Best Buy — Local services in Thousand Oaks

I would first like to explain this rating is for the customer service experience and the manager that worked the night of June 13, 2019. The employees at this location were mostly very helpful.

I purchased a fairly expensive 65 inch TV online and picked it up at this location. When I picked it up, there was a young lady working as manager that warned me since I had to lay it down to transport it, that they can't return it if it becomes cracked or broken. I understood, and decided to risk the transportation. The TV survived the ride, I got it mounted to my wall, and everything seemed fined.

Then a week later, my TV wouldn't turn on. I called LG support, and after going through a little troubleshooting they suggested that I simply return the TV to Best Buy and get a replacement. I call Best Buy and explain what happened and how I was now worried about transporting the TV back to the store. I spoke with a manager (it sounded like the same young lady from the first day) and after some digging, suggested that since I purchased the TV online, I can contact the online customer service, and they'll send a team to my house to repair and/or replace my TV. Up until this point, everyone at Best Buy had been very nice, and I would have left a 4+ star review...

I call the online customer service. After navigating the automated system, I get put on hold... For nearly 2 hours. The suggested wait time was 45 mins. It was to the point where I was doing housework while listening to the on hold music on speaker phone. Then, when they finally pick up, I am in the middle of meeting a contractor that I had a previous appointment with. I ask the customer service representative if they can wait 1 minute, as my meeting was concluding, and they said yes. I put the phone down, sign my last paper, pick it up, and no one is there. Ok, maybe I lost connection, I didn't really think they would hang up on me. I call again the next day. I opt for the "call back" option this time, as the suggested wait time was over 2 hours. I get a call back 3 hours later while I'm in the bathroom. So I missed the call. Surely they'll call back, I thought... I never received a call again.

At this point I decide to risk transporting the TV back to the store with the intent of just swapping it out for another one. I laid down a bunch of blankets in the back of my SUV, got the TV gently in the vehicle, and drove incredibly careful back to Best Buy. The nice young lady manager I had spoke to a fee days ago said as long as I can get the TV to the store, the employees would take it from there. Well, I safely get it there, and now there's a young man working as manager. He doesn't want to touch it since it was improperly transported. After minor arguments of what I was told vs what he wanted, he offers to have an employee help me carry it into the store. Once the manager leaves, he sees how easy it'll come out of the cradle I created for it in the back of my vehicle, and radios for another employee to come help. I didn't have to touch it again. (Thank you to that employee!)

The TV is in the store with no cracks, I brought all the hardware with me, I'm still within the 14 days... But this manager was just looking for a reason to not return it. "Does he have a receipt?", "When was it purchased?", "Did he bring the stand back?" It was to the point where he was looking over the TV with a magnifying glass, just looking for micro fracture or anything that wouldn't let me return it. After asking what was wrong, he was arguing possible failures with me. As an electrical engineer, I gave my theory of what happened. Maybe a bad cap or FET in the power supply? His response was "that doesn't happen with this model". It doesn't matter. I just want to return the TV.

I got so frustrated, I ended up getting my money back and taking my business to Costco, where I bought a similar TV (same model, different generation) for less than...

I really wanted to give Best Buy a shot.

I am recovering from intense brain tumor therapy. It is so tough for me right now.

When I got out of the hospital I bought a monitor from Best Buy Thousand Oaks and simply plugged it in at home to find that the screen was absolutely cracked.

I tried to return the monitor within the return period and was refused any type of return. It seemed a little odd to me, but I have health issues that force my store visits to be unfortunately brief until I get my strength back.

After my failed return, I called the Best Buy call center and informed them of the situation. They told me it should not have been an issue to return the monitor. I was then told by the call center to go back in to the store and speak directly with the return supervisor for a remedy to the situation so I obliged.

Upon meeting the return supervisor, he was instantly aggressive with me, rude, and put 100% of the blame on me. He then also told me that I should not have come back in to the store.

He was completely unwilling to assist me in any option other than buying an additional full priced monitor. I’m am a disabled person, I can barely last 5 minutes on my feet, the staff had to help me bring in the screen because of the severity of my health issues.

I had no other option but to leave the monitor with Best Buy that day, and I have not been refunded at all for the damaged good that I was sold.

It makes me so sad to see people treated poorly. It was only a $300 monitor for me to use while I recovered from intense cancer therapies. You guys made me feel like a bad person and I just can’t do business with you ever again.

I sent a detailed email about this incident to the store manager so they are aware as well. In the email I even included a pdf of my receipt. I made the option to remedy this situation as easy as possible. If the manager truly cares for helping customers this will be resolved quickly.

The call center was happy to give me the store manager’s email. But unfortunately it has been five days with no reply about this incident, and I even gave my contact information in the email.

It makes me so sad that a store can be so unwilling to help people going through such hardship, and then go the extra mile to make a customer feel bad and try to extract more money from them instead of helping them.

I really wanted to give Best Buy a shot and get a new washer, dryer, fridge, and tv. But the sheer disrespect from this incident has made me fearful that my purchases are a liability at Best Buy Thousand Oaks.

So if any of you want peace of mind when buying electronics, you’re really just going to have to stick with Costco and Amazon. They’ll never hassle you over your returns. It’s always quick, easy, barely any questions asked. The way it should be.

Unlike Best Buy Thousand Oaks.

There’s also a few details I’m leaving out that would make your blood boil even more but I don’t want to drag this out any further.

I think the real kicker is that the monitor ultimately ended up in Best Buy’s possession and I still wasn’t refunded. If the manager refunds me, I’ll update this review!

Good luck everyone and enjoy your lives!

Don’t shop at Best Buy...

Old school customer service principles - and integrity in backing up their products.

I've dropped a pile of cash at Best Buy - Thousand Oaks on home theater products recently. One of the items was a 75" 4K TV. I rolled the dice on a reduced price open box TV, and the TV proved defective in a short time at my home. The TV had been reviewed on return, and made it back to the sales floor as okay for sale. ((( In fairness to Best Buy, the issue would not have shown up in a relatively brief inspection; it was a manufacturer defect with the mother board. )) Anyway, I flipped [insert profanity here] out, bummed out, and left a [insert profanity here] scorching review on their email feedback survey, because hey, they asked me how it went, so I told em... I hadn't even gotten a chance to go to the store to address the problem because I was [insert profanity here] paralyzed with disappointment for days. I figured my survey response would go into cyber vapor space anyway. Nobody responds to [insert profanity here] angry customer feedback surveys, right?

Wrong... I was contacted within a single business hour of hitting the submit button on the survey by the store staff. I was absolutely [insert profanity here] shocked. They offered an immediate, better than fair resolve, endured a rash of questions and requests from me for a [insert profanity here] week straight - without ever treating me like a [insert profanity here] nuisance. The open-box TV was picked up, and a brand new TV was delivered to my home at the same time - with no delivery charge - and at a sale price that was no longer in effect. I haven't seen customer service like that in 30 [insert profanity here] years, and I have 12 years in retail sales.

It's interesting to me that Best Buy earned my loyalty when things went wrong, not when everything went smoothly.

You find out very quickly about a company's character when things go wrong. I've come to learn that Best Buy has good character, and they've earned my business and my loyalty.

Thanks to Jordan Agovino and the Magnolia team, and Tim Rall in store operations. The new TV is [insert profanity here] stunning, and I appreciate all you guys did to make things right. I'm happy...

Best, Patrick...