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Best Buy Sued By Ohio
liryon writes "The Register is reporting that the state of Ohio has sued national electronics retailer Best Buy for misleading customers by repackaging used goods and then selling them as new, and for failing to pay rebate claims. The Register report can be found here, and the original story is here. I guess this is what you get for deciding the customer is not always right." See also the Ohio AG's press release.
This kind of reminds me of a fellow often sighted on the outskirts of the parking lot of the shopping center that houses the Best Buy here in Springfield, Missouri, particularly during big sales. There's a landscaped border to the lot, with small grassy ridges and trees and things, and this fellow will bring a lawnchair, thermos mug, perhaps a parasol for shade, and set up right there on the hill overlooking the entrance with a big posterboard protest sign. I can't remember exactly what the sign said--I'm sure he had different ones on different occasions--but it was basically warnings like not to trust Best Buy's warranty plans, don't shop at Best Buy, etc.
I never quite worked up the nerve to approach him and ask him about it, but I did ask a couple of Best Buy servicepeons I happened to encounter while eating in the nearby Subway one day. Apparently the fellow had bought a video camera, damaged it in a fashion not covered under warranty (apparently dropped it over the side of a boat into a lake or something, I can't remember exactly now) and then got upset when Best Buy refused to honor the service plan.
So now he's getting his money's worth back by carrying out this oddball protest. Takes all kinds, I suppose.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Why people ever shop at Best Buy I will never know. Sadly I was tricked into going there just last night...
I have a problem with Best Buy at all times of the year but especially at Christmas when they block off lanes so you can only enter/exit in one spot. That way they have an easier time trapping you in there to tell you that they do not work on commissions but that they are happy to help you look for everything they offer.
The second to last time I went to Best Buy I was looking for a wlan CF card for my iPaq. I went to Circuit City first and they had one for $40. I wasn't a huge fan of the maker (never heard of them) so I went to the Best Buy (less than 2 mi as the crow flies). I went into the area with the CF cards and looked at their gigantic selection of two CF cards. Both were over $75. Immediately the vultures descended on me. For once I had a question, "where are the rest of your CF wifi cards?" "That's it." "Wow, these are expensive." I was then dismissed with a wave of the hand and an insult about my lack of wifi CF card knowledge. I told them to start shopping at Circuit City, their discount couldn't even help to match their prices.
So last night I go in there to pick up a SD card reader. Their selection was, again, fantastically lacking. Five card readers. Two took SD the rest were for Sony format. $35.00 was the cheap one. Huh? Newegg.com here I come. So as I am leaving I am asked why I am leaving without buying anything, "Not here for Madden 2k5?" "No, I was here for an inexpensive SD card reader, it's obvious you don't carry those."
Now I was lying a bit when I said it was $35. It *was* $35 but I was not-so-politely informed that I could buy it at $35 and wait X weeks for my refund to come in the mail. Sorry about that Best Buy but I could get I online for $14 including shipping and no need to wait for my money to come back. Perhaps Ohio should force Best Buy to pay interest on the money while you wait for a rebate... Don't they make you pay back all the interest accrued if you don't have it all paid off when their 0% APR offer is done? It would be nice for them to taste their own medicine for once. Perhaps they would care about their customers more if they did.
For Best Buy being on nearly every block here in Minnesota (there are 5+ within a 5 mile radius of me) they suck. How the hell did they get so popular? People are really willing to put up w/lack of choice and expensive prices?
I'm sorry, I forgot I was in Microsoft-taught hell.
Payback's gonna be a (mutli-million) dollar bitch, eh Best Buy?
Gives the people at http://www.bestbuysux.org/
some hope....Maybe other states will look into doing the same....Read some of the stories-it's pretty shocking.....
Last time I went in there, they treated me like a total crook, and had the blue shirts follow me wherever I went....Bastards!
-thewldisntenuff
My MythTV HowTo
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
for the first time in years, and it will probably be the last time.
I wanted a bluetooth keyboard for my notebook and some other accessories. I got all the accessories and then I was looking at the keyboards. The sales girl came and said that if I'm going to get a keyboard, I should get the extended warranty.
She didn't even try to see how interested I was in the keyboards or try to convince me to buy one. When I said "that's okay", she said I should read about it and shoved a brochure in front of me. I said "no thanks", and she angrily shoved it even closer and said "I really should at least read it; it's a great deal". I ignored her and she kept trying. I finally just abandoned my cart full of things I'd already decided to buy right in front of her and walked out of the store.
