Best Buy Refuses To Honor 2 for $25 DVD Sale
Silly Jason. He thought a Best Buy sign reading "2 for $25" meant he could buy two DVDs for $25. He obviously didn't read the part of the sign that requires customers to buy Saw IV.
Oh, that's not part of the sign? Then why did the manager of the Best Buy in Beaumont, TX refuse to honor the in-store advertisement? Read Jason's story, after the jump.
To preface this story, I would like to say I shop at this Best Buy almost exclusively for games, movies, electronics, and computer related items on a local level. Obviously online shopping is still typically the best place for this stuff, but when I want it in my hands, I go here. I happen to frequent this Best Buy every Tuesday like clockwork because I have about 30 minutes to waste when I leave my main day job and go to a freelance job just down the street from this store. I have been in this routine for over 4 years so I am obviously very familiar with this store. I wait for sales and try to pick up deals when I can. When it comes to deals, I am also very aware of the nuances of sales promotions and disclaimers. I never try to push an issue that I know is not correct based on disclaimers and so forth. I worked in advertising so I am actually sensitive to this stuff myself and I also know that people get paid very well to make sure they don't let mistakes like that through, especially for a company the size of Best Buy. With that all being said, let me explain what happened. I walk into the Best Buy Store #238 in Beaumont, TX at around 6:30pm Wednesday, January 23rd. I am looking for an extra little birthday present for my 66 year old father, specifically a movie, just as a little side gift as entertainment to counter the tools I already bought him. I wander around looking at the movies for awhile and finally decide on 3:10 to Yuma, a new release. The price on it is $19.99. I decide that standard definition movies are a pretty poor investment at that price and put it back and decide to look around for something else. I think standard definition movies should be $14.99 (and below) these days now that the HD formats are becoming the standard. But as I look through the movies, I see one of their sales promotions on a tiny yellow tag. The promotion says: " 2 for $25 - Choose from: 3:10 to Yuma, Good Luck Chuck, Saw IV, and War. Disclaimer: Must be purchased on same receipt. No rainchecks. See a customer specialist for details. TempPart #b015021 Expires 01/26/08" Now I think to myself, that's a pretty good deal since all of these movies are new releases and it meets my self-imposed restriction of buying standard-def movies for under $15. So I am convinced at that point that it's a good deal. I end up choosing two copies of 3:10 to Yuma. One for my father, and the other for me. Now some people may point and say that choice is not valid to begin with because I am buying two of the same movie....and typically, I might agree with that, but I thought since it didn't say anything about not getting two copies of the same movie, then that must be a valid choice, so I was ready to put one back and get War instead.... the odd thing is, that was never the issue.Here is Best Buy's circular:So I get to the register and they ring me up as I pull out my Reward Zone membership card to put the purchase on my card like I always do.......and the clerk tells me $43 dollars and change, meaning, of course, the movies are ringing at $19.99 each. I very politely say they should be ringing at 2 for $25. The clerk then grabs a mailer circular from under the register and says, "No sir, I think for that promotion one of the titles needs to be Saw IV." and proceeds to show me a promotion in the mailer. I still politely tell him that I didn't use the mailer to make my decision to buy these, I used the in-store advertising promotion listed in the DVD section and he asks to see the tag I was referring to. I leave the counter, go to the DVD section, grab the tag and then walk back over to the register to show him and he still says I need Saw IV to be one of the movies. I still at this point politely tell him that they must be different promotions because this tag mentions nothing like that and is spelled out in black and white that I can choose any two of the following movies with no reference to a specific movie required in the purchase.
