I will try to keep this short as Best Buy has already wasted too much of my time and also yours.
Last week I decided to take advantage of one of bust buys online sales. I tried to purchase an LG steam washer and dryer set model #s DLEX2501V and VM2501HVA. On
Saturday the 4th I tried to make an online purchase through best buy.com. I checked to see if these 2 items were in stock and placed them both in my cart to check out. Of course these items were in stock the website also did not say limited stock, close out item, or sold out online as it does with many other items.
I proceeded to check out and decided to have them shipped to store with free pick up as there website clearly advertised “CHOOSE STORE PICKUP AND GET IT TODAY.
No shipping costs!” When I finally tried to check this option it would no longer allow me to do this but it would still allow me to ship to my home for an additional cost. It was later in the evening and I did not have the time to call customer service at this time so I decided to wait until the morning to try to find out why BB would not uphold there advertised deal to ship to store. 8 am the next morning I try to order again and with the same results. Previously having dealt with BB customer service I was not looking forward to the long hold and not so helpful service. I stayed on hold for quite some time before I found the BB click to chat link. I then hung up and had this conversation that you can see posted below.
Of course this chat took well over an hour needless to say it got me no where. During this hour I had plenty of time to verify that these 2 items were still in stock, and verify Florida laws, among many other things. As you can see from the chat the best buy representatives employed the usual “bait and switch” tactic and tried to direct me to another item.
I advised her of FL law and particularly of section 5 which states:
(5) No retailer shall knowingly and willfully advertise merchandise for sale at a special or wholesale price, in any way or by any medium whatsoever, if he or she does not have sufficient quantities of the advertised merchandise to meet the reasonably foreseeable demand, unless the fact of limited quantity and the approximate number of items is stated in the advertisement, or unless the retailer provides a means by which the consumer may obtain the advertised item at the advertised price within a reasonable time or a value equivalent thereto.
She then posted some garbage (see below) from the fine print that says BB reserves the right to end any sale or cancel any order blah blah blah. At this time I felt like being short and telling her that just because BB posts some fine print on some page on there website it does not give them to right to break Florida law. I also wanted to say, and this may be a bad analogy but, I can not go in to rob a bank, point a gun at a teller, hand her a note that says “give me all your money!” Then write in the fine print on the back “this stick up is only for fun and games, the gun is not real, and you do not have to give me any money. If you do give me money it is of you own volition and I can legally keep it without being prosecuted.” Ok, definitely a bad analogy and probably a run on sentence but you get the point.
She of course denies any responsibility to provide a rain check, provides me with the number to customer service whom I have already been on hold with, and rudely ends the chat without notice.
So after over an hour of my life wasted chatting I tried to call the customer service provided. After 15-30 minutes I finally get in contact with Tammy. Tammy is nice a can be but still unable to help. She says that these items are available in and stock and is not sure why they can not be purchased. I stay on hold for another 20-30 minutes as she sees what she can do. Finally, she decides to contact sales or sales.com to see if they can help.
She/we get in contact with Durrell from sales or sales.com whom is also very nice but equally unhelpful. About this time Durrell is starting to figure out that these items are low on stock all through west Florida. While I am on hold and he is looking into it I start playing around on the best buy website looking for availability throughout Florida. I can find a few washers in a few different stores and a few dryers in a few others pretty far away. I then came across a BB warehouse in MD that has plenty of stock. When Durrell comes back he tells me that the items are out of stock and there is nothing he can do. I advised him that I found stock in the warehouse in MD and he said that he can not ship that stock to FL. I understand the cost effectiveness of having different warehouses and the inefficiency of shipping these items from MD. Understanding this I of course ask for a rain check for these items once they are back in stock. He then tells me that he can not do that, the items are out of stock, he can not provide a rain check, but he can help me find a washer and dryer set that is in stock. I mentioned to him that he did have the items in stock he just does not want absorb the cost of shipping them to me in FL. He again apologized that there is nothing that he can do besides find me another set. I asked if he would provide a similar deal on a similar set and he stated he could not. I again reminded him of Florida law and what BB and he are required to do. At this time he asked if I would like to speak with a supervisor.
Now I have been on the phone or hold for over 3 hours and over it. He said that he can transfer me to a supervisor but he also told me that if an order is out of stock it is best buy policy to follow its fine print and he can not do anything for me.
So he puts me on hold for another 20 minutes or so and I finally get in touch with Peggy ‘The Supervisor.” The first question I ask Peggy is “are you a supervisor?” and of course her answer is “NO.” Peggy is not a supervisor but she is at the corporate office. Peggy is nice as can be and we once again go through the whole story and explain to her my last 3-4 hours. She does her own research and after a while on hold she thinks she has found a washer in a local store and the dryer in a warehouse. She explains to me that it is probably best to call the local store to see if we can get these items ordered. After a while on hold we get in touch with Joanne at a local store, Peggy again explains the whole situation and Joanne tries to help. She finally figures out that she can get the washer but the dryer has been sold out through out this side of the state.
I again explained Florida law and mentioned to her what BB’s responsibilities are. I also mention my chat 4 hours ago during which I was told “Rain checks are given in the store only there is no way for us to issue rain check over the chat session.” Joanne, just like all others before me, told me she can help find me other appliances but can not order or rain check any items that are out of stock because she does not know when or if these items will ever come in.
Of course by now I am over it and starving. I grab some lunch and run to one other place. The whole situation is still getting to me so I decide to call all of the local stores to see what they say since, for the most part, every person I talked to up to this point had no idea what was going on. First call, I actually get a store that says they have or can get both appliances. Kind of surprised, I explained to her that I had been told that they can not be found throughout most of west Florida. She told me that it was not a problem and she just verified the inventory and she could get them. I politely asked her to get her manager and verify this as I did not want to drive 30+ minutes to the store only to arrive and find out that she was wrong. She did and I was on my way.
I get to my local store and find Sandy in appliances. Sandy, also great by the way, says she does not have any in the store but gets on the web and finds out that one warehouse has 3 of the washers and 2 of the dryers. I asked her if she really thought they were there and she said she could call the warehouse to verify before we place the order. She did and they did verify that they were there. I asked her if it were a pain in the rear to order these because it was an online price and she said it was but she had done it the day before and they can get it done. She starts to place the order on “the back” computer and remembered that they had to do it up front. We go up front to a “front computer” and Sandy explains the situation, explains that the warehouse confirmed the items were there, and asks him to place the order on the front computer. For one reason or another after beginning the order they decide to call for a manager so they can approve the price match in order to go back to the “back computer” and redo the order? Needless to say, the back computer or the front computer did not care that the live person at the warehouse told us that they had both items that each computers tried to order.
So I lose out on one full day of my life and my Sunday with my family and Best buy loses out on one customer trying to spend $1400 immediate dollars and probably another $2000-3000 before Christmas. What does that old adage say “a happy customer will tell a friend, an unhappy customer will tell….” I bet those statistics aren’t looking to good right now are they.
Sincerely,
Christopher {Removed per Forum Guidelines}
