Josh-da-man

Just got back from Best Buy today, and on my receipt it said:

Anyone else notice this, or are they just picking on me? I returned an item last month, so maybe they want to keep an eye on me...

anomynous

Nope, I saw signs stating the policy at my local store

calhoun07

I thought they always had a way of tracking returns.

oldchuckles

It happened to me twice this week at two different stores. To process a refund, they required my driver's license to load into their computer system even though I had a valid receipt for the same day! All returns now require a photo ID with driver's license (or equivalent) or NO return or exchange will be processed.

I asked both BB associates, "Why is a driver's license necessary when I have a receipt from earlier today?" The answer: "Who knows, corporate says to do it."

Best Buy is treating its customers like felons and it doesn't matter if you are a RewardZone Premier Silver member (which I am). I am predicting very soon Best Buy will be doing cavity searches at the exit doors.

bmasters1981

What would cause Best Buy to act like its customers are felons when all they want to do is return a defective/unsatisfactory purchase? I mean, obviously, the item(s) being returned weren't stolen.

Boba Fett

I can see this leading to trouble for them down the line, just like Circuit City claiming they had a legal right to search your bag of purchases when you left the store.

The exchange bit is a huge slippery slope; what's to stop a fast food restaurant from enacting a similar policy. You order a burger, it's made wrong, but wait...to get it fixed you have to show your ID and receipt.

Given their problem a few years back "losing" credit info, I can't say I'll be shopping at a place that requires my personal info for a simple process as an exchange.

cdollaz

Cool. Free fistings.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Man, you're going to be in for a shock when you go to prison.

I'm not blaming Best Buy for doing this, the people to blame are the guys scamming the system that cause companies to have to do things like this so they aren't losing money.

I remember a thread from a few years ago of a guy that would buy up all he could every Tuesday, try to sell what he could for a profit and then return what he couldn't sell. It's crap like that which hurts the rest of us and the only way to fix it is to get a lynch mob up and running.

ernestrp

One of my sisters got banned from K-mart back in the early 90's for making to many returns. Me thinks she was buying at yard sales and returning them, or atleast thats what I heard.....

bmasters1981

I stand corrected. Based on what I read, I really did think that the Best Buy people were the bad guys, but now, based on your response, it seems that they might be justified in their efforts of loss prevention (which is what I believe this is).

fujishig

That's gotta be returns without a receipt, right?

Surfinhank

There's a big thread about this on the Blu-ray.com store forum. They seem to think it's because of a recent Slickdeals abuse that had people buying games on a buy-2-get-1-free sale and then returning 2 of the games and keeping the third one (free). Also, I guess some people have been re-shrinkwrapping empty cases and returning them.

mattysemo247

So what if you don't have a drivers licence but you have your receipt?

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Probably get confused, like the time a guy in front of me didn't want to give Circuit City his phone number even though they required it for purchases over a certain amount. Oh, that was great. Nothing like holding up the single line in the store on Black Friday, with an already incredibly long line due the the cashiers being new and not knowing what to do.

Boy, he sure showed them when he finally finished arguing and gave them his number.

Or if you don't have a drivers licence, you use a state ID.

If you still want to argue with the customer service person because you don't think you need to show any ID, even though it's the store's policy that says you need it to return something, know that the guy stuck behind you probably wants you dead since he has other things to do.

Peep

I thought Best Buy had these deals programmed into their system and would negate the "free" purchase if you did a partial return. They have a big sign saying so which warns that some returns may even result in you owing them money!!! Go ahead, read that giant return policy that they have posted on the wall in many of their stores.

Numanoid

Wasn't that a woman? Yeah, those were great threads.

Josh-da-man

On such a deal, most places will either require you to return the "free" item if you return a paid item. Or, instead of giving you an actual freebie, simply pro-rate each item on the receipt.

I think I can remember Best Buy doing something similar to the latter when they ran such a promotion several years ago, though I could be mistaking it for another store like Circuit City or CompUSA.

Giles

I can see the shit employees (at the DC Tenleytown store) getting a rush over on being even more douchier (superior complex/egos intact)

ozzfan84

My main problem is it is that BB has been tracking the returns of anyone who has a RZ card for the longest time. By requiring the ID number, they are just making the process more difficult and discouraging price matches/exchanges/returns.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Maybe it's because they get tired of fighting with customers over a policy they have no control over, other than to follow it? Dealing with customer after customer yelling or fighting with them, as if they can do anything different, gets old after awhile.

mattysemo247

I was lucky enough to try this puppy out twice this weekend. I had just bought a blu ray, didn’t even leave the store yet when I noticed that it had a hole in the back of it. Probably got damaged in shipping or something, but no biggie. Had to use my license to exchange it for another copy. The girl at the register also didn’t know how to scan a rewards zone certificate when I first bought it, so he had to use my license again to give me back a $10 gift card.

Xbox69

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/store-forum...cusations.html

Looks like she no longer posts on this forum.

ozzfan84

In my experience, the only time I've had to "fight" with customer service was when they were completely ignorant of the policies of the store for which they work.

jjcool

Just to play devils advocate for a little while here, but what is wrong with this scenario? What does it watter why someone is buying something? If they try to return something with a receipt, or even without a receipt, arent they going to get back what they paid for the item, or the lowest price it has been in the past 30 days? IE they cant make a profit by simply buying and returning items to best buy. THe only thing that Best Buy is not getting comepensated for, is the time of the person to ring the sale or return through the register. Is it just the fact that he was doing weekly returns that had people up in arms? At the time, wasnt this allowed according to Best Buys policies?

jjcool

Wouldnt surprise me. Many of the people over there were proud of the way they were scamming the system and stealing from Best Buy. The way they found around the "Package deal" policy, was by asking for gift receipts. HTey would get a gift receipt for each game that wouldnt show the package deal for some reason. Then bring in a game and a gift receipt and get full credit refunded to a gift card when they had paid way less. The use said gift card to buy three games for the price of two again. And repeat ad nauseum. Or simply return the two games, get all their money back and keep the free game. But forget about bringing up the fact that this was illegal, and you invite the wrath of many a keyboard commando.