Gregg ordered a new Dyson vacuum this past weekend, and used a Best Buy gift card toward the purchase. When he arrived at the store, his order wasn’t ready, even though the exact item he had ordered wasn’t on the sales floor. They couldn’t rush the online order process, couldn’t give him back the $30 from the gift card for his in-store purchase, and couldn’t do much of anything useful. So he waited for a refund and bought the same item from Lowe’s. The notification e-mail never did come through.

Given the 20% off that Dyson is running through Mother’s Day, the wife and I decided to get a Dyson vacuum. It was May 5th, and we were preparing for a Derby party at our house. I found the vacuum that we wanted a Dyson DC24 Animal at Best Buy for $359.99 and it was available for pick up at my local store, so I ordered it at 3:45pm.

The web site stated that most online orders are ready within 45 minutes, so I went to the store 1 hour later to pick up my vacuum. I was told that I was unable to pick up my vacuum (which they had in stock, I found it on the sales floor) since my BestBuy.com order had not yet hit their system. They advised me to wait until I received the confirmation e-mail. Not being one who likes to wait to purchase mundane items like vacuums, I suggested that since the vacuum was in stock (at this point I had it in my hands at the customer service area) and I was actually at the store to pick it up, if they could just cancel the online order and then sell me the vacuum so I could be on my way.

The difficulty was that I had purchased with a $30 Best Buy gift card, and wanted to use that $30 towards the in-store purchase, but it would be days before the gift card got refunded. So I was in the store, with the gift card and payment for the remaining amount, the vacuum in hand, and yet I was unable to get the vacuum. I cancelled the order the following day, and purchased the vacuum at Lowes.com, picked up in-store within 30 minutes of ordering, painless.

I did wait all night and half of the following day for the “your item is ready to be picked up” e-mail from Best Buy, but it never arrived. Likewise I never received an e-mail notifying me that my order was cancelled. Just another story of great Best Buy customer service.

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