It seems I am not the only person around who thinks that Best Buy is Evil.
A Personal Blog
by Michael Froomkin
Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Miami School of Law
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Dear Mr. Anderson,
Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy Speaks to Retail Class, “Best Buy’s mission is to make our customers’ lives fun and easy,”
Well your company has make my life ANYTHING but “easy” and certainly not “fun” in the last month.
In August of 2001, I bought a Whirlpool dishwasher from your Dublin Store. The first one that was installed, was DOA.
The installer ordered another one, and 2 weeks later it arrived, but by this point the installer was MIA.
Times passed, and after numerous phone calls, as to why my dishwasher was not installed, ( I have 3 kids) I was told that installer was fired, and gee sorry about that, eventually someone new showed up and installed my dishwasher, after a few months, it stopped draining, and I was besides myself, I called and was told someone could not come out for a week, in the meantime, my neighbor, pulled it out and fixed it.
6 months later, it just stopped working.
I called and set up a repair, ( amazingly in 2 days) the man came out and pulled out the dishwasher, and found that he did not have the part, he called in the warehouse and they didn’t have the part either, which was odd, since he said, Oh these always go after about 2 years, ( gee how reassuring that I bought the “top of the line” Whirlpool, that breaks down before 2 years) anyway, he orders me a part, and says it should come in 3 days. Well 14 days and 10 “business” days pass, and no part.
I had called after the 7 day mark and was rudely informed that there was no way I would of gotten that part in 3 days, and I needed to wait at least 10 business days. ( by the way, this part has yet to show up)
At this point I call the Store in Dublin, and speak to Mike Snook, the general manager, he says , just come in we will replace it.
I think this is good customer service at last and go right in
I picked a dishwasher double the price, hoping for better luck and bought a new refrigerator, built in microwave, and a stove , spending 3,394.00
I was in the store for 2.5 hours, and the check alone out took an hour. Feeling like I was in the twilight zone, I checked and doubled checked all the
I was assured that everything would be delivered on June 23rd, and told the dishwasher would be installed that day, and the rest on the 24th.
Part 2 of my nightmare.
The 23rd arrives and everything is dropped off in my garage. I tell the guys, you are suppose to install the dishwasher and they said, no we don’t do that.
I called Best Buy and was told the guy was coming the next day, and they would call me that night.
No call to confirm the install was ever made, I made several calls and was given the complete run around. ( besides having to punch in 6 different option numbers repeatly) , I called in the evening, after the call window was done and no one had called me and was told, NO they DON’T call in the evening, and instructed to call back the next morning if no one at contacted me by 8:30 am. I called at 8:45 and was told no one could help me, the installers did not even open until 9:00, and who told me to call at 8:30 anyway? and to call back then.
I called back at 9:00 and was informed that no one was scheduled, and oh by the way, the guys that dropped off my appliances, were also suppose to install the stove and refrigerator. They only install dishwashers and the microwaves.
Now just hold on, and don’t lose me here, because it just gets worse.
I now have taken 2 full days off work to get this done, using my vacation time.
This is certainly no vacation.
At this point, I ask for a manger and get Jamal, who is sympatric to my plight and assures me he “look” into it and get back to me.
Somehow, I get someone finally coming between 9-1, ( it is 10 now, whatever!) Jamal says he will try to help me with the problem of no install on the refrigerator or stove. I never hear back him on this. Later in the day I call several times and leave messages. No return call.
Now it is 10 am, and the store is open, I call and ask for Mike Snook, who was kind enough to give me his card and tell me to call him if I ever need help… ( little did I realize how soon I would need help) he however is out for the day at a meeting, and the other manager I met, who also seemed helpful, “Greg” was out too, so I ask for any manager now, and get George.
This is about the 8th time I have told my story, given my name, address, phone number and yada yada in 24 hours, (I forgot to mention the 2 “disconnects” I had with CS reps trying to “help” me, that seems so small in the overall horrible service I’m getting.)
George says the delivery guys should of installed the refrigerator and stove, and he will look into that.
In the meantime the other installer shows up, Guess what , my dishwasher is .5 inches to tall for the space, I look at think it will fit, snugly, but still fit, and he says , no way, and installs the microwave and leaves.
Wow, the appliance I cared the very least about it in, happy days.
