UPDATE: Best Buy Goes Above And Beyond To Make Up For Selling Busted Camera As New
Oh this is too classic. Michael’s grandma bought a digital camera from Best Buy that turned out to already have its seal broken, be filled with someone else’s pictures, and was defective. At first Best Buy said they would exchange it and give her a 10% discount. Then they decided that the customers had busted the camera and insisted the photos on the camera were “demo photos.”
When Michael tried to escalate to Best Buy corporate, Best Buy said the manager had told them already that the camera was “clearly damaged” and therefore they could do nothing. There was no clear damage on the camera except for the most minor of scuff marks.
Then, the smoking gun. Michael found in a separate folder on the camera images of what very much appears to be a Geek Squad team member. Oopsie poopsies. All of a sudden now the Best Buy manager is very eager to help him out. Read the full story at Michael’s blog.
It’s Time For An Apology
The Best Buy Sometimes Isn’t [101 Dead Armadillos]
BEST BUY YOU F*CK*NG LIARS!
So I feel your pain, but let’s take a look at this from both perspectives. Retail is one of those jobs like being a waiter. You have to experience it to see how it feels to be in that role. Each and every day customers come in and try to deceive retailers for various reasons. This costs them money. Even Walmart of all people have changed their return policy because of this. Several things could have caused the experience:
-How did they act towards the employees?
-Was the store consistent or did it change?
-If you bought the camera “new” then why wait so long to try and return it?
-A 1/1/08 date is the default date on new cameras
-Maybe those pictures of the agent were from where they tested the camera when it was brought in to see if it was working
-Mistakes happen – maybe it was not intentional. I actually doubt it was.
-Maybe a customer bought it, opened it, used it, and resealed it and they had no idea.
Be realistic before you go mud-slinging at people just because they make you mad one time. Think about all of the times you shoped there and got something good. Why do people never spend time writing about the good service they receive.
This is ridiculous.
I go to BB as a last resort. As in no one else has what I want. And if an employee comes over and tries to help me, I tell them I’m just looking and I’ll come find them if I have a question. If they get persistent, I leave, go look at something else for a while, and come back when they’re not looking. I only engage them when I need them to fish something out of a case.
That said, I had a very good experience dealing with an employee working in the camera department. I had done research to pick between three models, and brought in printouts of the information on the three, hoping to resolve the questions remaining and choose a camera. When I got there, some of the information on display conflicted with the information I had downloaded. The employee didn’t know the answer, but went online to some internal resource, and got the answers, which proved correct. (She gave me copies of this information, too, so if it had proved false, I had evidence.) It helped me choose the right camera. And it wasn’t broken or used. ;o)
OK this is nuts… so I just bought an Acer computer from Best Buy a few days ago. I tried to get it up and running but came face to face with the blue screen of death every attempt. I went to return it and they said “So you bought this as an open box item right?” TO which I replied “no, I paid the new full price”. TO which she brilliantly commented “well thats funny because there is a service taq on the box because it was returned before”.
Hmmmm, nice. Selling me an open box as new? Sweet best buy. And this was in one of the top stores in Los Angeles. Im wondering whats going on after reading this story…
I stopped buying from Best Buy a long time ago. Their markup alone is ridiculous, even on small items. Im not even sure why people still choose to shop there after all the bad press they have gotten over the years. They have shown over time that they only are interested in your money, not your customer satisfaction.
We should all stand up to Best Buy on this issue. I think they need to know they cannot bully customers, especially old and frail ones like a grandmother.
Is there a number we can all call to complain to Best Buy / Better Business Bureau or an email address of a senior Best buy employee?
And then people wonder how come I don’t recommend, or ever go into a Best Buy store anymore… And to think that Best Buy used to be my favorite place to visit, back when my family first moved to the States – wow how much things have changed over 10 years!
Last week I bought a lap top at Best Buy, and a few days later the power cord simply died. So I went back to Best Buy and they opened a sealed lap top box and gave me the power cord, putting my broken one into the box. I asked what they would do with that box and was told it would be sent back to the manufacturer as “defective.”
Hmmm, now I’m wondering if the lap top with the broken power cord will make its way back to the shelf to be sold again. I hope not.
I tried to return a laptop to Best Buy because it was far slower than I had anticipated and was worried they’d charge me $50 in restocking fees. But nope, they asked why I was returning it (“too slow for me”) and took it back and refunded me, no questions asked. This is an individual asshole problem. BB is responsible for filtering out the assholes.
Wow.. Well the fact that the camera was resold was definately a mistake…but anyone who read the article can see that the author is not very smart at all. The author claimed the camera was malfuntioning, yet the pictures that were “recovered” of both the previous user and geek squad came out with perfect quality. Which begs the question: What happened to the camera in between then? Was it dropped? Out of frustration did someone hit it? And can as far as evidence, I believe the camera can be dropped on a carpeted surface and leave no evidence and still be defective. In fact, if it were dropped on carpet, wouldn’t it only leave minor scratches?
Best Buy reselling the camera as new was definately a wrong move, but don’t be so quick to judge the rest of the story until you look at the big picture.
OMG! I keep praying that BB goes the way of CC … one less predator to prey on unsuspecting consumers!
