What is Best Buy trying to pull?

[Aceman]

<< Back to the subject, tomorrow my dad is calling the Customer Service 1-800 number and trying to talk to one of the head managers up there. I'm going to guess that they'll give in and not want to deal with a small problem that should have never happend in the first place. 95% sure they'll give us the 5 hour sale price. >>



You've never called this number, have you???? ROFLMAO!!! Ask many members on the board how well they respond! I'm an employee and had a complaint that was taken verbally right to the top and not much was ever done. Their thought......

"Why should we care about one customer trying to beat the system on an item we take at a price loss?"

Sad, but true!

 

[MrChicken]

<"Why should we care about one customer trying to beat the system on an item we take at a price loss?"

Sad, but true! >

What is sad that BB assumes that everybody trying to PM is trying to beat the system. I'm sure the lady in line with me had no idea about the sale when she bought the 50" TV.

What this does is undermine the whole reason for having a pricematch policy. Why ever buy at that store when you could be saving hundreds of dollars buy waiting for the sale? Especially when the competitors have no problem PM'ng, heck, just buy it Compusa instead they honor their PM policy.

When the store weasels out of their posted policies for one thing, it brings into question all of their policies. I would have no problem whatsoever with them refusing to PM if the huge sign on the wall had said that they wouldnt. But the sign says nothing like that, they didnt even have a sign up just for today even, you had to wait in line to hear the news.

With sale coming up they could have easily told every customer up front before the sale when they bought anything that PM's would not be honored in the upcoming sale. But they didnt because so many people would have put their stuff back and just waited for the sale. It's greed on their part, too.

IMHO, stores like Sears and Service Merchandise have nearly run themselves out of business by angering customers one at a time, it can happen to BB too.

 

[hans007]

you tried to beat the system and got burned. dont whine to us... we dont care.

 

[Grunt03]

Go get them. I would take a copy of their offer and of their store policy and demand that they give it to you..........

 

[apoppin]

<< Anyone else have these types of horror stories? >>



Yes, many.

I will NEVER shop at their store anymore. Eventually, they will run of of first time buyers . . . eventually enough people will get burned by BeastBuy's self-serving policies and they will go out of business.

Wise up. There is nothing they carry that is worth buying there. Just price match it at a store with REAL customer service.

If you have to return something . . . well, good luck. And always OPEN YOUR PACKAGES INSIDE BB to make SURE you are not getting ripped-off with the wrong product inside.

BB is a company that is rotten to the core. If you have ANY complaint, you are dismissed as ignorant and not part of their target marketing (ie: people who want the lowest price and don't care about service - that is "desperate" people in my book).

Eventually, if you shop BB long enough you will get burned.

 

[need4spd]

Codedude...Sorry for your problems at BB.

I see in your profile that you live in San Jose..

Dude... just drive a few miles to a differnet BB store...
there must be several within the bay area.

Personally, I bought my stuff at one BB store and easily did the refund - purchase back (at sale prices) at a different BB location. THe CSR was very kind and did the credit /sale with no problems.

Just go to a different location and say ... I bought this last week and now I see it is on sale ... it's their policy to give price guarantee..esp. their own flyers!

 

[apoppin]

I'm afraid what you are suggesting won't work at ANY chain store that has a limited (ie 5 hour) sale.

The items have to be pricematched DURING the sale. If you try after it, you will be told "you missed it."

Read all the disclaimers posted about these SPECIAL sales. I confirmed this with several chains (including Curcuit City and Staples).

 

[slag]

<< Kinda sounds like you were trying to beat the system, and it didn't work. You knew in advance what the sale items were, and tried to get BB to match the price on an item you bought in advance. Maybe next time you'll wait and buy the items at the store, not get them to sell themselves short. >>



AMEN to that!!!

 

[vette9898]

<< you tried to beat the system and got burned. dont whine to us... we dont care. >>



If you don't care then why post. LMAO What a riot. I love it when people say they don't care but take the time to read the posts and reply. LMAO Get a life.

 

[apoppin]

<< << Kinda sounds like you were trying to beat the system, and it didn't work. You knew in advance what the sale items were, and tried to get BB to match the price on an item you bought in advance. Maybe next time you'll wait and buy the items at the store, not get them to sell themselves short. >> >>



The only error that was made was one of "timing".

