Best Buy didn’t want to honor the sale price of the 2GB flash drive Matt ordered through their website, so when Matt arrived to pick-up his purchase, the store’s assistant manager called customer service and, pretending to be Matt, asked to cancel the order. Let’s read Matt’s story and see how it violates Massachusetts law, inside…
Matt writes:
Today Best Buy had a PNY 2GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive SKU# 8202045 onsale for $2.49. I purchased 5 online for instore pickup, order was placed, charged and picked. I recieved both emails from Best Buy saying that the order was ready to pick up.
When I get to the store in Milford, Ma to pick them up I am told that the order was canceled do to a pricing mistake and that I was informed by email. My order was never canceled and when I inquired about this email that I never recieved, I was told the the Manager Josh sent them out to everyone but somehow he missed me. I told the assistant manager who was treating me like I was in the wrong that the order was placed, it was never cancelled and that I am still being charged for the items. The Flash Drives are right behind the counter and the assistant manager, Brian or bill i believe his name was, told me that he would not let me leave the store with my order.
To top it all off, he then takes my printed receipts from my emails and calls 1-800-Best Buy from the store and tells the CRS that “I” wanted to cancel my order and that it shouldn’t have been picked. After 30 minutes of arguing with this person, while he is on the phone I tell him that I wanted to talk to the CSR and he refused to let me speak. I wanted to tell the CSR that I did not want my order cancelled and that I expected my order to be honored. He gets off the phone and tells me that my CC would be credited immediately and that they would send me out a new gift card to replenish the one I used with my order. Needless to say I left that store very irate and went right home to call Customer Service and Customer Relations to complain about how I was treated.
I explain my situation to Customer Service and they tell me there is nothing they can do with my order since it has already been cancelled and to make matters worse they tell me that if it wasnt cancelled they would have been able to ship my order out to me with free shipping since the pricing mistake was on thier end. I dont understand how a company can cancel my order without even speaking to me in the first place.
I then asked to get transfered to Customer Relations to complain about how I have been treated by this store, the assistant manager and how that the store manager Josh wouldnt even come out to talk to me and just had his assistant deal with my problems. Their way of solving this Is to offer to send me out a $15 Giftcard for my inconvenience and that nothing will come of the fact that this assistant manager cancelled my online order without my consent and has the charges returned to my credit card and a new giftcard issued to me.
I feel totaly ignored by this company and that no matter how rudely I was treated it just didnt matter to them one bit and these people will still have a job come next week. Not to mention the fact that Brian took it on to himself to handle my personal finances while just pushing me aside like I wasnt even in the store. I have never been so mad as I am at this very moment.
I hope that maybe this story can get posted on your site and maybe I can get some kind of advice on how to just get my order honored. The item has been pulled off of Best Buy’s site now I notice and CSR’s are unable to even pull it up by the SKU #
Matt’s story falls under a little thing governing retail advertising called 940 CMR 6.13 (2).
6.13: Corrections
(2) It is an unfair or deceptive act for a seller, manufacturer, franchisor or distributor who discovers a material error in an advertisement subsequent to the submission date of the advertisement to fail to either honor the terms of the advertisement or to promptly correct any material misrepresentation by clearly and conspicuously disclosing the information necessary to eliminate such misrepresentation in the same advertisement or, if not feasible, in the same advertising medium, if reasonable, and as close thereto in both proximity and time as reasonably possible. Examples of misrepresentations requiring correction include, but are not limited to, information relating to prices, product descriptions or availability of products.
Best Buy had two choices: honor the deal, or, in the same medium, tell Matt that the mistake was an error. “Whoops you didn’t get our email” isn’t sufficient. Best Buy must honor the terms of the deal.
Since they did not, Matt should call Best Buy corporate and tell them he’s going to small claims court, where he’s entitled to triple damages:
If the court finds for the petitioner, recovery shall be in the amount of actual damages; or up to three, but not less than two, times such amount if the court finds that the use or employment of the method of competition or the act or practice was a willful or knowing violation of said section two.
The actual damage here was $16. With five drives and triple damages, that works out to $240. Call it the cost of terrible customer service. Wouldn’t it have been so much easier if the assistant manager simply honored the deal?
