Best Buy is the Worst! Any advice on small claims court?

 Wow!  I have too much to say about the bad experience and horrible
customer service I recently had with Best Buy.

I bought a floor model refrigerator from them two months ago (which
had a small dent on the side).  When it was delivered it had a huge
dent on the lower front of the stainless steel panel.  My wife
accepted delivery (I wasn't home) because I told her that it was a
floor model with a dent.  Needless to say this was a new dent (all
documentation proves this) and this is completely unacceptable when
spending $1800+ on an appliance.

I called Best Buy immediately and told them the problem.  At first,
they just started finger pointning between the store and the delivery
center. After calling back and fourth between the two I told the store
"I bought it from you, you need to handle this."

So, I had to call them back three days later, because no one in the
store could help me that day.  When I finally did get a hold of
someone, he was very rude and not very helpful (I suspect he got the
story from the sales guy first).  The most he would agree to do was to
pick it up and return my money.

Now,  I explained to them, that I have just moved into a new home...we
have  completely moved all our food into the new refrigerator...I
don't have time to start refrigerator shopping again.  Not to mention
the fact that I already passed up other good deals for similar models
at other stores.  I bought this refrigerator at Best Buy.  They
charged my credit card account one month prior to delivery.  It was
mine.  I owned it.  I was already paying interest charges on it.  And
they damaged it.  It was simple, they can either repair it (or
compensate me for the repair cost, I am flexible) or replace it.

Simple? Well, that was what I thought.  In talking to the manger of
the store, that was not the case.  They told me my only option was to
have them come and pick it up and give me a refund.  (I don't even
understand this????  They are not going to get as much money as I paid
for it if they pick it up??? Why bother with all of this?? Wasting
money on delivery?? Why not make your customer happy??).

Anyway,  so I was talking to the manager...and realized that he would
not be able to help me, and I asked who his boss was.  "I am the
boss!"
"Excuse me, you told me you were an inventory manager, doesn't your
store have a General Manager?"
"No!  I am the highest manager at this store, I don't report to
anyone"

So of course when I called BestBuy corporate they told me that that
was not the case, they told me the General managers name, and told me
the inventory manager reported to him..."interesting..."

So,  following this I had several further calls with Best Buy,  And I
received worse and worse customer service.  "When will your General
manager be in?"
"My manager said that we are not allowed to give you that information"
Well, when I later inquired about this policy to BestBuy corporate i
found that of course they are supposed to supply that information.

So I escalated this to the office of the CEO of BestBuy Inc.  Two
weeks later I received a call from there corporate headquarters.
They offered me a $75 BestBuy gift card to compensate me for the $300+
damage that they did to my refrigerator.  Since I continued to
protest, they said the best they could do was $100 gift
card..."Rediculous!"  It is more than $300 damage, plus all of this
trouble?

Well,  I hope it was worth it BestBuy...you sure got one over on me.
You have frustrated me enough to stop calling and being insulted by
your staff.  I will be taking you to small claims court.  But who
knows how that will go (anyone have any advice on this?)

Meanwhile, I will point out the dent to everyone that comes over and
tell them how poorly I was treated by BestBuy.

I have always shopped BestBuy and bought my family giftcards for x-mas
and b-days for past holidays...I never had to return anything, so I
never knew how poor there customer service really was...Buyer Beware!

If BestBuy has cheap CD's or DVDs, and you have had good experiences
there (as I had previously) go ahead and risk it.  But if you are
going to make a large purchase.  Do yourself a favor and go to a
reputable company that cares about its customers.  Like CicuitCity.
Actually, HomeDepot has much better deals on refrigerators...I love
that store.  I don't have a Lowes near me, but I am sure they are
equivalent to HomeDepot.  I don't know why I ever walked into
BestBuy...live and learn.  Never again.

  bobbowler@hotmail.com (BCBowler) wrote:

If you're hoping that HD's customer service will be any better than BB's, you
may be disappointed... Do a Google Groups search on this group,
alt.home.repair, or rec.woodworking and you'll get an idea of how bad it can
be.

--
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss
America?

 I think his story is interesting.  Unfortunately, it is absolutely NOT unique.
From what I've seen in the last few years, customer service at any of the big
box stores is appalling.  None of them, BB, Circuit City, CompUSA, Home Depot,
Lowes, and the list goes on, gives a damn about any kind of customer
satisfaction when there's a problem.

I believe its because these places have such large customer bases that they just
don't care about an individual's problems.  

I once quoted the statistic that it cost between 3 and 4 TIMES as much to gain a
new customer as to retain an existing one.  This as disputed by a couple folks
in the Dodge trucks group, who asserted that a customer thats a problem is not
worth trying to retain.  

I've also read that an unhappy customer will tell at least 10 other people, a
happy one will tell 3.  Presuming this is true, it doesn't seem to have any
impact on the large, high-volume stores.  Apparently, there are SO MANY new
customers out there that it just isn't a priority to retain existing ones.

 dperez@juno_nospam.com wrote:


just

It because all that they compete on is price, price, price.  Service is
just extra cost to them.

 On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 21:54:34 -0600, someone wrote:



The American public is getting just what they deserve.

They will buy on price alone, and "use" local merchants to get
information and view products, and then turn around and buy from a big
box because it is 10 bucks cheaper.

It is not the big boxes that are putting mom & pop stores out of
business, it is THE CONSUMERS who drive past their neighborhood stores
to go to the big boxes.

There is only one item (a door unit not stocked locally) in my house
that is from HD.  None of my appliances are from a big box.  There was
a guy's sig that I saw, it said something like "quality, price,
service - pick any two".  Aint it real.

-v.