Black Friday gives Best Buy a Black Eye
Ahh, customer service :) you know it, you love it, you can't live without it.
So when I rolled out to Best Buy yesterday morning at 0400, stood in line with 500 other folks in the cold to try and snag whatever precious bit of advertised technology we could before it sold out, customer service was the last thing on my mind. The Best buy folks were cordial albeit firm in their directing of traffic (it reminded me vaguely of Disneyworld but less subtle in the crowd control).
All this changed when, after playing WoW for two hours on my happy new LCD monitor, it goes out. kaput. Black screen of death.
(I add this next bit only to emphasize the crazy nature of black friday coupled with the interesting way Best Buy does customer service: I call the number on my receipt to see if they have any more of this monitor in stock so I can swap it out before they sell out. I don't get the store but a rep in a centralized call center (after going through a voice activated prompt system followed by umpteen minutes of hold music) who tells me to package it up and take it to the store. Captain Obvious is on the job folks! Nothing like asking a question and getting an answer to a question you didn't ask.)
The store takes the monitor and refunds my money. I ask about getting another and am told that they sold out a few hours ago however they're getting another truck in tonight so I should check back in the morning. A few hours pass and the thought occurs, "what if they don't get any on that truck tomorrow?" (I blame sleep deprivation for not thinking of this while in the store :P ) so back to Best Buy I go. Just for giggles I check the back, still no monitors, guess no one returned any that were working. I queue up at customer service and wait around to be told in very uncertain terms that I can check back tomorrow and she's not sure if I could wait until more come in and get the sale price because the sale would be over.
Sounds dubious but whatever, I'm tired of being in Best Buy and want to play some WoW and hang out with the lovely Mrs Fin so I head home to do just that.
Day breaks. (not like the monitor though, it's still light out) Saturday morning 0815 I stroll into Best Buy and head back to the monitor area. No dice. Back up to customer service to go through the song and dance. I ask for a supervisor. Jamie takes my receipt to the back, chats with I don't know who and a few minutes later comes back to say, "sorry, we can't do rainchecks. If you'd kept it instead of returning it you could have swapped it when we got more in."*
...
so it's *my* fault?!?
* not her exact words but that was the gist of it
At this point my own customer service experience was overshadowed by an urge to go Milton on the Best Buy. Instead I threw down my Reward Zone card, said, "I won't be needing that anymore" and rolled out.
Quarter mile down the road cooled me off enough to remember that if you go high enough you reach the folks that can make the right decision. If you think I learned that working in customer service, you're wrong. I learned it first from Mel Gibson in Payback ;)
Back to Best Buy, asked for the manager this time. She tells me the same thing. I tell her there has to be a way to make this right because there's no way customer service can tell me it's my fault. She heads to the back and Nick from Digital Technologies comes out to remedy the situation.
The fix? I buy the broken monitor back and swap it with a good one when they come in next week or week after and they'll be so nice as to call me when they arrive. Better yet! My monitor was shipped out last night so I buy a receipt and a claim check for the new monitor and let myself get talked into the 3 yr warranty. Wasn't going to but figured if the first one blew up I might as well drop the $25.
So yeah. Best Buy not so much Best Customer Service and I need to focus more at the start of these things so I'm not running amuck for a day and a half trying to get a resolution.
/rant off
-Fin
Update 6 Jan 2007
Got the new monitor a week after the aforementioned fiasco. It's been working splendidly (save for one green pixel) and I r teh happeh camper. Also got a Best Buy GC for Christmas but haven't found anything worth spending it on :P
So when I rolled out to Best Buy yesterday morning at 0400, stood in line with 500 other folks in the cold to try and snag whatever precious bit of advertised technology we could before it sold out, customer service was the last thing on my mind. The Best buy folks were cordial albeit firm in their directing of traffic (it reminded me vaguely of Disneyworld but less subtle in the crowd control).
All this changed when, after playing WoW for two hours on my happy new LCD monitor, it goes out. kaput. Black screen of death.
(I add this next bit only to emphasize the crazy nature of black friday coupled with the interesting way Best Buy does customer service: I call the number on my receipt to see if they have any more of this monitor in stock so I can swap it out before they sell out. I don't get the store but a rep in a centralized call center (after going through a voice activated prompt system followed by umpteen minutes of hold music) who tells me to package it up and take it to the store. Captain Obvious is on the job folks! Nothing like asking a question and getting an answer to a question you didn't ask.)
The store takes the monitor and refunds my money. I ask about getting another and am told that they sold out a few hours ago however they're getting another truck in tonight so I should check back in the morning. A few hours pass and the thought occurs, "what if they don't get any on that truck tomorrow?" (I blame sleep deprivation for not thinking of this while in the store :P ) so back to Best Buy I go. Just for giggles I check the back, still no monitors, guess no one returned any that were working. I queue up at customer service and wait around to be told in very uncertain terms that I can check back tomorrow and she's not sure if I could wait until more come in and get the sale price because the sale would be over.
Sounds dubious but whatever, I'm tired of being in Best Buy and want to play some WoW and hang out with the lovely Mrs Fin so I head home to do just that.
Day breaks. (not like the monitor though, it's still light out) Saturday morning 0815 I stroll into Best Buy and head back to the monitor area. No dice. Back up to customer service to go through the song and dance. I ask for a supervisor. Jamie takes my receipt to the back, chats with I don't know who and a few minutes later comes back to say, "sorry, we can't do rainchecks. If you'd kept it instead of returning it you could have swapped it when we got more in."*
...
so it's *my* fault?!?
* not her exact words but that was the gist of it
At this point my own customer service experience was overshadowed by an urge to go Milton on the Best Buy. Instead I threw down my Reward Zone card, said, "I won't be needing that anymore" and rolled out.
Quarter mile down the road cooled me off enough to remember that if you go high enough you reach the folks that can make the right decision. If you think I learned that working in customer service, you're wrong. I learned it first from Mel Gibson in Payback ;)
Back to Best Buy, asked for the manager this time. She tells me the same thing. I tell her there has to be a way to make this right because there's no way customer service can tell me it's my fault. She heads to the back and Nick from Digital Technologies comes out to remedy the situation.
The fix? I buy the broken monitor back and swap it with a good one when they come in next week or week after and they'll be so nice as to call me when they arrive. Better yet! My monitor was shipped out last night so I buy a receipt and a claim check for the new monitor and let myself get talked into the 3 yr warranty. Wasn't going to but figured if the first one blew up I might as well drop the $25.
So yeah. Best Buy not so much Best Customer Service and I need to focus more at the start of these things so I'm not running amuck for a day and a half trying to get a resolution.
/rant off
-Fin
Update 6 Jan 2007
Got the new monitor a week after the aforementioned fiasco. It's been working splendidly (save for one green pixel) and I r teh happeh camper. Also got a Best Buy GC for Christmas but haven't found anything worth spending it on :P
posted by Fineous Reese at 11:13
1 Comments:
Me love customer service.
[in Homer Simpson voice] "Extended Warranty? How can I go wrong?"
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