Best Buy IdeaX

[#1]

Gamestop does that, they automatically attach the pre order bonus SKU to the game. A lot of confusion can be resolved.

The customer service staff in Chesterfield MO is so friendly, but when I preordered Borderlands 2 and asked them about the pre order bonus, they said the code would be emailed to me. Sure enough, the code was never emailed because it was not attached to the game and Best Buy had no record of it. It took me raising hell to get a resolution and I am very understanding of customer service people.

It is not the fault of the customer service reps because their job is varied among returns, geeksquad, and because Best Buy is not just a game store, it is easy to see how they would not remember or understand how to put the pre order bonus on the item. Game stores, however, focus only on games which means that their staff is also only focused on games. It would be one thing if a game store employee forgot to add a pre order bonus because that is one of their main jobs to take down pre orders. But Best Buy needs to automate the process and not make it fall onto the shoulders of the customer service people because they have more important things to do than to attach pre order SKUs to games.

[#2]

I'm not sure why we don't add this information to the receipt, and I'm sorry for the hassle you experienced. Would any other customer's like to see this added to the receipt? Remember to vote for an idea if you like it.

[#3]

I for one would very much like to see this happen because the new preorder system that is being used in stores is atrocious. When you pre-order now and then go to pick up the item when it is released I am finding that the store is returning the item or creating a exchange from your old transaction and just scanning the new game as a regular purchase thus negating any pre-order bonus or free gift/offer that was supposed to be included with the game and leaving you to stand there at the counter baffled as to why you bothered to pre-order there at all. Another thing is when you go to the store to pre-order and you know there is going to be a limited or collectors edition or some special version of the game you want coming out they only have the slip or SKU# for the standard version and when you tell them you want to get the limited one they tell you that since your pre-ordering early you will be first to choose what version you want. This is a complete lie as I have already gone through this nightmare with many games as I tend to spend the extra $ for the little quirks/bonuses you get with them most recently with Assassins Creed III, Borderlands 2, Halo 4 and the epic nightmare of them all Call Of Duty Black Ops 2. Each time one of these games were released on a Tuesday as all newly released games, movies and music tend to come out on I literally I kid you not spent no less than a hour or more attempting to just have them locate my pre-order in their system even with my receipt in hand or the customer service pin# on hand for them to track it with but everytime always a problem. After spending that much them at one register then bounced to another because I have been holding up the line at either customer service or the register located in the gaming section of the store by the time they either finally locate the $5 that was placed to reserve it with or when they just gave up and went on with the intention to have me pay full price and attempt to find my missing $5 by returning at a later date when hopefully they were not very busy or by calling Best Buy and/or Reward Zone to attempt to get my $5 back from them I would then have to deal with the fact that I was only allowed to pick up the standard version of mentioned games and did not have the option of choosing the special editions I had wanted even after being told by various employees when said games were reserved because those special editions were already spoken for which confused me to no end as to how they could be spoken for when the store did not have the SKU# to reserve these when I visited them in attempts to reserve them during my many visits. This was especially perplexing during the midnight release of Call of Duty as all of the hardened and care package editions of the game had an actual list of the copies the store received marked for people on a list with the persons name beside each edition for their chosen system. I was at customer service for over a hour holding up a line as associate after associate and manager after manages were called in to review my receipt and look at my reward zone history and purchase history to find my reserve that I had placed weeks before. After all that time ironically they found my reserve under my name and phone number but with a different address and reward zone number. It turns out that anytime the store could not find my reward zone number by either my name or phone number they made a new entry into their system to get me the points but doing so created another reward zone number thus causing further confusion as I now had to track down the many points I was missing that I was unable to claim on my silver membership as they had been credited to these many other accounts all this time without my knowledge. I will not go into that nightmare of phone calls in this message as I have already typed quite a bit in this comment as I now realize. Finally one of the manages comes up to me and tells me that I had actually pre-ordered the care package when I came in and did my reserve those weeks prior. I was elated to hear him say that as that meant I would not have to sit and wait or possibly fight to get the edition that I wanted and could leave before the sun started to rise. Instead I was told that the store had messed up my reserve by canceling it and then redoing it under the basic edition and therefore my care package was no longer for me but for another who had reserved it through the website only 2 days prior to the games launch. I told him that he then had a very delicate thing to do in that he had to tell that other person to either call out to other best buy's in the area and do a customer fulfillment or to accept their apologies for the mess up. I was told by the manager that it was I who should call around and see if anyone had any left and hopefully I could pick one up when the stores opened for business at 10am or I could just take the regular edition and be on my way as it was already getting late and that there was still a significant people in line waiting to get their copies and go home. I tried to debate my point that I reserved it before that person that they admitted to making the mistake and that if I were to have to settle that I should get something for the insult like a gift card since I shop there everyweek or perhaps a game t-shirt or even some of those free Microsoft point cards or xbox live memberships they were handing out and I was simply told to take what was available and after that he simply walked off leaving me to the associate ringing at the register. I was tired and wanted to sit down so unfortunately for me I took the regular edition and left.

