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Best Buy = Bye, bye or how to kill a retail business

November 24, 2006 · 2 comments

I just returned from what can only be described as a complete retail disaster.

So, I want to send a special message to the folks at Best Buy. You. Guys. Suck.

Today Best Buy lost me as a customer - forever.

You see, the black friday sale is a bit of a tradition for my wife, her sister and mother, and last year they coxed me into going with them to Best Buy, where I got a couple pretty good deals. Sure it was a mad house. People wandering everywhere, looking for deal, swooping them up and rushing to the cashier.

This year things were different.

We arrived early to improve our odds of getting the deal we wanted. 4:45 a.m. early at that. However, to my surprise a line wrapped around the building. This should have been a warning sign telling me to go home.

However, I figured with fire codes, they would let people enter gradually, and while lines might be long, it would be reasonable.

Nope. Within 5 minutes the entire line of several hundred people was unleashed on a store that was completely unorganized.

After 30 minutes talking with a clueless employee, whom could not figure out why our product was not where they thought it should be, I discovered a multi-pronged line winding towards the back of the store.

My booty lie at the end of that line, or so I thought.

You see, for those not privy to the local ads fine print, if you arrived at 4 a.m. you got a voucher, guaranteeing the product you wanted. This allowed you to retire to your home and return after the morning onslaught subsided.

But, why am I kicking Best Buy to the curb? Sour grapes over a lost deal? Nope.

  • The advertisements made it clear that the deal we wanted was only good from 5 a.m. to noon. Yet people whom arrived at 4 a.m. got to purchase these products while the store was closed.
  • They did not let people know that products had already all been sold out via the vouchers. So everyone wasted their morning waiting in line after line, until reaching the front of the line and being told they were sold out. Well, sold out except for the stack of products sitting on the shelf waiting for voucher holders to return.
  • They openly encouraged people to try to buy vouchers from other shoppers waiting in line if they really wanted the product! I am at Best Buy, not some tailgate party for a Stone’s concert!

Over the last few years, I’ve spent thousands dollars at Best Buy, on computers and home theater goodies.

Never again!

I don’t really care about not getting this deal. I knew that possibility was the risk of going.

What I hated was the feeling I got while in their store. It felt so disrespectful. Almost as if they were laughing at the shoppers whom showed up expecting a normal retail experience, but were not savvy enough to have arrived early for the in-crowds pre-game voucher festivities.

As I said before, Best Buy. You. Guys. Suck.

But more importantly, you don’t get it.

My web browser just became my favorite sales man.

My FedEx driver just eclipsed you in terms of customer service.

You just lost a customer forever.

p.s. - Don’t even get me started on the sham that is video game pre-orders and new console launches.

  • 1 patman // Nov 28, 2006 at 10:52 PM

    While I agree with some of what you said, other parts weren’t actually correct. The flyer that went out the day before Thanksgiving (at least the one in my local paper, I'm assuming they were al the same nation wide) clearly pointed out that vouchers for products would be available starting at 4am. I think this was their attempt to cut down on the hysteria that typically ensues from these sales. 500+ people can't rush into the store at 5am to buy products that are already spoken for. Why is this a good idea, at least in theory? Do you remember the stories of people getting trampled at Walmart for $20 DVD players? Or how about making sure the people who waited the longest actually get what they wanted. If it's a free for all at 5am, it doesn't matter if you got there at midnight or 4:55am, it's who's stronger and who's bigger. And what's fair about that?

  • 2 Lon // Dec 08, 2006 at 08:07 AM

    The deal I was looking for was not technically part of the "presale" crap they pulled. But clueless employees didn't stop that from happening. I stand by my critism 100%. Best Buy is among a growing number of retailers that treat the customers as cattle, with little respect, and clearly display a lack of customer service, professionalism or pride in their jobs. As for people who wait the longest, its simple. Put up the ropes and poles and let them in - in order. I have no issue with people waiting days or weeks in lines to get something. But don't pre-sell the products and then fail to inform the others in line that everything is sold. Just disrespectful. As for who's strong or bigger, that already happens, without trampling. Weathly people paying others to stand in line, employees selling merchandise for a "extra fee". It's just a matter of how you define bigger and stronger, no?