Comments on: The Best Buy Sometimes Isn’t

By: just me

just me — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:52:08 +0000

LOL (#8) ‘perfect quality’? really. if none of your pictures turn out better than that, you need to return your camera.

what a set of bad photos (and those are) can’t really convey is the impossibility of getting anything better from the camera. Sure, any camera/operator combination may come out fuzzy, but generally, a change in setting, esp. to autofocus; or a change in operator fixes the problem. Evidently, those solutions didn’t help, therefore, camera is defective.

By: stingerman

stingerman — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:15:31 +0000

You don’t have to judge the rest of the story. Best Buy selling a camera as new that was used is illegal. They have no ethical ground to stand on. The story ends there, what happened afterwards is a consequences of best buys unethical, immoral and illegal behavior. They lied from before they even met the customer and intentionally arranged matters to cheat the customer.

Get my point, they simply have no rights left once they started down this crooked road.

By: Travis

Travis — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:33:58 +0000

Is it just me, or does it sound a lot like Mike and “LOL” work for Best Buy? What’s the matter Nathaniel? Can’t climb down gracefully?

By: LOL

LOL — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:53:20 +0000

Wow.. Well the fact that the camera was resold was definately a mistake…but anyone who read the article can see that the author is not very smart at all. The author claimed the camera was malfuntioning, yet the pictures that were “recovered” of both the previous user and geek squad came out with perfect quality. Which begs the question: What happened to the camera in between then? Was it dropped? Out of frustration did someone hit it? And can as far as evidence, I believe the camera can be dropped on a carpeted surface and leave no evidence and still be defective. In fact, if it were dropped on carpet, wouldn’t it only leave minor scratches?

Best Buy reselling the camera as new was definately a wrong move, but don’t be so quick to judge the rest of the story until you look at the big picture.

By: Best Buy Employee

Best Buy Employee — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:01:22 +0000

I work at Best Buy and I can honestly say I would rather help out the customers than make my managers happy. Yes, I understand that the company needs to make money; however when it comes to customer service I care more about saving YOU money than I care about making Best Buy happy. For years I have seen managers at this company make stupid decisions when it comes to managing customers and keeping them satisfied. I think they have always had a mentality that a customer that is buying is a friend, and a customer returning a product is an enemy. Idk, I do not want to bash the company that puts money in my pocket. . . The store I am at now is amazing and I love the managers but I agree with a lot of what you said and I understand your frustration. Please understand that there are some employees are not out there to screw you over. If you would have dealt with me your opinions about Best Buy would be much more positive.

By: Michael T. Barrett

Michael T. Barrett — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:47:50 +0000

Hi Mike,

You’re kidding right?

We bought the camera on 2/25 and tried to return it on 3/1.

If the 1/1/08 time stamp was the “default” date, then the date of the photos taken on 2/7/09 and 2/25/09 would not have matched the dates they were taken (we know the photos timestamps from the metadata, and the ones we took were dated 2/25/09. Granted the 1/1/08 could have been the default, but those photos had to be taken BEFORE my son took any photos.

Mistakes happen? They called my mother-in-law a liar, there is no mistake about that.

I have been very realistic about this whole issue and I have not been “mud slinging” as you call it because they made me mad. I am trying to get this issue resolved because they lied to us and they refused to even listen to what we had to say until they learned we recovered the photos, then their entire story changed, very quickly.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:40:45 +0000

So I feel your pain, but let’s take a look at this from both perspectives. Retail is one of those jobs like being a waiter. You have to experience it to see how it feels to be in that role. Each and every day customers come in and try to deceive retailers for various reasons. This costs them money. Even Walmart of all people have changed their return policy because of this. Several things could have caused the experience:
-How did they act towards the employees?
-Was the store consistent or did it change?
-If you bought the camera “new” then why wait so long to try and return it?
-A 1/1/08 date is the default date on new cameras
-Maybe those pictures of the agent were from where they tested the camera when it was brought in to see if it was working
-Mistakes happen – maybe it was not intentional. I actually doubt it was.
-Maybe a customer bought it, opened it, used it, and resealed it and they had no idea.
-Maybe the manager was busy and could not get to you at that exact second.

Be realistic before you go mud-slinging at people just because they make you mad one time. Think about all of the times you shoped there and got something good. Why do people never spend time writing about the good service they receive.

This is ridiculous.

By: Lee

Lee — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:58:25 +0000

I work at a Best Buy in South Dakota. I’m quite appauled at the service you’ve received . . . I know this happens to good customers sometimes. I can’t promise that this wont happen to you again at another Best Buy. I can promise it wont happen at my BBY.

Also as a side not . . . in these shady times I hate to see things like this happen to good people. I may not know you, but obviously you are not in the wrong. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you and your family.

FYI – restocking fees are being removed in test markets as we speak.

By: silencer

silencer — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:12:22 +0000

The bestbuy folks did the same to me.
I went to return a new camera that had been pretty abused.
They offered an exchange, so I accepted.
After a 30 minute wait the guy comes with a cheap cannon (mine was a sony with a zeiss lens) and says “straight exchange”. I said ‘hold on, this camera is worth $100 less than mine, I will take a refund instead.
They refused.

Then I discover that the serial number on the camera was different than the phone’s. They said “oh we mix up the boxes with the cameras all the time, but no, your camera is still new.

I took a picture and showed them blurry dirt on the inside of the lens and screws missing from the casing. I told them they had tried fixing a camera in store, put it in a new box and sold it to me.
They said ‘oh, then you have to submit it for warrantee repair’.

I left the store, sent the camera in, and they refused repair because the camera case had been ‘opened’.
After 4 months of arguing and finally presenting them with small claims court papers, I got my camera back “fixed” – they had cleaned the fingerprints from inside the lens, did not replace the scratched case nor replace the screws.
The camera takes pictures if I hold it very very still…… but it just isn’t what I expected for $600.

Cheers.

By: Feel_your_pain

Feel_your_pain — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:14:56 +0000

Actually, I was in a Best Buy store just last week (probably your neck of the woods–Alpharetta).

I was exchanging out a printer. The Poor guy next to me was finding out about their “Re-Stocking FEE”–as I stood there waiting on my transaction.

I hope they don’t do the same to you! (Pretty sure he was returning a camera–as I heard the lady say something about Stocking FEE’s and camera’s, computers and such.

Well, if you need help protesting the Store, I’ll help.
We’ll get picket signs and everything!

God speed to your Mother!