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)
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I used to shop at Best Buy.. that is typical of how they treat people.
You should never buy electronics at a brick and mortar anyway.. maybe you can window shop there to see first hand what types of product are available, but you should then look it up on Amazon or eBay.
[improveverywhere.com] <– this Best Buy prank will crack you up.
Best Buy should be forced to repay the municipal government money spent on gas and wages by sending the police on such a meaningless call.
This was a waste of tax-dollars and resources. What if someone else really needed help from these police and they were busy at Best Buy?
Okay.. I work at Best Buy myself and while this manager was obviously over reacting, when you walk into the store you have to be aware that we can refuse service to whomever we please. And to all of you people who sit there saying that Best Buy is a horrible company and they don’t deserve to be in business, grow up. Best Buy is not an awful place.. Yes, sometimes people make mistakes and over react to idiotic things such as this, but do you honestly believe that we are open JUST to piss people off? If yes, you are an idiot. There are BEYOND enough people who love Best Buy and frequently shop there to keep us in business and honestly, we don’t need to care about the occasional customer who leaves proclaiming the famous words… “I’M NEVER SHOPPING HERE AGAIN!”
As for the whole “gift card” thing, good luck. I always find it amusing how so many people expect to be compensated by monetary ways, as though having a gift card with 50 bucks on it to a store you claim to be extremely dissatisfied with will help you recover from your extreme humiliation.
@jenorth: I have an extremely difficult time believing that ANY Best Buy associate would tell you that a combo VHS/DVD machine would play Blu-Ray discs… That is absolutely not possible and nobody working there would give you such information.
@Starfury:
Really? Does that mean that they can refuse service to someone because they’re black? Or because they’re Christian? Or because they’re a woman?
All you folks who think that stores can do whatever they want, please shut the hell up.
@TinyBug: With exceptions to the obvious (race, religion, gender, and so on), a company is allowed to without service to anybody. Notably, a food establishment was allowed to keep a policy of requiring orders be made in English. Same vein, a manager is then allowed to ask you to leave the property.
I think some of you are reading this the wrong way. I, along with apparently most of our commenters, also went to law school; and I agree that this is not a question of First Amendment rights, nor do I dispute that a manager should be able to call the police on a customer who refuses to leave the store.
What bothers me is that although Alex didn’t leave the store when asked, it was because he was on hold with corporate, trying to resolve the problem (as it turned out, the Best Buy manager was wrong, and Alex was right). Legally speaking, yes, the manager can refuse service, and yes, the manager can ask a customer to leave. But that’s terrible customer service, and now 150,000 people know about it.
I had this very same happen to me back in 2002-2003 at Emeryville, California’s Best Buy. I was looking for some gadgets on my lunch break from work. I overheard a young sales lady trying to sell an older Lady a Toshiba PDA priced at $549 dollars. Obviously she (customer) was going to get ripped off. Why need to carry a cell phone and a PDA!
When the sales lady walked away I then asked her (customer) politely what she needed it for. She was a Realtor and need a way to keep her contacts names & numbers. I was using a Blackberry & showed it to her. I mentioned its abilities and uses which might just suit her needs.
Next thing I know the sales lady got the manager. The manager said to me “We don’t allow soliciting in the store.” I said I was a consumer who was just sharing my thoughts. I said, “Why can’t I mention it?” She said “We don’t sell that product in this store! I even mentioned to the sales lady I am not trying to lose her sale! If the lady (realtor) wanted the product she could still purchase it, I was just giving her other options to explore!
They proceeded to ask me to leave. I left due to the fact I needed to get back to work! I just couldn’t believe that this even occurred! I too felt my “freedom of speech” was squelched Irregardless if the “right” stopped at the entrance of the business!
If I walked into a grocery store that didn’t have Kosher products and overheard someone ask a clerk for that said product and was told they didn’t stock Kosher foods, why is it wrong to mention to the customer where they could find such things?
1) Contact a lawyer.
2) Contact your local tv news, and your local newspaper.
3) Send formal letters to BB, and your state Attorney General, while cc’ing your lawyer.
In NJ it is called defiant tresspass and the statute reads:
N.J.S.A. 2C:18-3(b):
b. Defiant trespasser. A person commits a petty disorderly persons offense if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place as to which notice against trespass is given by:
(1) Actual communication to the actor; or
(2) Posting in a manner prescribed by law or reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders; or
(3) Fencing or other enclosure manifestly designed to exclude intruders.
