I could see it being serviceable...as long as you're just going in to purchase something, maybe ask for some recommendations and leave. Most people in this world are at least superficially somewhat pleasant, especially if they're on duty.

Using their secondary services is another story entirely though in my experience. Geek squad seems particularly bad however. I bought a (now, not at the time) discontinued rog ally on sale with accident protection a year ago, and it recently broke. I took it in, had it shipped off for an entire month before they gave up on repairing it and tell me to come in for a replacement. As my device was no longer being sold by best buy they insisted on giving me store credit instead of upgrading me to the nearest equivalent device. As I bought it ON SALE, i am unable to afford a new device with that balance, and the cheaper option is again, no longer being sold by best buy. As my rog ally was my personal computer, this was rough news. I explained this to the employee, how the price I paid for the item does not match its value at all, and that I was guaranteed an item of equal or greater value in an exchange. I ask to see the manager, who just immediately says "I'm going to say this right now we won't give you more than what you paid for", just immediately defensive.

Anyway, it seemed like there wasn't much I could do so I just accepted the credit and plan to use it to buy the next nearest device

our customer service isnt good. full stop. but that doesnt mean you cant have a good experience, and the vast majority of people that post or give feedback are people that have bad experiences.

The powers that be would never allow Amazon to buy Best Buy.

Welcome to Best Buy, where nothing stays the same and tenure doesn’t matter.

True this ^^^ The antitrust peeps were not happy with the Whole Foods aquisition, they sure as hell would not be happy with Amazon buying Best Buy.

The corporate team saw record profits last year with half the staff. They didn't attribute that to the pandemic forcing most Americans to work and school from home, and as such need a massive increase in computer sales. They didn't attribute that to people being locked in their homes, bored, resulting in a huge increase in gaming sales.

The only thing they saw was record profits with half the staff, and assumed the other half was not necessary anymore.

This same line of thinking is why AP got cut. Shrink dropped to nearly 0 because there weren't people coming inside stealing. Obviously that's because people are just have more integrity now and AP isn't needed. It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that there weren't people IN THE STORE.

My GM excitedly explained how some pilot stores are going to be opening that only have three employees (2 sales 1 front end) and I was just horrified

dang, this post reads like those emails i get from upset appliance customers.

Actually I’ll mention one thing.

When one customer service rep says one thing and then you’re told by another rep that the previous rep was wrong and doesn’t honor the words they said.

This has happened on multiple occasions.

-Trying to rush you out of chat or the phone -Copy and paste answers on chat -Not caring for the particulars of your issues

Soooooo maddening

My user account was closed at amzaon - i was accused of violating their gift card policy. I can PROVE that i bough no gift cards and also i was the victim identify theft. But there is on one and no where to send my proof. I was told that if Amazon closes your account, there is no recourse - no ombudsman, no review possible. And that after 3 years , amazon wipe out your account. Is there anything i can do?

THEY DID EXACTLY THE SAME TO ME. THEY PROMISE ONE THING AND THEN A DIFFERENT REP SAYS NO ALL THE UP THE CHAIN OF COMMAND. AMAZON IS A JOKE NOW

They won’t though. It’s too convenient. They could treat every customer like ass and people will still use Amazon. They’re too big and they know it.

lol...thyre not ever going to lose any customers that would ever make a difference. They made one trillion dollars last year..and their attitude and the law says if you dont like it, dont shop there You do not have a constitutional right to use any business or a constitutional right for good customer service

Best buy is ass now. Don’t shop there.

Yeah that's what I thought at first but they will honor online only pricing from all of those stores.

best Buy stopped price matching New Egg around 2019.

From what I can find, they violated Manufacturer UMRP pricing and that made Best Buy tell them to fuck off.

For the unaware, that's a minimum price for hardware set by the manufacturer. They're also involved with scammy discounts.

bestbuy told me that they dont price match amazon. only actual physical stores.

I feel like every store has some shape or form of this but not necessarily this bad. The memberships and credit app pushes and the "new way to offer" is going to be the downfall of Best Buy.

Sounds Iike your leadership at your location is ASS not ever locate has issue or ego management

My managers and coworkers are all super awesome. You just got a bad draw.

I feel like it’s determined if you get good leadership or not. My store has great management and are all cool, so I actually enjoy working here

What's going on? I'm a customer but have worked for the shit that is GameStop so I can relate to you right now.

You work at best buy lol

"Aww, you didn't get the product you wanted?"

Wait until the restock then.

Pre-orders are limited, first come first serve.

Also have you heard of total tech support?

Did you know with complaints 299 and up you can get 12mo/no interest on our Best Buy credit card?

A lot of the comments to my post seem to underscore a huge change in our capitalist society. Business rules and policies are not laws written in stone. Finding quality products and selling them to the customer is the business. In the past, American businesses used to stand by the products they stock and focus on the service they provide to the customer. The role of a manager should be to balance the business rules against the customer service to find solutions that primarily focuses on long term profitability of the company. My situation is an example where a weak manager used the company policy as a shield to push a long term customer away to the competitors. In most cases, I would just happily vote with my wallet and smile when Best Buy stores start to shut down. But like I said in the original post, I like being able to walk into a store and make a personal purchase. For the commenters in this community that might be managers remember you are the least important person in the store. The customers should be first followed by the employees keeping the business running. Empower your people to engage in a respectful way with the customers.

Many companies - including Best Buy - have rewards/loyalty programs that include incentives for spending money. Most of them are based on "if you spend X money in a year you get Y benefits". In the case of Best Buy, their rewards program gives you extended return periods for spending X amount of money in a year. If you don't spend that much, you don't get the extended return period. It sounds like they worded it poorly - or you're relaying your interpretation rather than their actual words - but that doesn't change their policies and reward program.

