Get this...

I needed a large hard drive quick so I go to the mall. Best Buy has a deal for a 200GB WD drive for $219 after rebate. I pick it up. I get back to the office and open it up. Inside the box is the following content:

• WDC 31600 Hard drive with inkjet 200GB drive label. For those who don't know older WD drive naming conventions, the 31600 is a 1.6GB drive with 3 platters.
• 40 conductor IDE cable (instead of 80)
• Shitty PCI video card (instead of ATA133 card)

I assumed that someone was screwing with Best Buy by buying a drive and then returning it with their old drive in the box. But, the more I thought about it and the more I learned about Best Buy's return procedure, I am confident that this was an inside job.

Needless to say, Best Buy assumes that I am pulling a scam on them and will not refund me. So far I have talked to Best Buy in West Nyack, NY (the offending store), some dork at Best Buy corporate, and a couple people at Western Digital. Best Buy (local store and corporate) couldn't give a shit about me. Western Digital can't help me, but I expected that. The WD guy told me that this is not uncommon with "these stores." He also intimated that my local store has been named in the past.

What should I do before disputing it with American Express and/or suing my store? Can anyone here that works at Best Buy process this return? Thanks. Oh, and if people are interested, I will post some pics of this bogus drive later.

I would strongly recommend contacting the corporate headquarters and asking for someone in "Loss Prevention." Those folks know that most loss in retail comes from employees and I am pretty sure they will take it seriously. I don't know anyone in loss prevention at Best Buy, but I know quite a few people in this field at other retailers and I know they'd be happy to speak to you if this had happened at one of their stores.

I live in Minneapolis, which is where Best Buy is headquartered, so I called them for you. The corporate loss prevention department advised that you call the district loss prevention manager (DLPM in Best Buy lingo).

I learned that your store is store #455, which you can mention.

The DLPM for store 455 is Monica Hubbard: 845-366-8300. Monica works for Phil Chacra, Regional Loss Prevention Manager. Phil can be reached at 516-832-3000.

I don't know if these people can authorize a refund for you, but if you can assist them in an investigation that shows wrong doing, I'm sure they will help you get your refund.

FWIW,

Jim

Man, I tell ya, people on this board either know everything, or can get you the info you need from someone real quick... I hope you get it straightened out, Rob...

Wow! Thanks for this info and your help. I will call tomorrow!

I worked at best buy about 7 years ago right outa high school. this kinda of thing happened Daily, but we were told to give the customer the benefit of the doubt as all returns were to be inspected by us computer techs. IMO it looks like the person accepting returns at that store looked on the side of the box to verifiy its contents without getting someone who actually knew what they were lookin at, and put it back on the shelf.

Did you use a credit card?

Yeah, I used an Amex card. Thankfully I used that card instead of MasterCard or Visa. Amex has a much better reputation for taking the customer's side.

Aw man, that really sucks! I really hope you can get this straightened out.

I know how you feel, I got screwed too recently when I bought a Nokia Cell phone. The one I received was defective, and when I returned it they told me : damage due to water, so sorry, no warranty.
This was a BRAND new phone. It turned out that one of their employees switched the PCB board of the phone with a defective one. (so their technical report was correct : this PCB DID have water damage, it just wasn't the PCB out of MY phone!) I was able to proove this with the serial number. But even then they didn't believe me. The treatment I got was, to say the least, very rude.

To top it all off I found out that the defective switched PCB I got was a PCB out of a stolen Nokia phone.

I finally was able to solve it because I pulled a few strings, but needless to say I'll never frequent that store again. I'll might even go as far as contacting a consumer organisation or my local DA. I'm not sure about that yet.

rob, that sucks.

As someone with a decent amount of 'cutomer service' experience, my advice to you if calling the Loss Prevention number doesn't work, is to go back to the store, ask for the manager and talk to them.

