Best Buy — Local services in Maple Grove

My review is about Best Buy as a whole, which includes but is not limited to just the Maple Grove location.

Best Buy is struggling. They have a large footprint in terms of physical space of their stores but I think it's poor use of that available space. We went looking for several things: primarily we needed a replacement part for our home security camera system that we originally bought at BB less than 2 years ago. We were also browsing for a new coffee machine, a couple new movies, and a portable CD player or AM/FM radio player of any kind for my teenager.

They are so stuck in keeping only the latest technology that they're leaving many of us behind!

They have ZERO selection for portable CD players or radios. They have dozens of headsets of various types but they're for gamers or apparently for people who already have the "player" of their choice and only need the headset/earbuds. When asking an employee for help finding anything, he acted like I was 600 years old and from Mars, because, apparently "everyone" has a cell phone and uses digital downloads. Rolling my eyes here. Not everyone wants to go that direction. Best Buy needs to remember that.

They also don't sell ANY regular DVD movies anymore; everything is BluRay. Nope, not for me.

We had originally gone to the Minnetonka location to buy the replacement part for our security camera and had it mailed to us. When it arrived we quickly saw that it was the wrong thing and wouldn't work for our camera. We went to the Maple Grove location to return the wrong part and find the correct one. We found out there that apparently the type of security camera we have (Google Nest) has already upgraded their technology (in less than 2 years time from our original purchase!) so the outlet plug we need for our wired outdoor camera is no longer available. Almost everything we saw at Best Buy in the security camera department is now battery operated and needs to be charged for use! What! Who wants to go out and charge an outdoor camera like that?! Ridiculous. I understand that these are issues for the manufacturers, however a big player like Best Buy should certainly be influencing the companies and considering what their customers want.

We did find a coffee machine and that's it. I guess I should be happy about that, but what a waste of my time and so frustrating trying Best Buy.

Sadly I wasn't able to find much at Target except some DVDs but they don't sell any portable music devices either. A trip to Walmart was also disappointing; they only had 2 portable AM/FM radio choices and only 1 of them has the option to plug in earphones, but we bought that one anyway.

Where did I find what I was looking for? Amazon. Yep, Amazon has a ton of stuff to choose from and they'll mail it to me. I guess places like Best Buy don't mind paying overhead for their buildings that are bare bones without much inventory available. That doesn't make any sense to me. Disappointing. If Best Buy wants to stay in business they need to consider their market. Some of us "old people" want "old technology" that isn't "Smart" with everything being digital. Some of us like the old and familiar things that worked just fine and dont need to be changed at a whim. Quit nickle and diming us out of the market with unnecessary upgrades to everything and eliminating...

Warning: Long Post (sorry for it being so...)

Not sure what it is about this specific location, but I always seem to get poor customer service. Last week I was there to purchase a Galaxy S20 series device ($1000+ phones!). The person "helping" me wasn't very helpful at all. I initially spoke directly to the Samsung Rep, but he was still setting up their stuff for the launch (i.e setting up a prop to test out the 100x Zoom on the S20 Ultra which I helped him test by taking a couple pictures from a distance). Because he was having issues with the setup, he had to step away for a moment. While he was gone, a "Blue Shirt" employee walked up to me. Not sure if it's just because he'd been having a long day or something, which I get, or something else, but he came across as being less than happy to help me out. Understanding that it was like 5-6:00 when I got there, I chalked it up to it being the "end of day blues". Giving him the benefit of the doubt I went ahead and asked about the trade-in promotion the had going on, and how much each device would be with my trade-in. Because I was planning to purchase an Unlocked version of whichever phone I'd be getting, the prices were not posted along with the carrier versions (hence the reason why I was asking). He acted as if me asking these questions was of the highest inconvenience to him. Every follow up question seemed to irritate him more and more. Not wanting to continue this cycle with him, I went ahead and told him I'd look at let him go and would let him know if I needed him again. Never really getting my questions answered, and no one else being available, I decided to take my business elsewhere. That elsewhere ended up being the Northtown (Blaine) location. Was immediately taken care of and all of my questions answered as soon as I got to the mobile section! Needless to say, I did my transaction at this site. I will be looking the Northtown site up on here and giving them a 5 star review.

To further discuss the Maple Grove site, I've had multiple instances of receiving bad customer service and in some cases no customer service at all. Years back, I went in to buy a Samsung Galaxy Gear watch, and ended up going to the Sprint store down the way to buy the watch instead, because of not receiving any help, with the only person telling me it wasn't their area. I've gone in to purchase an El Gato Capture Card, walking around aimlessly, not being able to find them and receiving no help. I usually go in when it's quiet, and still feel like everyone is too busy to help. At other locations, you cannot go a few feet without someone offering to help. These examples aren't the only times that this has happened either, but this latest time is definitely the last. I'll continue going to either the Northtown or the Minnetonka...

Update, so I sent in a request to the store manager 6 days ago with no response about repair process and the geek squad.. Just proof that their customers are just numbers and do the minimal needed.

So I am a total Best Buy Member, been for a while and I purchase a considerable amount of products from them. But I would have second thoughts on purchasing appliances from them and also paying for the "Total Membership Fee." Current issue, my GE dryer that is less then two years old has a cracked drum (i looked it up and it is common on GE). I had to take a day off of work, Appt time from 7 am to 7 pm and pay $90 to have them tell us the drum is cracked, which is why I called for service. They ordered parts and scheduled an appointment for the following week, another day off. The technician shows up, and the part they have scheduled to be installed was delivered to an unknow address in a completely different town 20 miles away. Now the want to come back a third time to replace a drum. Just spent an hour talking on the phone with geek squad and they are saying it is out of their hands. What, they are controlling the "repair" and could replace it quicker, but will not. This is all after the a $3000 Samsung Refrigerator gave out after 4 years went out 3 months ago, and don't get me going on the multiple ice maker issues, the condenser went out and they basically said that sucks. Ended by a new Whirlpool from Home Depot.

Then I get a call back and they are going to replace it. So I call the replacement phone number given with the order number. Wait on hold for them to pickup for quite a while, after verifying all the account info with email, phone number, name and address on the account, was told they could not process it and had to talk to my wife since she is listed on the account. Another hour wasted.

The technician, Clint, called me back after that call and told me it was set to be replaced. I told him what the replacement phone number said, and he said that was not right and was done before multiple times.

So to make it short and simple, they like collecting the money and selling the product, but make it really difficult after the sale, even for a "Total Best Buy Member" of 5 years paying a hefty yearly fee. If you want to waste hours of time on the phone and a couple days of your vacation getting a product serviced. This is your go to company.

This is the only funny part, one of the parts for the repair (the belt ,not the missing drum) was just delivered to my home address 4 hours after the initial appointment. You really can't right a funnier ending.

Let's hope they are easier to work with when my wife calls.

Update, 2 hours later, no phone call back from the supervisor from the replacement phone number from geek squad...