Posts Tagged With: Best Buy

Best Buy Bye

Posted on October 15, 2014 by tomASS

Best Buy Bye

 

In this day and time, MANY businesses are still in dire need of Customer Service 101 lessons. Who gives businesses these lessons, usually for free – the customers. The biggest problem is businesses no longer listen to customers. I know I have offered my share of suggestions to many businesses myself and know I am not alone. Best Buy is a repeat offender with simply pissing me off!

Best Buy was once topped my list of favorite retailers but after an incident a couple of years ago (http://wp.me/pKLa8-Be), it lost its standing and lost much of BBmy business because I was soured with them. Amazon has yet to let me down with costumer service. As I understand things, Best Buy is not adequately competing with  the likes of Amazon and Best Buy fells to see SERVICE is a key reason.

Any desire to do business with Best Buy is GONE. I hate when I am ignored or dismissed. While trying to order a coffee maker, I wanted to use a Best Reward certificate, a couple Visa gift cards and then the balance on my Best Buy MasterCard. Why did I not just get this in a store? The item I was interested in is only available online, there are no stores close to where I live (at least 60 miles away) and I am disabled and shopping online is the best way for me to shop. I found that online, I could not use multiple forms of payment.

I thought surely if I called, the associate that answered would have no problem with this request. I explained why I called, we rebuilt my order and after all of this he informed me he was not able to use multiple forms of payment either. He told me my only solution was to go in a store where they had that capability. AGAIN I explained the item is only available online, the nearest store was 60 miles away and I have Multiple Sclerosis and jumping in the car and driving 60 miles for a coffee maker was an option I WISH I was up to doing or able to do!

Online ordering did not work, calling in did not work, so surely if I sent an e-mail I would get help finding a solution! I was wrong! BB PaymentsAfter explaining the events in an e-mail I wrote at 10:45PM, I was surprised to receive a reply in less than an hour. It was patronizing and very dismissive; with a link to “Supported Payment Methods” (see screenshot). If you are like me, you read Visa on the list and I was under the impression a Visa gift card could be used anywhere Visa is accepted – except for Best Buy! This angered me! Since Best Buy was so fast to be dismissive to me, I have been fast to post this testimony. Whereas it is good to respond to a customer’s e-mail quickly, if VERY LITTLE EFFORT is used to find a solution it would be best to take a little more time. In fact… the e-mail reply from Best Buy only offered me to call Best Buy Reward Specialists to get help using my Best Buy Reward certificate – THAT HAD NOT BEEN A PROBLEM TO USE… it was the Visa Gift cards! AGAIN, the concern was not even addressed. I am guessing disabled online shoppers are such a small part of Best Buy’s business that they do not care and I got that point.

One benefit I had in this situation was my Best Buy MasterCard had a $0.00 balance. I found a fast solution to reducing the temptation to do business online with Best Buy again – I closed my account! CitiBank issued the Best Buy MasterCard to me and even though CitiBank had not been the problem, the account was closed. Actually, the person I spoke with at CitiBank was VERY friendly and after closing that account, I applied for another card at CitiBank. Both Visa gift cards I had were issued by CitiBank… so I think it is sad their business partners using their MasterCard Rewards credit cards can’t also use their Visa gift cards.

Now I have Tell 3000vented to Best Buy, CitiBank and now you, I will remind Best Buy of something Mr.Pete Blackshaw  says and I quoted the last time I had issue with one of their manager’s – “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000”. I highly suggest Best Buy reads this book because I am still averaging around 3,000 views a month on my little blog here, so in my case… I hit well over a total of 3,000, my total is over 53,000 actually! Bye Best Buy!

 

 

Blogging is not free!  Please help cover the costs!

Once the $150 a year cost is covered – 50% of EVERY donation will be given to a charity (the charity will not be ME)!  😀

 

Categories: Life | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Optimistically Pessimistic or Just a Realist?

Posted on November 6, 2012 by tomASS

For many, they would see that a person is either an optimist or a pessimist but in true fashion, I even complicate these descriptions when I self diagnose.  I see myself as optimistically pessimistic!  What is my rationale?  I enter sweepstakes and buy lotto thinking I have as much a chance to win as anyone else – Optimist.  But I know deep down I my chances to win are very slim – Pessimist.  But the more choice word I guess should be – Realist.  Living with Multiple Sclerosis also feeds this concept. I know I have good days – optimist, I also know that the price of realizing the good days is experiencing the bad ones – pessimist, but I know I have to make the best of THIS day – realist.

