Best Buy Ripoff.

[UnLoadeD]

Just for encouragement: a few years ago (in 1998 I believe) I got ripped off and screwed by a Pizza Delivery Chain (I won't say the name here for various reasons). Anyway, I was mad as "wet hen." I e-mailed their main corporate office at about 10:00 pm (after I did not get the Pizza I had ordered and been promised) and told them, among other things, that I was going to teach my 3 year old to tell his friends in day care that "______________ Pizza sucks!" by 9:00 am the next day the corporate and district office had called me and by 10:00 am the manager of the store that had made me mad to start with called and apologized and offered a free pizza a month for an entire year if I would just not teach my kid to tell his friends that "_______________ Pizza sucks!" I took them up on the offer and after a year of free Pizza passed, I stopped doing business with them completely.

My suggestion, e-mail BB marketing and tell them that you intend to have your 3 year old tell his friends that "Best Buy sucks!" or something similar. I'll bet you get satisfaction fast.

Thats a good idea. I like your story, but I sure woulda been afraid to eat one of those freebie pizzas. I bet they had "Special Recipe for that #$@^%! that called the Boss" posted all over the pizza parlor. 8/

hehehehe.
unloaded

 

[TLC]

Try this, go to the BB, and ask them to check if any employees recently purchased a SIS videocard using their employee discount. Also, ask them to check who handled any returns of a 9700. I'll bet its an employee, and this would be the easiest way to find out.

 

[KewlKid2000+]

picket i say picket

 

[fatguy]

FINALLY!!!

I decided I would return to the store today after work to speak to the store manager. Smartly, I took the box to work with me. Anyways, I get there and ask for the manager immediately (his name is Gary). All the other employees are looking at me really curiously, and I find out later they think I'm there for a final interview for a management job (HAHA yeah right). In any case, I did come straight from work and looked pretty professional, and I did want the most senior manager so I can understand why they thought that.

Anyway, so I stand around for about a half-hour or so then I hear the operations manager who denied my return the first time get called into the big meeting that gary was in.. (called "FDR??"). I guess Gary got wind of the issue, either from one of the sales associates or from the corportate guy I called yesterday who was supposed to talk to Gary today sometime. Anyways, I saw ops manager head to the meeting room, starin me down the entire walk past me. about 10 minutes later he walked back and into some office. 3 minutes later a sweet girl named patricia came out and said they authorized an exchange only, no money back. I figured that was ok, since I wanted the card regardless however they didn't have one in stock so they gave me store credit. Also, the card was on sale when I bought it and would most likely not be on sale when they received more, so they authorized a price match of the sale price I purchased it at. All in all I'd say it was satisfactory compromise.

I did, however, have solid evidence for a small claims suit. I was prepared to file a claim for $1000. (price of purchase, additional costs incurred, lawyer fees, etc). It turned out that the shrink-wrap was different then that used by ATI, also it was different then BB's shrink-wrap so I can only assume this happened from a dishonest customer doing a return. Also, I had 2 witnesses that were in the room with me when I opened the box, and would have been able to testify as to it's contents when I opened it.

If any of you can take anything from this incident (I know I have) it is the following:

1) Never shop at Best Buy period.
2) When purchasing anything of value, always use a credit card. If you don't have a credit card, get one ASAP.
3) Always open sealed contents immediately after purchase, ideally right in front of the clerk who performed the transaction. It will save you ALOT of headaches in the long run.
4) Be persistent. If you're not satisfied with the answer you're getting from one person, esculate it to his or her manager. Eventually you'll get to somebody with a brain.

Thanks to everyone for the support, I really appreciate it.

-fatguy out!

 

[TLC]

This is a Quote from a guy on Sharkyextreme.com forum.



"ah well
i shouldnt jump into this since everyones bashing bestbuy and i have been working for them for years..
Okay i have seen things like this before, actually i have seen the exact same senarios atleast 4 times, and i would like to add afew things:
1. All four times it was an ATI video card, we talked to ATI and they recalled those boxes..and salespeople were told to open the boxes right after they sell it.
2. Once it was 8500, twice it was 8500 All in wonder and last time itwas 9700, so i figure something is wrong at ati's end.
3. Best buy and its subsidaries like Future Shop (largest retail electronics chain in canada) and magnolia hi-fi etc have very strict policies to prevent employe theft, I am not going to go into details but to make it simple its hard to steal anything besides games and software, everything else is scanned when you enter/leave staff rooms, but then being an employe you know the way out so its probably very hard to eradicate internal theft or to reduce it to min.
4. In normal circumstances best buy wont refuse a return, straight up!..they will investigate, send the serial number on the box back to ati and wait for their answer, but then theres no guideline to it and it depends on department managers decision.

if something like that happens to one of you make sure you send someone mature (like your father if you are a guy in teens or early twenties).
talk to the floor manager nicely, explain everything, believe me guys if you deal with one particular store and your transaction record shows it they will be more than helpful..
dont yell and scream and try to make a fuss, come up with suggestions, not decisions..and dont ask for refunds straight up, makes them suspicious..ask for an exchange..
thats all i gotta say."

