At least that manager has common sense. 9seasons of Friends DVD boxsets on one receipt, how on earth one would actually sit through all of them within the 30 day return policy period.

I don't understand all of the complaints. Aside from the employees they are great to me. I got Beyond Good and Evil for christmas 2 years ago for pc. Well at the time there was a bug on the pc one that would not let you get further than about 8 hours into the game and ubisoft was NOT going to fix it they said (nice eh?) anyways I took it back to best buy with the receipt and it was OPENED, and they approved it there on the spot. They are not supposed to take back pc software opened, but i explained about the bug and they said sure.

wal mart is big enough where they can eat the cost of returns and not blink an eye. BB is a lot smaller than wal mart and returns cost it more money.

Not only that, but Walmart's corporate policy is to link all returns without receipt to some form of ID (I think your driver's license number) so that you can only return things without a receipt at any walmart a few times a year. So whatever store the poster was talking about was not following corporate policy.

To all the boycotters/haters of the policies:

You do realize that the percent of customers that ask Best Buy to break policy is very small, right?

When the typical Best Buy customer buys a DVD he usually watches it within the 30 day time frame. Its only the collectors that wait past the 30 days to view their DVD. And the collectors make up a very small fraction of customers. Hell a lot of collectors don't shop for DVD's at Best Buy anyway.

If they changed to a case by case basis that would lead to a lot more unhappy customers. If customer A wants to exchange a DVD and Best Buy lets him based on things such as previous purchases and customer B wants to do the same exchange but Best Buy won't let him, then customer B is going to be very pissed and will feel like he was blackballed by Best Buy and would greatly decrease the likelihood of customer B shopping there again.

However, same scenario with a policy. Neither customer A or B can return they're products. MOST customers will say, damn I missed the return window, but will still return to Best Buy as long as prices remain competitive. Its only a small amount of people that bitch about a policy that they were well aware about before they made their purchase.

I, for one, always pick up new releases at Best Buy. The prices are usually the same as Circuit City. At Best Buy I can use my reward zone card. I never had a problem with returning merchandise.When I choose to shop at Best Buy I choose their policy and stick to it.

I guess it is all how you look at the customers. When I worked at Amazon.com, I told on more than once by various supervisors that the percent of people that contact us back with a problem is so small that it only makes sense to make reasonable exceptions in favor of the customer. Not that Amazon is perfect, but with an attitude like that they obviously "get it" when it comes to customer service and Best Buy, doesn't. I worked for both places.... and I can tell you the respect that is given to customers is night and day..... I worked for both places about the same amount of time but with Best Buy I actually worked in two different stores and was able to travel to a number of other stores. I have also worked for other companies in retail and customer service one thing I KNOW for a fact. Exceptions need to be made at times..... Exceptions based on fairness and common sense..... That being said, I still shop at Best Buy, I just do so with my eyes wide open and I would never buy anything of value there that I might need future assistance on.

I plan to buy a new riding lawnmower in the next few days and later this summer all new appliances in my kitchen. I always give Sears the first chance for my business when it comes to items like this, because of past experiences I have had with them in resolving issues for me. Obviously Best Buy does not sell lawn mowers but you can bet I will not be buying appliances from them based on past experiences of mine and other people.

I can remember when a store tried to earn your business.. Now it seems most stores are happy to throw their merchandise out on the floor and let the consumer root through it like pigs at a trough.

You make a good point. I never thought of it that way. In regards to how customers are dealt with I see little differance then the few BB's I've been to compared to the CC's I've been to. Granted, I rarely ask for any help. The only time I ask is if I need them to physically get something for me. I never have had a problem with that. Like I said before when returning items I've never had a problem.

Either way, my bottom line remains the same. You know Best Buy's policy before buying and if you don't like it don't go there. You can always price match at any Circuit City, Wal-Mart or Target. Wal-Mart and Target break their policy all the time and CC has a don't ask don't tell policy (at least they used to). If those are more suited for you shop there. If you dislike Best Buy's policy then fine, you can boycott them, you can even post on message boards about it. But I think its absurd to be pissed off when they don't break it for you.

Here's a Best Buy horror story that is actually worth bitching about: A friend of mine broke his cell phone. He bought it from Best Buy and he got their extended plan. The plan said that if he broke his phone within 2 years they would replace it. This was less than a year so we went to Best Buy to get him a new one. We got to customer service and they said that they were no longer allowed to make the exchange. Something to do with Sprint, I really don't know. They recommended that he call Sprint. He paid $40 for this plan, and they didn't come through with their promise of replacing it when broken. He was furious but politely asked them to make the exchange because he paid for the warrenty before the fact, and they couldn't do it. He then requested his $40 back because they did not hold up their part on the warrenty. They refused that too. Now this is something to be mad about, not getting pissed when you knowingly broke policy.

That is a terrible experience.... I guess in my view policies are made to cover the store's ass so they don't get taken advantage of by people with ill intentions and the ability to overide policy is in the managers hand for those times when it is warranted. I do see the point of those who say, you know the policy, be prepared to live by it, I just think sometimes it is taken to extreme by store personel and in my opinion BB is one of the worst culprits.

