Best Buy really pisses me off. The managerial staff are complete asses. I wandered in to exchange a dvd set that my son had received as a gift. (Back to the Future Trilogy... Someone has to show our kids that there are GOOD movies out there, unlike the one they keep quoting: Napoleon Dynamite.) The second dvd in the set was defective; it locked up throughout the second half and was unwatchable. I told customer service that my the item was defective and she trotted off to the manager. He said that without a receipt from within the last 30 days they wouldn't replace it. He actually whispered to her at the other end of the counter! I told her that was ridiculous. The product is defective and they should replace it for me and return the defective one to the company. There were no visible imperfections or scratches, it was obvious that I hadn't damaged it. I told them they could check it on one of the dvd players in store. They declined. I told them that Media Play and other stores had no issues with that. I didn't want cash, just a working dvd. The manager didn't even talk to me directly. Completely ignored me. Well, actually he watched me from the corner of his eye from his post at a computer. Apparently my Woman on the Verge attitude was showing. I made sure that when I pronounced their policy "idiotic" I looked directly at the weasel.
I came home and called Best Buy headquarters and gave them a piece of my mind. Basically I said that their policy was idiotic and the staff at that store was unprofessional, incompetent and not even remotely helpful. I kept talking until she realized that I wasn't going away easily. She agreed to make an "exception just this once". Like I'm going to feel special? Like I'm going to recant my tirade and recommend to everyone who reads my blog rush off to the best store on earth? Give me a break, honey. They were wrong and you are covering their asses. At least they took down the store info so that Weasel Manager's behavior is on file. I really hope that "this call [was] monitored for quality purposes". Anyway, now Best Buy is sending me a gift card for $24.99 so we can buy the set again. It won't come for 6-8 weeks, if it actually arrives at all.
When Miss Best Buy asked if there was anything else she could do for me, I could swear I heard her cringe. Good. That's the message. Don't mess with a Woman on the Verge.
L
7 Comments:
I swear--it doesn't rain but it pours!
1st that surgery mess -- and now this!
when companies get so big they can do this sort of
thing to their customers, it's time to go back to the mom-n-pop shops where people know that their businesses depend on their customers coming back.
What a pain. Over here most shops won't exchange anything even if it's still under guarantee unless you keep the original packing...this means a houseful of boxes and packaging have to be kept just in case the item breaks down!!!
Re your comment on my blog; ginger seems fairly easy to grow; I cut mine into some chunks making sure each bit had what looked like a tip on it; popped it in a plastic bag of damp compost, put it in my boiler cupboard (the only constantly warm place here at the moment) and just kept checking it every few days. I'll leave mine a few days longer then pot it into a pot and stick it on my windowsill; and fingers crossed it will grow.
Sic'em, Women!!
Note to self: Don't piss off that Women woman!!
OH thank SHIVA. I thought it was me. My kids an I have a name for "that store": Best Worst Buy. What a waste of commercial real estate. We also quote Napoleon Dynamite ad nauseum. There may be a link. Shopping in Best Buy is kind of a ND experience, isn't it? Like being the only character in the movie who can see how bad it really, really is.
And it is really, really bad.
Your blog is a wonderful find. Are you kids talking to my kids?
Oh i love the Back to the Future trilogy! It was well worth the fight to get a working disc, so hopefully you get it.
I think they forget that you are doing them the favour by shopping in their stores!
Claire
Well thank goodness, I was beginning to think that I was the only person who seemed to notice that customer service has gone right down the proverbial tubes these days. It doesn't seem to matter WHAT store you go to - the sales associates are rude, the managers have no managerial skills, and they care nothing about making the customer happy because there's another one standing right behind you whose money they can suck up.
At least they offered you some sort of satisfaction from corporate headquarters though they should have given you something more for the trouble that you had to go through.
I think you'd best say bye to that store!
