This is Round 37 in our Worst Company in America contest, Best Buy vs CompUSA!
Inside, readers comments from previous rounds on why they hate each company…
“a no-questions-asked return policy for monitors is all Best Buy has going for it.”
“Best Buy forces people to work without adequate training to sell products and services that are virtually worthless. They sell products at exorbitant prices and give ‘coupons’ to make their dumber customers believe they’re getting such a great deal. Don’t even get me started on overpriced cables/power cords.”
“The only time you can snag a good deal is [sometimes] during a clearance or purchasing one of their loss leaders but everything else is just way overpriced.”
“their stores are crap. Most employees lack formal training, and just general customer service.”
“My personal Best Buy horror story: I bought a “new” car stereo and it came with a CD in the drive.”
“Bestbuy is the devil, I’ve been boycotting them for years now.”
“An Exorcism couldn’t save Best Buy. DIE Best Buy DIE!!!”
“I worked with Best Buy from 1999-2005. Before we became the number 1 electronics retailer about 2001-ish, it was such a great company! Not much changed between 2001-2002. But in 2003, the company really began to embrace an arrogant attitude as they were the supreme electronics store and they could do what ever the fook they wanted.”
“f I could vote a million times it would be for Best Buy every time. What can I say, the world really doesn’t need a Best Buy anymore. Unless they want to be treated like a number, lied to via duplicate pricing, and treated like a general turd if you have a valid complaint. Best Buy just plain sucks. Worst Co. evah.”
“Best Buy is the Wal*Mart of electronics for every one person who hates them there is 100 who just shop there because the stores are pretty and the prices are competitive with other retailers.”
“Best Buy screwed me by not honoring their costly extended warranty and that cost me $65 plus the headache of dealing with non responsive employees.”
“If you still shop there and expect any to actually know what they are doing, you’re brain damaged.”
“
Best Buy!
For the following reasons:
1. Fake web site
2. Raelyn’s laptop
3, Price gouging people on the Gateway P-6831FX
4. Charging more for opened products then new ones
5. Ruining Jennifer’s Super Bowl party, and being dicks about it
6. Mislabeling/switching CD’s, DVD’s, Hard Drives, etc
7. Automatically assuming their customers are thieves, liars, and brainless.
8. Refusing to honor 2 for $25 DVD sale as advertised.
9. Ruining a former manager’s chances at getting a job elsewhere
10. Charging for free repairs
11. Exploiting Heath’s death
12. and for all around just sucking ass when it comes to customer care
the list goes on, but I have to get back to work… “
“Best buy for their bait and switch tactics with regards to ad and website prices differing from the actual store prices.”
“Not only is their EXECUTIVE customer service terrible, they overcharge, manipulate, and flat out lie to even their most loyal of consumers. Having a transaction with Best Buy is like being gutted and spat on by a mugger.”
“From past experiences (even after working at a store) I’ve never been treated so badly. I have made my own personal policy to ban a store after multiple customer service/other issues (3 strikes, you’re out), and Best Buy was the first to receive that award on my behalf. They lie to you about whether items are in stock based on their perception of whether you’re buying the service plan or not, for just one example (i know this after working there).”
“One would think that such a popular store chain should have low prices due to the quantities they sell, but the just rip people off. I went to my local “mom-and-dad” so to speak computer store and their prices are much more competitive even though they don’t buy their stuff from manufacturer as cheap as Best Buy does. I hate Best Buy. This is not a good business model.”
“1) Best Buy — may they rot in hell for the busted TV they sold me. It took me nearly ONE YEAR of phone calls and house calls (and countless hours of my life I will never get back) for them to finally admit this and then replace it. Never EVER again will I buy more than a CD from this pile of dung.”
” I didn’t like the fact that their sales were borderline fraudulent, but mostly because they canned thousands of employees like they only thought of them as a one night stand, without giving them any sort of proper warning. At least PRETEND to care. How would it hurt to say,
“Hey, we’re probably not going to last another few weeks, so though it sucks you might want to start looking into other employment so that you can continue earning a paycheck. Sorry we suck so hard. We understand if you feel the urge to slack off these last few days, since you have nothing to lose. We’re cool with that, we really got nothing to lose anymore either.”
Ok, maybe not that last part, but at least give them warning.”
“Everything was overpriced and broken. Going in the store was not fun. The only time it was.. sorta fun was to see their going out of business sale, where items were 20% off.
The shelving was the only deal in the whole place, that and maybe the CompUsa sign.”
This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america
STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: DeBeers vs Verizon, Exxon vs United Airlines, Sony vs Ticketmaster, Comcast vs The American Arbitration Association
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I am currently trying to get CompUSA to fix my computer – AGAIN. I have now sent it in three times since December, and have had to wait a month each time just to get the box that they send you for you to send your laptop in (because they now no longer have any open stores). Their customer service is a joke, and no one will respond to me. I just received my computer back for the third time (they had to replace the computer part they had to previously replace b/c it was also defective) and they sent back my laptop with a screen that is coming apart, meaning that I can no longer close my laptop. I could go on and on about how bad their customer service is – but at the end of the day, right now I don’t have a laptop again and they aren’t doing anything to help me. There’s a reason they went under.
The only reason Best Buy is still in business is that people are born faster than the company can create disgruntled ex-customers.
I remember going into best buy to purchase a cable modem. CompUsa had closed, so I HAD to go there. A pretty boy sales slave gleefully greeted me, I told him to show me where the cable modems were, and to do it quick. He brought me to the motorola and linksys isles where the modems were $125-200. Were talking modems with speeds so fast they could be used at a large hospital. The thing is, no matter what the listed speed the modem is only as fast as its cable connection, most people (who shop at better buy) don’t know this. So I told him about the one I saw online for $39. He reluctantly walked me down to the back of the store, near the homeless, far away from the main modem isle, and showed me the dimly lit shelf of cheap modems. He sounded depressed as he told me ” this one is really slow” and “it won’t work with the new cable system” although on the box I could read the 100mpbs max speed and the “works with tier III” stickers. Best Buy makes its money off of the uneducated, and thats why I simply hate shopping there.