Bryan, Best Buy may have redeemed themselves in your eyes, but they’re still pure evil. Their employees, whether by ignorance or training, can be “considered harmful” to technology consumers who aren’t necessarily that tech savvy.
Consider this exchange: a woman is buying an iPod for her son. Employee: “Well you’ll definitly want the protection plan; the batteries don’t last more than a year, tops, and Apple can take up to two months to replace them, even though you have to pay for it.” Huh, that’s news to me, considering I have an older iPod that’s still going strong. With the original battery.
Or how about this. My sister was considering buying some home theatre equipment, and while a Samsung model fit her price range better, she was concerned about the audio quality compared to the Sony. “Well,” answered the snake oil salesman “associate”, “no reason to worry; Sony bought Samsung, so they’re really the same now.”
Thanks, but no; I’d rather support a store which doesn’t out right lie to customers.
I agree, Best Buy has the worst customer service sense imaginable. During the holidays I was printing pictures to include with my cards. I purchased expensive photo paper at Best Buy. All the packages were torn up and looked like stock that should be thrown away. Boxes were re-taped, etc. When paying for the beat-up merchandise, I questioned the contents, and the Best Buy employee indignantly stated that the packages were checked before they were taped. It was late, I couldn’t find that specialty paper anywhere else, so I bought it. When I got home, the package contained 11 sheets instead of 25. I figured, no big deal, I’ll keep the box and receipt and get it straightened out on my next trip. Well, when I went back, they refused to do anything about it. The two managers I spoke with were extremely rude. Naturally, I left without purchasing the computer keyboard, mouse and tax software that I had also planned to buy. A quick trip to Fry’s and I purchased what I needed. The other funny thing is that my husband liked the sales kid at the plasma TV display and was seriously planning on using Best Buy when we redo our entertainment center. That won’t be happening now. Poor customer service at Best Buy altered a lot of purchasing plans for us. When will these companies learn that we have more than one choice?
So Best Buy makes it a habit of lying at all their stores apparently. We have experienced first-hand some similar situations at the ones here in Denver. *sigh* Have you visited http://www.bestbuysux.org? It appears there is an epidemic. :-)
Ran across your site doing a search on “Yergler” on google awhile ago. (My maiden name is Yergler – our family is from Northern Indiana)