BestBuy.Com

[Modster]

I have been a loyal Best Buy customer for the last two to three years. I purchased my washing machine, computer, laptop, big screen TV, and countless software and accessory items from the local stores and online. I have also been a RewardZone Premier or Silver member for the last two years. I know that the situation explained below would be considered unacceptable to Best Buy Corporate and want to ensure the appropriate personnel are made aware of my specific situation as well as the large backlog Dealtree must be dealing with. My hope is that someone from your corporate or IT office can assist in resolving this situation for myself and others that may be experiencing this issue. Also - please comment on this post if you are having issues with the Dealtree backlog. Hopefully - if Best Buy hears other complaints and issues they will either repair the relationship with Dealtree or end it. My experience: I recently shipped in two items to the trade-in service operated by Dealtree. The items were received on 1/12 and have not changed status at all on the website operated by Dealtree.com. I contacted Dealtree through the support number on Tuesday, 01/19 to inquire about the status of my orders and was told that there was a huge backlog of trade-ins due to Christmas and they were working as fast as they could to receive and process my orders. The gentleman I spoke to told me he would escalate my order and have it processed on Wednesday or Thursday. I checked the website again today (01/23) and found no status change has been made to my order. I again contacted Dealtree's support number and was told the exact same thing. I told the agent that his response was exactly the same as the previous agent on Tuesday. I also explained to him that I was unsatisfied with this service and that I would like to escalate it to his manager. He did not have an option to escalate other than saying he would personally sent an escalation email to the warehouse to process my order on Monday or Tuesday (01/18 or 19). I would think in this situation that he would do something more than simply send another email which did not work the first time. I explained to the agent that the Best Buy website had an SLA of receiving the gift card for my devices within 7-14 days after receipt. That will obviously not happen at this point considering he told me they were still in a warehouse not even checked in yet. He also stated that after they assess the value of my devices that they provide the information to Best Buy corporate to ship the gift cards. Based on this delay, I have serious doubts that I will actually receive my gift card by 1/26 which is the SLA on your website. I also have concerns that if they rush my devices through the evaluation service that they will not be valued at the same amount estimated on the Dealtree / Best Buy website. My expectation is that the devices will be assessed at the value the website provided as my devices were in near mint condition. I have also contacted Best Buy's normal customer service and logged a complaint in hopes that the agent could forward my issue to the relationship manager at Best Buy that works with Dealtree. I have sent a copy of this letter with additional order information to the customer service email and hard copy to Best Buy Corporate. I know that Best Buy normally does much better than this at Customer Service and this is likely not an acceptable solution.

[Dorothy-BBY Community Supervisor]

Hello Modster -

Justin, from our Community Connector team, will be reaching out to you regarding your concern.  I appreciate your patience until he is able to contact you.

[Justin-BBY Community Connector · Accepted solution]

Hi modster,

I’m very sorry to hear about your recent issues with your Trade-In orders through Dealtree.  I can imagine your concern as you’ve expressed the status has not changed, and I would be happy to take the opportunity in addressing your issue. 

Our Best Buy® Trade-In program is a great option.  Our partnership with Dealtree offers customers a way to trade-in old working products for Best Buy® gift cards, to use for new item purchases.  Once items are received by Dealtree and inspections of the items are done, payments are issued within 7-14 days.  Afterwards, you should receive a gift card within 12-15 business days via USPS delivery.     

We value every one of our customers business and welcome people’s opinions on how we can improve our business.  Only through customer feedback, good or bad, can we truly grow as a company.  I will surely document your concern to be internally addressed with our Leadership Team.  I would like to continue our conversation, so I’m sending you a private message.  You can check your private message by logging into your account and clicking on the envelope in the upper right hand corner. 

Thank you for sharing your experience with us on the forum!

Regards, 

[Adrock77]

Modster, I know exactly how you feel. I, too, made a trade-in offer back on January 2nd. After receiving the automatice acceptance email, I haven't heard a single thing since then. No confirmation of delivery email, no "sorry, we're backlogged" email, not a thing. My wife made a trade sometime after mine, and she has already received her gift cards in the mail. I have yet to get in touch directly with a customer service rep at Dealtree, but after hearing what you went through, it might not even be worth it. Guess I'll make a call or two and send a couple more emails to Best Buy. Good luck!

[Justin-BBY Community Connector]

Hello Adrock77,

So you’ve been waiting over a month with no response of any kind?  That’s troubling and I see how you’d be concerned, especially if you cannot get in touch with anyone from Dealtree.  I would love to take the reigns on your issue and see if I can help out in any way. 

I pretty much outlined the details of our Best Buy® Trade In program in Modster’s post before, so I don’t want to sound redundant.  Instead I would just like to jump in head first and get some pertinent details of your order to see how I can intervene and provide you with a much quicker response and hopefully, resolution. 

That said, I’m sending you a private message to gather your order information to research.  You can check your private messages by logging into the forums and clicking on the envelope in the upper right hand corner. 

I appreciate you taking the time to reach out to us on the forums.  I’ll do my best to work with you in hopes of providing an acceptable solution.

Sincerely, 

[Adrock77]

Thanks for all the help, Justin. Verification emails were just received this morning, so now I'm just waiting on the gift cards themselves. Hopefully those will arrive in a much more timely manner. Thanks again!

[Justin-BBY Community Connector]

Hi Adrock77, 

It's my pleasure---I'm glad to help in any way that I can! 

Sincerely, 

[ak2468]

hello. i have just sent in 3 games into the bestbuy tradein center. but due to the posts on this forum i cant help but feel a small sense of uncertainty. i dont want to end my healthy relationship with best buy because of this possible problem. can someone assure me that my packages and giftcard will make it to me before christmas???

[bimkill]

Hi,

Deal Tree is a seperate entity from Best Buy and I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.  I'm sure you have read my post regarding the cell phone I traded in.  Four different excuses on why they wouldn't give me the promised amount.  These people are thieves and very adept at lying.  Once your product is in their hands in California, you have no recourse.

My advice:  Talk to your local Best Buy and see if they have an in-house trade in center.  Unfortunately, my local store opened an in-house center two weeks after I sent my phone in.  

I do trust Best Buy but am posting my story to force them to withdraw any dealings with Deal Tree and to request they do the honorable thing; cut me a gift card for the promised amount as they did put their name on the Deal Tree Trade-In program.  I advised them I would keep posting until they do the right thing.

Good luck.

[Nokia]

DealTree is actually owned by BB.