In summary, I didn't RTFA, but I hope this lawsuit breaks them.
Perhaps youve never seen the "bouncers" stop certain individuals from coming in. Ive seen it firsthand in Greenwood, Indiana (just a bit south of indianapolis).
If thats the definition of "firing customers", then it does happen.
A few years ago, a Best Buy in east Kansas City installed a hard drive, supposedly new, in one of my teacher's home computers.
/q /s" on it, answering "Y" then "N"; this triggers a bug in older versions(before Win95, though I don't think I tried it with Win95) of DOS that allows DOS to read a partition that has been deleted and recreated.
When I was looking at it, I created one partition, and out of curiousity, did a "format
There were many normally-named(not garbage names like what there would be if the hard drive were new) files and directories on that hard drive that my teacher knew nothing about, making it obviously used.
On August 29, 2003, the Panasonic 27" television that I purchased at the Best Buy store in Columbia, MD was replaced with a model comparable in specification, according to the 4-year Performance Service Plan (hereafter PSP) that I purchased with the unit. The salesperson informed me that, under the PSP, if anything ever goes wrong with the television, I can bring it back to the store for repair or replacement. When the original unit was replaced, the salesperson informed me that, under the PSP, the remainder of the 4-year term of the PSP would carry over to the replacement unit.
Since my roommate and I found a substitute for the unit in the interim, the unit sat unmoved and unopened in my parents' house for approximately 120 days. (Yeah, I know. I probably should have checked it out, but I mean, i didn't really have the room to open this thing, especially when I didn't immediately require its use.) When I opened the unit that was given to me as a replacement, it turned out to be defective, with considerable cosmetic damage in the form of cracks and warps in the case. On January 6, 2004, I returned to the Best Buy store in Columbia, MD to have it repaired or replaced according to the PSP, the salesperson at the store told me that the PSP did not cover physical damage. I told the store salesperson that the unit was in that condition when I opened it. Then the salesperson said that the situation would be different if the unit did not function. I then told the salespeople that I did not turn the unit on, so I did not know if it functioned at all. Once it was determined that the unit did not function, the store salesperson agreed to send the unit to their authorized repair facility, saying that they would contact me when it was returned. They did not contact me. On February 3, 2004, I finally contacted the store myself--at which time I found that the unit had been in their possession for the past 3 weeks--and they told me it was repaired and I could pick up the unit. When I arrived, the store salesperson told me that the unit was not able to be repaired. When I asked for the unit to be replaced according to the PSP, they told me that I must have caused the damage myself, and that it was therefore not covered under the PSP. This is unacceptable, as the salesperson who sold me the unit and the PSP told me that if anything goes wrong with the TV, I could return it for repair or replacement, and since the full disclosure of the terms of the PSP were not given to me until after I purchased it.
So yeah, I probably should have checked it out to make sure it was ok, but I didn't really feel the need - the box had no signs of damage or trauma, was sealed, etc, etc. But that will surely be a lesson to me not to trust Best Buy ever again, ESPECIALLY not their so-called "service plan."
For more stories - FAR more offensive and appalling than this one, I might add - check out http://www.bestbuysux.org/.
a 42 inch widescreen hitachi. Its been working wonderfully.. ..but now I know why the workers there seemed so reluctant to actually SELL me the damn thing, when I flat out refused the warranty. (fyi, most warrantys are total scams. The product is expected to work anyways. The company is under obligation to sell you a working product. If it doesnt work, they have to replace it.)
Heck, they wouldnt even help me and my buds load the thing into the van. _WE_ lifted it onto the trolley bed. WE pushed it outside. WE loaded it onto the bed.
A wonder they gave me an evil eye when i shoved to trolley back into the store. There were SIX employees just watching me and my friends at work.
Yargh. Bestbuy sucks.
Heck, they used to have good deals on dvds, now they dont even have that anymore.
no
Somebody worked in TV's eh? For me it was ink instead of monster cable, but just about everything else was the same.
Managers expected me to attach 5(!!!!) extra ink cartridges to every printer sale. That's plain Bul lshit!
100% Crunchier
While I'd really like watching the state collect a huge sum of money for each violation, it would be tough to prove every single violation. The State knows it, BestBuy knows it.
In the end, I expect a big settlement. Best Buy will admit that they have done nothing wrong, and agree that they won't do something wrong again in the future.
