Earlier this decade, Paramount successfully rebooted the entire “Star Trek” universe as a blockbuster movie franchise. Great news for them, but the release of the second film, “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” on Blu-Ray disc is kind of crappy news for the obsessive fan. That’s because a dedicated special-feature-watcher has to collect at least two different copies of the disc. [More]
best buy
Best Buy Will Trade You A Free iPhone 5 For Your Old Smartphone
By 9.13.13
Yet another retailer really wants your old phone and is willing to give you something pretty decent in exchange for it. Through Sept. 16, Best Buy is offering a minimum $100 trade-in credit to customers who trade in their old phones and switch to an iPhone 5. [More]
Best Buy Shoppers And Employees Save 9-Year-Old Girl From Violent Attacker
By 8.27.13
It isn’t just every parent’s nightmare: it’s the nightmare of every human being with a functioning soul. Police in Florida say that a stranger attacked a 9-year-old girl in the ladies’ rest room of a Best Buy store on Friday night while her mother was paying for her purchases. Another customer heard her screams, and witnesses say that employees and other bystanders rushed in to save the child. [More]
After A Year On The Job, How’s Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly Doing?
By 8.19.13
One year ago this week, Best Buy sought to end a turbulent year of executive shakeups, sinking sales, and all-around bad publicity, by naming Hubert Joly as the company’s new CEO. For a company whose previous CEO had worked his way from the retail floor to the boardroom, this was a huge departure, but was it a smart move? [More]
Is The “Useless Plastic Box” A Best Buy Exclusive?
By 8.16.13
Earlier this month, some Best Buy shoppers in the L.A. area began noticing a peculiar new offering on their shelves: A Useless Plastic Box, or rather the “Useless Plasticbox 1.2,” all for the low, low price of $99.99. [More]
Best Buy Cancels My Black Tie Plan, Forgets To Tell Me
By 7.29.13
Reader L. had heard nightmare tales about Best Buy’s Black Tie Protection Plans, but they couldn’t possibly be true. Could they? Two years into a four-year protection plan on his TV, he found out the hard way. No, they didn’t refuse to cover his problem, or stall on sending a repair person over: they had canceled his plan back in 2011, but forgotten to tell him. [More]
Best Buy Has Had My Returned Order For 11 Weeks But I’m Still Waiting On My Refund
By 7.25.13
Back in early May, Consumerist reader JR decided to buy a microwave off BestBuy.com, which should have been a simple process. Little did she expect that she’d end up paying for two microwaves and waiting nearly three months to get a refund. [More]
Best Buy Employee Reveals 3 Common Mistakes Customers Make When Picking Up Big-Screen TVs
By 7.23.13 — Updated: 5.23.17
Consumerist reader “A” works at Best Buy and sees a lot of customers buying large TVs. He also sees many of those TV-buying customers making the same mistakes when it comes time to take that new set home. [More]
Pebble Has Enough Watches For Best Buy, But Not For All Preorders & Kickstarter Backers
By 7.2.13
Upon posting the news on this site that Best Buy had inked an exclusive deal to sell Pebble’s E-paper watches, we started hearing more than a rumble from our readers who had pre-ordered the watch as either a Kickstarter backer or during the general pre-sale. They wanted to know how Pebble had enough watches to stock Best Buy’s shelves, but not to send to those who had been waiting for months or even a year since ordering them. [More]
Pebble Makes The Move From Crowdfunders’ Darling To Exclusive Deal With Best Buy
By 7.2.13
Pebble’s smartwatches are a classic David and Goliath story: A product that only exists online but is beloved by the masses (as evidenced in $10 million in backing funds on Kickstarter) rises to the front lines to take on the big box retailers in the physical world. Well, it would be a classic story if instead of slaying Goliath, David shook hands with him and put on a blue Best Buy shirt. [More]
Best Buy Forgets That Quebec Is Actually Part Of Canada
By 7.2.13
Quebec, as you may know, is the fiercely francophone province of Canada that has held two failed secession votes and somehow still remains part of Canada. The question “is Quebec a part of Canada?” is loaded with centuries of history and ton(ne)s of baggage. So, of course, Best Buy Canada stepped in the middle of it in the interest of selling some TVs. [More]
Some Best Buy Customer Service Reps Not Thrilled With Having To Stick To Script
By 7.1.13
Anyone who has called up customer service knows how frustrating it can be when you reach a rep who insists on sticking to a script rather than having a genuine conversation about your issue. A phone agent for Best Buy’s website says the company recently instituted a new script and those who don’t follow it verbatim are risking their jobs. [More]
Used Games Are Great, But Not Worth An Extra $25
By 6.27.13
Okay, it can be kind of inconvenient to deal with the original packaging, security tape and plastic wrap and all, for a brand-new video game. That privilege might be worth something…but it probably isn’t worth $25. [More]
Best Buy E-mail System Really Wants To Make Sure I Know Store Is Closed
By 6.26.13
Victor gets it, Best Buy. He ordered a Vita memory card for in-store pickup, but the store is closed. He got the message the first time, but Best Buy decided to keep reminding him. Well, that, or their e-mail system has some kind of bug, but it’s fun to think about the system checking every five minutes or so to be sure: “nope, still closed.” [More]
Best Buy Handing Out iPads Customers Didn’t Order Again
By 6.19.13
Ryan ordered an iPad camera connection kit from Best Buy for in-store pickup. The employees of his local Best Buy store apparently only read the first word of any order now, and instead packed up an iPad Mini. It sounds wacky, but Ryan says that he somehow missed this discrepancy, picked up his order, and went home. He sent an email and got a form letter in return. [More]
Best Buy To Merge Reward Zone Site With BestBuy.com In Attempt To Gain Online Customers
By 6.13.13
As things stand now, members of Best Buy’s Reward Zone loyalty program who want to shop online have to do so through a dedicated section of BestBuy.com, which is probably not a good idea for a retailer that is having trouble converting in-store looky-loos into online buyers. And so, as part of a major overhaul of its website, Best Buy will finally be integrating the two sides of BestBuy.com. [More]
Best Buy Employee Helps Me Out — By Telling Me To Go To AT&T Store
By 6.6.13
Like the goodhearted Macy’s Santa in Miracle On 34th St who tells customers they can get better deals at Gimbels, there is a Best Buy employee out there who felt compelled to aid one Consumerist reader by letting her know that she’d be better off heading to the AT&T store for her particular needs. [More]
Survey: Best Buy And Walmart Are Most Popular Stores For Showrooming
By 6.4.13
For the two of you unfamiliar with the term, “showrooming” is the practice of going to a bricks-and-mortar retailer to get an eyes-on experience with a product before ultimately buying it online. A new study confirms what many of us had already assumed — that the practice isn’t relegated to holiday shopping, that price-matching is probably the only way to curb it, and that many showroomers just don’t like dealing with retail employees. [More]