Okay...I had written a whole thing on how I want to get a website together called "Corporateamericasucks.com"
when Google wouldn't accept my blog password, so I have to start all over...It's just a computer, so I'm trying not to let my frustration pour over too much into a program, but I thought that was kind of humorous yet aggravating.
Places like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc., all have a really huge tendency to get on my nerves all for the same reason. Everything is micromanaged to the point of being dysfunctional, and nobody cares that the customers are getting upset because it's all about who has the money to keep them in business. They have all had their souls sucked out of them, so now they're having to harvest the souls of those who frequent their premises.
Wal-Mart really gets me...It seems like every time I go in there (which is as seldom as I can; I have since decided to boycott it altogether), I feel like I need a xanex when I come out. I have a service dog with me when I'm out and about, and one of the last times I was in Wal-Mart, my dog was with me. I actually had someone come up to me and tell me I couldn't have my dog in there. I politely handed him a card from my dog's service vest (he is always in full service regalia when he's out with me)that explains what a service animal is and what my rights are under the Americans with Disabilities Act. This person still got his manager, who I swear looked like he was 12, who actually ended up getting another manager from another department to verify that yes, I could have my dog in there and that any kind of harrassment would be grounds for a lawsuit. They should just be happy that I'm too tired and too busy taking care of things that actually matter to be a sue-happy person.
As for your experience in Best Buy, I wish I could say that you were the only person who has had that kind of experience so we could chalk it up to a managerial anomale. But the fact is, however, when you have an entire store dedicated to electronics, it will be run by people whose souls have been replaced by electronic circuits. They don't know how to communicate with other people unless the voice is coming through a cell phone or unless words appear on the flat surface of an LCD screen. If dialogues can't be prompted by some kind of quest where you have to collect magic coins, then they're really at a loss as to what to do. And it infuriates me. I've decided that if I can't go to a locally run store, which I generally can't for electronic purposes, I would rather then become that virtual individual speaking through the proverbial flat LCD screen and order stuff off of Amazon. And what I've noticed as of late with Amazon is that they actually have guarantees for their products, so if something is defective, you send it back to them with the sales slip that was inside the package and a little letter explaining what has happened, and they will replace the product with another one, no questions asked. So if I'm not going to be treated like a human being by people who are actually breathing on me, I would rather at least be recognized for my ability to push buttons.
Vonage is still the worst in my opinion, however. I was all excited about the thought of saving money on my phone bill, but unlike most people who are chained into the world of technology, I don't set everything up the second I get it. Well, a few days after I got the Vonage stuff, I went to hook it up and found that a piece was defective. I called them up and all they could tell me was that my package arrived on such and such a day at such and such a time. They actually had the time recorded that it arrived at my house! All this time, I'm talking to someone in India...Let's keep that in mind. When I asked them if there was any record of me trying to set up the system any time before the date and time of my phone call to them, they started getting edgy and saying that I was being rude. Well, yeah, I'm being rude if you're implying that I have intentionally ruined your product and am trying to get something for nothing. Eventually, they transferred me to somone supposedly in Boston. For all I know, they handed it some guy who was still there in India who was really good at sounding American...But I don't want to be too cynical. I went through the whole thing with this guy, and ultimately he told me, and I quote, "Well, I don't want to call you a liar, but..." So I cut him off and said, "So you will call a customer a liar?! What the hell happened to the philosophy that the customer is always right? We're the reason you even have a damn pay check!" Looking back on it, I probably could have been nicer to him...But why? He called me a liar and meant it! Needless to say, I got the materials shipped back to them, and they actually ended up sending me a replacement set, but by that time, I had cancelled anything and everything I could with Vonage, which took an additional 45 minutes on the phone and actually me having to hand the phone to my boyfriend because he recognized the scripts from when he had worked at AOL. Finally when everything was cancelled and I could go on with my merry life, I still have to believe that all kinds of "convenience" and "money saving" corporate industries can all go screw themselves...Or at least figure out a way to re-grow their own souls so they don't have to harvest the souls of their customers!
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