Today I walked into Best Buy with every intention of buying a TV. I had cash on hand, there were several TVs within my budget, and I had a few questions before making a decision. I walked around the department for quite a while while multiple employees in blue shirts saw me and acknowledged me, yet not a single person approached me to ask if I needed help.
I finally had to approach an employee myself, and he seemed completely uninterested in doing his job. I asked two or three simple questions, and it felt like I was interrupting his dusting. He couldn't wait to get back to whatever he was doing instead of helping a customer who was actually ready to spend money.
What makes this even more unbelievable is that there appeared to be several managers or upper management staff in the store at the time. If this is the level of customer service when management is present, I can't imagine what it's like on a normal day.
I walked in ready to buy a TV and walked out empty-handed. Absolutely incredible. Best Buy didn't lose a browser today, they lost a customer who genuinely wanted to make a purchase. Extremely disappointed.
Update:
All right, I'll bite.
After your response to my original review, I followed your instructions and went through the Best Buy Contact Us process to see how you intended to "earn back my confidence." I genuinely wanted to give you that opportunity.
But I honestly don't understand the logic behind it.
I had a terrible customer service experience in your Kingston store, and your solution was to direct me to a system that provided even worse service.
I called. The person on the phone couldn't help, didn't know anything about my situation, and ultimately told me there wasn't really anything they could do. Their advice? Go online and submit a chat request.
So I did that too.
The chat appeared to be automated, took forever to respond, and required me to explain the entire situation all over again. After all of that, I was no further ahead than when I started.
I don't understand how a negative experience is supposed to be fixed by an even bigger negative experience.
It is amazing how badly this ball was dropped. Instead of picking it up, it felt like Best Buy kicked it right out of the stadium. I'm honestly at a loss for words. This has done absolutely nothing to earn back my confidence.
Second update:
Somebody from the store finally contacted me. To be fair, he was polite, professional, and genuinely seemed well-meaning. He offered to make himself available if I went back to the store so they could help me find the right TV.
Thank you, but I'll pass.
I spent 35 to 45 minutes in the store and nobody cared. Then I spent another couple of hours trying to contact customer service. At this point, I'm already about three hours into trying to buy a TV.
And now you want me to go back to the store so you can help me?
At least offer me a 1% discount. Anything. Some acknowledgement that my time actually has value and that this mess was created by you, not by me. If this happened to me, I'm sure it has happened to other people too.
I don't think you guys are getting how badly you dropped the ball on this. You screwed up the first time. Then your solution was worse than the original experience. Then, when somebody finally called me back, the solution somehow became worse again by asking me to spend even more of my own time fixing a problem you created.
How are you going to earn back my confidence by making things worse?
This wasn't one employee having a bad day. It felt like the store failed, then the company failed, and then the attempt to fix it failed too.
I genuinely appreciate the person who called me. He wasn't the problem. But the fact remains that your solution ended up being worse than the problem you created in the first place. And after three hours of my time trying to buy a TV, no, I'm not going back to help you fix your mistake.