Warning about buying large ticket items at Best Buy

[secular_mom]

IF you purchase something that costs over $500 and then decide to return it, AND you paid cash for the item they will NOT give you your money back in the store. Instead, they give you a certificate and tell you they will mail you a check for the refund amount in 5-10 days. Just thought you all might like to know this.

[Chelle in MO]

Just one of the MANY reasons my dad, who buys TONS of electronics, will never shop at Best Buy again! Terrible customer service overall.

 

Chelle

[Julie in CA]

He took one of our business checks in and bought a computer (for the business). The next day he took another check in to buy another computer, and they declined to accept his check. He had just reconciled his bank statement that morning, knew there was over $90,000 in the account, and Best Buy had no explanation for why it was denied. He'll never shop there again. It's a shame, because it seems like they should have been very *very* happy to sell my dh whatever he wanted to buy. :confused:

[secular_mom]

My husband refuses to shop there, he'd rather buy something online and wait for it to be shipped than buy something from them. He came to this conclusion after reading their return policy before, but he didn't realize they don't refund cash over certain amounts. My relatives found this out the hard way this weekend. I'm sure no one else in our family will be shopping there again.

[Aubrey]

I wonder if it has to do w/ how much cash a store has on hand at a given time? You know, even if they *do* have that much, they don't nec. want people to know that they do or where they do.

 

I'm sure electronics stores have to carry more on hand than others, but stores I've worked at have never carried much more than $500.

 

That's the only reason I could think of for a policy like that. :001_smile:

[G5052]

That's why I hate buying such things. Even places like Sears and Costco have a separate return policy for electronics. You have to read the fine print.

[secular_mom]

I wonder if it has to do w/ how much cash a store has on hand at a given time? You know, even if they *do* have that much, they don't nec. want people to know that they do or where they do.

 

I'm sure electronics stores have to carry more on hand than others, but stores I've worked at have never carried much more than $500.

 

That's the only reason I could think of for a policy like that. :001_smile:

 

Well, if that's the case then I see no good reason for making the customer wait 5-10 days to get the refund check. They should just issue the check upon receiving the returned item.

[Parrothead]

I wonder if it has to do w/ how much cash a store has on hand at a given time? You know, even if they *do* have that much, they don't nec. want people to know that they do or where they do.

 

I'm sure electronics stores have to carry more on hand than others, but stores I've worked at have never carried much more than $500.

 

That's the only reason I could think of for a policy like that. :001_smile:

That makes good sense too. There are a lot of people who spend a lot of money in those stores on the weekends. Not all of them use plastic. It would be a treasure trove for some hyped up junkie with a pistol.

[orangearrow]

Get this experience my mom had just last month -

 

She had a $100 gift card. Bought an item that was just a tad over $100. Decided it wasn't quite what she was looking for after all, so went to return it a week or two later. She had her receipt and everything.

 

They would not return the item and give her store credit/another gift card BECAUSE she did not have the ORIGINAL gift card that had been used!!! She had told the cashier to throw it away (since it was now empty). She assumed (!!!) that they would just put it on another Gift Card and call it even, but nope.

 

She had to call Best Buy's customer service, have them look up the number of the original gift card. THEN they had to re-issue the gift card (with a value of zero) and mail it to her. Then, she was allowed to return the item to the store and they put it back on her "new" gift card. :001_huh:

 

She was frantic that it would take them too long to get it done and she would be beyond the days the return policy allowed.

 

Now, I shop at Best Buy quite often. We just bought a laptop from there, but we had to be 1000% sure that it was exactly what we wanted beforehand.

 

Also - watch the prices on the items and what they ring up for. Three times I've bought a CD with a sticker on it that says one price, but it rings up for more. I guess they mark the CD down, but don't update their computer system simultaneously. The cashiers all 3 (separate times) said that this happens all the time. Unfortunately, I didn't realize either time until after I'd checked out. Which meant, I had to go wait in line at CS to get a refund for the difference. :glare: You'd think I'd have learned by now, huh?

[tricia]

This is good to know. I just bought a camera but it was under 500. Went to Walmart and it was 30.00 less so went back to Best Buy and they did refund us. Quite a surprise to be honest.