BE A DICK. That is the best advice I could give you. This is the way it works in all retail store/restaurants. If and when the manager blows you off, ask for his/her manager (the General Manager of the store) if they are not there, set up a meeting. This is as high as you should have to take the issue. Trust me, the bigger dick you are to these people, the faster you get what you want. The nice customers are the ones that get taken advantage of. Here is a sample of what I would say:

me: Hi my name is Matt, nice to meet you.
GM: Hi my name is Jackass, what can I do for you?
me: Well, I bought this great HD, and when I opened it, it turned out to be this huge piece of shit. I brought it back to return it, but your employees called me a liar, and refused to refund my money.
GM: Hmmmm.... I don't think they would call you a liar...
me: What are you trying to say? You don't believe me?
GM: No I'm not saying that, it's just that...
me: WHAT?!!?, Just what?
GM: Well, I...uh...
me: Ok, let me make this easy for you. What are you going to do about this piece of shit HD?
GM: I'm not sure I can do anything for you.
me: Oh really. I think you can, and if you can't, I'm sure your boss can, and he would love to know that your employees call the customers liars to their face. What's your boss' name?
GM: I'm sure we can work something out. Let me take a look at that HD. What did you say happened?

This is how the conversation would go. Really.

BE A DICK. That is the best advice I could give you.

But, don't yell, or ever raise your voice. Nothing like a calm sounding irate person to get things done in retail.

Also, when you start dealing with managment that is pretty high in the chain, be nice. Being a dick to them tends to just get you ignored at that level.

In my experience, being firm, but extremely nice is the way to get things done. Never ever yell, but don't take no for an answer. Just keep fighting your way up the chain, someone always eventually says yes.

I just have to post this link whenever someone has a problem with best buy

http://www.citypages.com/databank/22/1062/article9482.asp

A big corperation that behaves badly?! Stop the presses!

I rarely shop at best buy, but when I'm making the rounds of stores looking for prices, I stop in. Usually when I leave I tell the person who asks me if I found what I needed I say "No, Joe XXXX was too busy doing XXXX to help me." or didn't understand what I needed (clueless) or was rude, etc... The other day while shopping for speakers/amps/etc, I stopped by best buy, their selection sucked so I was going to to ask the guy in the dept for help (I had time to kill) so I stared at him for almost 2 minutes solid waiting for him to ask if I needed help. Not once did he stop talking to the chick who I overheard wasn't interested in buying anything, but whom he knew by name.... So I walked out and told the person by the door the guy in the car audio dept was too busy hitting on a girl to help me and they just lost about $1000 worth of sale and left.

This is a normal best buy experience for me.

Don't even get me started on nebraska furnature mart (yet, they also sell A LOT of electronics). The fastest way to get service there was to get my girlfriend to put a ring on her left hand and pretend we were married. Go figure on that one... Apparently single 20 something males with polo shirts from a tech company on aren't big purchasers of electronics, but young newlyweds are. That, and the older couple with 4 screaming kids who want to buy the cheapest junk pc they can find, while lonely old me sits in the corner with a big chunk of cash to spend on some newfangled gadget.

The story with best buy that really bothers me is how they in conjuction with the city of richfield kicked out several auto dealerships from a high traffic area so best buy could build their ugly headquarters there. I have no idea why the hell best buy would give a crap where there headquarters is located it's not like people have to go shop there. The stupidity with the housing doesn't bother me as much I am sure they wanted to get it all cleared out before the lawsuits started.

I haven't made a purchase there since but it hasn't really been that anyway hard since they suck so bad.

The married vs single thing makes no sense I would expect married guys to buy less gadgets where as the single guy has no one to justify it to.

It's funny Best Buy is brought up on the empeg forum....

my biggest pet peave about them is when going in with empeg under-arm and the guy at the door with the damn sticker gun perks up ready to slap one on my empeg. Sometimes I keep walking not even looking back with the guy trailing behind me till I get about 3 or 4 rows in, at which time he gives up either shrugging or throwing his hands up(I know this because my friends who usually come with me love this game and watch his reaction). Other times I just turn my empeg away from him and say "oh no you don't, they don't sell this here or anywhere else for that matter" while still continuing to walk away from him. That always seems to put them in their place.

I do this because the 1st time I went in there with the empeg I thought he was just gonna check it out to make sure it wasn't a product I was returning or somethin and got me with the damn sticker that I spent the next 10 minutes trying to peel off (they must purposely make the damn things fall apart when trying to peel off).

I had them do that to me once when I went in there with a friend. I asked the guy if he even knew what the empeg was. I have had to go to their current HQ a couple times one of the buildings has a metal detector but they didn't use it.

My favorite part of the Best Buy experience is when, on my way out of the store, they try to examine the products I just purchased ten seconds ago. I usually get people following me out the door as they try to examine some stuff that I own while I ignore them the whole way.