Another Best Buy employee walks over and asks if he can help me.......now this guy comes over with a chip on his shoulder already it seems like, and a headset on. (At this point, I am wondering where the drive-thru is.) He seems like some kind of floor manager or assistant manager. He is very abrupt and not too friendly in his demeanor and I am a little sick from the winter weather, a little tired after working all day, and really not looking for a confrontation or anything. I am staying very calm and never raising my voice or causing a scene or anything. Besides, this is MY Best Buy.....I come in here all the time....and none of these people recognize me? I shop here every week, sometimes twice a week or more....and have been for over 4 years now. This new guy with the headset is telling me that I can't take advantage of the promotion without one of the movies being Saw IV. I told him, I understand that promotion from the mailer.....but this is a different contradictory promotion in the store. I show him the tag. I also show him the 10 tags or so in the store that are identical to it. He then tells me that the mailer circular takes precendence over the in-store advertising, which is kind of shocking to me, since I never saw the mailer and didn't receive one, yet I am shopping in the store. I finally realize I am getting nowhere with this individual and decide to go the old "manager route." At this point, I don't even care about the movies at that price, I am just wanting to make sure they understand that the promotion in-store is a direct contradiction to their mailer promotion. No one will even admit this yet. So I ask him to get the manager to resolve this so I can go on about my evening. The headset guy goes off to find the manager and leaves me for over 10 minutes, just standing around in the front of the store. He finally comes back talking over his headset and says in a mumbling way "I talked to the managers and they said you need to buy Saw IV." At this stage, I am standing here in disbelief that a manager didn't come out to talk to me. I am not even sure this guy ever TALKED to a manager now. I tell him that I need a MANAGER to tell me that for me to understand. This headset guy actually tells me at this point that the managers are too busy to talk to me about it. Well, now I am getting a little irritated. Since when, at any retail establishment, is a store manager too busy to handle a customer problem? I am dumbfounded and annoyed all at once. This same headset guy is now getting belligerent when I have shown no signs of being "one of those customers" who is about to cause a scene. I am calmly and quietly trying to take advantage of an offer that is advertised in the store. Normally I don't even care about this kind of stuff. Typically I would have left empty-handed if the employees would have said "Sir, I see your point and that advertising is misleading or false, I really apologize, but the register won't even allow me to do that kind of deal. Let me pull that advertising off the shelf right now to resolve the matter." I would have been fine with that response and left the store and never thought about it again. My real problem now is that these two employees and the absent manager are basically reacting to me like I am crazy to not "get" their promotion. They think the tag spells it out completely for me and that I must be mentally challenged.
Finally, the store manager shows up and is over-the-top friendly, in a QVC talk show host kind-of-way. I explain to him very politely the whole story from scratch. Let me remind you that we are standing in the check-out area among several other customers checking out with their own purchases. The manager listens intently to my story and finally without missing a beat upon me saying "So there ya have it, isn't that crazy?", he says as if he rehearsed it "Yes, but you have to buy Saw IV." Now I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone here because I just explained to him the difference in the promotional wording from the mailer and the promotional wording from the in-store advertising. It is right here in black and white. I am showing it to him right here in front of us. He refuses to acknowledge that it even remotely seems inaccurate or misleading. I finally get irritated and say, "You need to sell me these two DVDs for $25 to make good on your in-store advertising." and he says "No, I don't." I am seriously floored at this point. I am three levels deep into Best Buy employees and they are all treating me as if I am crazy and we are seriously talking about $15 here. It's crazy. So I tell him that this whole thing has kind of gotten out of hand and that if he just honors the deal then I will be on my way. He still says "No, I can't help you.....unless you buy Saw IV." At this point, I swore if I heard "Saw IV" one more time, I was going to throw up. So basically, I finally tell the manager as a last resort that I could call the consumer hotline and report the store for not honoring the deal. He responds with "It doesn't matter, call them, I make the final decisions at this store and you are NOT getting those movies for $25." Oh man, I have NEVER been talked to by a store manager like that in my life. I worked in retail and I worked in advertising and I know what it's like on both ends of the business. This is just unbelievable at this point for me. I ask the manager what his name is and he says "Brian" and I follow with "Brian what" and he says "BRIAN...THE MANAGER" and then I ask him to get his full name so I know who to report and he says "Brian the Manager is all you need to know."
