Best Buy — Local services in The Woodlands

UPDATE 9/23: local store continues to misinform customers about Total membership over a year later. Decreasing to 1 star as this is negligence and potential fraud.

If you purchase a laptop today from Best Buy and ask about a warranty, they will offer you a standard Geek Squad protection plan that costs around $250, but then they will try to upsell you to their Total membership, which costs $179 at time of purchase. They will likely tell you that the membership includes a two-year warranty and is thus the better deal. This is false.

In reality, if you opt for the Total subscription, a follow up email sent the day after purchase states that your warranty CANCELS after the FIRST year if you choose not to spend another $179 on a second year of Total membership. This makes the total cost for a two-year warranty under the Total membership to be $358, which is substantially more than the standard warranty costs. I have been lied to about this on the phone, on live chat and by two associates in the store, a year and a half apart. This is absolutely unacceptable behavior as it carries a hidden unexpected cost of $189 a year later.

I assumed this was a one-time issue and gave 5 stars because someone at the store resolved the situation very quickly and helpfully. But it is clear now this is an ongoing management and training issue that is not resolved.

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Original review (3/2023):

Josh and the store went completely above and beyond to solve an issue I had. It was a simple mistake - an associate provided some incorrect information about the cost of Totaltech when I bought my laptop last year. A full year after my purchase, the store went completely above and beyond to make the situation right. Couldn’t have asked for a better solution. Josh was able to iron it out within 1 business day and I’m incredibly appreciative.

For the record, be aware there is a huge amount of misinformation out there about what Totaltech, Best Buy‘s new membership program, includes and doesn’t.

Totaltech DOES INCLUDE at time of writing: a $200 a year membership fee tech support (I believe phone and chat) for the various electronic items in your home some discounts on new purchases and geek squad services a 24-month protection plan with new purchases BUT only for as long as you remain an active paying member.

Totaltech does NOT INCLUDE: everything in your house getting fixed by geek squad for free protection plan or warranty coverage for everything in your house protection plan or warranty coverage for previous Best Buy purchases free repairs or parts for everything in your house

Everything on the NOT list are real items I was falsely told were included by phone agents. Check the website, don’t trust what they say.

And remember, buying Totaltech for its included 24-month protection plan is only a better deal if the non-Totaltech protection plan costs over $400.

I was told very wrong and misleading information on the phone + web chat three times and the associate I originally spoke to in-store was a bit confused as well. The training needs to be better, particularly for phone support. The misinformation from agents is verging into fraud territory and needs to be rectified. But this has nothing to do with the Woodlands location, which did absolutely everything and then some to clean up after the mess caused by the...

A quick TLDR: Had a situation that was time se sitive so I bought from bestbuy instead of newegg. Issues with a rtx 5070 ($550.00) out of the box and management was completely disrespectful. There was no sympathy for the situation, and the manager even went so far as to laugh at me when I recommended a solution.

Little more explanation: The 5070 had a faulty port out of the box. I'm a game designer for work, so i need a computer up and running for my job. I called the store and they said they would have a card ready for me to exchange 2 days after making the phone call since they had marked it in their system, so I waited the 2 days as instructed, then disassembled my computer and went to store to trade it in. This is when problems arose, the employees were somewhat knowledgeable on the return/trade in process, but they said they were out of stock, despite the corporate office supposedly marking my account and promising a card exchange that day. I simply explained the issue to the employee, then when he couldn't help out since it's really only the store manager who can check these things, I re-explained the whole situation to the store manager, which seemed like he could care less. I offered different solutions that did right by the store, and by me, and he refused all of them, and then laughed in my face. Mind you, this entire issue ended up taking me out of work for 3 days, costing me about ~$1,300.00 so the situation for me isn't your average "im a gamer and I want my card now" In the end, I ended up refunding the card and ordering one off of newegg for cheaper, and faster than what solutions best buy offered.

Overall product review: 1 star, damaged items in brand new box. Overall customer service review: 5 stars for the floor employees as they tried their best to find solutions. Overall customer service for store management: 0 stars due to the disrespect, mockery, and lack of professionalism.

P.S. This isn't a bad review from a Karen, I worked retail for a few years, and I get that there are annoying customers. I came to this situation with respect and never raised my voice with the employees or manager. Even after he laughed in my face, I kept it professional. It was not worth the stress. I just hope Best Buy, as a company, gets this store manager out of the company before he...

It's a Magnolia store so you have the best selection of products including higher end products. This makes this store arguably the best best buy in the area (flagship store). Prices are sometimes higher at best buy, fortunately, they are willing to price match select competitors such as amazon though that have restrictions nowadays. The price matching is quite limited compared to the past in which they would match everyone (when they wanted your business). Price matching is only for major competitors (not suppliers) and excludes major sales.

In terms of maintenance, best buy has transformed dramatically as they outsourced all their space to 3rd parties for them to maintain (Bose, Sonos, Samsung, etc). As a result, a lot of things simply don't work anymore. For instance, looking for a sound bar or home theater system - often eight of the ten units there simply don't work and they stay out for weeks. They need to open a ticket and can't fix it themselves. This defeats the purpose of showing up in-person to get a real experience / demo. Out of all the stores / best buys, this store appears to have the most stuff simply not working out of any I have ever seen. I've seen things out of order for weeks or months.

Historically, the best feature is knowledge of the people there and getting first hand demos / experiences. This is now a mixed bag as you get some really good experiences and knowledgeable people (which is fantastic and closer to the old days). This was their old business model in which you would want to go to best buy in-person. You also get a ton of bad experiences with products not being available, incorrectly installed so you get a bad first impression and you have a good chance of finding sales people with limited or to no knowledge (my pet peeve is when they tell you something that is completely wrong and say I'm 100% positive - this happens a lot nowadays).

When they tell you something, please verify nowadays with websites (especially the manufacturer) and take what they say with a grain of salt. Before making a purchase, definitely search to see what's cheaper. In-terms of getting a working demo -- good luck. You may be better off simply buying the item at a place with a great return policy and the...