Yet ANOTHER reason BestBuy will never get a dime out of me.

Take typo and replace it with "employee stupidity" since there's really no typo issue here.

Good to hear about the happy ending at the end. I was getting worked up thinking "I'll never enter that dang ol' store ever again!". I was there once to return something and 4, count them FOUR, employees were on 1, yes ONE, register listening to one of their colleagues argue with a customer. I had to stand and wait, with a long line behind me, for almost 10 minutes until one girl came out of the blue to run the register and apologized for the delay.

you should still complain to corporate about those two incompetent employees.

Who's the bigger doushe, the customer that shops at the crappy store or the guy who works there?

Yes, you should definitely complain to corporate. It's almost the end of the week and they need something entertaining to lighten their day. The implication that they might actually do something about the abysmal customer service usually experienced at their stores will keep them laughing well into next week.

1. You used to work there.
2. You spend a half-day in line, then you finally complained to the one guy still speaking to you from the days you used to work there, and he fixed it.

Sorry, I'm not buying it.

Something about this seems a little odd to me. If the guy used to work there, why didn't he immediately demand to speak to the GM when he was refused by the first "manager"? It seems like he just happened to bump into him on his way out, which makes little sense. Further, as a past employee, he should know how the system works and should have known he'd have to escalate it to a manager. Either there is something we're not being told here, or the OP is just a bit dense.

Good for you Colin. I still suggest you contact Best Buy with your story. Those idiots should be fired.

Gosh. Sometimes it's so easy to beat up on the companies. I must admit, then, to help balance things that I really like Home Depot. They return things no matter what. I love them. I'm going to marry them.

Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us 8,655,103 times, shame on us.

Remind me why Best Buy is dominating the market place again?

I decided never to shop there again after they sold me a phone that had already been recalled (as I found out when it became obvious it was defective) and then refused to return it because "I should have bought the extended warranty."

@popeye_doyle: I agree. There's something extremely odd about this story.

I'm confused. This is supposed to be a site for consumers, right? Then how come about half the comments I see here make me think the only people reading this blog is a bunch of corporate PR hacks? "Sorry, I'm not buying it"? WTF?

I'm usually a Wonkette commenter, but I came over here because it looked interesting. After reading the posts and the comments for a few days, though, I find a consistent pattern by some commenters of blaming the victim. The TGI Friday's item from yesterday comes immediately to mind.

I'm going back to Wonkette, where we at least greet rampant institutional stupidity with the fatalistic snark it deserves.

@Hawk07: I don't know. Maybe you could compare it against your own douchery and report back.

@ROADKILL:
I will believe absolutely any bad thing that anyone says about Best Buy. If someone were to say that each and every Best Buy acts as a semi-dormant portal to an alternate universe wherein their unknowing customers were methodically flayed to death by the razor-sharp tongues of their slow-witted, half-demon customer service reps, I would reply, "That seems entirely reasonable to me."

@El Ojo:
You would prefer it if we all just blindly went along with the stories and didn't question anything? If everyone agreed, the site wouldn't be interesting at all. Someone has to question things every now and then, some of us just do it more frequently than others. If we all took everything at face value, we'd all be suckers.

Really, was it that hard to try to type in a UPC/Serial Code?

Guess so..even Best Buy has its "pride" for whatever its worth.

Good eye and research on the customer.

I completely understand if a customer is trying to argue just because they "believe the customer is always right". But if they do the research and work behind it..hell give it to them!

Just because the guy worked at Best Buy before doesn't mean he knew exactly what it took to escalate the issue. Depends on what position he held.

This is why everything should be purchased with a credit that comes with its own warranty built in; then YOU don't have to deal with best buy, but your CC company will.

That's what you get for not bringing a notary public to Best Buy with you!

Best Buy seems like the George W. Bush of retail...

@causticitty:
That's BS. If he had any idea what was going on in the store, he would have known who to talk to. Plus, if he "knew" the GM, he should have asked to speak to him. Something is fishy here.

@Maude Buttons:

Don't shop there, won't ever work there, and I guess I offended you in some way. What gives them the right to insult a customer?

Oh Best Buy and your policies that encourage your "customers" to be treated as enemies.

Had the CSR and the first manager been REASONABLE COMMON SENSE people, they would have typed in the UPC and realized the mistake.

Good job Colin on the follow up.

I believe this story...I am employed by said Blue and Yellow monster. I have seen this and similar stories played out 1000 times.

Here's a question: what exactly in the story makes you skeptical? He's not trying to get anything out of Consumerist or its readers--he just wanted to share a story.

I wish they had not ever given you the replacement, until people like YOU stop BUYING from them, they will not change. You are not a Consumerist hero, you are merely part of the problem. The solution is voting with your dollars.

@SuffolkHouse:
No they don't. It's not in writing, but if you buy a book there, they won't take it back.

We had this issue when my wife thought she could tile the bathroom floor herself. One hour with their 'Tile 1-2-3' book taught her otherwise. Brought it back the next day, and had to argue with their clerk, and their idiot manager, that if the policy is not in writing, they HAD to take it back. Otherwise, I would just call NYC Consumer affairs, and have them deal with the violations and fines...

@Hawk07:

"Who's the bigger doushe, the customer that shops at the crappy store or the guy who works there?"

I think the previous comment to you would ask what gives you the right to insult a customer, either, as the comment you left implies that you think the guy is a "douche" just for shopping there.

@ErnieMcCracken: Why should we accept what someone says at face value just because they wrote to Consumerist? Their story could be biased, shades of the truth, with vaguely incriminating details left out. I didn't accuse the writer of any particular falsity - I'm just saying there seems to be something off with the story, something that doesn't seem to click with reality.