Because of my M.S. and spending so much time fatigued and stuck in the bed, I began entering online sweepstakes.  I have won a few nice items: an Apple iPad, a $300 Best Buy Gift card, a $100 Overstock.com Gift card, several iTunes gift cards and a dozen or so smaller prizes.  But as you see, I  have not won a big cash prize, a car, TV, or trip; but I continue entering the sweeps.  I enter the sweeps just to have something to do and on bad days I sometimes do not even enter one.  I win something sometimes – optimist, I do not win enough for the amount I of time I spend entering sweeps – pessimist, I have SOMETHING to do to pass some time – realist.  

My M.S. is like this also, when I have a good day, I tend to do too much and overexert myself.  The good day, I get to have SOME fun – optimist, the bad days I may be in great pain and stuck in bed – pessimist, when I AM stuck in bed I can remember the good days – realist.  A common saying in the M.S. community is, “I have M.S. but M.S. doesn’t have me” – optimistic.  Reality, there are days that my M.S. does have me – pessimistic.  Few people know truly how my M.S. complicates my life.  I try only to let people see the optimistic side, the healthy side of my life I do get to enjoy.  Since I do tend to project the image as someone healthy, I miss out on truly helping others understand the impact M.S. has on my life.

Staying in Medellin, Colombia as much as I do not only helps with my M.S., it also helps me mentally!  Medellin is known as “The City of Eternal Spring”.  The milder climate does help in that I do have fewer relapses and often when I do have a relapse, it may not be as severe.  This is a big plus!  The biggest benefit is that I am able to live independently!  Living totally on my disability income in the U.S. is impossible for me, but here in Medellin, I can afford to have my own apartment and feed myself.  There is little money left for other things, but the advantage of feeling independent out-weighs the disadvantages.  The downside of this independent life means I also have to sacrifice seeing my family because the M.S. limits my traveling and the money for flying is also VERY limiting.

Friends usually see me as complicated and difficult.  They do not realize what I have to do in order to “feel” like meeting for a dinner or beer – it takes careful planning for me!  I once wrote how I feel like Sid the Sloth from the Ice Age movies (https://thomasajohnston.com/2011/03/05/trapped-in-an-ice-age/).  I feel most of my friends simply tolerate me, but like Sid’s herd, my friends do down deep care about me.  I use the expression “Colombian time” in Medellin because Colombians just do not seem too concerned about schedules, appointments and timing.  This complicates my being part of a herd in Colombia because even when I explain how I NEED to keep schedules because of my health issues, the relaxed attitude of Colombians is more important to them than my schedule.  I rest, I medicate based on being somewhere at a certain time and then they see me as inflexible when they say we have changed the plans or times and just think I have the ability to adapt that easily.  Like Sid… I am sometimes abandoned.

Then again, I find it easy to thin my herd or “clean out the friend closet” sometimes!  Some people make it easy!  As I am sure I make it easy for some to reclassify me as a former friend.  I have become a self imposed hermit and actually find I enjoy being alone.  Limiting my time with friends helps me keep friends!  lol  I am very happy for the few friends I do have in my herd – Optimist.  I do wish making new friends was not so difficult for me – Pessimist.  This desire drives me to improve myself and educate even friends of how M.S. keeps me Optimistically Pessimistic or just a realist?

Categories: Colombia, Life, Medellin | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Best Buy Forgets That Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000

Posted on February 3, 2012 by tomASS

My YEARS of admiration for electronic/appliance retailer Best Buy was single-handedly SLAUGHTERED by one manager recently.  Best Buy was one of the accounts I once “called on” when I worked for Sony.  I was able in those days to see a lot of the behind the scenes at the retail giant and I was generally impressed!  When I worked for Sony I was ever  mindful that I had the power to improve (or damage) Sony’s image for many Best Buy sales associates, I kept this in mind with EVERY interaction with Best Buy employees.  This manager named Kendaryl had the same power for Best Buy and he managed to annul my favorable impression of Best Buy.  I had always prided the company for its outstanding customer service, but one incident with one manager has affected the entire company’s standing with me.  Not that my opinion matters very much – as this manger made clear to me.