Bah, that story is far less horrible then most. It sure sounds like a lovely plot of land, with "substandard" housing and two auto dealerships.

Frankly, I love Best Buy. Yes, there is a hell of a lot that I would never buy there, but I don't go there for speakers and such, I go there for CDs and DVDs. The fact is, they have huge stores, the lowest prices on most televisions, and are one of the last stores to carry small household appliances, at least in my area.

I know why the CDs are cheap, but when I can get them for $13 (or $7 recently), I don't much care.

The housing part only bothers me because I always have to hear there isn't enough "afforadable housing" then there is a chance to get some cheap houses and they don't give a crap.

The lovely plot part bothers me because I don't want a city to have the ability to steal property from one person and give it to another just because they like them better. If you don't think it's a big deal that's fine I disagree but the people that drive me nuts are the ones that agree that it sucks and continue to shop there because they are too cheap / lazy to go someplace else.

(How much longer will the cd's be cheap )

Hey Rob...

Sorry to hear about your problem, I hope you can stick it to them! Seems like the "customer is always right" is not the attitude at Bestbuy. Here in Canada, we have FutureShop...which ironically is owned by Bestbuy now and has even worse customer service than you have experienced...maybe we are the testing ground for a new low standard in provided customer service...

My biggest peeve is that they now seem to have started a policy of assaulting customers. I very rarely seek help at ANY store, because the average person working there knows very little. Now I've got someone coming up to me every 5 seconds saying "Hi, I just wanted to tell you that I'm not on commision, and want to know how to help you today". If I have to hear that spiel one more time I'm going to scream. You'd have to be pretty dumb to think that an employee on the opposite side of the store from where you check out is on commision.

That, and they make it a point to greet you at the door. I usually walk straight through and make it a game to see if I can avoid the "meeter".

Heh, so I guess I have the opposite problem you guys are having

Greeter: "Hi, how are you?"

You: "Suck my dick."

Greeter: "I'm not on commision"

You: "I'll pay you by the hour"

Greeter: "How much"

You: "Depends..."

Greeter: "Suck your own dick"

You: "Fine then."

3rd party: "This is a stick up. Stick 'em up"

Greeter: "Suck my dick"

3rd party: *Bang*

Greeter: "Ouch"

You: "Suck it now, Biiiaatch"

3rd Party: "I bought a piece of [censored] hard drive"

Manager: "Okay I'll exchange it for you"

3rd Party: "Too late now, mofo. Give me a big screen, a dvd player, a bar code scanner gun, and a Britney Spears CD."

Manager: "Okayyy"

You: "Wanna go to Disneyland"

3rd Party: "No thanks, I just got back from Six Flags."

Manger: "Come 'on?"

3rd Party: "Yeah, for rizzle my nizzle, shizzle."

Manger: "Take this Girls Gone WIld Spring Break box set and we'll call it even"

3rd Party: "nay"

You: "Aye"

Manger: "har har"

Everyone: "hah hah hah ho ho hum"

You: "And a bottle of rum..."

as always, you are a wonderfully insightful contributor to our society.

3rd Party: "Too late now, mofo. Give me a big screen, a dvd player, a bar code scanner gun, and a Britney Spears CD."


I use the word mofo quite often and almost came close to saying it to the "Assistant Manager."

3rd Party: "Too late now, mofo. Give me a big screen, a dvd player, a bar code scanner gun, and a Britney Spears CD

Amusing.

Well, Rob, I'm sorry to hear about what happened. Was the box shrink wrapped? I've seen this form of hardware piracy before... but like 6 years ago (guess this) when Computer City was still around. Buy new video card, drop crappy card in the box, get a friend to shrink wrap it, return it. This sounds more likely this is happening in-store.

About the salesmen thing... I enjoy ignoring them too. One day I was testing a VCD I wrote on their DVD players and no one ever came over.. even half way through watching an episode of the Simpsons. I usually research beforehand... and on a recend digital camera purchase, strolled into a local CompUSA to handle the camera, then I bought it cheap online.

Yeah, the box was shrink wraped.

Does anyone know the precedent regarding "*sucks.com" websites? Will I have legal troubles if I put a site up with best buy in the URL?

Someone beat you to it:
http://www.bestbuysux.org

I enjoyed this read thoroughly after my run in with them over a DVD player a couple of years ago. I still have not stepped foot into a best buy since.

Oh, I think there's room for one more.

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haha good work rob