I just have to write about my experience at Best Buy yesterday. I am so sick of these guys taking advantage with their policies.
Bought a Sandisk 8GB USB memory stick. It cost $20 (tax), and I threw the receipt away as soon as I saw it save a few documents. It started to fail about a day later, and I figured for such a low cost item nobody really cares if I ask for an exchange without a receipt. I spend a lot of money on computer items and keeping track of every receipt is just impractical. So I get to the return desk and they say go get a replacement and so I went into the store and picked up the exact same product. They agree to the exchange, then they want my id, my phone number, email address, my home mailing address, they created some profile in their system like I was a criminal - typing in my license number, date of birth, trying to scan the bar code, and then the clerk, who asked advice from the supervisor on how to process the exchange was told by her to refund the purchase and create a gift card with store credit, and then use that to purchase the replacement, which was the exact same product. This bullshit took almost 20 minutes. It was invasive, offensive, demeaning. I will never ever shop at BestBuy again. This is a situation nobody wants to be in over $20.
Now after all that the refund receipt that was printed showed only $10 (~). The supervisor says that because there was a sale on the item at some point and since I did not have my receipt, they will only refund $10 and not the $20 that I paid, and therefore I needed to pay them another $10 to exchange the defective product they sold me a week before with the exact same product. The supervisor said that 'the system' would only refund the lowest possible price for the item. I tried explaining that I didn't want store credit, or a refund, just to exchange the broken product they sold me with one that worked. But there was no recognition that i had been inconvenienced, that I had lost my data, spent time and money to return to their store. Just a callous 'thats the policy'.
Anyone can create a rule that works to their advantage and say that. It is such bullshit. At every possible opportunity these greedy calculating parasites are creating some thinly veiled if-then to stick their hands into your back pocket and pull out some notes.
There was a simple right answer here. Exchange the product. There is no gray area. They wasted my time and STOLE my money. If I said no I would have a broken worthless product for $20, and if I said yes I lose $10. Either way I lose. They took advantage.
So my impressions overall,
The returns process at BestBuy is an example of corporate attitude, small minded pencil pushing bean counting policy makers without sense running an important operation into the ground. I wouldn't be at all surprised if these policies are a major contributing factor to their $1.7 billion in losses this year. I will not buy from them again, and I will tell all of my friends and everyone who will listen how I was treated. This $10 theft will end up costing BestBuy a fortune. I'm sorry for them as much as I am angry with them. No sense. At this point its just pathetic. Because I know now this story has played out countless times all over this country. Its time for these guys to clear out. We don't need them and they have nothing left to offer.
BestBuy today justifies its extreme markups under the guise of convenience, not just in interacting with and purchasing product but also in returning defective items.in the past it was simply the only practical way you could get electronic goods. They are going out of business because the online stores, Newegg.com, Amazon.com, not only give an average 40% discount on the exact same products, but deliver next day for nearly nothing, and competently manage returns and buyers remorse. For instance, Newegg will sell me that exact same USB memory key for $12.99 plus $1 shipping from their NJ warehouse. I can order before 1AM and it will be at my door by 8AM that same day in most cases (I'm in NY).
Http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. Aspx? Item=N82E16820171587
For $20 I could even get the 16Gb version. Double the capacity, twice the product for the same money.
The return procedure was grossly invasive. They have NO RIGHT to be collecting that information in order to fulfill their legal obligations. Apparently they share this information with a distributed database called TRE. That my personal info was being fed into a database accessible by god knows who was never mentioned to me. I gave no consent for that.
You can read about this here
Http://consumerist.com/02/why-does-best-buy-need-my-id-to-return-a-purchase.html
The system they have created assumes you are defrauding them by default. This is not ok. I trust these people to sell me products that work, and I expect to deal with people who have basic reasoning skills if I need to return. I don't ask for ID when I hand over my cash. There needs to be equal trust the other way.
I don't want to deal with a company keeping and sharing files on me, assuming everyone suspicious is a criminal unless they can prove they are not. I don't need that shit. Nobody does.
If you are falling into the trap that is BestBuy, think again. Its convenient to buy, but they play games and intimidate with invasive policies if you try to return the goods. Newegg.com is THE place to shop for computer components today.
Http://www.newegg.com
http://www.amazon.com
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