The following is a copy of 2 letters I sent to Best Buy Customer support based on dissatisfaction from the return policies and incompetence of staff members. I NEVER heard back:
From the desk of Ryan Buckner
Arlington VA
March 3,1999
Best Buy Customer Care
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to you to express deep frustration and dissatisfaction concerning the Best Buy staff and Customer Relations department.
On the evening of March 2,1999, I entered the Falls Church branch to return a Nokia 6160 telephone that I had purchased from the same branch on February 14,1999. I brought the phone in the original packaging, and a copy of my credit card statement with the purchase details listed. I explained to the staff that I had mailed the original copy of the receipt to Nokia for a rebate offer that specified original receipt only, so my proof of purchase was my VISA security statement. Best Buy customer support staff (a man named George) told me that they could not take the phone back, and there was nothing that I could do about it.
My next step was to ask to speak to a manager, with whom I explain my story again. He told me that there was nothing that could be done, and leisurely walked away, as I stood there with a $209.00 phone in my hand that was worthless to me. I beckoned him again, specifying that since he was the manager of the customer service department, he was obligated to help me, and at least offer some suggestions for he should have been more acquainted with the rules of Best Buy than I. I showed him my credit card statement, again he told me there was nothing that he could do, but directed me to a customer relations 800 number.
I called customer relations and told my story to 8, count them 8 different representatives over the course of 1 hour and 15 minutes. They each told me that there was nothing they could do, and I should call my credit card company. So I did. They told me that my card statement should be enough, and they had no more detailed information to offer. I explained the situation again, and VISA International said that it was strange business practice to give me such a hard time.
I called Customer Relations again to simply say that I was never to purchase from Best Buy again, when I spoke to a sweet young lady who told me all I had to do was request a receipt, and I should have been able to get a copy in 48 hours. While I was on the phone with your Customer Relations, a staff member asked me to get off the courtesy phone. Get off the courtesy phone? This had to be a joke; there was nobody in line waiting to use it.
This morning I called Customer Relations again, and requested a copy of my receipt. Boy was this getting old. I spoke to a woman named Marina, who told me that she would send one to me, but it would take 14 days. But after 14 days the guarantee of return was no longer good. Oh boy, some guarantee it was to begin with. She game me reference # 6376 and told me she would handle anyone that told me I couldnt return this with a receipt. Finally, I was getting somewhere.
Naturally, I called the Falls Church office again to provide the reference # and told my story 3 more times, ending up with a manager named James Casey. James asked me for my account number on my credit card and in 2 minutes, pulled up all the information needed to process my return. He told me that even though I had removed my UPC proof of purchase, the cashier will simply give me $30.00 less than I paid, and the rebate would complete the transaction. Furthermore, he promised that if I receive a letter that the rebate would not be processed, I could bring that letter to Best Buy and my money would be returned. He ensured me that there was no reason I had to go through the problems I went through, and at the very least, the manager on duty that night may not have had access to the records on the computer, but should have directed me to someone who did. This could have saved me time and effort. Now, due to the incompetence of your staff, I went through countless phone calls and endless grief, for nothing. The manager of the customer service should never say, Theres nothing I can do, when there was a VERY simple solution, and many options.
Needless to say I am a very dissatisfied customer, and I will hesitate to bring my business to Best Buy in the future.
In the event that this letter is processed, please do not go about the trouble to send me a templated apology that will do nothing to help this matter. If someone cares to write me a letter specifically directed at this case, I would appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Ryan Buckner
Consultant
Later...
From the desk of Ryan Buckner
Arlington VA, 22201
May 19
Best Buy Customer Care
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to you to express deep frustration and dissatisfaction concerning the Best Buy staff and Customer Relations department. This letter is a continuation of a letter I sent to you a few days ago, (attached). Please read the attached first.
After a long and arduous process to reach the right person to process a legitimate return of property that I was unsatisfied with, I encountered such of lack of customer respect that I shall never shop at your store again.
