Best Buy — Local services in Noblesville

I wish I could give zero stars after my experience at this Best Buy. I had one of the worst experiences with customer service in recent memory. What I thought would be an easy return/exchange turned into a 2 hour ordeal with undue/unnecessary stress and frustration due to the employees incompetence.

Some background: I bought 2 Ring cameras for outside my home. Only one was able to be placed where I needed it. The Geek Squad technician showed me a Ring camera that could be mounted wirelessly, so I knew which camera I needed. I arrived at the store and was directed to customer service. The employee who assisted me was incompetent at best. She did not know how to complete the return and needed a manager to assist at each step during the interaction.

Originally she told me the camera I needed was not in the store, but said she would look for it. She returned with the WRONG camera and when I verbally asked her to double check that it was wireless, she said it was. Thankfully I double checked the package myself because she tried to give me the wrong camera after I literally showed her a screenshot with the product details of what I needed. The manager- once again- had to go look and somehow he was able to select the correct one. Hmmm. Interesting that it went from not being in stock to the manager finding it in 2 minutes.

Fast forward an hour, and another customer approached the desk - there were THREE other computers open at the customer service area- but the employee who was “helping” me shuts down her computer where we had been standing trying to complete this return/exchange, so another employee could use it to help the other customer. There was nothing special about the computer we were on; they are all the same.. she takes me to a different computer and proceeds to tell me WE HAD TO START THE ENTIRE TRANSACTION OVER. As you can probably imagine, I was more than frustrated by this employee and the fact that a manager did not step in to complete the transaction after having to assist her REPEATEDLY over the course of 2 hours because she obviously didn’t know what she was doing is ridiculous. Every time the manager walked away, she had to use the walkie talkie to ask him to return.

The last thing I had to fix was getting the installation scheduled. You guessed it... this employee did not know how to complete this and did so incorrectly. This resulted in another 30 minutes of my life being wasted because of incompetence.

In the future, I hope managers realize that just solving one issue (when there’s 10 other steps to complete) when it’s clear the employee is in over her head and has no idea how to help the customer is BAD FOR BUSINESS. The fact they allowed her to waste my time and a manager didn’t step in to finish the rest of the transaction to streamline things and avoid unnecessary stress was inexcusable. It was noon on a Thursday. They were not busy by any stretch.

DO NOT VISIT THIS BEST BUY IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO DO THAT DAY. YOU WILL SPEND 2 HOURS IN THERE FIXING SOMETHING THAT SHOULDVE TAKEN 20-30 MINUTES MAX. I will NEVER use Best Buy for my home...

UPDATE (21.10.08): I ordered 2 items. I received confirmation that they were ready for pick up at 0845. Surprisingly, I received a second email stating the order (partly) was canceled at 0917. These items were limited in number and I suspect that an employee saw I had ordered two and wanted one for themselves.

I asked for clarification and the conversation was as follows...

Associate: "That's why we ask you to wait until you receive confirmation that the order is ready to be picked up." Me: "I did receive that confirmation and expected to pick up two items." Associate: "Just because it is confirmed, doesn't necessarily mean the items are in-stock."

Excuse me? How does that even make sense. Avoid this store or pre-ordering from this store. This is the second time I've had pre-order issues with the staff at this store. They constantly contradict themselves. In my previous encounter, they only was to "cancel" an order was to charge it and then use the last 4 of my CC to cancel. CLEARLY, that is not the case.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: I ordered two products online, but decided to pick up only one. I spoke with the associate and told her to please cancel it. She handed it to "Genius Associate" (GA) and told him to cancel it. I left believing that it was in good hands.

On my drive home, I got a notice stating that the item I canceled had been picked up. Clearly not by me, since I was no longer at the store. I cannot call the store because it redirects to the National Help Desk and the Help Desk was unable to connect with the store.

So I drove all the way back to the store to confront the person who I felt was trying to steal and spoke with a friendly associate to ask for a manager so I could get down to the bottom of things. In the 5 minutes that I was waiting, GA was just standing around doing absolutely NOTHING. He then realized I was the person he just marked the item as "picked up."

He explained that the system would not let him cancel the order, so he had to mark it as picked up. BUT he couldn't return it without the expiration date on my credit card.

"So you're just going to charge me and expect me to drive back once I saw the charge?!" I said, clearly upset.

"Well I was going to call you, but I've been really busy the last 45 minutes." Busy standing around doing nothing for the last 5 minutes.

So this raises some important questions... Was this really the smartest way to "cancel" an order? If there was no way to cancel the order... How do they cancel orders that are not picked up after the allotted time? What if he couldn't get in contact with me and was unable to return the item?

To me, this was all very suspicious behavior. I do not think I will be using pick up at this...

Bought washer/dryer set 8 days in advance to allow for shipping/ delivery/ installation. Scheduled delivery for Saturday afternoon, 12-4. Received email confirmation on delivery date/time. 4p, called for status. "It's in transit sir, they'll be there soon". Called at 5p, same answer. Called at 6. Was told that delivery was rescheduled per customer request (I never requested that). Sunday I went to best buy. Was told that delivery man was sick Saturday and all his deliveries were contacted and rescheduled. I was never contacted. Rescheduled delivery for Wednesday afternoon 430-6p. At 130 on Wednesday, the delivery guy called me and said he was on his way and he would be there at 2. I told him I've got multiple confirmations of delivery scheduled between 430p and 6p and no one would be home until 415 at the earliest. He stated my delivery is the last delivery of his day and he's not waiting 3 hours to deliver it. I told him he'll have to talk to his boss because we agreed on a time already and can't just leave work. He reiterated that he's already done 16 deliveries, I'm the last delivery and he's on his way. I stated again that no one is home, but we will be home at the agreed upon time, to which he said he's not sitting and waiting on me for 3 hours. I asked him to call his boss and explain it and he said he would have his boss call me and hung up. 30 min later, I still hadn't received a call, so I called best buy directly. That CSR was helpful, contacted their dispatch and ensured the delivery was made at 430p as per our agreement. The original delivery man called back at 4p to say he would be there at 430 and my SO took delivery of washer and dryer. However, when I got home, I realized they had not delivered and installed everything. They left off the steam line (never delivered or hooked up the steam side of the dryer). I contacted best buy only to find out I needed to contact Pacific sales to fix the situation. After contacting Pacific sales, they inform me they will mail me the missing piece (who knows how long that will take) and once I receive it, call back to schedule proper installation with them. Smh. I should've just gone to Lowes or Home Depot. Same ticket price there for everything as best buy, but lowes and home depot give a 10% discount to veterans. And I doubt I would've received any worse service...