I no longer work for Sony and I am disabled.  I live solely on my social security check each month.  It is an incredibly SMALL amount and Best Buy received a large percentage of this income since electronics and gadgets make times when I am bedridden a small bit more tolerable.  During my years with Sony, I also developed a love for electronics that bordered on being an addiction!  With my paltry income each month, in the last year I have bought 2 laptops, a 58″ plasma tv, an iPod Touch and countless items like movies and gadgets from Best Buy.  I was one of the winners in the Best Buy sweepstakes in December – winning a $300 gift card.  I also have a Best Buy RewardZone Master Card.  So it is fare to say, Best Buy GOT MY BUSINESS and I was a LOYAL customer…. as limited as my purchases may have been in the grand scheme …. it was grand in my scheme.

Along with this admiration of Best Buy came a trust.  When I bought one of the laptops the associate recommended Kaspersky Pure Total Security anti-virus software, so I also bought this.  Now, when I bought the second laptop from Best Buy with a larger screen to replace the other laptop also bought at Best Buy…. I also got a new version of Kaspersky Pure Total Security for an additional $99.99 to protect the new computer.  As I tried to load the Kaspersky software, I kept getting a message to uninstall Norton anti-virus.  The Norton anti-virus (I am very anti-Norton) was something pre-installed on the computer, did not show on my list of programs, and could not be deleted via a directory search.  There is no Best Buy where I live, the closest one is just over an hour away, so next time I was close to a Best Buy I went into to ask the Geek Squad for help.  The girl at Geek Squad told me it would be $29.99 to help me remove the Norton so I could install the Kaspersky.

Selling me a laptop with pre-installed software, selling me additional software, THEN charging me $29.99 MORE to be able to use the additional software they sold me is what my father would call a RACKET; as defined by dictionary.com – a dishonest scheme, trick, business, activity, etc.  I asked the Geek Squad associate to get a manager because I did not feel I should be charged for this “service”.  The manager, Mr. Kendaryl explained the policy and why I would HAVE to be charged.  I explained how I felt this was a “racket” and he again began to explain the policy.  I began to get impatient and told him not to explain the policy again, but to listen to me.  I explained how selling someone a product, then when not able to use it, to charge a customer more to be able to use the 2 products together was a dishonest scheme. Guess what he did?  He began to explain the policy AGAIN!

This is where, now in a rage, I said something that also included the F*#K word.  I told him he had to make a choice: 1- install the software I bought from Best Buy on the laptop I bought from Best Buy without charging me extra; or 2 – let me leave as one PISSED OFF customer.  He chose #2.  I told them to give me back my laptop, and my gay ass grabbed the laptop and began my angry priss out of the store!  I did turn around to go back to make sure I had his name right (he was now talking with another manger) and they both GLADLY gave me his name thinking I would never follow through on what they felt were “empty” threats to make as “BIG A DEAL” as I could because of this situation!  I will be forwarding the link to this blog to any of my contacts at Sony and Samsung to see if they have contacts at Best Buy corporate that may care about this issue and also to Best Buy customer service…. I am curious as to whether ANYONE will even care?

I live with Multiple Sclerosis and know how one microscopic scar on my nerve affects my entire body.  This manager named Kendaryl is microscopic in the anatomy of Best Buy, but he has affected the entire organization of Best Buy.  I once worked retail and I KNEW if a customer told me, “DO NOT REPEAT the policy to me again!” – it would be bad to immediately begin explaining the policy AGAIN!  Also, if a manager at Best Buy does not have the discretion to “comp” a simple service like what I needed – seeing the error of such a policy – to be able to keep a LOYAL customer from getting PISSED…. why does Best Buy even need managers?  Why was he not trained to prevent a customer from becoming irate?  Or in this case, why wasn’t he trained NOT to aggravate a customer to the point of making him (me) irate?  Yes…. I did end up IRATE!! lol

I have two $20 RewardZone reward certificates and I am so pissed…. I do not think I will even use them for something FREE from Best Buy!  I guess they did not read Mr. Blackshaw’s book!  I am angry, I have a blog and ironically…. I am averaging about 3,000 views a month!!  😉  Now I have two choices: 1 – explore what company will get the money I had been spending at Best Buy AND destroying my Best Buy RewardZone MasterCard; or 2 – be pleasantly surprised to hear from Best Buy that Mr. Kendaryl will be joining the thousands enjoying President Obama’s improvements to the unemployment benefits program?  I am rooting for #2!!

Categories: Life | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.