I call George again, ( I have very little faith, that anything will be done, unless I keep calling) and he is out to lunch, so I get another guy named Danny, Danny will also “look into this” and actually leaves me a message telling me , someone will be there tomorrow!
Wow, great, of course they will be calling me this evening to let me know when, so maybe, if I’m lucky, I can go into work for part of the day.
After the installer leaves , I call Danny/George and tell them my problem with the dishwasher being .5 inches to small, and they tell me I need to come back into the store. Oh great , the twilight zone again… and I live about 15 miles away, and you know what, I’m getting really tired of the whole thing, and depressed.
My neighbor comes over and sees the dishwasher and says it will fits, and we call a handyman, who comes right over, ( wow) and he installs it. A miracle, I can wash my dishes again after over 3 weeks of hell. of course this cost me 80 bucks, and I already paid Best Buy 69.00 for the install, and I still need that haul away I paid for, but hey I have a dishwasher, I’m so happy.
In the meantime, I’m waiting for that call to confirm my install on the refrigerator and stove install.
No such luck, another fun vacation day on my dime, waiting for Best Buy to fulfill what the promised when I spent 3,394.00.
So now I have wasted 3 of my paid vacation days for this.
No one ever calls me to tell me if or when they are coming, so I wake up and repeat the entire story above,
First I try Jamal again, but get his voice mail, I then make at least 6 calls, the first one transfers me to the LA warehouse, where after giving her all my info, she informs me I need a different warehouse, ( Oh boy I have the selections memorized now, 1-3-2-2-4-1, ) she transfers me back, and my same original guy named Junior, who transferred me over there in the first place answers the phone and now he is starting to feel sorry for me. Him and I actually get hung up on twice again, while he is waiting on the line with me, he is amazed at what has happened too. He says he will take care of this, and call me back.
A dispatcher calls me and says they can come on Sunday, ( today is Friday) I’m just aghast that this is all gone so terribly wrong.
I tell him the very abridged version, and he checks with his manger and says today.
Some guys show up, they install my stuff, telling me the first delivery guy never should of just “dropped” everything off, that he is suppose to install the stove and refrigerator, that is part of the package.
They are able to install everything, but tell me I need a plumber for my icemaker, since it is a copper line and they don’t do that, now I told the salesman in the store, I had a copper line, and he said they would be able to do it, so now I have to hire a plumber, because as handy as I am, I don’t know how to do this.
Well now I just have to ask for a refund on my delivery and see if they will do anything to help me with the plumber costs.
I’m tired now, and need a long nap.
Needless to say, I won’t be referring anyone I know to Best Buy, and people had warned me, but I went ahead anyway.
From the very start, back in 2001 with the lemon dishwasher, this has been very stressful.
So Mr. CEO, Brad Anderson, tell me how “Best Buy’s mission is to make our customers’ lives fun and easy,” is actually suppose to work.
The first problem you have is with the product itself which really isn’t bestbuys fault talk to the manufacturer. Bestbuy as well as many other retailers have to carry the low end to high end. Even if it is as you say a top of the line well then your problem should be with whirlpool not bestbuy. Another the install is usually done by bestbuy, but sometimes has to hire out other local companies to accomodate customers, but the repair is not done by best buy that is actually done by a third party. Bestbuy is a busy store that has thousands of customers in each store every day so they can’t drop everything to help each customer one at a time they have to try and accomodate each one. As you did have a bad experience which is partly best buy’s fault. I have worked for many different companies dealing with customers and I have made a fair share of the customers mad because sometimes things are out of your hands.
You are on the money- I am a plumber, but have been diasbled. Sears and Best Buy use the same subcontractors, who are on a mission to make money. They wanted $ 400.00 to trim out part of the cabinet to be able to install the first dishwasher in my home!(4 VERY careful cuts with a sawzall, which I don’t trust two kids with zero type of construction liscenses to do). This fax/call/reroute/runaround is typical with all the large appliance retailers, and they absolutely do not gurantee their work (for the obvious reasons I just described). There is a 35.00 estimate, 69.00, install fee by Sears/Best Buy, but it has nothing to do with the subs. The double charges seem inevitable.
I will get someone VERY handy with a sawzall to do the trim after I measure and mark, get a solid D/W delivered and take my time preparing it. I will have help to slide it into place. It’s not rocket science, but you must be careful connectiong and protecting the lines (a lot of hot water being forced through there that could water damage your floors and cabinets).
Don’t get taken!
Bay Area, California