Best Buy — Local services in Columbia

If I could give 0 stars I would. I have had previous customer service issues with this store and never left a review. The GM "Mark" can be hit or miss about addressing things, but it's the people below him that are the big problem. As an owner of my own business, terrible customer service reflects completely on upper management. It's a culture of being able to treat a customer any way you want and getting away with it.

I was in the Columbia, MO store last night and had about $6k in product I wanted to purchase. The only offer that my credit card shows available is 24 months with 0% interest. I know for a 100% fact that that managers can contact the credit card company after the purchase is made and ask the bank to turn it into 36 months 0% interest. Anyone who says this can't be done is lying to you. I have had it done multiple times on large purchases. It was actually used as a carrot dangled in front of my face once when I was unsure about a purchase I was thinking about. I have even had this GM "Mark" do it for me. He wasn't very happy about it, but he did do it. They have to ring up the order at 24 months 0% first and then after the purchase is complete, they have to call Citi. I again confirmed this with Citi on Thursday of last week.

Last night I got a manage named Aaron who was rude and cocky and without using the exact word, kept insinuating I was a liar. That is something you NEVER do to a customer. That should be customer service 101. I kept telling him that "He was refusing to even pick up the phone to call Citi and find out." This went back and forth a few times and in 2 different conversations. He tried accusing me of telling him to call the bank when I said no, what I said is a statement of fact that "he is refusing" to do something. BIG DIFFERENCE Aaron! I did explain to him I am not going to argue with him when I am the customer looking to spend $6k in the store. Now either he wants the sale, or he doesn't, at which point he threatened to tell me I can just go buy online or somewhere else. Really Aaron? Again customer service 101? I told him no; you're going to complete the sale. Meanwhile my girlfriend and the salesman were standing at the register waiting for payment. The order was rung up and I already had my credit card out. I started to hand the credit card over and then he said no he definitely wasn't taking the sale. I asked if he was serious, and he said yes.

I want it to be known, there was no yelling or cussing on either of our parts, no threats except for me to call corporate about him. So, there was absolutely no reason for him not to accept my payment other than he wanted to show he had power, and he was going to exert it. I'm also certain he is not used to a customer knowing how things work, or he thinks I won't complain about this further and I absolutely will. If he worked for me, there would be no question Aaron would get a final write up and terminated immediately. If one of my customers was ever told to just go purchase online and to leave my store immediately, there would be no excuse for that behavior. Especially over an interest rate. This wasn't even over the price. Even if he didn't like my attitude, his best course of action would have been to say, "Let's do this. We agree to disagree, and you can purchase tonight or wait and have a manager, possibly the GM call tomorrow and get this resolved?" I certainly wouldn't throw $6k out the front door and say go somewhere else or go shop online.

Best Buy needs to make this whole...

Took a trip to this Best Buy looking to get a new tablet after my Surface Pro 3 died. Here's the good and the bad of my experience there. The Good: The first time I went there, I was pretty dead set on getting a Surface - either a Surface Pro 4 or Surface Pro (around $800). The salesman I talked to explained to me that I could get a stronger 2-in-1 for cheaper, and with the new Wacom Bamboo pen could still have the writing functionality. Important to note that this was them trying to convince me to buy a cheaper product, which I appreciate. I was stubborn and made an impulse buy on a Surface Pro 4 i5 processor. Regretted it later that night and returned it the next day with no hassle. I've been in there about 3 times looking at tablets and each time have either been helped rather quickly, or had a short wait while they finish helping another customer.

The Bad: Originally went in there to get a SP4 or SP with an m3 processor - cheapest model. Neither were in stock. Later went in to get a Lenovo Yoga 710 w/ i5 processor after doing some research. Not in stock. Had them look up if there were any at a Best Buy nearby, and they found some in Chesterfield (about an hour and a half drive away, near STL). Asked if I needed to call to reserve one or if I could pay for it in Columbia and pick it up in Chesterfield. They said no, there were plenty and I wouldn't have to worry. Seemed like once they figured out I wasn't going to be buying one of their computers, they just wanted to get me out of the store. Well needless to say I went to Chesterfield later that day, and they had sold out before I got there (about 5 hours after). The lack of available products there in addition to now having to wait for my tablet to arrive after ordering it online left a pretty bad taste in my mouth about these guys. Unfortunately, there are very few other shops in Columbia to buy a computer at.

UPDATE 9/7: When the laptop arrived at my door, it had a defect where the space bar wouldn't work unless pressed right in the center and wouldn't sit flat on a table. After working with Lenovo Customer Support for awhile, came to the conclusion that exchanging it at Best Buy would be the quickest solution to get it returned. Since I'm in classes, I wanted as quick a turnaround time as possible. One of the managers said that given my situation and that they didn't have that model in stock, they would cover the cost of doing 1-day shipping so I could get the new tablet back quicker. Working with the customer service lady was great as well, she was extremely friendly and helpfully addressed all my concerns. Working with the first salesman and then this experience leads me to believe my bad experience was an exception rather...

I am under quarantine at this time due to Covid. I'm trying to purchase some headphones from Best Buy to make working from home for the next two weeks easier (also balancing taking care of a 3-year-old and 6-month-old). Would be easier if I could do meetings and phone calls hands-free. Several issues: Made purchase with gift card online. Payment went through, then received text message that there was a problem with the payment. Tried to reenter gift card information, unable. Only accepts credit/debit card infor at this point. Checked gift card balance and payment was removed from gift card. Called customer service to see what the hell. Customer service refunded the money to my gift card without confirming with me that's what I wanted done. Customer service states refund will take 24 hours. Explained there was an "error" processing the payment. No further explanation could be provided. Asked to speak with a manager or supervisor. Only issue escalation process is to put in a request for a call back. Call backs taking 72 hours right now. Tried to call my local store. Still routed to customer service line. Was told I am unable to speak with a person at my local store unless I physically go inside the store, which of course I can't do because I'm in quarantine.

Now I am forced to wait for the gift card to be refunded and try to make the purchase again. There is no way of knowing that this won't happen again because customer service doesn't know why it happened on the first place. I just can't believe there is nothing that can be done over the phone without waiting 72 hours for a call back (and frankly that person is probably not going to be helpful either, this is just a...