Plate 0′ Shrimp

Best Buy struck out with me today. For the past few years I’ve purchased all of my computers and electronics at Best Buy. I purchased the computer I’m typing on right now from them last fall. Which brings up:

STRIKE ONE: This computer had advertised with a GB of RAM. When I got it home and fired it up, it had less. So I called and asked customer service at their Dublin location what was up. They said “that’s weird” and told me to bring it in. I did, and waited about an hour for the Geek Squad to look at it. Turns out they count the video RAM as part of the total advertised RAM. New one on me, but I figured I explained my quandry to the person on the phone in enough detail that he could have saved me a drive and an hour wait. Plus the Geek Squad manager was a rude jerk, so STRIKE ONE.

STRIKE TWO: My son received two Halo Three disks for Christmas, so I wanted to return one. It was unopened, it was purchased at Best Buy, but I had no receipt. I heard they would take items back without a receipt so I thought I was safe waiting in line for a half hour after Christmas. No. The counter girl said they would only take back items under $50 without a receipt. Probably written in fine print somewhere and I should of checked. So I took it next door to Gamestop and they took it back. Yay Gamestop. Boo Best Buy.

STRIKE THREE: My fiancee bought me a GPS unit for Christmas, but it turned out to be defective. She mailed me the receipt, which was still valid and I took it in to return it. After explaining that they had recently got stuck taking back an $800 GPS device they no longer carried, the customer service/return person politely explained to me that my unit had been discontinued and I would have to either drive to the store of purchase (200 miles away) or return it to the manufacturer. After driving all the way back home I called the Best Buy customer service 800 number to confirm their poor return policy. Turns out the counter person rejected my return inappropriately, and he got the store manager on the line, who invited me to come back and return the unit. After driving back to the store, waiting in line for another 15 minutes, waiting again for the clerk in charge who turned out to be idley chatting with another employee while I waited for her at the counter where she promised to be… (yawn) … that’s when I decided Best Buy had “jumped the shark” as a business.  

 Maybe I’m being petty. Maybe I’m just tired of saying no three or four times to the extended warranty every time I check out. Maybe Best Buy sucks.