Chris tells Consumerist that he wanted to exchange $300 for a pair of headphones, but Best Buy was uninterested in actually selling them to him. Which is odd, since we thought that was the point of this whole “retail” thing.

He writes:

Just thought I’d share with the world, my experience at the Best Buy
location in [redacted], WI this evening.

I’m looking for an excellent pair of headphones, anything $80 and up,
so naturally I head to Best Buy knowing they have several models on
display. After trying a few out and getting a feel for what I’m
looking for, I take a look at a set of Bose QuietComfort headphones
and put them on. I like them, so naturally I look for a price tag.
None to be found. I look throughout the display, try to find the
headphones on endcaps in the entire area, nothing.

So I thought to myself “alright, perhaps an employee will walk by and
ask if I need help, but in the meantime I’ll keep looking around for
the headphones”. And after being in the store for 30 minutes, not a
single Best Buy employee came by to see if I needed anything. The
whole iPod/mp3 section of the area may as well been quarantined off.

Now I’m not entirely helpless where I need to be asked for help, but
out of all the times I get asked by retail clerks if I need assistance
(especially at a place like Best Buy where it’s practically guaranteed
you’ll be asked by someone for help), when I actually need it there is
naught a clerk to be found.

Instead of giving in and finding a clerk, I went to the nearby
laptop/HDTV on display, went to the Best Buy website, and looked up
the price myself. I plan on going back next week to pick up
headphones and a nettop, if any of the clerks will bother doing their
job.

The headphones are $300, by the way. And Best Buy couldn’t possibly
care less if you were interested in them.

So there, that’s my story. I want to vote with my wallet and just go
with NewEgg, but I don’t have to deal with shipping and waiting longer
when the store’s literally 5 miles from my house.

Maybe they don’t really want to sell any headphones because there’s no way to have the Geek Squad optimize them. Or is there?

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