Complaint Review: Best Buy

While I would never consider returning an item after using it for a specific purpose, I understand that many do. Your explanation was great and professional. Thank You

Restocking fees, while somewhat silly, were created for two reasons. The first reason was, as John mentioned, to help offset the cost of selling an item "Open Box." While some retail chains will send the product back to the manufacturer as a "Repack Item" Best Buy choses to sell it "Open Box." This makes the product more attractive to some customers wanting to save an extra few dollars thusly creating a sale where one may not have existed. The second reason restocking fees were created was to deter people who would buy a product and then return it after use. For example, an individual may buy a GPS for their car and return it within 14 days after using it on their vacation that only lasted 7 days.

While some people disagree with restocking fees, consumer awareness of retail policies is a key thing to remember. I worked at a retail chain that had a 30 day return policy on ink cartridges. A customer, who saved their receipt from 2 years ago, demanded to return the unopened, and expired, ink cartridge. On the back of the receipt it clearly states a return within 30 days is acceptable. The customer than said "well I never read that."

It's always a good idea to research the product before you make the purchase and always read the receipt for varying return policies.

Restock fees for no appearent reason are an absolute rip-off.

It's one thing to charge the fee if an item is returned without the box, or if it's missing something that was originally packaged with it- That's ok. It's another to charge a fee just to return the item.

I would bet Best Buy has agreements with thier product vendors for returns and defects, so it's not like they are losing a huge amount of money. If they don't then they are poor negotiators.

If it were such a huge loss, why don't ALL stores charge this fee??

This fee is only there to generate income.

My complaint was that the map was not adequate for my situation. I guess your suggesting that I put into the trial model all the addresses that I might use in the next several years to see if they are actually in there. I doubt if you or anyone else does that. I did much research prior to buying this and the unit was fine for about 60% of the maps I used, that's not a very good average. Since this is the first time I have ever attempted to return anything to Best Buy, I doubt my experience has caused any prices to go up! You might consider being a little kinder on any future rebuttals!

Because you oopened the box Best Buy can no longer sell the item as new. Why should they pay for the fact that you didn't do the research ahead of time? You caused the fact that they can no longer sell the item as new and they can't return the itrem to the manufacturer because there is nothing wrong with it. It is people like you who make prices go up and caused stores to charge these fees in the first place.

If you are going to make this kind of purchase you should do some research first. You could have found out about this map issue ahead of time. In a case like this if there is nothing wrong with the item they are more than justified to charge you for restocking and eating a part of what they will lose because they can not sell it as nes.

Yes it is true that you do not get the receipt until after you have paid for the item. However, there is no restocking charge for returning the product if it is not opened. So you could have read the receipt and then returned the item right there on the spot since you hadn't opened the product yet. Yes I know most people do not read the receipt, but it is very important that you do so in the future.