Does Best Buy have a policy designed to trick you into not using your gift card?

Ethan has a Best Buy Gift Card. He used it to purchase something at BestBuy.com for store pickup. A few minutes later, he got an email letting him know that the speakers he ordered were no longer in stock. When he called to see about having them shipped, he detected something fishy about the way he was handled.

“They said, “Oh, to have this shipped, you have to use a credit card, not a gift card.”
“Ok,” I said, “let’s cancel the order.”
The service rep then immediately, with no pause whatsoever, said, “Oh, I think we can arrange something so that you can place the order with your gift card.” And then we proceeded to complete the order…
Clearly that was a cynical ploy to try to get me to spend more money at BestBuy.”

Maybe not clear as crystal but definitely funked up. Has this happened to anyone else? Read Ethan’s email inside.

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Ethan writes:

“I had a BestBuy gift card and wanted to order some speakers for pickup at one of their stores. I went to BestBuy.com, which indicated they were in stock at that store, and placed the order.

About 40 minutes later I received an email saying they weren’t in-stock and that I could call to arrange for them to be shipped. No big deal… I can understand the inventory database being not quite right, though not being able to change the order via the website was a bit annoying.

I called and after being in on-hold limbo for 5-10 minutes, hung up. A bit annoying, but again… no big deal. Several days later I called again and immediately got a customer service rep. Great! They said shipping would be free. Great! A nice gesture since I had wanted to pick it up to avoid the shipping cost. Then they said, “Oh, to have this shipped, you have to use a credit card, not a gift card.”

“Ok,” I said, “let’s cancel the order.”

The service rep then immediately, with no pause whatsoever, said, “Oh, I think we can arrange something so that you can place the order with your gift card.” And then we proceeded to complete the order. I am 100% appalled. Clearly that was a cynical ploy to try to get me to spend more money at BestBuy.

I am pledging never to shop at BestBuy again (once I finish draining my gift card :).

-Ethan

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