No, not in the case of people who buy stuff and then don't watch it for extended periods of time, but perhaps keeping in mind the posted return policy will keep you from wasting your time trying to get special treatment at the store and go straight to the studio if something ends up being wrong (or even understanding that waiting long periods of time before watching the DVDs may lead to simply being out of luck on a replacement should there be a defect.)

I assume, though, that if the CSR breaks corp. policy, he has to back it up when his manager asks about it. And while the logic you use makes sense, can you imagine having to explain all of that? Much easier to just reject it because of corp. policy, don't you think, especially because the CSR gets no personal gain by accepting the return.

If they really wanted to please customers, don't you think they'd have more than a couple CSR reps available when there's a return line going out the door?

The problem with making execeptions is that they lead to pissing people off when you don't make exceptions for them. The line has to be drawn somewhere and no matter where the line is drawn, it's going to piss someone off.

If they had made an exception for this guy, do they make an exception for the DVD purchased a year ago? Two years ago? I have a copy of Hoosiers that I must've bought at least three years ago that I've never watched. If it turns out to be defective (and I could find my receipt), should Best Buy exchange it for me?

I bought a lot of DVDs at Best Buy, but I might have purchased only one DVD or DVD set on the particular day that I got the defective one. Should this guy get different treatment because that particular receipt shows a larger purchase? That would cause me to boycott when making everyone follow the printed policy would not. (If I ever get around to watching "Hoosiers" and it ends up being a defective disc, I'm not even going to try to return it to the store, though I guess I should and then get mad and boycott the store when they won't exchange it).

I honestly don't want to see a situation where a store's return policy is dictated by how the manager happens to feel that day, what can be shown on that particular receipt and how the manager happens to size me up personally.

Here's a question, too, since Wal-Mart was brought into the situation. Would they have exchanged the DVD with receipt, assuming his purchase of "a few months ago" was more than three months ago?

It just bugs me when people get mad because they refused to follow the rules themselves. The kind of people that think they deserve special treatment or belong in a special class of people. I don't necessarily fault the OP for attempting the exchange. You never know when someone's going to give you a break, but if that had happened, it really would've been doing the OP a favor. It shouldn't have been something that was expected and when it didn't happen, cause the OP to boycott the store. The manager was doing his job. He was following the return policy that the OP should've been perfectly aware of. And yet he's chastised for not breaking it.

Sure, it would've been nice to do it and had the manager broken the rules, the OP should've been very grateful. But when it didn't happen, the appropriate response would be to look inward rather than lashing out at the guy doing his job.

I have been inspired by the OP, though. I'm going to Best Buy this afternoon and insisting that I get a special check-out line. I shouldn't have to wait in line. I've spent a lot of money at Best Buy. And if they don't give me what I want, I'm boycotting!

Eh, we've all boycotted Best buy at one time or another... until they have something on sale that we want. Heh.

I can't tell you how many times I've "boycotted" Frys before...

I never said that Best Buy was interested in pleasing anyone. I said they should be. Any company that lets an Angels & Demons type philosophy get out to the public doesn't care that much for the average customer. I never said the CSR should make this decision, it should be left up to the manager always.

As for the question from BigDan about Wal-Mart taking something back that is over a year old, they will in most cases. Wal-Mart Management is taught the same thing I explained in the previous post about weighing the risk of the return. If Hoosiers is defective, go to a Wal-Mart that does a high volume of business you have an excellent shot of a swap if they have the item in stock.

As for the question of preferred treatment for more frequent or higher spending customers, I realize no one wants to hear this but YES there is a double standard. It has always been in big business that those who spend more will invariably receive better treatment. I am not saying that the person who has a receipt with only one DVD should not be treated the same as someone who buys 20 DVDs a week but only that if the person who buys 20 DVDs a week should have a problem, his purchases can weigh in favor of the level of service he receives.

This arguement only applies in situations where items can be exchanged with little or no cost to the store so that eliminates about 98% of Best Buy's product. So the previous iPod issue would not come into play.