I set the movies down on the counter and grab my cell phone and dial the 1-888-BEST-BUY on the back of my reward zone membership. The manager and all of the employees have now scattered and I am wandering around the DVD section again on hold. I want to be able to see this tag again to read it verbatim to the consumer hotline because the headset guy took the tag I was holding up at the front. Finally someone comes on the line and it sounds like a young guy, probably early to mid-twenties from his mannerisms and vocal cues. I tell him the entire story from the beginning and that I have now been in the store for over an hour to buy two DVDs. I also tell him I am calling now just to prove to the manager that he can't treat people poorly like that. It has become a challenge to right this wrong. He listens without interruption and says, "Okay, let me verify all of this while I put you on hold." He is of course calling the store, or so I assume. I am thinking he is going to contact the manager and then the manager will fold under pressure thinking I wouldn't really call, and certainly not call while I am there in the store no less. So at this point, I am on hold for about 10 minutes. The consumer hotline guy comes back on the phone and says the story checks out and that he just got off the phone with the manager. I tell him "Great, I am so glad we can finally get this resolved." and I kind of laughingly tell him "This is so crazy isn't it?" He kind of laughs and goes "Yea....crazy.....but you need to buy Saw IV......"
Wow......I just went through all of the channels.....I followed the system the way a customer is supposed to........and the system failed.
I tell the guy on the phone that this is really crazy now. He tells me the store manager has final say over all transactions in the store. That's the boast that "Brian the Manager" had made. So now I am in the understanding that Brian is basically all powerful, even over corporate. Wow. I stand corrected. I should have never doubted the power of "Brian the Manager." I tell the guy on the phone that this is now totally unacceptable and I wasted an hour and a half of trying to get two movies advertised for $25. The guy tells me he can't help me to resolve the matter and that he's sorry for my trouble, but to take advantage of the promotion, I would need to buy Saw IV. Now I go off on a mild rant about how this is 2008 and I am standing in a retail store trying to resolve a matter based on the idea that "the customer is always right" and I have a corporate employee at the consumer hotline for one of the largest retail chains in the country and they are telling me they can't help me. Knowing that I am at my wit's end at this point, the guy on the phone finally makes me an offer to send me a $15 gift card in the mail to make up the difference in me buying the two DVDs. I say that's finally at least SOMETHING, but how does that resolve the matter right now? I don't even want the gift card (and who knows if I will ever see it), I just want them to honor the deal right now and then we can call it a day. He says the manager refuses to honor the deal. I tell him, fine, give me a $15 gift card in the store right now and then I can use it at the register and the guy on the phone tells me he can't do that, he can only issue one in the mail. I am still not satisfied and I go off on a rant again about how I could post this whole story on the internet and that if they just resolve my issue, we could all save ourselves a lot of trouble and hassle. The guy on the phone still says he can't resolve it and can't help me. I ask him if they are going to pull the in-store promotion to not mislead people and he says "No, those are produced by corporate and will be left in the store unless the manager sees fit to remove them." Wow, the manager STILL is all powerful. So finally, I go off on another rant about how this whole scenario is one of the most ludicrous experiences I have ever had and finally the guy on the phone basically tells me that he doesn't really care about the advertising or anything at this point and that the absolute most he can do (to get me off the phone) is to up my gift card to $25. I finally concede defeat and say, "Fine, send it." He verifies my address and we hang up.
Here's where the cherry is put on top.....as I hang up the phone......the manager walks out from the back and looks at me across the store and gives me this smug look of "I win." That's what kills me.
I begrudgingly go and buy one copy of the movie for $19.99 and leave the store because I needed the birthday present regardless of the outcome. Now some people may feel like I won this battle because I came out ahead financially, but I don't feel that way. I still feel like Best Buy won overall because they are still promoting misleading, inaccurate in-store advertising and not honoring it. I also went into the store again the next day to pick up the promotional advertising pieces to write this article and needless to say they were still up throughout the DVD section.
