Best Buy — Local services in Oakland

Disappointing Online Purchase and In-Store Return Experience

I’ve been a loyal customer of Best Buy since moving to the Emeryville area, frequently ordering online and picking up at the Oakland location for convenience. This time, I decided to take advantage of a Black Friday special and ordered a TV, scheduling delivery while juggling my work commitments. Unfortunately, the delivery process was frustrating — I had to reschedule three times, and on the third attempt, the driver took an additional 45 minutes to arrive despite saying he was only 15 minutes away.

When the TV was finally delivered on November 22, I couldn’t unpack it right away as I was in the process of moving. Once my set-up team unpacked the TV last week, I discovered it was defective: the screen was black with a rainbow line running through the middle. Returning the TV was a daunting task as I live alone, and it’s not easy for me to handle such a heavy item. I carefully explored all my return options online and opted to bring the TV to the store, marking it as “damaged.”

I managed to get my dad to assist me on December 11 and took the TV to the Oakland store, expecting a seamless exchange. However, the experience was anything but. The employee who assisted me was shockingly unprofessional and discourteous, dismissively replying with “whatever” and demonstrating zero interest in helping. She brought over another coworker, and both insisted that the TV couldn’t be returned in-store because it was an online purchase, despite the website clearly stating otherwise.

After requesting to speak to a manager, I waited for Gill, who inspected the TV and claimed there was no visible damage to the packaging, advising me to contact Best Buy online instead. I tried calling, but the offices were closed. At this point, I was beyond frustrated. I explained I wasn’t looking for a refund—just an exchange for the defective item.

Gill then reluctantly offered to process the exchange, but only if I purchased a $179 warranty. When I expressed my frustration, he offered a second option: purchasing a $50 membership to process the exchange. I felt coerced into paying additional money just to resolve an issue caused by a defective product Best Buy delivered to me.

As someone with over 15 years of customer service experience, I find this approach unacceptable. This entire process—from delivery delays to poor in-store service—has been unnecessarily stressful and disappointing. I value the convenience of buying from Best Buy, but this experience has left me questioning whether I’ll shop here again. It’s disheartening to feel that loyal customers are treated this way, especially when they rely on online shopping for their busy schedules.

Best Buy, I hope you review and address this matter. Customers deserve better support, especially when the issue stems from defective products purchased through...

My budget was $400 for a new laptop and because I am fairly picky about electronics I purchase, I had a lot of questions. I was helped by two mediocre employees, one who told me that for my price point, anything I got would need to be replaced in 2 years. When I asked what characteristic about the computer would cause it to only last that long, he shrugged and said "It will just be old". Wow. The other wasn't any better, and when I was making my purchase, he got into an argument with a customer who was just trying to ask him a question. When the customer left he proceeded to speak negatively about the customer to me. At this point I thought about not even buying the computer but it was a good deal so I continued.

At this point he reminded me that because I had bought the display model, I needed to come back later to pick it up so they could make it like-new. This is totally understandable and I was looking forward to coming back whenever they called to pick up my new toy.

They called later that day saying it was ready to be picked up. When I walked in the store I was directed to a very long line at customer service. I was pretty bummed about waiting in line to pick up something I had already paid for, but it was about to get worse! The woman at the desk took my name and number and said that I needed to be "checked in" by the Geek Squad. I said I literally just needed to pick up the computer and didn't want to talk to the Geek Squad however she insisted and then told me I would have a 30 minute wait. I was so irritated, yet still I held onto the idea that the Geek Squad would tell me something very helpful and I would be glad I had to talk to them.

No.

After 30 minutes of my precious time forced to stand waiting in best buy after I had already chosen and paid for my computer they called me to say my computer was finally ready, actually ready. And instead of smiling and telling me something, ANYTHING helpful I received my computer in a hurried handful of metal and wires. No box, no bag, no helpful information just 30 minutes of waiting for absolutely nothing.

Dear Best Buy, Make sure your customer service representatives don't hate humans. Also make sure they encourage customers to buy computers within their price range especially when you have over 10 models that do. Also, when you call to say that somebody's computer is ready, don't lie. Finally, after you force someone to go through your Geek Squad simply to pick up their NEW computer please don't email them over 5 times in the 2 following days with useless information about my "account". I hope we never see each other again and that your company and Mandela store-wide policies can be adjusted so they do not enrage normally happy and reasonable...

Experience: We came in on 3/5/21 because my Parents refrigerator broke. When we got to the appliance department we were not greeted as we walked in even though they had several staff seemingly doing nothing. I was chatting with my Mom about a refrigerator and then one of the staff came over and asked me to put my mask back on as I was taking a drink from my water bottle and forgot to put it back on. I was perturbed because you can acknowledge me when you’re trying to enforce a rule but can’t greet a potential customer. So after searching for at least 1/2hour, we decided to ask for help and let the young lady know that we had yet to be acknowledged. She apologized and attempted to grabbed someone when I see another employee closer and asked him to help. I figured since we looked alike that this would be a great fit. I was mistakenly wrong as I think we embarrassed him by stating that his fly was open. From that point on became almost an uncomfortable environment. We tolerated it and decided to ignore the feeling of the unwillingness to help. When it was time to purchase the fridge, we felt that this young man was trying everything he could not to give us any additional discounts. He even was whispered to one of the floor managers about not wanting to honor the price match. We also asked for a discount on the warranty which was almost like pulling teeth to get any support. We requested one price and he came back with a super low discount. We decided not to accept the warranty and decided to search for a better deal online. I was irritated as I felt he was a mistake in what we thought was a good option. We felt overwhelmed, disregarded and outnumbered. This is a horrible feeling when your primary goal was to help your Senior parent to keep someone from taking advantage of them and still feel that you were anyway. To make matters worse, I opened up a line of credit to help pay for my Parents fridge and was told that he’ll give us a call tomorrow to help stretch it to a 24 month deal. Well, this turned out to be a lie just to get us out the door because they were closing and assumed they were tired of looking at us. Malachi should be ashamed of himself for the way he handled me and my Mom and would never buy from this location again. My mistake was not walking away after the first incident happened to stay and allow more of the same to transpire. We should’ve took our money somewhere else as we will be contacting their District Manager soon. Item Review: It’s just now over the 15 day return policy and my Parents do like the fridge and need that warranty for the future. One good thing is that they had more appliances that we like compared to Lowe’s...