Best Buy Forgets It Sold Laptop, Won't Take Customer's Money
The Best Buy where Toni bought a laptop earlier this month has no record of the sale, and it won't collect the funds that have already been released from her account. This sounds like a fun problem to have—$1500 extra dollars, free laptop, woo hoo!—but it's actually pretty annoying. Toni doesn't want this phantom $1500 messing up her balance indefinitely, and she doesn't want to feel like she's stolen a laptop.
On Saturday 3/14/09 I bought my husband a laptop. We paid for the laptop, a total of 1530.48 with my debit card and as of this date Best Buy hasn't taken the money out of the account.
While we were making the purchase one register went down and we had to move to another. That register ran out of receipt tape and they had to put a new one in and in the process accidentally voided the transaction so they had to redo it. Everything went fine after the redo, we called our bank from the store to make sure they only charged us once and they did. We took our receipt and new laptop and left.
Fast forward to Wednesday, I sign online to our bank account and notice that the balance is still the same, the debit from Best But never came out of the account. I call the bank and they say that they have released the funds, they are just waiting for Best Buy to take them, the representative from the bank said to call the store and find out why they won't take the funds.
I hang up with the representative from the bank and call the store, first representative can't even find the transaction even though I am reading the receipt number to her on the phone, she puts me on hold and gets the manager. Manager can't find the transaction and told me to call the bank.
I hang up with the manager and again call the bank. The bank said to wait until Monday, today, to see if the funds get taken out of the account, if they don't I need to call the store again.
I sign on to the account again this morning and the funds still aren't taken out of the account! Once again I call the bank and the bank told me what they've been telling me for a week now, "we've already released the funds to Best Buy, we don't know why they aren't taking them, you need to call the store and find out."
Once again I call the store only to be told that they can't find the transaction, they have no record of our purchase and as far as they are concerned we never bought anything from that store.
All I'm trying to do is do the right thing. Right now I feel like I stole this computer and all I want to do is pay for it. I'm tired of the run around between Best Buy and my bank. And now I'm upset because I have a receipt saying I showed 1530.48 to Best Buy for a laptop that they don't even believe I have!
We think you should bring a copy of the receipt to the store and demand that someone fixes this—the information on your receipt should be enough to open up an investigation of some sort. (Keep the real receipt with you.) Don't let Best Buy cancel the lost transaction and re-process your order, in case they suddenly find that transaction in the coming weeks and double-dip into your account.
You should also check with your bank to see whether there's a time limit to uncollected released funds, or if you can reverse the process on your own. You may end up having to play a waiting game to get the funds back, at which point you can contact Best Buy directly and offer to settle up.
(Photo: NNECAPA)
Post a comment
Comments:
My advice. Wait for 30 days. If the money is still not gone, transfer it into a savings account. Wait another 5 months. If they still havent come after you, its yours.
Cue "OP shouldn't have shopped at Best Buy" and "should have used a credit card" arguments...even if the last one doesn't really apply...
And I agree, as many times as people might say "free laptop!" it's still wrong, and if the payment finally does go through, but through some snafu, Best Buy finds out about their error without realizing the process did go through the first time, you might be in a world of ache if they double dip.
Or use a debit card.
@masonreloaded: I'm going to second this. Put it in it's own little separate sandbox, and let it sit there for awhile. As long as you document your good faith attempt at paying the debt, how can they come after you? It also gets it off your "main" book, so you're good there as well.
I find amusing the fact that as soon as Circuit City went dead and gone, there is suddenly a mass influx of stories relating to Best Buy being posted.
seriously? You've got a reciept? I don't see why this is an annoying problem. I'd say, let it ride, wait and see what happens. Keep an eye on your money and enjoy your laptop!
@Plates: Or depending on your moral compass, a reason to shop at Best Buy. Not that I condone such things, but that is one way to save money.
just cancel ur account and reopen a new checking. and that's y u should never use ur debit card... always shop using a credit. and then pay it all later each two weeks so u dont have to pay a huge amount at the end of the month. and for god's sake who still pays 1500 for a laptop? (unless u're a software engineer or st)
and be happy, u got a free laptop. :D
OP shouldn't have shopped at Best Buy! Should have used a credit card!!
Just kidding, but I always recommend a CC on purchases over $50. I also think there is some time limits on holds.
@Plates:
I'd love to be able to buy something and not have the money taken out of my account.
Wouldn't this be an excellent reason to shop at best buy?
??.. headed to best buy to buy a laptop... God's of the power outage be good to me!
@Single-n-Bitter_GitEmSteveDave: "...how can they come after you?"
In the douchiest way possible. This IS best buy, after all.
antoineawwad: Canceling an account to open a new one just to avoid payment is criminal, and stealing. The OP clearly wants to do right by Best Buy, whether they want her money or not. If they keep ignoring her and don't take the money, that's one thing. If she purposely avoids allowing Best Buy to take the money they rightfully claimed as part of their transaction, that's stealing.