[KidsHappen]

He took one of our business checks in and bought a computer (for the business). The next day he took another check in to buy another computer, and they declined to accept his check. He had just reconciled his bank statement that morning, knew there was over $90,000 in the account, and Best Buy had no explanation for why it was denied. He'll never shop there again. It's a shame, because it seems like they should have been very *very* happy to sell my dh whatever he wanted to buy. :confused:

 

I can explain this one. I used to be a cash manager for a big box electronics retailer (bigger than Best Buy in it's markets). All major retailers like this use a check service that verifies checks, things like account numbers, activity, amounts of checks normally written, etc. A check of $90,000 one day and then another large check the next day would be a huge red flag of stolen check/fraudulent activity. You would be hard pressed to find any manager than would override that service and ok a check like that. As I said, I was the cash manager and I wouldn't have done it. I would have turned it over to the actual store manager and I seriousy doubt he would have approved it without stipulations either. He would have made serious concessions to make the sale but he wouldn't have flat out approved it no questions asked and if someone was fraudulently using your account, you wouldn't want them to either.

Edited March 1, 2010 by KidsHappen

[KidsHappen]

I wonder if it has to do w/ how much cash a store has on hand at a given time? You know, even if they *do* have that much, they don't nec. want people to know that they do or where they do.

 

I'm sure electronics stores have to carry more on hand than others, but stores I've worked at have never carried much more than $500.

 

That's the only reason I could think of for a policy like that. :001_smile:

 

As I stated above, I used to be a cash manager for a big box electronics retailer. In our time, we were bigger than Best Buy so I don't know how our numbers would have compared but we had million dollar days and on some days my cash deposits were easily $50,000 dollars. So we frequently had the cash neccessary if need be. Our policy was to return the money in the same form it was given. SO if the customer paid cash they were entitled to acash refund. We always ran electronics through our geek squad though to make sure that nothing was removed, damaged, changed out, that seriel numbers matched, etc. Once we had done everything possible to verify that the item was returned in it's original condition and that we had verified the customer we would return cash if it was available. Of course, if the customer came after I had already made the deposit for the day then we had to offer a check.

[KidsHappen]

Well, if that's the case then I see no good reason for making the customer wait 5-10 days to get the refund check. They should just issue the check upon receiving the returned item.

 

Stores generally do not have the ability to print checks on premises.

[KidsHappen]

Get this experience my mom had just last month -

 

She had a $100 gift card. Bought an item that was just a tad over $100. Decided it wasn't quite what she was looking for after all, so went to return it a week or two later. She had her receipt and everything.

 

They would not return the item and give her store credit/another gift card BECAUSE she did not have the ORIGINAL gift card that had been used!!! She had told the cashier to throw it away (since it was now empty). She assumed (!!!) that they would just put it on another Gift Card and call it even, but nope.

 

She had to call Best Buy's customer service, have them look up the number of the original gift card. THEN they had to re-issue the gift card (with a value of zero) and mail it to her. Then, she was allowed to return the item to the store and they put it back on her "new" gift card. :001_huh:

 

She was frantic that it would take them too long to get it done and she would be beyond the days the return policy allowed.

 

Now, I shop at Best Buy quite often. We just bought a laptop from there, but we had to be 1000% sure that it was exactly what we wanted beforehand.

 

Also - watch the prices on the items and what they ring up for. Three times I've bought a CD with a sticker on it that says one price, but it rings up for more. I guess they mark the CD down, but don't update their computer system simultaneously. The cashiers all 3 (separate times) said that this happens all the time. Unfortunately, I didn't realize either time until after I'd checked out. Which meant, I had to go wait in line at CS to get a refund for the difference. :glare: You'd think I'd have learned by now, huh?

 

I have no idea about the gift card problems as we didn't even have gift cards back in the day, but the other problem is the pricing manager (provided they even have a pricing manager and didn't just bump these tasks off on another manager) falling down on the job. I did that for awhile and gave it up because it was simply impossible for one person to do the job, it really required a whole team. The amount of things required to get items priced and matched in the computer is mind boggling. Having BTDT, I understand and simply watch the scanning or check my receipt carefully before leaving.

[Rhonda in TX]

I can explain this one. I used to be a cash manager for a big box electronics retailer (bigger than Best Buy in it's markets). All major retailers like this use a check service that verifies checks, things like account numbers, activity, amounts of checks normally written, etc. A check of $90,000 one day and then another large check the next day would be a huge red flag of stolen check/fraudulent activity. You would be hard pressed to find any manager than would override that service and ok a check like that. As I said, I was the cash manager and I wouldn't have done it. I would have turned it over to the actual store manager and I seriousy doubt he would have approved it without stipulations either. He would have made serious concessions to make the sale but he wouldn't have flat out approved it no questions asked and if someone was fraudulently using your account, you wouldn't want them to either.

