You don’t become the number one retailer of electronics to American consumers without getting a few things right awesome, as Daniel shows us in this letter of compliment he sent The Conglomerist about a recent experience at Best Buy:
I stopped in the other night because my old HD DVD player died so I went in hoping to get a deal. On the shelf I found 2 open box Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD players. Looking around I found the department head Derrik and we went back over to the DVD player aisle.He tells me that since they’re open box he’ll sell one for $99 which, IMO, isn’t bad it was $30 off their normal price and $20 off Amazon’s price…
So I bit. He headed off to find the remote and power cable, but he came back empty empty handed and expected me not to be interested. I told him I’d still buy one if he could go any lower since I had plenty of power cables and I’ve had a Logitech Harmony remote. So he took it down to $50.
Still missing an HDMI cable he was quick to recommend me one, but I told him no thanks and I’d just grab one off monoprice.com, which he said he was well aware of since he read about them on Consumerist.
I know Best Buy gets a pretty bad rap around here, but I’ve always had good experiences with my local store. So I just wanted to pass this along.
Thanks!
Daniel
That’s great to hear, Daniel! I hope you also bought the extended warranty to show your appreciation to the Derrik. The one part where you fall down is the HDMI cable. I’m going to go out on a limb and figure that Derrik probably recommended you buy a Monster Cable. Shame on you for buying one of those cheap knockoff cables on Monoprice.com. There’s two reasons why Monster Cables are awesome for your home theater system:
1) The ends are covered in gold. Gold makes everything better. You should see what it does for bricks.
2) The price. The higher an item’s price, the higher its quality.
Irregardless of your blunder, congrats on your successful purchase and the excellent customer service provided by the Best Buy associate who, by giving you the discount, might just as well have cut out his heart and given it to you on a golden platter. Don’t be alarmed by the macabre imagery, BBY employees undergo special training that allows them to regrow their hearts overnight. That’s how they’re able to care so much.







I thought the part about growing a new heart because they care so much was brilliant!
It’s funny that everyone seems to think this story is fabricated simply because something positive happened at Best Buy.
This is the BEST April Fools joke all day! Thanks!
the picture ALONE was worth the click.
gold makes everything better~
@mgy: The commenter takes himself too seriously meethinks.
@humorbot: I’m guessing alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol.
And free Monster Cables.
This april fools was much better than the conglomerist one. props.
@alphafemale: I love using “irregardless”. But that’s still better than a friend of mine who used to refer to his “supposable” thumbs which made him superior to the lowly animals. He loved to see who would get bent out of shape about that.
Ba dum pish.
Hmmm…. I smell either A) A really well played April Fools Day slaughter, or B) A BBY salesman writing a good PR BBY story.
How whimsical.
@Gev: But recycled horse is great for the skin!
@A.W.E.S.O.M.-O: or the phrase “in actuality”.
Ya know from his sales managers point of view he did everything wrong, and if you submitted a compliment to corporate he will probably get chewed out for it.
He discounted an open box item below margin.
He didn’t counter your comment to purchasing an accessory (HDMI cable) elsewhere.
And from the looks of it he probably wasn’t pushy with a product warranty coverage.
He should have tried to up-sell you to a combination Blueray/HD-DVD player or at least get you to buy a warranty since you said your prior one broke.
@EmperorOfCanada:
HAHAHA I was just thinking that dude…It totally looks like a scene from Retail Musical to me!
@HannerHearse: The entire internet is useless today. I hate April Fool’s.
@dmk2113: Acceptable by who, exactly?
The word he needs is “irrespective.” Use it, love it, make it yours.
@zara_h: ILU Chad Steelgate … with a name like that I bet you get all the conglomeration loving chicks
Ohhh yeahhhh, I’d cong the hell out of his lomeration.
@HannerHearse: Haha
@A.W.E.S.O.M.-O: If “irregardless” becomes a real word, I’ll have to start using “disregardless”.. just for fun.
Most of you couldn’t give a care less but I think we are all in agreeance that irregardless of whether or not “irregardless” is a word, if it is good enough for Chad Steelegate then evidentially it is good enough for me. So maybe it’s time we get orientated to the Conglomerist way .
@HannerHearse: The blog is now called Conglomerist. Please refrain from using the term The Consumerist. We have acquired exclusive copyright over that term and object to your nonauthorized use.
Irregardless!
@rosiered: haha! i can’t say anything better than that.
@AbsoluteIrrelevance: Definitely. Everytime I go to Best Buy, I see employees jumping up and down, just dying to help poor confused customers.
I think if any company really wanted to make a statement in today’s economy they should have topless female workers. Imagine the amount of sales they would have from males of all ages! HAHA
Seriously… It would be killer!
I actually got treated decently after a a screwup by best buy about 9 months ago. I ordered two 25 dollar gift cards online from them (I converted over two 25 dollar simon gift cards I had got recently in an online promotion into two 25 dollar best buy cards)…. and they didnt arrive. I called best buy cust. service & told them i didnt recieve the cards I bought. They cancelled the old cards, sent me the new ones & as an apology they gave me a twenty dollar online credit ($10 for each card). I used them to buy a video game that was about $22 shipping included.
Not bad.
the black guy in that photo looks EXACTLY like the guy who stole my bike in 2002 and totalled it.
this is not an april fool’s joke.
the city attorney decided not to press charges so I went after him in small claims for the damage… got a judgment and they suspended his license until he started making payments.
@Crazytree: erm… thank you for sharing?
@ManPurse: The term they (Scientology) use is actually “Suppressive Person”, and they do use the acronym “SP” too….