I am writing this email to voice my dissatisfaction in Best Buy 's billing procedures. My husband and I purchased a 52' Samsung LCD TV from one of your local stores in Birmingham, AL in 2008. During that time, we were offered a special promotion of 36 months same as cash. The account was established and all was well. All financial transactions were handled via the internet. I go paperless on all bills. Unfortunately, I did not keep up with exactly when the 36 months expired, which I know is not an excuse, however today when I went online to pay the account there is a $2000 interest charge accessed. Needless to say, I called immediately to have the charge explained. The representative I spoke with initially offered me no solution so I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor explained to me and my husband that the promotional period had ended and therefore the interest was accessed to our account. We have paid this account systematically and never have had any issues. I explained to the supervisor that I was not made aware of the promotional period ending and she advised that the notification was made on my monthly statement in January on the third page of the bill. Who really looks at the third page of their statement especially when the online payment center should have all pertinent info regarding the account. As a technical person, I advised that on their payment center's webpage there were no alerts or anything that made the customer aware that major changes were coming to their account.
As a customer oriented company, I would think that Best Buy would do a better job or making customers aware that at the end of a promotional period that they will be charged almost the original purchase price in interest. This was a significant charge and I believe this could be considered predatory lending. Nothing to this extreme was explained to us when we opened the account, the sales associate just explained that after the 36 months we would be charged interest at that time not dating back to the original purchase date. I guess that information was omitted to get the sale and commission.in addition, I am very disappointed that no extra communication other than your statement was sent to notify the customer. I really feel that Best Buy took advantage of me and my husband hoping that we would not pay the account off by a certain date so that they would make additional profits. Best Buy is no different than all the current mortgage companies who took advantage of unsuspecting customers and approved home mortgages when they knew the customer was getting a bad deal in the end.
My husband and I pay our debts so I asked the supervisor if there was a way that I could pay my remaining balance and not be accessed the interest charge and she said "NO". This really is upsetting because (1) I wasn't really notified properly of the dramatic changes to my account (2) the online system never indicated that I was entering the end of my promotional period, especially since most people go paperless these days (3) we should be considered a valued customers when really and truly we are being treated like the account was delinquent (4) I made a mistake in not keeping track of a date that happened almost 3 years ago. The supervisor then mentioned that if we would pay $1000 by the 4th of April and $957 on the 15th of April all would be forgiven. I pleaded with her to allow me to pay $1000 on the 4th and the remaining $957 by April 29 and she said "NO". I do not want any handouts and I want to pay but this is really an unexpected occurrence and coming up with $2000 within days is a little much. To me, I feel that if you have someone whose willing to pay 50% of the additional interest within days some allowances could be made.
This is the worst experience I've ever had with any company and I will never purchase or do business again with Best Buy.in addition, I will be notifying all my family and friends of my experience and advising them not to do business with your company. This is an outrage and Best Buy should be penalized for its deceptive practices.
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