BestBuy.Com

[scratch6644]

On Friday evening, November 25, 2011, I called Best Buy to place several orders over the phone. I was simply trying to purchase 8 iPads for my company. Because the system allowed only 2 iPads to be included in each order, the representative placed 4 orders for me. As I placed the order, I gave her my Best Buy account email address, shipping and billing information, telephone number, and for each order I gave her the company credit card number, which included the company credit card security code. When I went to check these orders online to confirm everything, that was when I realized something was very wrong. Afterwards, I spent many hours, YES HOURS, trying speaking to several Best Buy supervisors to rectify the HUGE PROBLEMS.

The short version of what went wrong was the woman who took my information entered everything wrong, including my phone number, my email address (so I did not even receive receipts for two of the orders), but most importantly, MY CREDIT CARD INFORMATION. So instead of the charges for the orders going to my company’s credit card, the charges went to MY PERSONAL CREDIT CARD and WIPED OUT ALL OF THE MONEY IN MY PERSONAL BANK ACCOUNT, which I DID NOT AUTHORIZE! In fact, there should be no way that they could even charge my card (even though it was on record), because I never gave them my CID number, and Best Buy supervisors told me that they do not store that number, as all reputable companies should. Isn’t this some kind of HUGE VIOLATION here? This concerns me greatly, and I am ready to report to the proper authorities about this. I program large websites and payment systems myself, and I know that we are not supposed to be storing that information.

I will spare you the stories of the rude customer service that I received that night for over 5 hours of speaking with Best Buy supervisors, just to try to rectify the situation, especially on the holiday weekend. What is ironic is on that same day, I literally spent over $7,000 with Best Buy, and even waited in front of their store for over 25 hours the night before for Black Friday sales. Anyways, because of the FRAUDULENT charges on my card, I called my bank to not authorize those charges, but since it was in a “Pending” state, there was nothing they could do about it. So for the holiday weekend, I was literally with no money. I had plans to visit my family, and with me in Arizona and them in California, there was no way I could pay for travel to see them. Not trying to be dramatic, but I could not even buy a meal at a restaurant for the next 6 days, or even buy gas to get to work.

After wrestling with Best Buy’s automated phone services as well as rude employees for MORE HOURS (time is money that Best Buy won’t pay me back), I finally got someone to cancel the orders and the money would be credited back, but it still took almost a week before I could see any of that money back in my bank account. After that was resolved, I tried to speak with several supervisors and even sent several letters to Best Buy to make a formal complaint of this whole experience. I had to call several times because they said that they would get back to me, and I even gave them a few days at a time to respond with each call I made. They kept giving me the run around, but I even got offered $50 as a “Make good”, which I refused because it could NO WHERE NEAR make up for the holiday that Best Buy ruined for me and my family. They kept promising me on MANY occasions that they would look into my case, read my letter, and give a formal response. Never received a response after MANY attempts.

By the way, if Best Buy ever promises you that they will return your call or respond to you, NEVER BELIEVE IT! I have been doing business with Best Buy ever since they opened, and I have never received any calls or responses from them EVER!

I kept calling, and because it was the holiday season, I understood that they may be a bit bogged down, and they promised me that I was “in the queue”. However, after waiting a few weeks, and calling them periodically, I  told them that I have been so patient, but they, once again, said I was still in the queue and that I would be receiving a response to my formal complaint letter. Because it was so long, and they couldn’t tell me when I would receive a response, they offered me a $150 gift card. I told them, this is not a “Make good” and that I would only take it because of the time delay and uncertainty. They told me to expect a response in 2-3 weeks. I waited. STILL NO RESPONSE!

It is now January, so I call once again, and the representative told me that the case was closed and the letter was forgotten. Shocked, I asked her what else I could do. She pointed me to this forum. So here I am. If you want to read the full formal complaint, I have it ready, but I warn you, it’s long, with details of all the events and horrible experiences I had to endure.

Best Buy, I hope you can respond and really “Make Good” for your UNACCEPTABLE MISTAKE!

[redbarron55]

Good luck getting a reply. It seems that there is a huge disconnect between the promise of customer support and the Best Buy reality.

You must never make an error and never buy anything that causes a problem and never question BB /GS to be a good (complacent) customer. Oh yes you need to buy the Geek Squad Black Tie Protection plan and be satisfied that you have spent extra money for very limited support and also the gold plated runaround and still no answer.

However there are plenty of Geek Squad employees who will answer to tell you that you need to be patient and wait forever and accept poor / no response and an experience much worse that touted in their advertising.

As an aside the CEO is busy trying to justify his job amid dropping stock value and poor performance and the increasing realization that  Best Buy has failed to provide the experience and support customers expect from a local presence.

My expectation is that Best Buy will soon join Circuit City in that great beyond if they don't change their customer relations.

[Ryan-BBY Senior Social Media Specialist]

Hello scratch6644 -

Doug from our Social Media team, will be reaching out to you regarding your concern. Thank you for your continued patience!

[ShockSystem]

Welcome to the BestBuy furiously angry screwed customer club. Unfortunately it seems to be non-exclusive and very easy to join due to BestBuys inept and totally incompetent handling of any sort of customer service and sales practices that border on fraud. Soon you will be contacted by former BestBuy employee apologists who will explain to you very clearly how it's your fault and BestBuy was just trying to deliver great customer service and you should read the policies and terms that clearly states BestBuy never has a problem or makes mistakes. Then a follow up with a Best Buy "Social Media" team member will officially tell you politely how sorry they are that you are frustrated and that there must be some misunderstanding and the solution is; you should get bent, thank you and please shop again!

