Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[tmrendo]

So I had a somewhat odd question for a Best Buy associate today and was not only brushed off but the employee argued incorectly about price matching policy at the Apple Valley, MN store. 

There is a Target located right next door to the Best Buy and I had been in there when I noticed that they were advertising a free $25 gift card with the purchase of a Kinect sensor (and the only Kinect's they had on the shelf were the newer Child of Eden bundles).  I took a look at the sale ad for the store and noticed it wasn't in the ad, but the sale was not a clearance item and it did not appear to be either store exclusive or requiring a manual mark-down, etc. (i.e. all indications were that it was simply a offer being advertised in store only, but I have not yet had a chance to check another Target to confirm).  Lately my experience with Best Buy has been great (the people at the Lakeville branch are awesome and I bring all my trade-ins to them!), and I have a significant amount of Best Buy gift cards at the moment so I was obviously interested in purchasing the bundle from Best Buy if at all possible. 

I walked next door to the Best Buy and asked the guy working the video game counter, figuring that I was buying a video game product he was a logical person to ask.  Two employees were there and so I asked them, more or less the following, "Hi, so I know that Best Buy will price match gift card deals if they are online or in a printed ad, but I was just in Target next door and noticed they have a deal with the Child of Eden Kinect bundle that appears to be advertised in store only for a $25 gift card with purchase. I was wondering if Best Buy will still honor that deal since it is advertise in store only, or I guess what I'm asking is if you guys are willing to call Target and confirm the deal for a price match?" 

The employee, who I have seen working the counter several times and appears to be higher up in the video game section, completely ignored the real question I was asking, and instead started to talk about how they don't honor bundle deals. I responded taht it wasn't a bundle deal, it was a $25 gift card with purchase of a Kinect. His response then was that they do not price match giftcards. I explained to him that I have had the price match done on gift card deals in the past and that it was basically their choice whether to just take the dollar amount off of the product or match the giftcard value.  In not so many words he said that I was wrong but  would double check, again stating that they don't honor "bundles."  He took about two steps away, walking behind a display, and within about 10 seconds returned stating that they couldn't honor a price match on giftcards. This was possibly the most insulting aspect of the whole situation as he clearly had not consulted with anyone and figured me dumb enough to think he had in the 10 seconds he had been out of hearing range.  He began to offer an explanation that "Best Buy doesn't can't properly put a value on the promotion and therefor they can't match the price since they don't know the value."  I of course responded, "It's a $25 gift card, the value is $25." He then suggested that the store was simply trying to clear out the old Kinect's and attempted to explain to me that there was a new bundle (remember that I had actually mentioned to him that the bundle on sale at Target had been the Child of Eden one). I reminded him that I was aware of the new bundle and that that version was the only version Target had on the shelf. He then went on about how "Best Buy corporate has to be aware of competitor deals so that they can provide a SKU to stores so that they can do price matches," seriously implying that Best Buy can only price match a competitor deal when corporate knows about it ahead of time (which is not only correct, but also implies the ridiculous notion that Best Buy Corporate spends countless hours each week pouring over every possible competitor's deals in every market so that they can put the information for those deals into the system so that they can price match). 

I admit I should of just gone to customer service in the first place, but my experience with the people at the video game counter at the Lakeville store has been so positive that I honestly just didn't expect it to be so polar opposite at the next closest store. 

With the amount of extra training the video game employees are now going through it is simply ridiculous when a customer is signficantly more informed about how their company works, furthermore, the excuses provided by the employee and the overall attitude and behavior was unacceptable for someone in customer service.  He clearly thought I was an idiot and spoke to me as such.

Also, I still don't know if this is a deal that could possibly be price matched or not.

[AaronE]

Best Buy did recently update their price match policy so some stores might have some employees which are not aware of the changes.

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Price Match Policy:

Buy It Now With Confidence Best Buy will match the price if you find a lower price on an identical available product at a local retail competitor's store, a local Best Buy Retail Store or BestBuy.com. Simply let us know when you are making your purchase or during the return and exchange period. Perfect Match Promise products have an extended 60-day price match period.

The Guarantee does not apply to: Our competitors' website prices, offers that include financing, bundling of items, free items, pricing errors, mail-in offers, competitors' service prices, items that are advertised as limited-quantity, out of stock, open-box, clearance, refurbished/used items, BestBuy.com Midnight Sale and special hour sale events, BestBuy.com Outlet Center and Marketplace items, and items for sale Thanksgiving Day through the

Monday after Thanksgiving.

