Recycling (Going Green)

[Allan-BBY]

Hi Everyone,

As an advocate of recycling I loved it when Best Buy® decided to rollout its recycling program to all of our stores in the U.S., but if anything is better than recycling it is reusing.

Best Buy® has had a trade-in center on BestBuy.com for quite some time now where a customer can mail in gently used electronics, and in return they would receive a Best Buy® gift card in the amount that was agreed upon.

We have now gone a step further, and as of 9/27/2009 all Best Buy® stores in the U.S. now accept specific gently used electronics purchased from Best Buy® for trade-in at their store. The product categories that are accepted in our store for trade-in are Laptops, iPod’s, and Mobile phones.

In return for your gently used electronics you would receive a Best Buy® gift card in the amount agreed upon, or you can opt to receive a check in the mail for a reduced amount.

To trade-in one of these products you should get an estimate done on BestBuy.com, print the estimate and bring it into the store with you, and go to the Geek Squad® precinct in the store. The Geek Squad® should verify the condition of the item is the same as described in the estimate,  verify that you originally purchased the item from us, and issue you a Best Buy® gift card in the agreed upon amount. If you would rather have a check for the item we would mail one out for a lesser amount within seven days.

Thanks for recycling,

[soxfan]

On the trade-in website when you select to trade in items NOT purchased at Best Buy and complete your online estimate, it gives you the option to print out a estimate number and take the item to Best Buy for immediate payment (for cell phones/laptops/mp3's). I did this and went to two local stores to try and complete the transaction. However, once in the store, the Geek Squad personnel couldn't figure it out how to do this. The last store I went to suggested I call 888-best buy, so I have tried to do that, twice now. Each time, I was transferred and placed on hold for a total of 40 mins over two phone calls and never spoke with anyone. If this is not possible to do (take cell phones to the store for trade in), then why have the option available during the "check out" procedure?

[Allan-BBY]

Hi soxfan,

It sounds like you did everything right on your end to be able to take advantage of our trade-in program in our stores. Although this is a new program in our stores, they all should know exactly what to do to process this type of transaction. If you haven't already gotten this taken care of I would love to have the opportunity to take care of this for you! If you want my assistance in this matter just send me a private message with your name, your phone number, and the specific location of the store that you would like to trade-in these items at. I truly am sorry that you have encountered issues with trying to take advantage of our trade-in program.

Thanks for posting,

[Nokia]

Allan, he said the items were not purchased at BB. Isn't the in-store trade-in program only for items purchased at BB with a receipt?