And it doesn't matter whether the OP used a credit or a debit...if it didn't post on her debit, it quite possibly would not have posted on her CC either, which would have been more of a problem if she didn't have access to her credit line because of the looming threat of having $1,500 posted to your CC account.
I would say most people spend near $1,500 on a laptop. $1,500 is pretty middle of the line for a laptop, especially if you want something that does more than a netbook or has more storage.
It's on the first line, she used her debit card or were you saying she shouldn't use her debit card? I don't understand the fuss. Know the 1500 doesn't belong in your account and balance the check book accordingly. Keep trying to get best buy to take the money. It's a pain, but this is best buy were talking about.
@antoineawwad: Wait, what? I'm not sure what this has to do with anything. The OP is concerned, among other things, that Best Buy will suddenly "find" the purchase and demand the money at some point in the future. It's a liquidity problem no matter what form of payment she used. She just wants to pay now while she has the money there rather than have a phantom $1500 withdrawal hanging over her head like the sword of Damocles.
Also: the comment code - you might want to read it.
Something like this happened to my mom with an iMac. She ordered it online, got it a few days later, and discovered the fan was making a loud noise. She took it to the Apple Store, and they told her she should return it for a new one instead of having them repair it, since it was still within the return period.
Following a bit of confusion about returning the computer, she printed and shipped the computer. A couple of days later, she gets _two_ shipping confirmations. Because of the return label mix-up, Apple thought it owed her two replacement machines.
They tell her to just refuse delivery on one, which she does, but when Apple gets the computer back, they refund her credit card. So she has one iMac, but hasn't paid for it. It took her over an hour on the phone with Apple to get them to understand that they are supposed to charge her for it.
Good thing she's honest, right?
@pecan 3.14159265: If most people are spending $1500 on a middle of the line laptop, then most people are complete morons. Or, you just don't know what you're talking about...
I don't think the OP is under any obligation to make sure BB gets their money. The transaction was completed to the satisfaction of the cashier at the time of purchase. Just keep that money in your account for a reasonable amount of time, and if it isn't taken out then forget it.
Now having said that, I bet the transaction just hasn't been downloaded/uploaded/whatever from that day and it will be during the next inventory/audit/etc. If not, so be it.
@Wolzard: I'm not sure what you want. They can't post new Circuit City stories for obvious reasons, and as more people take their business from CC to Best Buy, more accidents will happen. It all seems reasonable to me.
Take the $1500 and change your bank account. $50.00 for new checks, few hours of hassle, and $1500 free. Sounds like a cool deal.
Who deserves it more? Stock holding ass-sitters, or you? You worked hard! Keep it.
My policy on this sort of thing is to try to fix it once. For example, on the rare cases where I have been undercharged at a restaurant, I always report it. (It's a golden rule thing, it's the way I'd want to be treated. If you think this makes me a sucker, I recommend you check your moral compass). If they cannot fix it the first time, I don't go on about about it.
So, my recommendation is to let it sit for many months and mentally remember $1500 may go away at any moment. Also, be sure to write down all the phone calls with specific times and dates in case BB tries to charge you with theft.
@tc4b: If it was me, once I exhausted myself trying to pay them, I'd probably try holding it until the statute of limitations runs... which is horrible, but I'd be paranoid that Best Buy would suddenly discover the debt the week after I finally spent the money. When you've got advanced warning that you're dealing with douches...
Really? A post to Consumerist after only 10ish days?
Yes, they can take the money out at any time, so you'll pretty much have to leave it in there. Hope it's an interest-bearing account.
No, you did not steal it. Do not let them "re-ring" the transaction, either: Unless you want to pay $3,000 for it.
This doesn't seem like the kind of problem that the store can just fix. This is one of those things that it looks like she will have to have a manager escalate this up to the cooperate level to be taken care of.
A similar thing happened with me while buying purses for my wife at vera bradley online. I purchased them around the beginning of December, but they never posted to our account. We had the confirmation and everything, they even sent everything.
The finally charged us about 2 weeks ago, sending a letter saying they lost it in their system, and they sent a coupon. It ended up working out even though in between the order and the charging, we actually had to order new cards because my wife lost hers. The charge went through, but waiting for a $200 charge to go through for 3 months definitely messed with our spending habits with that card.
I would just go to the store, get a manager, and show them the receipt. If they still don't want the money, get a written not from the manager stating so.
I once had a similar situation. My printer broke, I took it in for service, it took a few days, but they fixed it, called me, and I picked it up. A few days later I get a voice mail from Geek Squad saying that my printer is ready for pick up. I was tempted to go to Best Buy, act stupid, and try to get a free printer. Fortunately for BB, I was too lazy.
On a sidenote: If I don't want to purchase a laptop at Best Buy, and have apprehensions about buying them online, where should I go instead? Should I even bother having a local computer place build one for me, or is online really the last good place to buy a laptop?
"Once again I call the store only to be told that they can't find the transaction, they have no record of our purchase and as far as they are concerned we never bought anything from that store."
