Kenny took advantage of a free shipping promotion from Best Buy to shop for a ginormous television. He found one that he liked, but the order had a $70 shipping charge. Wait, what? Turns out that getting a ginormous item like a 51″ TV counts as “delivery,” like a home appliance, not “shipping,” like a smaller TV. That makes sense, but it’s a distinction that should be made clear to the casual customer surfing the site.

He sent an annoyed, if a bit too informal, letter to Big Blue and Yellow. Here it is:

So I am really upset that Best Buy, which is consistently being called out by groups like consumerist.com for not doing so well right now has weird, if not ridiculous policies. Here’s what happened:

I decided to give Best Buy my business when shopping for a large 50+” HDTV. I go to bestbuy.com and see FREE SHIPPING ON EVERYTHING AT BESTBUY.COM. So I find a 51″ plasma Samsung tv and decide to place the order. Cme to find out I am being charged $70 shipping….huh?!?

So I called best buy customer service and spoke to a man, who was more like a robot, explaining the same thing over and over…delivery and shipping are not the same thing! News to me, I never heard a company, like amazon where I am an avid customer, tell me that their super saver shipping wasn’t available for items that were too big because those items require delivery, not shipping…what’s the difference?

Needless to say I checked target.com and amazon and both would deliver a comparable tv to me for free, no questions. The best buy rep didn’t even offer to waive the ‘delivery’ fee to save a $750 sale. Unbelievable and shocked, I told the guy I was going to buy from amazon (a rival of stores like best buy for show rooming), and the rep said, well if you change your mind, you can always call us back…..sorry I won’t be calling back and won’t be shopping at best buy anymore because there is no difference between shipping and delivering!

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