Best Buy called the cops on Alex because he told another shopper that the Jawbone headset he was considering was poor quality and marked up $30 from the manufacturer’s price. Alex went to Best Buy to purchase a new Bluetooth headset because the Jawbone he recently purchased from Verizon wasn’t cutting it. While browsing the headsets, he struck up a conversation with another customer who was checking out the Jawbone. Alex told his fellow customer that he had been disappointed in the quality of the Jawbone, and that Best Buy was charging $30 more than the manufacturer or Verizon. A sales associate overheard this and told the manager, who asked Alex to leave the store, then threatened to call the police, then did.
Alex called Best Buy’s corporate number, but was on hold so long that the police arrived before he could speak with anyone. After getting the manager’s information, he left the store, then called Best Buy corporate again, where he spoke with a supervisor who told her that no, actually it’s NOT Best Buy’s policy to call the cops whenever a customer shares her experiences with another customer, unless it’s “disruptive.” Alex’s email:
Dear Consumerist,I absolutely love reading your blog and have learned a great deal about the horrors of Best Buy “customer service.” But never in a thousand years did I think I’d be sending in my very own Best Buy horror story.
I had recently purchased the Jawbone headset from my local Verizon store based on good reviews, but I quickly discovered my supreme dissatisfaction with it and was looking to replace it with a different brand. On March 5, 2008, at around 9 PM, I entered the Best Buy store in East Brunswick, NJ to see their selection of bluetooth headsets.
The selection of headsets at this Best Buy was dismal, and the merchandising was less than appealing, but that’s not why I’m writing. While I was browsing the selection, another customer picked up the Jawbone headset and was taking a look at it. I shared my disappointing experience with the headset and also alerted him to the fact that Best Buy was charging an additional $30 on top of both the manufacturer’s price online and Verizon’s price. All of this was said within earshot of a sales associate, and I walked away after sharing my experience.
Within 30 seconds, a manager named Tom approached me and asked me to leave the store. I thought he was joking, since I had done absolutely nothing wrong, and I asked Tom for the reason why I needed to leave. According to Tom, “it was policy.”
I was incredulous. I’ve worked far too many retail jobs to know the extent of “power” a manager has over customers, and my intuition told me he was pissed that I lost him a potential sale. I refused to leave the store, based on the fact that I had done nothing wrong and that this so-called policy was pulled out of his ass. Tom walked away and directed an associate to call the police.
I was shocked that Tom treated me like a thief–the cops were coming! I asked Tom for the Best Buy customer service number and immediately called to speak with someone that would knock some sense into trigger-happy Tom. Of course, I had to wait for what seemed like forever to speak with a representative, but before I could actually talk to a live person, the cops came.
Two cops and about four Best Buy associates in tough guy poses stood at the front of the store, obviously creating a dramatic scene. I was calmly waiting for a customer service rep to pick up the phone. I gave up on the customer service line, got the store’s phone number and Tom’s full name and title and left as per police request.
I have never been so humiliated and infuriated in my life. I felt like my First Amendment rights were violated–all I did was tell a fellow customer my experiences with a product! When I got home I FINALLY spoke to Daniel, a supervisor at Best Buy’s customer service line, and he was shocked and appalled at Tom’s actions. Daniel confirmed that Tom COULD have asked me to leave, had I been disruptive, then stated that Tom had no right to police a conversation between two customers, regardless of what was said. Daniel apologized profusely, took all of my contact information down, and noted that I had requested to receive a follow up email from a district manager that would deal with the investigation and formal complaint.
As far as I’m concerned, Tom can rot in hell. But I know how retail works, and he’ll most likely get some insignificant writeup and a slap on the wrist. What I really want is a massive gift card because of Tom’s flagrant abuse of “policy” and for embarrassing the hell out of me in front of the whole store. What steps can I take to get Best Buy to make a customer happy, formally apologize, and give me a free gift card?
Thanks so much. I love the blog and tell all of my friends about it! Keep up the amazing work!