940 CMR 6.13 [The Attorney General of Massachusetts]
Chapter 93A: Section 11. Persons engaged in business; actions for unfair trade practices; class actions; damages; injunction; costs [The General Laws of Massachusetts]
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Even if BB wasn’t legally required to honor the advertised price, their method of not honoring said price is unacceptable. Frankly, I think the police should be brought in on this matter, identity theft is a crime, even if the perp’s only action is cancelling an order.
I’ve seen 1GB and 2GB no-name USB drives for as little as $10 and $5 in places. Heck, I’ve seen 1GB MP3 players for $19 so $2.49 doesn’t sound like stretch (especially if the product is slightly crappy). The “.49″ also indicates that this is a deal, right? I don’t buy anybody’s assertion that this is an *obvious* mistake.
Anyway, mistakes are for learning from, not for aggravating the consumer. If a store makes a pricing mistake like this, they should fix the ad as soon as it’s discovered and honor the price for those who already paid money for it. You lost money BB? Too bad, so sad. GET A FUCKING EDITORIAL PROCESS IN PLACE.
Hell, here’s a mother-fucking suggestion: how about a fucking 2-line piece of code that ALERTS OR FLAGS SOMEONE WITH HALF A FUCKING BRAIN if the SALE PRICE TURNS OUT TO BE LESS THAN – OH I DON’T KNOW – 50% OF THE REGULARD PRICE. Is that so fucking DIFFICULT???!
Holy SHIT, BB’s IT department should be fucking fired. At the very least, they should apologize to poor Matt here for having to deal with their management gestapo.
EDIT FUNCTION NEEDED: “REGULAR PRICE”, not “REGULARD”, although that has a bit of “asstard” to it.
What kills me about this is that the manager most likely wasn’t actually losing anything if he gave the OP the drives for $2.49. Those drives probably cost BB less than $2.49, so they were still making money on the deal. I manage a retail store and can tell you that even though we don’t have a price-match policy, I am happy to match prices in most instances, as long as I don’t lose any money on the deal. I’ll break even if I know it will make someone happy. And, as I’ve said, I’m sure BB wasn’t actually losing any money. The manager was concerned about losing profits, not losing money overall. And I’m sure the manager knows that if a customer is unhappy, on average, they’ll tell 10 people about their experience. That’s 11 people that won’t be shopping at that store anymore.
I don’t get it… These flash drives are on clearance in my store and I’ve been selling them at 2.49$ all week. I just transfered some to another store who needed them for a customer. I also don’t understand why a manager won’t want to get rid of something that’s on his End-Of-Life report. Once we have to send these back, we get pennies on the dollar. It’s ultimately way more profitable to sell the product than to send it back where it’s sold by volume. Stupid, stupid.
Sorry, OP, this is lame. Please contact the store’s GM. Also, if you have a receipt, leave a comment in the survey asking to be contacted. For one, the whole company sees this, and it is monitored by District staff who follow up on all open requests for communication.
As a last note, BBY corporate reads the Consumerist regularly as it is referenced in many communications (although not by name), so don’t be surprised if you hear from someone higher up.
Judging by the price fall of Flash Drives lately the price isn’t too far from where they should be.
We just bought a couple of 8 gig data traveler drives here for 20$ each. So 4 gigs are all over at 10$ why not 5$ or less for smaller ones.
Heck almost every training event gives out the 1gigs as freebies with company logos on them. Keep your eyes out Verisign gives away free 1gig flash drives all the time. So does Microsoft at events.
That deal with the manager cancelling the order is like SEARS telling you that the order you were told to pickup is out of stock and they cant help you. Its fraud.
V
dn’t s prblm hr. Thr ws prcng mstk. bvsly 2 GB flsh drv s bt mr thn $3.00 t BB r nywhr ls fr nw.
S thy nfrmd hm f th mstk, cncld th rdr, rfndd th mny nd wll rss th gft crd pls wth hs whnng h wll gt n ddtnl $15 gft crd.
m pstv thy hv smthng lk ‘nt rspnsbl fr prcng mstks’ n trms f s. dn’t knw why ppl xpct t gt wy wth ths crp. Mstks hppn nd ys t scks whn thy hppn bt nbdy s prfct. H’s bvsly n f ths ppl tht cn’t tk ‘n’ fr n nswr.
