... a few days before Christmas that the company had only just informed some customers that online orders, some placed the day after Thanksgiving, couldn’t be filled and were being cancelled.  The out of stock items included the most popular items, including TVs and iPads, “as well as other tablets, cameras, laptops, PS3 games and the Nintendo Wii.”

The company issued a statement that read:  “Due to overwhelming demand of hot product offerings on BestBuy.com during the November and December time period, we have encountered a situation that has affected redemption of some of our customers’ online orders.”

Let’s parse that sentence for a moment.  The company “encountered a situation”—that is, it was a passive victim of an external problem it couldn’t control, in this case, customers daring to order products it acknowledges were “hot” buys.  This happened, inconveniently for Best Buy, during “the November and December period,” that is, the only months that matter to a retailer. For obvious reasons, the statement ties itself in knots trying to avoid mentioning that the “situation” occurred during the holidays.

The situation that Best Buy “encountered” has “affected redemption” of some orders.  Best Buy doesn’t fill online orders, it seems.  Rather, customers “redeem” them.  So it’s the customers, not Best Buy, who have the problem.  And those customers haven’t been left hanging; they’ve only been “affected” in efforts to “redeem” their orders.  It’s not as if the company did anything wrong, or, indeed, anything at all.

It’s all so passive.  It’s also a transparent and truly feeble pack of lies.

..


According to the company’s most recent annual report,

    We believe our dedicated and knowledgeable people, store and online experience, broad product assortment, distinct store formats and brand marketing strategies differentiate us from our competitors by positioning our stores and Web sites as the preferred destination for new technology and entertainment products in a fun and informative shopping environment.”

There’s just one problem.  Not one word of that, at least in my experience, is true.  Their “people” are not knowledgeable; they are annoying.  The store “format” is entirely generic; perhaps a little confusing.  The stores and Websites are not “preferred destinations”—they are destinations, at best, of inertia, or in the case of exclusives, destinations of the only resort.  The “shopping environment” is the opposite of fun and informative.  It’s depressing and humiliating, as in “I can’t believe I had to go to Best Buy to get this.”

quote:

ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY

What have your experiences been with Best Buy?

Firm

quote:

ORIGINAL: Iamsemisweet

What company DOESN'T have lousy customer service these days.  It seems the big chain stores all do.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aylee

"What do you need it for?"

"I could tell you, but you wouldn't understand me, where would I find it?"

"What are you going to hook up?"

"I am connecting a 2001 Siemens R/F room to a DIACOM box for use with a PACS system. Can you tell me where to find the cable?"

Blank look.

I gave up and went to find a game store and bought a Wii cable.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1138614/ is a thread about how they quietly refused to honor their price matching policy.  Yep, the one they advertised.  Guaranteed class action slam dunk.  How stupid do you have to be to implement a policy that gets you sued and is still so crappy you're losing customers?

Edited to add:  they also had a secret website that purported to be the actual Bestbuy site and was evidently only used to deny online prices: http://consumerist.com/2007/03/best-buy-confirms-the-existence-of-its-secret-website.html

quote:

ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY

I've run into some companies that just make me glow with happiness because of their customer service.  One of them is the convenience store chain "Quick Trip" in the South East.

I'd never heard of them before I moved to Atlanta, but they are all over the place there.  I've been to probably 30 or so in the last three years, and each and every one has helpful, intelligent and quick people working in them.  On top of that, they are always spotlessly clean, well-stocked and priced right.

There are very few such stores, or chains that I ever cared much for, but I already miss QT now that I'm back in Kentucky.

Firm