Best Buy — Local services in Durham

“Dishonesty and the Demise of the Big Box Stores: Best Buy of Durham Takes Another Step into Oblivion”

I’ll try to keep this short, as most of you will not read a rant that’s too long or too emotional.

I had the recent misfortune of purchasing a damaged TV from Best Buy in Cary, which wasn’t near my home and in an adjacent city to mine. The reason for that Cary was the only location that had the TV I wanted. So, enduring a 2-hr. round-trip, followed be setting up the TV only to find that it was damaged was extremely irritating. Discovering damage to the TV was frustrating, and although I could question Best Buy‘s inventory quality control measures, I can accept that things happen. That said, it’s what took place at the Durham location off of 15/501 and I-40 that raised my ire and compelled me to warn all of you to avoid purchases or dealings at this particular store.

The day after purchase, I returned the TV to the aforementioned Best Buy store in Durham, as it was much closer to my home. The first representative I spoke with was very courteous and professional, but along comes one of the managers there -“Dom” - and that’s when the wheels came off.

Dom was a poor excuse for a manager in both appearance and demeanor. He is one of those people who feign courtesy, but has no intention of really helping you or doing much of anything that even sniffs of customer service. Rightfully frustrated, I explained the situation to him, but it was obvious to me after about 30 seconds that he going to do the bare minimum to help me. From the beginning, he was confrontational, telling me I “ needed to calm down” while at the same time suggesting that I was the one who damaged the TV.

Really? An asinine suggestion considering the damage to the box and Styrofoam in which the TV was packed.

I told him I was a long-time customer of Best Buy, and that despite the challenges of COVID-19, this type of treatment was unacceptable. He told me that all he was willing to do was have a TV shipped to me, at which time I was so frustrated I told him I just wanted my money back. He refused. I asked him to at least compensate me for my time and frustration, and he refused that, too. At this point he squared up and told me that if I wanted a refund, I had to return the TV to the other store, which was more than 30 mins. away from where I lived.

So this Best Buy manager, Dom, gave me no options and basically lied to me, telling me that it was Best Buy policy that damaged items had to be returned to the store from which they came. I verified with two other managers at two other stores that this is absolutely untrue. So: no refund, no gift card, no reduction in the price of the TV.. In other words, nothing but a “take it or leave it” attitude from this ‘manager,’ Dom. At this point I didn’t have much of a choice. I didn’t have the time to drive the TV back to Cary, and this individual of questionable intellect and integrity would do nothing to help me, except have another TV shipped to me a week later. Adding insult to injury, he came just shy of accusing me of damaging the TV myself.

So folks, it’s no wonder that the big box stores are dying, particularly when they keep hiring people like this, Dom. Why hassle with somebody like this imbecile when you can make purchases online with outlets like Amazon or Walmart? Personal interaction with store Reps and being able to actually lay your hands on something you want to buy are the only reasons people even go out to stores these days, but if you have to encounter someone like this Dom, no thanks.

To Best Buy‘s credit, I spoke with a Mr. Rose at the original location from which I purchased the TV, and he took extraordinary measures to make sure I was provided a satisfactory resolution to this matter (if not exactly in a timely fashion). My hat’s off to Mr. Rose at the Cary Best Buy. The manager at the Durham Best Buy off of 15/501, Dom, is reason enough never to step foot into that...