Mngr: Srry thr hs bn mstk, w cn’t prcss ths rdr.
cstmr: wnt my mrchnds.
Mngr: nfrtntly tht wn’t b pssbl…
Cstmr: wnt my mrchnds!
mngr: Srry…
sswp: WH! WH!
@2719:
Referring to the original poster as “asswipe” takes your credibility to zero.
@2719: True, but the merchant has to do something to show that it’s not deceptive advertising according to Mass. law quoted above. Listing the item at a price, confirming by email twice and having the customer come into the store only to deny it seems to meet the definition of a deceptive practice.
You can’t just throw up a “not responsible for mistakes” notice and get off scot free.
mariospants: Calm down. This type of furor isn’t necessary.
2719: Your post was disemvoweled for name calling towards the OP and being nasty and insulting towards them. When you comment here again, do so civilly.
@Consumerist-Moderator-Roz:
Well you’re not going to believe me but I wasn’t going to call this guy asswipe. I was doing copy and paste for ‘manager’ and ‘customer’ and missed “C” in one of them but I HAVE NO IDEA how I got ‘asswipe’ in there…
I do hate people like him.
@2719:
Did you consult OJ Simpson for advice on forming your own defense before making that post. Please stick with the topic on hand.
Consumerist needs to stop trying to practice law without a license. . . A key fact is missing: how much time transpired between the discovery of the pricing mistake and the correction of the website? The law you cite uses the word “promptly” to describe how fast it should happen. Did this discovery take place on the weekend? I think a judge would find that “promptly” would mean on the Monday following. If a reasonable person would think that that correction was prompt, then you’d have a hard time getting that law to apply.
Also, the second part of law cited refers to “actual damages.” That’s a legal term with a legal definition. There are no actual damages in that transaction. Was Best Buy being negligent in not checking their pricing was correct? Perhaps, but then a different law applies. There is no deception. Best you could hope to get is gas money. Have fun paying the filing fee and going to small-claims court to collect the few bucks.
Next time, maybe remember the saying that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Also, Consumerist: maybe retain an actual lawyer to check your work?
Next time, maybe remember the saying that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
@BrandonAbell: How would that help here? As other people have pointed out the sale price was not so low that you’d think it has to be a mistake.
@BrandonAbell:
The price was low, but it wasn’t like it was a free flash drive after rebate with no limit on the number of drives purchased. If the drive was being phased out, and was part of a clearance sale to free up inventory by offering the drive at a close-out price to get rid of non-moving inventory, what was the problem.
Can anyone at Best Buy or otherwise confirm whether or not the drives were just being considered a loss-leader or if they were truly being phased out?
Sounds like this might prompt a cause of action for IED, Infliction of
Emotional Distress – in which case you have a real good action for
civil and punitive damages . I’d probably call a lawyer right away.
@BrandonAbell: Amen. Legal terms have specific definitions for a reason. Most judges would probably laugh this out of court if you attempted to claim that there were “actual damages” involved. Same with all those still insisting “omg he stole your identity, sue!” These people have no idea what they are talking about. If the phone call truly happened as it did, it’d be fraud, not ID theft. Huge huge difference. It’s dangerous what happens when those who don’t have a firm grasp of the law try to give legal advice.
the Assistant Manager actually help
matt out, he can now buy much bigger
drive. if i had 240 dollars that would
go into a wii and brawl.
I tried to place an order with Best Buy a few years ago and was told
that customers from my zip code were not eligible to do business with
Best Buy via phone or web orders because their software did not
acknowledge the existence of my zip code.
Here are my observations from the OP, and the comments that followed:
The OP placed his order online. Availablity of the drives at the nearest location were pulled from the store’s current inventory as of that morning (maybe updated in real time) and the pricing was per what was listed on the web and possibly even in stores. If there was a mistake in pricing, it is not hard for B & M employees to go ahead and pull off the price tag which would prompt customers to contact an associate for pricing. Or was the feeling at the time this would generate too many questions?
The OP got his order confirmation and receipt for the purchase so he went down, as instructed by the site, to the local store to pick up his purchased merchandise. Any communication on this order would have come from Customer Service at Best Buy and not the store. Honestly, it’s not up to the store to notify their customers of any delays in processing or cancelation. It was an issue of a loss in profit margins that the store manager or assistant manager couldn’t swallow – most likely.
