I have now reordered the calibration at the sale price and am waiting to be contacted about scheduling it. I am dreading that I may have to call the 888 number to do this myself.

At the same time I re-ordered the calibration, on 12/3, I ordered a digital picture frame on BestBuy.com. Today I received an email saying it is backordered and might or might not arrive on time for Christmas. When I called 888 again, I was on hold for 40 minutes, at which I was automatically disconnected, presumably to start over again.

I am not someone with a lot of time on my hands. I work in a business that also relies on consumer satisfaction and insight into what that means. My company spends a lot of money gathering that information, as I’m sure Best Buy does. However, I’m afraid all of the knowledge is worth nothing if you don’t also invest in having someone answer the phone and meet your customers’ most basic requests.

If the rest of my experience–calibration and continuing to try to cancel my web order–continues to be as frustrating and disrespectful of my time as it has been so far, I doubt I will continue as a regular customer.

I hope you appreciate my taking more time to share this with you.

I am sure “Buyer be happy” was coined with all the right intentions but after spending good amount of my Thanksgiving working through Best Buy purchase issues – I don’t think I am a happy buyer.

I purchased a Sony Vaio laptop on BestBuy.com on Thanksgiving morning and the order went through successfully. Then later on that day I received an email saying that it is backordered and then finally on Friday morning I saw other email that this would not be shipping at all. That was first blow to my shopping plans.

I continued to have faith in best buy and on Friday evening I made another purchase at bestbuy.com for a compaq mini and this time I selected store pickup (as system was showing that this product was available at a near by store). On completing the purchase I was told that within 45 minutes I would get an email confirming the pickup time. But this pick up email never arrived and attempts to call 888 number were futile as well because either order system was down when I connected with someone or I couldn’t connect with anyone even after 40 minutes wait.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon I talked with a real person (after holding for 1 hour) and she said you should cancel your order as store does not have it anymore and as they were busy they might not have looked at your order when the product was available. I kept pushing her for a better answer and she transfer me to Consumer relations (who called the lakeland store) and then said that you don’t need to cancel your product. Product is backordered and you should get it in a few weeks. At that time you would get an email.

However, I have a strong feeling that in both these cases I am just going to be left with cancelled orders with best buy making no attempt to honor the purchase that I made in the name of product not being in stock anymore. It doesn’t seem right that for a big retailer like best buy there wouldn’t be better communication between inventory and ordering systems. In case of Sony Vaio it just needed a hard stop on new orders after x number of orders. Amazon, NewEgg and lot of other retails and even travel sites like orbitz are always able to tell you quantity left or if inventory is low.

I hope this gets enough attention so that something gets done to improve the overall holiday shopping experience for next year.

Regards,
Manish

Dear Best Buy,
I was surprised this week when I went to purchase a new computer, a new HD TV, a Blu-ray player and some small gifts. My surprise was that I did not have a Best Buy credit card! Now, this was Wednesday and I could not contact anyone because of the holiday until this morning. Shock, surprise, disappointment and then just plain anger were my responses. After making my call to customer service I was told that I was mailed a notice in April of this year that stated that since I had not used my card in some time it was being deactivated. A notice that was never received. Surely I would not attempt to make purchases on a card that did not exist.
Wow, I usually pay cash in Best Buy accept for major purchases. I guess that this is an irresponsible idea. I use my credit card, but not for everyday items. I have been a Best Buy customer ever since they first opened in Charlotte, NC. I have extolled the merits of your store to my sons and family. “Shop there, it is the best”, I said.
Well, no longer.

What can you say that can make this experience better?!

This happened in front of my family who were quite excited about our purchases, but were then shocked when they learned that there would be none. I have decided not to re-apply for a whole new credit card at the store as suggested by your representative because mine could not be reactivated. I have instead decided never to shop your stores again in the future. I have conveyed this to my family, my sons and their family and our close relatives. I can only hope that they follow suit and choose another store for their purchases.

Barry Judge Updates from the CMO of Best Buy

……Anyway, I’m very excited about what we are doing across the business for the Holidays. Our plan has never been stronger – and it needs to be given consumers’ expectations and the strength of the competition across all of Retail. Our plan focuses on executing very well our “Price Plus,” strategy. ” Price Plus” is shorthand for great prices plus providing the best help before and during the shopping process……

REALLY????????

Your disgusted former customer,
Ralph J. Gann

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/11/23/a-storm-is-brewing-at-best-buy

It is generating a lot of traffic.

If you’re into the whole social media thing, it may be a good thing to reach out and comment on.

Looks like the link was bad on the last comment due to the end “)”. Sorry about that.

If you’re into the whole social media thing, it may be a good thing to reach out and comment on.

I have recently achieved Silver Preferred RewardZone status and am a retail industry analyst. I have significant exposure to a variety of retailers and their competitive match policies.

Recently (11/20/09) I purchased a Canon HF20 HD CamCorder. I did my homework earlier in the week. I visited Store #864 to learn about the various HD camcorders, the sales associate was informed and provided all that I needed to know. I later researched prices on the net and found that Wal-Mart, KMart and Sears were selling the same model for nearly $100 less. There were other online retailers that were selling it as much as $200 less than BBY. The BBY selling price is $799. I printed the prices from the three brick and mortar retailers and took that information with me to store #864 on Saturday 11-20-09. I worked with the sales associate to retrieve the item from the locked case and proceeded to provide the competitive price information that I printed. The MOD said he would honor the price if the item was in stock and could be validated through one of the local retailers. Calling each retailer and asking for information on price and instock took over an hour. All of the right information was verifiable through the net. The associate did not have competitor phone numbers, it took a while just to locate the right numbers. Then after a number of calls, the price was confirmed. Now came the checkout process. I had coupons and rewardzone certificates. These took additional efforts to redeem. Neither the MOD or the sales associate were new to the job. They are not seasonal help.

While I was in the middle of working through all of these issues, there were 20+ customers in the camera area that wanted help, no one was available to answer their questions. I felt badly for them as this was a busy Saturday.

The Sears Blue Crew has figured out a proactive competitive price check process. The customer does not even need to ask, they are pleasantly surprised by a sales associate that informs the customer that a competitor is selling the same item at a lower price and they will pay that lower price without even asking.

So here are the issues as I see them.

#1- the process of confirming a competitive price check should be improved via a system that scrubs the net and confirms physical competitor price checks. Likely your merchants know what national competitors are selling each product they are responsible for. If a customer engages the competitor price check policy – the process could be improved dramatically.

#2 Price matching is only engaged when the customer requests. I recommend that BBY proactively engage the competitive price checking and pleasantly surprise the customer with a better price when a known and confirmed price can be found through a proactive search.

#3 The checkout process was complicated by price reductions of the key item. Other coupons and rewardzone certificates would not impact the final price correctly. This required three attempts and significant overrides.

In the end, I received what I wanted at the price I expected. What I did not expect was the hassle it took to achieve what I wanted when I walked in the door. Buying this item online would have saved me two hours and another $100 .

With the holiday season just around the corner and competitive pricing becoming an increasingly important part of shopping, I recommend a dramatic improvement in the policy and the tools to proactively engage the consumer.
Thanks,