Andrew bought a Samsung Intercept phone from Best Buy and hoped to activate it on his active Virgin Mobile account. But after he bought the phone, he discovered it wouldn’t be possible to activate it until later this month. Now he’s stuck without phone service and doesn’t know whom to blame. [More]
I’ve seen better buys actually
Best Buy Wants To Be Your Consumer Electronics Advocate
By 10.6.10
Best Buy has rolled out its plans for the holiday season with a new study on “consumer behavior and the emergence of new social connections.” The upshot: Best Buy has discovered social networking, and has declared that it is “the consumer advocate in consumer electronics” because it helps people “find solutions for their needs and help them better understand the possibilities of all that we offer.” Gee, thanks, Best Buy! [More]
Best Buy Will Give You Free PS3 Software For $30 Mandatory Charge
By 10.4.10
Best Buy’s optimization wizards have fabricated a devilish scam to exploit uninformed customers. Employees download a PlayStation 3’s firmware update in advance and tack on an extra $30 to the cost of the system. [More]
Best Buy Field Agent Scopes Me In Parking Lot
By 9.28.10
Shannon said Best Buy, apparently suspecting her of shoplifting without wanting to confront her, sent out an employee to hide in the trees and report her actions into his headset as she entered her car. [More]
Best Buy Promised A Forgive-Me Gift Card, Pretends It Didn't
By 8.23.10
After complaining on Twitter about a Best Buy customer service failure, a company rep said she would give him a $25 gift card. Now his emails go unanswered and he’s thinking he won’t get the reward. [More]
My Best Buy Gift Card I Got From A Trade-In Is Nothing But Trouble
By 7.15.10
Kate and her husband sacrificed some laptops at the Best Buy trade-in altar, hoping for a painless process that would quickly result in an easy-to-use gift card. They were disappointed on all fronts and denied at the cash register when they tried to use the card they received. [More]
Best Buy Wouldn't Exchange My Broken Xbox Because It Was Saving Stock For Sales Event
By 7.8.10
Sean bought an Xbox 360 at Best Buy, took it home and it did what Xbox 360s tend to do, never mind that it was a redesigned Xbox 360 S model. He took the insta-broken console back to the store, which was sold out of the 360s. An employee called a nearby Best Buy that had plenty of 360s in stock, but that location refused his exchange because it was saving consoles for a sales event. [More]
Lazy Delivery Guys Left Appliances In Our Garage
By 6.28.10
Candice and Ryo hit up an Oregon Best Buy on May 2 and dropped more than $5,000 to fill their home with a range, microwave, refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. Now it’s almost July and due to a number of delays the couple still doesn’t have half of their appliances. Even some of the ones they do have are unusable because the delivery guys judged that the boxes were too large to fit through the door so they just left them in the garage. [More]
Best Buy's Black Magic Tracks My Stealth Purchase
By 6.25.10
Reader bethSmash is freaked out that Best Buy sent her a follow-up email even though she didn’t give the clerk her her address or even flash her loyalty program card when she bought a wireless router. She assumes the corporation connects her credit card number to her email address, which she must have given Best Buy when she signed up for the program, through some sort of privacy invasion trickery. [More]
Best Buy Shorted Me $70 When I Returned Stereo Equipment
By 5.25.10
Ashley says she succumbed to a high-pressure upsell in car stereo equipment at Best Buy based on a free installation pitch, only to decide she wanted to return the stuff. When she completed the return she found out the installation wasn’t free, but discounted to accommodate a nonrefundable installation fee. [More]
Beware Best Buy Computer Price Hikes
By 5.24.10
Donald says Best Buy is sticking it to uninformed customers by advertising computers at higher than regular prices and passing them off as great deals without quite calling them sales. [More]
Best Buy Charges More For 3 Years Of Protection Than 5 Years
By 4.29.10
Tom spotted an anomaly on Best Buy’s site when he was dishwasher shopping. The company is selling its 3-year premium protection plan for $20 more than its 5-year premium protection plan. [More]
Adventures In Buying A TV From The Rudest Best Buy Staff Around
By 4.27.10
Reader Brian is an ex-Best Buy customer. All he wanted was to buy a TV, but he couldn’t even get the staff to get the one he wanted to buy from the back until his girlfriend actually called the store… from inside the store. [More]
Best Buy Salesguy Won't Let You Buy An iPad Without $129 Warranty
By 4.25.10
Reader Ed says he tried to buy an iPad from Best Buy, only to be told that someone was on the phone buying all of them, and that he could only get one if he bought the “black tie protection
plan” for $129. Ed told them to get lost and instead reported them to Consumerist and Best Buy. [More]
Best Buy Charging For PC Checkups They Already Give For Free
By 4.19.10
Anon says Best Buy’s $40 a year program going called Ask An Agent is a raw deal. The program lets customers bring in PCs for an annual checkup, and also gives takers 10 percent off of Geek Squad services. Anon says Best Buy checks out all computers for free, no doubt to offer them some spectacular optimization services. [More]
Best Buy PS3 Bundle Comes With Overpriced HDMI Cable?
By 3.29.10
Reader Chris sends in a link to a (backordered) bundle Best Buy is offering. It contains a 120 GB PS3, a wireless controller, and a “Rocketfishâ„¢ – 8′ HDMI Digital Audio/Video Cable for PlayStation 3”. For all of this, you pay only $394.97. Trouble is, the controller and PS3 usually go for $300. See update. [More]
Best Buy Clarifies Its Policy On Imaginary Sync Service For 3D Glasses
By 3.23.10
Last week, HD Guru pointed out that Best Buy was advertising 3D glasses syncing as part of a $150 installation service for people buying 3D TVs. The problem with the offer is it’s not necessary (or even possible) to manually “sync” your 3D glasses with a 3D TV. Now Best Buy has responded to the post, partly by explaining that some customers might not know that the glasses sync up automatically and that they can depend on Geek Squad to educate them. [More]
Geek Squad Member: Optimization Helps People
By 3.23.10
An anonymous Best Buy employee wrote in to clarify and dispute Monday’s post that accused the company of shifting to a de facto commission-based model by rewarding upsell-happy workers with more hours. [More]