BB NEVER has enough sale items to satisfy demand. Getting a desirable item is like entering a lottery where you are gambling with your valuable time.

I did prebuy the sale items at CC and had no problem whatsoever in getting them to Pricematch. However, Circuit City was the MODEL of what a sale should be - plenty of instock sale items and plenty of helpful staff and satisfied customers.

On the other hand, Beast Buy just irritates their customers. When you get irritated enough, you just stop shopping there. And a letter to BB corporate just gets ignored.

 

[MrCodeDude]

The fact isn't that I'm trying to beat the system. It's that BB is making up their own pricematching rules as they go along. It turns out, my dad called the Best Buy store again. Talked to the manager and the manager said that only the front page was the 5 hour sale. And that if we come back tomorrow and ask to speak to him, he'll do the price adjustment and give us a 10% credit to us because of all the crap that we had to go through.
Seems that once you get passed the mind-less drowns that actually deal with the people face to face at the Customer Service desk you meet the nice people who work in actual offices
-- mrcodedude

 

[Midnight Rambler]

<< And a letter to BB corporate just gets ignored. >>

Likewise a phone call to corporate. When I pointed out to a higher-up there that this practice of pre-buying and then PM'g for this special sale was the equivalent of insider stock trading, he laughed and said "You're right ...".

 

[apoppin]

<< speak to him, he'll do the price adjustment and give us a 10% credit to us because of all the crap that we had to go through. >>


Actually the 10% is part of their written policy in doing a price match (that they often ignore).

I am glad you finally got what you should have got in the first place without any problems.

 

[apoppin]

<< When I pointed out to a higher-up there that this practice of pre-buying and then PM'g for this special sale was the equivalent of insider stock trading, he laughed and said "You're right ...". >>



That's why I LOVE our Hot Deals forum. Maybe not 100% "fair" . . . but it is LEGAL and accepted practice. And of course you don't have to participate and can just stand in line with all the other "sheep" . . .

 

[MrCodeDude]

<<

<< you tried to beat the system and got burned. dont whine to us... we dont care. >>



If you don't care then why post. LMAO What a riot. I love it when people say they don't care but take the time to read the posts and reply. LMAO Get a life. >>


Seriously, if you don't care, why post and bring it to the top?
-- mrcodedude

 

[xyyz]

the district manager was handing out these cards to people in line... he ran outta the HD and gf3 cards and when I asked him about it he said that "there are enough to go around" I was happy and decided to go checkout the other BB. When i got there the line was too big so I made my way back, thinking that there will be enough to go around and it seemed that most people wanted the $400 computer and the $70 DVD player and the TVs. I got there at about 7:20 and walked inside a friggin mess... more people than tiles on the floor.

I went to the computer department and asked them if they had any in stock... they refused to answer anything. I was told to go wait in line. I tried asking someone else, but I got the same answer.

So I got in the 50-person line and waited and wait and waited. When I was finaly at the edge of the counter I saw some bastard walk up to the cashier and ask her to give him a GF3. She pulled one from under the counter and he had a huge smile on his face. I was really pissed off that he got one when went up and asked... but I was told to get in the line for them to ANSWER a question. I waited another 45 mins befor eI got my turn and I asked... and I was told they had run out A LONG TIME AGO. I got even MORE pissed but I was really tired, so I bought something and left. It was too much of a zoo for me to file a complaint. Even if I had i'm pretty sure the store manager would have been a bitch about it.

I'm gonna go back tomorrow and complain, BUT this time i'm gonna use a method that I think will make them take up and notice.

I know for a fact that BB HATES involving corporate. And telling them that you will call corporate is useless... documentation is what always works.

What you do is this... you get the names of the BB board... especially the name of the CEO. You then write a letter (the same letter) to all the members of the board and say that you CC'ed a copy of the letter to the CEO. Get the names of the board from some stock site. In this letter make sure you have a section giving some names. Names of people who were helpful (must have, so it doesn't come across like you can't stand them) and a list of names that were really aweful.

Take this letter with you when you go to BB. Ask to speak to the manager or assistant manager.... when you talk to them give them your complaint. If they aren't helpful get their names. Write the names down.

THEN show the person you are speaking to this letter. Make sure you let them know that this is being sent to all the board members including the CEO. And show them the part where you are gonna name names.