I would contact the local news outlets, possibly the AG and go from there. Have them help you work with the store’s district and regional managers to come to a resolution. At this point, you should get an apology for the treatment alone, and then should you want to the merchandise at the price you agreed to pay based on what was documented on the site. Only fair, right?
At the heart of the matter is how you, as a human being looking to make a purchase from the store, was treated. It’s awful. That should be addressed first and foremost over anything else. From there, let’s talk about how they can make things right. (The apology, getting the drives for the price advertised, etc.)
Document Document Document everything times who you were talking to, take screen shots of your order process take pictures of the store you go into, the whole 9 yards and if you need to use pictures print them on 8×10 glossy photo paper as judges love to hold pictures the other side waving papers big whoop!can you smell the winning money.
@flipx:
Documentation *is* key. A lack of it can kill you in court, as can an over-abudance. The right amount, which sticks to the facts relevant to the case at hand, will get you the results you are looking for.
@flipx:
And what?
They did not claim he never ordered the merchandise at the stated price. They told him it was a pricing error and could not honor the price.
I had a pretty terrible experience with best buy as well, this is what happens when you contact them by phone – [www.crotchmail.com]
enjoy!
Though I may agree with the consumerist here – it does seem that you are giving legal advice. Unless you are licensed to practice in the state where you are giving advice (Massachusetts here) you can be sanctioned by the bar association of that state for giving legal advice. Would recommend the consumerist be careful. There is a big difference between directing someone to the law and giving them advice such as “reader has 2 options…”
http://www.newegg.com for all your electronic needs! They have great customer service and so much better deals than Best Buy. People at Best Buy know nothing and I find myself correcting them constantly when I go there…
Best buy also likes to sell invisible items. Recently they had a store
flyer for a Garman GPS. Ordered it online for pickup. Showed as in
stock. Went to the store, not in stock. Changed online to different
store, which showed as in stock, not there. Finally I called a total of
10 stores which all showed as instock – no Garman. Decided to buy the
more expensive unit. Paid with credit card, they would not credit my
purchase with my online credit purchase. Took 7 days to get my online
purchase charged back to my card. Never again
–
John
Price mistake is a price mistake, and Best Buy is trying to catch them any way possible. In general you should not expect to cash in on price mistakes unless the company is feeling generous.
Amazon.com, who are rather infamous for their price mistakes, have a policy of not honoring them.
I once cashed in on one when Circuit City had some strange printed advertisement for a particular Wii game, I think it was “Super Paper Mario”, where it said something like “Guaranteed in stock, or get a $10 gift card.” Apparently they didn’t even get that many copies in. When I went to the customer counter, the rep acknowledged it was a mistake, then handed me a $10 GC because they didn’t have it in stock.
Am I surprised of another BEST BUY bufoon story? Read and learn people.I bought a 37″ flat panel last week end. Didn’t even entertain BEST BUY. It’s a free market, er ah was a free market. Hank Paulson might eventually make you buy there, but until then…..RUN AWAY
Your wrong the transaction took place in MA. The INITIAL transaction took place in MI legally. the INITIAL transaction was claimed to willingly be completed BY the original transactor.
THE SECOND transaction occured in MA. where the manager CALLED illegally to a CSR and ILLEGALLY impersonated the buyer and CANCELED the order.
THAT is a crime (multiple crimes) and those occured in MA. The MI transaction is irrelevant. It was completed paid for and admited by the CSR that it would have been honored. HAD it not been CANCELED.
The cancelation is the transaction of merit here and that one occured in MA. not MI. Period end of discussion.
I would take them to court. If it was 5 cents I would have taken them to court. Its a matter of principle morals and the word of law and they MUST be shown they can NOT disobey the law.
The manager QUITE LITERALLY stole his property from him. He can sue for the FULL RETAIL value of that property since its impossible to now REPLACE it at the price he acquired for it.
Price in court is determined by VALUE not price paid. If someone gives me a $200 ipod for my birthday the PRICE of that ipod is $0 I paid nothing for it. That does not mean you OWE nothing if you steal it from me. THE VALUE of the ipod is what it would cost me to go replace it. Thats $200.
