BestBuy.Com

[HDM]

My husband and I just made our first purchase from BestBuy.com and will never do it AGAIN.  We thought that perhaps BestBuy.com might be a little more customer friendly since our experience earlier this month at the store was a nightmare, but once again we were disappointed.

My husband ordered a Toshiba laptop, called the stores to verify they had it in stock before placing the order and was then notified AFTER placing the order that the item was out of stock.  When he called the stores he'd JUST spoken to, two different clerks told him not to do anything with the original site to store order, but to go ahead and place ANOTHER order to have the item shipped to our house.  He was told to disregard the email, that the order would cancel itself in 24 hours.  When I heard this, I was immediately wary. 

I checked my bank account, and lo and behold, there were TWO charges for BestBuy.com showing.  When we called the customer service number listed, we were told again by a rep to do nothing, the order would cancel overnight.  I checked our bank account this morning and it was still there.  Hubby called BB customer service and they told him to wait again for another 2-3 days.  I read the tiny print, stating that the order would SELF CANCEL IN 8 DAYS!  After a fight with the rep they finally cancelled the site to store order.  While that's all well and good, Best Buy still has almost $400 of my checking account tied up.  The customer service reps only said, 'well, sorry but we've cancelled the order for you have a nice day'. 

Whatever happened to customer service?  Had I not demanded several times that they cancel the order, our money would have been tied up for over a week.  It's infuriating that you are told something different by each person you speak with in the same company.  The fix to the site to store issue?  Have a special 'queue' of items that are reserved for site to store pickup.  Don't take these to the sales floor unless they are transferred to a floor 'queue'. 

Also some basic policy training for the company would be great too.  Sorry but these sales people are representing the company and can either make or break it.  I personally don't think we'll ever be going back to Best Buy to make another purchase.  Yes, the prices are great but there is alot to be said for accuracy and knowledge of associates and customer service. 

Extremely disappointed.

[Nokia]

If you held items for in-store pickup (site to store is something different, and is actually a WM thing), then you'd have disappointed customers who could not purchase the item in-store even though the store has stock. And to do this for every item in the store? That would result in hundreds of thousands of lost sales.

[HDM]

Sorry or using a WM store term. 

In my opinion the system is flawed.  It's more like a lottery if you are placing an order for pickup at a store when they can't guarantee there will be inventory there to complete the order.  I'm not asking that they take everything off the shelves.  But let's say that they have 30 in stock for people that pop into the store and buy on an impulse, but also have a certain number in stock that are reserved for customers that order online and pick up at the store immediately.  It wouldn't result in lost sales, but fewer disappointed and angry customers.  If you can't guarantee something is in stock and ready for pickup, don't allow someone to order it. 

For other retailers that do click n' pull, they take the orders from the stock in the back and set it aside for customers to pick up.  I just really don't believe it is fair for customers to be told one minute the item is in stock and then you place your order, your money is tied up and then you get an email stating it's not available.

[HDM]

PLUS, you aren't missing a sale because the items are already paid for when the order is placed.

[Nokia]

Sorry, I misunderstood you. I thought you were saying reserve a number whether they are ordered or not.

When you place an order for in-store pickup, it goes like this:

• You place order and get order confirmation.
• The store gets a notification that a customer has placed an order for so-and-so products, and to go pull them from the shelves and put them in a certain place.
• The person doing this goes and finds the products, and then marks the products he set aside as reserved in the computer.
• This sends an email to you, saying the products are ready for pickup.

It sounds like you called someone at the store and they checked their inventory system and saw it was avaliable. What was most likely going on is someone had already bought it and the system hadn't updated yet, or a customer was walking around with it when you called and subsequently purchased it.

[HDM]

Not a problem.  After I went back and re-read my post, I saw where a person could get confused. 

I think mine and my husband's level of frustration is more so with the fact that we were pushed into placing another order online for the same product, having it shipped to our house and given misinformation that our in store pickup order would self cancel within 24 hours.  I even heard two representatives state this very fact last night since my husband had the conversation on speaker phone. 

Had we been given correct and accurate information upfront instead of told to place another order, I wouldn't be angry right now.  Our last experience earlier this month with buying our new tv at the local store was a huge disappointment.  The rep that was helping us walked away in the middle of a question because someone next to us was looking at a larger, more expensive tv.  What I didn't tell them is that I am planning on buying 2-3 more televisions over the next year as well as a laptop for my oldest daughter to attend online college classes.

If this is the way they treat customers and if their representatives aren't aware of the policies and can't advise customers, I will find another place to buy our electronics. 

[Nokia]

Neither experience sounds satisfactory to me, and I'd definitely be upset. Since both orders are already going to cancel, I'm not sure what additional help the Community Connectors can provide, but they are magic, so don't underestimate them.

[HDM]

I'm really hoping SOMEONE can help us get this sorted out. 

I was literally in tears this morning when we finally got the rep to cancel the first order.

[Josh-BBY Retired: Community Connector]

HDM,

Thank you for bringing your questions and concerns to the forum. I am sorry that you are having a hard time getting the billing corrected for your cancelled order. It can be very confusing how to proceed when an order isn’t going the way you intended it to. I hope that I can help find how to best resolve this for you.

From what I understand, there was an In-Store pickup order placed followed by a ship-to-home order. There are definitely better ways that this could have been resolved and I am sorry that they were not explored. I definitely apologize if you were informed by someone in our BestBuy.com phone channel that told you to just wait for the charge to expire. We can lend assistance in certain situations when this occurs.

I do see where you called in on the 18^th and we tried to resolve this issue with your bank. Hopefully this has been resolved for you as of today as was stated by the representative. To connect with you about more of the details surrounding the order I have sent you a private message. To access your private messages please make sure that you are logged into the forum. Then click the link in the upper right hand corner that looks like an envelope. I look forward to hearing from you!