Best Buy doesn't deserve customers anyway.

The Premier Silver tier DOES have a 45 day return policy and no restocking fees for all items in the store.

Haven't bought anything from Best Buy since last Christmas (solely for gift shopping) and I really haven't missed it.

So...why did I receive the Elite status email again this morning?

I got the email also. I had heard about it, it just ticked me off that they sent me the email and got my hopes up. They should give everyone a trial of the premier or something or give me a coupon for like triple points.

Funny, I got that same email welcoming me to the Premier black membership.

When I clicked the link in it, it gave me the same "Im sorry you are too poor and dont spend enough money at best buy to qualify for another useless rewards zone level for people who pay over priced prices in store, instead of buying cheaper online."

Whats really funny is that after they told me I didnt qualify, they sent me another email welcoming me to premier black again.

Heh, I should have known it was a mistake, I almost never shop at BB anymore. I still haven't gotten the whoops email though, I wonder if they're going to send it out to everyone who got the first one.

@ddmeightball: Hey, at least it told you something, when I clicked on the link it just gave me the "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about" response, I'm apparently too poor and spend to little to even have them acknowledge me ;-p

I too have noticed I just don't shop there nearly as much as I used to. I remember years ago I could spend a couple of hours in there with a gift card burning a hole in my pocket. Now I can't seem to find anything I want, or that I can't get cheaper at Target. What happened??

Yep, I got another of the Premier Black e-mails this morning as well...way to clarify things, Best Buy.

I just got my first email inviting me to Black Premier also. Clicking on the link to find my Concierge gave an error.

I'm currently a Premier Silver and it expires in like 2-3 years. Crazy. (and no I don't shop there a lot)

Nice to know they don't value my money as much as that of other customers. Oh well, this makes shopping around a whole lot easier.

How do we know that this email wasn't accidently sent out as well?! But in all seriousness, I am a proud member of the "I'm not a reward zone member because I don't like Best Buy targeting me based on buying habits" club. I urge you all to join. :)

Why does BB have a different policy for some customers and not for others?

Sounds racist to me. If you're black, you get 45 days to return something.

Considering that they combined both of my reward zone memberships "as a courtesy" for me... which voided $40 worth of points, of which they gave me $20 back, I was not about to hop on this. 45 day return policy or not.

I'm usually the LAST person to consider stuff racist but I kind of had to snicker a little bit at the somewhat politically incorrect "premiere black concierge" bit.

I use the Reward Zone simply to pick up the loss leaders on my way home from work.

If I didn't work a mile from one (and it being right on the road home) I would save my gas and buy online.

They offered me something and then reneged on it. They should at least give me a year silver membership or something. I don't shop at Best Buy often but hey it might encourage me to. Or not. Just saying...

So let me get this right; if Best Buy deems you as a good customer (ie: spend enough money to "earn" reward points) then they'll extend their return policy to 45 days which is still considerably less than the majority of their competition?

Oh Best Buy, you sure know how to treat a guy!

Y'know, the sad thing is after I got that e-mail I actually considered dusting off my Reward Zone card and heading over to Best Buy to pick up some stuff. I'm not a fan of Best Buy, no, but I liked the idea that Best Buy was potentially polishing their customer service and trying to win me (a former long customer) back. But then I found out it was a goof on their part, and... yeah.

I guess I retain my "I hate Best Buy" policy. It's the only store I've ever gone to that's refused to sell me an item I wanted to buy.

Best Buy gets a bad rap over a lot of things, this program doesn't deserve to be one of them. I'm a silver member and over the past year I've purchased 4 appliances and a 60" television with them. Their prices on the stuff beat anyone I could compare with, the delivery experience went very well and I got 0% financing on everything for 2 years. A couple of the items had lower prices within the 30 day window and Best Buy gave us the refund with no hassles what so ever.

I now see they've upped the price-match and return policy to 45 days for their better customers at around the same time that Amazon has TAKEN AWAY the price guarantee completely. Best Buy gets a lot of points from me on this one.

Also, with all the purchases we made we received $125 in gift cards from Best Buy for being Reward Zone members. You can't beat that.

Now, if you need to go into the store and have an employee explain to you what product is best for you then it's a whole new game and very hit and miss. But, if you're an informed consumer (and aren't we all here?) and you know what you want and the price you should be paying Best Buy can offer some great deals and often some darn good service.

I'm with Preyfar on this one...the two (now junk) e-mails I received telling me of my new status had warmed me up to the idea of buying things there more often.

