Dear Best Buy… This Is Why You’re Failing

Best Buy Customer Service FailUnfortunately, this is going to be the first in a series of rants that will be coming to 406.  I’ve had a few unfortunate experiences recently that I simply have to get off my chest.  In today’s day of social media, blogs, etc. this is, in my humble opinion, by far the best way to deal with poor service.  Please note that I’m not always bitter… I try very hard to also share GOOD experiences that I have such as this one at the Westin St. Francis.  Sadly, the tale that is to follow (as well as a couple of subsequent posts) are about as far from “good” as I can imagine.

With that preamble out of the way… let me begin.

The Wife’s laptop computer at this point is little more than a paper weight that makes noise when you turn it on.  The latch on the lid sticks so it becomes difficult to open.  The power is “depressed” so in order to to turn the unit on you need to stick a pen cap in there to push the button.  It routinely takes about 12 minutes to boot up and even when it does it’s slow as hell.  That said, it really doesn’t owe us anything.  It’s old by laptop standards (3-4 years at least) and ever since I got her an iPad for her birthday, she doesn’t really use her laptop all that often unless she needs to do some pretty extensive Excel work.  All of that being said, when I returned from vacation last week a few days before she and boys were set to return, I decided that I’d surprise her with a new laptop.

I rolled into Best Buy with about 15 minutes left till closing time.  I knew pretty much just what I wanted so it would be a quick in and out transaction.  I realize the guys at Best Buy don’t work on commission, but they’ve gotta LOVE when folks like me walk in.  They essentially come in, place an order and walk out.  Slam dunk.  Or so I thought.

I noticed when I rolled up that there were 5 guys working.  2 were back at the service desk typing away and 3 were with customers.  When I walked into their section, the 2 at the desk looked up at me and returned to what they were doing without so much as a nod.  The other 3 continued with their conversations.  As I said before, I know these guys don’t work on commission so I certainly wasn’t expecting to drop what they were doing and come rushing over.  In fact, I’ve been in many Best Buys (this one included) where the staff will really go out of their way (once they’re helping you) to make sure they’ve got all your questions answered.  Unfortunately for me I wasn’t being helped and as I soon figured out, wouldn’t be helped that night.

I proceeded to poke around the department for the next 15 minutes without so much as a “Can I help you?” a “We’ll be with you in a moment sir.” or even a “Screw you buddy, we’re closing.”   Again… I’m NOT suggesting that any of those 5 guys should have dropped what they were doing to see how they could help me.  But perhaps a cursory glance or nod would have been nice.  As it was the Best Buy gal came over the loud speaker and told us to get the hell out of the store and that we could resume our shopping tomorrow.  Yeah… right.  And the suits at Best Buy wonder why they’re failing.  It’s stuff like this folks.  When you’ve got a warm body IN YOUR STORE who’s ready to buy you should probably make sure you take care of them.  There are already so many folks taking their purchases online why wouldn’t you?

As I have a tendency to do, I went to the Twitters on my way out of the store:

Dear @bestbuy – when I come in looking to buy a laptop and no one even talks to me for 10 minutes you lost a sale. 4sq.com/13W8xHP

The their credit, Best Buy does have SOME folks on their team who seem to care or at least say the right thing.  A user from @BestBuySupport identifying himself as ^BH replied to my tweet apologizing for my experience and asking at which store location this occurred (Mayfield, Ohio – Store 271 in case you care).  We had a nice dialog where he told me how much they appreciated me as a customer and asked if I’d give them another chance.

To ^BH I say thank you sir… I appreciate the sentiment.

To Best Buy Corporate I say THIS is why you’re failing.  Get more folks like ^BH in positions where they can affect change in your store.  Otherwise you’re going to the way of the Dodo.

Anyone else had an experience like this in Best Buy?

2 thoughts on “Dear Best Buy… This Is Why You’re Failing

  1. If you knew exactly what you wanted, why did you poke around the department for 15 minutes? Walk straight up to them and say, “I want that laptop.” It sounds like you were looking for a bad experience so you could complain. I also highly doubt the gal on the loud speaker told you to “get the hell out of the store and resume your shopping tomorrow.” I’ve heard these announcements, and they almost always include bringing your final purchases to the front. That was your cue to do what you should have done to begin with – walk up to someone and point out the laptop you wanted.

    It sounds to me like you had a pre-existing axe to grind here.

    1. A fair comment Erick. As you’ve pointed out, I was being a bit sarcastic in my recap. To clarify… no, the lady didn’t actually say “Get the hell out”. You’re right, she most likely said something to the effect of “We are closing soon, please complete your purchases or come back tomorrow.” However, but by that point I was pretty much seeing red.

      And while I had a pretty good idea of what I was looking for, I didn’t know the EXACT model of what I wanted which is why I didn’t do exactly as you’d suggested. If I did have an exact model, I most likely would have just gone online and had it shipped to my home.

      Actually I like big box stores such as Best Buy… I like having a brick and mortar store that I can go into and browse around and talk to a real human being who can make me feel good about what I ultimately decide to purchase. That was part of my frustration with this experience. No axe to grind.

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