My vote is for alternate universe.

Sounds like the store manager is doing a good job of training staff, and providing incentives for them to do their jobs well.

Comcast, your move.

Amazzzinggg...

@dohtem: I believe the "Your move, [competitor]" method has been pretty well rendered ineffective by this counter-strategy:

Too little too late? GM and Ford have shown how hard it is to turn around perceptions regarding customer service and products.

Despite corporate there are still quality managers that stumble their way into positions at bad companies.

Thing is the manager at this store will probably be reprimanded that s/he cost the company $100, despite it creating a loyal customer.

@Jakuub: Heh, I remembered that ad after I typed it :p

@xtc46: $10 says he gets the axe within a month.

@sbcpunkrocker: Gotta start somewhere.

I'm scared. Somebody hold me!

Maybe they saw what happened when Circuit City let their customer service go to shit.

I don't know how to feel here. I mean, that's wonderful, but is it an isolated case? And does it make up for years of rape and abuse?

I like the airport freeway one, stay away from the 635 one, I've even been banned from that store once.

I think it's just a sad commentary on how we view society as a whole, when we get so ecstatic and excited over good customer service that should be the norm.

Very strange, it is not a policy that i ever saw apply in Canada.
I have a hard time thinking how they could remember the person and even more got a hold of his phone number (beside registering for a service plan).

Truly a above and beyond.

@Con Seannery: Mission Accomplished: That seems to be what Best Buy does. I'm fully convinced after years of reading that bestbuysucks website where employees use to post (before it was taken down) that they want nothing to do with good people running their stores.

@MitchEvious: Please tell us the story! How does one get banned from a Best Buy?

I had a similar reaction when I had to call Qwest and somehow stumbled across the only helpful person in the entire company who was not only friendly and polite, but who also offered to give me a better deal on my service. WTF? I almost fell out of my chair.

Something about this Best Buy store being the "exception, not the rule." kinda thing going on here.

Always depends on the store, and the employees in the store, not the name of the store imo. You can go on a road trip vacation, and run into the most horrible stores that locally would have been your go to store. That's my philosophy when shopping.

@Senk: We were "trained" to do that at futureshop. Head Office would tell us to always call the customer back for price drops and get them to come in. You know what happened when we did? We lost our entire commission on the sale due to the price drop, and we got unofficially reprimanded by the managers. So we stopped doing it.

thank god I don't work there anymore

So different from any other experience I have ever had there. Just got my TV fixed under warranty for the 2nd time - takes them 2 weeks to ship a part 100 miles.

I hope you bought the Monster power cord for your freezer. Otherwise, it won't get nearly as cold.

Posted about 48 days too late I presume.

Th is is totally the clerks, there is no way a Best buy Sales Manager would ever let Best buy lose $100.00 they didn't have too. Did they try to sell you the protection plan or some kind of overpriced accessory?

I finally gave up on Best Buy, starting yesterday. I tried to buy a video game ("Crysis Maximum Edition"), and they wouldn't sell it to me because I wouldn't show them my ID. Sure, it's a "M" rated title, and their policy is to not sell rated "M" titles to those under 17...but I'm a man in my thirties, sporting a salt-and-pepper beard and no less than six (visible) tattoos on my forearms. There's no way I look under 17. But, since I refused to show my ID, they refused to sell the game to me. That's their right, but kind of stupid, in this economy. Are they really in a position to refuse a fifty dollar sale?

Oh well. I went home and bought the game on Amazon. Sure, I've got to wait a few days, but I think it's worth it. I paid less for the game (and that's including shipping), plus I picked up "Left4Dead". w00t!

It is a more likely situation that the price had already been reduced before you purchased it, but you were erroneously overcharged, and so they contacted you for the refund to avoid any legal issues if you were to have discovered the truth.

@TheObserver: Actually this really is above and beyond. A store is willingly parting with $100 to do something nice for a customer.

This post reeks of astro-turfing. How much you want to bet the store manager created a fake account of how great his own store is?

@Chris Cade: Now come on. Last time I went into a Best Buy the sales guy asked if I wanted an extended warranty and when I declined said nothing more about the matter other then stapling the brochure onto the receipt in case I changed my mind.

Great customer service actually.

@Shaggy: Dude they paid you a complement by saying you look young for your age. lol

@guroth: Right. That's the likely situation.....

/s

@Senk: I'm having it delivered, so they had my number from that.

..or maybe this really IS an alternate universe.

hold me.

So that's why monkeys flew out of my ass!

@xtc46: Sad to say I have to agree. We saw with Cir-CUT sh1ttee that was standard practice, and saw the layoff and salary demotion announcements from Worst Try (Best Buy), it's only a matter of time - I hope this good manager makes a lot of money as a consultant somewhere though.

Maybe its one of those stores where they try things before they roll it out company wide.

@Con Seannery: Mission Accomplished: Oh I can GUARANTEE you it's an isolated and forbidden case company wide.

@Chris Cade: Did they try to sell you the protection plan or some kind of overpriced accessory?

Strangely, nothing along those lines was ever mentioned.

Really. Not at all.

Hmmmmmm...I'm going to be checking the freezer on delivery for a large seed pod inside......

@Shaggy:

That seems like taking it a bit too far. Even if you do look 30, they aren't training their associates in age-recognition abilities. Showing your ID would've taken all of 10 seconds.

Glad it turned out well (paid less for the game), but sometimes you just have to pick your battles!

@dave_coder: Well, before we give Best Buy too much credit here, remember that word of mouth is good advertising that pays. That's a well known business strategy, I'm glad they are playing with doing that more often (hopefully). Since screwing people 50 ways til Sunday doesn't work.

@dave_coder: It's not a complement when they do it to everyone no matter what. Just another brain-dead zombie policy / procedure.

@Jakuub: Oh lovely less of the sky to look at now and more crass Car Sales ego - don't we see enough of this faux-cleverness on television?

@MitchEvious: Yes -- please share! I want to know, too.

@RoosterCockburn:

Ding! You lost your bet.

I am the OP and I have nothing to do with BB beyond being amazed at what happened.

Since we so frequently bash the bejabbers out of BB here, in all fairness I thought that a decent experience should also merit mention.

Best Buy is like every other business: it's only as good as the employees that work there.

I can say that I've never had a bad Best Buy experience ever. I also don't take stuff in for warrenty service and know what I want and need so don't have to rely on consultation with their employees to make choices. Every product I've ever had a mild problem with I returned without a fuss and without issue.

They do hire a lot of morons, but so does everywhere else.

Bizzaro world........

@Con Sumer Zealot: At exactly what point in my post did you come to believe that
1) I condone this billboard?
2) I care what your opinion of the billboard is?
3) That anyone else might care what your opinion is?

I was trying to post a mildly amusing related image to someone else's comment, and you really feel the need to come in and bitch about it? You facebook commenters really try to earn your reputation(s) as shit commenters.

@Con Sumer Zealot: True. The power of Consumerist!