Long store short is that Best Buy needs a dedicated pre-order system. One that shows all SKU#s for all games available to pre-order along with all editions the stores will be carrying so when someone reserves them weeks before hand they do not have to go through this kind of situations and the hours that would have been spent in store searching for the transaction can be spent enjoying the product they just paid for.

[#4]

This would require a big move on Best Buy's part, but it will be such a positive thing for customers. Based on what I have seen on here, pre order codes are commonly missed and never sent out to customers, which is not a good thing for a company that is trying to compete in the gaming world. Here are things that need to be done. There are not just my little ideas, these are what will make the difference between keeping and losing gaming business. If these suggestions are not followed, then Best Buy might would be proving that they are not serious when it comes to games and I do not think that is what Best Buy wants. I have been a gamer since I was a child. I am 27 now, I have a psychology degree, and I am interested in keeping Best Buy in business. I love Best Buy, but unfortunately it seems like Best Buy is putting in 50% effort into the gaming market. Here are my suggestions:

1) Put pre orders into people's rewards account. People should not have to keep their receipt to pick up a pre order. They should just provide their ID and be able to pick up their game. While this is the case, the customer service rep has to go rooting through the computer looking for the rewards account log of all transactions of that person. Just put the names in a pool of people who pre ordered or put a separate file in a person's rewards account that says "preorders"

2) Put pre order incentives automatically on all pre orders that are in the system. Do not put the responsibility of putting pre order codes on the shoulders of the customer service staff because most are not gamers and most deal with so many things other than games and it is easy for them to either not know about pre order codes or forget about them. As friendly and courteous as they are, they are not equipped, nor should they be, to handle all of these gamers' needs. It should be automated.

3) Put all pre order copies of games into a drawer or in a back room and put a sign there that says "Pre Orders ONLY." I have noticed that people on here who were supposed to get their Limited Edition Halo 4 or Care Package Black Ops 2 had theirs sold to other customers and if that were to happen to me, I would file a huge complaint with the Better Business Bureau because that is inexcusable and will lead to very bad publicity among gamers. Gamestop got started from "word of mouth" because it was so good at how it did business. Gamers, especially gamers who play online and talk with other gamers, listen to each other and we will use our best judgment when it comes to buying a game and who to buy it from.

4) In order to pre order something, do not make us have to go to the kiosk in the back of the gaming section, just have someone at customer service or a cashier be able to scan a bar code from a booklet or something behind the counter that has the UPCs of all of the pre orders. I do not like having to mess with that touch screen thing that is usually unresponsive anyways.

If it were not for the $20 bonus certificate, I would have no other reason to come to Best Buy for gaming other than I love Best Buy. And I gave Best Buy a second chance after the entire Borderlands 2 debacle.

I am a Silver member. I spent $3500 so far this year alone and plan on spending most of my gaming budget at Best Buy. But if these suggestions are not met, then I do not know if I can keep coming back. And it would not be because I am a bad customer. It would be because Best Buy would be showing me that it is not serious about gaming.

Long live Best Buy!

[#5]

Thanks for all the input on this one! We are currently looking into whether we will be moving forward on this. I'll comment back once I have more info.

[#6]

Hi Allan,

I believe this was actually already addressed.  The last few times I preordered in-store, the codes were automatically added. For example, when I preordered Assassin's Creed Black Flag, my preorder had a bonus code included on the actual receipt from the register.  Long time ago, the codes did require to be manually entered but I believe this was actually fixed by last holiday season.  My store associates used to know ahead of time and be prepared to manually enter the codes but they noted that last time the preorder bonus code was automatically added to the transaction after the $5 preorder slip and then the game on hand were scanned. 

[#7]

@Dean1432, you are correct that we have been able to put these directly on the receipt for some releases. With that said, we have not launched this for every release yet, but are looking into getting that done.

[#8]

I guess this one got lost as we have been doing this for a while now. Thanks for the idea!