So take a look at these advertisements and you guys tell me if you think these two things are the same. What conclusions would you draw if you saw the in-store promotion and had never seen the circular mailer?
The circular is not an incontrovertible edict from headquarters. Any responsible manager would have honored and then removed the incorrect in-store advertisement. Instead, Brian chose absolutism and pissed off a religious customer.
Best Buy could easily have defused the situation. Jason didn't want a $25 gift card. He wanted an apology, and for someone to acknowledge the first rule of customer service: the customer is always right.
This is a test using rich text formatting and html links. It's the generic "company" ad that should appear on all posts with the Company category if they don't have an ad attached to a specific company.
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Comments:
As a former retail store manager in Massachusetts, I would always have to honor the lowest price on products. This would include in-store advertisements, rebates, sales, etc. Now if a customer argued about the price of the product, I would always manually change the price. No big deal. Make the customer happy and they will be coming back for years.
I begrudgingly go and buy one copy of the movie for $19.99 and leave the store because I needed the birthday present regardless of the outcome.
No... just... NO. You go to Circuit City, Target -- wherever -- and buy your movie. Then you send a copy of the receipt to "Brian the Manager" and Best Buy corporate . And then you contact the Better Business Bureau and whatever Texas state agency handles consumer protection claims.
And this, Jason, is why we don't shop at Best Buy. End of story.
You could have bought the video for dad from Amazon or even from Wal-Mart and got a T-shirt! After all that hassle, I would NOT have given them my business. Especially since Brian the God of Best Buy would take it as you admitting defeat.
So corporate produces the circulars and the store maintains that the circulars trump in-store advertisements. But the in-store store advertisements are controlled/printed by corporate as well?
Ridiculous call on the manager's part. And honestly, things like that can be overridden at the register just to keep you as a customer. It's so easy to make it a little dog and pony show, just to say, "Well, I can see that you're in here frequently and normally we won't make exceptions but in this case we'll take care of you."
In the end, when a dispute is resolved this way, the manager doesn't care because his inventory checks out and every dollar goes where it's supposed to. Corporate doesn't really care so much because they've got customer service budgets (those 25 dollar gift cards don't appear out of thin air). But usually the store has a little customer service overhead as well, and a manager intent on keeping a customer will dip into that from time to time.
My guess is that there's a bonus for not doing so. To some managers that bonus is worth more than a customer, and the profits on DVDs aren't so good so he may have been willing to make that sacrifice, right or wrong.
I stopped reading after I shop at this Best Buy almost exclusively.
As a wise man once said: "There's your problem!"
I always take a picture of the good sale on my phone before I go to the register.
Then if they refuse to honor it i tell them that it is illegal for them to have one price on the floor and another in the system.
I always get the deal then.
freakin ridiculous. i've had similar issues with BB where their in-store advertisements are spelled out in b&w and they refuse to honor them. however, this was before i was aware of the corporate hotline and im sure that would have at least helped. i'm really not surprised by this persons story, and i know exactly how he feels. its like trying to explain simple addition to someone and have them tell you you're wrong. beyond frustrating.
i'm with ya buddy
This guy should've walked out and bought his gift at another store.
He should try contacting Sara Wiles at Best Buy Executive Resolutions (dial corporate campus (612) 291-1000). It's sad that I know that number by heart. Anyway, she helped me out a bunch and she could probably take care of this also.
Good Lord. At least Amazon doesn't offer to pul 'em out and measure 'em like that. Take them all the way. Does local media have a consumer advocate?
@aaron8301: The t-shirt says "this town is gonna BURN"; I predict a Digg "dude got tazed for wearing t-shirt" post in two weeks.
That story was entirely too long. I feel like my eyes are going to start bleeding any second now.
You sound like a jerk. The guy on the phone goes out of his way to call the store to try and reach a compromise. When he can't convince Brian to honor the ad, he offers you a gift cert. Obviously his powers don't include issuing a cert through the phone or store, but yet you go off on him anyway.