The lawyers involved will recieve a payment of 200 million, the state will recieve a check for 5 million. Oh, and the people actually harmed will get some in-store settlement checks.
They'll end up giving out settlement checks for $4.93 to each customer who is or was a resident of Ohio during the time of their doing-nothing-wrong, and end up with a quarter of them actually redeemed, usually spent on items costing ten times the settlement check, ensuring continued profits for the company.
Just once, I'd like to see the lawyers and state paid with in-store credit settlement checks.
frob
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
I work at best buy as a computer tech, in the new 'Geek Squad' outfit. Every day I deal with customers that were blatantly lied to by the sales people about PSP's. Each product has a different status, some are replaceable, others have to be repaired, for a general rule of thumb, anything over a couple hundred dollars is being sent out to repair. Meanwhile every sales person is told to tell people the PSP replaces products right on the spot for 'any reason'. Also regarding computers, people are also told PSP covers stupidity, by that I mean it supposedly covers any viruses that get in there, or if you hose your Windows install. On top of that the techs dont know anything most of the time and just act as F10 techs, if it cant be fixed in a half hour we're supposed to charge the 60 dollars to do a OS reinstall. Geek Squad is a joke and the people who founded it are too busy reveling in the money that they got when Best Buy bought it out and is treating it as such. We're supposed to have a 48 hour turn around time, falsely advertised as such on the website. Realistically its more like 10-30 days! The stores are understaffed and underpaid, and overworked. Everyone is expected to work on at least 4 computers at a time, but nothing ever gets done, because we're all ordered to sell In-home services and PSP above working on computers and actually getting that stuff done. Don't shop at bestbuy, and above all don't bring your computers to Geeksquad unless you want to wait a couple weeks. But i'm pretty sure if your reading slashdot you probably don't need somebody else to work on your computer! Posted anonymously just in case someone from work reads this!
I normally buy pc stuff online, but any electronic equipment I buy in a physical store 95% of the time I shop at best buy.
I have a best buy card, I buy stuff with rebates all the time, I've successfully used the PSPs. This was all shopping in NY, and OH stores. I have never had a problem with a rebate, return, or anything like that.
I can only conclude that either I've been very lucky for the last 6 years, or else there are alot of morons out there who can't fill out rebates properly and don't know how to finesse their way into a successful return/exchange.
Besides those, most of the rest of your complaints are that salesmen are expected to try to sell stuff. Big deal. I may not particularly like being on the receiving end of it, but I recognize that's what they're there for (and getting paid to do).
It's more than that. It's actively trying to mislead the customer. It's the salesman trying to pretend that he's an expert in cables even though he has no idea what capacitance, resistance, and impedence are. It's the salesman and cashier telling the customer that the merchandise can only be brought back if their is a service plan purchase. This is the kind of thing that's wrong.
If the salesman wants to say "you should buy Monster Cable because it's big and thick and might make you feel better if you are insecure about your undersized penis", then I'd have no complaints. If they said "if replacing this $40 DVD player would ruin you financially, then you should buy this $10 service plan", I'd be less inclined to be offended. But when you buy a $79 CD player and they act like Monster cable will make it sound like a piece of high-fidelity audio equipment, that's just wrong. It's wrong to claim that an extended warranty will cover anything that goes wrong when, in fact, it does nothing of the kind.
This story really shouldn't surprise anyone. My personal policy is this: never, ever, under any circumstances, talk to any salesperson at Best Buy. Here are a few of my worst anectodes:
1. While laptop shopping I asked one of the computer people how much video memory a particular model had (it wasn't clearly stated on the tag). After looking it up on the computer he replies "Ah, here it is, um, it has eh 64, um M.....B, yeah that's it". Now it's hard to convey here in writing, but it was obvious from the tone of his voice and the way he said it that he had absolutely no idea what MB stood for. Long story short, I subsequently bought a laptop from CompUSA.
2. While waiting at a counter in the computer section, I overhear a 'salesperson' talking with a customer who had asked if he knew the difference between a serial port and a USB port. He did not.
3. Another conversation overheard, a 'salesperson' clearly did not know the difference between a hard drive or any other drive on the computer, nor their relative capacities.
4. A nightmare situation evolved after I foolishly tried to sign up for SBC Yahoo DSL service at a Best Buy. (hint, just go straight to SBC or Yahoo if you want this) The deal called for a free starter kit which included a modem to be provided by the store. Unfotunately they gave me a cable modem and I didn't realize it (I'll take some tiny amount of blame for that one) until I got home. It turns out they didn't even have the DSL modems in stock (and never did) and that SBC will send it out later. This guy claimed to have the service himself at home - which leads me to wonder if he even knows the difference between DSL and cable? Doubtful.
