Best Buy
Reviews and Complaints

This is going back a few years...I decided to visit BB one year during their Boxing Day sale. I bought a TV and after bringing it home and opening it, discovered it had a large crack in the screen. I boxed it back up and took it back to the store the same day. I was met at the door by an employee that told me that I would have to come back another day, since they do not process returns during the Boxing Day sale. I explained to the employee that the TV was broken, and I simply wanted an exchange. I was told that it didn't matter, and to come back when they started processing returns again (I believe it was the next week). So the TV went home with me, again.
Due to my crazy work schedule, my holiday time off actually started on December 28th (before the designated "return period" began at BB), and I travelled across the country to visit my family for 2 weeks. After returning home, I took the TV back to BB, well within their 30 day return timeframe. Once I explained the situation to the customer service agent, she said "oh, I don't think we're going to be able to refund damage like that, but let me get my manager". I do give her credit for at least TRYING to help. The manager came out, I explained what the problem was, and she asked for my receipt. I gave it to her, and was immediately asked why I had waited so long to return it. I explained that I had been out of town, but pointed out that I was within the stated return period. The manager then said, "Well, we have no way of proving that the damage happened here. You've probably been using it for 2 weeks now, and it fell or something. If what you say is true, why did you not bring it back that day?" I then told her about bringing it back the day I bought it, and that I was told at the door that I could not return it that day. She then said, "well, why didn't you tell them it was broken?". I told her that I had told the employee at the door that it was damaged, and was told to come back later. She then had the nerve to tell me that I should have called the store right away and reported the damage. Nobody at the store that day had mentioned anything about having to make a phone call, and it is certainly not in their return policy. It was clear that the manager had no intention of giving me any exchange or refund.
At this point I asked how this was going to be resolved. I was told that there was nothing they could do for me. At that point I was so frustrated, and felt so demeaned by their treatment that tears came to my eyes (damn hormones!). I told them that they weren't even following their own policy, and were going to leave me out $600 for somethng that was not even my fault. I'm not sure if the manager was just sick of me or actually found a little bit of a conscience, but she excused herself for a moment to make a call to her boss. In the end, I did get my refund, but the whole experience was very humilating. I was made to feel like a criminal for something that wasn't my fault.
My advice, either avoid BB completely, or ask them to open the box before you take it home!

I am writing to express my utter disgust and sheer disbelief at the appalling customer care I experienced earlier today at Best Buy's flagship store in Union Square, New York City.

I was given an Amazon Kindle as a birthday gift and my friend also purchased the $20 two-year protection warranty for me.

I only began using the Kindle a week ago and it has only ever been in three places: my coffee table, my laptop bag and my hands.

Yesterday evening I took it from my laptop bag and discovered strange lines across the screen making the text unreadable.

This morning I took it to the Best Buy store in Union Square and was directed to customer care. After waiting for the employee to finish a conversation with her friend I was directed to Geek Squad. The man who served me there kept insisting I must've dropped the Kindle. I told him that I had not but still he wrote on his form that the screen had suffered impact. He sent me back to Customer Care.

It was here that after an exasperating conversation with a customer care "specialist" I asked to speak to a manager.

After repeating my story for the forth time, I told the manager that I had my gift receipt and the $20 two-year warranty. She told me that the warranty doesn't cover screen defects. What is the point in buying the warranty if it doesn't cover the one most important thing? It's like having life insurance that doesn't cover death.

Best Buy is no different from the mafia extorting protection money from innocent people. There is simply no point in buying insurance. It means nothing.

The manager was unsympathetic and cold. Her attitude was very defensive. I found her company loyalty ironic as the bigwig's at Best Buy couldn't care less if she lived or died.

My experience ended with the manager telling me there was absolutely nothing she could do to help. So now I'm stuck with a broken Kindle that only gave me a weeks' worth of reading.

I have been shopping at Best Buy for years but now they have lost a customer forever over the price of a Kindle.

I will never shop at Best Buy again and will tell everyone I know not to.