[Douglas-BBY Community Connector]

Hello scratch6644,

Thank you for posting.

Purchasing eight iPads in a single day is a pretty big buy and I can see how if it went wrong in anyway, that could be a huge issue for your personal finances – and at such an inconvenient time of the year!  We do have safeguards that require us to confirm and manually key in your credit card number when purchasing by phone to avoid issues like this, but I’m terribly sorry if we made an error when completing your purchase.

 It sounds like you’ve been on an odyssey trying to get this sorted out ever since and I would like to take a closer look at our past correspondence with you. Would you mind forwarding that letter to attn: Douglas at online.communities@bestbuy.com? Could you also include your home phone number and any case numbers you might have gotten?

I look forward to working with you.

Regards,

[Justin-BBY Community Connector]

Hi scratch6644-

Doug is out of the office for the week so I'll be taking over your situation. I've already started communicating through our Online Communities email channel, so if you have any further questions or concerns, feel free to address them there with me. 

Sincerely, 

[scratch6644]

*sigh* What?

Here is the reply I received from Best Buy:

==============================

Hello,

I believe that Douglas is out of the office for the week.

I was not aware of your forum post at the time, however, since I’m unsure how the processing errors occurred. Those orders were cancelled, new ones were created and you received the product. We are unable to provide you with any further compensation and I’m terribly sorry for any inconvenience.

Regards,

Justin|Community Connector

Corporate Campus

Online.Communities@BestBuy.com

==============================

How is this AT ALL helpful? *I* was the one who cancelled the orders. *I* was the one who created new orders. *I* was the one who was horribly inconvenienced. Do you understand? You make it sound like Best Buy took care of me? Don't try to get credit for the work *I* had to do. Shame on you Best Buy!

Also, I am reading conflicting messages? Justin, In your email you say you can't do anything more? But in your post on the forum and in another email, you say that you are going to work with me and speak with the appropriate management teams? Also, you have admitted that you haven't even read my posts. If you are working to resolve this issue, you have to read what the issue is first. So it's not wonder that you are "unsure how the processing errors occurred". That is even MORE UNNACCEPTABLE and UNEXCUSABLE! That is the whole problem to begin with! Being "UNSURE" is a awful company's way out! Is that all I get? Best Buy is "UNSURE", so sorry about that? HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

Also, my first response was from Douglas, and now it's you (Justin)? What is happening?

[Justin-BBY Community Connector]

Hello scratch6644,

I just want to provide some context since you contacted us through two different channels: here (on the forums) and then again through our Online.Communities@BestBuy.com account. I was originally assigned your Online Communities email which you sent to us 10 days after your forum post, which Douglas replied to on 1/26. I replied promptly to your email, and was made aware of your forum post afterwards (to which you also included in your email response yesterday). I replied to your thread here as well because I didn’t want you to think that Douglas would be responding, since he’s out of the office all week. So that’s why I asked you to continue our conversation through our e-mail account, because that is how I was first introduced to you. However I can see that you want to keep it on the forums, so we’ll do that instead.

Now let’s get back to your raised concerns about your iPad order. Unfortunately, I can’t speak directly to what happened while processing your order, because I wasn’t the agent that took your order. I’m very sorry I’m not able to provide the detailed explanation you’re looking for, but as I stated before, I’ve spoken with our Dotcom Team about your issue, so they are well aware and since have resolved it by getting you your iPads and creating a $150 digital coupon for your inconvenience. I realize you are seeking more than that but we will not be offering any additional compensation on top of what you’ve already been provided.

In conclusion, I’ve addressed your matter with the appropriate personnel and if any action is taken, it will be internally handled. Rest assured your voice has been heard and I sincerely apologize for any headaches this may have caused you.

Regards, 

[scratch6644]

Hello Justin,

It's like you are not even reading my posts. Let me once again get the facts straight.

I did not intentionally contact your through two different channels.

1/21/2012 - I made my first post on the forum
1/26/2012 - Douglas-BBY instructs me to email him at online.communities@bestbuy.com
1/31/2012 - I email Douglas-BBY per his instructions
1/31/2012 - Justin-BBY response to my email which was addressed to Douglas-BBY

How could you be "originally" assigned my Online Communities email? It was addressed to Douglas-BBY so he should have made you aware of this timeline and shown you the forum post.

In terms of the mistake that was made, I was NOT compensated at all for the mistake and inconvenience. Let me make this clear one more time. The $150 digital coupon was given as a "make good" for the long delay of responses from Best Buy as well as the uncertainty they had for when I would get a proper response. NOT for the actual mistake. Do you understand this?

Also, you have not addressed the concern I had about how Best Buy treats their customers. It is a FACT that Best Buy made a mistake. Saying that you are "unsure" of how it happened is not resolving the problem. You have just avoided that all together by saying you weren't the agent that took the order. But as a representative of the company who made the mistake, don't you think you owe it to your loyal customer to try to resolve the issue?

[redbarron55]

Welcome to Best Buy!

Poor original service, Misdirected statements, Incorrect information, False statements, Slow response, Pitiful customer service, and on top of that you do get the royal run around.

When you discover how terrible the service is it is too late.

The new plan for Best Buy survival and to boost their interim profits the customer after the sale is being exploited even more.

More promises of expedited service, premium service, and the reality is delayed service, delayed response, and dissapointed customers.

Never deal with Best Buy.