The price is wrong, bitch.
Speak truth to power.
I purchased a Toshiba notebook about this time last year. I really needed it because I was going out of town. The local BestBuy was out of stock, but a store about 1hr away had one. They said I could have it shipped down, and it would be there in time, but only if I bought it at that store. Considering there was a sale ending that day, which gave me $150 off the notebook, I thought sure, why not.
... but what didn't make sense to me is why the 3 different people I talked to to make _sure_ it would be okay told me it was no problem.
... as mentioned in many other posts, one of BB bigest problems is many of their employees don't know jack, whether it be about the merchandise or store policy. Though I thought the manager did good though to resolve my first issue.
So, the "delivery" day came and went. No call. I called them up -- the unit hadn't even left the store where it originated from. I asked my local store if I could drive up to get it. They say, "shouldn't be a problem, but call their store first to make sure".
Sound advice. So I called. The person said "Sure! That's no problem what so ever. We have it back in the warehouse."
So, I called my local BB to let them know I actually was picking it up, they said no problem.
I ended up driving through one of the worst thunderstorms of the year to get to this store.
I get there, and after about 30 minutes of hassel, I find out I can't pick up the unit. Even though had my receipts, showing I had purchased the item. My computer was not even a 2 minute walk away, after a 1 hour drive, in the back warehouse. I fought with them for another 30 minutes... no good.
Apparently, since I "bought" the computer at the other store, they had to recieve the merchandise and scan it into their system before I could have it. This made sense to me
Needless to say I wasn't happy. And the manager knew it.
They ended up giving me a $50 gift card for my troubles, and the word of the manager that he would personally deliver my unit to my local best buy in the morning, after which it was all mine.
Sure enough, he did. I was still pretty pissed, however, I felt the manager did what he could. I could understand why I couldn't pick it up (the inventory was not technically their anymore, but my local stores, who needed to scan it into the system), but not why they didn't tell me that before.
Second story. When I first started shopping around for the aforementioned notebook PC, I went to BB. I was looking at the model I was most interested in, but the screen was totally screwed up. It *looked* to me like someone had jacked around with the font settings, and made it unreadable.
So, out of curiousity, I thought I'd see what the computer personel said. I knew from the minute this guy opened his mouth he had no clue what so ever.
He squinted at the screen, trying to read the fonts. Thought about it a minute and said "nothings wrong"
I said "You're kidding, right? Did you notice the fonts?"
"Yeah. I can read them just fine," he said
"Well, I can't. And I have perfect vision"
He said, "Well, I have 20/15"
I almost said "So, a person has to have better than normal vision to use this computer?" but instead I left it as is. I sort of shadowed the fellow for the next 15 minutes or so, to hear some of the "fascinating insights" he had about computers when talking with other customers. After one, I spoke with the customer after the fact and made sure he was *properly* informed before I finally left the store.
Anyway
Way back in the day, my parents bought me a refurbished Packard Bell 486 (this was right after the Pentium came out) [at Best Buy]. We got the extended warranty, where after they fix three problems, the next results in a replacement computer. More accurately, it results in a store credit for the original purchase price. To make a long story short, after a few years it developed its 4th problem, and we replaced it with an HP K6-2 laptop... for free (actually, maybe $100 or so more; the laptop was priced higher than the 486 had been). We got an extended warranty on it, too.
So, a few years later it developed a problem. Not it's fourth, but one severe enough to warrant my mom getting so pissed that the customer service people treated it like one (It overheated to the point where it melted the varnish on our computer desk). Anyway, it was replaced again, with a P4 2.2 GHz Compaq laptop.
So, we've gone through a total of 3 computers for a grand total of about $2000 ($1000 for the first one + ~$150 extra for the second, + ~$350 extra for the third, plus 3 service agreements -- not quite sure how much they cost). I'd say it's been a pretty good deal.
Ironically, the Compaq has been really, really reliable, especially considering how crappy every other Compaq I've ever seen has been. But we still have a year left, and rest assured it will have four problems by then, if I have to inflict them myself! : )
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
You can always tell who's worked retail and who hasn't.
