What Has Happened to Best Buy?
Remember the good ole days when you could walk into Best Buy and a knowledgeable sales clerk would answer all your questions, and if you had a customer service issue or other problem you could call the store and talk to someone who could help you? Those days are long gone.
Now you will go to the store and find NO ONE on the floor (which was my experience last Friday evening), or you will stand waiting for help while SEVEN different employees walk past you without stopping to ask you if you needed any help (which was my experience at Best Buy Nashville West today.)
And heaven forbid you call the number listed for the local store! That “local” number connects you directly with Bangladesh or Central America where Suniti or Javier will jabber rehearsed talking points over you before telling you it’s not their department. Can you hold please? They are transferring you now.
If they don’t switch to yet another department, or back to the first person you spoke to, you will get someone who will tell you that they can set up an expensive appointment for you so someone can help you figure out the instructions for your $15 remote that you couldn’t find anyone in the store to answer. Hello! I followed the instructions! It’s still not working!
Then they will tell you to take it back to the store and exchange it. They will tell you that yes, the store should be open for another hour, but when you get there, it will be closed.
After spending Six Hours with their phone tech support over the weekend, and an hour in chat, I went back to my local Best Buy today and was told everyone was in the computer section. Sure enough, I stood back there for five minutes while SEVEN different employees—including one who turned out to be the manager—walked past me without acknowledging me.
Then I spotted someone in Home Theater standing next to the remote controls. Color me excited! I hurried over and explained the issues I had with my remote control to him… and he sent me over to talk to the Geek Squad. The young lady there went over the instructions with me but said there wasn’t really anything she could do.
I asked for a manager and spoke to one of the seven disinterested young men who had walked past me earlier. After suggesting setting up an expensive appointment to have someone help me set up my remote (their go-to solution), he exchanged my remote for one of equal value.
I explained the terrible runaround I had experienced over the course of several different phone calls to their call center on Friday and Monday that spanned about SIX (6) hours and asked him to handle my experience with their call center as a complaint and pass it up the chain. He said there wasn’t much he could do, but that he would give me a number I could call where I could discuss the problem, and that this number could offer me more help than he could… and he even said they might give me a refund for all my trouble! He handed me a number written on receipt paper. It sounded too good to be true… and it was.
The number he handed me was the same number I had called time and time again since Friday evening trying to get any help at all with my remote control. There is no customer service at the call center and not much at the store. I think I would have gotten more help from WalMart. Shame on you, Best Buy, for not providing staff who can answer questions but instead coaching your “customer service” departments to set up expensive appointments.
Many Complaints at This Location
In case you think this was a rare occurrence, here is what Google’s AI has to say about this location.
Businesses like Best Buy are shooting both themselves and their customers in the foot with terrible “customer service” and disinterested managers like I dealt with. The customer gets shot in the foot first with shoddy merchandise and no customer service. But Best Buy gets shot in the foot, too. The only time I will EVER return to Best Buy is to return the second remote. Then I am done with them. And I don’t just buy remotes. I am in the market for a new computer, but it won’t come from Best Buy.
Although Yelp has documented many complaints, the reviews on the Best Buy website are mostly positive. Then again, I didn’t see an option to leave a review. This will have to suffice.
Related:
Comments