Best Buy Store Purchase

[rjohnston152]

I was just in to exchange an Apple Watch that my wife and I purchased while visiting family. This is something that she'd been wanting for quite some time and when we got home to open it up we realized that the Best Buy associate had gotten us the wrong band for the watch. The diagram on the back of the box is quite small and when looking to see if it was correct in the store, it all looked good. (Even when exchanging, the associate fist brought out another of the incorrect watch). We made the purchase in Portland, OR and made the exchange in Olympia, WA on our way home and was told that we now had to pay $36 in tax because there is sales tax in Washington. This I completely understand. The problem here is that I'm making an exchange for a product that costs the same amount and I'm only in there doing it because the original Best Buy employee made a mistake. I spoke to a customer service manager and was told there was nothing he could do when I know full well you can adjust prices to make the transaction come out to zero. This wasn't a situation where I just bought the wrong thing. I was given the wrong thing and I didn't know how to check that it was correct. I had to pay for the mistake of a Best Buy associate and I'm very unhappy about it. I have worked in the retail industry and faced very similar issues and would've never treated a customer like the manager treated me. I paid for Best Buy's mistake and I expect to get that money back.

[Tasha-BBY Retired: Social Media Specialist]

Good afternoon, rjohnston152, and welcome!

Thank you for connecting with us here on the forum to share your recent experience exchanging an Apple Watch in our stores. I truly wish you had found us under better circumstances. After my original Apple Watch Sport gave out a few months ago, I've been eyeing up a new one, so I can understand your wife's excitement at getting one! With that said, I can imagine this excitement was equally matched with disappointment when she opened up the package to find the wrong band size.

I understand you purchased the original Apple Watch in one state, while exchanging it in another, where the sales tax varied greatly as the original state didn't have tax at all. Per our Tax Information page, tax is calculated in accordance with applicable state and local laws. I understand paying this tax upon your exchange may have caught you off-guard and left you further frustrated with this experience. Ultimately though, it would be unethical to modify the purchase to avoid this tax. 

I would like to ensure your experience is well documented though, so I am sending you a private message to gather some additional information. You may check your private messages by signing into the forum then clicking the envelope icon in the top right corner of the page. 

Sincerely, 

[rjohnston152]

My frustration comes that the only reason I had to make the exchange in another state and pay the extra tax is because a Best Buy employee made a mistake. I understand fully the ethics behind modifying a price to avoid tax but at this point I had to pay money to right the mistake of a Best Buy employee and want my money back. I was also treated very poorly by the customer service manager of the store as he insisted I had gone to Portland to purchase this in order to avoid paying tax when this is not the case. He never acknowledged the mistakes made by Best Buy and at no point ever made an effort to resolve the situation. To me, the difference isn't tax, the difference is I had to pay money that would've never been paid had the correct product been given to us in the first place.

[nckhammond]

Best buy collects the tax for the local governments, city, state etc, they legally have to collect it, they dont keep the money for themselves and do not have a way around it.