Best Buy — Local services in Gastonia

What really can be said in a review? I could go on about how long I was stuck in the store until after 11:00PM trying to upgrade my phone and start a new service account with Verizon some months ago but really, that was no real fault of the store team, in fact, bravo to the them for sticking through it until well after closing. The 3 stars are for fact the this Best Buy (as a whole) used to have great customer service, knowledgeable and friendly associates, in fact, it used to be slightly annoying as often as you would be approached by associates asking if you needed any help every 10 minutes or as soon as you wandered into another department. Sadly, Best Buy has a whole has not been the same since the demise of their biggest brick and mortar competition Circuit City, in just about every Best Buy I've been to in recent memory (and I'm not talking local, I travel often for work, Washington State, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida to name a few of my most recentBest But visits), it has been easier to find an employee in Walmart to ask for help and that is a strong statement to put out there. That being said, the only real fault I can give this particular Best Buy is that it has fallen victim of the same corporate restructuring of every other Best Buy, which is the shift from a company focused on personalized guided customer service to a focus of driving profitability through minimal employee count with low focus on employee training and knowledge. I will mourn the day when Best Buy goes the way of Circuit city, simply because I remember the good old days when you used to be able to walk into any best buy store and ask for a sound system for your TV, the associate would would ask questions and say, this is what I recommend and this is why and how it will benefit you. Fast forward to now adays, the employee says "well Samsung sound bar is a really popular brand, we sell alot of em". If that's the kind of customer service and knowledge I get for taking time out of my day to physically go to a place, why would I not do my own research from the comfort of my own home and buy what I need online or from...

I used to love best buy, but over the last decade their customer service has become one of if not the worst. Calling virtually always renders taking 10 minutes to get to someone remotely intelligent regarding what you're inquiring about. Then it takes another 10 minutes for that person to "possibly" figure out what the store may have, if you're lucky. If you're not lucky, what ends up happening more than not, you'll mysteriously get transferred again only to have start the 20 minute ordeal over again.

Then to make things worse: I used to be able to buy quailty products there. For example, I purchased around 1999 a video camera that was over a grand, high quality, don't recall the model number, then several years later three HDR SR1's, then several years later three HDR CX550V's, and over the years many different computer parts and accessories. I'm sure that Best Buy was a significant cause to the disappearance of all the mom and pop stores that would normally carry camera gear or computer gear. But, for some reason, over recent years, they've stopped carrying anything remotely modern. In fact, since I purchased my three CX550v's almost 5 years ago, I've been to Best Buy every year since and still to this day their most expensive camera is half the camera I bought there 5 years ago. Another recent example, I owned a desktop and laptop with USB 3.0 for at least a year before they started carrying any accessories that use 3.0. This week I've been looking for personal cloud solutions, like network attached storage (NAS) or something similar and not only do the people there not appear to understand what I'm looking for they are confident they do not have this. Now, this just blows my mind. Best Buy moves in and starts off selling all this great digital gear that inevitably puts every computer store and camera store out of business, then when you have no choice but to buy locally from Best Buy the dummy down their customer service and limit their product line to outdated gadgets and gear? Does Best Buy just hate us or what?...

Mr. Speckmann,

I have puchased my now second computer from your Best Buy store in Gastonia NC.

After repeatedly expressing my concerns on what I needed specifically I was still sold a tower with a processor not fast enough.

I returned that tower and went to purchase another tower priced at $752 for an open box. The sticker does not mention anything is missing (false advertisement) so I was discounted to $633 and I had to purchase all the missing pieces separately.

I unpacked the tower and before I could set it up it shut down completely and wouldn't turn back on. I unplugged everything and switched outlets and turned the tower back on. I almost finished the setup and then the tower shut off again displaying and error message(picture 1). I unplugged the tower again and plugged it into a surge protector and turned it back on again. This time I was able to finish the setup so I left the computer alone and went to bed. Sometime during the night the computer shut off again and wouldnt come back on.

I went back to the store again after calling to see what my options were. The Geek Squad department "fixed" the computer since I have the 3 year protection plan and sent me back home. I am trying to type my work related documents and the computer has shut down twice more! Can you believe that?

So I called the Gastonia store and spoke with Jason to see how a situation like this would be handled. Not sure if he was trained at all with customer support. I was offered the option of coming back in AGAIN, so Geek Squad can "fix" it or ship it to be fixed. Why all of this for a product I just pirchased and havent even used?? Im requesting to receive the same discount with a new product same as I did on this product since it doesn't work. Is that too difficult? Especially since I'm the only one who's losing?

It would be nice to hear back from you on how we plan on rectifying...