Complaint Review: Best Buy

I purchased a Maytag dishwasher and a Maytag gas stove from Best Buy in May 2002. Both items had Maytag as well as Best Buy rebates, which certainly factored into my decision to purchase (I made the mistake of assuming I'd get the rebate, so in my mind, the purchase price was lower). Best Buy printed out the rebate forms and printed extra receipts for submitting with each rebate. I cut out the UPC symbols, and promptly submitted all of my rebates.

As Best Buy won't even hear from you unless it's been 8 weeks, I called back in late August 2002 to check on the status of my rebate. I was informed it was rejected as a duplicate rebate (I would months later find out that the rebate form printed out by Best Buy was incorrect). I told them I had in fact purchased two appliances, and that while both were Maytag, they were not the same appliance. I was told to give it a couple weeks and call back while they researched it. As I am an extremely busy mother of two young children, and work from home, it is not so easy for me to call Best Buy to wait a half hour on the phone while my kids are screaming so I can get what was promised to me.

So, I called back in November 2002, and was told that the rebate period expired, and that I would receive no rebate. I argued that I was never told there was an expiration date-which happened to be two weeks after I called. As they told me not to call for a couple weeks, they should have told me there was a deadline we were running up against. Or God forbid they actually call me back.

Now, even though I submitted all of my information on time, they are telling me I was not on time, and are shutting me out. When I argued with the supervisor, she threatened to hang up on me (there was no name calling or swearing-I'm just not that crass-although I understand people who do curse when faced with these maggots).

As it was impossible to argue my case thinking I'd get hung up on at any time, I gave up. I called the corporate office to complain (and file a formal complaint against this supervisor), and while they offered me a $15 "customer satisfaction" gift card, I refused it. It is not fair that due to Best Buy's combined error and neglect, I get screwed.

Customer loyalty means nothing to Best Buy-I have purchased over $2000 worth of electronics in the past six months alone (and Christmas is coming-a big electronics holiday in my household). And after reading all I have on ripoff.com and about Household Finance (the bank that finances the Best Buy card and most likely runs the rebate center), I am horrified, and a little afraid, of this merchant.

Therefore, I am going to have to dig into savings and pay off my card, not something I wanted to do the month before Christmas, but I do not want to risk staying with this merchant/bank.

Unfortunately, the only people to read this will probably have suffered an injustice already, so I doubt this will actually help anyone avoid this merchant, but thanks to ripoff.com and badbusinessbureau.com for letting me vent.

Tracy
Chesapeake, Virginia