Best Buy — Local services in Spokane Valley

A quick setup for the scene. My wife and I received a gift of a Meta-quest 2 from a friend. After four or five hours of use, the headset developed problems. Of course, my next step was to call the manufacturer for technical support which I did.

While I was talking to Meta Quest support I was told that if the headset was within 30 days of the purchase date, we could return it to the store for an exchange. After talking to our friends we found out that the headset was purchased slightly over 30 days before. I actually preferred to simply ship the headset in for an exchange and was setup for a Fedex shipping return, but decided that Best Buy had treated us pretty good in the past and would give them a call directly.

We called Best Buy customer service and spoke with a gentleman by the name of Andy Dojo. I explain the situation and he said that there could be an exception considering it was a gift and so close to the 30 days return period, he offered the option for us to take it into the store for an exchange. In my conversation with him, I asked if he was sure that this was OK and I didn't want to wast time as I was on my way to clients. He said absolutely to bring it in for an exchange.

Figuring that this was the simplest of options, I drove to the store and went over to the customer service counter. I told my story of talking with Best Buy customer service. The next thing I was told which was quite shocking is that, "The customer service agents on the phone do not give good information on what happens in the store and their policies were completely different".

I explain to the person at the counter that I had a photocopy of the receipt sent to me by my friends. The information was looked up by the service counter person. To my shock, I was then told that I would need to purchase a membership in order to do an exchange of the headset as the return period was only 15 days. I explained that their customer service person said the return period was 30 days, told me to get in my vehicle and drive to Best Buy even though the customer service person knew the exchange period was over 30 days, and I thought it was ridiculous that I was being mandated to purchase something that I really didn't want. I was only doing what I was told and was irritated at this point. I asked to talk to a manager to get this solved.

When the manager came up to the counter he explained the same thing that the customer service people do not represent the policies of the store and should not be trusted. I told him that I did not want to purchase one of their memberships. I did what their customer service told me to do. The store manager told me that it was against his personal ethics to give me something that others had paid for. I explained again that I was only bringing the unit in because of what their own customer service from Best Buy told me to do. He told me that there was nothing he could do for me. He was a very pompous individual and should be counseled.

The reason I am writing this letter is to let you know that this is unethical as far as I'm concerned when it comes to business. To have such a disconnect between departments and such misdirection is deplorable. I have been doing business with Best Buy for many years as I am a custom integrator. A lot of my clients are very wealthy and require televisions as well as other miscellaneous electronics. Since we don't make very much money in markups on televisions we choose to take our clients to retail stores and have them do the purchases. It makes our lives easier just in case there is a warranty issue in the future. Best Buy being one of the companies that we have used many times in the past. Myself and my company are now reconsidering those decisions based on this experience. The idea that they would treat me or any of my clients this way...

Ok, so part of this experience was my own fault for not calling first before leaving and trusting Samsung customer service.

We were having trouble with one of our new phones, the Samsung S22 Ultra, acquired through the AT&T exchange program. Seems one of the common issues is the phone stops reading the sim card.

So we followed all protocols with calling AT&T first and going through every single one of their troubleshooting suggestions, and they said they would escalate us and send a confirmation email. None of which they did/followed through on. So we took it to an authorized store. Did the same troubleshooting and eventually inserted a new sim card that proved it was indeed not reading it.

Since we just got these, AT&T told us it should be covered under manufacturer warranty and to contact Samsung, which we did, and went through all their steps as well. They then informed me we would need to bring it to an authorized BestBuy for an exchange and that he had alerted BestBuy that we were coming and what the situation was.

A one way drive is an hour and a half for us. We arrived and nobody knew a thing. In fact, the Geek Squad tech told us they had just signed the contract with Samsung June 1st to be an authorized service store but they had no access/connection to the website program they need and that his supervisor had been trying to contact someone over at Samsung to get their reps to stop sending people over. I KNEW I should have called to confirm. Never trust an online tech's word no matter how confident they sound.

So, they suggested we go back to AT&T to see if we could get resolve. We explained everything we went through and they could do nothing. I got on the phone again with Samsung, while still in the store, to "share" our experience thus far and that they needed to make this right. It took me explaining my story 7 times to get to a manager to set up a return so their techs can troubleshoot it and MAYBE get us compensation.

Since this phone is used for 50% work we couldn't be without one so we had to buy new one from AT&T and HOPE we get compensated from Samsung a couple weeks from now. THINGS SHOULDN'T BE THIS DIFFICULT TO RESOLVE. What happened to companies standing behind their products, especially glitchy technology...or companies working together to support each other?

So I apologize that most of this is really a review of AT&T and Samsung. For BestBuy to not step up and do anything at all on our behalf to act as a middle man to get this resolved, especially if they were SUPPOSED to be contracted with...

I went into this shop some few minutes ago to pay my credit card which was due and I noticed the register by the door was attending to a customer and so I decided to walk around to see if I could find another one or perhaps look around until am attended to. I walked towards the back and was approached by a staff….. who asked if he could help me and I told him I wanted to make a payment to my card. He offered to assist and then went on to school me or inform me that there was a register at the entrance and I told him I was aware and it was busy and then he said “you should have waited there” I thought I didn’t hear him well and he went on talking to me in such a condescending way that I should have waited there…. And I said am aware there are different pay points in a shop and besides you didn’t have to offer to attend to me if you were not prepared to…you are not being forced to and so you do not have to talk to me in such a demeaning manner telling me there is a register at the entrance and I should have waited to be served there. “I couldn’t believe my ears nor fathom the need for his gesticulations and demeanor while instructing me that I should have waited upfront or perhaps because I said I was paying down on a credit card and he probably thinks am not worthy of his time. …. not minding the fact that he could be on my payroll. I decided to abort the visit and walked out of the shop. On my way i decided to report it to the Store Mgr who mentioned the staff’s name and said” he is usually not like that” I was too upset to even remember nor acknowledge if he made any apologies nor understood my concerns but I could sense he has no choice where that staff is concerned or perhaps the “world is short staffed so they have to put up with staff who have the effrontery to verbally assault customers . Never been so terrible treated by a front desk officer……bad bad service ! Now I know anything goes and is tolerated there. I do not think they need customers of my status . My 4th laptop purchase……..hmmmh! I will rather be safe than sorry. So if your staff is not usually like that, then he racially profiled me hearing my accent and seeing I was of African descent decided I wasn’t worthy of his time…… for a less than 7mins transaction? You will rather be standing doing nothing than attending to a customer? That beats my...