I took my 2009 Nissan Versa to Besty Buy in Bel Air Maryland for the installation of a $15.00 FM adapater for my XM Radio. I drove the car to the rear of the store spoke to an installation geek as they call themselves the geek explained the process and told me it would take about 30 minutes to complete. I went browsing adrounf the store to kill time while the installation was taken place. I get a call on my cell phone from the so called geek telling me there is a problem. So my qestion to him was is ther a problem with the radio? He said no. Then he said you need to come outside I came out side and there it was my car had be smashed by a truck. $3, 551.38 worth of damage Best buy had the nerve to ask for payment for the installation, never offered any kind of compensation or any thing .

After reading some of the other complaints I now think that I was lucky that I did not get my check approved. Today, 4/8/11, my husband and I walked into the Best Buy on Cobb Pkwy in Smyrna, GA prepared to buy a flat screen television. After a moment of looking (and listening to a DirectTV sales pitch) we decided on a television. I must say that we had been in the store over 20 minutes and aside from the DirectTV salesman, no one offered to help us. I finally, walked over 2 aisles where 2 salespeople were preparing a display, and asked for help. The sales rep, actually didn't appear thrilled to help us, but he put on his corporate smile and gave us minimal help. During the check out process, we wrote a check, and the check declined, I must say that we are 50 somethings, we own our home, and are probably the most fiscally conservative couple in Atlanta, and oh yes, we're African-American (so was our salesman). At this point, the corporate smile dropped and we began to get the "why are you wasting my time" treatment. I firmly asked him to call the Telechek company because I KNEW that this was a mistake, especially since we minimally keep a healthy account. Our salesman, reluctantly called Telechek and after several minutes we were vindicated, the Telechek representative, confirmed that the error was on Best Buy's end. The salesman was a bit sheepish and asked me to rewrite the check and he would resubmit it. Once more the check declined the salesman looked at me, I asked him to get the store manager and suggested that he try another register, especially since Telechek said it was a problem with Best Buy's equipment. We went to another register and finally the manager joined us. Unfortunately, the check declined once more, the manager stated that this has happened several times before and then asked if we wanted to open a Best Buy account.
I must say, that I was more than disappointed that this manager, knowing that there is a problem with their system, one that he had seen before, and knew it to be flawed, did not offer to override it and accept the check or at least act like he wanted to resolve the problem and maintain a customer. I am not naive, I understand that there are many scams out in the world however the perception given (from the salesman and the manager) was that we were guilty of attempting a scam. I have worked in customer service, trained salesmen, and customer service reps and this runs against every customer service principle in business. I have always maintained that when I am treated poorly by a business I generally refuse to support them again, and this is no different. (If they had taken a moment to check our buying history they would have found this to be so.) Perception is as important as truth, my perception is my truth, my husband and I believe in living a life of integrity which means we have stellar credit, we live within our means, and we owe no one. I know that our business is welcomed in many other stores throughout Atlanta. We will take our business to one of those stores.

I went to Best Buy today to buy a new laptop. I was standing beside the laptop that I wanted to buy for about 30 minutes. I finally saw an employee, which to me had Hispanic features. I figured he knew Spanish so I asked him if he could assist me in Spanish when he walked by. He turned to me, (so obviously he understood me) and he told me, "I don't speak Spanish and I'm with a client" with his finger pointed at me. He said that in very rude manner. I understand maybe I made the mistake of asking him in Spanish but that's no way to talk to a customer.

(I wrote the following letter to the Best Buy Corporate Office back in January over a very disturbing and embarrassing situation that happened to my family and I at our local Best Buy store.)

My name is LF, I am a highly involved customer at my local Best Buy here in Texas. I am a Rewards Zone Program member who nearly reached Premier Silver in 2010. I have an active HSBC Best Buy Credit Card I used to purchased my Samsung LCD TV and my Sony Playstation 3 with, and planned on purchasing my 3D Samsung LED in the near future with as well. My family and I spent our Black Friday camp out at none other than Best Buy. My store of choice for all of my electronic needs or concerns, as well as my families, for birthdays and holidays has been Best Buy. But today [1/18/11] has led me to have a change of heart caused by the management running my local Best Buy. I had a very unpleasant and disconcerted experience, one that would lead this consumer to never return to Best Buy for my store of choice. So here is my explanation of our terrible experience at Best Buy tonight:

