Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[jraff421]

I purchased a Affinity Washer & Gas Dryer, Protection Plan, Installation Services on 2/16/09 through a Sales person over the phone.  The washer & dryer was delivered on 3/10/09 and installed on 3/11/09 and the nightmare began.

The 1st time I went to wash my clothes the washer door would not lock and when I checked the lock I the door I realized the door lock was broken.  I called the Geek Squad and they come 1 week later 3/17/09 to tell me the door lock was broken and he had to order the part.  I waited another week for him to come back and fix the door and that same day the dryer would not turn on.  Since the repair man was there when this happened he checked the dryer and told me the starter was cracked and would not turn on, again he had to order the part for the dryer and come back a week later.  Since I felt these machines were "lemons" I called Best Buy and decided to upgrade to a better model (more expensive) and was told by the Sales person that they would arrange all the return services (uninstall the original Gas dryer, arrange the delivery of the new dryer and arrange the installation of the new Gas Dryer), well that did not happen at all.  The delivery on the new washer & gas dryer was scheduled for 3/23/09 but no one at Best Buy arranged for the uninstallation & the new installation although I paid for the service.  The delivery people left without doing anything and rescheduled my delivery for 4/2/09.  Well today I received a call from the delivery people and again nothing was scheduled for the uninstallation & installation of the new gas dryer.

After 4 hours on the phone with the WORST Customer Service people 10 in total which included several Supervisors and no resolution I had no alternative but to cancel my entire order and spent more time on the phone again and have to call tomorrow again to get someone at my home to get these lemons out.....

I have spent $1600 on my 1st order and $1900 on my second order but I guess thats not enough money for Best Buy since I felt no one went out of there way to assist me and really did not care if I cancelled or not and not to mention 2 months going to the laundromat and the cost associated.  Now I have to go to a competitor and start all over again with ordering and delivery but must wait for Best Buy to come and get the machines out.

What is more frustrating is that everytime I call Best Buy I never get the same person to talk to and then get transferred from Department to Department and most of the time my call gets disconnected.

I am at the end of the rope and don't know what to do next!!!!!

[stldude29]

Unfortunately Best Buy contracts out the delivery and installation services for all major Appliances and it seems like the Appliance dept in each store only ever has just 1 person working. I know Best Buy trys extremely hard to promote the fact that they do sell Appliances (like advertising on the front cover of the Sunday ads) to compete with Sea rs, Low es and Home De pot. I think the internal systems for the Appliance department needs an overhaul casue these issues seem to be some of the worse ones in this forum. I have seen the evolution of the design changes in the stores for the various departments, but Appliances never change.

I think Best Buy should take a hard look at the operating cost/style of the Appliance Dept and completely change it.

Just my $.02

[Elizabeth-BBY Community Supervisor]

Hi jraff421,

I've asked Dorothy, one of our Community Connectors, to offer her assistance with your concerns.  You can expect to hear from her within the next few business days.

Thanks for your continued patience,

[Dorothy-BBY Community Supervisor]

Good afternoon jraff421 -

Being without a washer and dryer is never a fun situation, and to know that you have purchased not one but two sets of laundry equipment and continue to be without, must be completely frustrating!  I want to offer my sincerest apologies for the wait you have encountered in what should have been a seamless transaction.  

It saddens me that you finally had to resort to canceling both orders, however if you would like me to try to find a resolution for you, I would be happy to do so.  I am sending you a private message to request further information, so please be on the lookout for this.  You can access your private messages by first ensuring you are logged into the forums, then clicking the icon in the upper right hand corner.  

Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us, and I look forward to being of assistance. 

Regards,

Dorothy

Community Connector

Best Buy® Corporate

[muthaiga]

My experience has been incredibly similar to yours:  I purchased a Samsung Washer and Dryer that was delivered on 3/10.  The units were just left with my contractor, and not installed as I had ordered (and paid for).  I called the BB store where I had purchased the units, and was told that it would be quicker and easier if my contractor installed the washer/dryer.  My husband ended up installing the units, though he had to buy new hoses, as the ones the delivery guys left weren't the correct ones.  After using the machines for a bit, I find that the washer is quite noisy - the selling point of these washers is that they are supposed to be very quiet.  So I do a little online research, and find that the units are supposed to come with soundproofing boards, that are supposed to be installed before connecting the machines.  I call BB to see when someone can come out to check on the installation, check to see if the soundproofing board was installed prior to delivery, and check on the noise. 

What proceeds to happen is a series of calls and transfers.  First, there's confusion on BB's part on whether this is installation or repair.  Then, they tell me their going to call me back to with a service appt date.  No one ever calls back.  I had to call several times to ultimately find out when Geek Squad would be coming!  I specify my contact numbers (home or my cell).  Then, I take the morning off work to be here.  No one shows up.  I call BB, and find out they called my husband on his cell, (?WHY?) and "he cancelled".  I called my husband, and he said he had no idea who was calling or why - he answered his cell, and the Geek Squad guy didn't explain what he was calling about - just said he was calling from BB and he wanted to know "what do you want done".  My husband thought it was some kind of marketing call, and said he wasn't interested and hung up.  Why ask what needs to be done anyway?  After spending hours on the phone with various CS reps and supervisors, wouldn't the purpose of the service call be clear to the technician?

So I ended up call BB back - another round of phone tree transfers and speaking with a supervisor, who then informs me that the next available service appointment is 4/18!  I asked if there is anyway to escalate the appointment and she assures me that someone will call me back by 1:30P today to confirm whether or not they can move the service call up.  It's now almost midnight - no calls back from BB.  Unbelievable.  I spent something along the lines of $5K on a washer/dryer, and it takes a month, and 8 cumulative hours on the phone, and still nothing is resolved.  Every time you call, you have to state the whole story all over again, no one takes notes - nothing is ever resolved in an efficient manner.

After reading all these posts on this forum, I realize that this is a deep and continuing problem for BB... why should anyone continue to shop there if they can't follow through on customer service?  We're not talking about a $100 Nintendo DS, or a $40 computer game here - we're talking thousands of dollars spent on large appliances!  Unbelievable.

[GeraldRose]

Situations like this are very unfortunate, and more unfortunate is that these cases seem to snowball for customers with problems, it seems it is never just one issue.

I don't know why that is I have bought 3 appliances fron Best Buy and 2 from S ears and never experianced issues with either store.

I would say most customers get their appliances and everything goes off without a hitch, but when it does hit the fan it seems there is a worse than expected resolution that is then given to the customers.

It's kind of a shame BBY doesn't throw more muscle behind it, BBY sells the most electronics in the US (possibly the world??) and yet is 4th I believe in appliances (Home Deepow, Seers,Lows) you would think BBY would try harder to improve this. Perhaps they realize the market is cornered and doesn't want to throw a lot of money behind a department that is done so well by those other 3 stores.