Best Buy: Taken to Task

I try to reserve my editorial on this blog for matters less personal in nature, but Best Buy has now had three strikes in my book, and they’re out. Based on my experience and the accompanying article, I am warning you about shopping there.

After the worst retail experience of my life at a Best Buy store in Atlanta last December, where an employee was so hostile and condescending, I lost my cool in public for the first time and vowed never to return.

Researching a follow up letter to the CEO, I discovered that complaints to Best Buy are so numerous, the company staffs a floor of people at its Minneapolis headquarters to field complaints (”oh, I can’t believe that happened to you!”) and mail out Best Buy gift cards to sooth angry customers. 

Shopping for a new HD set for mom and dad in recent days, I shrugged off my experience of a year ago and went to their nearby Best Buy store in northern Ohio. Well, five days after the purchase, Best Buy technicians showed up and dumped the set in my parents living room, initially even refusing to remove the old TV even though we had repeatedly requested installation. My dad is disabled; there’s no way they could have moved a 32″ Sony tube TV themselves.

And now, after charging charging my credit card twice to have the new TV set up, the company is refusing to credit the overcharge because they can’t figure out how it could appear twice on the same ticket. “You’re going to have to take it up with your bank.”

Despite Best Buy’s dominance over its hapless national competitor, the company is to be avoided. 

I mentioned an accompanying article. After serving as a business and consumer commentator on radio and TV here in Georgia for 30 years, I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve ever gone public about dissatisfaction with a company. 

Why is the name “Best Buy” a contradiction in terms? Here’s a clue.