Phildawg's Guide to Getting Even with "The Retail Man":
1. Find a whole bunch.
2. Find some paper that you won't mind discarding.
3. Use said whole punch and paper to make lots of little circles of joy! These damn things are so hard to get off a floor, even for a vacuum without several passes.
4. Get a Best Buy plastic bag and tear a small hole in one of it's corners. The hole should be large enough to allow a good flow out when you lift one side and do a little shake =)
5. Add your ammo to the bag and hide it on your person. If you do not wish to hide it, then identify groups of 3 or more people and attempt to enter the store undetected with said bag as you won't want Loss Prevention trying to 'tag' your 'merchandise' for return, hehe.
6. Once in the store, take a little time and get that bag out (the appliance section is usually low on employees, haha). Now take a stroll through the store, especially hit the heavily trafficed pathways to insure many get the chance to see your trail of tears.
7. Discard the bag in the store or just put it back in your pocket.
8. Leave the story feeling a little vindication!
P.S. I worked for Best Buy for almost 6 years, we experienced this every couple of months and it was a complete clusterf%ck. The vacuum's have a hard time getting these up on carpet and bare floor.
dang typos, lol
I would have spent no more than 1 min. arguing with the cashier before walking out empty handed and getting the dvd at another location.
I guess you were late for your other job. Was that hour you wasted worth it?
"Best Buy could easily have diffused the situation."
This "diffuse the situation" seems to come up a lot. I'm really not trying to be a jerk, just gently correcting a common error on this site, with appreciation for the fact that intelligent people make mistakes like this, etc., etc.
So, that said, for the record: Best Buy could have easily DEFUSED the situation. "Defused," not "diffused."
You spent an hour and a half to save 15 bucks? then when you could save the 15, you paid full price? AND you accepted a gift card, which means you will be back. You really are the best kind of customer. You come in frequently, let the store shit on you, pay full price for a sale item and will return to do it again.
way to stick it to best buy..you know by arguing, getting mocked and then paying full price for a sale item
people still buy DVDs?
@manok: I frequent the store on Tuesdays before my second job, which happens to be only one day a week. The event in question was on a Wednesday, so I was wasting my own time. But thanks for reading my story though.
what surprises me is that you even bought the DVD from best buy after this ordeal. All things considered however, i'm kind of surprised you've only run into this problem w/ best buy now after four years of recurring visits, i've always had a problem w/ best buy policy/customer service so i avoid it like a plague.
that should say "couldn't save the 15..."
I think the line of "the customer is always right" kills it right there. Because basically the customer is not always right, and when they know they're not, they use that retired line to act like babies and get what they want.
Not in this case case though. Best Buy should have just honored their in-store advertisement on the rack, and the guy should have said "I never get any Best Buy flyers in the mail".
Did you pay with a credit card? no? Then good! Simply camp out further where the employees park their cars (but don't drive there), wait for the manager to arrive, then scratch Brian's car, dent it, flatten a tire or whatever. Then put whip cream on the guys car with the words, "I win now, asshole!"
You know, here's in Puerto RIco shit like that is an automatic $10,00 USD Fin. Got to love the fact that we're only US territory and not a state. If we ever are...well, yeah, the shit hits the fan and the beautiful capitalist system has a complete takeover.
Anyway, liek they say "The Costumer is always right...on their way to get screwed by us (Big Company)"
...I sound surprisingly Communist all of a sudden. >_>"
tl;dr
I hope he edits it down some before sending it to corporate.
FTA:To preface this story, I would like to say I shop at this Best Buy almost exclusively for games, movies, electronics, and computer related items on a local level.
Stop doing that right now. Just stop. No more shopping at Best Buy.
They do not value your patronage.
They have never valued your patronage.
They will never value your patronage.
They take your money because you give it to them, but if you stop, they will not miss you.