If I were the judge I would not only COMPEL that store manager to PURCHASE the sticks from his own paycheck and hand them to the plaintiff but I would also award damages for the malicious method he used to steal his property. And it WAS his property. It no longer belonged to best buy as the CSR admitted they WOULD have honored the transaction. It was THEFT pure and simple.
DO NOT let this slide. TAKE ACTION. Make sure they pay and pay dearly enough to NOT screw the next person.
Next time it won’t be a 2gb flash drive.
I buy a LOT of electronics but I stopped buying from Best Buy years ago. I am a tech freak and I have to say I know more than most about TVs, Computers, Gaming Systems, Camera’s…. but I have been told misinformation almost every time that I shopped there. If you work in the computer dept., you should know more than the customers and that goes for the other depts. Not only are the sales people inept but the managers have no idea a lot of times. I have seen open box items that seem almost to have been beaten with a hammer. I have been charged double for orders, orders don’t show up late or not at all and I have had orders canceled. More problems with BB than I care to start ranting about in this thread.
I won’t pay to be treated that way. Thank you internet!!!!
I am surprised that anyone still shops at BB
I’m not sure about this,and you can tell me that im wrong if you want,i dont mind.I’m pretty sure that this is an invitation to treat,and that basically much means that the price listed is not an offer,but merely an invitation to make said offer,and the retailer can accept or reject the price offered,its to safeguard against human error.Granted,I’ve been studying economics for less than a year,and the items had already been bought,so I’m unsure if this rule applies.So yep,those are my thoughts on this.Message me if im completely out of my depth,thanks!
@Reeve:
Thank you for your kind comment and for caring about the Consumerist and its fans. But one thing needs to be made clear, no one in this website, including the posts, are giving “legal advise”. There’s a series of situations that need to converge in order for any of these comments be considered “legal advise”. But something tells me that you may already know this.
It’s true that on any situation we can be taken to court. Nonetheless, the defendant does not have to prove that (s)he didn’t do it. It is the prosecution who has to prove that the defendant did it. For this, the first thing the prosecutor has to do is prove intention, and that’s a tall order in this case.
When Matt says:
“I hope that maybe this story can get posted on your site and maybe I can get some kind of advice on how to just get my order honored.”
there are two words that are key “hope” and “kind”. They present the OP situation as one of desperation, where he asks people that may have gone through the same experience and may have had success solving it. He’s not asking for specific legal advise, and he’s not asking what are his legal options.
About these comments from Consumerist:
“Best Buy had two choices: honor the deal, or, in the same medium, tell Matt that the mistake was an error. “Whoops you didn’t get our email” isn’t sufficient. Best Buy must honor the terms of the deal.”
This has the same legal weight as if my Grandmother tells me that I committed myself to wash her dishes; and a commitment is a commitment.
Now about this:
“Since they did not, Matt should call Best Buy corporate and tell them he’s going to small claims court…
The Consumerist is not telling Matt what his legal options are and which one to take. If I tell you I’m taking you to court, it does not need to be true for me to say it (please no smart %^^&*comments here; I’ll deal with my Grandma later).
And all those Mass Law quotes, they do not imply legal advise. For that the Prosecutor will need to prove that this is information that Matt would have not adquire on his own. And I better close here because if not you all will have to do a collection to pay me for the info, lol. And no Reeve, my post does not qualify as legal advise. You didn’t ask for it, and I did not gave such, even when I am a Lawyer, oops!
It wasnt’ completely clear to me from the OP’s post, but if the Best Buy store employee *impersonated* the customer, against the customer’s wishes, would that not be a criminal act in and of itself?
Realistically, you probably won’t get a DA to prosecute the case, but if there is something criminal in the employee’s actions, you might be able to swear out a warrant and at least get the asswipe arrested, which would probably go a long way to ensure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.
When a company does business in more than one state it is subject to the laws of both states, not the laws it happens to prefer.
In theis case the bricks and mortar store is in MA, the customer is in MA and thus both come under MA law. It makes no difference what Best Buy claim, they have assets in MA and they can be sued in MA.
And once they took the money for the item the transaction was completed in any case.