Best,
Alex
We’re not big on demanding apologies; money is better. Alex should wait to hear back from the manager he spoke with. If he doesn’t hear back or is unsatisfied with Best Buy’s response, he should check out The Ultimate Consumerist Guide To Fighting Back to get help writing a formal complaint letter or launching an EECB.
(Photo: ob1left)
More From Consumerist
-
Going On A Family Shoplifting Spree Shouldn’t Count As Spending Quality Time Together
-
Cops: Man Used Guests’ Credit Cards In Order To Live The High Life At Luxury Hotels
-
Court Rules That Best Buy Violated Federal Telemarketing Reguations
-
Best Buy Changing Its Return Policy From 30 Days To 15 Days
-
Hey, Best Buy Also Sent Me Five iPads When I Only Ordered One!
Here’s a question. What if a shift manager asked you to leave, but then you talk to the assistant manager and they say otherwise? What if it’s assistant manager and store manager? Store manager and District Manager? Should you still leave because of a trespass notice issued by someone lower on the chain of command? The only difference here is that she was trying to contact the not present top of the chain.
@Valhawk: Even a cashier is a representative of the store in Shoplifting and in Trespass notices (In NJ atleast)
@CyberSkull: She was asked to leave/trespassed, she did not. No false report.
They can’t take away your rights, they can only ask you to leave. Which is exactly what the manager did. He then escalated when the request was not honored. He was still a douche for doing it over a private exchange between two customers.
Don’t you guys agree that the manager was not in a position to ask anyone to leave, considering Best Buy corporate would not have it that way?
I’ve been into Best Buy many, many times, and not once have I had a bad customer service experience. My only problem with the place is that they are a little pushy, but 99% of the time if you just say “I’m fine” they walk away. The only time I’ve ever had to actually do anything important there was when I was returning an iPod, and that was one of the simplest transactions I’ve ever made in retail.
And while I don’t read a lot of Consumerist stories (pretty much only when they get on Digg or Gizmodo), I can say that the ones I’ve read concerning Best Buy have almost always been avoidable by the consumer. In this case Alex obviously did not leave the store when asked, and in the oft-mentioned cases of receipt-checking, just don’t go there. I for one have no problem with some guy on minimum wage glancing at my receipt. If you do, fantastic, just don’t shop there. I should probably add that, in addition to not having any bad experiences there, at my local store if the receipt guy doesn’t see you until you’re out the door, generally he doesn’t care.
Best Buy is an annoying store to go to, but for me that is far outweighed by the fact that, on sheer selection alone, it’s more or less the only place I can go; in addition to that, some people just like seeing shit before they buy it, in which case buying exclusively online is out of the question. Basically, if you’ve had a bad Best Buy experience and can’t stop crying about it, don’t go. But just because some pussies on the internet can’t leave when their told doesn’t mean everyone should quit going there.
I’m swinging both sides. I can understand how Alex felt the need to warn a potential buyer that she found the product sadly lacking, but, by the same token if I were the other customer and had had my heart set on buying this thingymajig I’d still buy it.
The sales assistant should have turned the negative into a positive, excused himself by mentioning he overheard her comment, shown an interest, noted her concerns and entered into a mature dialogue with them both.
Calling the police was waaay over the top.
I took the gift card comment to be purely tongue in cheek.
@tme2nsb: Thanks for attempting to head-off the detractors at the pass.
Seriously people, how can you defend BB here? Does BB have the right? Yes. But is it wrong? INCREDIBLY.
Sounds like you might have a potential false imprisonment claim. Gotta love law school!!
@CRSpartan01:
Clearly you didn’t/don’t pay attention in law school. She wasn’t forced to stay, or physically kept from leaving. She REFUSED TO LEAVE. Someone slept through Torts class.
@keyrat:
The manager absolutely was in a position to ask them to leave. I’m not sure how you can even question that capability. Further supporting his ability is the conversation with BB Corporate, where the rep said “yep, he can ask you to leave.”