Wow man, just read your story, that makes me really angry. I used to work at Toys R Us and Target in electronics and this sort of stuff happened somewhat often, maybe once a month, and I always honored the customer, especially if it was in black and white in front of their face. Thats how retail works, you print an ad wrong and a customer catches it, it's the COMPANY'S loss. They printed it wrong, they acknowledge and remove the false advertising, end of story.
You should totally pursue this, not just to be a thorn in someones side, but to get a message through to Brian the douchebag that this sort of crap doesn't fly. I actually had a manager at Toys R Us who was alot like Brian the douche and I stood up for customers on several occasions when he would start acting like this, with the little headset and the snippy indifferent attitude and he always backed down like a bitch, even though he made more than me, because he knew I was right. You're spot on to fight this crap, this is why Best Buy is now Worst Buy, and they have already lost me as a customer permanently.
Good story, well written too, I can't usually sit through rants like this.
I agree. Don't. Shop. At. Best. Buy.
Just don't.
The in store ad says, "See a customer specialist for details."
Apparently one of those details is you must buy Saw IV
To Flower....nope, Beaumont isn't really much on consumer advocates.
This is why I don't shop BB. Amazon carries anything I could want to buy from them and with Prime, I get it in two days. It just takes a little planning ahead.
Perhaps Brian the Manager needs to be dropped off at the Castle Motel wearing nothing but a push up bra and a thong.
As bad as this story is, the worst thing of all is that from a grammarian point-of-view, the circular actually advertises something else entirely (albeit one that would make no sense for Best Buy).
Parsing out the terminology in the circular reveals that their offer ("Saw IV - Available Tuesday - $16.99 - Buy Saw IV with any 1 of these three movies for $25") is that Saw IV will cost $16.99, unless you buy it along with any of the other three films, in which case you will pay $25.00 for Saw IV ALONE, along with whatever you pay for your other selection. This is just simple predicate/verb trouble, in which Saw IV is the subject of the sentence ("Buy Saw IV ... for $25"). What they MEANT to advertise was this: "Buy Saw IV AND one of these three movies for $25".
There's another more literal interpretation of the circular as well, but even less likely to be what they meant: "Use one of these three movies to buy Saw IV" - as in, "these three movies are accepted here at Best Buy as currency for a copy of Saw IV".
The point is, Best Buy clearly has no idea what it is they're actually advertising, nor what the explicit, unambiguous way is to describe its terms. If they want to be bitchy about what their offers are -- based unyieldingly on what they advertise -- they might want to hire someone with a more comprehensive command of the English language to compose their ads.
Oh, and that manager (and every other one out there like him) can go to hell. Hey, Jason -- you know that "I win" look he gave you? Remember that his "victory" falls under the failure/sadness/mediocrity umbrella that is his lot in life as the MANAGER OF A BEST BUY.
Chase that star, "Brian the Manager". You win.
How much do you get paid per hour at your two jobs? Because you donated that amount to best buy in addition to paying full price for their movie and entertaining their idiot manager. Isn't your time worth more than that?
his time is worth 25 best buy dollars.
You mention that you have 30 minutes to kill every Tuesday afternoon. Have you thought about standing outside the Best Buy on public property easement with a sign indicating that "Best Buy refuses to honor in store advertising" until the store makes it right? Have you also considered filing a complaint with your local better business bureau?
Those are all terrible, terrible movies.
It's stories like this that make me feel guilty for even redeeming gift cards at Best Buy. What a crappy store.
As a Best Buy employee, I would like to apologize to Jason, even though I work in a store in another state. That manager was a prick and should be treated as such. I know me saying "Sorry" for Best Buy doesn't mean much, but the reason I read stories like this is so I know what not to do. What you really needed to do was come back during a different shift, find a different manager, and work around "God Complex Brian." That's the easiest thing to do, if you are willing to go back into the store. And, as I always tell people, fill out the survey on the bottom of the receipt and drive the store's satisfaction score down, since you have a legitimate reason. The in-store sign was wrong and they should have put up a correction notice at the very least and let you have the discounted price so they learn to be more careful with this kind of thing. Hell, the cashier should have bent and at least tried to change the price for you, since you were right. The reason he probably didn't is because he knows that the price drop is tied to the fact that the SKU for Saw 4 needs to be seen by the system, and he probably couldn't drop the price without manager approval. Unless he just didn't care enough.