My father, my wife and I read of your January 16-22 ad, a 'buy two (mix and match) video games of $29.99 or more get a third game free' sale and thought to take advantage of it. We had at the front counter to purchase, two LittleBigPlanet 2 Collectors Editions ($80 MSRP) and Dj Hero 2 ($60 MSRP) as our free game of choice. I noticed Dj Hero 2 had not been noted as free on the register screen and asked the young associate to double check her ad. After contesting my side of the argument for a few minutes the young woman calls for her supervisor, we spent a while sorting out this matter with what I thought to be the worst attitude I had ever seen displayed by an authority figure. He asked if I cared to speak with the manager. I replied yes, hoping this gentlemen would be much more caring and understanding to this situation, but I guess this was too much to ask for in the manners of customer service. This Manager by the name of William, walks to the counter with a very assertive attitude to start off. He claims my 'argument did not hold any water, ' in his terms, before I could fully explain to him that there were no restrictions placed in the ad for any certain games to pick and choose other than an equal or lesser value of $29.99 or more. After this gentleman's bitter attitude, this conversation was getting way to heated for a public store, I finally surrendered to his side of the argument and went to search for another game that would meet these 'so called standards.' My father stays behind close to the manager as my wife and I were on our way to the video game section. I soon see my father walk up to me claiming he was getting kicked out of the Best Buy store, and for what reason? Well he so happened to see Manager William lean over another employees shoulder to explain the situation and heard the Manager refer to me as a 'Smart ### guy.' My father, being a parent of course, retaliates by asking him, 'is this the way you treat your customers, by calling them obscene and harsh names?' My father continued on by telling Manager William he should not talk of his son in such a manner. Manager William, very arrogantly, replies with 'maybe if you would have raised your son to not argue with people.' My Father, having his parenting methods questioned by Manager William, grows frustrated and continues to shout back at him and making him aware he was very wrong for his behavior and poor choice of words. William noticing he's drawn attention from other customers in the store, repeatedly denies of saying such a thing and grows aggressive with my father and asks him to leave the store immediately and that local police officers are on their way. I grow very frustrated with this Manager at this point and am asking for his full name. He continues to act aggressively in this behavior and refuses to give me his full name and in his words, repeats 'don't worry about my name, I'm not going to give it to you.' He then finally is kicking me out, along with my father, and having me escorted out the door. I then turn to my wife, who has remained entirely silent at this point, to continue purchasing our items and Manager William then denies my wife's service and claims we all need to get out or he will have the local authorities to arrest us. My wife reasoning with Manager William that she has committed no actions of wrong-doing, and would like to just simply purchase what we drove across town for. William then claims he's had enough, denies not only my purchase of goods but disrespects my wife and denies her service, seeing that she was only a third-party. William has us dismissed out the door. At this point we are all very infuriated and very appalled that our first-choice store has treated us in such a manner.

My reasonable fear, as a paying customer is seeing the attitude, and the disrespect displayed by Manager William and curious to the fact if this is how he teaches his employees to handle such a situation and mistreat their honest customers. I would like some word on this issue and some sort of apology before I ever think about returning to my local Best Buy ever again.

Thank you for your time

(I received a phone call two weeks later from the Best Buy Corporate office themselves, advising me to never go back to my local Best Buy ever again. I asked them to check their surveillance cameras for visual proof to match my story. They refused and said I would need a Subpoena if I was interested in taking this any step further. The lady was very rude and refused to give me her last name then hung up the phone. This whole situation has felt very unjust and very unprofessionally handled.)

I purchased a TV from Best Buy, brought it home and discovered -- before removing it from the box -- that it was damaged. The TV was never removed from its box and we returned to Best Buy.

However, Best Buy refused to accept the TV saying that the box was not damaged so the TV had to have been damaged when removed from the box, which was clearly not the case.

All complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

That is how it was even when speaking to a VP and customer relations personnel.

A supervisor by the name of Charlene at the Patchogue Best Buy location was very rude to me, a devoted customer. My husband died recently and tragically. I am not looking for sympathy from this twenty something year old employee. My daughter's birthday was right after my husband died. She received 2 I-Pod touches. We wanted to return one and get the money back, not a credit. She was very disrespectful to me, no compassion. Her exact words to me were, "I'm done with you." She walked away and left me standing there for 15 minutes until another employee came over to help. This employee was not helpful at all either. Charlene is the one I have a problem with. Doesn't society have any compassion. I was told that in order to receive the cash, it had to be returned 30 days later. Well, it was 40 days later. I asked if they could help me out since my husband died. Charlene was very mean and inappropriate. Personally, I believe she should be reprimanded, suspended or even fired for the way she treated me. I am so disappointed and displeased with her. How could a supervisor treat a customer like that? Again, I'm not looking for sympathy, maybe just a little compassion. I had the receipt and she refused to give me my money back. Respectfully, Donna C.

