Best Buy — Local services in Ross Township

Best Buy Merrillville, Indiana:

I recently visited Best Buy in Merrillville, Indiana. This location has a magnolia home theater center. I like how they had the showroom set up. But here’s where the visit goes left. Before I begin that part, I will say out of the 12 or so employees I saw that day, only half of them were professional, polite and helpful. I wish I had gotten their names.

Managers at Best Buy, Merrillville: if you have ONE cashier in Customer Service/Checkout, and you have two people standing line waiting to check out with one or two items, the polite and professional thing to do would be to tell the customer that is not making any sort of transaction to step to the side so they can ring up the two waiting customers and then continue the conversation with the other customer about their issue OR have the only cashier get on the loud speaker and ask for help. Instead, the cashier proceeded to ignore three people, and talk, and talk, and talk to this one customer for what felt like forever as if she didn’t have a line of people waiting to checkout and leave. I understand why they can’t have self checkout at Best Buy but damn, only ONE line to check out multiple customers?? Especially when there’s 12 plus other employees walking around and not helping any customers??

I had to raise my voice when complaining to my husband when they finally had another employee help check people out. This was only after I tried to get the attention of other employees who refused to look my way, refused to ask me if I needed any help, or go find a cashier for us. One employee kept walking as I was still asking a question. (BTW, the employee that kept walking, told my husband earlier before we got in line that she was on her break when he tried to ask her a question.) Like I said, half of the staff in the store were just downright rude. If you don’t like people, don’t work around people in a retail establishment.

The store had a really nice layout (way better than Valparaiso), and lots of products to choose from.

The problem is the projector they had on display, a short throw projector had a blurry picture. But the TVs they had on display were extra clear. So if you have a projector on display, that is between $3000 and $5000, why wouldn’t you make sure that it is calibrated correctly? We did ask the Customer Service guy who was working the showroom that same question, and he said it was at max calibration. I just didn’t understand that. Because the picture was blurry. He also said they had other displays on the other side of the wall, we walked out and there wasn’t another display so he sent us off on a blind mission. Thank goodness a few other employees took pity on us to ask if we needed any help. My husband talked to a few of them that were willing to assist us.

Overall, I will continue to shop at the store, but I will not stand in the line for 10+ minutes ever again. Especially if there are only three customers in line. Next time I’m going directly to a manager or supervisor on the floor to complain or depending on if I really need the item, I’ll just leave. The managers at the store need to have another conversation with their employees about Customer Service. They may need a refresher course. I’d be happy to teach it.

They also need to hire people that know what they are talking about when it comes to products. There may be only a few of them that knew what they were talking about. The rest either didn’t know or didn’t care enough to help get an answer from a source that would know. This is why people shop online. But I figured since we were in the area we could stop in to grab what we needed and it ended up being a...

Shocking and Disheartening Experience at Best Buy in Merrillville, Indiana

I recently visited the Best Buy in Merrillville, Indiana, to return an open-box laptop I purchased during the holiday season. As a Best Buy Total Tech Rewards Member, I was confident the return would be simple since I had the receipt, which clearly stated that the item was returnable until January 14. Unfortunately, the interaction was one of the most upsetting and disheartening experiences I’ve ever had at a retail store.

The manager, Julie, and her associates displayed rude, dismissive, and highly unprofessional behavior throughout the process. Julie made the experience worse by speaking under her breath and coming up with baseless accusations and scenarios that felt heavily racialized and rooted in bias.

At one point, Julie said: • “It takes us five hours to analyze a laptop.” • “How do I know you didn’t steal anything out of it?” • “How do I know you didn’t take parts out of it?” • “How do I know it even works?”

These comments were completely unwarranted and incredibly offensive. Not only was I being treated as though I were dishonest, but Julie seemed intent on questioning my integrity and making baseless assumptions about my character. It was a deeply disheartening and discriminatory experience, and I couldn’t help but feel that this treatment was tied to the fact that I’m a person of color, standing 6’5”, 250 pounds, and returning a high-value item.

Even after presenting my receipt and reminding Julie of the extended return policy tied to my Total Tech Membership, she continued to argue and insist my return was invalid. I had to call Best Buy Customer Service while in the store and have them confirm (on speakerphone) that my return was still within the policy timeframe. It was only after this intervention that my return was finally accepted, but even then, Julie’s behavior became nastier, showing she was upset about being proven wrong.

When I pulled up the Best Buy website to show her the return policy, she displayed outright hostility and arrogance instead of professionalism. Her demeaning and racially charged comments left me feeling disrespected, dehumanized, and completely shocked.

This experience was not only traumatic but completely unacceptable. Best Buy is a major retailer, and I expected far better treatment, especially as a paying member of the Total Tech Rewards program. Julie’s disrespect, implicit bias, and unprofessionalism make me question how someone with such a hostile attitude is in a managerial role at a flagship store.

I hope Best Buy takes this review seriously and addresses the need for better training on respect, fairness, and bias-free customer service. No customer should ever have to endure such racism, rudeness, and unnecessary stress when shopping or returning an item, especially with all proper documentation.

I will be reconsidering future business with Best Buy unless meaningful action is taken to ensure that no one else has to experience what I...

I originally purchase an iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ through Best Buy's website, opting for their "Used - Excellent Condition" option. When I received the item, it was obviously broken in multiple places. The door to the hub was broken off with no way to reattach, and most importantly one of the wheels was broken making it impossible for the robot to move. I was shocked that it would have made it through any kind of quality control. I chatted with their customer care, and they told me they would easily fix it and that all I needed to do so was take it into a store and they would exchange it for a new one. I did exactly that, and it was not until the very end of the exchange transaction that the manager told me that they could not in fact exchange the item I had purchased, and my only option would be to buy a brand new one and pay the difference. I asked if they would be willing to assist with the $333 price difference given the fact that 1.) I did not receive an "excellent condition" item to start with and 2.) I was given misinformation on how to go about exchanging it for another without being out of pocket MORE money I was not expecting to spend right before Christmas. The store manager refused and treated my wife and I as though we were just moochers looking for a quick buck. He told me to call their customer care department, which I did. 4 separate times I had to call, because after spending OVER 30 minutes on each call, the line mysteriously disconnected. After the first call disconnected, on the following three I begged them to call me back if the call were to drop. Each time I was assured that they would, and each time I never received a call back. When a case to request a refund was finally filed, I was told I would get a response within 24-48 hours. 6 days later I had to reach out myself for a response, and it was a "no" with no further explanation. I had debated buying this product via Amazon, but went with Best Buy because I thought their customer service would be better. I couldn't have been more wrong. There service is the worst I have ever come into contact with. I have never felt like a company cared less about...