Eckards was advertising the indy set for, i think, 34.99, basicly it was ten bucks cheaper than best buys price.

as far as i know, there was a huge thread on this back when it was relevent, quite a lot of people got BB to price match it.

their policy is useless since they can uphold it, or break it or bend it regardless. while eckards may have not had stock the first week (i don't know) there was speculation it could of been a misprice, however they then advertised again the next week, at the same price, with their stores now stocked in it.

bestbuy would not price match it for me, since they "weren't" the same product. IE, BB had a bonus disc. After being told that i grabbed a copy that didn't have the bonus disc. now i was told that the price was too low for them to justify price matching it. When they denied me the initial price match i still bought it and then the next day came back to get the 10% difference. still no go. i returned it and got it from eckards.

i'm not in a rage over it but it's not the only time i have had major problems at best buy. so i decided not to go their. if they have something cheap i can always go to circuit city which actually lives up to their policy.

The problem with that, though, is how does Best Buy know how much I spend on DVDs when weighing whether to give me better service? They can't easily look up my purchases before deciding whether to do me a favor by breaking their policy. And even if they could, I, like a lot of people, pay cash a good deal of the time when making purchases of that kind of merchandise. So, if I go in there with a problem, they have no idea and no real way of knowing, how good of a customer I am.

And even still, I will agree that it's probably good customer service that costs the company virtually nothing to just exchange the damn thing, but I still hate that the OP felt entitled to have the rules broken for him and when that didn't happen, he got pissed off enough to want to boycott the place (and cause others to join in by posting his story here).

Had the manager broken policy, do you think we'd have seen the story posted here as an example of how Best Buy goes out of its way to make sure the customer is satisfied? It's possible, but I tend to doubt it (since the OP seems to feel that the manager going out of his way to break the rules especially for him was not really going out of his way but something he deserved because he spends $1,000 per year at the store (which, really, doesn't make him all that big of a whale in terms of that store's revenues. Even at $15.99 per DVD, that's only 1.2 DVDs per week on average, which would be more DVDs than he bought given that he bought box sets, etc. and had over $100 on one receipt. So maybe the manager did take into account how big of a customer the OP was and decided he wasn't worth breaking the rules for).

EDITED because I put a "she" in the wrong place trying to correct my assumption that the manager was male.

I don't understand price matching. Seems like a hassle that's more trouble than just going to the place that has the lower price in the first place. If I saw Eckards had the lower price on something I wanted, I'd just go to Eckards (when there was an Eckards).

But you do point out an example of how it can be dangerous to have a policy that allows for managers to deviate. With a set price match policy, either the other folks don't get the price match or this poster does get the price match. Allowing the manager to make the decision ended up driving away a customer.

Letting the OP break the return policy and then not letting someone else just exhanges one pissed off customer for another.

Is there a law about return periods in cases where the buyer got something that is clearly defective? I ask because on The People's Court yesterday, a guy bought a watch that broke two times in a month or so. Even though the store had a policy of no returns for cash (store credit only), he got his money back because you can't sell something that doesn't work and say "too bad, read our policy."

If there were no scratches and the disc didn't work a few months after purchase, it seems clear to me that BB sold a bad disc. Wouldn't this be a similar case or is there some legal time limit that passed?

1. People's court does not equal reality.
2. For the times it does, it applies California law. And California is not a part of New England.

LOL Wildcat. You should write responses for the Pirate Bay. :)

I don't think it uses California law anymore. I say this because I learned on the show that in the state of New York, a parent isn't held liable for his or her children's actions unless the parent was negligent. So there are a lot of cases where little Johny has a judgement against him and the plaintiff can just wait ten or fifteen years till he can afford to pay it. Of course, the judgements for the show are paid out of a fund, but if that's how it's really done, :lol:

This is basically what I have been trying to say. Maybe the original poster should just say he's boycotting Best Buy because they do not think with the customer in mind all of the time. I could see if it came to the point were one customer was coming in over and over with past due items but that is no the case. I think your response is the best way to handle these situations.

While this basic logic looks correct there is much more to it than that. You need to take into consideration the cost Best Buy puts out as a company to attract new customers to their store. At the fiscal end of 2004 that average cost was about $537 worth of advertising per new customer. Out of those customers 4 in 5 will spend less than $100 a month. (the other two will spend significantly more) So our boycotting customer fits into the latter category so Best Buy will have to spend $2685 (Number of new customers x cost of each new customer) to recruit this level of customer back. Not to mention there is at least a few people who will invariably boycott Best Buy by reading this thread for who knows what reasons. So if only three other customers boycott that can cost Besy Buy up to $10,000 to recoup these losses.

