I've been a Premier Silver member for the past 4 years now, racking up thousands of dollars in purchases. Recently, I bought a pre-order game which was supposed to arrive on release day, and with a download code. Of course, Best Buy manages to screw that up and I don't receive the game on launch day. Normally, I wouldn't care, but why shouldn't Best Buy be able to deliver like their competitors (i.e. Amazon, Gamestop)?
Anyhow, I DID receive an email on launch day with a download code for me to use. When I went to use the code, I was informed it had already been used. Seeing that I'm the only person with access to my email, I found that impossible to believe, yet there it was. Contacted XBox Live support and was told I had to contact Best Buy. So, I called them up to find out what was going on.
After waiting a good 30 minutes, I finally got a rep who would "see what [she could] do about it." End result? They'd email me a new code in 48 hours (and, being Best Buy, the email was never received). Completely unacceptable given they'd had my cash for months and THEY screwed up both the delivery date as well as the download code, and were completely inept at providing a satisfactory resolution.
Given some of the deals over the holiday season, I thought I'd give them another shot. Being Premier Silver, I'm entitled to a "complementary" $99 home theater eval, along with a $100 coupon good towards any home theater purchase $499 and up.
Went in to the local Best Buy to get the coupon, but I have ZERO use for an actual consultation, so I informed the Geek Squad member that it would be a waste of everyones time. I was told the "complementary" consultation actually cost $99 and they'd issue me a $100 voucher to repay me.
The Geek Squad "manager" told me the same thing. Last time I checked, "complementary" meant FREE, as in, NO MONEY. No amount of discussion with these employees led to anything productive.
So, that's the "reward" I get for giving Best Buy a large portion of my business over the years, a complete dropping of the ball on a service issue, and flat out incompetence regarding a core benefit program.
What do I expect out of this post? If Best Buy has taught me anything, it's to expect NOTHING. So long Best Buy, I'll be taking my business to Amazon from now on.
And to preempt those of you who would denigrate my post as being petty....here's a thought...when you PAY for a service, you should expect to RECEIVE that service. Best Buy is failing miserably at that task, so rather than reward incompetence and flat out apathy, I'd rather take my dollars elsewhere. Perhaps someone out there at Best Buy corporate is actually paying attention and can turn this ship around, but issues like mine mentioned above (and the egregious Black Friday purchase cancellations right before Christmas) are why Best Buy is starting to spiral the drain.
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