I would sue in small claims court just for the pleasure of walking into the store to serve process. Shout process server very loudly and if anyone tries to block you on the way to see the manager wave the writ at them and say you are on court business. That should work.
Then the manager can explain to corporate why the store has run up a $2000 legal bill to respond to a complaint they cannot possibly win.
ordered 5 of these on Friday and received a email from BB this morning reminding me to pick them up.
To the 2 other lazy bums utilizing the in-store pickup at the Hartsdale, NY location…
Pick up your 5 x 2GB flash drives!!!
(there are 2 of you as of this afternoon XD
$16!!!!!
$8.40, local pickup, tax included:
[www.microcenter.com]
The point is this: the transaction would have been honoured by corporate if not cancelled. So please don’t witter on about how BB can welsh on a deal. They did not propose they would – the issue did not arise. BB acepted the offer, promised delivery, and claimed they would complete. This also makes the State jurisdiction issue moot.
What is the issue is that a person in direct contradiction to the expressed wish of the customer allegedly conducted two false financial transactions – one to corporate cancelling the purchase, and one to the credit card financial organisation.
Financial organisations have more extensive lobbyists than mere consumers, so the law takes a far more serious view of the alleged misrepresentation than anything else. There is leverage here, and damages do indeed reflect the VALUE of the transaction and the need to restore a person to the position as if the incident had not occurred – the full retail price.
One last note – BB should not be unduly criticised because corporate intended to honour the offer. Provided, of course, they step in and take adequate steps to ensure that this customers injuries are addressed, and that there is action put in place to prevent a repeat.
I once bought something at best buy and when I opened the box it was empty. I went back and told the store and the employees were very rude and accused me of lying. No one has ever accused me of that and the way they were treated me just really took me back. I’m embarrassed to admit they made me cry. I went home an called their customer help number and they were very nice and sent me a store credit I could use on their online store to replace the missing item I had bought and apologized for the store’s behavior. I’ve never gone in that store again but I doubt anything was done.
As always we only have the OP’s word that the cancelling email went out to everyone except him (spam filter maybe?), and that an employee impersonated him over the phone.
Just sounds too nefarious for a $10 sale.
Gosh, you’re right, seamer, Best Buy would never do something like that.
When will people learn to stop shopping at that place? They’ve done worse to me in the past, so I stopped shopping there in 2002. Their prices can be beat online, there’s no need to deal with their insults and illegal behavior.
I don’t know about you guys, but Matt needs a bailout.
I would have called the police and reported the assistant manager for identity theft.
This was obviously a pricing error and was handled very badly by the store. I don’t want to get into the manager impersonating the OP. But this sounds like someone who is really just upset that he almost got one over on the store and was busted. Sour grapes. It’s the same as if a cashier rang up $10.00 instead of $100.00 and your stance was that they made the error, tough noogies. Pricing errors are just a fact of life. Deal with it like an adult.
“Matt should call Best Buy corporate and tell them he’s going to small claims court…”
Here we go again with small claims court! This is bigger than that. As per Beneficial, Inc., what the assistant manager did is IDENTITY THEFT! Here’s the definition:
“Identity theft: When an unauthorized party fraudulently represents themselves as another party.”
And they should know. They’re members of the HSBC Group, one of the biggest banking corporations in the world.
Now, do we still want to go to small claims court?
For any of you other shoppers in Massachusetts, Microcenter is awesome. They are much more computer-oriented, have professional and cheap discount options for almost any item, lots of good open box deals, smart MIT nerds working for them, and are located on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, next to the Trader Joe’s. I LOVE that store.
Now, Newegg and Monoprice will get me better deals on specific items at times, but Microcenter is really close to them in price for no shipping, has a normal human return policy, and can answer questions for you.
I got 2 2gig SD cards at Microcenter for 10 bucks each over a year ago.
I am VERY interested in seeing how this shakes out. What a moron that manager was, this opens a HUGE can of worms that BB did not want to open. False advertising, fraud, and who knows what else. I also very much dislike this new commenting system, just my .02.
