I'm trying to do 2 entries a week on the blog. So far so good. I certainly have the material to post on, but I don't always have the time. Maybe one of these days, I'll be able to post on the same days per week as well. Baby steps.
Today's AWTY™ rant (look! I learned a new HTML tag) is brought to you by Best Buy!
Back in late October, I was suckered in by the McDonald's Monopoly game that offered a guaranteed Best Buy Buck on every order of large or super sized French Fries. I figured that a large French Fry costs about $1.25 and I can always find use of some money or discounts for geeky stuff, so I looked on it as more of an investment than anything else. I've got a history with Best Buy that spans several years in which I've become increasingly disappointed with them and their business practices that started with a brief (3 months) stint of employment with them selling computers and printers back over the holiday season of 1997. But, I could fill an entire blog with rants and raves on Best Buy. Suffice to say that a couple coworkers and I declared the last two weeks of October "French Fry Week" and a daily trek was made to McDonald's to purchase French Fries.
These Best Buy Bucks expired on 12/31/03, so on 12/29/03, I started browsing BestBuy.com for things I could use my $10 on. One co-worker decided he wasn't going to use his coupons before 12/31/03, so I inherited another $7. I settled on purchasing an 8MB memory card for my Xbox from MadCatz. It's officially licensed by Microsoft, includes a protective case, and game saves. At an MSRP of $19.99, I figured I couldn't go wrong paying $3 + tax. I was in need of the memory card anyway since my Xbox has recently been on the fritz again (more on this another time).
Being that it was the holiday season, the item was out of stock and on back order. Shortly after confirming my purchase, BestBuy.com emailed me informing me of the fact and stating that they expected to ship it by 01/07/04 - very reasonable, in my opinion. On 01/07/04, I received another email from BestBuy.com stating that the item was still on back order. Expected ship date? "Within the next 3 weeks" was what the email said.
Now, I'm not an idiot. Best Buy may be out of stock of an item and only the manufacturer can supply them with more, so they aren't at the top of this food chain. However, when Walmart.com, EBGames.com, Outpost / Fry's all have them in stock, then what's the problem? I'll admit that Amazon.com claims they are out of stock as well, but every other place I searched for that carried the MadCatz memory card claimed they were in stock.
I was frustrated, but I didn't have a choice and besides...I was still only paying $4.09 for it. So I waited. And waited. And waited some more until 21 days later, I received a 3rd email from Best Buy. This email informed me that the item I had purchased was still on back order and had not shipped. If it did not ship in 5 days, they were going to cancel my order. To keep this from happening, I needed to call an 800 number.
This pushed me over the edge. I had patiently waited a month for a simple accessory to be shipped to me. When it was all said and done, I had to take action to keep my order alive or it would be automatically cancelled on me. That's not good business practice.
But of course the REAL reason I was mad is this undermined my master plan to get something dirt cheap from Best Buy in the first place through the Monopoly game. A cancelled order meant my coupons were expired and NO GOOD. I called the 800 number to see if an expected ship was known yet. The woman I spoke to was pleasant enough, however her English with a strong Indian accent touched on yet another sore subject for geeks. Unfortunately, she couldn't provide a ship date so I asked about the coupons I used. Of course, they were "unrecoverable". I gave up and told her to just cancel the order.
Their systems were "down". She couldn't cancel the order herself.
I later wrote a lengthy letter to Best Buy and submitted it via their "contact" link on their web site detailing the ordeal I had just been through highlighting how their marketing campaign ultimately failed in generating money from me since they couldn't provide the merchandise I required. I used all my business writing skills to compose a calm, yet stern letter of disappointment that asked for reparations (a $17 off coupon to replace the ones I wasted) and stated the consequences of the business' failure to make the customer happy (I'd use the $25 gift card I received for Christmas [and not a cent more] since that is unreturnable and then go elsewhere to shop). Previous experience with Best Buy customer service told me not to expect a satisfactory resolution to the matter.
You're not going to believe the "personal" response I received a day later:
Thank you for contacting Best Buy about our online store. I'm xXx with Customer Care.Are you kidding me?!We are sorry that your experience with placing orders was frustrating.
Best Buy strives to make each experience you have with us to be as positive and as fun as possible, and we are disappointed if we don't live up to that expectation. We have forwarded your message to the appropriate personnel for their review.
Have you ever thought of getting a Best Buy Gift Card? It can be the perfect gift for that impossible to shop for person. Available in six denominations, a Gift Card allows its recipient to pick out their perfect present from any Best Buy store. To purchase a Gift Card, either pick one up at your local Best Buy retail store, or get it online at: <incomprehensible URL>
Thank you for sharing your comments with Best Buy. Please do not hesitate to contact us with additional questions or concerns.
Best wishes from Best Buy,
xXx and the Customer Care Team