Mara the Peacemaker got all philosophical

Not to mention that half of the time, they either don’t check every person’s receipt (I was there yesterday for DVDs and the door guy didn’t even glance my way) or when they do, they don’t really look at it. I’ve never had someone look closely enough in my bag to make sure I hadn’t pilfered items not listed on the receipt.

May 18th, 2007

Mara the Peacemaker mentioned

Christopher, is it possible to call the store and simply put them on hold for you the next time? I do that almost everywhere (even Target) so I’m wondering if Best Buy would do that for you. It definitely saves the hassle.

May 18th, 2007

Cheri the Virgin scribbled

This post reminds me of a trip I took to best buy a few months ago. I– like Christopher had done my research, (looking to buy a freezer). As it turned out Best Buy did indeed have the ‘best buy’. So off I went in my husbands ford ranger (to avoid delivery charges) to purchase a freezer. I walked into the store, straight into the ‘freezer section’, found the one I wanted, stood there for ohh 2 minutes or so looking it over, reading the warranty and such in hopes that those annoying sales people would show up and ask if I need help. This was to no avail! I walked around the section looking for someone; finally I walked to customer service and asked for someone to be called to this section. After 5 minutes someone finally shows up. I told him what I wanted and was ready to purchase. He began by telling me the freezers features! (as if a freezer has features… come on… it is a freezer… I need it for one purpose only!) I politely said I know what the freezer can do I have already researched this and want to buy it… now! Ok off to the little register that sits in this section, he has to look it up and make sure it is available, enters a wrong number, re-enters and says they only have one, and sometimes the inventory in the computer can be wrong so he will need to call and check! He calls someone on his handy dandy walkie- talkie and asks; 10 minutes later they call up and say yes they have it! wooo-hooo for me, finally, I can get my freezer and go home! The salesman begins ringing me up and starts explaining about the extended warranty on this freezer, I tell him I’m not interested, just want what it comes with. He must have not heard me because he continued telling me the benefits of this extended warranty! So I am annoyed at this point to say the least… I tell him once again I don’t want the extended warranty if the freakin freezer dies I’ll either get it fixed or buy another one! Then comes in the delivery charges and times available for delivery… I proudly said I have a truck outside and I am taking my freezer home tonight! Don’t need those services either, I just want the freezer. The boy quietly rung me up, gave me my receipt and asked that I pull up front and they will bring the freezer out.
Ok… I thought we are done now… they obviously know where the freezer is at, because they had to look and see if one was truly available, I will be out of here in no time! Ummmmm…. 20 minutes later as I sit in the truck at the front door I see some dude rolling an up-right freezer to the door! Mind you, I am the only one sitting by the door in a truck… 4-5 employee’s look at paper, talk, laugh, and look at the paper again and begin pointing for the dude to take it back… WTF! How the hell did that happen! It is a simple– read numbers; besides someone had already found the freakin thing!
So I finally got my freezer and left 1hour later! I have come to the conclusion that the only reason that Best Buy has the ‘best buy’ is because they hire the most idiotic people which entitles Best Buy to pay low wages, which gives them more room for discounted prices!

May 18th, 2007

Mara the Peacemaker mentioned

It might have been more trouble actually since their staff is so freaking incompetent. They might have lost the tag with your name or lost the item or couldn’t figure out that you have something on hold, etc. I bet it would have taken 2 or 3 people to figure it out and that might have taken the same amount of time as just walking in. The calling/putting on hold method only works if the employees are somewhat efficient.

May 18th, 2007

Ivy the Soldier scribbled

I absolutely REFUSE to shop best buy. EVERY single time i’ve ever been in there for something it has been as described above. I HATE dealing with incompetent people. I would rather pay a few bucks more and be in and out then deal with someone who can’t get their shit together.

May 18th, 2007

bullshattuck.com the Virgin got all philosophical

They also do the same thing at Costco. God knows I don’t need people DOUBLE CHECKING my receipt, when I clearly just bought everything 30 seconds prior.

May 22nd, 2007

Cody the Virgin hunt n' pecked this

Ok I was just lookin around for the latest dirt on best buy and I stumbled on this blog. I’m an employee (a quite disgruntled employee) of best buy and I think I can clear a few things up… though I do agree with all of you for the most part. The whole receipt checking thing, while annoying, actually makes sense from time to time; I work in the home theater section and in my store we actually ring people up in each department as well as at the front lanes, so our guys in yellow (Loss Prevention) check receipts as customers exit the store. In the cases where customers are rung up in the separate departments, it does make sense. However, as soon as you leave the store, nobody can really do anything to stop you. As for us being annoying… yea it’s either that or we get fired, and this job is better than no job, even though us employees get screwed about as much as any of you customers.

Looking at your story, it’s possible that the girl that ended up helping you did not even work in that department but was just called there on a “code blue” (where a department is short on salespeople and needs more people). Basically, we get thrown into a lot of situations where we are expected to help someone and sell them shit when we don’t even know what the hell we’re talking about (I’m just honest and say I don’t know when someone asks a question that is over my head, and grab someone that can help them). The worst part about Best Buy for us employees is that all training is on the job training, so basically every single thing I’ve learned about home theater I’ve asked someone in my department, read off of one of the price tags, or learned about on my own time at home so I could catch up on all the latest and greatest technology so that I don’t look like the assmunch that best buy would make me out to be by sticking me in a new department without any training… It sucks how people expect us to know shit about every department when we don’t receive training for even our own… As for all the talk about the extended warranties, reward zone, best buy credit card and so on, we’re not only expected, but forced to bring that shit up. We get “mystery shoppers” who come in to rate our CARE Plus prowess (our sales pitch) and we have to bring up 20 to 30 points (ranging from name exchange and handshake to reward zone offer) in order to get a good score and gain any notice for possible promotions and shit. As for the manager not helping you to begin with, that’s bullshit on his part because if everyone in a department is busy they have to do something about it; though a lot of managers are lazy fat fucks that don’t do shit but talk to their families on their cell phones all day while pacing the store and cracking the whip.

