Best Buy IdeaX

[#1]

I would e-mail this direct to Best Buy corporate, but no e-mail exists publicly for that. I've read that the BB Corporate does read the forums. So...

I would like to suggest that Best Buy add some more benefits to the membership levels as an incentive to reach them.

For example...

Increased default hold time for pickup. Standard is 5 days. Give Elite maybe 7 days, Elite Plus 10 days? I know you can extend it manually with a click of a button on your purchases page, but it would be nice to know that from the start you have more days than normal.

Reward redemption rebate maybe? Amtrak gives you a points redemption rebate when you make a ticket purchase with points.

Lower denomination of rewards? E.g. redemptions down to 50 point denominations vs 250 ($1 vs $5)?

Return of rewards certficiates if you return your purchase for a refund (the certificates you get every so often for hitting a spending minimum on the Best Buy Credit Card that are not returned to you if you get a refund)

[#2]

I find the idea of a $1 certificate to be a little pointless there is almost nothing in the store that costs that little. 

Increasing hold time makes for inventory nightmares. The more items they have to hold the more crowded that are of the store becomes. And I know from experience the more packages there are in that holding area the longer it takes to get your item because the CSA's generally have to spend more time looking for said produce.  

Amtrak is foolish. They reward you with points for buying tickets with points. Amtrak has yet to turn a profit since 1970, so perhaps not the best business model. 

Return of rewards that you get for free in the first place. Sounds like an Amtrak model. The rewards are already free in the first place. It would be like Best Buy paying you for not shopping there. 

The people who would benefit the most from that would be people that buy lots of items for a business and get rewards.  something that is against policy in the first place

I am not an employee of Best Buy. All opinions and comments are my own

[#3]

Thanks for the suggestion! We truly do appreciate the feedback!

[#4]

They already have all that if you achieve "ultra top secret elite plus plus" status. All you have to do it walk around the outside of the building pressing bricks until you find the one that opens the secret club house door. You must also know the secret handshake to get in.

[#5]

@bobberuchi 

The denomination idea has nothing to do with finding a product that is $1 when you have $1 in rewards. The idea is that you can use as many as you points as possible without having any left over.

.

For example if you are making a $25 purchase and you have 1,150 reward points you plan to use for this purchase. 1,150 is enough for $20 in rewards, or 1,000 points. You would be left with 150 after generating a $20 reward. If instead you were allowed denominations of $1, i.e. 50 points, you could have generated a reward for $23 instead.

Regarding return of certificates. We already get the points back if we do a return as those are "refundable" as points of course. But the reward certificates are not. Best Buy states that you surrender them at purchase and don't get them back if you return the item. All I'm asking here is for higher levels to be given that benefit. No one is stealing money here. If you make a $100 purchase with a $20 reward certificate, you only pay $80 out of pocket. A return will only give you $80 back. I'm simply asking that the $20 certificate be reloaded into your account.

The hold time thing... you bring up a valid point i didn't think about. Stores have limited shelf space for pickups. Very valid.

Alright then, how about a purchase scheduler instead @Allan-BBY ? What i mean and intend by these ideas...

I travel a lot but i get a lot of member offers that i do like to use. For example 10% back in rewards for a purchase on the credit card, with specific expiration dates. If I'm on travel and want to make use of such deals on a purchase I've been planning, I either will wait until the last day so i can hopefully setup store pickup which coincides with a day after i return, or i burden a family or friend with picking it up. If i could schedule a pickup, in other words, dictate to the store when they should have the item prepared as opposed to doing it immediately, it would be better for my travel schedule.

Regarding Amtrak. The reason they aren't making a profit is because they are forced to continue servicing train routes which makes them lose money (read: all train lines that aren't the Northeast Corridor, Wash-Bos). They hired a new CEO who worked at Delta, who turned them a profit. Already through reorganization he has cut down on the losses big time. They still are not turning a profit but it's on the horizon. But, their losses have little to do with the rewards system. In fact their rewards have gotten worse over time. Until like 2011, a free ticket was 3000 pts and you could book it last minute. Then it moved to 4000. Both of these are a huge money loser - you could book a ticket that was $100 for 3000 or 4000 points. In 2016 i think, they changed to a points conversion system. Now each point is worth 2.7c. So you actually do better with this system if the ticket is under $106. Everything over $106 you lose. This is only meant to fix the losses for using points to buy a last minute ticket that usually can cost as much as $130.

Rewards are something to drum up sales by encouraging loyalty. Them worsening rewards has hurt Amtrak in my opinion. Best Buy improving them will only help them, especially since their main competitors offer very little in the ways of rewards...

Amazon - no rewards, but 5% cash back on their CC, free 2-day shipping if you pay $120/yr for prime

Walmart - no rewards, but 3% cash back on their CC. Walmart+ is dumb.

Target - they have just started doing Target Circle rewards. I think you get like 1% cash back per transaction or something? You get to use that cash on future purchases down to the cent. If you have the CC, you get free shipping and 5% discount.

[#6]

@tokar, We honestly do appreciate the feedback. At this time we are not making any changes to our rewards program.