Are you kidding?? If I’m wronged by a store, I’ll ask for a massive gift card, too. Then I spend it, take my free stuff home, and never go back. I’ll take free stuff for my trouble any day.
@Starfury: Refuse to serve someone for SOME reasons. Not only what they did was wrong, but illegal, it goes against freedom of speech. And the only thing I saw that can limit freedom of speech in this case is:
“Product defamation (criticism of commercial products; sometimes called product libel or product disparagement; for example, the Texas False Disparagement of Perishable Food Products Act)”
But he was having a private conversation with someone else about a product and how he didn’t like it (his opinion). And it wasn’t about a best buy-made product, it was of a verizon product, so best buy had no reason to call the cops on him for it.
Best buy has “last man in town” syndrome, they sell the average crap people want and is lucky enough to be one of the only stores around. Pretty much, we think there is a million other stores around, but sadly there isnt. For computer hardware the reasonable store was CompUSA but they are out of business, leaving circuit city with a very limited selection. The local computer shops are the best bet, but its for a general type store, Best Buy is king in many parts of town.
Yes it sucks, but currently they are the in the number 1 slot, I’d gladly take my business elsewhere, but when I want to browse the new products, Bestbuy is normally the one who has them. (Then If I’m not in a hurry, I buy online)..
I’m sure someone is going to say, what about Fred Meyers, or Costco, etc. Yes they have a small selection of the most popular games, etc. But Bestbuy has done a good job at opening large stores carrying the most popular items. They sit alone if you compare the entire stock and amount of stock compared to other stores. Circuit city has the weakest computer selection, but their automotive section is bigger, with a tad more auto installs.
The big guys can push you around because they can. And to hit them in the pocket books is the only way to make them change their attitudes of being rude to customers. I’ve had my share of rude Bestbuy people, but i put up with it if I want a video game and its 5 dollars cheaper than circuit city. I’m not alone here.
@deserthiker: you work for Best Buy, don’tcha? (j/k). I thought the gift card comment was a joke, and took it as such.
@ryanv1978: “That’s your first amendment right.”
No, it isn’t. Did they make a bigger deal out of it than they should have? Yes. But if she had been a tiny, independent store telling everyone there how cheap the internet stores are and convincing people not to buy things there, you would be thrilled when the shop owner protects his business by using his right to throw her out. So even though this manager over reacted, it IS his option to weigh the costs of a woman *possibly* making a scene and driving away business versus that one person.
And you know, the mention of a gift card at the end makes me think he made the right decision, from a *purely* business perspective. She will obviously be shopping there again as soon as she needs something and this memory is slightly less fresh.
@Riddar: “Yes. But if she had been a tiny, independent store telling everyone there how cheap the internet stores are and convincing people not to buy things there, you would be thrilled when the shop owner protects his business by using his right to throw her out. So even though this manager over reacted, it IS his option to weigh the costs of a woman *possibly* making a scene and driving away business versus that one person.”
But the person at best buy wasn’t “Driving” business away, he was only stating his honest opinion on the product and in fact had told a truth about it being marked up a lot more than the manufacturer. If best buy doesn’t want someone having anything negative to say about a product in the store they should either put a sign on the front door stating so (because there are no policies anywhere to be seen except the business hours) or tell each customer, when they come in, that they can’t have any negative say about a product, that they’ll have to wait until after they’ve left the store to start commenting.
Bestbuy was in the wrong here; but I am pretty sure if an exempt employee ( i.e. a Manager )asks you to leave for any reason and you refuse, that you can be charged with trespassing.
best buy…FUCK YEAH
Ok. This is a case of the OP being in the wrong.
Why?
How many fucking times must we say this? BEST BUY IS A SHITTY COMPANY!! They treat customers like shit! They treat you like thieves! Best Buy is NOT customer Friendly!
Wake up people! Do NOT shop at Best Buy. If you do, don’t complain about it later because WE WARNED YOU time and time and time again!
Yes, Alex, you brought this upon yourself.
@Draconianspark: Only if there is a trespassing notice on file against you already… There is one now for sure, but before this it is unlikely.