I have usually found it frustrating to shop at Best Buy stores as it is very difficult to find sales people who are truly knowledgeable.

On one occasion I had a sales person walk away from me after asking if I was going to make a purchase on that visit. I told him that I couldn't answer that until I was done shopping. He then walked away.

Today, however was the last time that I will attempt to purchase anything from them. I knew what I wanted and easily found it on their web site. Their system would not accept my shipping address which I have used for the past forty years.

After trying for approximately six hours to get their system to work, being put on hold, and trying to unsuccessfully communicate with someone that I could not understand and who could probably not understand me, I was told that there was nothing that they could do unless I would give them another address.

They didn't seem to understand that the address I had used was the only one I have.

This was my final attempt at trying to be a Best Buy shopper. I can't understand how they can stay in business with the type of experiences I have had.

I purchased nokia cell phone at best buy store. Receipt says: save this receipt for warranty work. Four months later the phone went completely dead. I got stranded on a one lane highway in the middle of nowhere with no phone. I went to best buy to see if they will exchange phone or get service.

They don't oblige any warranty unless you purchase a service contract.

That is, they can get the warranty work done for you all right, but only if you pay an excessive amount for unnecessary work that is covered under warranty. My only option is to send the phone into nokia for repair. Meanwhile, I have this 1 year service contract with cellular one through best buy during which I will be without a phone for at least 6 weeks.

What's more, I can't cancel the plan because I have no phone or I have to pay best buy $300 for a phone that doesn't work. Plus their customer service is really bad.

After I got through explaining my problem to two people I got really upset and left and overheard them say - "that's one bad customer gone". Well I won't be back so they don't need to worry about me, but then there's all my family and friends who won't go there, plus anyone else who is wise to their scheme. They will give you a low price on just about anything but they don't service what they sell and they don't honor manufacturer's warranty's and they are not helpful.

Spend a couple dollars more at a place that services what they sell and has good customer service.

Best buy just wants to sell you an overpriced extended service plan to make money, otherwise they will do nothing. They are a bad customer service company and I would never buy another item from them if they had the last one in the universe and I really wanted it.

Customer service is important and you get what you pay for.

Over the last year and a half my family has purchased 4 phones thru best buy, since then we have had problems with three of them all ending the same way.
The service staff tells you that repairs should take 10 t0 15 day, when you call to check in 15 days they tell you that they are waiting on parts, but they have up to 30 day to repair or replace the phone. When you call back in 30 days they tell you the 30 days dose not start until the phone arrives at the repair center( ADD ANOTHER FIVE TO SEVEN DAYS). Making it THIRTY FIVE TO THIRTY SEVEN DAYS. at this point they tell you your phone cannot be repaired and hand you a new one
Since all phones were purchased before I had any problems, I had no idea how this mickey mouse system worked.
THIS HAS NOT HAPPENED JUST ONCE,
PHONE # ONE 31 DAYS
PHONE # TWO 33 DAYS
PHONE # THREE 25 DAYS AND COUNTING

STAY CLEAR OF BLACK TIE SERVICE

I purchased a laptop from Best Buy. The Geek Squad assured me that it would be ready on the same day because I bought it early enough in the day for them to upgrade it in the 4 to 6 hours that was needed to do so. When eight hours passed and no one called, I called Best Buy to ask about the laptop and was told that it was ready. It wasn't ready so I essentially just wasted time and money traveling to the store. I was promised a thirty dollar refund but didn't get it when I discovered that the power cord wasn't in the box after I was finally able to pick up the laptop the day after I bought it. I had to go to Best Buy for the third time to pick up my power cord because the manager informed me that the Geek Squad was too busy to do it!

