Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[UNCCheryl]

This seems to be a theme with Best Buy... If you read on here that Best Buy matches competitor prices, don't believe it - They don't!  I just got off the phone with their customer service division and was told that they only match prices within the Best Buy family stores, not competitors' prices. I can't remember a retailer, especially in this economy, providing worse customer service and not matching competitors' better prices. 

Here are the details... This past Saturday, found a HP laptop that I wanted to go and buy. Of course, my local store is out of stock so I check the nearest BB and decide to spend my Sunday driving 200 miles to go purchase the laptop.  To make sure that they don't sell the last one at this other destination, I purchased it online for store pickup for the next day, Sunday.

When I return from the 2-hour trip to pick up laptop yesterday, I notice that my $629 laptop was now advertised at a competitor for only $549. Same exact model. Same everything.

Not wanting to retravel the 3 hours back to original store to get the refund, I contacted the national 1-888-BEST BUY customer service line and was told that Best Buy will only match their own stores' prices!  Not a competitors, even if the other store is in same town or next door. When I mentioned that I planned on returning laptop to Best Buy and would walk across the street to purchase the $80 cheaper same model, the customer service representative told me that I would be charged 10% to restock the product.

 I'm still going to return the Best Buy laptop, pay the $60 "restocking" fee and walking 100 yards across the street to purchase the same laptop from the CC competitor. A lot of work to do but there's no way that I want Best Buy to have my money if they observe customer service practices such as these. 

And this follows another bad Best Buy experience at my local store with a "Bait and Switch" incident with the Sunday sale ad that the customer service board online never responded back about.

I learned my lesson with Best Buy and plan to let as many people as possible, in person and online, know about Best Buy's lack of concern for customer satisfaction.

[dnicole-employe]

Whoever you spoke to on the phone misinformed you. BBY will price match any local competitor, as long as its not clearance/openbox/mail in rebate and the liking.  As well as the restocking fee is actually 15% not 10%, it sounds like you ending up speaking with an uninformed employee.

[Cambodian]

That freaking sucks! I use to be a Best Buy fans but hearing all this stuff makes me hate BB, I even made jokes to my family about traveling to the US and sleeping outside of BB lol. I thought it was a paradise, I recently had a small issue but got solved fast, the only really bad thing about BB is their slow email response. I mean I know thousands of people send emails per second but thats why you are supposed to have thousands of people answering them! Anyways I hope your issue gets fixed correctly, This isnt really fair since [A random store starting with W and ending with T] doesnt have this 10%-15% returnal thing. BB is corruption.

[UNCCheryl]

Dnicole,

Thanks for the response and I wish that you could prove me wrong! 

I was told by the person who answered the 1 888- BEST BUY call, and listened to my story before transferring me, that because I did it online for in-store pickup, that BB would not match competitor's prices. I only did it online to insure that the laptop was there when I came to pick it up. It's even on the web site that BB matches in-house prices only, not competitors 

[Elizabeth-BBY Community Supervisor]

Dear UNCCheryl, 

Thanks for posting your concern on our Best Buy® Forum.  Your issue has been assigned to one of our Community Connectors for further review and response, and you should be hearing something within a maximum of 3-5 business days.  Please note that it may be sooner depending on the complexity of your issue and the current volume of posts.  Thanks for your continued patience as we work to assist all of the customers who have reached out to us on this forum.

[John-BBY Community Connector]

Hello UNCCheryl,

I’m disappointed to hear about your unsatisfactory experience seeking a price match.  As dnicole-employe stated, it sounds like you got some incorrect information about how the price match policy works.  First of all, the store policy can be found here.  BestBuy.com will only match pricing to Best Buy® stores or lower BestBuy.com prices.  Our store price match policy is much broader, and your product may have qualified for a price match through the retail location.

I’d like to get some more information and see if we can reach an agreeable resolution for you.  Please watch for a private message from me.  You may check your forum inbox by signing in with your user name and password and then clicking on the envelope icon in the upper right.

Thank you for taking the time to make us aware of your experience.  I look forward to hearing from you!

[dnicole-employe]

I apologize, I missed that line from your original post regarding that it was an on-line purchase.