Best Buy

Reviews 3

RI

Richard Sizemore

Several months ago, I decided to purchase my first television. As I had never done such a thing, I thought I should go somewhere where they dealt with such a thing all day long. We pow-wowed over the things that I would need, and ultimately came down to a love 32" 1080p television, a roku3, and an insignia sound bar. Excited, and assured I had everything I needed to enjoy my new purchases, I poured myself into a cab and headed for home. T.V. set-up was a breeze, but my first snag came when I opened the Roku. If you think that for $90, all of the necessary parts would be there, youd be as surprised as I was. So, annoyed that I didnt actually have everything as I was told, I grabbed a book and called it a night. The next day, venturing after work back to Best Buy, I has sold the HDMI cable that I wasnt the day before. "At last, victory shall be mine!" I quietly thought to myself as I headed for the closet bust stop that would take me home. Back home, I set up the roku, get my amazon and netflix accounts set up, and proceed to enjoy a movie. "huh, thats not a lot of sound coming from the sound bar" is my very first thought. Naturally, there was no sound coming from it, though it was on and plugged in. Bummed with the thought that I had bought a bad bar, I used the bluetooth on my phone to see if it worked. Like a charm, I hear "this dude named Michael used to ride motorcycles" instantly thump out of the speakers. I surmise it must be the cord that is just no good, so I toss it and enjoy my movie with the T.V. speakers. Round 3, I check again with an associate that I shouldnt be experiencing this issue, and I buy a new cord to plug into the bar and T.V. Still no sound. Really? Suffering a severe case of Forest Whittaker eye over this entire situation, I again just watch a movie and snooze. Just last night, I finally decided to get the problem sorted once and for all. Or so I thought. 15 minutes waiting for an associate to be available to assist me, I describe my issue with the no sound, tell him which TV and sound bar I’ve bought, and he sells me a ‘Digital Optical Audio Cable’, though I expressed concern that it didn’t look like anything on my sound bar would be a plug. “its what you need.” So home I went, no longer confident that anything I’m being told is true, but still crossing my fingers that it would work. I’m sure you know by now that it did not. In my attempt to avoid being incompatible hardware, buying things I did not need, not buying things I did need, and generally dealing with a giant debacle in my first TV purchase, I was handed that very thing at the hands what I was to believe were people smart on the issue. In a time that I could have bought everything on Amazon, for less, and had only myself to blame, I paid more to get raked over the coals. I love Best Buy, the layout, the cleanliness, the assortment of selection. But for me, your customer service doth butter no parsnips. What I experienced is an example of a complete lack of proper training, knowledge, and on-going staff education that reflects extremely poorly of the management at this store. Save yourself and just buy it on Amazon.

A

A Private User

I recently visited a Best Buy store in the Mission district of San Francisco, and had one of the WORST customer experiences Ive had in quite some time. My initial hopes were to purchase a bundled home theater system, in the range of $500-600 dollars. I was somewhat familiar with the options I had available, but was looking for some information related to a Samsung model that I had heard good things about. Upon arriving at the store in the Mission District, I located a service agent to answer some of my initial questions related to the model I had researched. The agent had very little knowledge on the system (totally NOT his fault), and apologized for not offering up any additional help. I decided to speak with a Magnolia Home Theater rep, by the name of Anthony, with hopes that he could help answer a few of my questions. Anthony was incredibly rude, and spoke down to me in a manner that made me feel extremely incompetent. He proposed several different options, emphasizing one item that was on clearance in the Mission store room. He notified me that his store no longer carried this item, however, there were 3 units available in the South Bay in Milpitas, CA. The process that ensued, however, was something out of customer service purgatory. After providing me with the model, SKU, and phone number for the Milpitas store, he instructed me to contact them myself, to inquire about the model I was interested in. After a 30 minute game of phone tag, 20 mins wrestling with an automated voice system, and 30 mins on hold with the Milpitas store, I spoke with a very friendly service rep, that notified me that the model I was interested in was actually being recalled for manufaturing issues. (bless her heart. had she not made me aware of this, I probably would have purchsed this system at another local BBY store). It was actually wrong of the Mission Street agent to try and sell me this unit, and that I should relay this message to Anthony that he should remove it from the store room floor. When I approached Anthony to make him aware that the theater system was being recalled, and that he should remove it from the floor, he responded in saying "that is not my job sir", and walked away Again, I want to emphasize that I am not a person with ill intentions, but wanted the opportunity to voice my frustration on this issue. As a company that is supposedly modeled on "customer centricity", I would expect better of its recall policy (as it relates to internal communication), and most importantly, its service representatives. You dropped the ball on this one Anthony. I know BBY does a ton of business in home theater annually, but you just lost one customer to the competition.

VO

Vox Vulgus

I purchased a washer/dryer set from Best Buy store, after confirming they had the models in stock and would deliver within 2 days - I made it clear this was a dependency for the order (I had already researched two other purchase options, should Best Buy not be able to meet that need). On the first deliver attempt, it was discovered that a 220v outlet was needed. (this had not been in the pre-delivery checklist, and the old set used 110v). They would not do the delivery as is (leaving the equipment and letting me plug it in when the wiring was complete). I chalked this up to "stuff happens", and had the wiring corrected the next day. But the new delivery window was pushed for 5 days, and they had changed the model requested from electric to gas (which I only caught by accident). On the next date they never showed up. I called them and was informed they had come by, but my "street is too narrow for the delivery van and a smaller delivery truck would need to be scheduled". My street is almost twice as wide as a standard car lane, and they had been here before so they should have known if there was going to be an issue. I was blamed for not telling them about this special need. When I escalated the call, the supervisor refused to promise any date, and said Id have to call again tomorrow because my delivery was still in transit. The next day they offered a date of one week out. That date has not yet arrived, so theres still plenty of room for further problems and delays, and even if fulfilled, it will have been 3 weeks since my purchase and 3 full days of lost work for me. While they have been civil, they have not been professional: they attribute any issue as my fault and every reschedule goes to the bottom of their queue, rather than being treated as an escalation.