Add me to the list of Best Buy boycotters. I just placed an order for a dvd through their website and realized that I hadn't updated my shipping address since my move. So after speaking with a representative literally 2 minutes after placing my order I was told it entered the shipping process and there was nothing that could be done about it. Even the supervisor told me "sorry, it's your fault for not updating your address. You'll have to contact someone where you used to live to get your order then."

Which is amusing, because I have no way to do that (like I told Best Buy). I told them that unless they have lightning fast robots picking up dvds, wrapping them in boxes and bringing them to the post office they could change my shipping address for the order. To which I essentially got a "go screw". Oh well, I will be disputing this order with my credit card and sent BB a nasty email. Bottom line is Best Buy has no customer service what-so-ever.

"He paid $40 for this plan, and they didn't come through with their promise of replacing it when broken. He was furious but politely asked them to make the exchange because he paid for the warrenty before the fact, and they couldn't do it. He then requested his $40 back because they did not hold up their part on the warrenty. They refused that too. Now this is something to be mad about, not getting pissed when you knowingly broke policy.'

Yes, I'd pitch a fit about that. Your friend may be asking them to break policy by giving the cash back, but hey, THEY broke their own policy first. I don't care what happened to their relationship with Sprint, I bought the plan from Best Buy, and it's up to them to make it good. If they won't follow through with their part of the contract, your friend shouldn't have to either.

Ive never ordered from BestBuy.com, but does it state anywhere that In-Stock items ship immediatley, therefore no changes? I no a few online retailers do this.

It doesn't state that, it says once an order has entered the shipping process there can be no alterations, but it says that before that happens you can change address, cancel or do whatever. There's nothing that states it happens immediately.... I just don't get it!

Sounds to me like Best Buy committed fraud there--and even if they had given your friend a refund, they still were fraudulent. They owe a refund to everyone who bought that service, even those who never needed a repair or replacement. Just refunding those who needed a repair would be like selling insurance and refunding policies that submitted claims.

Being the former spouse of a retail store manager, I got the impression that stores have policies because they don't want their managers to make decisions. At least in my former wife's stores, the store manager position was an administrative one, not a decision-making one. There was very, very little left for the manager to decide.

And knowing some store managers, it's best they weren't trusted to make decisions on their own.

I can't comment on where your wife worked but I've worked for Best Buy, H.H. Gregg and Amazon.com and a University Bookstore selling computers and of course I am an educated shopper who has had to speak with a manager of various other retail stores and from my work and shopping experiences the store manager always had the ability to make exceptions.

While it's not retail experience, I've been a manager at a bar and restaurant for about 4 years now. The manager always has the ability to do whatever it takes to get that customer to leave happy and to come back again, no matter what the policy. If the manager refuses to bend the policy then that is an example of a poor manager, unless he has been specifically ordered by his superiors not to do so, then it's a companies problem.

I'm surprised at how many people have been negative in a thread like this. Seriously. I don't think it's any secret that Best Buy really is a poor company when it comes to customer service... period. I feel for the guy here.

I purchased the entire Twilight Zone collection (the five box sets with the episodes not in season order). Eventually near the end of the set, I had a disc that was scratched and wouldn't play properly at all. When you have THAT MUCH to watch, and obviously, you gave them a hefty amount of business that day and therefore they should assume you probably spend a bit of money there quite often... a thirty day policy is just bananas and is a little strict when watching five box sets worth of tv episodes in thirty days is just not possible. If you have a normal life and hold a full time job, it's just not. There were 45+ volumes to watch in those sets!

I mean, if you hold onto a receipt for that long just in case, you have proven you purchased it there. I mean sure, wear and tear could be caused by the consumer after thirty days, but there's nothing saying that a consumer can't do it WITHIN thirty days as well. And as long as they're looking for the same item and not store credit, the store will be reimbursed anyways! What possible harm could it do to just replace the damaged DVD? When it's sent back for reimbursement as a damaged product, what will the company care? They won't. There's nothing for the consumer to gain, merely by replacing a disc.

Now, if this guy didn't buy an over-abundance of DVD's all at once, I'd understand. I'd say, hey buddy, you could have watched a single trilogy in a month, but that wasn't the case. If he spent that much money in one trip, Best Buy should assume that he quite possibly spends a lot of money there on a consistant basis. But Best Buy isn't one of those stores that recognizes some of its top paying customers, instead, they make you PAY to be recognized and earn discounts via the Rewards Zone card, which is rediculous... but I won't complain too much about that because I am still saving tons of money at the end of every year.

I dont know why but I never seem to have a problem returning stuff at any store including bestbuy

capt

I'm bumping this thread instead of starting a new one. I think I'm done buying dvds from Best Buy. At least the ones that are for myself.

