Whenever we post a Best Buy story, commenters scold the tipster: don’t they read the site? They should have known better than to shop at Best Buy in the first place! It’s impossible (I hope) to blame Todd, though–his mother-in-law bought him a gadget gift there. A car dock for the wrong type of smartphone, along with a gift receipt. This should have been a smooth and simple transaction, right? Of course not.

I was given an in car phone dock by my Mother-in-law that wasn’t for my phone. She thought I had an iPhone but I have a droidRAZR. I went into Best Buy to return it for cash. I had the gift reciept and everything should have just worked out.

When I got there they said I would need the original receipt and not the gift receipt. Needless to say, I didn’t have it. After a few minutes of explaining again why I didn’t have the original receipt they said they could just print off another copy of it. Why didn’t they just do that in the first place? They then finished the transaction and handed me a reciept and no money, and stated that they put the money back onto the American Express card used in the purchase, which isn’t my card.

Now I have to go ask my Mother-in-law for the money. Best Buy screws it up once again. This is why I tell everyone I know not to shop there.

The part of this story that has left me scratching my head is this: if a gift receipt isn’t enough to allow a customer to return that gift, then what purpose does a gift receipt serve?

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