 

She said he had $90,000 in the account, not that he was writing a check for that amount. He was buying a computer, so the amount on either check should not have been nearly that much. Would the same policy hold in case of smaller amounts?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

That's why I hate buying such things. Even places like Sears and Costco have a separate return policy for electronics. You have to read the fine print.

 

Sadly I think that many of these return policies and restrictions are the result of dealing with people who try to defraud the company. I've heard of returning a packaging box with bricks inside to simulate the weight of the product. Shoplifters sometimes try to "return" merchandise for refund.

 

It is unfortunate that honest people end up dealing with the policies created as a consequence.

 

I had a less than satisfactory experience with the buyer rewards program at Best Buy. But given the very limited options I have of shopping the base exchange, trying to buy online (many electronics companies won't ship to our military address) or going out in town to a Japanese electronics store (nice selection, higher prices and huge language barrier) I can say that I'd love to have the options at the average US big box retailer.

[KidsHappen]

She said he had $90,000 in the account, not that he was writing a check for that amount. He was buying a computer, so the amount on either check should not have been nearly that much. Would the same policy hold in case of smaller amounts?

 

Oh you are right, I misread the op. It would depend on how large the first check was or how many checks were written in a certain period of time. Lower income families run into this a lot at income tax return time. They don;t normally write a lot of checks or ones for large amounts of money so when they reveive a large amount and decide to spend all in a relatively short period of time their accounts are flagged for unusual activity.

[Delighted3]

We will never shop at best buy again. They have terrible customer service and they don't stand behind their products at all.

JMO,

Joy

[Mergath]

We will never shop at best buy again. They have terrible customer service and they don't stand behind their products at all.

JMO,

Joy

 

Yup. When I was starting college, I went to Best Buy to get a laptop. The one I wanted was out, except for the display model, and since it looked like it was in perfect condition and I got a big discount, I bought the display model.

 

Well, not long after I got it home, I noticed it was rattling. Odd, I though. Then the whole thing shorted out and wouldn't turn on again. Now, the computer was under warranty, plus I had purchased the extended warranty through the store, so I brought it back and asked them to fix it. They had to send it across the country, and several weeks later, I found out that there was a penny inside the thing.

 

Naturally, I assumed that some kid had somehow jammed a penny in there while it was on display, and that they would fix it and send it back. Nope. They said that it was their belief that I must have put the penny inside the laptop myself (because that makes so much sense) and that, because I had damaged my own computer, I would have to pay several hundred dollars to have it repaired. Plus the cost of shipping.

 

After several fits of rage, I managed to talk them down, and only (!!!) had to pay three hundred dollars to have my computer under two separate warranties that was damaged before I even bought it fixed. They won't be getting my money again.

[Ravin]

I wonder if it has to do w/ how much cash a store has on hand at a given time? You know, even if they *do* have that much, they don't nec. want people to know that they do or where they do.

 

I'm sure electronics stores have to carry more on hand than others, but stores I've worked at have never carried much more than $500.

 

That's the only reason I could think of for a policy like that. :001_smile:

 

I don't see how an electronics store wouldn't have enough cash on hand. Our electronics department at WM regularly has several thousand in the drawer by the end of the day, and if there wasn't enough they could get a loan from the cash office. Even more so customer service, which starts out with a bigger change till. Of course, our store does check cashing so we have a large cash fund on hand pretty much all the time.

 

We do tend to be a bit squirrelly about electronics returns, because of theft and fraud issues. But with a receipt? Once we'd inspected things to make sure it was all there and serial numbers matched, it would have been no problem, at least during the day.

 

As for the way they do their gift cards...that's just nuts.

[SonshineLearner]

When we tried to take something back, I thought they were going to call security or the police, because my normally rational husband... was going insane. They were just not reasonable, and we've never gone back...

[Nestof3]

I wonder if it has to do w/ how much cash a store has on hand at a given time? You know, even if they *do* have that much, they don't nec. want people to know that they do or where they do.

 

I'm sure electronics stores have to carry more on hand than others, but stores I've worked at have never carried much more than $500.

 

That's the only reason I could think of for a policy like that. :001_smile:

 

:iagree: