Complaint Review: Best Buy

Basically, Im sure you want to know why I hate Best buy so much. Let me give you the run down.  Over the course of the last 5 years alone, I have spent nearly $100k in Best buy stores. I remained loyal to Best buy over the years because their PSPs were unmatched against any other company. You used to be able to take a product in for repair, and as long as you had a PSP on it, they would tell you to go grab one off the shelf and they would exchange it out (even years after, as long as the PSP was still valid on the product). So I have been loyal to them for that one sole reason.

Well, In May of 2009 I purchased a 32GB iPod touch. I cant remember what the specifics were on it, but the price came to $489.88.I recall that the iPod was about $375 so, it was a pretty big chunk of change for the PSP (but its well worth it, or was anyway). So 1 year and 11 months later, my battery is failing it hold a charge for about an hour, then needs to be recharged. So I take it into Best Buy in April of 2011.

Walking through the doors, I head over to the geek squad desk, and give them my receipt. The guy tries pulling it up and says we cant find this order in the system, why dont you go over to the customer service desk and see if they cant pull this up for you. So I did I sat at the customer service desk for OVER AN HOUR giving this girl any piece of info I could to help her pull up my order. Finally she finds it .. she writes down something on a piece of paper and tells me to take it back over to geek squad.

Back at the geek squad counter, I had the guy the piece of paper and he sits there like a complete dumb a*s and searches the system. Nothing. Well sir, we cant seem to find the order I tell the guy the other chick did, so its obviously in there, she gave me this to help you", pointing to the piece of paper he had in his hand he muddles around for about 30 minutes then finally tells me Ahh, I found it, the reason it wasnt easy to find is because this was an online order and Best buys in store purchases and online purchases arent combined, its a really stupid thing on Best buys part, but thats how it is okay, fine whatever, can I go nab another iPod?

BB: No, Best buy changed the policy. We now have to send your product into Apple for repair.
Me: To replace the battery?
BB: Yes, Best buy changed the policy on it, so thats what we have to do now.
Me: Fine, whatever, how long will this take?
BB: We have to ship it out, so a minimum of 5 days.
Me: To replace a battery, jesus.

So I reluctantly hand my iPod over to the Best buy employee. Now I want you to know, my iPod, aside from the battery, was in perfect condition, there wasnt a single scratch on it. It had been protected from day one with Invisia-Shield, and kept in a protective case to prevent any damage. I take extremely good care of all of my electronics. Anyway, so I gave them my iPod to replace only the battery. Well, I get an e-mail in my inbox telling me I can check the status of my geek squad repair at any time so I save the link and Im watching it. For about 10 days it sat there saying Awaiting shipment notes or something along those lines and for double verification I was also calling the store to see if it had come in, and I kept getting the same story, no updates so I e-mail Best buy corporate to complain.

Well, at this point, I just got a job, I had been looking for almost 2 years, and I finally get a job. But part of my job is that I need to have a communication device available to me so I can be available all the time my communication device was my IPOD. So, I told my boss that I was having it repaired to fix the battery, he told me that was fine, I was going through training anyway and I didnt need it while I was in training.

Anyway Derek tells me You did bring your iPod into the Aurora, CO Geek Squad on 4/22/2011.  Your iPod was processed through the rapid exchange program.  Based on the service notes, your refurbished iPod was delivered to the Aurora store on 4/25/2011. Now, when I talk to people, I always leave certain bits of information out to see how much crap they are feeding me this guy tells me that it was in the store as of 4/25/2011, .. but I know it wasnt.  Anyway, I get an e-mail from geek squad on May 3rd saying Your Geek Squad service is complete. (April 22nd to May 3rd 12 days, hes claiming 3 days). At least I know that Best buy was willing to lie to me, but also what is this rapid exchange program?

Anyway, I go pick up my iPod and its in a box that says Geek Squad Certified Repair, Only to be Opened by the Consumer. Im thinking to myself, what do you mean geek squad certified repair, this was supposed to be sent to Apple.

So I take the box home and I open it up. This iPod is obviously not my IPOD this one is scratched up and what is this in the lower right hand corner of the screen, there are PIXELS BLACKED OUT. The whole right hand corner of the screen was missing. And guess what, the battery was worse than the one I sent in. Mine lasted about an hour playing music ... this one only lasted about 45 minutes playing music before it needed to be re-charged so I exchanged my iPod that was in perfect condition aside from the battery for an IPOD that was damaged heavily, had a bad battery, and had a pixels missing from the screen. WOW!!!!!!

So now Im pissed. I e-mail Derek back and explain the situation to him he tells me to take it back into Best buy for them to re-submit it again. I tell him I am using it for work now, and I cant go without it for 5 to 12 days for them to repair it again (that, and I was initially told it was being sent into Apple for repair, I found out it went to Geek Squad in Dallas, TX that and they exchanged it for a refurbished one so my trust in Best buy was already gone.) So I sit there with Derek and we go back and fourth about this he tells me hes going to contact the store to see if they can make an exception for my repair (for an exchange like they used to do) it took him 7 days to get me an answer, 7 days he waited until the day after my new 30 day warranty was up to tell me no, they denied it).

So now Im going back and forth with him more and this is the response I ended up getting from Derek.

This is a clause within the terms of your plan, "If we determine in our sole discretion that your product cannot be repaired or your product provides for replacement instead of repair, we will replace your product with a product of like kind and quality that is of comparable performance."  You were provided with a refurbished iPod of like kind and quality through the rapid exchange program.

Can you believe that? I paid for a warranty on this product I paid for an ADDITONAL warranty on this product and they tell me that crap? Now Im upset so I hop on the BBB complaint form and I start launching a complaint against Best buy. Meanwhile, I start commenting on the Best buy facebook page and letting people know about my recent experience. Shortly after I get an e-mail from Jason Schauer (jason092201@aol.com from Pensacola, FL, 33) telling me that Im full of s***, that Im a lair, and he knows Best buy wouldnt do something like that to me, that Im just making it all up. Mind you, this guy works at Best buy, this is a Best buy employee handling Best buy complains on his OWN FREE TIME. I know Id get fired if I ever did that on my own time.

So I comment on that, I tell the facebook community on Best buys page that Im being harassed by a Best buy employee. I get a nice lovely response from Elizabeth she says that I should e-mail her the details to facebook@bestbuy.com. So I do now mind you, Ive already spent countless hours trying to get Best buy to resolve this situation. COUNTLESS hours, at this point, we are 2 months in and Best buy is still okay with me sitting here with a defective iPod that came to me as Geek Squad Certified (meaning they verified this prior to sending it out to me). So I only tell Elizabeth about the harassment I endured from the Best buy employee. She asks for the conversation logs and I happily send them
over to her.

Meanwhile, Im still arguing with Best buy over the BBB too (now weve got two different things going on harassment and sending shitty products to the consumer that are defective). The guy on the BBB tells me the same crap that Derek told me, that I needed to resubmit it, but now my warranty is up and they arent going to do anything for me anymore. So I continue with my complaint and this guy Vincent tells me that hes going to send me a $275 gift card to cover my iPod replacement.

Well, low and behold, they finally offer to replace the IPOD it only took 2 months, countless hours, and harassment from Best buy employees. But at this point, replacement of the iPod is no longer enough. If I hadnt of gone through all the work I did, I would still be sitting here without that opportunity, now they need to make up for my time, my effort, and all the leg work I had to do to get them to this point.

So I take my iPod to Apple, I want to see what they can do for me. I found out while I was sitting there and that my iPod isnt actually an Apple IPod at all. He shows me the back of it, there is no Apple logo, ... how did I miss that. He tells me that Best buy duped me with a fake iPod, and Im not able to get most of the Apple services that I would be able to get if I had real Apple iPod. And old Best buy employee, that now works at Apple as a genius comes up to me and tells me yes, best buy has a habit of doing this, its one of the primary reasons I no longer work there they probably told you that they were submitting this to Apple for repair, right? Well, they dont, they send it to a Geek Squad facility where they construct another iPod and send it out as an Apple iPod. Now if it was a true Apple iPod, they would have had to register it with us and have us approve it, and we never would have approved something like this, which is why we cant pull it up in our systems. I tell what were going to do for you today were going to take this iPod from you and give you a brand new one, free of charge.

Me: What? Really? Apple: yes, just give me a second to get things started, I will need your original Apple serial # from the one you sent into Best buy, do you have that?

I immediately e-mailed Derek to try to get it from him but it was taking too long for a response.

Apple: We are going to go ahead and do it for you today, because we know that your situation with Best buy really happened, as some of us here have worked there, we know how they operate. Heres your new 32 gig iPod touch. And we also went ahead and gave you a warranty with it as well in case you have any issues with it. Have a good day sir!

Really? A brand new one and I didnt even buy it from here. Apple did in about 20 minutes what it took Best buy 2 months + a lot of my time, + a lot of my effort, + my gas, + my patients, + the harassment I had to endure. Wow! I guess one company wants my business and one company doesnt I guess thats why Apple is rated as one of the most valuable companies in the world because when it comes to customer satisfaction, they step up and truly take care of you and thats probably why Best buys profits are tanking, its probably why their stock is down, and probably why you hear people like me bitching up a storm because Best buy screws its customers.

So, I have continued my efforts with Best buy in an effort for them to make up for my time and everything else Ive had to endure but this, is the response I get from best buy:

I understand you remain dissatisfied with our response; however, we have provided you with our final position in this matter. 

Thank you,
~Elizabeth
Community Supervisor
Best buy Corproate

Yes, Corporate is spelled wrong in her signature.
 
Now what I find funny .. if I had a Best buy credit card, and I went out and spent an ungodly amount of money, then just let it sit there and collect interest I couldnt get away with just paying the initial balance, I would have to pay the interest too. Best buy is one of the only companies who thinks they can get away with(((REDACTED FOUL LANGUAGE))) someone over, then only fixing the initial problem and doing nothing to account for time.

Basically, what they are saying to me is your time and effort is worth nothing to us. Basically they are saying Im worthless to them a customer who in the last 5 years has spent nearly $100k in their stores, and remained 100% loyal to them until they screwed me.

Again I am sorry for any frustration or inconvenience you may have experienced, and I hope you will allow us the chance to better meet your expectations in the future.

How Im never shopping there again. If I had of just sat there and done nothing, Id be sitting here with a broken piece of s*** iPod that Best buy called a Certified Replacement is that fair to me? I think not.