Sunday, February 13, 2005

Don't Shop at Best Buy!

One thing I've been teaching my little boy is to avoid shopping at Best Buy at all cost. The store puts customer service at the bottom of its priority list. In fact, customer service agents at Best Buy are encouraged and incented to give customers a HARD TIME when returning their products. Please don't shop there. If you have to buy something from a store like Best Buy, go to Circuit City. Or better yet, go to Costco. Costco's return policy is top notch, and their prices are low everyday.

Before Sam was born, a digital camera that we had purchased at Best Buy a couple of years ago (along with a "Performance Service Plan") started behaving badly. I wanted to take a video clip of one of Sam's ultrasounds, but the camera reported "No Memory Stick". I took it in 4 weeks before Deanna's due date and requested them to exchange the camera for a new one since it was the second time I had brought the camera in for service, and I needed to have a camera for Sam's birth. They refused my request and took the camera, telling me it would take 2-3 weeks for the camera to be repaired. 3 weeks went by- no camera. I called the store, visited the store, and finally called Best Buy corporate for some help. Nothing. I eventually got ahold of someone responsive at Best Buy corporate who negotiated a loaner camera from the store that I took the camera to for service. The "Customer Service" manager gave me his word that I could buy an "open-box" camera for the period that I was in need of a camera and return it when my camera came back with NO RESTOCKING FEE. Never mind that the whole concept of a restocking fee is just another way for Best Buy to extract more money from customers. Long story short, when I went to bring the loaner camera back 3 weeks after receiving it they gave me the hardest time. It was absolutely ridiculous. I think every customer that comes to the return desk at Best Buy is seen as the enemy, so the agents are trained to put the screws to each and every one of them.

Please don't shop at Best Buy. I know they have good prices (sometimes) and good stuff. But there's almost always a better place to buy things.

-Bob
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