But according to the statute the affirmative defenses are:
d. Defenses. It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that:
(1) A structure involved in an offense under subsection a. was abandoned;
(2) The structure was at the time open to members of the public and the actor complied with all lawful conditions imposed on access to or remaining in the structure; or
(3) The actor reasonably believed that the owner of the structure, or other person empowered to license access thereto, would have licensed him to enter or remain, or, in the case of subsection c. of this section, to peer.
I would say that section number 2 of the affirmative defenses actually apply to Alex here. Being it was admitted to her that there is no policy with regards to her advising another customer of the excessive pricing for the product at Best Buy. Even if there was a policy Best Buy policy is not considered law here in NJ ( no matter how much they think it is ). Maybe someone should mail Tom a copy of NJ’s criminal code!!
This is also the fault of the police. Without a valid reason for giving the boot, this is just a frivolous call to the cops, and the manager should have been fined for such. I have no problem with the request for a gift card. He’s not mad at BB per se, but rather at that asshole manager. And yes, while the manager may have the legal right to refuse service to a customer “for any reason”, this is a NATIONAL chain store with CLEAR WRITTEN STORE POLICY and this manager was a lying piece of shit mad at losing a commission.
Folks, BB is a piece of shit company – if we boycott them, they will fall. Join me and thousands of others who are sick and tired of being played for fools by BB employees.
eofm.
Well, as a line-level Best Buy employee (of several years) myself, I think I have some interesting perspective on this guy’s letter.
The first thing I noticed is that he said he came in around 9 pm to look around. I checked the date, it was a Wednesday, the store closes at 9. By the time he ran in the store and looked around for a bit, the store had probably closed. Also, I’ve dealt with many customers who want to go around the store telling all our customers what they should and shouldn’t buy, and most of them have no idea what they’re talking about and have some sort of vendetta against a brand or type of product (mostly because they talk more than they listen and can’t figure out how to use it correctly). Sometimes, they actively interrupt others’ conversations to do it, and this guy strikes me as that sort of guy. Also, he wrote the entire thing in an attempt to find out how to get a big gift card from us – so we know he’s a complete jackass.
So here’s what we’ve got: a guy in the store after hours, on a business’s private property, probably attempting to impede that business from operating normally and refusing to leave. I’ve seen more than a couple customers like this, and they always try and make a scene, usually hoping that the employees will get embarrassed and offer him a gift card to shut up so he doesn’t scare away other customers.
We’re not allowed to physically touch any customers, in any way, so our only recourse for a customer refusing to leave the premises is to have the police escort them out. Don’t believe for a second that this guy was being polite or reasonable, as much as he tries to paint himself that way.
And we check receipts at the door for two reasons: lots of people try to steal things by putting them in bags and lots of times the lazy inventory guy pulls the wrong product and checking the receipt against the product is our last chance to catch it before a customer takes the product home, saving everyone an extra headache.
So did the associates act perfectly? No, but don’t blame us for the occasional jackass that comes in the store and makes a scene, either.
The store manager considered her to be trespassing after she was asked to leave and refused. While it was handled legally – was it the /best/ (or even mildly good) way to handle the situation? Of course not.
But let’s think about this for a minute; if the store manager had above average intelligence or decision making ability, would they be a Best Buy manager in the first place? I gotta go with ‘no’ on this.
If you go to the circus; you’re gonna run into some clowns.
Sometimes when I dislike my job I just think what it would be like to do public relations for Best Buy and suddenly I feel better.
You can forget about hearing back from Worst Buy. Their policy these days is to have one of their CS robots pretend to take down a complaint, which promptly ends up in the circular file, to make you THINK they are doing something about your problem. They will NOT give out DM’s contact info. It’s hillarious. You call the store, they refer you to the 800 number, you call the 800 number, and either they refer you to the store, or else say they don’t give that info out. Please. BB could not care LESS about CS. They are a joke. You infringed on their right to rip off the customer. I mean, they spend millions advertising their low prices, and then YOU waltz in and prove them wrong. IMAGINE how that must make the little minimum wage morons feel!
First: Were 1st Amendment rights violated? Probably not. Only a gov’t can violate that, not individuals or businesses.