Well, Best Buy seems to be a real scummy place, but, I have never had ANY of the problems that I have seen documented here and at other places on the net when dealing with them, no strong arm tactics for service contracts or to get a different item other than what I came for. if the price is cheapest there than anywhere else then I go there. but, the fact that I look like a maniac might be the reason that they don’t bother me.
I haven’t read all the comments, but what’s to stop the OP from standing outside the Best Buy (or on the public easement of the commercial property) with a huge sign that says something to the effect of “Best Buy had the police throw me out of the store because I told another customer I didn’t like one of the products on the shelf” ?
Well, aside from taking time out of his/her day, that is.
I used to do this for fun in the Chicago area if I was browsing BB, CompUSA or a local retailer. Elek-Tek used to be one of the worst.
If I heard some sales drone giving a clueless customer less-than-honest product info, I’d gladly jump in and update the customer on the truth. I’d be sure to include alternative online sites for competing prices, information, etc. The blue shirt was usually too stunned to reply, especially when they were dealing with someone who knew the product better than they did.
Interesting how more and more of these places are resorting to strong-arm tactics towards their customers rather than, say, providing decent information and service. Time to change “Geek Squad” to “Goon Squad.”
the only people who refuse to leave a property are people that have never been arrested and never been to prison.
I’ll probably be arrested for making these statements, but there are better places to buy stuff than Best Buy. In fact, Best Buy is your worst buy. For those who don’t know, Best Buy lies, lies, lies and when caught, lies to cover their lies. They lie about warranties, they refuse to cover my warranty. They lie about store prices. They lie about what they have in inventory, they lie about their policies. You pay more at Best Buy than almost anywhere else: they jack up prices for floor merchandise, they miss mark and then refuse to charge you the real price. They lie on their sales flyers to get you in the store and then claim the offer only applies to something they don’t have. The carry only expensive accessories and prey on ignorance to make their bottom line bigger. Their Geek Squad is not there to fix anything. They are there solely to steal your money and pretend to fix your problems, just like their pretend warranties. If you shop at Best Buy, you must take blame for the consequences, because Best Buy has illustrated over and over how they will rip you off before you leave their store. If you want a reasonable deal, go to eBay or Amazon or any other online store with a good reputation. If you are impatient and enter Best Buy, understand the risks.
She’s whining about “getting a massive giftcard” to make her feel better. Epic fail at gaming the system. Do not pass go, do over, Bitch!
@legwork: Apparently. You also don’t seem to understand the concept of doing something to make it up to someone you screw over.
@tevetorbes: You’re a total asshole, you know that?
@MrEvil: She was escalating it as well and he did not respect her right to do so.
@Doofio: Exactly what I was thinking. Obviously the manager didn’t tell the police that Alex told another customer that Best Buy was charging too much for the headset. I guess speaking to another customer is considered disturbing the peace. Next at Best Buy… speak to a customer… off to Siberia!
Shopping is like entering Feudal China. Apparently, you wave all your rights at the door. Nowadays, stores are either kicking you out for having an opinion, or trying to keep you there when you don’t comply with policy.
How powerful is policy anyway? If it’s so important, why is it a secret that is only muttered when someone is in fraction of it?
If the other customer were talking to the store staff and Alex interrupted the conversation, there might be a cause for telling Alex to leave. But policing private conversations involving two customers is ridiculously over the line.
Having said that, I’ve got nothing more than dirty looks when I told other customers (while they talked to store staff) about lower prices for the same item at other stores.
I especially make it a point to do that when stores claim “lower prices than the competition!” and they aren’t.
@zentec: You rights as a citizen of this country do not vanish when you walk onto private property. Unless you are causing damage to said property or bodily harm to someone they have no right or reason to make you leave.
She was a customer sharing an opinion on a bad product, no more no less and to be treated this way is shamefull in every sense of the way.
So the guy might not have purchased that 1 headset. Well what if he picked another? Now they have lost a customer, possibly more then 1 because they felt like treating this lady like a criminal for advising someone about the price and quality of a product. Last i checked there was nothing wrong with that and if I was in the same situation I would be thankfull to someone for warning me about the price and quality of what im about to buy.