Does Best Buy price match "free gift with purchase" offers?
No. Best Buy does not price match "free gift with purchase" orders.

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So since the gift card with purchase was a free item it wouldn't meet the new policy. It used to be that stores would either deduct the gift card value from the items price or issue a gift card. The price match policy was just updated 8/21/11 per the web page so as I had said it's a rather recent change and some employees might not be in the loop on it yet.

I'm sorry you ran into the issues you did though.

[tmrendo]

Hmmm, after re-reading another post on the forum you are correct that I may have misread the other post (it pointed out that the price match policy said that, but I originally read it as them complaining that the policy wasn't up to date, rather than having been updated).  I was also unaware of this price change in policy as it was still policy as of June (http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/forums/forumtopicprintpage/board-id/Policies/message-id/49670/print-sin...).

[tmrendo]

Update:

So I went to my preferred Best Buy in Lakeville and one of the associates who I see regularly was there. I asked her about the policy and without hesitation said they would price match.  Unfortunately they did not have the Child of Eden bundle yet on the floor (looks like they still had quite a few of the old bundles to burn through first) so I couldn't do the price match there but she did offer for me to have the Apple Valley store call them to confirm the policy if I decided to go back and they still said no.

Went back to Apple Valley, went straight to customer service and by pure chance spoke to a manager.  I didn't tell him the story because I didn't want him to give me the deal because I was an upset employee, I wanted his genuine response.  Again, without hesitation I was told yes to a price match.  He then asked the other employee at customer service if he was aware of Target's deal and the employee said he was so the manager didn't even call to confirm the deal with Target. It was that easy. Five minutes in and out to get the deal I had wanted. I made the deciscion to not "go off" on him about the earlier experience because he was very nice about it and I had already filed my complaint here. 

While I am happy to have gotten the deal I wanted, there is still a troubling fact.  The earlier employee had to of been blatantly lieing to me.  While he could of been unaware of the price matching policy, his explanations were blatantly false and I imagine any employee who had been there more than a week would know that (seeing as how I have never worked for the company and knew they were).  Clearly, as I already knew/state before, he didn't inquire about it when I was in the store earlier.  What's worse is that this employee appears to be a higher up in the gaming department.  I don't know that for certain though.  Really wish I had gotten his name, may even stop by tomorrow just to see if he is working and I can.

[tmrendo]

*upset employee = upset customer.

[tmrendo]

Ugh, I hate bumping my own thread on any forum, but when I complain to corporate about something there is a dang good reason and want to make sure that reason has been at least noticed. A Best Buy employee was rude, condescending and blatantly lied to me in regards to an honest question, which to put simply, was about trying to figure out how I could make a purchase at your store rather than a competitor's. I made the choice to not ruin a shift manager's night with the hope that this might be relayed to the store's manager from corporate, where it would have a much greater effect. I work in customer service and know that a customer complaint to management can get brushed over fairly easy but when someone from corporate even sends an email about an incident it is serious business.

[Yellowsubmarine]

Respons time here is, on average,3-5 business days.They have been a bit quicker though lately.

[tmrendo]

Thanks for the heads up on that. I do apologize if I seem especially disgruntled I just have never had an experience THIS bad at any retail store before, let alone a Best Buy; which over the last couple of months I've been shopping at far more often.

[Melissa-BBY Community Connector]

Hi tmrendo,

It was great to read that even though you had seen the promotion at Target for the free gift card that you still wanted to purchase your Kinect sensor at our store. Saving money in any form can be very important and I am sorry to read that your attempts at this did not go as smoothly as we’d like. If I had received so many different stories on our policy regarding price-matching offers like this, I too would have been pretty upset.

As AaronE mentioned, our Price Match Guarantee was recently updated a few times actually. Per the current policy, we do not match “free gift with purchase” offers. This includes free gift card offers like the one you had seen at Target. As our policies do change occasionally, it is generally best to check the in store signage or our website for the most up to date information. Of course, we would also expect that our employees also would provide the correct information.

That being said, while the first representative you spoke with in the video game section at our Apple Valley store was correct, it disappoints me that the reasons being provided were not correct. It also saddens me that you have not received a consistent experience across our stores, as you should be able to rely on. I will be sure to forward your feedback regarding your experience to the management at the Apple Valley store to ensure that they review the current Price Match Guarantee with their team. I am glad to see that the manager was ultimately willing to honor the promotion for you and I hope you are enjoying your new Kinect system.

If you do have any questions or concerns in the future, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Best Wishes,