Have you had any problems with Best Buy? (credit card, cell phone, discount)

[mollysmiles]

We went with a friend of ours to buy a TV....and he had the poor saleman running between TVs and TV stands for at least an hour. Hubby and I were really feeling bad for the guy, and I was starting to think maybe our friend wasn't going to find anything he was happy with! But, he did....I'm sure the salesperson was glad to see us go, but not once was he rude or impatient--wish I could say the same! We just bought a new pc for the kids there and we've had other small purchases. No complaints here! Although, it is Maine (this BB is in Bangor), and maybe the rudeness hasn't trickled up here! I do agree with poprocks.....some people are just looking to sue!

[newyorkjetsfan74]

i personally have never had a problem with best buy. although sometimes it is hard to find help when u need it, but they have great selection of movies, video games, and electronics..etc. overall i like going there

[wernotamused]

I bought a washer from Best Buy and it came without the transit bolts. I called them 4 times and asked them to send them to me and they say I have to pay for them myself, even though they are part of the washer. Even the manual says that they are part of the washer. These bolts prevent damage to the machine while it is being transported, and my husband and I have to move every few months coz of his job. We already moved once since we bought the washer and had to pay someone to make temporary bolts for that move. Beware of buying anything from Best Buy!!! If your product comes with parts missing, they will ask you to pay for them youself!

[Okie_Dokie!]

Oh!!!
Don't get me started!!!
Grrrrr!

[Magnum Mike]

I bought my Gateway laptop from Bestbuy on December 31st, 2004. The store I went to did not have it in stock, so I had to pay for it, then drive to another store to pick it up. The guy who sold me the laptop was a little pushy, he tried to get me to spend something like $250 on an extended warranty, and I kept telling him that I wasn't interested in it. He tried to scare me with many things that can happen to it, and I finally told him, look I just need a laptop for my job, I know a lot about computers, and if something happens to it after a year, when the regular warranty expires, I'll be able to fix it myself, so I'm not interested in paying extra money for this extended warranty, and if you don't stop trying to sell me this warranty, I'll go somewhere else to buy a laptop. He finally gave up, and handed me the sales slip, and I went up to register and paid for it, then went to the other store and picked it up.

The laptop worked fine and I never had a need for the extended warranty, which is a waste. I had a problem with it just a couple of months ago, which the warrantly wouldn't have covered, and I was able to fix it.

Other than that, I was happy with Best Buy, even though most of the stuff I bought from there was DVDs, and I believe the Gateway laptop was the most expensive thing I ever purchased from Best Buy.

I shop more at Fry's electronics because they have a much better selection of products.

[motormaker]

Never had a problem, even helped me find a laptop they didn't have in stock at another store. They have never been pushy with me. Circuit City on the other hand.

[sirron]

Ohhhh, it's not just Best Buy. We're all familiar with the 'blue light special' store; they got me last week. A large sign on top of a rack clearly advertised, $12.00. It didn't say, 'On selected items'. It didn't say, 'Prices starting at....'. So I believed foolishly that everything on that rack was twelve bucks each. Yeah.....
Decades ago, at my first retail job, I learned of this scam, so you think I would have been aware!

[boomertraveler]

In past years, I used our local Geek Squad when it was a standalone company and the agents were top notch geeks with an incentive to provide great service.

I've seen the service and quality deteriorate over the years since BB gobbled the company up and my most recent experience my be a reflection of more bad things to come for the company...

In this dire straits economy companies have a great opportunity to raise the bar on service levels but, alas, some just aren't getting it.

I hired Geek Squad to come to my home for a memory install--just a simple upgrade that has turned into a debacle. The agent recommended some "additional services" that he had already calculated and was ready to charge me for. One of his "free recommendations" was that I upgrade to SP3 on Microsoft.

Doing so wiped out my hard drive (fortunately I read the MS warning and had backed up my data!). But I didn't know this at the time and thought it was a memory problem...

I called the agent back and told him that I wanted my system restored to its original state--he said that it was likely a corrupted memory part. He said if I brought my laptop into the store they would do a "free diagnostic" that would normally cost me $199.

To makie an already long story short...when I didn't receive a call or email about the status of my laptop after three days, I'm told that they left a message on the phone number they have in their database--a number that I attempted on six (6!) different occasions to update since that landline had been disconnected for over 5 years!

Of course no one could have left a message since that number is disconnected and the "ma bell" recording tells you so.

So now I will pick up my laptop and attempt to restore all my data today. I wonder if this downward spiral in service is the tip of the iceberg with the biggest chunk of ice waiting to sink the BB ship??

As one poster mentioned, they may be going the way of Circuit City but much faster in 2009...

[Tek_Freek]

Being a computer consultant I can tell you that GS is a place to avoid. As a test I once called them for a quote on looking at a printer. All I asked for was the dollar amount for someone to come out, check the printer for any possible problems and clean it.

They refused to give me a firm quote or a per hour dollar amount. I don't think so...

I hear horror stories from clients all the time.

I have one guy who used to complain continually about how much I charge. After listening to his whining for a number of service calls (some people should not be allowed to own a computer) I finally told him that I would prefer he call the Geek Squad next time because he wasn't paying me enough to listen to him complain.

He called six months later and asked me to come work on his computer. He promised to never again complain about what I charged. Apparently BB GS came repeatedly for the same problem, and charged more than I do. Get rich by not really repairing the problem is common.

I have a couple of small business clients that were blown away the first time I came to visit when I told them what was really wrong with their computers and why their current techs kept coming back. Odd thing, it was the same problem for both, and the same company that was ripping them off. They are still my clients. Their hard drives were full and causing the usual problems. Once a month the tech would come out and clear of cookies, cache, etc. and charge them $100.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My latest is Office Depot. Bought a laptop there and was told by the salesmen and the gal that rang us out that if we saw it advertised for a lower price at OD later they would refund the difference. Well we did. I went in to get the difference and they would only refund the difference in their price, not the rebates. When I reminded him that was not what his employees told me (he was a manger) he said I was mistaken. No, I said, your employees both lied to me. He did not like that. Tough. Lying by omission is still lying.

So last week I get a postcard from OD rebate: It's denied because I returned the laptop. The manager decided to get even. Took 5 calls and talking with a few idiots both at the store and at the rebate center before I got it straightened out. If anyone from the Office Depot rebate center reads this: Fire John and give Maria a raise.

Needles to say OD is not getting my business and I'm steering clients away from them. Rip me off for $40 and I'll make sure you lose more than that in the long run.

[VillageLife]

Originally Posted by KewGee

No, not really, but they are a bit slow in repairing computers.

Don't get me started on that

I had an old laptop that had one of those cassets,that compartment was broken,all I needed was the compartment. Tha happened 6 years ago.It took half a year

So many things happened,they lost the lap top,they also claimed they didn't have one,but will re-create one. So phone calls after phone calls. I had records of the people I talked to. So didn't know what I was talking about,I had to explain over and over. Just GRRRRRRRR... anyway,got my laptop back after half a year without anything done to it
Just one thing after another,there are times when no one was there,the tech head guy was changed twice....

I stil have that old lap top. I am ok now,not mad,but I will not go back to have it fixed. I was there at the shop one time, the lady in front of me had some issues,she returned the whole computer and didn't want to buy it anymore,something to to with getting a rebate and didn't get it.