The LAST thing anyone wants is for anyone to complain to the supreme company boss naming them.

I never thought that writing letters to corporate worked. I figured that they'd bin the letters. But I've been told by MANY people that you should always go from top down... when the corporate office receives something to their name they take it VERY seriously.

These managers have ALOT of power for the store they manage. They can bend the rules. This might give them enough scare to pricematch your items. Hopefully in my case, give me a raincheck on the GF3 and the HD.

 

[mithrandir2001]

Although I hope it never happens, I fear that one day somebody is going to lose it and pull the trigger in one of these 5-hour madness sales. What people do for a measly $50 is amazing. I think it is criminal for BB to advertise an item they know will draw immense demand and then only stock 15 of it. What are they doing? Baiting people into the store just to create floor traffic? Probably, but blood will be on their hands if somebody loses it and from what I've seen, the threshold is very close to being crossed. I've seen fistights and brawls, cops on site for crowd control, women pulling hair, men throwing carts...all because the stores have screwed around with the supply/demand curve without tending to inventory levels.

Buying the BB specials beforehand was the smart thing to do. Why be one of those freaks in line at 7AM, when 95% of them will come up empty? I bought a DC Sports bundle at CC for $99.99 two weeks ago and got a price adjustment to their sale price of $69.99: no problems. But when I went into CC yesterday, they were cleared out completely of DCs (they had about 200 for the sale). So I did the right thing by buying early...otherwise, I would have nothing to show for my time.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Alright, so if you have visited the Hot Deals forum, then you would see that we've had our hands on the "Black Friday" BB ad for quite some time now. Most of us bought the items before the sale so we could just pricematch them during the 5 hour sale rather wait in ridicoulus lines. Well, so my dad and I come to BB at 8:30am. There is a line outside the store (1 hour wait), we decide to go home and come back at 10:30am. So we come back at 10:30am, there's a 5 minute line to get into the store, we wait in line. Head straight for Customer Service. I want to check out the DC games so I go to the back of the store and see the picked over Dreamcast items. I managed to grab the 2nd to last Dreamcast controller and a Blue colored VMU.

I go back to the Customer Service line, my dad has probably gone two spots up since when we got there 5 minutes later. So, while we're waiting in line, I see this Best Buy Customer Service clerk behind this desk right next to us. Behind the desk she has the IBM Webcams and the Lexmark printers. I ask if those are the ones for free, she says yeah, but the Lexmark printer doesn't come with any cartriges or a USB port meaning the printer is a paperweight. Add on the $40 extra for the printer and you have yourself a $60 POS Lexmark printer. Same goes for Webcams, without the software, which they don't have anymore, they can't give away the bundle rebates. So they're selling the webcam by itself for $20. What a joke, and I said nevermind.

Anyways, we get to the Customer Service desk and say we want the GeForce 3 Xtasy Video Card, 256mb RAM and the 110 PNY CD-R's pricematched. Their response, "We can't do that, since we don't have those products currently in stock." I exclaim that no-where does it say that you can't exchange if you don't have the product in stock. We looked through their ad, it said nothing about this being a special sale and not being able to pricematch. Finally, after 15 minutes of arguing they give us a stupid answer saying, "The manager told us not to pricematch unless we have it in stock." My dad and I both walk away unsatisfied, my dad is currently still on the phone with BB 1-800 number.

----


"I exclaim"

he he. I exclaim, someones been using word.

 

[apoppin]

<< The LAST thing anyone wants is for anyone to complain to the supreme company boss naming them.

I never thought that writing letters to corporate worked. I figured that they'd bin the letters. But I've been told by MANY people that you should always go from top down... when the corporate office receives something to their name they take it VERY seriously.
>>



Nice rant. However, you are just WASTING your time with a complaint to BB. Their corporate doesN'T care! If you were talking about any other company - I'd agree. However, BeastBuy will simply ignore your letter. They want sheep as customers, not complainers.

Just take your business elsewhere. When everyone figures this out, BB will file for Chapter 11 and then we will all get some hot deals.

