I said I would post an update on this issue so here goes.
First off, Best Buy made good on their promise to deliver the television for the advertised price I purchased it for. Here's my story.
I called Best Buy at 1-888-BEST BUY as I was told to periodically check to see if any would come in a few days after my original phone call. I was told none had come in across the country and the likelihood of this happening was very slim. At that, I was dissatisfied and asked to speak to the phone representative's supervisor. I was told the wait to speak to a supervisor could be a couple of hours. I felt strong enough about my issue that I was willing to wait to speak to one. (on speakerphone of course as I cleaned the house!) She did not put me on hold, she stayed on the line with me the entire time which turned out to be roughly 3 hours. Within the first 20 minutes of speaking to her, I was told that the reps were only authorized to give customers a 20% discount on any television for black Friday sales they were unable to make good on. Of course, this was unacceptable to me. I remained on the line with her for the remainder of the time making small talk, I felt that we became friends during the wait as we chatted about the weather, where we grew up, etc, etc..Not that this is part of the story, but she was very friendly I must say. A few hours into this banter, the supervisor said she could offer me $50.00 off any television I chose. It had been hours now of waiting on the phone so I was possibly willing to take this offer. I looked online while on hold at some of the televisions available to me. However, most were out of stock or unavailable, and there is no way to sort the items on bestbuy.com by availability. There was one television, a 24" Dynex with a DVD player that I found, that was the most comparable as far as brand and price. I asked if she could match the price I originally agreed to pay ($79.99). Her supervisor turned that down. Eventually after searching the site for a television that was available and satisfy me I decided to just take this Dynex with the DVD player for $50.00 off. At this time she verified my phone number in the event we should be disconnected. I gave her my credit card number and proceeded to purchase the television to be delivered to my door. She had computer issues she said at this point, and every time she went to submit my payment the computer would boot her off. I waited maybe another 20 minutes for her to try to get my payment to go through. Finally it went through! Alas, I could get off the phone, as it was now around PM and I had to be at work at 5 AM. No such luck. We were disconnected. I was tired, and was not even about to call back and try to go through the motions to get the right person back on the line again. Besides, she verified my phone number and would call me back, right? Wrong. But she said my credit card payment went through and even verified the security code on the back of my card. So, it should be ordered and show up on my doorstep. I figured I'd check my email in the morning for confirmation. I did not receive confirmation and no charge was made to my credit card. At this point, I decided to give up, and hhgregg or newegg would have the opportunity to earn a new customer. To my surprise, 2 days later I received a voice mail from Connie at Best Buy stating that my local Best Buy store in Mentor, Ohio has one of the televisions I originally ordered in stock but she needed approval to run my credit card. This was at around 10AM. I received her message at around 1:30 PM and quickly returned the call to Connie's direct number. She looked it up again and said my Best Buy store had sold the television in between the time she left me the voice mail and returned her phone call. Oh boy, here we go again. She said she would check every store within 100 miles of me and call me back in a bit. Ya right, I thought to myself. Sure enough, she called me back an hour or two later. She found none. She continued to ask me if there were any other televisions I'd be interested in and suggested the 24" Dynex with the DVD player I mentioned earlier. My local Best Buy store in Mentor, Ohio had one on the truck that day. I agreed and she cut the price on that television for me from $249.99 to $79.99. She said I could print the email confirmation in roughly 20 minutes and pick it up that day. Wow! Ya right I thought, I'll believe it when I see it. Well, I received the confirmation and picked up the television that evening! So as not to ramble anymore, Best Buy has renewed my faith in the company and will continue to have this loyal customer!
One more quick mention. I was very impressed in dealing with Connie and felt she should receive recognition from her superiors. I called 1-888-BEST BUY and informed them I wanted to speak with a supervisor and tell them of my positive experience with Connie. Again, I was told I would have to wait as long as an hour to do so. They never took my information, even asked for my name, or the customer service representatives name I dealt with. I short time later I did get on the line with a supervisor, explained how satisfied I was, never revealing who I was or who the fantastic customer service representative was. However he was able to tell me that the representative would be commended for her service, and we hung up. Needless to say, I don't think Connie or her supervisor got the message. I can only hope one of Connie's superiors reads this, and knows what an asset Connie is to Best Buy. I hope that Best Buy does value their outstanding employees, as most cannot be classified as outstanding. It troubles me to know that Connie may not receive notice of her efforts.
My advice to others with similar issues, be persistent and stand up for what you believe is right. If the company treats you, the customer with respect and understanding, remain loyal to that company. If not, move on. There is more competition now than ever in history due to the internet. Perhaps we the customers can make a stand, and show businesses that the customer is still ALWAYS right and that as a customer, we demand respect. Over the years many companies have evolved into an attitude that used to be that of the customer. In this case, my end result was satisfactory. I am willing to overlook the hours of work I had to do because I know that the bargain I got was a really good one.
Thanx for reading!
Jamey
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