Brian could have brought his new washer right home from Best Buy after purchasing it, but let the salesman talk him into delivery. Old appliances don’t just haul themselves away, you know. Only after he took a day off work, Best Buy didn’t even manage to get his appliance on the truck for delivery. This hasn’t reached Sears proportions yet, but Brian is annoyed.

Yes, I know I am the one at fault for shopping at Best Buy, but I’d still like to warn others about my story so it doesn’t happen to them.

Frys had a front-load washer on sale that I was planning on purchasing on Sunday, April 15. However, Frys is a bit of a drive for me so I attempted to stop by the local Best Buy and save some time by getting a price match. I found another comparable model that was an open box item that was a bit cheaper and decided to purchase that instead. Sales guy talked me into having it delivered instead of me loading it up then by saying they could haul away my old washer for free and promised delivery by Wednesday the 18th. I filled out the paperwork and took time off work to be available for delivery.

Tuesday I get a call saying that my item never made it on the shuttle to their warehouse and there was no way to make my scheduled delivery. I called the local store and discovered they ran out of packing material so were unable to properly pack it to get it to the warehouse. They apologized and said they would get me a $50 gift card and promised they would have it delivered by Friday the 20th. I let the manager know that I was going out of town on Sunday for 1-1.5 weeks, so it was critical I get this delivered as scheduled. He gave me his word this would arrive and said I shouldn’t be worried.

Today (Thursday the 19th) I get a call saying my item has arrived at the warehouse and scheduled to be delivered as expected. Then, at 8:15PM I get a second call from somebody at the warehouse saying there was some sort of error and my item could not be delivered after all. I was irate and demanded to speak to a supervisor and was finally put through to [C.]. He said there was nothing he could do and I had to take it up with the store. I told him I was irritated by the gross incompetence displayed and then he yelled at me saying I couldn’t talk to him like that and hung up on me.

I called a different local store manager and explained the situation, and she attempted to find a solution. An hour later I get a call saying there is nothing they can do. I ask if there is any way I can get a comparable boxed model and pick it up myself, she says they can’t do that. I ask if there is any way to override the system since they have the one I originally ordered at the warehouse ready to be shipped, she said they aren’t allowed to do anything to the unit even though it is ready to roll out tomorrow.

Moral of the story: maybe next time, take the extra drive to Fry’s.

Update: Brian got this situation resolved after he sent us his story, but before it was published. Here’s how he did it:

As an update, I tweeted to BBYCEO and that was able to get things rolling. I received a response from @Douglas_BBY late Thursday night who asked that I send an email to twitter@bestbuy.com with ATTN: BBYCEO and they would get back to me. I received several calls on Friday from various BB employees and they were able to somehow wave the magic wand to “fix the glitch” in the system to allow my item to be shipped out Saturday afternoon before I left. They scheduled it during a time my daughter was playing soccer so unfortunately I had to miss her game, but wanted this to be over
with so stayed home to receive the unit.

The unit arrived and the delivery guys were professional and got the old one hauled away and the new one setup. I was promised a gift card for the trouble so at least they were responsive after learning of the issues and are looking to compensate me for my lost time and frustration.

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