BestBuy.Com

[Jim_H]

Goal: To buy my sister a new notebook computer and have it delivered to her college address.

The item page and shopping cart both say "Shipping: Usually leaves our warehouse in 1 business day". But later in the process says it cannot be delivered to her in college  Tells me it has to be a pick-up if no options are listed.

Some or all of the shipping methods are not available for the product, HP - Pavilion Laptop with Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor. Please review the available options. If no shipping options exist, try our store pickup option.

I checked the format against the college/school address guidelines and its good to go. I checked USPS.gov to make sure the college address was correctly named/formatted, they assigned that Zip code and city name to the college itself, specifically saying that using the city which it's in is incorrect.

<name>

PO BOX xxxx  (there is no line 2)

STATE UNIVERSITY, xx xxxxx

USA 

For her to pick it up would be a 4 hour round trip to another city, so I was hoping to make this easy for her. Considering there's a lot of commercials about buying gifts for others and getting free shipping, I would have expected this to be easy.

Well, shoot... Guess its gonna be a pick up and she can use some gas (for what was suppose to be free delivery) but when I try that option, it says the purchaser has to be the one picking it up. huh? Well, I'm working SE Asia right now so I sure can't be present to pick up anything.

The item is: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9371262&productCategoryId=abcat0502003&type=product&id...

So, it delivers, but just not to her college for some unspecified reason. It can be picked up, but not by her. Wiring money to her for a silly $700 purchase is... well, silly.

Any ideas? Possibly something simple I'm overlooking? Maybe BestBuy doesn't recognize the city or Zip because they're specially assigned by USPS? Any help that will allow my credit card to put a new computer in her hands is all I'm looking for. Thanks!

[Dorothy-BBY Community Supervisor]

Hello Jim_H -

John, one of our Community Connectors, will be reaching out to you shortly.  Thank you for your patience!

[John-BBY Community Connector · Accepted solution]

Hello Jim_H,

I wholly understand your frustration in trying to place this order.  Being a good Samaritan should be rewarded, not thwarted.  I'd be frustrated too given the circumstances.  Hopefully I can clear up what's happening and offer you some useful solutions.

The address to which you ship has to conform to the format that is provided in sample on BestBuy.com and be a valid USPS recognized address.  The sample address you provided should have the university name in the Address line 2 and a city, state and zip to meet the requirements.  Also, because computers are shipped via UPS, a PO Box would not be an accepted destination of the shipment. 

Our recommendation would be to ask your sister to confirm with the university mailroom the correct address for UPS shipments.  Once you have that information, you should be able to complete the order with no problem.

As to the store pick up option, the person who placed the order must appear at pick up with the credit card used for the purchase.  This is for your security.  I know that it seems like an inconvenient nuisance, but it would prevent someone from making an unauthorized charge against your account and picking it up while you were out of the country, just as an example.  It's for this reason that the policy has been enstated.

I hope this helps.  I offer my personal apology for the inconvenience and frustration of the situation, especially since you're trying to do a good deed.  If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to reply to this thread or send me a private message.  To send me a private message, click on my user name and then on “Send this user a private message” under Contact on the next screen.

Sincerely,

[starhelper2587]

Couldn't he go to the store and place a Customer Fulfillment or OMS Lite order for the laptop?  I know BB.com doesn't offer gift receipient pick up since the cc actually is charged at the time of pick up so the original purchaser would need to be present.  But w/ CF and OMS orders, the client can have it shipped to most anywhere w/in the US or opt for in-store pick up, and it can be picked up by a gift receipient ... correct?

[Jim_H]

Well John, it turns out the answer was unfortunately 'not gonna happen' but I found a solution to bypass it. Since in-store is not possible due to security, I can have her travel to that same city where a relative happens to also live.... UPS it to the relative in the relatives name ... voila! same thing as in-store pick up!

When you noted the UPS/computer delivery, that got me past this and and let me forge ahead... but you mentioned it so I credit you for resolving this. When the delivery warning first appeared, I remembered there being something about address types and computers for delivery options and went looking for it, obviously not finding it again. I did have her contact the mailroom and they confirmed it was a PO Box and that they received packages there... but now we're into third person he-said-she-saids and government USPS employees supposedly receiving UPS packages in the US?  Naw, too much worry.

So anyway, theres a solution and I want to thank you John for mentioning the UPS only angle. Before seeing that, I was stuck focusing on finding a 'why not' to blame.

Thanks!

[Jim_H]

@starhelper2587: yes, that would seem like a valid option, however I'm currently working in the Philippines and theres no BestBuys around here. Ironically, most Stateside electronics are manufactured here in SE Asia but almost everything for sale here to the locals is cloned/fake. I returned from a stateside trip recently and took the opportunity to purchase my new phone, computer, camera, and accessories before departing.