Instore Pickup is a Joke
 

I fell for the idiocy of instore pickup last Christmas. Thinking I'd avoid the lines I ordered a cheap item online from Circuit City. I print out my reciept, drive to the strore, only to wait in a line twice as long as the normal checkout lanes. Me and three other smart shoppers joked on how much time we 'saved'. When I finally get to the cashier, I expect to hand her my ID and reciept and pick up my order. Instead, she has to run my credit card again, and then sends me to another line. In the end, it took me 30 minutes to pick up an item that I could've gotten in 5.

Fast forward to now. Thursday, I was in BestBuy and saw a harddrive I wanted. Friday as I'm about to leave work at 6pm, I decide to buy it. I hit the Best Buy website to print out the rebate stuff and get entranced by the 'get it now' button. I think, 'What the hell, I'll just pay for it now, and pick it up on the way home, and while I'm at it, I'll get a DVD, too.' Bing bang boom, I order the stuff online, and am greeted with a message saying to wait for an email telling me to come get my stuff...which usually takes under 2 hours. 2 hours? Why does it wake 2 hours to take a box from one part of the store and move it to the front? So instead of getting my stuff on the way home and relaxing with 'Equilibrium', I head home(driving past the Best Buy store) and wait for the magical email.

6:45..no email..7:45 no email.. 8:45.. no email. Now this is just ridiculous. I know there's a stack of harddrives right by the counter. The DVD section is 25 feet from that. I figure that somehow the email got lost and head down before they close. I go to the counter with my id , reciept and card ready. But no. It's not there. The guy behind the counter starts in with 'They haven't brought it up from the back, if you didn't get an email then it's not ready.' I point out that the item is right 'there'(pointing to a stack of harddrives lined up on the aisle). 'blah blah...It has to go through the system...blah blah'.
By now I'm over it and tell him I just want to cancel the online order and just buy it. He points me to a PC in a kiosk. He can't just cancel it from there? Nope. So I go to the kiosk, feeling like an idiot, and on the website, theres no way to cancel an order. This is not good. I go back and tell this to Mr. Helpful who says that if I just don't pick it up, then my card won't be charged. (which is only half true). Long story short, I leave Best Buy without a DVD, without a harddrive, and with the understanding that InStore Pickup is a joke.

D

Go figure, now 18 hours later, I get the email saying it's ready for pickup....

The Bestbuy situation is your own fault. They tell you exaclty how it's going to go down and that it may take 24 hrs to prepare. You are not to do anything until you receive the conf. email.

CC, however, should be quick and painless. It was for me just last week.

Never had a problem with the 3 times I've used Circuit City instore pickup. I leave to pick it up as soon as I order it and they'll have it ready for me by the time I get there.

BB can't do anything right, so it's a given they are going to make it a hassle.

PS. Shouldn't this go in the store forum?

Yeah the BB pickup is horrid. I ordered a TV a few months ago, and for several weeks I got daily e-mails saying "the item is not available for in-store pickup" and my debit card was charged twice for the item. The e-mail said I should renew the order within a certain number of days or else it'd get cancelled. Unfortunately it never stopped... I had to call Best Buy and cancel the order myself and wait a couple more weeks for my money to be refunded.

The only time I use their in-store pickup is with online coupons (very rare for BB) with which I'll grab a DVD. Usually I wait 2 - 3 days before being told the DVD has finally made it the 10 yards from shelf to pickup counter.

AND EVEN THEN I usually go to the store and they have to hunt on the shelves for my DVD.

Gee Derrich, thanks for making me rant! ;)

I used in-store pickup once and had to wait while a blue shirt went to look for the DVD I had ordered on the shelves of the DVD section as well.

I go <b><i>in</i></b> the <b><i>store</i></b> and <b><i>pick up</i></b> the item I want and pay for it and then go home.

Works fine.
-wink-

I had a similar thing happen to me at Circuit City with an extremely good price on a Video Card for my computer. The only Circuit City is way across town, so I did the instore pickup option, thinking they would be holding one for me at the counter. I drove up there and went to the counter (no line, fortunately) and presented my receipt and they had no idea what to do with it. Eventually they had someone else come over and escort me to the shelf and get the last one they had. It worked out fine for me, since I got what I came for with almost no hassle and a great price, but it's not exactly all it's cracked up to be.

I may as well contribute my BB in store pick up story:

I live about 30 miles from the nearest Best Buy, so I decided it would be easier to make my purchases this way, especially for newly released DVDs that I knew they didn't get many copies of. Anyway, I did this a few times, and it worked great. I'd place my order early tuesday morning, and pick it up that evening.

Well, on probably my third or fourth order, I took the email in and they didn't have my DVD behind the counter. I waited for several minutes while they looked for it before I finally went to the shelf picked one up and they used that one.

So, I thought I'd try one more time a couple weeks later. I get the email, and go to pick up my DVD, and instead of what I'd ordered that day, they give me the one they couldn't find two weeks before.

So, yeah, Best Buy's in store pick up is worthless.

I've never had a problem with in-store pickup at BB. I just waited for the email and each time that I went they had my DVD waiting behind the counter or one time it was still in the "back" as it had been picked up by the CSR and matched to my order, but they hadn't brought up that day's batch of in-store pickups yet. When they went to get it, it took maybe 2 minutes before they returned.

I knew that this was going to be about Best Buy before I opened the thread :(

Benn there done that. CC is supposed ot be good though.

BB doesn't want you to use in store pickup, they only offer it because people demanded it. They keep it as inconvenient as possible. BB wants you to wander the store, impulse buy from their conveniently located displays, and walk out of there with more than you wanted. In store pick up defeats this.

Always wondered exactly how good this would work..guess not that great for most, especially with BB!

With free shipping on everything, I haven't been into a Best Buy store in months.

Interesting scenario. They never scanned my card when I picked my stuff up at BB tonight. They just gave me the bag and waved me out the door. Now, after looking at the website, my suspicions were confiremd and that's not how it was supposed to go down.

Does that mean that, unless I notify them otherwise, my order is free?

Or that you can go back and pick it up AGAIN?! :)

i tried it at circuitcity before and it was great... i ordered on the night of thanksgiving, and picked up the item the day after thanksgiving...

only bad thing was, the dvd player was defective, so i had to go back to CC and get a refund, because they were out of those apex players by the time i got home and got back.

Maybe that's also the same logic that they use with their web site... which has to be one of the worst 'major' sites I've ever seen. Navigation is horrible, searching is damn near impossible, and -- more often than not -- I'll hit a bad link.

Maybe they hope that I'll give up and go to the store? (Instead of my usual approach of giving up and going to Amazon.)

Haha - excellent thread!

I've used the BB pick up in store option, and it is really a joke.

When they had hard to find Dreamcast games available online, I'd pick them up in-store. The only BB close to me is about 20 minutes away - so rather than waste a trip, I'd know it was there ready for me. Unfortunately, you've got to stand in the CS line that lasts forever with the one person doing a half-ass job. I now only use the In-store pickup for a popular item that I won't be able to go early and pick up.

Having to deal with the customer service there is enough to make a person go nuts.

Was the item that you ordered a Black Friday sales item? That is a great idea if it was.

I have tried the BB instore pickup a few times. Product is never at the pick up counter.

I have received a $25 gift certificate every time for my inconvenience. Essentially, they paid for my purchase every time. Even for free, it is still a big hassle.