Best Buy is STUPID

Okay, first of all I need to apologize in advance to Diana, who has ties to the company I'm about to bash. We should have gone through your connections initially, as I'm sure things would have turned out differently. However, that store was a little too far north for us at the time! SORRY!

On February 1st I bought a brand new Compaq laptop. It had 3 GB RAM, 250 GB harddrive, and an Intel Pentium Duo-Core processor. All very good things to have in a laptop, especially the processor. I paid a whole whopping $369.99 for these goodies.

On February 14th, my space bar popped off. We couldn't get it back on. We took it to the store. Mike sat in the car with a sleeping Marshy, while I went in. I waited for 30 minutes to speak to a Geek Squad person. After I finally got someone to come help me, he said that rather than send the thing in I needed to just exchange it for something comparable. He sent me over to Customer Service.

At Customer Service I only spent 5 minutes, which was nice after the half hour spent at Geek Squad. CS told me that they didn't have any more of the Compaq, and so I needed to go back to the computer section and have someone find me a computer that was comparable to the Compaq that was broken.

I walked back to the laptop area. 45 minutes later, I finally got some help. Not that other people were being helped by associates, but just that there was NO ONE back there working! In fact, I couldn't see a single "blue shirt" person at all. The "blue shirt" helped me find an HP that had 3 GB RAM, 320 GB harddrive, and a webcam. He said it was the most comparable to the Compaq than all of the other laptops available. He walked me back up to CS and explained the situation to the CS guy.

Customer Service then said "No, I meant comparable in price, not features." The "blue shirt" looked shocked and said something to the effect of "then she won't get a decent computer because there isn't anything close to what she bought for that price."

After waiting for another 20 minutes at CS for the guy to finish up with everyone else (Seriously, 1 CS guy to the 5 of us waiting? That's just poor scheduling on a Saturday!) he finally got to help me. He pulled my file up and noted that I was on the last of my 14 day return time period. Then he said that since the laptop we had picked out was significantly more expensive than the one I initially purchased, the best option would be to send it in for repair. This required the assistance of a Geek Squad member.

GREAT!

So, back to Geek Squad I went. When I asked how long it would take to get it repaired, he said "About 3 weeks." There was nothing I could do to get it sooner. He started to type up the repair order, and realized he needed management's approval. Do you think he could find a manager? NO! What the heck? Saturday evening at 5 PM and there were NO MANAGERS IN THE STORE! Seriously! What kind of scheduler do they have there? That is just insane!

He finally found a manager. He came over, and instead of trying to be all nice and helpful was quite rude. I explained that I had been there for almost 2 hours, and needed to get this resolved. I told him that this was unacceptable that it has taken this long to fix a stupid space bar, or at least get the computer shipped out for repairs. I also explained that I was running on 30 minutes of sleep for the past 36 hours, and was very tired of waiting.

Now, any normal manager would realize that 2 hours to fix this problem was indeed unacceptable and would hopefully go out of their way to make sure I had a pleasant experience during the part where they were involved. This manager was not normal. He came up acting all "I'm better than you cuz I'm a manager" and was rude the whole time.

According to him, the Compaq was no longer being repaired. I explained that my Compaq was a whole 14 days old. "Well that doesn't matter, they won't repair it. You can even read the screen if you want, but I can't do anything for you!" So what were my options? Switch it out for another computer of course! I then ask "So what was the point of me paying for the 2-year Black Tie Protection Plan?" He explains, "Well that's so you can get a new one if this one breaks." So could I get a new one? Not for the price I paid. The HP we had picked out back in laptops was significantly more expensive, remember? I asked what kind of deal he could give me.

"Well, I guess I could get it to you for $50." And would my service plan transfer? "No, you'd have to return that to get the deal. And then you could buy it again for $80." Seriously? That's retarded!

I decided to just deal and do it. It was a better computer, after all. I went to get my power cord out. It wasn't in the bag. Apparently I'd left it at home. UGH! I was very frustrated. The manager, with a smirk, says "Well I can't exchange this without the power cord. So I guess you'll just have to go home and get it and come back later tonight. We close at 9." I explain that I live in Spanish Fork, and driving for another hour was out of the question. "Well, I guess I could hold it until tomorrow for you." I asked if he would be there. He said he wouldn't but he would make sure the managers knew what was going on with the computer. I left the store, after 2 hours, still with a broken laptop.

Sunday we went in at 10:45 AM. We grabbed the ad. There on the front page was my Compaq, only with an HP branding! It was $400. I went to CS and explained the situation. The girl was appalled that it took them 2 hours and it was still unresolved. She was really nice. She also said it was giving her the option to send out the Compaq. What the HECK?! I told her I just wanted to switch it out for the one in the ad. She was okay with that. She called someone back in laptops to bring it up to the CS counter.

Who brought it up? Oh, the manager from the night before who said he wouldn't be there. What did he say to me? "Did you bring your power cord this time?" (Since the power cord was sitting on top of the laptop on top of the counter next to the box he just brought up. I felt that remark, and the accompanying tone, was a little unneccessary.)

They switched the computers out for me. I had to pay $30. In the car on the way home I looked at my receipt and discovered that the Compaq was a t3400, and the HP was a t3400. Yeah, I had to pay $30 for the same thing, only it said HP instead of Compaq (HP owns Compaq, and we suspect they are re-branding everything to HP) Mike was a little upset that we had to pay for the exchange. Whatever.

We got it home, and was it the one from the ad? Ummm...NO it sure wasn't. It was totally different. It has HDMI out (which Mike says is awesome, but I say "When in the HE** am I going to need HDMI out?), and it doesn't have a 10-key. I had to go buy a USB 10-key for it. Yeah, I'm just a little pissed at Best Buy. At least with this new computer my Black Tie Protection plan transfers over, and I didn't have to return it.

Let's just say that I will probably NEVER purchase another laptop from Best Buy...or at least from the Orem store. Sorry Best Buy, but you did this to yourself. Sure do wish that Circuit City was staying around.