Best Buy — Local services in Portland

Im writing this review only hoping that a senior employee of Best Buy reads this so that they know they have a bad apple apparently running one of their locations. I have been a 20 plus year customer of Best Buy. As an owner of video night clubs across the country that are decoraged everywhere with flat screen telivisions and projectors, i have literally bought 100s of tvs and projectord from best buy, sometimew buying over 20 tvs at a time. Virtually all of the technology in every home ive ever had has come from best buy. Over the years i began to seek out and take advantage of their often generous open box policy and on occasion have secured excelent deals, a 7000 dollar 8k tv for 2700$ comes to mind. I have vast experience with best buy open box offers and haggling with employees at their stores whom mostly are accommodating and truly have the customers best interest at heart. Today, however, at this cascade location I had an encounter that will have me forever moving my business to amazon. I had been keeping my eye on an ultra short throw projector and as they are fairly expensive i had been waiting for a decent open box deal. Best Buys website is very helpful and encouraging in finding such deals and will direct you to locations within a certain radius of you that have open boxes. The projector i found was LG - CineBeam HU915QB which originally was 5,499$ but was on sale for 3,899$ with an open box available 3,314$, not the greatest deal ever but i was anxious to have an ultra short throw projector, so got in the jeep and drove 45 minutes to the particular location. When i got there it took them some time to find it as it was in the back, and it was in a dilapidated box that Appeared to have been dropped and was haphazardly taped together. I intended to haggle to a different price tier as best buy uses a grading sytem of of Excellent, Good, and Fair to eatablish prices. But before i could even haggle i was told that the price was 4100$. I pointed out that this must be a mistake because they hadnt adjusted for the sale price, something that isnt uncommon and ive faced before and has always, always been the simple task of adjusting the sale price and thereby adjusting the open box price. At first the employee i was talking to agreed with this assessment, but as i was debating whether or not to have the condition of the item downgraded to good, i was approached by another employee who suddenly tells me that this was an online only price. WAIT WHAT? Never had i heard of such a thing. I had driven here with cash wanting to pay cash as i have done countless times. Nowhere on the website did it anywhere say "online only". I asked to speak to a manager and someone showed up who I can only hope is not truly a manager of that location, as she didnt have an concern for my situation and clearly was making things up on the fly to conform to this false notion that it was an online only deal. First she said it was the deal of the day which was blatantly false as i had been tracking the sale for a week and i new the sale ended tomorrow. Furthermore i showed her the website and that there was no mention of "online only" anywhere, then in what can only be attributed to stubborness she pivoted to "we cant adjust proces over a thousand dollars" well not only was the adjustment less than a thousand, less than 800 in fact, but i know this to be blatantly false as i have been in this situation multiple times where the price has been adjusted well over a thousand dollars. Furthermore it belies logic that an "open box" item that has been returned by a former customer can be an "online only" purchase as shipping isnt even available on these. Best Buy please take note that this employee, Alex Winn, has no business being a manger as she has neither the customer, nor even the company that she works for, interests at heart; but only her own stubborness. I spent an hour and a half just to get to this location to be told i cant purchase advertised item. ...

