Best Buy — Attraction in Boulder

Best Buy is a scam company, scamming consumers. Beware! I bought an open box Lenovo laptop online in "Excellent" condition that Best Buys website stated had 1 left in their Boulder store only. No other area stores closer to my home had it available. I requested shipment to my house rather than coming into the store. This option was available. When the laptop arrived at my house, it came in a beaten up box, no manuals, no paperwork, no power cord and dinged up. Clearly not an excellent condition item. I saw that the one I bought from the Boulder store was still available online at the Boulder store as an excellent open box item, and placed yet another order, this time for pick-up. However, the price had increased, and I needed to now do something as I couldn't keep the crappy one they shipped me. So I placed the order with the intent of exchanging both supposed excellent condition items like for like.

I get to the Boulder store to exchange the crappy laptop for the other open box and they would NOT do an even exchange.

This is clearly a Bait and Switch situation, where Best Buy is advertising an open box (in this case excellent condition item) available locally, however they ship you crappy stuff from some place in California.

What is extremely frustrating is Chris at Geek Squad refused to remedy the situation, by providing an even exchange in this situation, and ultimately left a very frustrated customer that then had to take both laptops outside the store, swap the laptops like they should have done in the store, and then go back to process the return.

Best Buy should enable their managers to own up to mistakes and have the authority to make corrections to clear Best Buy errors--on the spot, and not make their customers jump through hoops.

Buyers that do business with Best Buy have been warned!

Update: I did reach out to Best Buy as a follow-up based on their response. They still don't get it. They errored in this instance, continue to deflect, and still don't comprehend the concept of "even exchange" (especially in situations where they screw up). We made a purchase in good-faith and Best Buy did not honor their end of the transaction. Wasted time, wasted money. ...

This is down to the company more than the staff.

I found the item that I wanted to order online, it was listed as being in stock and available for same day pick up in Boulder. The purchasing portal on the website was not working well, so I called the store to place an order for pick up over the phone. I've done this with many stores over the last few weeks (including Home Depot and other similar large retailers) and none has required me to create any kind of account with a home address and email to pay over the phone for curbside pickup. When I called Best Buy I gave the customer representative the information of the product I was looking for, I let her know that I had found it in stock in Boulder on their website, and wanted to pick it up today. She found the item quickly, created the order, and asked for my information to create an account, stating my home address and email are required to make an order by phone. Once the order was set up she stated it would be ready for pick up in store in 11 days. I clarified that wasn't what I was looking for, and she let me know politely that I could drive to Denver if I wanted it sooner. I said I understood, and given that, I wanted to have my account information deleted since there was no order (and who needs more advertising spam). The representative said that it wasn't possible to delete the account, directing me to call an 800 number to try to get it resolved, and warning me that it would have nearly an hour long wait to try to work it out. I asked if she could assist with this, given that I really didn't want an account in the first place, and that I'm not even ordering a product. I was told "I'm sorry, I only do customer service for in store, and I have other people here that I have to help." I get that this is a corporate policy issue and that the in-store staff can't help that, but it just makes it not worth the effort to try...

You know those days when you can't just seem to get a break? I was having one of those days today, where you have that looming to do list that makes getting out of bed at 5 am extra delightful--you know, watching the clock move from 1 am to 2 am to 3 am and dreading that alarm because you roll over and every task of the day isn't just a chore--every task is dread and hitting obstacles and complications. Time travel: about an hour and a half ago into our thirteen hour day I am met with the last task on the list: A trip to Best Buy to troubleshoot problems with my laptop--and problems, that word? That doesn't begin to cover what was building to vehement frustration--and then I walked into Best Buy and was immediately acknowledged and sent to see Kyle at the "Geek Squad" station. Geek Squad? Nah, more like pragmatic computer scientist laboratory of awesome people.

Kyle's professionalism was impeccable and asking of all the more respect, as in spite of his acknowledgement to corporate rules, he did not compromise his ability to remain personable, knowledgeable, approachable, and most importantly? He was authentic with me. He was patient and reassuring. He treated me like I was the first customer of the day but not just a customer or a consumer, he treated me like a person and fulfilled each and every necessity that represents the essence of customer service. These necessities are those my grandfather taught me and that Dr. Seuss likely taught you too: "A person is a person, not matter how small." Today I was feeling small and defeated and then I had the pleasure of meeting Kyle and just as my grandfather taught me, I sought out his equally wonderful manager, Mark to express my gratitude, to thank the team for hiring people like Kyle. Thank you so much for turning my day around and for ending my day with me smiling instead of vexed with frustration. Bliss,...