I bought the first Harry Potter today. It was on sale for $7.99. I got to my car with it to check for scratches, etc. Well, there was a huge fingerprint on it. So I go back to return it. They only had 3 widescreen copies left, so I took them all with me to customer service, in case the other copies are bad. Well, unfortunately, the first 2 were scratched. I opened them at the counter. After I showed her the second one was scratched, she said with the usual Best Buy attitude: "This is the last one I'm returning".

At that point, I went from good mood to pissed. I explained to her that when I purchase a new dvd, I want it in new condition. And then she goes off about how if it plays, it doesn't matter. And I told her it matters to me, the customer. So finally I got my way and opened the last one. It was laying off the case, and I pointed that out to her. It was in pretty good shape and I said "I'll settle for this one."

But her attitude is what made it worse. They try to make you feel like you're doing something wrong in returning something. If she hadn't let me open the last copy, I was going to ask for the mgr. I understand how retail works, I used to be a store manager. I also understand that you try to limit your returns, but you have to treat the customer with respect and make them happy. She did neither.

So, after that hassle, I think I'm not going to buy any dvds for myself from there, for fear I'd have to exchange it. Circuit City is easier on exchanges, so I'll just get them there. I'm a reward zone member, so I'll lose out on the exclusive deals, but I don't want to go through that crap again.

I'm sure someone can relate to this...

FUCK Best Buy!!!!
Last week I ordered Chicken Run (DTS Version) for my daughter and paid for it fully with the Best Buy Bucks from McDonalds.
I received it yesterday, and they sent the regular (non-DTS) version when all of the paperwork, including the packing slip, said DTS version.
I called the 1-888 number and got some woman who couldn't speak english very well on the line. She said to return it to my local Best Buy and get the DTS version with an exchange.
I went to the store, explained the situation & gave them the paperwork and the dvd. They told me that because I paid for it fully with Best Buy Bucks, they could not refund my money. She said that once you use Best Buy Bucks for an order, you lose them and you can't be credited back for them. I said I didn't want a refund - I wanted to exchange the version I received for the version I ordered. The woman said she couldn't do this and the best they could do was take the version I had and let me purchase the DTS version with a $3 credit (the max amount of Best Buy Bucks you can use on a DVD in the store). The other customers around me couldn't believe what she was saying, but she wouldn't budge.
I then asked for a manager. The manager was just as aggravating as she was and stuck by the decision.
I then just grabbed the disc off the counter and walked out of the store.
Their "Customer Service" is an oxymoron. Those two words should not be used in the same sentence, let alone next to each other when talking about Best Buy.

Rant over...............

Well in a few days go back in and tell them it was a gift and you want to exchange it. Problem solved. DON'T MENTION THE BEST BUY BUCKS.

I've tried to return something to them one other time in the past without a receipt.
They absolutely refuse to do this unless you have a receipt.......

I recently had an interesting exchange with a Best Buy "manager" (I place that in quotes, becuase apparently they don't have the power to actually make managerial decisions).

I had a couple of Reward Zone coupons, one for $10 and one for $5. I grabbed a DVD priced at $14.99. Now, I had done this twice in the past at another area Best Buy, and both times the 16 year-old cashier simply manually added a penny to the price to make it all work. Well, this cashier told me that she couldn't use both of the coupons because they the total would have to be $15 and mine was only $14.99. Fine, I understand the policy and it wasn't like I couldn't keep the coupon for use later.

It just so happened that the manager was right there, so the girl asked him to clarify if that was true. He did. I took the opportunity to tell him how at the other location they would routinely just add a penny and do the deal. He claimed that was "wrong" and shouldn't be done. As a former retail manager, and now an I.T. manager, I was interested in delving into this guy's logic. I said that I am giving you permission to charge me an extra penny, what is the harm in that? He said again that it was "wrong". I asked him, "Who is being harmed in this transaction?" His answer: "The system is being harmed."

I retorted incredulously, "The System?!...The System is being harmed?! So let me get this straight...you'd rather irritate your customers than offend your "System" which doesn't actually have any feelings, huh?" At that point he just says, "Sir, I'm not going to do it!"

Fine, I hadn't counted on him doing it anyway, but the insight into his thinking was very revealing. It strikes me as very amusing that the 16 year-old cashier at the other store has a better sense of how to please the customer than the store manager at this location - all because he didn't want to offend the "System".

And to top it all off, they mucked up the scanning of the coupons, so the next time I tried to use the one they refused, it had marked it as already used. Fortunately, I was at the other location (where they seemed to be trained to actually please people) and they understood my story and let me use it.

they don't give a shit unless you're buying big ticket items.

Well, if Best Buy is cheaper on movies, which is rare, I'm just gonna price match. I think once I get the rest of my reward zone certificates, I'm going to cut up my card and not shop there again. Walmart and Circuit City never hassle me over anything.

What's sad is they make such a big fuss over returning anything, no matter how small the value is. They have a great selection of products, better than the other 2 stores I mentioned. But at least when I have to exchange something at CC or Walmart, I know I won't have to go through hell to do it. And I also know I won't have to go through the "did you know you can get free magazine subscriptions" sales pitch EVERY TIME I CHECK OUT.