The other day I wrote a post titled Best Buy Customer Service = Fail and I was shocked at what happened. Best Buy actually noticed it. It started with the social media team from Best Buy in the US. They noticed it and sent a tweet to Best Buy Canada.
I was impressed. So I sat and waited. While I waited I got a call from the manager I spoke with the day of the whole Kinect issue. She had called to let me know that they had some in stock. I said “That’s nice I got one already from Future Shop” and hung up the phone. I felt like a piece of crap. Here she was TRYING to make it better and I was rude to her. So I called back and apologized. Then being a sucker for punishment I went back to Best Buy to buy a TV. The rep I dealt with was fantastic and ended up selling me a sound bar as well. We scheduled to have the TV delivered 2 days later and I went home.
The next day I got an e-mail from the General Manager of the location I have had all the hassle at. In his e-mail he said that he could not fix the past but would like to know what he could do to change my opinion of his location going into the future. I replied telling him I am not sure how he could but if he had any suggestions I was open to them. I have not heard from him since.
The day after that my new TV arrived. We got it all set up and had everything working and went to set up the sound bar. Well what do you know. The sound bar is A/V hook up only and the TV audio out is fibre optic only. So they will not speak to each other. With the look on my face Tobei knew to get me the phone. I called Best Buy and asked for a manager. I ended up getting Kelly. The same manager I had dealt with before. At least now we were in each others nice books. I explained the situation to her and she went and got Mike on the phone with me. Mike is the guy who sold it to me. He told me had just found out earlier in the day that the sound bar and TV don’t work together. He told me they had 1 sound bar in stock that would work with my TV and was cheaper than the one I bought. I told him to find it as I was on my way in. It was 10 at night. Thankfully I had a friend nearby who came to baby sit.
I arrived at Best Buy and Kelly was waiting for me. She brought me over to Mike who informed me that they searched high and low and could not find the 1 sound bar in stock he was talking about. As Tobei was returning the original sound bar Mike tried to sell me another sound bar that was $200 more than my original one. I remained in good spirits. I knew getting mad would get me no where. I joked how much he could mark down the expensive sound bar and he told me he couldn’t. I then had him phone Future Shop to see if they had the one in stock that Best Buy was sold out of. They did so Mike had them hold it and we ran across the parking lot. It was now 10:30 and both stores closed at 11:00.
We got to Future Shop and while purchasing the sound bar I was telling the rep that I had just bought a TV that was going on sell Boxing Day for $150 less than I paid for it and how when I had mentioned it to Mike he asked me if I was willing to get in line at midnight to get it at that price. He told me he would sell it to me right now for the Boxing Day price. However I already had the TV hooked up at home and I was not going through all that hassle. So he wrote down his name and price on paper and sent me back to Best Buy to have them price match it. We went running back to Best Buy with this paper in hand and 8 minutes until closing and had them price match it. I could kiss the guy at Future Shop if Tobei let me.
Will I shop at Best Buy again. I really don’t know. Future Shop has done a fantastic job at impressing me. We went back today for some Boxing Day sales and the staff remembered us. Asked us how our Christmas was and were super friendly even though they were all at least 11 hours into their shifts. Even the cashier remained in good spirits. Usually Best Buy cashiers are slow, not friendly and complain the whole time about how their break isn’t for another (insert time here). Not only that but the items I bought were cheaper than Best Buy. One item by $20 and the other by $10. Through our latest experiences I must say I am amazed with Future Shop and they have impressed both Tobei and I. Who knows what the future holds.
Updated: I did end up hearing back from the manager of Best Buy. I got an apology and we came to a mutually agreed to solution. I am very happy with how he handled the situation.