Best Buy's sucky customer service

[mrsjfreak]

My husband and I went into Best Buy today, and discovered their customer service SUCKS! Wait, what customer service? We had 10 employees walk right by us not asking if we needed help. We searched for someone to talk to for 10 minutes, nothing. We walked out. I can't believe that we were there for that long, and not ONE person helped us. We went over to Circuit City, got assistance in 30 seconds in EVERY section we walked into, had all our questions answered and walked out happy. They told us they get people complaining about Best Buy all the time. I'm not shocked....

[katie kaboom]

i've heard increasingly bad things about Best Buy in the last year or so. It used to be one of my favorite stores, but now i will avoid it if i can find what i want somewhere else. The one i go to, the cashiers have a habit of getting on my nerves. And really, the prices are no big bargain. Even their credit card is pretty much uselss unless you're purchasing a big ticket item and you wanna pay for it in monthly installments; which i did when i bought my computer.

I kept the card for about a year or so after i had the computer paid off, and i finally closed the account last December, because it's not like having it was saving me any money anyway.

Plus I'm trying to cut myself down to just a couple credit cards and my debit card.

[LabCat]

Best Buy is a giant, swirling vortex of suckiness both to customers and employees: I've never wanted to see a retailer go out of business so bad( except for maybe Walmart).

[myswtghst]

This makes me laugh, because usually when I go into Best Buy, I'm pestered repeatedly when I just want to browse cds. It always seems you get asked if you need help every 10 seconds when you don't, but as soon as you want assistance, employees are nowhere to be found.

[Kiwi]

At the craft store I didnt ask people if they needed help, unless it was the end of the day and we were closing, and that was to get rid of them.

However we were chronically understaffed and I didnt need to ask people if they needed help, I constantly had a line of people waiting.... once 4 customers asked me at the exact same time for help then all cracked up thinking it was just the funnyest thing ever.... until they realised that they were all going to have to wait their turn, then they got snarky.Im sure we lost hundreds of dollars in sales everyday because they wouldnt staff us properly, the average wait for service by noon saturday could be 1/2 an hour. We constantly found piles of abandoned product from people fed up from waiting.

It wasnt from our lack of effort though, we would try and get through as many people as possible but it just wasnt physically possible... 1 staff member can only help 1 person at a time. Totally frustrating for both sides, I guess my point is, if you need help ask for it, dont wait for staff to come to you because you dont know whats going on behind the scenes...

If they were standing around chatting thats one thing, but most big box stores understaff so much they cant get to everyone. Although if they were all just being lazy and were able to help then thats totally lame that they didnt and you show the company what you think by shopping with your feet. You were totally totally right to show that your prepared to go to a company whos staff are able and willing to help!

[CRXPanda]

i love bestbuy...because they leave me the fukkalone

but
i do go online and check to see what particular store has the item
and
if i can't find the item, i log on to bestbuy.com at the store and bring up the item on the screen from my online cart
and then
i physically grab someone with a bb shirt on and point to the bb.com screen and say, "i want this, please help" and i always get satisfaction

side note: i think my most frequently visited store may think im some corporate sneaky shopper cuz lately they make sure i know thay said "welcome to bestbuy" and someone always asks me if i need help

[ArenaBoy]

I'm vowing to avoid Best Buy not only for the way the customer service is but for the way the employees are treated there are. Although the one good experience I had in there was when I was looking for an adapter to play my ipod in my car and I had a gift card for the place also. The guy that helped me out was polite and actually pointed me to a item that did just as good and it was less expensive.

[CSR Kim]

When we went to buy a laptop, we had this issue. We browsed for a bit, because I wasn't sure what I wanted, but after 10 minutes of picking out a computer, we had some questions, and no one had even stopped to give us a "someone will be with you soon". There were a couple of associates helping people, which was fine, I don't mind waiting. My gripe was with the fact that no one acknowledged our presence. Another 10 minutes passed, we'd figured out our questions on our own, and so all we wanted was someone to get us the computer. We ended up flagging down a passing manager who was able to help us. If someone is potentially going to spend $1,500+ at your store, at least say Hi to them or something...at least the rest of our shopping experience went well.

[RentalRacer]

This makes me laugh, because usually when I go into Best Buy, I'm pestered repeatedly when I just want to browse cds. It always seems you get asked if you need help every 10 seconds when you don't, but as soon as you want assistance, employees are nowhere to be found.