With the advent of the changing of DVD formats, and High Def TV’s, I went down to best buy to get a replacement for my old player. I wanted a DVD player/burner with a TV tuner in it.
They had one, made by LG. A nice DVD & VCR combo with a tuner. $ 380. According to the advertisements, and the decals on the unit, it claims to be an all in one. It will read and burn every format of DVD
Not a bad deal for the price. I bought my first ever Blu-Ray.
After inserting the dick, the screen message came up that the disk could not be read.
I called Best Buys tech support, and was referred to LG’s support.
I did a web search and came up with their home page, followed by a listing of all their Combo units.
The Unit I had purchased wasn’t even listed.
I e-mailed Their tech support with the make and model, and the big question. What’s wrong ?
I was told that regardless of what Best Buy had advertised this unit as, it would only read write DVD RW, R-,R+, and that it did have a standard tuner and not an HD up convert as claimed by Best Buy.
What a waste of money!
@starfury
just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right…
I’m really surprised that this discussion has got so many people talking about legal rights. The purpose of this blog, as I understand it, is to help consumers dealing with bad customer service from companies who don’t care.
As someone who works in public relations, there’s no question that companies have all sorts of rights that, when exercised, will only serve to ruin their reputation with the public. This is an issue of colossal failure to maintain rapport with the customer, and with the pickup on this blog as well as Digg, it’s becoming a big story.
This is the cardinal rule of customer relations in the Web 2.0 world – you want to make a stupid, greedy decision and treat a customer like crap? You’re going to pay for it in loss of respect. “I’m going to tell all my friends” used to be a threat customers made when they got bad service. In a small community, that was a killer. In a big community those voices were lost until social media amped up the volume on that complaint.
With the help of Consumerist & Digg, “all my friends” can quickly become thousands of readers. Businesses need to wise up.
Wow! What is with Best Buy?
I’d suggest calling your local news station– maybe you’ll get an 11pm bumper…
“Find out why Best Buy call the police on customer conversations… at 11pm.”
@picardia: A business can deny service to anyone for any reason, *except* on the basis of race, creed, gender, or physical disability. Whether the business engages in interstate commerce is irrelevant. In fact, it is federal law that grants the right to deny service in the first place.
Is the Best Buy manager an idiot? Probably. Should he have kicked her out? Probably not. Did he have the legal right to do so? Absolutely.
Ugh, I can’t wait to hear the end of that story. Managers need to stop thinking that they rule the world. And people blaming the customer? What??? How is this the customer’s FAULT? What business does BEST BUY have listening in on something like that when even the EMPLOYEES themselves would probably agree. I hate to admit this, but I’ve worked there. I’ve heard actual employees suggest other products? Isn’t that their job? This TOM guy’s a complete ass.
It is just odd in these situations why cops don’t tell the manager to let the non disruptive customer finish his purchases and leave when he is done. If cops keep using their power to allow dumb store managers to kick out people not actually causing problems or breaking the law, stupid managers will keep abusing the police. As far as I am concerned a store manager using police like this is the same thing as calling 911 to find out the current date. But I also find it ridiculous that this guy is so blatantly asking for a gift card. Clearly he isn’t worried about preventing this in the future or cares that he was wronged. If he wants a payout, he should take this manager to civil court and get money directly from the manager. Best buy telling you everything this guy did was wrong and that he lied about it being policy should be all the evidence you need in court to prove this guy wronged you. It’s basically a case where someone did something they were not authorized to do. Like if I called a towing company and had your car towed, despite not owning the property it was parked on, only because I didn’t like how your car looked.