Just sent a “contact us” memo to BB about how disgusted I am by them! It only takes one time to do it twice!! Never again am I shopping at BB again! Thank you for posting this.
You buy something, leave the store, come back. You could of claim anything.
If you went in there with NO proof for an exception, then what is there to say? If you brought back proof, explain in a civil way. Things can happen smoothly. Calling corporate, escalating the matter would delay resolution. Everything needs to be investigated before you will get answer.
Next time, check the box before leaving the store. Life lesson for you. Policies and rules are put in place to prevent scams. Yes, you are not a person who would do this, but how can a store tell?
Two things.
One, I am not some fake person hiding behind a facade of some bullshit screen name in the effort of bashing someone.
Secondly, I am a real-life Best Buy employee. Yes, there are assholes in our company. But they exist in every company. And always will. I am sorry if someone that works with our company has insulted or berated, or in any other way upset you.
Now with the formalities out of the way, think about this:
A company is in business to make money. I don’t care if they are “green”, “customer oriented”, “eco-friendly” or whatever else “bullshit” terms they attach to their name. They are there to make money. So I am sorry if us trying to sell you products right the first time – with everything that you need – offends you. I’m sorry if printers are made with cheap plastic wheels that break, don’t come with USB cables, and cost more in ink than they did to purchase. That is not Best Buy’s fault. I’m also sorry if a company builds a laptop that is meant to be cheap (relative to the others in the market) and it just doesn’t quite run Visual Studio 2008 the way you want it to – Celeron procs just don’t cut it here folks.
No, the manager shouldn’t have lied about it. But here’s the deal, 9 times out of 10, they come into a situation that they have been told very little about, and are forced to make an on the spot decision. Yes, the associate should inform them, but every company has mooseknuckles working for them… even Microsoft, Apple, Ferrari, Wal-Mart, Sony, Pioneer, Chevy, anybody. No one is immune to it, and I’m not trying to drag any names through the mud. It happens. There are more assholes than asses sometimes.
As a whole, our employees are well trained. Overall, we aren’t out to screw you. And most of us are either recent graduates or are currently working our way through school… since when is that a crime? If our age bothers you, go to Wal-Mart where you can’t find someone who speaks friggin English, or that gets paid minimum wage to move product from one area to another. Ask them what 60Hz refresh rate vs. a 120Hz refresh rate means. Ask some commission based salesman what is actually in your best interest – seems to me they are already cashing that check they are planning to make off of you before you even buy.
You may think that you would run the company differently, but I have news for you… we are apparently not offending, upsetting, or in any other way belittling quite as many people as many like to think we are… otherwise we wouldn’t have seen PROFITS in our operations last fiscal year. We are still here as a company, and are so viable in our practices that our co-founder is handing over the reigns to someone else.
Get used to it people, business is business. If it offends you, go to some third world country where the only worry people ever have is how to keep their chickens dry in the rain.
Get real and grow up.
@Cody Robson:
It’s too bad you chose to mention a few good points in a diatribe. I think your points about business being business and about managers stepping in to situations ill-prepared are well taken and I agree. But on the whole you seem to be more interested in attacking what you perceive to be attacks by consumers on Best Buy and Best Buy employees.
For example: “So I am sorry if us trying to sell you products right the first time.- with everything that you need – offends you. ” It doesn’t offend me in the least but what does this have to do with the actual article.
I don’t believe the original author’s complaint was “Best Buy sold me my item too fast and it didn’t work.” The problem was with the lack of customer service in the face of mounting evidence that the item had been tampered with prior to sale.
With the economy as it is I think he(the camera complaint guy) has a point. And Best Buy can’t afford bad publicity in this economy. Best Buy is no more immune to recession than any other brick and mortar electronics retailer. Last I checked BB profit margins and stock were both leaning downwards. Profits might be in the black now but for how long?
It doesn’t matter if you think all of us consumers need to “get real and grow up” because we are the ones with money. Why do you think there is the phrase “The customer is always right”? Maybe we are ignorant children but if I’m given the choice between a company that works its ass off to appear friendly versus a company that just says “ah fuck it, business is business” I know who I’ll choose.
The majority of my comment was aimed towards the comments on the original article… not the article itself.
And consumers may always be right (to an extent), and they are the money supply. I don’t disagree with that. But I do believe that an uneducated and ignorant (no name calling against anyone in particular here) consumer and “their money” can sometimes cause more damage than good.
Maybe we should look at the housing market to see an example of this? I’m sorry if that offends anyone, but no one can force you to read a document… just like we can’t force you to buy.
Any how, I am done ranting. I just get frustrated when I see people bashing my company. It pays my bills, and I don’t like seeing mud thrown at it. You don’t see us throwing around words like “awful service” “disgusted” or “abysmal” when referring to your company (a catch-all), so please return the favor by being a little more aware of us little guys.
Aw heck, why don’t you just put a “Hall of Shame” or “Avoid List” in a sidebar on your website and list Best Buy as #1 and Geek Squad as #2.
Friends don’t let friends get screwed at Best Buy.
It’s dumb stuff like this that keeps me away from their stores. The internet will eventually gobble up Best Buy as well, just as it did Circuit City.