As to wanting to speak to the general manager - why? You're outside of the return period. Why do you think that means if you speak to the GM you'll get a different answer? If I had a dollar every time someone at my job wanted to speak to someone "higher up" than me to see if they could finagle a different answer about publicly posted store/company policies, I'd be retired 😏

"Qualify for additional help" would be the wrong way to put it, so bad them for saying it that way. That being said, we have purchase levels that increase your return period past the standard 14 days. That's probably more what they meant, but still not the best way for them to have worded it.

I'm going to be honest this is not the stores fault for multiple reasons.

1. You asked to talk to a GM about a sales floor issue when talking to the sales floor manager about a product you failed to return within the policy. No matter where you go this is not a good thing to do. (Though I will say especially if the RAM was unopened a lot of stores including mine will go through with the return because we try our best to be good to costumers, so It does kind of suck that you potentially had a more strict manager)
2. A lot of costumers tend to forget that they are not the most important person in the world, because you didn't get special treatment from the 2nd highest ranking person in the store does not mean you should ask to talk to the GM and waste everyone's time.
3. Our call centers are awful a better way to of stated that was in you were Elite, Elite Plus, or a TT member you would qualify for a longer return period. These are dictated either by money spent each year(first 2) or a year membership(TT). By having these memberships it doesn't change the level of help you receive just gives you access to better return periods.
4. Also we don't give you employees numbers to costumer to complain too.

I can see how this would be frustrating.

Yes, this sound like it’s going back to the point that Best Buy seems to treat core products like a loss leader hoping to attach high margin accessories and auxiliares to to increase notional margin, but they don’t check in with how it lands.

If there was some education on health benefits of swapping out filters and hoses with installation, it would be worth having that conversation and setting up some triggering moments.

Replace the filter every 3 months or X gallons. We’ll ship it to you as soon as you’re ready. Here’s the number to call.

Solving the problem for them when it makes sense for the customer, not driving them away at the point of sale. What kind of work do you do now? What have you liked about it?

my two buddies that have been with the company for years and have the best rapport with our local customers were written up because they did not meet upsell numbers as installers.

Same, I stopped going when they stopped carrying Blu-rays / UHD Blu-rays. I don't impulse purchase appliances and high-end electronics and Best Buy isn't the best place to buy those usually.

It was bad in the early 2010s. I worked there form 06-11, and it was spiraling. It’s just kept getting worse. I bought a laptop for my (the ) wife and knew more about the product AND their services than the PC associate who was “helping” me. 

Back in 2015, I was let go for not upselling enough, and prior to that I had been working there as a DA for 6+ years. They celebrated an employee who sold a $400 HDMI cable to a lady who needed to connect her monitor, which happened to also be a TV, to her computer. Just sickening.

I got so fucking scammed by this.

I bought a drone on a whim while I was in NYC.

I don't remember applying to anything like Best buy total.

But then 2 years later, I just happened to be looking at my credit card charges and found out I was getting charged like 150 bucks a year. I would never have approved that without making sure that I canceled it immediately after I used it. I literally never went to Best Buy since.

I imagine the guy said something like hey yeah do you want to sign up for this, it'll give you warranty and it's basically totally worth it because it saves you this much money on the drone or something, but I really do not remember anything like that.

Fucking bullshit, if I didn't notice that charge, that could have gone on for another year or two.

I really can’t imagine going into someone’s house, installing a tv or computer, then basically being like “give me more money, right now.” I’d never shop with that company again.

Are you a customer? Just curious! They’ve prioritized credit cards for quite a while… at least they’ve only got one now. Back when you they would advertise the Best Buy card and then push the RewardZone Mastercard if you weren’t approved, that was a real bait and switch.

Get them excited about same as cash no interest financing… they get declined, then promise 4% cash back. 18%+ immediate interest. Poor shoppers.

That's because they don't make any money on products, and they haven't since well before the 2010's.

There is 0 margin in a game system or camera or TV.  The profit comes from warranties, accessories, or credit card applications.

Back in the day, they calculated the cost of cash, they were LOSING MONEY on people paying cash for electronics (due to FOH\VOH).

Banks would pay stores $200 PER CREDIT APPLICATION (approved or denied).

The brick and mortar model can only exist if people pay you for expertise.  Most electronics are disposable.  Who is getting a phone fixed instead of replacing it?

You ever wonder why there are fewer cobblers around?

Their model is just 10+ years antiquated and needs to be revisited.

In my second round interview at our Best Buy, the General Manager (I presume, not sure how they structure management there) spent the ENTIRE time telling me about the memberships and credit cards, and how that would be my main focus etc etc, rather than actually interview me…ultimately I didn’t get the job there, probably because he couldn’t get me to sign on to the store card 😂

Amazon might offer Asurion warranty. You can always add squaretrade. Although none of them covers burn-in unlike BB GSP, in case you're worried about it.

Well it depends on the sellers return policy, I had mine shipped knowing it might need to go back, but the company I bought from has a good policy about that stuff and I asked about it ahead iof time.

IF you buy on Amazon just make sure it is from an authorized seller or LG wont cover the tv with its warranty and you dont want to void your warranty to save a few bucks.

We bought online through greentoe and had it shipped by beach camera, I saved over $1000 plus had it delivered, I highly recommend it.

I wouldnt buy from best buy unless I had no choice.

The B9 65" was selling for $1500 and the 65" C9 was selling for $1799.99 from Beach Camera, Buy Dig and greentoe sellers.

I bought the E9 65" for $2099.99 shipped.

I would feel better with BestBuy personally.

They did a great job delivering my LG C9 and their warranty is unbeatable imo