Washer installed today. Washed one load and blew up. Ok things happen. My husband called to schedule a replacement. Gave them all the information and got a reference number. As I ordered the machine they refused to schedule the replacement until I call to say yes. I have now been on hold 95 minutes. I also spent 45 minutes on chat only to be told - AFTER being transferred to the specialist - that they cannot accept my yes via chat. It has to be done by phone. When asked why I was transferred to him and had to wait 30 minutes to be told "it's not my job" he said the first people don't understand the replacement process so people are transferred to the specialists who can then explain that they cannot do anything... UPDATE: Total 3 1/2 hours on hold over two days on the 800 number and multiple calls to the local geek squad desk where we were lied to repeatedly. Eventually the replacement was scheduled two days later than originally discussed. The washer was installed. The FIRST load started spinning and then started making a horrible grinding noise. More hours on hold only to be told by the 800 number "specialist" that they could not schedule a replacemment because the installers had not checked back into the warehouse yet and "the process" requires they file their paperwork before the order can be updated. I pointed out that we received an email that indicated the installation was completed. If they filed that electronically while on the road, why do we have to wait for the physical truck to rerturn to the warehouse? No answer except that that is the process and the process cannot be questioned. It was now over 10 hours after the install and they insisted the truck was still on the road. They promised to call in the morning to set up the replacement. Like all the other promised calls, it did not happen. We tried calling the warehouse directly to see when the truck might be checked in. There we spoke to the only competent person in the system: Marcus. After a conversation about the truck check in process, we hung up only to have Marcus call back a few minutes later to ask if we had a drain pan. We do. He said that last year they had a run of "defective" washers that turned out to be the loaded drum hitting the pipe in the pan. We checked. The drain was to the side but the pan did have raised plastic ridges. When we raised the feet on the washer, the grinding noise disappeared. The geek squad installers had not lowered the feet so the drum could clear the standard ridges in the pan. We did not trust that the machine had not been damaged and so eventually arranged for the third washer to be installed - feet extended. Without Marcus we could have kept getting "defective" machines. IN THE END THERE WERE TWO REASONS TO AVOID BUYING APPLIANCES AT BEST BUY: THE INSTALLATION TEAMS ARE INCOMPETENT. THE CUSTOMER SERVICE "PROCESS" IS A MASSIVELY FRUSTRATING BUREAUCRATIC TIME SINK WHERE VERY BASIC REQUESTS REQUIRE HOURS OF ON HOLD TIME, DEAD ENDS, NON-EXISTANT RETURN CALLS, AND CONVERSATIONS WITH "SPECIALISTS" WHO CANNOT ACTUALLY...

This is the most disturbing customer service experience I have ever had in my life. I have to share this in order to keep others from experiencing the same thing. I went to the store during my lunch break to purchase a new Iphone 6 Plus 64 GB. When I got there the "manager" was the one assisting me. He pulled the phone from the cabinet and rung it up for me, then he opened the packaging to "check for damages". I thought that was kind of weird because I've never had the apple store or any other electronic store do that unless they were activating it for you and since I was purchasing the phone out of contract he was not actually activating the service I told him I could do that from online at work. Anyway still I didn't think anything of it at the time since I trusted Best Buy to be a reputable company and didn't think anything was wrong. Once I purchased the phone I headed back to work to activate it with my service. Upon opening the box I realized that the head phones were missing. Then when I turned the phone on after charging it I realized that is said "NO SIM" which I thought was very strange. I still attempted to activate the phone which obviously did not work since there was no sim card. I was confused and little bit upset with the whole situation but it gets even better. I then called the best buy at which I bought the phone and told them that there was no head phones or sim card in the box, they instructed me to come back to the store. So after work I drove all the way back to the store and once I got there the same guy AKA the "manager" who sold me the phone proceeded to remove the phone from the box and point out that the serial numbers did not match the phone and the box. He then accused me of switching the phones and that I was a criminal. I did no such thing I had only returned to get a SIM card and then I found out that the phone that was in the box was not even the phone I had purchased it was actually a 16 GB phone. He continued to berate me, until I finally left. I realized that I was not getting anywhere talking to him or any of the other employees there. I could not believe this was happening, I went home and we called back the next day attempting to get a hold of a higher manager, however the same manager I previously dealt with said there was nobody ahead of him so we contacted corporate who made it clear that there should be a general manager for the store. Once police involvement was threatened the "store manager" was able to check the cameras and discover that indeed someone other than me had switched the phones however who that was, was not disclosed. To wrap this up I ended up showing back up to the store where they replaced the phone for me but I never even got a apology. Their side of the story changed so many times i'm not even sure what happened but what I do know is that something very wrong is taking place inside that store. I would advise anyone and everyone NEVER to buy...