And Now, a Rant

I know, I know. I said that I wasn't going to do rants anymore. And I still stand by the reasons behind that decision. I'm still glad that I changed my "Rants" section of the site site to a "Raves." (Note to self: You haven't done a rave in quite a while.) Having a section devoted to rants only encouraged me to think up new things to be angry about, and who needs that?

Sometimes, however, you don't have to think things up. Sometimes they just come, unbidden.

So, in a way, I suppose, I'm about to "abuse" my "power" -- the power of having a popular website. Here goes.

Don't shop at Best Buy.

Best Buy has a wide selection of electronics products, appliances, computer games, DVDs, and CDs. They also have a terrible customer service policy. They don't stand behind their merchandise.

The story goes like this. I bought Sue a bunch of DVDs for her birthday. I got her some other stuff too, but I don't think that it's a secret to most readers of this site that we're movie fans. I also suspect that it's not too much of a shocking revelation to tell you that Sue and I are pretty busy people. Sue's birthday is in April. We've just now watched the last of the new movies that she got then.

One DVD, Misery, was scratched, making it unwatchable. So, we took it back to where I purchased it: Best Buy. There, we were informed that Best Buy doesn't accept returns or exchanges over 30 days old. "But it's damaged," we said. "We just now opened it and it doesn't work." The clerk said that it was store policy. When we protested further, she tried to sell us a kit that might repair the scratched DVD.

That's right. She wanted to sell us something that would fix the defective merchandise that her store had already sold her.
We left.

My next recourse was to write to Best Buy Corporate. I told them the whole story and that I would never shop there again if they wouldn't stand behind their merchandise. I explained that I was a frequent customer and spent, quite likely, a thousand dollars there in the last year. I told them that I had a lot of friends who were also their target market (we geeks like our electronic stuff) and that I would recommend that they not shop at Best Buy either.

I got back a form email that went on about the same store policy. And why not, right? Why should the big corporation listen to a little guy like me? I can rail all I want about their not exchanging my $15 DVD (which probably cost them around $2 or $3 and which they could certainly ship back to the manufacturer and get a refund on anyway) and how it would cost them a few thousand dollars, but what does it matter? My business isn't even a rounding error to them. And even if I told my friends, how big of a deal can that be? What kind of power does the little guy have?

Well, what if the little guy has tens of thousands of friends?

I know a lot of you don't care. I know a lot of you live in areas where there isn't a Best Buy to patronize. Nevertheless, I'm carrying through on my promise to warn the people I can not to shop at Best Buy.

What's more, if you think that this is as crappy as I do, write to Carmen at Best Buy customer service and let her know. Send her a link to this article if you want. Just think what might happen if a few hundred of us did that this week. Maybe nothing. But maybe something. At least it's a chance for the "little guys" to have a voice.

Plenty of people have told me, "Just go to a different store, tell them you got the DVD as a gift and it's damaged and get a new one." It's not the $15. I don't care about that. It's (and oh, how sick Sue must be to hear me say this so many times over the years) the principle of the thing. I expect better customer service than this, and so should you. I shouldn't have to find the loopholes in the system to get what I want. (And, not to get too high on this already high horse, but my integrity is worth more than $15. I don't know what my price is, but I won't lie about $15.)

Other people have told me that the 30 day policy is fairly standard. I can see why it would be for regular returns -- but the issue here isn't about a simple return. I didn't buy a shirt that doesn't fit, or a product that I just decided I didn't care for. It's about damaged merchandise. A store or manufacturer should always stand behind their merchandise. As customers, we shouldn't have to look at a purchase as a gamble and hope it's not damaged.

This isn't really about Best Buy. It's not really about my $15 DVD. It's about corporations giving no respect to individuals. I don't know about you, but I think that stinks.

 

 

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