Best Buy, Bad Customer Service

Saturday morning, NYEBoy went to watch some TV but the TV decided that it was the perfect day to die. We spent several hours trying to find the right TV. While we were at Best Buy, we fell in love with the Samsung 40c630. They had a display marked down quite a bit that was last years model. We asked the guy if he would hold it for an hour, so we could go grab a bite to eat and to look up some reviews. While we were at dinner, we did just that. Afterwards, we drove right back to Best Buy to pick up our new TV.

As we were walking down the aisle, I couldn't see the edge of our TV on the wall, but I could see some guy leaning over toward the ground. Once we got to the end of the aisle, I saw two guys wrapping the TV up. I smiled really big because they were getting it ready for us since we they knew we were coming back. As soon as the guys saw us, they looked at each other with the "oh shit" expression. I knew right then, something wasn't right.

The guy said that while were gone, the TV was sold by another sales person to a guy that had been in earlier that day. Unlike the other guy, we asked for the ticket to be removed and they agreed to put the TV on hold for an hour. We even watched him remove the tag from the case and put it away. I was livid. NYEBoy was livid.

I don't know if they guy couldn't tell that we were very fucking pissed off, but he didn't really seem to care. He blew it off basically. We stood there like 'WTF just happened'. We questioned the guy a few times about trying to find another TV similar in value and specs. He tried to show us a few TVs but the picture just wasn't anything at all like the one we had taken from us.

I decided to ask the guy if he could give us the price of the old one for the new one since THEY agreed to hold the TV and we were coming back to purchase it, like we said, in less than an hour. He said the best he could do was $150 off the price, but that was still quite a bit more than the other one that we wanted. Both of the TVs were more than we were hoping to spend, but the display was marked down enough to make it worth blowing the budget for. I questioned him some more, but he was firm that it was as low as he could go. I walked away.

As we were walking away, feeling jipped and hurt, I told NYEBoy I was going to go talk to a manager before I left. I had already been warned by the sales person that even the manager couldn't do anything lower, but I didn't care. I was on the verge of tears (remember, lack of sleep, plus cleaning, plus a sick kid) and I needed someone else to know. I explained the situation with the manager, but his expression was pretty mute. I finally just said "Look, your sales person told me he could hold the TV for an hour, but sold it before I came back, less than an hour later. I am very upset and I want to be compensated."

Realizing an "I'm sorry." wasn't going to be sufficient, the manager walked with me over to the televisions and ended up knocking the price to within $30 of the other TV. I was happy with that. It was only $30 more, but it was this years model and actually in the box, not a display. What more could I ask for?

Moral of the story?

If you like it, buy it.

If you say you will hold something for a customer for a given time, don't sell it during that time.

If you don't and they don't, then go complain. With a little luck, everything will work out.


We're completely smitten with the new TV.

If you're looking to buy a new TV (or find yourself having to without a choice) I would recomend this TV. The pictures are so fucking crisp. (Oh how I would love to see that line listed in the specs.) In fact, NYEBoy was playing a video game on it and I thought he was watching a sports game. Even Spongebob and iCarly look a little more clear now.