Best Buy — Local services in Fargo

This one star rating is too high. Let me start this off by saying that there are probably some great people who provide excellent customer service. Unfortunately, they don’t call the shots, and they are just following the directions of shifty management. The type of management that doesn’t care about you as a customer, your time, or whether you return. Let’s start this review back to seven years ago. I came into the store, as I had done dozens of times before, looking to purchase a new camera. After being initially helped by a nice young salesperson, my shopping experience took a giant turn south when I “interrupted” a manager. He made sure to tell me that he was busy, and didn’t know anything about this section. At that point, he didn’t offer to find someone to help, and just walked away. Five minutes later, I heard whistling from a couple of isles away... It was the theme music to Jeopardy! So, I went over and realized it was the employee that walked away from me. I struggled to maintain my cool, asked for the store manager, and quickly found out that it was him... Needless to say, a complaint at that point didn’t go very far. Corporate received two calls about it, and I never heard anything back. I hadn’t been back to the store for 7 years. Until, a friend of mine convinced me that the customer service had significantly increased since then! I decided to give them another chance. Now, that takes us to today, and why it will take some serious effort for Best Buy to regain any of my money in the future. I bought a Crockpot, express cooker XL. No problem there. That is, until we got home to find out that this product had clearly been opened before, and returned before. No instructions, no warranty card, no information about the device, and to top it all off,the steam release valve appeared to be faulty. (Especially after looking up what it’s supposed to look like) I’m sure the look on my face alone made the experience less than pleasant for the person doing the exchange. My request for an employee to bring another one to the counter was apparently too much to ask for. As, the mood of this interaction quickly went to a negative place. Here’s the straw that broke my back: I asked, “is it ok if I look in the box to make sure it’s never been opened?” The employee’s response, “I don’t care, do what you want. It’s yours now.” Now, I’m trying to find some humor in all of this, because I’ve worked in customer service for years. Exchanges are sometimes terrible to deal with. But, here’s what it comes down to.

Best Buy knowingly repackaged, and sold a product that was incomplete, and faulty. Best Buy doesn’t care about your time, or making a situation right. They care about your money, not...

While I have liked all the products I've bought from Best Buy (which are available other places so it's not really special for them to carry these) I just cannot stand their "delivery" sevices. They are unreliable to say the least and then also not the brightest (delivering a dryer and not hooking it up to the vent when I PAID for delivery AND install.) Not to mention the garage fridge delivery guy outright lying that I didn't answer my phone...I went to the store and proved he didn't even call me...they actually weren't surprised so tells me this guy is known for unreliability. Unfortunately I will not buy products from them anymore that require delivery. I ordered a new house fridge directly from Whirlpool, delivery and install went terrific! Also, HUGE disservice Best Buy Corp to not allow phone calls directly to the store. Jim Bob in Zimbabwe is not helpful....

Update #1: My father-in-law went to Fargo Best Buy and Derrick confirmed I did indeed pay for a dryer vent kit and installation. He was very helpful and gave my father-in-law what we needed. Turns out it's not so easy with this setup so explains why it wasn't done. And...we would have understood we needed to get someone else in here to adjust ducts, etc....IF we had been told. But we weren't, we were essentially just dropped off a product and left to discover the problem. So again, our issue isn't actually with Best Buy...but their delivery service. This will suffice for now...we rigged it to at least vent but will have to make some adjustments in the near future. Thank you Derrick for graciously helping my father-in-law. P.S. to the "owner" response...I don't have time to find your FB messenger, send a lengthy message and re-explain both of these scenarios. YOU find & send me a message and I'll reply. I know if I message you it's going to be exactly like calling you....a "center," that is a cluster of steps. You can see for yourself the reviews here complaining about the delivery service....call me or message me if you need more details...I'm certain you can find my contact info. Understanding that $43.5 BILLION in revenue for 2023 is down from previous years...you're still not "hurting," so you CAN afford to spend a little extra to ensure your product delivery folks...

Second negative experience with the Best Buy in Fargo has left me no choice but to share my experience via Google Reviews in the hope that Apple of Best Buy will fix some of the issues I’m having. First experience, I set an appointment to get my IPhone fixed. I showed up 5 minutes late and there was a line with people, with no appointments, who I patiently waited behind. Upon being helped I apologized for being late and let them know I would be willing to wait if necessary. I was then told I had missed my appointment and that I would need to reschedule. At this point it was 10 minutes after my appointment stated. I was lied to by the representative that the next appointment was in 3 1/2 hours. I then asked to use a device to set up an appointment. Another representative then told me that there were no devices in the store I could use to make an appointment. That was a bold faced lie. I then went to the apple section of the store and logged in and found the next appointment was in an hour and a half. That’s when the Apple representative from the store asked me if they could help. After informing him about what happened, we walked back the Geek Squad counter, where the previous rep apologized and set me another appointment in an hour. Very frustrating dealing with staff who were so eager to tell me they could do nothing while at the same time lying to me about appointment times. In the end my phone was fixed same day and the technician who did the leg work was very professional through the process. Still, the process it took me to get me in front of an actual technician was difficult and probably would not have happened if the Apple rep hadn’t stepped in. Then today, I was emailed by Best Buy saying my device was ready for pickup. To my knowledge I had no service order currently. I called instead of going into the store and was placed on hold which I expected. Several holds later and several hours wasted I was told I indeed did not have a device in the store for pickup. I am still unsure if there was a mistake made, my information given out, or if someone else’s order...