Best Buy — Local services in Aurora

On 01/16/2023 at about 12:30pm, my sister and I came to this Best Buy location, at South Lands, to get a new screen protector for my niece. We walked up to a counter, close to where the soundbars are located, and Joseph asked how he can help us.

He looked like he was multi-racial. He had medium length curly hair and balding at the cortex of his head. He did an excellent job putting the screen protector on my niece’s phone and mailed the other screen protector to my sister’s home.

My sister and I were having a very casual conversation and somehow, I think that we caused Joseph to feel insecure. We were just talking about our children and how we are similar with our parenting styles. The topic of rap music came up and my sister made a joke about our children not knowing some of the that we grew up listening to; It was very lighthearted and harmless.

Joseph decided to join in on the conversation and he was very arrogant and inappropriate. I really hope that we did not cause him to feel inferior or uncomfortable.

I’m saying that because he randomly, started talking about how he has visited all 50 states and has traveled to 17 different countries. It was just so random and we had not over shared or bragged about anything. It was just way off topic and for some reason or another, he felt the need to brag about that. I thought that it was crass and as though he was trying to prove something to us or cause himself to feel better. It was definitely not our intent to cause him to feel any type of unsavory feelings, if we did so. We just let it pass and changed the subject.

My sister and I decided to stay humble and not mention any of our traveling history and just told him that we have bucket lists that we are working on, as well. It just seemed as though we triggered him and as though he was in competition with us.

I really did not appreciate that! I think that that was unprofessional of him and it almost seemed like he was trying to belittle us and cause us to feel inferior. I think that is one of his quirks and something that he may regularly say if he is feeling inferior, belittled and insecure. If he communicated to us that way, I’m confident that he has done the same to other customers. No one likes to be around arrogant people who brag because of their own insecurities. He also made it point to brag about going to comedy clubs with his best friend because they have the same sense of humor.

I definitely have compassion for him and I do forgive him. I am sure that he has had to deal with some very arrogant and prideful customers and felt angry about it in the past and it’s a defense mechanism for him. He passively attacks before he gets attacked based upon his past experiences. I think that we may have been victims of his misplaced anger based upon his past experiences with rude customers. Someone was rude and arrogant with him and the result was him being passively rude and arrogant with us.

My sister and I are very understanding, compassionate, forgiving and empathetic people and we are far from perfect. When we go somewhere for service, we expect to be treated with the utmost respect and dignity because we both work in customer service, as well. My sister and I pride ourselves on being humble and kind and we chose to be humble and kind even though he chose to conduct himself in an unsophisticated manner.

I hope that Joseph doesn’t continue to, randomly, start talking about how well traveled he is, and that he learns how to, better, take other people’s feelings and thoughts into consideration. I truly do believe that that was inappropriate for him to do that. We are not in competition with Joseph and he definitely lost our respect because of that. We are all learning, growing, maturing and developing and we are all works in progress.

I really hope that this complaint makes it to the ears of Joseph. It will help him to be a better person. This is definitely not something for him to lose his job over. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to his position...

Lackluster service at best. Went to get information on speakers. Because of the high value of the speaker's, I felt like he didn't want to waste his time on me. Most of the speakers in the special sound proof room were well above $1,000 per speaker. (Not a set! Who buys one speaker?) Seems like the average was about $2,000 a speaker $4,000 a set! Way out of my price range. Went to look at speakers on the floor, that were less expensive but still a lot of money. I asked about a certain model his reply was "they're not popping up." (He was referring to his phone, but I don't know what that meant could he not find them are they not popping up on inventory why wouldn't he elaborate?) I asked well can you order them and he repeated they're not popping up. At that point I said "it seems like we're talking 2 different languages here what does that mean?" He said if they don't pop up he can't order them. Do these people really expect me to spend $2k- $4k on a product and not get some kind of info first? They had an array of about 20 different amps on a wall as well, I asked if any of these would change the sound and his reply was they were not hooked up and he wasn't going to hook them up because it was just too much work. A sale is "TOO MUCH WORK?" Are you listening corporate? Why have these special viewing/listening rooms when the employees have already judged me, & decided i cant afford what they're selling? I've got credit cards with limits higher than their annual salary! Car dealers do this all the time, Castaway a potential buyer because I don't dress to his car buying standards. I had a budget of $1,500, (didn't want to spend more, but I could have went higher...) I could have bought an amp, I could have remodeled and just put an entire home theater in. He didn't know this, true I came in for speakers, could have been enticed into an entire home theater. He blew a potential $5k-$10k sale because he thought he was dressed better than I was?...BTW the parking lot only had about 10 cars in the lot, I'm assuming that was all the employees. Welcome to the ranks of Circuit City (Kmart and Sears), Best Buy, we'll see you on the bankruptcy lines before too long. Going to a couple of sound rooms downtown, see if they like my money and don't care the way I'm dressed.... Update about a year later. Bought a $500 in cabinet microwave. Decided to plug it in before install. Glad i did! Started throwing sparks the second i ran a cycle on it. Returned instantly. They actually had the nerve to ask if I wanted another one. This was a special order and I just wanted my money back at this point. Went to the other big box stores and they'll even do a price match so there's no need to ever go back to Best Buy ever again. You guys are definitely...

I hadn't been in a Best Buy in years and only came to this one to buy the new Captain America dvd. (For some unholy reason Marvel/Disney only released it through Best Buy.)

While I'm there decide to check on another display I seen a couple of rows away. After a few minutes of standing there on my own a blue shirt from behind the customer service counter asks me if I need help. "Yes, thank you," I reply.

A few minutes more and still no blue shirt to give me a hand. I look back at the counter and the kid that asked me is walking away from where I was standing. Another blue shirt is still back there, but after a few seconds he wanders off in another direction.

Neither of them came to help me after one of them ask specifically if needed help. WTF?

I gave it another few minutes and still no one came to answer my question. Finally I had to use my "command" voice to announce throughout the store needed assistance.

Still no one came to help. Another customer came over and said he too was having problems with the customer service there. A vendor rep came over and said he sees that sort of behavior from the store employees all day long.

Finally a kid with a mohawk-thing, came from a register and asked if he could help. I said I just had a quick question and explained that either of the customer service reps could have answered it without even leaving from behind their counter. Was this thing with a tag, but not on the shelf, available?

After he leaves with the tag to verify the manager of the store comes over and tells me everyone is busy and that's why no was able to help me. Then why ask, I ask him? Why ask and then walk off?

"I'm sorry," he said. I'm not looking for an apology, I told him. I'm looking for someone to explain to my why I was offered help and no one came to help? In fact, the one who offered pointedly walked off in another direction.

I'll not be going back to this Best Buy ever and will probably not go to any Best Buy ever again. There's a reason people shop online now and that's to avoid crappy...