On January 3rd 2011, I order a refurbished desktop PC on the Bestbuy web site. After 3 weeks waiting for delivery, I inquired Bestbuy customer services if they would deliver or. On January 25th I received a writtten confirmation from Bestbuy customer services through email that they could note deliver, that the order was canceled and I wil not be charged for the order. I though it was case closed.
Suddently, on March 10th, I received a written advice that the order got shipped same day. On the same day I asked the Bestbuy customer to cancelled the delivery since the order was suppositely cancelled. I got a reply telling me it was too late since the order got already sent. On March 11th I noticed that my credit card got charged for the order.
This clearly apears to me as a fraudulent pratice from Bestbuy.
Bestbuy customer services cannot be trusted in any way.
Bestbuy cannot be trusted in any way as this company has no respect for their customers.
I recommend to custormers to avoid from making business with Bestbuy in any ways.

Best Buy installed remote start to my car and with wrong option with which I am not able to unlock the doors after starting from remote start. After I checked and before leaving manger checked and agreed to fix the problem and because of inconvenience. He waived the extra work charges but ask to come next day, however next day different manager was there and she refuse to fulfill the promise other manager did. Lastly end up paying extra $45.

I bought a TV from best buy and had the geek squad protection. My TV was either damaged by lightening or a power surge. They sent out a tech named Josh because they said they cover this issue. I was glad to hear that. The tech looked at my screen and told me it was cracked in 10 seconds. I told the rep whom I had set up the appointment with over the phone that the screen was cracked from the inside. She said that would be no problem. I was never given any paperwork on what was covered by the geek squad nor would they answer any questions upfront.
This TV is financed so I still owe a balance on it. The tech argued with me for 20 minutes before I told him to leave my house. I did have a louder voice then normal but was not yelling. I slammed the door after he was out the door and up the stairs. He then slandered me to his supervisors saying he felt unsafe. They won't tell me why he felt unsafe but he obviously lied. Why would a person who was scared of someone not leave but argue for 20 minutes? Not only that but I asked for him to call a supervisor and he said he does not have a supervisor! I am now blocked/banned from using geek sqaud which is weird because how can they punish me when I don't work for them? I keep getting the same supervisor over and over again with no workable resolution. They keep telling me they will refund my geek squad protection but I am waiting for a lawyer to contact me back before accept that. I really want a second tech to come out. If the first one was lazy and a liar why can't I get a decent one? It seems I get blamed for the kid not wanting to do his job.
I am hoping to file a class action lawsuit because I have read many other complaints about best buy and geek squad.

I am a repeat customer to mainly the automotive accessories and installation department of the L:ancaster, Pa location. I have, in the past had many satisfying experiences with them and am typically satisfied with my service. I have had a cd player/head unit installed in my vehicle and also had car speakers installed and purchased as well. I was extremely happy. However for christmas of 2011 i was given a viper remote starter for my vehicle for a gift. Now last time I checked a gift does not typically come with a reciept, I went after almost 3 mths of attempting to have it installed to finally have an appointment to have it done. I had went thru the inconvienance of getting a ride there and back when my vehicle was finished to have it picked up. My friend had other things planned for the day but put them aside to help me with this. My install was set up for 10 am on 2/14/11 and i showed up early. after waiting almost 10 minutes past time of my appt, i finally got into the bay and spoke with the gentle man. he proceded to go about setting up the install and pulls my car into the bay, only to tell me I needed a reciept or proof of purchase to do the install to prove that installation was included and paid for. now anyone in ur company working or familiar with these products know that free install comes with the purchase of the product. so that wouuld prolly mean that the install was paid for. I spent over 45 minutes dealing with a female mgr at this location trying to locate some sort of reciept for the purchase. my friend that had purchased this product for me is 2nd in command of a lowes store and had to interrupt his meeting with his employees for almost an hr as well to try to resolve this issue. after 45 minutes of this they decided to tell me that nothing can be done. Now with my previous experiences with multiple retail companies every single company has some distinguishing factors or ways of identifying thier products from another company that carries the same or similiar products. according to ur management team in this location they have nothing like that, hmmmm is the owners and founders of ur company that nieve or is that a line of bull? to this point I still have physical possesion of this product with no way of getting it installed. I was a manager of a company in different field but I still know that I would do what ever nesicary to make the customer happy. i just want satisfied with this matter, is that to much to ask? I am starting to think so...