Again, sorry for the hassle you had to face.
This Brian "the manager" character sounds like the Brian "the manager" that I used to work for at Radioshack... Since I don't live too far from Beaumont I may drive up there and try the same thing; the question now is if the circular/ad is expired.
There's no need for me to jump on the dogpile, but for what it's worth, Jason, I think you handled yourself well up until Brian The Manager bent you over. Right here:
"...I finally get irritated and say, "You need to sell me these two DVDs for $25 to make good on your in-store advertising." and he says "No, I don't." I am seriously floored at this point. I am three levels deep into Best Buy employees and they are all treating me as if I am crazy and we are seriously talking about $15 here. It's crazy..."
That's when you should have just whipped out your cell phone, taken a few pictures, and left to buy your dvds elsewhere. You KNEW that you were in the right, but this douchebag of a manager wasn't going to give in, so why waste anymore of your time? You let yourself get emotionally invested -- that's why you lost. Don't waste time trying to have a pissing contest with a giant d*ck. You will lose.
Just leave the store, make your purchase elsewhere, and when you've calmed down, report BestBuy to the proper agencies for false advertising. A nice, fat fine would've stung much more than the $15.00 you were owed.
Plus, 3:10 to Yuma was a really good movie, but now every time you watch it you're going to think of Brian the Moronager, so basically, he won twice.
When are these companies gonna learn that when you piss off a customer they tell 2 million of their closest friends ... I mean really and given that it probably cost them $15 to answer the 800 call and then there is the staff time Worst Buy just comes off liking stupid (again).
Man that was long but I laughed. It astounds me how many times Best Buy is on the Consumerist for shitty activity. And I know not all Best Buy employees are idiots but it seems that the chain runs a smug retard camp for training.
Maybe Consumerist should have one day a year where everybody unloads all their experiences with Best Buy. A Top Ten Why Best Buy sucks post..readers send in emails to headquarters by the dozens..people around the country go in, buy something small like screen protectors or something as useless as an iPod shuffle case..then immediately return it unopened and unharmed...I don't know..something..because this is probably the one company that still doesn't give a shit that they're on The Consumerist or that they're screwing people over on a daily basis.
I like Best Buy, actually. I hate people who can't get to the point when telling a story.
Best Buy management-types with a God-complex? Man, that is news to us.
:)
Now that I think about it though, I've had items ring-up incorrectly against shelf tags advertising specials at least twice at Best Buy and both times the cashier was able to correct it without getting a manager involved. In one case the sign was for last week's ad and someone missed it, so they had to honor the sign for me and remove it.
I will never shop at Bestbuy again because of how badly they are portrayed on this site
Ok, so let me get this straight. He would have bought "Saw IV" for $16.99 and "3:10 to Yuma" for about $8. Tax would have been added to the receipt and he'd have been on his way. What's to stop him from returning the un-opened copy of Saw IV on one of his next shopping trips and getting his $16.99+tax back?
BB is the worst store ever, they're going to eventually end up like CompUsa.
The old rule goes though that you get what you pay for, including the hired help. The people working there know nothing about electronics, just how to push a product to make someone else rich.
For all those complainging that this post is too long; Read the title of the article, what else did you need to know? I personally enjoy well documented claims. Having worked in retail sales a number of years too often I run into a customer who insists they are right when clearly they are not. In this case the customer WAS right.
I had to stop reading after he said he has been going to best buy every week for four years. i avoid that shithole like the plague.
plus, could that have been longer? cliff notes?