This is really a shame. I’ve been in a similar situation on numerous occasions, where I’ve been in a store and struck up a conversation with a fellow customer about various products, etc. I’ve never imagined that it could lead to the police being called. What an egregious overreaction on the part of that store manager. Not only is it a propsterous waste of law enforcements’ time, but an embarrassment to the customer. Heck, I’ve even been in stores where I’ve talked to employees about products and they’ve explicitly recommended that I don’t buy it. I could see a manager getting upset with his own employee for discouraging a sale (though I am thankful that there are employees honest enough to give their true opinion on a product), but there is no reason to sanction customers from communicating with each other about their own experiences with the products for sale in the store.
If I were in a store and had a bad experience with an electronic product, and if I noticed another customer checking out that product, I’d warn him about my experience. If they called the cops on me for that, I’d make sure they made it up to me somehow. With money.
As a former Gateway Country employee, I ALWAYS offer help to people in big box stores. There was a time when I got paid decent money to make people happy, then they laid us off. I still find happiness in helping people with the confusion that is a modern huge electronics retailer.
@The Marionette: “But the person at best buy wasn’t “Driving” business away, he was only stating his honest opinion on the product and in fact had told a truth about it being marked up a lot more than the manufacturer.”
Telling people an item is a ripoff while in that store when they are potential customers is driving away business. You think a store needs a sign to say “If you detract from our business, we will ask you to leave.”? Of course not. Go into any store, any single one, if a manager sees you or is informed you are milling about telling people not to buy things they will do the same thing. That is what I think is key to realize, this isn’t something exclusive to Best Buy. Employees may normally look the other way out of apathy, but people more involved in the bottom line would not let this happen.
Anyway, all there is to be said here is that the manager may have been absolutely rude (matter of opinion, or else beyond the scope of the original post) but did nothing illegal or differently than other stores might have done.
As a last note, keep in mind the non-emergency response times for police are more than a few minutes. That means that even after this person was asked to leave, there was time for employees to call the police, the police to arrive, and come inside to resolve the situation. If you think the poster was chatting calmly with the manager and simply waiting for the police for fun, that is your business.
@Starfury:
Untrue. Retailers DO NOT have ultimate power. Try refusing service to anyone based on race, religion or gender and you will go to jail or at least have your license revoked,
What it come down to, if you don’t like the policy of the retailer, stop giving them your money and shop elsewhere. If enough people feel that way and do the same thing, the retailer will not be around very long.
I hate Best Buy.
@Buran: takes one to know one huh.
btw, this post should say Best Buy Manager, Not Best Buy. what one person does at one store is not representative of the whole company.
now it might have seem overboard as to what happened to the person, but if the manager believed that a problem might come up from this person then by all means he had the right and responsibility to ask them to leave. If she refused, then he/she went from having a case to argue to being a stubborn fool. Oh and extorting a gift card for the incident seems kinda silly doesn’t it , assuming they are going to no longer have anything to do with the store.
oh and to all this whining about “Stop blaming the buyer”,some customers are not 100% all of the time
@Riddar:
I’m sure there is more than 1 brand of that particular type of headset there. Just because product A was a ripoff, doesn’t mean product b, c, d, etc is. It would be a bit different if he were to say something as “All of the headsets here are garbage/a ripoff.” And again it’s not like he was lying about the product, it was marked up a lot higher than what the manufacturer was selling it for, so unless what he said there was untrue then he wasn’t telling any kind of lies about the product.
Reminds me of something that happened to me in NYC…I stopped at one of those perpetually “going-out-of-business” electronics stores, and saw a salesman trying to misrepresend a VCP (videocassette player) as a VCR (recorder) to a customer. The guy specifically asked if it recorded, and the salesman said “yes”, despite the fact that the box clearly said “player” and “VCP” right on it. I said to the guy “You DO realize that won’t record, right?”. The salesman went berserk and physically grabbed me to throw me out of the store. I didn’t resist, but told him if he touched me again, I’d have his ass on battery charges.
@The Marionette: “And again it’s not like he was lying about the product, it was marked up a lot higher than what the manufacturer was selling it for…”
I never said that Alex was lying, just that she was driving away business. She told the truth, of course. The store loses when that happens, though; Best Buy in particular earned a huge margin thanks to people not doing their homework.