This past weekend my friend Nicole and I went to Best Buy to get her a new power cord for her computer. The cord ended up being over $100 to her dismay but she needed it. Her old one petered out. We pay for it and she plugs it into her computer and it melts into her outlet, rendering her computer useless. She brings it back to Best Buy and is refunded all but $30 for that Nintendo game she also bought.Huh? She didn't buy a Nintendo game. But they thought she did because it was on her receipt. She was rung up for one without realizing it.
Without getting a refund and so mad she was seeing red, Nicole gathered her stuff and drove the hour back to Bar Harbor. The next day she placed a call to the Bangor Best Buy and the corporate headquarters to no avail. She was told she'd have to drive back to Bangor to talk to someone at that particular store. Not only did they charge her for something she clearly didn't buy, but are inconveniencing her further by making her drive 2 hours to solve a problem she didn't cause.
Furious at the lack of customer service she posted the story on her blog, Breaking Even, Inc., asking people to boycott Best Buy. You can read it here.
Be sure to scroll down and read the comments -- especially the one from Gina, Best Buy's Community Connection Manager. Nicole alerted Best Buy's customer service that she is a Maine Blogger and posted the fiasco on her blog.
After all that it was her blog that got their attention. That's saying something. Best Buy is combing the internet looking for posts that complain about their company. Perhaps if they did a better job with customer service in the first place they wouldn't have to spend time combating unfavorable blogs.
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5 comments:
Hey Mel,
I thought I'd comment. You know I'm a pretty honest person, so hopefully you'll take this earnestly. I've spent eight years of my life working retail, with a chunk of those being the person who has to handle customer issues - and if there is one thing I know, these situations are never easy. But knowing that most people will instantly jump all over the evil corporate retail world, I've got a few questions/comments about this post.
Firstly, as horrible as it is to say - mistakes happen. They just do. I once, while working at an outdoor retailer, accidentally gave away a free sleeping bag that cost two hundred dollars because of a simple mistake I made on my computer screen. You would think that was an obvious thing to catch, but it happens. To everyone and in every job. There are two people in every retail transaction, and either both people need to accept blame or neither should. In this situation, it sounds as though your friend was already tuned into the fact that she was spending what was deemed too much/more than expected on her cord, so I think there is some accountability that should be had on her side for not realizing there was an error - in other words, both parties should be able to admit that they could have prevented this from escalating to this point.
Secondly, (and I know this is getting long), I think there are parts of this story missing. Did your friend leave seeing red because she got overcharged, or because of what a bestbuy employee said or did when she was processing her return? With my knowledge of and experience with the Bangor Best Buy, I'm surprised that if your friend spoke with a manager that they didn't find a reasonable way to remedy the problem. Like, really surprised. So inquiring minds want to know, was there management involved? If so, what did they say? Or did Nicole just get upset at the incorrect charge and leave after only speaking with the return cashier?
Lastly, big companies track what is being done with them and said about them all the time. Microsoft records information off your computer thru your internet connection, employers research your facebook before they hire you, and stores search message boards to see what customers both like and dislike. Little debbie once sent my brother a t-shirt and a whole box of every type of snack they make just because he put up a hate page about them on his website - and this was almost ten years ago, so of course a tech company in this day and age uses the internet to judge their customer satisfaction.
Sorry for the length, but in general I think that it's a find line to walk when posting things that boycott and entire business - especially in these economic times. Also, this strikes home for me because of my retail background and because I have family and friends that work at Best Buy. I feel that, (and I understand that she is your friend, so I forgive you), this story seems a bit biased. I'd just like to know as much about the story as possible before being asked to boycott an entire store. Especially one that I've had great experiences at and that I know is full of good employees trying to do good things for people, even if in this case things went very wrong.
Anyhow, sorry if this seems combative, it's not meant to - it just strikes a cord and I'm curious about the entirety of the situation. Besides, it's fun that the first "comment" was longer than the entire post. :)
Hey Ben- Melanie isn't writing a story for the Times- this is a blog, and is therefore subject to opinion.
Also, while I appreciate your desire to play devil's advocate, I find it ridiculous that you would even bother given that you also admit to having friends and family that work at Best Buy! Talk about biased...
Bottom line, Melanie presented this story from her perspective, on her blog. She's not the one telling people to boycott Best Buy, she's merely telling a story.
Lastly, the next time you'd like to get your point across, it might be helpful to learn the difference between "cord" and "chord."
A "cord" is was what Melanie's friend purchased from Best Buy. A "chord" is a set of three or more musical notes that sound simultaneously, and is used in an idiom in the phrase "strike a chord," to convey an emotional response.
wow, that was a little harsh...
ben's a nice kid, really :) i mean, didn't you read that he gave an expensive sleeping bag away for free?
so true, everyone is biased. no big deal- we could all be worse things.
no, best buy employees are not the devils spawn.
yes, nicole should have looked at her receipt.
i think the major point here (at least it was for me... please don't yell at me on the blog if you disagree) is this- we need to expect more from our retail communitee.
i can say with certainty that nicole in no way looks like a sketchy liar :) and as a person in retail, i know what the right thing to do here is. i suppose every store is different, especially when you have 3 bosses, but for me at my store i would have sided with my customer. i choose to have faith in them.
$30 to nicole is probably a decent 5 days worth of groceries... $30 to best buy is a drop in the bucket.
indeed this is a bit of a fiasco and i feel for nicole. i too know people who have worked for best buy, but i can't go to batt for them on this one.
sorry bently.
Wow, I guess I really struck a chord with Anonymous. Get it?? Struck a CHORD? I kill myself sometimes... anyhow... (Those three dots are called an ellipsis - look at me, I know grammar too!)
Listen, I love Mel to death - I just thought that posting something that is meant for everyone to see and that "suggests" boycotting a business, (I means seriously, you don't think the photo image suggests people shouldn't go to Best Buy.) should have as much info presented as possible - blog or no blog. As someone who writes for a living, I'm sure Mel understands what I'm saying.
Saying I have friends and family that work there was in no way presented as bias - it was a point of reference to say that from all the time I have spent there I am very surprised this happened to Nicole, even more surprised it wasn't resolved at the time, and yet even more surprised that it can't be resolved if she goes back and sincerely discusses it with a manager.
I apologize if you didn't get my point the first the first time - I'm in hopes that my accidental misspelling of a word keeps it from being clear this time.
Thanks again Anonymous!
-Ben
And Jenn,
I totally agree with you that we need to expect more from our retail community. It's just that now I have the experience of having forty "sales associates" working for me for a national chain when I was out in LA, and let me tell you - it's not easy to be accountable for all those people compared to having a handful at Epic. I'd have people that seemed fantastic upon hire - only to turn out to be horrible with customers, untrustworthy, etc. I just wish that in this world people would take the time to step back and look at both sides more often - that's all I'm saying and all I'm trying to do here... and I think that you and Melanie understand that.
And boy oh boy is Ayda getting good at typing! :)
I'd also like to point out that after re-reading my original post I did not mistake the words "cord" and "chord". So I'm not stupid after all, which is a relief. Unless of course I misread while re-reading, in which case I am stupid, which is much less of a relief.
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