But I do agree with you that it is irritating when people feel like they should get special treatment. But as far as good customers go, if you are a good enough customer this issue never will come up. Many of the 2 local Best Buys are on a first name basis with me. My advice, get to know the store people if you shop there often. It can help with things like this in the long run.

I boycott them based on their price matching.
The hassle you go through unlike Circuit City or Wal-Mart where it's there you show them the ad and they match it.

I've worked in retail for about 20 years now, and it seems like every customer that walks in feels entitled to special treatment, irrespective of how much money they spend or how often they shop in our store. Customers who abuse our staff and policies get much less consideration for any problem or perceived problem than good customers who don't...and yes, we do take each complaint on a case-by-case basis. If you want special treatment, don't make yourself a pain in the ass to the staff; we've heard it all before, and no matter how much you whine about policy (and our adherence to it), how rigorously it is applied is largely dependent on your behavior, your demeanor, and the likelihood of you causing problems in the future. We help nice people; the rest of you are the reason Best Buy established the "angel/devil" format, and all the attendant stuff that comes with it.

And no, I don't work at Best Buy.

What is the devil/angel format?

We just got a BB in my town and I've been in twice. Not too impressed. I purchased National Treasure there because the matched Walmart's price and had a bonus disk. However, browsing that store was the most annoying shopping experience I've had in a while. You couldn't look at anything, in any department, without a salesperson coming up and trying to introduce himself, shake hands, and start a conversation. While I was browsing DVDs FIVE seperate salespeople approached me to ask if they could help me find something. When I checked out with National Treasure it rang up a few dollars higher than the shelf price. The cashier made me fill out a form with my name and address to get the shelf price! I'm not impressed, to say the least. I won't turn down a bargain from there, but I won't be a regular customer.

I would say the eagernes of the help was more a fact of it being a new store. That will decrease in time.

People need to learn to tell the cashier's to shove it when they ask for that info. I never give it. If they really press it, I write things like George Lucas, 123 Skywaker Ranch, Endor, District of Columbia R2D2.

Wall Mart never gives me any trouble bringing DVDs back without a reciept.

Like the cashier enjoys asking you that stuff. Talk to the manager if you have a problem.

heaven forbid a store worker actually does his/her job

I was about to say the same thing. Whenever I go into a newer Best Buy, there are people all over the place, asking me if I need assistance. It's not really annoying to me, as they've been genuinely helpful, eager to check prices in the computer, and overall very customer-oriented. They try to do the usual sell for free subs, service plans, etc., but they don't push it. And no, this wasn't some fever-induced hallucination, it's happened a few times.

Best Buys that are even 6 months old, I have a hard time getting anybody to help me (the camera section is especially bad). It really does decrease with time. I don't know if the employees get bitter over people asking the same questions over and over, if they get lazy, or if the store just shifts focus because it's already got it's customers.

About the customer service bit: it is a case-by-case basis, but as I've said before, why would they stick their neck out for a customer and break policy? Even if you won't get fired for it, if you do it a lot, I'm sure it'll get noticed... otherwise, if they don't track that kind of stuff, what's to stop them from pulling scams with their friends? Not to mention, usually the people that complain on forums the most (let's call them FW's) are the ones trying to just buy the loss-leaders, and not making the store much money. While I hate that they publically admitted to having angel and devil customers, it is a reality that (the best) bargain hunters don't give the store much of their money...

Maybe they just get tired of having numbers crammed down thier throat and how they will get written up/fired if the fail to meet them. Or they figured out working there is only worth it for the discount and nothing else really.

It's hard work to maintain a pleasant demeanor when working at a place like Best Buy considering there really isnt anything on Best Buy's part thats forcing you to be helpful and nice.

I never once had a meeting or anything that taught me how to treat a customer , it was always how to sell plans to a customer.

Quick question, then... how do they track the numbers that you sell if you're not working in the big-ticket items like stoves or TVs? If you work in the DVD department, do they track the number of DVDs that sell and attribute that to the people working there? Even if that were so, wouldn't helping the customer help them sell product?

Of course, if BB would just put in some price scanners around the store or something, i wouldn't have to bother them half as much...