I wanted to replace a speaker in my car with a relatively-inexpense speaker Best Buy claimed they could get for me. After giving them about $100 in exchange for a receipt for a speaker and installation, waiting a week more longer I was told it would take to get my speaker in stock, and going to the store to schedule the installation, I was informed that the speaker was never available. It was not back-ordered or out of stock; it was not available before they let me pay for it and would not be available in the foreseeable future. Had I not gone into the store, Best Buy would have held my money indefinitely without ever telling me about their mistake.
Why would anyone shop at a store that falsely advertises pricing and availability then follows up with poor customer service?
I went through this exact same fiasco:
I placed an order for two of these flash drives and went in store to pick them up the next day. When I got there, the rep scanned the barcode in my e-mail, got confused, and then talked it over with her co-worker before telling me that they “didn’t have it” and couldn’t flll my order. I went home without any complaint and decided to take it up with bestbuy.com directly.
When I called their number, the CSR was very nice and offered to ship my order and no additional charge. I then receive an e-mail that the item is back ordered and will take 1-2 weeks to get to me.
At this point, I think that this is completely awful customer service and am still a little upset at the way I was treated in the store so I call up bestbuy.com to see if I can get the store order fulfilled in store. I talked to some other nice CSR who said that it would really be at a manager’s discretion if they would give me my item or not.
So…I walk into best buy and pull the item off the shelf myself to show that, yes, they have over 70 in stock. I walk up to the customer service/pick up desk and ask to talk to a manager. The lady that turned me away the previous day called him over and they talked about how they did not have to honor the price on their website due to the fine print. The manager didn’t know he was having this conversation in front of the customer (me) and looked kind of sheepish when he realized this. Despite their conversation, he finally said they would take care of it and gave me the two flash drives that I picked off the shelf for $2.49 each.
Also, there was no cancellation e-mail from best buy. They would have filled the order and shipped it if you called them directly. The store manager may have received an e-mail regarding the item but the customers probably did not.
Lesson learned: Deal with 1888bestbuy directly.
Also, just as I am typing this, I get an email from best buy: How was your store pick up experience? How ironic.
As I referenced in the conversation on CC’s CEO’s departure, I am getting the sense that BB corporate is doing the same thing–it’s just that they’re better at attracting the masses to their storefront. Hopefully BB will learn from lesson that is about to be taught.
Have them served at the same store where they treated him like this. As seen here on Consumerist it’s likely they won’t respond and he’ll get a judgment in his favor.
Oh, and Best Buy is still the worst company I have ever dealt with in my entire life.
I ordered four of these drives and received the “there are none in stock at your local store for pickup email”. After dealing with multiple levels of transfers through Best Buy’s phone system, I was told that the item did not exist in their system, and that they could offer no substitutes. I was offered the opportunity to cancel my order or…nothing.
I canceled the order, having wasted enough time chasing $10 of flash drives. I received a cancellation email…and now I’ve received another reminder to call them or they’ll cancel my order. That takes skill!
Bestbuy.com Conditions of Use give them the right to revoke any offer due to pricing error even if it’s already charged.
Errors on Our Site
Prices and availability of products and services are subject to change without notice. Errors will be corrected where discovered, and Best Buy reserves the right to revoke any stated offer and to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions including after an order has been submitted and whether or not the order has been confirmed and your credit card charged. If your credit card has already been charged for the purchase and your order is cancelled, Best Buy will issue a credit to your credit card account in the amount of the charge. Individual bank policies will dictate when this amount is credited to your account. If you are not fully satisfied with your purchase, you may return it in accordance with Best Buy’s Return Policy.
I am a Best Buy employee who grew up in that town, have visited that store, the store I work in is out of State but I am shocked to hear about the lack of customer service that was provided, every piece of training has been that if the customer is told something by a representative of the store (i.e sales associate, or website) that the store has to honor it. I am shocked to hear that this was treated this way especially knowing the exact amount the store pays for each drive. I am going to ask my managers at my store, if they have heard about this and what they will do to make sure it doesn’t happen in our store. This isn’t just a case of the customer being mistreated but this is a case of the customer’s rights being violated.
Wow, this is silly…if you read in one of the posts this product does not exist…this is just another way to make best buy look bad. I would love to hear what store it is, because this is a very broad description of what happened, and im sure there is more to this story.
Actually, it would be more like $37 and change.
He paid $2.49 per flash drive, not $16.