Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[Sassums]

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hockeycanuckjc wrote:
Certain states have different laws and limitations on return policies, and some policies in one state might be an illegal practice in another.

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Thanks, that is what I was getting at.

[Elizabeth-BBY Community Supervisor]

Hi RWilley,

I've asked Dorothy, one of our Community Connectors, to review and respond to your concerns.  You should be hearing from her shortly.

Thanks for posting,

[nikbetters]

I understand being frustrated about not being able to return things for cash; but just because you are a soldier it does not mean society needs to go out of their way to help you out. Even with a gift recipt its supposed to go to cash. I am not saying this bc I am a sour Best Buy Employee but I am also a soldier. A soldier should not expect more out of companies and get special privileges just bc they are in the military or they deployed.

Its using your situation to take advantage of people and companies. Being almost 5 months out of return policy why didnt you just take the store credit and then buy something different that you wanted?

Personally if I were to deploy I would not expect Best Buy to extend my return period almost 5 months. That is rediculous. Im sorry but I think your just blowing smoke up your butt wanting people to do you special favors.

As far as the employee telling you he did you a favor... That was out of line. He could have said it more appropriately.

I say..... Suck it up and deal.

[Dorothy-BBY Community Supervisor]

Good afternoon RWilley -

It is good to hear you are back on American soil!  My sister is in the Navy and I know how being deployed can cause a variety of extenuating circumstances where purchases are concerned.  I was saddened to hear that Christmas gift from your mother-in-law did not work out for you. I hate it when that happens!!

Please allow me to shed some light on why you might have had the type of experience you recounted to us.  Typically, a return must go to the original form of payment within the allotted return period - 14, 30 or 45 days depending on the type of product or Reward Zone membership.  In your case, a satellite radio offers a 30 day return period (45 if the purchaser is a Reward Zone Premier Silver member).  Anything beyond this time frame is generally unable to be returned, period.  Occasionally, a store may make an exception, however our systems do prompt us to issue a store credit due to the return being outside of the return policy.  While the associate and manager should have never addressed this in the manner you described as "lucky" or "a favor", they truly are making an exception for you, and possibly the spirit of the offer was lost in the translation or wording.  Please accept my sincere apologies for this.

The other challenge in this situation that I think has been overlooked is that any return made within the appropriate return/exchange period must go back to the original method of purchase or to store credit.  Therefore, even if our system had allowed a return, it would have had to go back to the original purchaser's credit card or check, should it have been returned by the original purchaser.  Even if it was within the return time frame, a gift purchase is returned to a store credit.  We 

While I do certainly understand that you have no use for a store credit, I do hope you understand why this exception was offered to you.  

I do hope you will take this under advisement and reconsider your stance on shopping in our stores.  I do certainly hate to lose a customer over such an issue, but I do firmly believe that one should be able to understand the reasoning behind the decision. 

Respectfully yours,

Dorothy

Community Connector

Best Buy® Corporate