Second: Was she trespassing? Definitely not. Unless she was being disruptive, doing something illegal OR VIOLATING A POSTED OR GENERALLY UNDERSTOOD POLICY(No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service is understood in the city but has to be posted if your business is on the beach), the manager(who is NOT the Owner OR Policy Maker) really had no right to ask the person to leave what may be consider “private property” BUT, and a BIG BUT, is in the business of being accessible and open to the PUBLIC. Alex is public.
You can always go in and fill out an employment application. At least in California you can not prohibit someone from filling out an application and you are required to accept one if offered.
You will drive that guy crazy. Especially if you fill it out very slowly. You could even bring a clipboard and wander the store while filling it out.
If he asks you to stop, you may have a case with the EEOC. If you claim ADD (which is why you need to walk while filling out the application) you may be able to wrangle in a good Americans with Disabilities Act discrimination suit. That is if you have time to really screw with this guy.
Good luck and have fun.
Thank you so much to all the helpful legal eagles who have pointed out (ad nauseam) that the Best Buy manager was within his legal rights to ask Alex to leave and then call the police to enforce this edict. That might even be relevant if Alex was taking Best Buy to court; as things stand, though, it’s completely beside the point. The point is, this manager acted like a little martinet, and deserves to be held up to ridicule and contempt for it.
And, to those who say that you shouldn’t shop at Best Buy and that, if you do, anything that happens to you is your fault: that’s all well and good if you live in an area with multiple sources for electronic equipment. When Best Buy is the only store of this nature within reach, and waiting for an item to be delivered is not a viable alternative, that is perfectly useless advice.
I am not sure why people go to Bestbuy for anything? I hate their stores and Circuit City too. Must be a lot more morons out there than I thought.
Anyway, what this guy did wasn’t wrong. So he stopped a sale from someone selling a potentially shitty device. People talk all the time.
What this should tell people is that Bestbuy is into ripping people off and will call the police in to defend their slimy tactics…
People should wake up and stop buying from these large box stores and just buy online from somewhere else and probably be a lot cheaper!
I would make a bigger stink about to just this website. Obviously informed people don’t shop their only sheep…
@jjtal:
What can’t you buy these days that can’t be delivered to your door?
@yellowsub: Practically nothing. My point wasn’t that you couldn’t get it online; it was that sometimes you can’t (or just don’t want to) wait for it to be delivered. Another consideration that I didn’t mention but that enters into the equation for some of us is that sales tax paid to brick & mortar merchants goes to help the revenue base of our communities, while shipping charges paid to online merchants do not. It’s often a wash as a percentage of the total cost, so why not spend it where you might recoup some return on your inveestment?
What a shocker. People are yet again defending Best Buy for horribly mistreating a customer. This time for helping out his fellow man. And not even that, but trying to make up scenarios to make the customer seem like the bad guy.
Unbelievable.
Don’t give your comments to customer service over the phone. Rather, send
your comments via a handwritten letter to the CEO and mail it to the CEO’s
mailing address. The CEO won’t answer it personally, of course, but they
will usually send it to their assistants to take care of. Most people never
do this, so when someone DOES send something to the CEO, it usually gets
noticed pretty quickly.
I work at Best Buy and I have never in the years I have worked there seen anything like this happen. I believe in logic and this manager didn’t use this. This manager is probably not working at Best Buy anymore because of this. Best Buy likes to take care of their customers. I have seen many managers go for reasons less than this where customers were involved. I am just a full-time associate while going to college and if I ever saw conversation like that. I would approach the customer asked where he saw it at verified that it was a retailer and matched the price as it states in our policy. It sounds like they forgot this rule. But don’t say that all associates don’t take care of customers and that they don’t know their product. Some might not but to say all is just a poor statement because you haven’t met all of us. And Best Buy does good stuff too my store single-handedly raised over 50 thousand dollars this year in money that Best Buy will donate to the organization we volunteered 40 hours at. So go easy on us we care too.
First: Let’s not blame the victim; Best Buy is clearly out of line here.
Second: No, stores in NJ do NOT have the “right” to refuse service to anyone they please. If you don’t believe me, check with NJ’s Attorney General. So long as you are not creating a disruption, they cannot eject you (nor can they eject you preemptively for previous behavior).
Third: Yes, you DO have First Amendment rights in a store. A large store is not exactly private property — it is “quasi-public.” Heck, the Supreme courts of NJ and the US have both upheld the right to hand out literature at malls, because malls are essentially public venues on private property.