They are shady I purchased an iPhone 13 Pro Max on line to be picked up at the Gresham store 1 hr after purchase when I go to pick it up their system had placed my order to be shipped from a different location to the Gresham store and the only iPhone 13 Pro Max that was supposed to be what I should have been picking up was going off of sale so I ended up purchasing the phone that I had already purchased on line but I purchased it and my plan was to just return the phone that was shipped to the store because their system was down and the manager couldn’t stop the shipping and he told me that their system was malfunctioning so I had to let the process of the shipping take place which it was a 2 day shipping time frame and mind you it was the 26th of May 2024 when I created the purchase so I expected the phone to be at the Gresham store on the 28th of May but for what only god knows the phone shipped to my address supposedly and was supposedly delivered on the 27th which I never seen any package left at my front door I had found out that it was delivered through a email sent from Best Buy stating the phone was delivered but I didn’t see any package so I assumed someone else stole it from my front porch but my problem is the errors from the purchase I never ordered the phone to be shipped I placed my order to be picked up it was their system that screwed the order up so I called Best Buy customer service and told them I never received the phone and I never ordered the phone to be shipped in the first place and that I need my refund and I explained everything I just mentioned and they told me because it was delivered they are not responsible and told me I’m not getting a refund. So they basically are not taking accountability for their systems error. I had went back to the Gresham store to get a written statement from the manager that tried to fix the order to the way I had ordered it, he wasn’t there and I would continue to go back to the store looking for him but had no luck for 2 months so when I finally seen him I asked if he remembers the incident and he did so I asked if he could help me out with a written statement explaining what had taken place with my order and he wrote out a statement explaining that this entire mishap is not my fault and he also found out their is no proof of delivery so the phone just might not have ever been delivered so I call up Best Buy customer service again and provide them with this new information and also to provide the written statement and so they filed a claim for my refund but I was emailed a few hours later telling me that because it’s outside of the exchange or return time there’s nothing that they can do for me. First and foremost I don’t have anything to return or exchange and that this is Bullshit because I called and tried to resolve this situation on the 28th of May and got a representative on the phone that was rude and thought the situation was funny and treated me like I was making the entire incident up which is why I went and gathered up the documents that I needed to show this entire situation is because their system malfunctioning and they still are not willing to issue me a refund. So I guess they don’t know who they are dealing with because I will bet the price I spent on the phone $731 I’m going to get my money back. I’ll be god damn if they think I’m going to allow them to keep $731 of my money when it’s 100% their systems errors that caused all of this and they must has forgotten to take their meds to think I’m going to let this ride. I will update once I get...

Well, Best Buy finally earned a review from me, and it's not going to be a good one.

Summary: for 20 minutes after arriving, not one sales associate talked to me.

Long version: I arrived to pick up a $250 computer component, nothing crazy, but I wanted to pick it up rather than have it shipped. My usual behavior on arrival is to wander a bit and see if there's anything else I might want to get as well, see what kind of options are available for other things I'm working on. When I first arrived, about 10-15 minutes before 5pm, one of the associates in the computer department greeted me, the usual affair of asking if I needed assistance and my reply of not at the moment. They walk away to help other clients and I spend about 10 minutes walking around, finding what I need and ruling out other purchases. Finally ready, I look around for an associate to unlock the case for the component: the associate that greeted me is no where to be found, and no other associates are in the area. Like a prairie dog I look around for anyone, but no such luck. There are a few customers in the computer area also looking for assistance; over the next dozen or so minutes, 3 associates walk through the section, speaking to no one as they go to the Mobile phone area or to the back. Some of the other customers wander to the front to get help, some of us wait. Eventually, one of the associates who was there when I arrived comes back and helps one of the pair (purchasing a tablet device) but then once they're processed immediately walks away again. The associated who greeted me is patiently walking a family through the purchase of a laptop, which all that entails: they're trying their best but the family isn't fully understanding the purchase process, so there's a lot of the associate trying their best. Over the next 10 minutes, not a single associate comes into the section. I was able to make a restaurant pick-up order and get the confirmation it was ready before seeing any other associates: unsurprisingly, I left without purchasing anything, since the one thing I had specifically come in for was locked away. I will say that in that time period I saw several loss prevention come through the area (easy to spot if you know what to look for), they'd look at the merchandise I had been looking at or trying to distract myself from the boredom of waiting, but that was it. The mobile phones section had a fair few associates (I think 3 or 4) but all were busy. The worst part is this is not a unique experience: for a long time trying to get adequate help has been hard, but ever since the remodel it's clear where Best Buy wants to put it's focus, which is why mobile devices dominate the front of the store. Best Buy used to be a place for computer and tech needs, and while some of that is still there and they've expanded the laptops available, they've decided to not commit on hiring staff or paying them well enough to keep the staff they do have. Best Buy used to be a place where I could reliably get stuff locally same day, but over the last few years I've had staff (wrongly) say they don't have product at that location, been unavailable for help, or try to push me into unnecessary subscription plans. The most galling part is I had signed up for the rewards program a few years back, but they've been so unhelpful at times that I've been forced to go either the direct manufacturers or Amazon, and I don't really see any reason to go back to this, or any, Best...