I'm generally skeptical of all the horror stories I read on these sites where there's no proof of any kind, just a story. There's obviously a second side of any story posted here that's never told (i.e. the customer service side). People are so quick to believe evil that we sometimes forget that there are human beings on the other end of these transactions. In anger we don't always write as truthfully as we'd like, as reasonably...

@El Ojo: Don't let the door hit you etc.

@Roadkill: Very true, but wouldn't you think it coincidental to a point of conspiracy that all of these Best Buy stories, from every corner of the country, all have common elements? Incompetent CSRs, lack of communication, lack of understanding of company policy, incompetent management, shafty extended warranty sales, shafty extended warranty repairs, shafty everything? Instead of picking apart every person's story, why not accept the fact that it's highly likely. Of course there are two sides to every story, but take into account that before this guy had any interaction with anyone, he heard management calling a customer a douchebag amongst other CSRs. There weren't any big red flags here for me, besides the fact that he didn't mention he worked there prior until the end of the letter. Whateves.

I see nothing wrong with this. There are a few bad apple in the store that should be taken care of, but the GM there is a stand up guy who really took care of you.

I agree that the OP could have tried to escalate this before he happened to run into the GM. But come on. Refusing to look up the faulty serial number, even when presented with a plausible reason as to what the problem could be? That's clear jerkery on the part of these particular BB employees. Sometimes in trying to find the cracks in the story, we end up giving the company a pass because we expect them to be a-holes. So if we expect them to be a-holes, then we basically allow them to be a-holes.

Also, calling people names because of where they choose to shop is just out of line. Another example of allowing the store to get away with anything because, well, stores will be stores!

I don't understand the whole point behind this - it's not like the CSRs were paying for the damn XBOX to exchange...

@Pylon83: While yes, even the low-level employees should have a very good understanding of how to turbo up the chain and it seems strange that he would bother telling the idiot employee that he will speak to corporate about this and it won't be pretty, it's still perfectly plausible.

Being put in situations like these will make anyone's brain snap.

And Best Buy's customer relations just gets better and better! I had been looking for the wireless network adapter for the X Box 360. There was no slot on the shelves near the X Box stuff, so I asked an employee. He glanced at it and said, "We must be out. Try next Thursday." I asked him why there wasn't even a slot for it, "Let me check the computer." The comptuer showed that they were in stock, and that there should be a bunch out somewhere. "It must be a computer error." For THREE WEEKS, I got this same run around from different employees! One day, I ran into a friend who worked there. I asked her, and she goes, "Well DUH! That's cuz they're by the cd's!" She grabbed one for me, then went to go yell at the morons in the gaming section. gggrrr...

Now, I always ask management for help. These people get no kind of training!

I'm not blaming people when they have problems, but Best Buy's reputation is pretty solidly bad. So, please, for the love of all that is Holy:
Stop giving money to companies that, as a matter of policy, will not do the right thing by the consumer.
If you deal with bad companies, it is sort of hard to complain that they did bad things.
You knew going in that they wouldn't be honorable if there was a problem. It won't be your fault when they screw you over 10 ways from Sunday, but you really can't say you weren't warned.

@entitynein:

ok, i know where I was coming from.

My comment was directed at the employees who joked about the guy being a douche. I had a rhetorical question for the employees though I can see how it was misread.

change "I was" to "you were".

I'm still about half awake right now. Down with all meetings for today that required energy :)

Can someone from best-buy please explain how it is ever acceptable to treat customers like dirt like this? Employees need to understand that policies are how to deal with the typical situation, and atypical situation may call for divergence from the policy, and they should be empowered to do the right thing to retain a customer.

Best-buy, stop hiring drones and training them to be drones.

This story STINKS!!! Not saying totally wrong. It just stinks.

With any big purchase, you need to verify you s/n before you leave the REGISTER! Especially with a troubled item like the XBOX.

If he knew it was the UPC instead of the s/n, why didn't he just go straight to the GM?

The poster wasn't too nice himself "I told her, c'mon, i went home and Googled it, just Google it i know it will come up." Then threatening with contacting corporate. Then after getting his replacement, throwing more insults to the other manager,"So I told him "Is insulting customers on that list? They scanned the wrong thing and tried to cover it up by refusing to look it up.""

Maybe from now on when the anti-theft rent-a-cops are checking my receipt I'll ask them to do their job properly and check all the serial numbers and make sure they match.

For those questioning why he didn't go straight to the GM, he may not even have known if that GM still worked there. Or having worked there in the past, he may have mistakenly assumed their escalation chain was actually worth a damn. If you're going to speculate, do it both ways.

@kylere: Way to blame the victim, asshole.

Personally I would have filed for a chargeback. You could then legitimately say you tried to take it back and they wouldn't accept their own defective goods.

Can you find the astroturf? 2 Consumerist achievement points if you can.

Bad customer service at Best Buy? Who would have thought?

@IphtashuFitz:

I decided that when I realized that they had expanded the decommoditization of cables to include ALL cables, not just gold-plated AV cables. I went looking for a SATA data cable and the cheapest they had was like 20 bucks. So I found one on ebay for like 3 bucks including shipping.

You should go to planetfeedback.com and report them, I would call best buy corporate and i wouldnt rest until those people were taken care of, I hate that best buy has sooo many problems and soo many returns that they treat all customers who are trying to return something as if they are trying to scam them

I for one Will never walk into a best buy store with the intent to purchase ever again, I have told and heard too many stories to deal with such a scandalous company.

Let me know when best buy releases their going out of business Sales list, Not really so i can shop there, So i can point at all the assholes that gave me greif when returning a laptop for being falsely advertised on their site, and Laugh at them.

To the OP, I would write to just about every Best buy exec in existence, full details, Include the ominous feeling of being accused of something when just stepping into their returns line,