Best Buy — Local services in Alaska

One of the worst shopping experiences of my life. My wife and I went in to get the new iPhone 16 pro shortly after release as best buy was one of the few stores that sold the phone outright and had it in stock. We came all the way from Cantwell which is about a 4 hour drive. We were told that they could add her prepaid plan onto my family plan and then they could add the phone so we could buy it. Already an inefficient way of doing business especially as they can't just switch her number over like AT&T can but instead have to make a new number for her, but I understand that it is not the fault of just this location. The real problem is that that the computer crashed during the setup and they were unable to finish the setup process and kept my wife and I waiting for several hours just standing there waiting for them to fix it. Turns out, they couldn't even do it. They called AT&T customer service and tried all sorts of things and couldn't figure it out. Which would have been fine if it wasn't several hours and if they had told us earlier so we could have just gone over to the AT&T store next door and have them fix it. So after several hours of waiting, several different people try to help, (not the manager or anyone higher up mind you, just the regular employees who didn't really know what they were doing) and being told several times that it would only be a little bit longer just to have it be hours more, they still didn't fix it and we had to spend the night in anchorage since we couldn't drive home at that point since it was too late in the day. Towards the end of the day, the employee told us that they couldn't fix it because "AT&T was having a global outage" which turned out to be a complete lie that he just told us so we would have to come back the next day when he wasn't working. The next day, we come in first thing in morning and are told once again that there is nothing they can do and that we will have to go over to the AT&T store and have them fix it, which we could have just done first thing the day before had they not lied to us over and over. At the AT&T store they fix the problem in about 10 minutes and also move my wife onto the family plan without her needing a new number. They also inform us that people come over there all the time from best buy to have issues fixed because apparently they mess things up a lot. So, AT&T was able to fix best buy's mistake and switch the account over in 10-15 minutes which is more than best buy was able to do in an entire day. Afterwards we are able to go back to best buy and finally purchase the phone. Needless to say, this was probably the single worst shopping experience of my life. Nobody in the upper management of the store offered to help the entire time, and they never apologized for wasting two days of our life along with our money from having to stay overnight, not to mention the fact that they lied to us several times. I will most likely never be shopping at this best buy or any other...

Normally I have a good experience.

Today was totally different.

Recently I have experienced my Lenovo Legion Go, having a dropped wifi signal after prolonged gaming use. After extensively troubleshooting, I have found that the Wi-Fi chip soldered to the motherboard is defective. I decided to utilize the Totaltech Protection Plan that I have subscribed to. On June 20th 2024 I was instructed by Joe Terrell a employee, that they would need to send my device in for repair under the protection plan I subscribe to. Joe and I clearly went over the device. We both agreed that there was no damage and that the device was in like new condition. After reading the product information I can see that he intentionally put incorrect information.

He puts deceitful contradictory statements in the physical appearance.

The first statement says that the device is like new condition with no signs of any physical damage or scratches.

The next statement says there is some residue and blemishes.

The definition of blemish is: a small mark or flaw which spoils the appearance of something.

These statements are clearly contradictory. After showing clear photos and videos to Joe and asking to fix the paperwork, he offers to get the manager.

While I wait for a manager, I can hear him coaching her (Ipo Kane) to objectively agree in tandem. I explained everything that has gone wrong up to this point. She tells me that she is going to go with what her agent stated.... even though I have crystal clear photos and video showing that I gave them a absolutely perfect in appearance device. She finally agrees to look at the video and tells me it's not going to change anything. I have included those photos in this review as reference. This store can be good, as long as you don't have to go to The Geek Squad. The lying and level of service I experienced as a long-time Elite/Totaltech member is absolutely deceitful and unprofessional.

Avoid this department like...

I was quite reluctant to write this review until when I browsed through the reviews given by others. Initially, I thought my experience was an outlier due to my misfortune. But the reviews by others made me rethink. Okay, let me explain:

Initially, I purchased a Gateway netbook; I must say, it was a rotten piece with frequent freezing and hanging and I returned it in 10 days' time. For the first time, I saw the disapproving face of the customer service executive at that time. I did not want to buy another gateway netbook and try my luck: this time, I paid an extra $80 to buy an Acer Iconia tablet. My misfortune followed me: this tablet would boot and then shut down automatically in 5-10 minutes, even after I gave "never sleep" option. Apparently, a Google search indicated that this is a common issue with Iconia tabs and that Acer is trying to fix it (anyone can search). I went with it to Best Buy shop and this time the first lady I met there in the customer service wanted me to get it tested by the GeekSquard technician before doing anything else (Fearing her suspicion of me as a 'problem customer', I had forewarned her of her likely misperception about me). Despite my apologies to her for my mistake (for the tablet not working), she never gave a pleasant hearing and made me to stand in the GeekSquard queue for a while until the technician told me he can't fix it. Fortunately, this time, another lady occupied the customer service counter and she seemed to be a whole lot more sympathetic with my issue. She gave me an identical tablet in exchange for my returned tablet.

What rating...