Hope it helps.



Never mind I did not see you newest post,glad its settled and no one died or any stores burnt down.

 

[Richard]

Congratulations. It feels good to be vindicated.

I knew the good guys would win. The best part is you did it the RIGHT way. Let that be a lesson to everyone else.

 

[mbentley]

Congratulations. It feels good to be vindicated.

I knew the good guys would win. The best part is you did it the RIGHT way. Let that be a lesson to everyone else.

glad to hear about a success story... now aren't you glad that you don't try to shrinkwrap it again like somebody else did? enjoy your card hope that it serves you well...

 

[fatguy]

Thanks guys!

I've also decided, since I have store credit, that I'm gonna hold off for a 9800 pro instead! yippe for me

 

[jonspd]

That was some of the gayiest s*** I have ever heard!!! I would go into my little best buy store but I dont want to highjack your thread man. Hope you get your ati 9700 pro man and I'am glad to see you got your money back.

 

[TheGame240]

You handled it a lot better than I would have. I probably would have ended up arrested and out 3 bills for throwing the SIS card at the manager picking up a new 9700 and walking out with it. But then again I have a horrible temper.

 

[TLC]

Did they take that POS SiS card back?LOL

If not maybe with some tweaking,heatsinks,fan,ramsinks and overclocking it can have a second chance at life.

 

[Black_Paladin]

Fatguy, congratulations man!! I think you handled this nightmare as best as you possibly could and like you said, there's a lot to be learned from your experience.

For one thing, from now on, I will always open a box before I leave a store to make sure that everything is in order as I think this kind of thing can happen any store and not just BestBuy.

 

[madcow235]

Even though i can't stand that crazy lady on Problem Solvers it would be great to see this on there. Wow she is so crazy and she bothers me. But anyways good job

 

[xtrmeocr]

dam! its good you got them to exchange it but i wanted to see you on fox5!

 

[Frodo Baggins]

3) Always open sealed contents immediately after purchase, ideally right in front of the clerk who performed the transaction. It will save you ALOT of headaches in the long run.

can be a nuisance, but definately important for expensive items

Lol, is best buy like future shop? We don't have that here in Canada. I heard it was a decent store tho

 

[i810 Forever]

Ugh.

I work in the department that handles returns at a Best Buy. Although I do not work at the customer service desk, I do know how returns work (returned plenty of things and have been involved in the process tons of times).

It is very easy for a person to buy a video card (or other piece of hardware for that matter) and replace it with something else, re-shrink wrap it, and return it. This isn't unheard of- in fact, a customer was reported a few days ago for buying items and returning things on a daily basis (6+ items, all shrinkwrapped). Our security department believes that this customer has been replacing items and reshrinkwrapping the boxes, and he is nolonger allowed to make any returns.

This is probably what happened to you- as in my opinion, it would be extremely difficult for an employee to pull that off. First off it would have to be a customer service rep (the only ones with access to the shrink-wrapping equipment for shrink-wrapping open boxed items), but they are surrounded by other BB employees and customers on an almost non-stop basis. Secondly, security is very tight (at least at my store). Our jackets are checked on the way out (although its presumable that someone could slip a card into their pocket).

I'd still place my bet on scenario A- considering the similar problems going on at my store lately.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. If the store's general manager won't do anything for you, ask for the contact information for the regional management- they should most certainly get it taken care of you.

Regards, i810

Edit:
Noticed that you had your problem fixed. Good to hear.

For the lessons you came up with from this case I can agree with all but the first one- this kind of crap can happen anywhere, and if any of us were in charge at a store, I'm sure that if someone brought an SiS card up in an ATI box the first thing that would come to mind would be that the customer is trying to get away with a $300+ video card.

 

[SLO]

IF you paid via credit card call your card company and tell them to reverse the charges. Thats the beauty of credit cards

 

[K.Snail]

Good Going FatGuy. i use to work for Futureshop which is owned by best buy and their policies are ****..

Enjoy the 9800

 

[TimeCop]

Righteous, very righteous...

 

[baqai]

Hey Fatguy nice to hear you won your case, a lil patience can take you a long way (yeah i keep preeching that but i am a very impatient person )

A lil suggestion, from what i have read about 9800 pro there is not that much of a difference, so how about this, you wait for the prices of 9700 pro to drop and get it and spend the rest of the money on something else? this is something i would have done on my own