On the evening of March 3,1999, I reentered the Falls Church branch confident that I had worked out this problem. I have a family to come home to, and I wanted to process my return and leave the store forever. This however, was not to be the case. I walked to the same return counter and explained my story for the last time, explaining about the rebate, about the receipt, about the UPC proof of purchase, and waited for Joanne, the cashier, to process my order. I told her that I had spoken to a man named James Casey, a manager at that branch, and I would like to see him. James was not in. I explained that James told me of a database that stored receipts, and with my account number it was possible to pull up the information necessary to process my request after printing a copy of the receipt. I was enraged when I found that a member of the staff that had given me a hard time the night before and had told me there was nothing they could do, showed that they were fully aware of this system.
Nevertheless I was going to get my money back, and that would be the end. After a few minutes, another gentleman stepped over to tell me that although they could now obtain a copy of my receipt he could not process my return because the UPC proof of purchase had been removed. Im sorry sir; there is nothing more I can do. I explained to him that I had spoken with Casey, and Casey had told me they could process my return by subtracting the rebate amount I would get when I sent in the UPC for rebate purposes. I told him that I was no longer going to deal with these problems, I wanted my money back now, and I didnt want to answer to anybody else. This gentleman had a brief conversation with a man in a tie standing behind him, and began processing my order.
My receipt was printed, proving that I had paid $209.00 on February 14 for the phone I had in my possession, at the store in which I stood. Joanne was given the nod to process the return, and in a few minutes, a return slip for $177.64 was placed in front of me. I indicated again that I had paid $209.00, and subtracting the rebate of $30.00 left us $1.36 shy of the money owed to me. Shocked by the further incompetence, I instructed Joanne that the right way to arrive at the figure would be to process the phone at full price (before she had subtracted the $30.00 prior to adding tax), add tax, and then subtract the $30.00 rebate. After all, this was the way it happened when I purchased it, only the check for $30.00 would arrive later. Much to my further displeasure, Joanne told me I cant, and again I asked to speak to the manager.
I was surprised to see that the manager that came over was the same manager I had talked to on the 2nd of March, the night before. While he didnt seem surprised that I was getting my return processed, I explained the error in computation and asked that it be corrected, and $1.34 more be issue to me, and I would leave the store, forever. I was absolutely shocked at what I heard next. With a disgusted look on his face, the manager of the customer service counter told me Man, its only two bucks! I cant change the computers! What kind of people do you have managing your store where they expect to give away money, no matter how much or little? Is business so good for Best Buy that a few dollars for every customer is not important? Where are the customer service representatives trained to constantly say that they cant help you? I explained to him that the amount was irrelevant, that if I was purchasing something for $6,000 or $7,000, would he say the same thing when the difference would be noticeably more significant? Again he told me that he could not help me. At this point I was determined to show him that he couldnt just expect me to give away my money, so he asked Joanne to open the register and just give me $2.00 out of there. Joanne again repeated I cant. The manager walked away, came back with $2.00, slapped it on the counter, and walked away from me. Good luck finding that money in the strict records Im sure Best Buy keeps.
I left your store that night with my mind made up that I would never shop there again. Furthermore, my company does plenty of computer hardware and software procurement that will be taken to your competitors. I have friends that own their own businesses, and after telling them this story, they have told me they will never shop there again. My parents, and extended family laughed and said they would never shop there again. Im concerned about the people that are trained to manage your store, your money, and keep your customers. Because I was treated with such disrespect and placed in the hand of such incompetence, Best Buy will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in business over the next few years.
Now I have never written a letter like this before. Frankly I have never felt so cheated and blatantly disrespected while attempting to offer my business at a retail store. I have never heard the words I cant so many times without even an effort, when the answer was right there and always so easy. Everyone there knew that the system was capable of processing my receipt. As a computer programmer, I knew that the system could do it, somewhere, somehow. Why was I put through this torture? Please tell me, and make it up to me.
As I turned to leave the store last night, a young gentleman stepped up to the counter to return a video card he had purchased that was not working. He had the original box, the original receipt, and was told that he could not return the card because there was a game missing from the box. The gentleman explained that there was no other game in the box, the package simply came with a coupon to be sent in for that game, and he presented the coupon to the counter. Im sorry sir, theres nothing that I can do.
Im confident that gentleman will be able to return his video card; I wonder what he will have to go through to do it.
Sincerely,
Ryan Buckner
If you've made it this far you're wondering whether I kept my promise. It's been 4 years and I continue to boycott purchases at BestBuy since this day.
Ryan
Pikesville, Maryland
U.S.A.
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