 

[hammer01]

Black Friday is a bad day to try and do any wrangling with CS at BB, wait till Sunday or Monday and go back to the same store (maybe even the same CS rep) and do your price match. I saw all of the WMC wannabe's planning their strategy for the gouge on someone for Black Friday and all I gotta say is, if ya wanna try to gouge someone through manipulation of the system, then you had better be ready when the gouge doesn't work. I know many of you folks hate BB, but the plain simple fact is we listen to bitchy whiny folks all day long, everyday we work and we do our best to appease as many as possible. Sure we sell product there that I wouldn't buy or recommend any one else purchase, but so does every major retailer. I am a tech and I do the best job I can, because at the end of the day I want to be proud of the job I did, I look at every customer as being me on the other side of the counter and treat them as I would like to be treated, but as a BB employee I also need to look out for BB's concerns and revenue as well. We have rules to follow and only management is supposed to break those rules (I can benmd them at my discretion which I do from time to time) so if you are planning on doing some gouging this holiday season remember that the CS rep is just some underpaid person who has had very little sleep (many of our people were in to work at 6:00 AM and stayed till almost midnight), and has already listened to at least a dozen other people whine andcurse and swear at them before you. So give em a break and treat them decent and I gaurantee you will get a lot further.

 

[Oakenfold]

<< When everyone figures this out, BB will file for Chapter 11 and then we will all get some hot deals. >>


OMG hahah who's gonna do that CC? Fry's a contender for PC GEEKS like me, but they are suxor because they aren't east coast..PUT ONE in already.. CompUcrap hasn't had GOOD dealz since the computer city days..Let's be realistic BB isn't going anywhere considering they now own alot of those music places like Sam Goody's and Camelot, (where the mall kidz hang and spend like 20.00 for one cd) I don't see it happnening..but then again that's my .02...so who would put them out????I'd like to know of a chain that has a chance.. Hell yes I got my GF 3 Ti200 and 60 GB hardrive...
To MrCodeDude
Sometimes everyone runs into those problems(it's not just @ BB, so it's kinda hard to make a judgement based on ONE situation when you have many positive results), my staples manager probably has a picture of me up in his training room for new recruits...CompUsa gave me some problems in the past...find another bb to go to if you can, if you can't then WAIT for another manager to take over the store...

 

[apoppin]

No, not just Beast Buy. But if you generally have a problem with any OTHER retailer, upper management (corporate) will attempt to resolve your complaint. BB just IGNORES them. The "non-existant customer service" complaints against Beast Buy are universal.

Link fixed.

 

[Jerboy]

<<

<< Guys, think about the words you used...........The word PRICEMATCH to a CSR will get you that answer. The words PRICE GUARANTEE or PRICE ADJUSTMENT will get you what you want. Do you realize how many times that CSR heard PRICEMATCH today and knew OD, OM, Frys, Circuit City, etc didn't have it in stock. Hello, McFly!!!!!!! Be a little courteous and nicer to them and you'll go a lot further!

You tried to beat their system and got beat in their home stadium. I'm laughing at this right now!!!!!!!! >>


Pricematch and Price Adjustment are the same thing.. I don't understand why you're laughing at me for Best Buy's mistake. The only reason I tried to beat the system was because I was told by a Best Buy employee that I could.
-- mrcodedude >>



umm dude, but the manger will probably just tell that his employee made a mistake. They don't know a jack about their corporate policy. They're here for whatever hour they're supposed to work to earn their six dollars and twenty-five cents every hour, the minimum allowed by State of California. Next time bring a pen and paper and have them put it in writing.

 

[Jerboy]

<< You should have said to them.. alright then.. I'd like to return it.. and buy it again right now.. they'd have to honor that... just say.. "alright.. I'd like a refund then..." they give you your money.... Then say to them..."hey, can I buy that GF3 Card and the 110 pk of cds please? Thanks"" go to the register and pay.... thats the only reason the price guarantee makes sense.. cause you COULD just return the product and buy it right away... but instead, the price guarantee is easier..

edit: whoops sorry, didnt see somebody else had already suggested this... it still shoulda worked.. you shoulda taken it to the higher ups if they told you that you had to wait til tomorrow to buy it back... thats BS... >>




That doesn't work with CompUSA at least. They have a policy not to sell an opened package. Once you return it, they are not allowed to sell it without shiping back to vendor first.

 

[DannyLove]

geez, so you're that person that argues at stores demanding your way and only your way.

I try to aviod situations like this unless its a reasonable arguement. Saving money on a sale already in place isn't reasonable.

danny~!