t seem to care about their customers; only selling their products at rediculous (at least at mine) prices to make money to make up for their lack of support by people.
November 13th, 2005
Tom: Yes, I can suggest it. Incredible.
November 13th, 2005
Bill, I think the result would be a move away from big electronics-chains and back to local stores who know their stuff. In my neighborhood there is only one independent store left. It is a bit more expensive (not always though), but always willing to make some extra effort to please customers.
I bought the original iPod there in 2001 and got a free cover and a personal demo from the store owner :)
November 14th, 2005
When I went to Best Buy to buy a Shuffle for my wife, I waited
- no joke -over 30 minutes for any employee to even say a word to me. I am an idiot, I know, but I’ll never make that mistake again. Sometimes Best Buy has the product I really want, though, so it’s tough to stay away.Did the clerk try to sell you a trial magazine subscription as you checked out? Their tactics are pathetic.
November 14th, 2005
Another possible alternative is that this was a classic example of faulty corporate incentives. If the person you were talking to receives commissions on sales made in the store, but not made online for in-store pickup….
November 14th, 2005
Be sure not to target an entire organization. Every company has its few bad employees that just don’t give a crap about you.
I went into best buy a few weeks back and had the experience of a lifetime (i think it was a grandopening). The customer to employee ration was like 10 to 1…all blue and black shirts as far as i could see. when i went to look at some keyboards, this woman picked it up for me and walked around the store holding it for me… then brought it to the register for me…whoa…now that’s service!
November 14th, 2005
Reminds me of an experience we had a few years ago when trying to purchase a computer at FutureShop (ironically now owned by BestBuy). After we picked out the computer we wanted and filled out the paperwork, they took our forms into the back room while they ran a credit check. More than an hour later with no where to sit and extremely impatient, we were told that our credit, though absent of bad marks, was not good enough to get a computer.
On another occasion, again at FutureShop, I walked in and asked the computer department where their batteries were kept for PocketPCs. The salesperson told us to try the cell phone department (yeah, that’s what I thought too), who in turn told us they have no idea. I arbitrarily decided to go the long way around the store to leave and happened to come across a large rack of an assortment of batteries right in the middle of the aisle. Apparently, the computer and phone sales persons never leave their side of the store.
I guess that’s what I get trying to purchase computers from a company that sells refrigerators.
November 14th, 2005
I have never learned my lesson when it comes to Best Buy. Every time I walk into one of their stores, I’m bombarded by sound: some idiot turning up every stereo in the stereo section; plasma TVs whose worth is demonstrated by salespeople who think the louder it is, the more likely you’ll want it (or the better for them to pretend they don’t hear your comments about the ridiculous prices); video game sound effects; in-store music; et cetera. I hate the place. And yet I keep going back, and every time I remember why I hate it. Why can’t I just remember to not go? I would save so much of my patience.
November 14th, 2005
FRY’s now there’s a nice playground to get lost in…
November 15th, 2005
Fry’s is my home away from home.
ps And with a receipt, they will allow returns on just about anything. I know I’ve returned 80% of everything I’ve ever purchased. gotta love it.
November 15th, 2005
I sympathize. I recently had a horrible experience at a department store myself. It’s always a bummer to not be treated with dignity and respect, even when you’re the one (collectively) keeping them in business.
November 15th, 2005
Hmm, I work at Best Buy, the new ones in Canada.
I am someone who usually criticize a lot, but I never saw a case where we had a problem with a customer and we just left him on his own. The employee you had was probably tired or just a very bad employee, I think it’s kind of childish to take such a radical decision not to ever buy anything from them ever, it could’ve depended on so many factors…
Regards, Jerome.
November 15th, 2005
Jerome: I’m trying not to judge an entire organization, but to me it’s like I went to Burger King and got food poisoning from a bad Whopper… I know it’s just that one sandwich, but I still don’t feel like eating there for a while.
November 15th, 2005
Steve .. I have to agree with you. Superior customer service is not one of BB’s strong suits. I recently spent 20 minutes at their store on 23rd & 6th Ave (NYC) being bounced from person to person because none of their staff as committed to moving more than 12” from the spot their were standing on to help me locate the product I was looking for. Most unfortunate.
BTW .. cool site. Your code samples and insight are much appreciated.
OJS
November 16th, 2005
Well my iPod Video came in today. Pretty nice. I would recommend it. The responsiveness in the Videos section is a little laggy, though.
November 16th, 2005
I place my order for the iPod video Tuesday at the Apple store. It STILL hasn’t shown up in my Order status. I called Apple and they blamed on credit card processing, so I hope it will come soon! I’m getting very impatient…
November 17th, 2005
I’ve had terrible service from Best Buy consistently for the past 2 years or so. I really like the new Circuit City guarantee—“Your purchase is available for pickup within 24 minutes after you receive an order confirmation email. If it isn’t ready, you get a $24 gift card.” That way, if they don’t have my order ready when I get to the store, I’ll at least be compensated for my time.
November 18th, 2005
I had a similar bad experience at a local BestBuy and because it was just over a keyboard (not as special as an iPod), I left the product on the counter and walked out. I’ve had too many good experiences at Circuit City and even CompUSA that there’s no reason to stand for BestBuy’s sorry customer service.
November 19th, 2005
In-Store pickup at Best Buy seems to be like those electric seatbelts that were featured in early 90’s cars. They were convenient in theory, but terrible in practice. Most importantly, it did the whole thing half-way, because once you close the door and the seatbelt moves in, you still had to manually pull the bottom part that goes across your waist and click it. Otherwise, it was just a worthless protection.
And beware with the cancelling the order part. I helped my father order a computer from Circuit City online for in-store pickup but later we decided to cancel the order. So when we went online and clicked cancelled, even though there was a button, the website responded with a “unable to cancel your order” or something that paraphrases to that. We had to use the phone (you know, that thing you used before the internet) to actually get it cancelled.
November 21st, 2005
Check out this site for similar stories (both employee and customer):
http://www.bestbuysux.org
November 21st, 2005
Steve, Mom and I have renamed that store “Best Buy – Worst Service.” ‘Nuff said. See ya’ Saturday, DV.
November 22nd, 2005
It seems to me like you’re complaining about nothing, really. It’s not a big deal, you didn’t get gipped or anything and everything turned out just fine. Just enjoy your new iPod!
November 24th, 2005
Unfortunately, from what I hear, Best Buy isn’t the best place to buy your more expensive peripherals (computers, networking equipment, appliances, iPods…). For my iPod, I just went to my local Apple Store. If there wasn’t an Apple Store however, I would’ve gone to Circuit City. Their support is great and their service center has so far been very quick, very good, and always helpful. I do go to Best Buy because sometimes it’s simply just more convenient from where I live but only for small things and only if I don’t have to get the warranty from it.
November 25th, 2005