Wait 'til it needs warranty service...I'll bet Worst Buy will figure out the problem right away at that point. They'll probably even charge her interestat the prevailing rate on their store-branded card from the date of purchase, to boot.
You should do two things. Write a letter to corporate. I'm sure Loss Prevention would be interested to know why they are missing a laptop. Go all the way to the top. Second, contact the BBB, Better Business Bureau to help resolve the issue. Not verifying the transaction will hurt you in the long run when you try to get something fixed for warranty reasons. This is not your fault, it's Best buys and they should fix it immediately.
@CoarseLive: So you would feel the same way if a customer pressed the submit button twice on an order, then called to cancel and Best Buy kept the product and the money? Mistakes happen on both sides of the consumer/seller relationship. Taking advantage of a mistake is stealing.
@tc4b: I meant how can they ever say you tried to cheat THEM, instead of their standard business model.
@Wit: Maybe antoineawwad is attempting some kind of satire? Or sarcasm? Maybe? If so, unsuccessfully.....
I'm actually kind of amazed that she was able to put a $1500 purchase on a Debit Card. I work in an industry where people regularly try to put large sums on debit cards and they're almost always flagged for purchases over $300.
In most cases there's about 15m of anxiety as they call the bank, get their one day debit withdrawal raised, and then wait to try again.
Geeze, all of ten days. You need to be more patient.
@ryohazuki222: If it's a laptop that has more than the Intel Graphics Media Acceleration, you're looking at the $100+ neighborhood.
If it's a gaming laptop...start thinking $2k.
You know what I would do? Change my account number and enjoy my free laptop. Bwahahahaha!
@LuvJones: So just because they have shoddy business practices mean we should indulge them when they have really pain-in-the-ass business practices? Why should anyone have to balance their checkbook around BestBuy's whims?
There are standard business practices, and consumers have every right to expect that business will follow them. Ex: when you pay for something with credit or debit, the payment is processed in a few days, maximum. Or the business spells out special terms, which you agreen to. Ex: the business bills you on a certain day of the month, or presents you with a bill and you have 30 days to pay, or whatever arrangement you work out.
I'm balancing my checkbook around a $50 check I wrote to a friend, and I'm happy to do it because she's my friend. Best Buy doesn't get that special treatment.
@antoineawwad: I paid $1500 for a laptop because that's how much the laptop I wanted cost.
It's a remarkable thing about being a consumer.
I've had this problem at some businesses, usually for small-dollar transactions. The authorization limit for the debit card should be 30 days. Check with your bank on that.
As masonreloaded pointed out earlier, after 30 days it's pretty much yours since the time for them to have collected on your authorization will have expired. Things might get a little tricky if you have to do any sort of return or warranty service, but make sure you register all your products and paperwork, make copies, etc etc, to cover yourself should something happen in the more distant future. I'm not sure they could claim fraud given your due diligence in the effort to pay them, which they openly refused to you and to the bank.
@Alex Duzik: Amazon did something similar to me when I ordered the West Wing Complete series. They sent me two and charged me for one, I only ordered one. I contacted them and they email me a return label for the extra set. When they got it back they gave me a refund so I contacted them again and then they were finally able to get things squared away.
@ryohazuki222: Maybe we're talking Macs here?
One can get a pretty high end PC laptop for $1500, or a pretty shitty Mac for the same price. I'm a graphic designer (who unfortunately is stuck using PCs for the time being) and I don't need to spend more than $800 for a good quality laptop to do my work on.
@antoineawwad: And for god's sake who still can't properly type the english language? Is "You're" or "your" so difficult that you must abbreviate it to "ur"? Please...
Of course she should be a big girl, balance the checkbook, and go on running her account as if the 1500 is gone, but in the age of online bank statements, seeing that discrepency every time you checked your balance, even if I knew better, would annoy the bejesus out of me.
So what happens if she does as another commenter said (wait a month, transfer it into savings, wait more, then eventually give up if they won't take the money) and BB never authorizes it? Legally, is she in the clear, too bad/so sad for BB? Also, would she have any recourse against BB if they withdrew it after the 30 days (when the money had been transferred to savings) and caused some major overdraft shenanigans?
@ryohazuki222:
They are complete morons for paying the $200 - $300 best buy mark up on the system vs paying less for the same hardware on line.
Don't try to straighten it out,, the trouble is on their end and if you try to do the right thing, they are going to take an additional $1500 from your account, then whatever the problem is, they will correct it and it will finally go through. You'll be out $3,000 and have no way of getting it back, they'll end up claiming you bought 2 computers.
You did everything right, just don't touch the money and don't let them have your debit card or checking info in order to correct it. If it's still not corrected after a few months, then you can write them a check and drop it off, make sure any receipts and interaction you have with them is for the serial number on this laptop.
I really believe you should leave it alone (for now) or it will come back to bite you in the arse.
Apparently all this seems is yet another reason to not shop at Best Buy.