Instead, they've just made me an unwilling member (twice in 24 hours) of an incompetence SNAFU.

They get what they deserve (which is the utter lack of my business whenever possible).

I don't have anything against Best Buy - they run clean, well-lighted, fully stocked stores, ones that have been the point of origin for many electronics and software that I've brought home (much to the dismay of my wife and glee of our two boys).

But don't promise better customer service to elite customers while many customers may still run into problems finding basic answers to product questions on the store floor, as I noted painfully last week in this post [blogs.msdn.com]

Unless, of course, BB *meant* to generate all the PR.

You're just not cool enough to hang out in Best Buy's super-secret tree fort. Sorry.

I managed to get the "sorry" email without the "invite" email. I guess they threw a wider net on the "sorry" email....

Aw, shucks. I got that email right after Citi offered me some super-cool (and yes, they used the word "elite") black diamond card. Is black the new platinum maybe?

I got the emails too, and can I just say, I was tempted to think that BB actually deserved a little of my business because it looked like they were obviously trying to provide better customer service and more consumer-friendly policies. But it's almost comical to me that it was all just a mixup! Sorry, customers, you are not valued after all! Yeah, I'll be buying my 4 gigs of RAM on newegg now, BB, thanks for helping me clear up any cognitive dissonance over my decision, by the way.

@DarrenO: I would still rather go with Costco if I'm buying from a big box store. Any day. Much better prices, actually friendly staff, and even with their "tightened" return policy of 90 days, they still beat BB's very BEST return allowance by 100%.

whats the elite status anyway? Is that where they stop ripping you off?

Do i need to say more?

"you have inadvertently and inaccurately received this email..."

shouldn't that be "we have inadvertently and inaccurately sent this email..."? i didn't do nuthin', so why are you blaming me for this shit?

I cannot stand big box stores anymore.

The whining children with blank looks on their faces screaming for the newest music video game.

The general disinterest of the employees.

The managers who push Extended Service Plans as if Armageddon was coming...

I'll stick with Micro Center, thank you very much...

(and if you don't know what Micro Center is, I feel bad for you)

Elite status at Best Buy? Talk about slow learning customers. . .

Remember Best Buy is like Groundskeeper Willie: "Willie knows, Willie don't care."

I'll stick with amazon prime. I like not having to actually go anywhere and have the prices be cheaper and taxless, especially in Chicagoland with our ridiculous sales tax hike.

@Parapraxis: My local micro center is the place to go for nerdgear... but they are just as disinterested in helping me as the guys at best buy, unless you have something in your hands.

they always try to put their commission sticker on merchandise i picked up myself. nah brah, not getting commission on something i read up on myself before walking in the door.

@kimsama: I would too for items Costco has. In this case none of the appliances or television I wanted were carried by the nice folks at Costco.

Best Buy does not care about Premier Black customers!

what i am curious about is what really is premier black?

though i doubt anyone who qualifies for it posts here.

@StartingAces:

Which one? the ones here in Tustin, CA are pretty awesome. haven't seen those commission stickers in the past five years, though.

@DarrenO: You know it. Exactly.

So, I never got that email... and then got a second duplicate one about the elite status. I wonder if this means I actually do qualify for this.

I didn't get a retraction email, but I spend a lot at Best Buy.

The 45 day return policy doesn't matter to me because I don't buy things that I don't plan on keeping/using (just one of my freaky "money-saving" strategies). The last time I returned something was probably 2002 and that was really just an exchange on a broken item.

They messed up my rewards account anyways. I had one and then best buy told me something was wrong with it and reset it up. Now it seems I have two accounts on the same card or something because thats what I was told last time I was in there and to call rewards and clear it up.

After Best Buy's CEO said most of their customers were "devils" that BB didn't want shopping there, why would anyone spend a penny with that place. Best Buy is NEVER the cheapest price on anything.

Start using Live Cashback and other cashback sites to find your items and save big bucks. You'll see how horribly Best Buy stacks up on prices. And don't get me started on their customer service.

I got my invitation to Premiere Black _after_ they started retracting it from everyone else... and I haven't received any sort of retraction since.

The amusing part of this is that I think I've spent maybe $20-40 at BB in like the last 4 years. Apparently "extremely infrequent customers" are the target market for Premiere Black. :)

@Parapraxis: Cambridge, MA.

However the Trader Joe's in that lot is stellar.