I don't know if it's worth putting in this complaint as I'll never buy anything from any Best Buy again, but I think maybe it's still worth it to let the company know why customers are not returning and rather buy things from somewhere else.
I just had the worst camera buying experience ever. Jan 14, 2023, I bought a digital camera today that costed over $1000, took it home and started charging the battery. When the battery was fully charged, I tried to take the battery out of the charger, but there's no way I could take it out. I've had charger from this brand before, and similar type of chargers from other brands (nowadays they're all similar), and it's always easy to take the battery in and out of the charger. Either the battery or the charger must be defective.
I didn't feel comfortable with a defective product on a over $1000 purchase, so I took it back to the store (Pasadena, store 125), and told them about the issue and requested to return it. At first one employee came to look into the issue with me, I showed him the charger, I told him i had similar chagers but were never like this, he said he also had similar ones too. He tried very hard and couldn't get the battery out, even with the hand shaking when trying so hard. He acknowledged that it's not normal, something was wrong with it, as it's supposed to be very easy. He called another employee to help, he's a stronger guy from the camera department. He couldn't get the battery out at first, also shaking the hand when trying so hard. Then he tried with both hands pushing that battery down hardly and finally got the battery out. Then he said "it's normal, just have to use it for long enough until the spring will eventually be weaker..." He tried to take it in and out again, he could, but every time it was not easy. The first employee tried it again with his instructions, but he still couldn't get it out at first, eventually he could but was very hard. He handed it back to me to try, and I still couldn't take it out unless I tried very very hard.
I'm a photographer and I've been using this camera brand for over 30 years, and I have close to 10 of those chargers with very similar design. I truely believe that charger or the battery wasn't the way it should be.
I requested to return it as I didn't feel comfortable with the defective product. That employee said he would only exchange it, but otherwise would charge me 15% restocking fee to return. I told them that the policy was that we can return without restocking fee if it's defective. Then he said it's not defective. Then another employee next to him joined in to tell me that it's not defective, even though he witnessed the whole thing and saw how difficult it was to take the battery out. I felt that he chimed in just for scaring me away. I told the employee that if he could exchange it because of this obvious issue of the product, that is clear that it's defective, then why couldn't he let me return it. From there on he just kept repeating and repeating "What do you want, exchange or returning with 15% restocking fee? so which way do you want".
I told him that he's a strong guy, and even that it was hard for him to take the battery out. If a normal person cannot take the battery out without trying so hard that even the hand is shaking, that's not right, and that's defective. Maybe the spring is bad. Then instead of being reasonable, he replied "are you saying I'm not normal?" I knew at that time that he's not trying to help and the conversation was over.
If the employee can define "defective" in their own way, even though the product doesn't function the way it's supposed to, and refused to let customer return a purchase this way, what kind of a business is this?
At Samy's, customers have 15 days to try and test a camera, and people can return for full refund if it's still like new, even if there's nothing wrong with the product. At Amazon, we can return for full refund. I'll warn everyone I know to not buy any cameras from Best Buy. I personally will never step into a Best Buy again.
Kristy-BBY
