Best Buy — Local services in Oakdale

I recently purchased the Insignia washer (NS-TWM41WH8A) with its matching dryer (NS-FDRE67WH8A). John C from Pacific was a great person to work with when purchasing this combo, so shout out to him.

After about 10 washes, I realized this was not the washer for me. Because it is a High Efficiency washer, it uses less water, sometimes barely enough to cover the load. This is unacceptable if you need clean clothes. There is a way to add water, but even with that, the agitation of the machine was unable to pull anything down because it simply goes back and fourth. I had to babysit the machine to make sure the contents were properly wet and washed.

Unfortunately, I was outside of the 15 day return policy by a few days, and came back to this location to talk to the store manager to see if there was a possibility of a return. I met with Cathy M and explained to her why I wasn't satisfied. I was not expecting to get a return/exchange, but I was curious to know what my options were anyway. Right off the bat, I could tell by her tone she was very passively aggressive.

She asked how much clothes I'm putting in the washer. I said most loads are half loads with normal clothing. She literally tells me that was too much for the washer. I thought, why would a company design a 4.1 cu. ft washer only for you to use half of the capacity? She even asked me what is Normal. I told her I washed normal clothing like jeans, shirt, and microfiber cloths. Then she asked me what Normal is again, as if I was stupid. I gave her the same answer.

Then we got into this ordeal about me using too much detergent. I use HE detergent, about half a cup to a full cup depending on the load. I had no problems with the clothes coming out mucky or sticky due to too much detergent. All I had a problem with was the poor water level and agitation of the washer. But for some reason, Cathy believes adding less detergent somehow fills the tub up with more water. Again, I had NO problems with detergent.

After requesting to see the manual to the washer to determine what is Normal, she even had the audacity to tell me she had 25 years of experience selling appliances, so she knew what Normal was. The way she said it was only to rub it in my face. According to the manual, Normal includes "normal" wear, like shirt and jeans.

I am a technical person in the software field, and due to her experience, I decided to ask more technical questions. Does the washer sense by weight? By laser?? By what? At first, she didn't give me a straight answer as to how these HE washers sense the load. But eventually, she told me it was through weight.

She also mentioned the washer will get used to the load and wash better overtime. I asked; Does the machine have built in memory for this? Why was this not mentioned in the manual? And what if the machine loses power? If so, would a person have to go through how ever many cycles to get the machine to remember the load capacity again? With 25 years of experience, Cathy told me she didn't understand the technical aspects of the washer and couldn't answer these questions.

Cathy also suggested I watch a few YouTube videos on a few washers, which I told her, I did. I watched a video on a Frigidaire FFTW4120SW1, which is basically the same washer aside from aesthetics. As soon as I mentioned that, she told me "Our washers are not made in China, they're made in the United States". Well, see the attached screenshots.

The YouTube review about the Frigidaire FFTW4120SW1 (basically same internals as NS-TWM41WH8A) by Lorain Furniture and Appliance was not good. My fault for not researching this earlier, but also a terrible and unprofessional response from Cathy.

All I wanted was to explain my situation and see if there was any way to return/exchange the washer/dryer even though I was a few days outside the return policy. I wasn't expecting this to go my way, but I was not expecting such a push back from the store manager.

I hope you're reading this, Corporate. HIRE SOMEONE NEW. As a former employee of store 15, this is...

Want to give a big shout-out to Jay Bolin-Resch, Geek Squad Manager at the Oakdale Best Buy store. I bought a new laptop, along with Geek Squad's TTS service, and arranged to have everything transferred from my old laptop to my new one. When I dropped off my old laptop and my new one, the tech I met with assured me that whatever was working on my old one would work on my new one, and that they could capture the security keys for the programs on my old one and transfer everything to my new one. Two days later, when I arranged to pick them up after the transfer, I was informed that none of the programs on my old laptop were transferred to my new one; that data transfers never include applications transfers. As a result, my new laptop didn't have Microsoft Office or any of the other programs from my previous one. I was also told that I could purchase a new Office suite, because the Office programs I had on my old laptop were no longer compatible with the new Windows 10 operating system, and that I could also load the other programs provided I still had the disks (some of which I knew I no longer had). I reminded the tech that my new laptop didn't have a disk player and was told I could purchase one, at which point things began going downhill quickly. I mentioned that I just spent over $1100, was told things about the transfer that apparently weren't true, and now was faced with even additional costs. The tech excused himself and went to speak with Jay. Jay immediately began to act on my concerns. He personally explained the transfer process, apologized for the misunderstandings, authorized a one year subscription for Microsoft Office, gave me a DVD player and another peripheral, credited my initial purchase price with a sale discount on my laptop, and told me he'd have the Office software installed. I had to leave my new laptop another day or two, but I was feeling quite relieved. A few days later, I returned to the store with my new laptop, because it was crashing when I tried playing video clips from various web sites. Jay immediately put me in contact with his best laptop sales person, who informed me that the processor in my new one had some issues. He recommended I return the laptop for an identical one with a different processor, which I did. Jay personally handled the entire transaction, which actually saved me even more money because the replacement laptop had gone on sale. Bottom line? Jay turned a very disappointing experience into an extremely satisfying one. I spent over 25 years as a director of training and development for two major retailers in the Twin Cities, and know the importance of high quality customer service at the point of contact. Jay's actions with my situation was a superlative example of great customer service. ...

Dear potential Geek Squad customers

my GeekSquad service was extremely terrible, and I would not recommend it to my worst enemy. My iPhone had a manufacturing screen defect that was covered under the Apple warranty. The Geek Squad offers so-called Apple-certified repairs, so they were willing to cover the repair cost, which was a screen replacement. After waiting hours for my screen to be replaced, I picked it up, and the phone tech said the phone was fully functioning again. The next day, I noticed that my True Tone display (iPhone auto-adjusts to current lighting) was not working, which left me really annoyed. I scheduled another appointment on a Sunday to have the repair done, and after waiting in customer service, a Geek Squad member informed me that the technician was leaving soon for the day, so my phone would not be repaired. I live an hour away from this Best Buy location, and it was the nearest one to my home, so that wasted trip really irritated me. Another appointment was scheduled a few days later, where I would wait in customer service for over 20 minutes due to it being really busy. I was finally helped by a Geek Squad member who gave my phone to the tech for repair from their mistake. The GeekSquad member informed me that it could take a few days to be repaired due to having to order the part, and it would be done that night, the soonest. When I arrived home after an hour of driving, I was informed that my phone was fixed and fully functioning. I drove back to the Best Buy store, very relieved that my phone was finally fixed, but I came to realize that my phone was still not operating correctly, even though they claimed differently. I am very frustrated with the Geek Squad for not thoroughly inspecting my phone, and it's a joke that they are Apple certified when they could fix my phone with a pretty straightforward issue. After dealing with Geek Squad service, I’m left with an empty car on gas, 10+ hours of wasted time, a strong desire to write a nasty email, and still left with a broken phone. The only good thing that came from this experience was going to the Guitar Center next door. I really hope that the Geek Squad can improve its customer service.

Hope this helps -a very...