Best Buy — Local services in Eau Claire

Hide your daughters and your cash! My worst experiences with a business have occurred at Eau Claire's Best Buy store. I've lived most of my life in the Eau Claire area but have traveled extensively throughout the country and I can honestly say that this is the worst store, not even just electronics store, I've ever dealt with. Their staff is very rude and profane. I once witnessed a male worker there stare for 15 seconds at a young female patron's butt as she walked by, I told him that was inappropriate and he stated, "So, go tell my supervisor." After much searching, I come to find out there were no supervisors around and I left very disguised.

On a subsequent visit, I was walking past two younger male employees and overheard them talking about "wanting to "do" someone", I saw them staring in a certain direction and was appalled to see them referring to a young, probably underage, girl who was looking at cell phones with her mother. I immediately informed a supervisor of this, his action you may ask, he had me fill out a comment card and gave me the generic 1800 number to corporate, how crazy is that?!

Not only is their staff disgusting, but their policies and procedures they hide behind and try to sell you are equally as bad. They charge $99 to copy and paste your pictures from your computer to a cd, for many, that takes less than 3 minutes using a 35 cent cd, some states call this extortion. Also, they use scare tactics to make you buy their overly priced extended warranties. Their warranties are terrible too. One warranty is no more than an extended factory warranty which only covers faulty parts or craftsmanship, but no accidental damage, and their accidental damage warranty, which is a lot more expensive by the way, only covers "normal" accidents, so that means if you drop your phone and it breaks that's not covered because that's not "normal", but if your keyboard gets wet, that's covered because that's "normal." Read the fine print they tell you. Even more crazy, if something breaks and it;s covered under warranty, you must bring it, so if your 100 lbs flat screen breaks, you must bring it in, then they ship it to the Twin Cities for repairs and then ship it back. For the 5 things I've had to do this for, the quickest it came back was 3 weeks! Oh wait, but now they have their geek squad white glove service where they'll come to your house for repairs, but they still take your device with them for several weeks if they can't fix it at your house and for this service they make you pay upwards of 30% the original cost of your item, that's like you buying a car for $30,000 and having to pay the dealership right away $10,000 in case something happens to it within the next 2 years, just crazy!

Lastly, unlike a normal store, when you buy something you take it to the cash register and pay for it, but here you get a warranty pitch by the salesman, then they "must" bring the computer/tv/camera to the geek squad for some reason or another they say, but really it's so the geek squad can try to sell you on the warranty again! I feel bad for some people who are strong enough to resist the salesman but cave to the geek squad guy only because Best Buy gives them some false sense of security like they're actual computer experts, which they aren't. Best Buy doesn't require any formal computer training or education for the Geek Squad people, only on-the-job training and some proprietary Best Buy training courses so they can flash you a fake certification when you question their qualifications.

I'm not against all Best Buys, but steer clear of Eau Claire's because they are the worst of the worst. Their profane predatory staff are as bad as their crazy predatory...

Would give 0 stars if I could. We recently purchased a refrigerator at the Appleton store, to be delivered to our home in Eau Claire, and it has been such a headache. We made the purchase on November 22nd, and were scheduled to have it delivered and installed on December 10th. On December 7th, I got a text telling me to "schedule our appointment time", which I assumed meant we needed to schedule a time within the 12 hour window we were originally given. I couldn't access our order online due to a typo when the employee entered our email into their system, so we had to go to the store to get that fixed. Then, once we were able to access our order online, it said we had no delivery appointment scheduled, and the soonest available appointment was the 20th. Went back to the store, and we were told to call the "large product fulfillment resolution" number. We did, and spoke to a very rude and unhelpful man who consistently interrupted me and told us it was no one's fault, and nothing could be done. We went back to the store, where we learned the fridge we purchased was oversold and that's why it couldn't get delivered on time. We were also told the soonest date for installation at that point would be December 26th. We asked if there was any way it could be express shipped, if we could find a different model with an earlier date available, anything. The only "solution" we were given was to order a similar model that could be picked up at the store, but couldn't be delivered and installed. The employees in the store were friendly and at least tried to help, but ultimately we left extremely unsatisfied and feeling like Best Buy couldn't care less about us as customers.

Today we went to Karl's in Eau Claire, found a fridge that is actually the nicer model than what we originally purchased, and have it scheduled for delivery and installation already this Thursday (we also got a much better price on delivery, warranty, etc). We immediately went back to Best Buy to cancel our entire order. I double checked to make sure the Best Buy card we specifically opened for this purchase would not be charged, and was told the actual charge doesn't happen until delivery, and that cancelling the order would remove any hold that had been placed on the card. We got home and checked the mail, just to see a card statement from Best Buy that already had charged the full purchase amount for the fridge, warranty, etc. I will now have to call AGAIN on Monday to get all of that figured out.

Came back to add: We went in to have the charge refunded. Using the receipt and confirmation paper we were provided, they completed the refund and confirmed there would be zero balance on the card. We got ANOTHER statement in the mail the following month, showing there was still $100 charged to the card, and now there was a late fee on top of that. We had to go back in (turns out they were still charging us for the promotional gift card that had been included in the original deal, even though it was never mentioned and we had never used it). Thankfully, the gift card was able to be returned/refunded, and the CC company agreed to reverse the late fee given the...

So today I came in to exchange my cross wave for a tineco. I always buy my vacuums and mops from best buy because of the protection plans. After a few years if it doesn't work right or you lose suction you could return it and use the credit towards a new one. Today I saw there was a flash sale going on and I really wanted the tineco. When I came in the worker was talking to their partner I interrupted the small break they were having when they approached me I apologize and said it won't be long and explained why I didn't want the spin wave anymore. They had an attitude. But proceeded to try to do the return. They called the manager up and told me that I was not able to do an exchange I would have to send it out to get repaired and I explained how I do this all the time with my vacuums and that has never been the case and they still refused for me to exchange it to get a different mop. I said fine I will send it off then even though I don't like the way it works and it's unsanitary in my eyes..So after the manager walks away the person helping me tries to send it off and they're not capable. And then( the reason why I'm giving the Stars I'm giving now is because of this man) Travis, he walks up he must have overheard the conversation and he fixed the problem and turned it into a credit so I can get the tineco. Thank you Travis. You know how to treat a customer you made my day, when the other two made me feel horrible and were making my life difficult when there was no need for it! These are the terms of the protection plan. You don't get to change how they work. Geek squad protection plans are one reason why customers come to Best buy..they don't come to feel belittled and treated poorly by workers who don't like the terms of the protection plan. Thank you again Travis for making my...