Consumerist reader Scott says he should have listened to those people who have told him not to shop at Best Buy. I he had heeded their words, maybe he’d have his new laptop instead of having to deal with a store full of employees who apparently don’t care about fixing his problem.

Scott says that he recently ordered a laptop from BestBuy.com. He selected the in-store pickup option since the website said the item was in-stock at his local store.

He then received an e-mail confirming that his laptop was indeed in-stock and ready for him to pick up.

But when Scott got to Best Buy, not only was the laptop nowhere to be found, Scott also couldn’t locate store staffer who would help him figure out what happened. Even the employee who had gone into the system and changed his order status to “pick up” just walked away and left Scott in the hands of others who didn’t seem to care.

Meanwhile, Scott receives an e-mail from Best Buy thanking him for picking up his order, even though it has still not been located and employees tell him it has been out-of-stock for some time.

Since BestBuy.com thinks Scott picked up this elusive laptop, it went ahead and charged his credit card for the full amount.

Employees tell Scott that the Best Buy computer, which had no problem charging him for something he didn’t receive, won’t let them do a return on an item that wasn’t actually available.

“So my ‘return’ is on a scribbled piece of paper with no evidence that I actually returned something I never got,” he tells Consumerist. “Now I can sit back and keep my fingers crossed that I actually see a refund on my credit card. As of today, BestBuy.com still says ‘order picked up.'”

Scott says that none of the people he spoke with were willing to do more than the absolute minimum.

“Even the store manager comes over, shrugs and walks away without so much as a ‘sorry,'” he writes, adding this the staff at this store were the “Rudest most incompetent bunch of people I’ve ever met in retail.”

And the service he received from BestBuy.com was even worse.

Since BestBuy.com no longer allows customers to e-mail about their issues, Scott tried chat-based customer service, which Best Buy believes is the more efficient way of ignoring customers.

“I open a live chat to confirm that I’ll get my money back,” says Scott, “and I am greeted with a message that live chat is ‘full,’ but that I can call them.”

Except the phone number he’s given is actually for Best Buy Mobile.

Scott sums it up: “At this point, it is clear that they know they suck, and they are just doing what they can to get through the Christmas season without actually having to deal with any customer complaints.”

UPDATE: After seeing Scott’s story on Consumerist, a Best Buy rep reached out to Scott and was able to push through his refund. He will also be receiving a $40 gift card for his troubles.

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