Well said...I have just the opposite problem of the OP, in my town, Circuit City is bad, Best Buy is good.

And any business is going to have the occasional customer who is PO'd at "The Competiton" and come in bitching. How many times have we all had customers say "I am never coming here again, I will be going to your competition"? That is part of the sucky customer MO, they will then go to the competition and send out the message that the competition could not help me SO YOU BETTER!

[draftermatt]

I can't say I've ever had a problem with Best Buy myself, but I can't tell my dad I've gone there. We got a laptop for my sister's graduation present. Best Buy wouldn't give him his rebate. All the paper work was right, nothing done wrong, but they kept making excuses.

[tollbaby]

I am a Best Buy convert Before they came to town, we had a couple of Radio Shacks, a Future Shop or two, and not much else. (future shop, for future reference, is now owned by the same umbrella company as Best Buy). Lo and behold, even though we had a Future Shop within walking distance of our house, they put in a Best Buy RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET.

So the hubby and I went over one Saturday afternoon, and I will NEVER shop elsewhere for the stuff I buy there (blank cds, games, computer peripherals). We have always had EXCELLENT service there, their prices can't be beat (we got a $450 Fuji S300 camera a few years ago for $350.... why? Because the box had been opened! We didn't ask for the discount, they OFFERED it because we were buying the camera, two memory cards and a case) and the selection is beyond what was available to us before. I've never had a problem getting help there, I've always found what I was looking for, and I've always spent a lot less than I had anticipated Our local Best Buy ROCKS!

[Emrld]

I think in cases of Customer Service - sometimes it is the company itself - but many times it can be how it is staffed from the top down. If you get managers that don't know how to manage or only manage one way - then it will all roll downhill.

I know we have people hear on this board that work at the home improvement store I am going to mention - and I have a strong feeling that even if they were 10 deep at their paint counter they would have helped.
It is the store whose name is basically what you are hoping the prices are with and "e's" on the end.
I had an asthma attack while walking down an isle - I was alone and I could not catch my breath . . .I ended up sitting /laying on the floor. I know that employees walked past the end -because I saw them - walking and talking to each other - or walking with another customer. I am sorry but if you are in a store and you see someone laying down in an aisle - gasping for breath - wouldn't you run over and help them or at least get someone to do so???? I was down for about 10 minutes . . . finally caught my breath and was able to walk out. For 4 years I would not step foot into any of their stores. I met someone who worked in corporate and they explained how that store had recently been restaffed from the top down - so I decided to give them another chance.
What a difference having the right staff makes.

[tollbaby]

I really hope you don't take this the wrong way, but if you have a debilitating illness that strikes indiscriminately at odd moments, shouldn't you carry your inhaler on you at all times? It's possible that they just didn't look towards the aisle as they were walking by, and I'm all for helping your fellow man, but you can't expect the store staff to take responsibility for your medical care. Yes, someone should have come over to see what was going on, and I'm frankly shocked that no one, not even a customer, did. But that's like me expecting store staff to rush to my aid if I have a blood sugar episode when it's my own damn fault I don't have any glucose tablets on me... I've had roommates and family members who were asthmatic, and not only did they carry inhalers, but in the case of my roommate, we had a spare in the medicine cabinet and a spare in the car's glove compartment. (please please please don't start a flame war over this.... maybe I should have kept my mouth shut).

[blas]

I'm not a big electronics person (and I score all my blank CDs and other little things from my baby brother because he uses his discount from K-Mart), but the few times I have been to Best Buy, I was in heaven.

I swear at the Best Buy where I live, it's like a mandatory requirement that the males be under 30 and perfect looking. I think they work on commission maybe? All I know is my friend and I and her fiancee went in because he needed a TV, and we sat around on the chairs and watched their big screens.

The young men employees would not leave us alone. They kept offering to change the movies for us, showed us how to use the remote, repeatedly asked us if there was anything they could help us with..........I secretly wanted to ask all of them for their numbers......but ohh......no no....blas is a bit too shy when it comes to droolworthy young men.

Best Buy may be the one place I can go where I will be flocked by gorgeous guys in my age group. And they seem to like me.........yes, definetly somewhere I gotta go next time I need a confidence boost.

[Emrld]

It was the first asthma attack I'd had in 10 years.
Needless to say when I left I went straight to the Dr's office and just waited till I could be seen. I now carry an inhaler with me. And have only had 3 attacks since that day.