Slashdotters without retail experience: "I went into Best Buy to purchase a wireless router, and the sales drone dared to try and sell me a replacement plan on it! I laughed and told him that I had forgotten more about computers than he will ever know, and that because of this I knew that if my router breaks at anytime in the next 10 years, I can bring it back in to any Best Buy in the nation and demand a full refund, no questions asked!"
Slashdotters with retail experience: "To quote Ben Affleck, 'The customer is always an asshole!'"
Anyway, my retail horror story: After two years of tech work at CompUSSR, I was literally on my last day. About 3:00 in the afternoon a lady, her husband, and son bring in a computer they had purchased about a month ago. It was fuxored, wouldn't boot, etc; she wanted a brand new machine, and was going to part heaven and earth to get it.
CompUSSR policy at the time was no refunds/exchanges after 14 days. CompUSSR policy was also that if the customer had problems with their machines, they first needed to call our support 800 number to initially trouble shoot the problem. All you people with retail tech support experience, I'll pause to let you have a good laugh at that one........Anyway, needless to say that 9 times out of 10 when a customer brought their computer into us first with problems, we pretty muched dropped what we were doing and at least took a cursory look at it. Since I was just treading water anyway running out the clock, I volunteered.
Well, it turns out this computers problem was a trashed Internet Explorer. The lady, who was hot to begin with, had went off with one of the managers, who was I'm sure repeating the mantra all sales managers do when a customer brings in a computer demanding an exchange: Upsale...Upsale...Upsale. I talked to the husband and son for a few minutes, and determined that they had attempted to install a new version of IE, but had apparently got scared half-way through and bailed on the process. With a shutdown-reboot. Nice.
OK, so we know what the problem is now, and I'm pretty confident I can fix the machine by running the setup of IE from a CD we had at the time. Might take a little hoop jumping here and there, but it can probably be done (You know I'll say this for CompUSA: the job sucked, but damned if I wasn't a fucking good tech by the time I got out of there. Those kind of jobs: you see it all). One problem: CompUSSR policy (you know whats coming now) states that we are only responsible for fixing hardware issues: software issues will cost you a flat fee of $99.95 (or whatever it was back then).
Well about this time the lady comes back over with the sales manager at her heel, and when she hears this she pretty much loses it. How dare I tell her it's going to cost $100 to fix this computer, we didn't do anything to it, it's your responsibility, this is ridiculous I want my money back, you're going to fix it for free, blah blah blah for near on 10 minutes straight.
So there I am, straight in this bitches crosshairs eating flaming death by the metric ton. The sales manager is about as useless as you might imagine in this situation, piping up only to remind the bitch every couple minutes that he can't give her a refund or exchange. I think the fucker actually left mid-argument to leave me to fend for myself. Eventually I get a word in edgwise, practically yell "Let me talk to my manager" and retreat to the safety of the tech department. Eventually Sales Manager finds his way back there, and it's agreed that I'm going to go ahead and fix her computer for free. At this point I don't even care, I just want the day to end.
An hour later I've got the thing working again, and take it out to the front couter to demonstrate as such for all parties. WonderBitch gives me a look the entire time like she can barely surpress her gag reflex at the mear knowledge of my existance. As I'm opening up every dam
Why use best buy? I set up a corporation with some friends (cost us about $1,150 Cdn in total and we use it to order products directly from suppliers. Best Buy has insane markups, and it is so much easier to order a product from Synnex or Ingrammicro. We have earned back our money countless times... (Just remember that you are required to pay the PST if you purchase an item to use instead of resell). As an added bonus, we make a few bucks reselling items to other people. As long as you meet the minimum requirements for having a business, you can order directly from distributors and can avoid the retailers who jack up prices like there is no tomorrow.
I don't understand what fascniates people so much about Best Buy that they drop so much money there.
Sure the store layout is "neat" but they don't always have the best price (computer stores selling OEM parts have better prices), warranties at Best Buy suck, the Extended Service Plans are almost never honoured and the sales staff are too overconfident in their knowledge and abilities.
I never set foot in a Best Buy or Future Shop (they're now BB too) knowing this. I buy all my computer stuff at a local dealer(s) and my appliances with Sears who have great Consumers Report ratings.
Only when BB's stock takes a nose dive from the 45 or so its trading at right now will their business model change == when consumers get a clue! It seems the the "baby boomer" generation who are cash rich and relatively computer illiterate are responsible for boosting Best Buy's sales. In time, 10 to 15 years or so, if BB's practices continue, they will take a nosedive.