Best Buy (aka Retail Services)
Scam on credit card contract, lied on agreement, refused to make it right

In December of my husband and I bought a new computer from Best Buy in Kansas City, Missouri. My husband applied for a credit card with Best Buy (aka Retail Services) and paid for the computer on the credit card. According to Best Buy's special offer at that time, if you made a purchase over $1,000 on Best Buy's credit card, you will receive no finance charges & no payments due till 2003.

In January we received a bill from Best Buy (aka Retail Services) for payment. We took a second look at our receipt and it said clearly on the bottom of the receipt, "No Finance Charges and No Payments till 2003." We called Best Buy (aka Retail Services) to find out why they were sending us a bill for payment already.instead we got the run around of being transferred to all these different departments with no answer to our question. We finally asked for a supervisor after being transferred for close to an hour. A supervisor answers the phone and "mysteriously" lost connection after we explained what had happened. We tried to call back and again got transferred to many different departments.

Finally, we took our new computer and receipt back to Best Buy in Kansas City to return it. We didn't need the hassle. Best Buy wouldn't allow us to return our computer because it was on a "special offer on a credit card." So we asked for a manager to look over our reciept and try to find out why we are receiving a bill already. The manager clearly told us that we are not to be receiving a bill until 2003. We informed him of us trying to call Best Buy (aka Retail Services) but only getting the run around. So the manager told us that he would call to find out what was going on. He was on the phone with them for less than five minutes. He came back to report, "They won't do anything about it. You will need to make payment." We thought absolutely not, that is a breach of contract! So we protested with the manager to step up and do something about it. Make it right or take back this computer. The manager told us, "I can't do anything. I'm sorry."

So, we made a report with the Better Business Bureau to try to make things right.in the meantime of the Better Business Bureau investigating the report, we were receiving sneaky and rude phone calls from Best Buy (aka Retail Services) for payment. At one time, a representative from Best Buy called and asked for my husband by his nickname. I asked who was calling and she answered, "Amy". (She didn't say what company she was representing at all.) I had thought it was a friend of his from school, so I handed over the phone. No, it was a Best Buy representative trying to collect payment.

The bottom line was we had no problem making the payment if only it was just and according to the contract. But we thought the right thing to do was to fight Best Buy and make them do what our contract stated.

We finally received a letter from the Better Business Bureau that a representative with Best Buy will be in contact with us soon. After receiving a letter from Best Buy, one of the questions asked, "How would you like Best Buy (aka Retail Services) to handle your problem?" We politely asked them to investigate this discrepancy and to make things right according to the contract. We included a copy of our receipt and the contract.

About four weeks had passed of threatening phone calls from Best Buy telling us that if we didn't make a payment than they were going to report us to the credit agencies. Every time we told them that our account was under investigation and gave them the name of the representative that contacted us from the Better Business Bureau report. But the calls didn't stop. Best Buy (aka Retail Services) called at least every hour starting from 8:00 am up to 11:00pm.

We finally received a letter back from the representative of Best Buy. The letter stated that they (Best Buy) could not do anything. They didn't specify why and didn't even address the issue of the copy of our receipt and contract.

We were stunned that a national company that makes millions per year wouldn't even investigate a breach of contract!

We got a free credit report online to find that Best Buy hit our credit. We immediately contacted the credit agencies to dispute the hit on our credit from Best Buy. They sent a letter to Best Buy (aka Retail Services) to respond within 45 days. If Best Buy didn't respond, then the hit on our credit from Best Buy would be removed.

Best Buy responded and we had to take a hit on our credit because of them. We were newly married, didn't have much money to turn this case to a lawyer, so the only thing we could do was to make a payment even though it was an unjust breach of contract. We made the payment that Best Buy wanted us to pay but it didn't matter if we made a payment or not the phone calls never ceased until we finally found no other way but to turn off our home phone.

We would send our payments out to Best Buy (aka Retail Services) two weeks before the due date on the credit card statement but Best Buy wouldn't process the payment until after the due date. Therefore, charging us a late fee each time. (We lived in Kansas City, MO. Best Buy (aka Retail Services were located in Illinois. It does not take 2 weeks to receive a payment via USPS.) We tried to call to straighten out yet another one of their discrepancies to only be transferred to different departments until we either gave up or got "mysteriously" disconnected.

After five years of having to take this from Best Buy, we should have already had it paid off but the late fee's kept piling up. We received a letter from a lawyer who was representing Best Buy (aka Retail Services) telling us that we are to pay this ungodly amount or we were going to be taken to court because no payments have been made. That was untrue, we were making payments at the beginning of every month. So we sent that lawyer, every piece of information we have kept in a file of Best Buy's since day one. That firm received a copy of our receipt, our contract, the Better Business Bureau letters, the Best Buy Representative letters, copies of cashed checks from our bank that we had written for payment, and copies of credit card statements from Best Buy. We also included a letter to the lawyer that if their firm would like to take action, please contact us immediately. We spent over $15 to mail the package of all the above contents, certified mail. We never heard anything back from the lawyer or their firm.

Then, back in December of Best Buy (aka Retail Services) stopped sending our credit card statements each month. We had their address on file and continued to make payments that Retail Services cashed every time. We asked for our credit card statements to be sent to us but still till this day, Best Buy (aka Retail Services) will not send us our credit card statements.

We have no idea what ungodly amount Best Buy is trying to charge us for a computer that at one time should have costed us $1200. For all we know, we are paying for the most expensive computer on the market today!

Eavy & Kristin
Wood Heights, Missouri
U.S.A.

Company: Best Buy (aka Retail Services)
Country: USA
State: Illinois
City: Carol Stream
Address: PO Box 5238

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