If you have any questions about the inner workings of the satanic, evil entity known as best buy, shoot away.

P.S. I’m a college kid so if I could get a better part time job I would.. :/

May 31st, 2007

LovinItAll the Virgin penned this

Re: Your “Best Buy” Story…..

I’m currently involved in litigation with Best Buy over the receipt check policy. Here’s the story:

I entered my local Best Buy last year and puchased about $1200 in goods. The items that could fit in Best Buy’s clear packaging was, and the other items were labeled with Best Buy’s yellow stickers. As I approached the door, a very large (6′3″, 325# +/-) loss prevention employee rudely asked for my receipt. I replied “I’m not participating in that today”. The big guy jumped in front of my cart, and another LP guy (he was already standing at the podium they have at the exit) walked up to me and demanded my receipt. I said, “Look, I’ve just spent over an hour in your store buying my things. I’m not showing you my receipt. You can either check with the department where I purchased the goods..I’ll even wait here while you do, call the police, or let me go.” I was told I would not be allowed to leave the store with the goods until I produced a receipt, and that the merchandise belonged to Best Buy unless I could prove otherwise. I stayed calm, repeated the options available to them, and asked which option they were going to exercise. They pulled my cart away from me and said they were callling the police. I stepped off to the side to make certain I was not in anyone’s way while I began waiting for the police. One of the LP guys said, “Let’s go to my office”. I said I would prefer to wait for the police right there. He said, “That’s not an option.” At that point, he grabbed my arm, twisted it behind my back, and bent my wrist while applying opposing pressure on my elbow joint. He said, “If you try to resist, I’ll break your arm.” He escorted me into the security office where he threw me down (leaving two large bruises, BTW), berated, insulted, and generally harrassed me until the police arrived. The police officer asked for my receipt and I gave it to him. The items in my cart were checked and the police officer said I was free to leave with my goods. I asked that the LP employee be arrested for simple assault, but the officer said he could not do that unless he witnessed the assault, with the exception being domestic violence incidents.

I’m looking for anyone that has had a similar experience with Best Buy. We have already subpoened Best Buy’s Receipt Check Verification Policy, which states that Receipt Checks are voluntary. Specifically, it says the following:

(It defines what type of merchandise LP should ask the shopper a receipt for)

1) Politely ask the customer for their receipt
2) If the customer refuses to show their receipt, explain that Best Buy checks receipts to make certain there have been no errors during checkout
3) If the customer still refuses, thank the customer for shopping at Best Buy and allow the customer to leave the store.

Again, I am looking for either customers, employees, or former employees of Best Buy that have had the same or similar experiences with Best Buy. I may need such people to testify at the trial (and from the looks of it, there WILL be a trial. Best Buy is not budging on their position that they have the right to detain people that do not show a receipt).

Thanks

June 12th, 2007

Lovinitall the Virgin up'n wrote this

Better…We have the security tapes that they had to give to us in discovery.

June 12th, 2007

ProphetJoe the Irreverent stated

I don’t get it. Wal-mart generates FAR more money than BB and they don’t ask to see your receipt unless the Loss Prevention System sounds.

Hmm, but then again, Wal-mart has semi-trained, semi-competent employees and a thinking executive staff…

June 13th, 2007

LovinItAll the Virgin remarked

In our area, no store except BB has LP at the door, with the exception of the membership clubs (Sam’s, Costco). Our state legislature has deemed the sounding of the LP alarms to be reasonable suspicion and probable cause for a receipt check (and detention if one fails to show a receipt after the sensors have sounded). In my case, I never made it to the sensors..I was stopped prior to going through them.

Re: Christine’s comment - It isn’t illegal for them to have a policy that allows them to detain you (see above comment). It isn’t in their best interest, however, as it opens the door for civil litigation. Both employees were suspended for violating BB’s policy, though I didn’t find that out until their employee files were subpoened. Interestingly enough, one of the LP guys was a former police officer who was canned for misconduct. The nature of the misconduct? Inappropriately detaining and harrassing citizens who had done nothing wrong — on multiple occassions. Got that from his personnel file that we subpoened.

I’m footing the bill on this one (this is not a contingency case), and the legal fees are quite staggering. Again, if anyone has had a similar experience or works for Best Buy, I would like to hear from them. Also, anyone who knows a credentialed expert in LP protocol (not an LP employee, but rather an advisor to retailers on standard LP procedures), or in the area of physics (like a professor), I would also like to hear from them. I know I can find these experts on my own, but if anyone wants to volunteer their time for a just cause, I’m all ears

Also, if anyone knows whether there are cameras in the LP office, I’d like to hear from them. Seems the footage from that area is missing from the 12 cameras for which I have video. As mentioned, the LP guy threw me down in the LP office and left two huge bruises on my back (I have those photos). I have a degenerative skeletal disease, so I just got lucky that further damage wasn’t done.

Here’s the interesing part: I’m not a litigious guy. I called BB’s corporate office several times to voice my complaint — hell, I even submitted a complaint in writing. Being a good customer (I’d spent almost 36k the preceeding 24 months), I thought for sure they would just call, apologize, and acknowledge the wrong committed. The hell of it is that I would have accepted an apology from BB and the guy that threw me down me and just gone on my way — everyone makes mistakes. It was only after weeks of no response from BB that I contacted a lawyer. Call me naive, but I honestly thought they would do the right thing. So much for that…….

June 13th, 2007