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Best Buy Customer Gets Box Full of Bathroom Tiles Instead of Hard Drive
The Consumerist is reporting that a Best Buy customer recently purchased a hard drive only to discover that the box contained six ceramic bathroom tiles instead of the Western Digital drive he had expected. The rub of it is Best Buy is refusing to grant a refund or exchange for the non-existent drive. "The employee and assistant manager were more than willing to help, saying that it happens. So they set up the return and I repurchased the drive and while I was checking the contents to ensure it was a hard drive this time, the store manager came up, took the box from me and said to take it up with the manufacturer. Now to my surprise, I argued with the guy saying that they have already accepted the return and I have now purchased the new one. He said I was shit out of luck. I followed up with the manufacturer today and they said they would get the complaint to the Best Buy Purchasing department. Best Buy corporate said that they stand by their manager's decision."
Getting bathroom tiles in the box rather than a hard drive "happens?" I'll stick to what I can get from Newegg and Wal-mart from now on, thanks.
I'm waiting for a "-1 somepeoplejustshouldn'tgetmodprivileges" meta-moderation.
Sounds like the small number of bricks and crap is growing. We should all start video taping opening stuff to use in small claims court as evidence that we aren't trying to screw the store.
This is why I use Amex exclusively and do not shop at stores that do not accept Amex. I have, unfortunately, had to use the Amex privilege several times to get merchants to cooperate. Amex has always been grand -- on one horrible purchase that a merchant refused to refund, Amex credited the charge but didn't void the transaction, so the merchant got paid. The merchant subseuquently refunded my purchase, and even after I alerted Amex that they had given me a few hundred bucks for free, the service rep told me it was all taken care of and it was my lucky day. That's pretty damn sweet considering most credit card companies are the root of all evil.
My mom made the mistake of buying a service plan for her Toshiba Satellite.
She asked me to pick it up for her at the Carbondale, IL store (dead HD, laptop still under warranty) and after they'd left me to cool my heels for 20 minutes, had me sign paperwork, etc. they handed me the, paperwork, old HD (in case she chose to send it to Toshiba for data recovery) and then stated that they "weren't sure" if the OS installation fee was covered by the service plan and wouldn't let me leave with the computer unless I paid $130(!) for OS installation (Toshiba recovery CD) and that if (IF!) they found that it was covered, I would be refunded.
I called her (I had places to be right then) and she called the store manager, corporate, etc. and after 1.5 hours decided they could waive the fee if I was willing to wait for them to REPLACE THE DRIVE, a wait of 1-2 HOURS. Well, no, I wasn't willing to wait, so I left. Shortly afterward she received a call that the recently installed drive was WIPED and the computer was ready to be picked up.
I'm going today to pick up the computer. My bet is that either 1.) they'll conveniently "forget" that they were waiving the fee, or that 2.) they've lost either the old HD or the entire computer. Bets, anyone?
No frickin' way would I buy a computer from Best Buy. DVDs and CDs, sure, and maybe hardware with decent factory warranties, but not computers, and if I were dumb enough to, I certainly wouldn't take it to the store for warranty work! I've heard too many horror stories from other people who've ended up spending the same amount of money they'd spent on their hardware, only to have to wait for half a month for a computer just as bricked as it was when it went in.
Best Buy and Geek Squad is about as crooked as the crookedest used-car dealership.
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
My guess of what happened: Someone orders the drive, gets it, removes it repacks it with tiles. If this guy has access to shrink wrap machine, he reseals the package and gets full refund. Store thinks the package has not even been opened and restocks it and sends out again to this honest customer.
Given the numbers and bar codes and the tracking they do, BB should be able to find out who ordered and returned the drive and pursue that scammer. To prevent the recurrence, BB should use shrink wrap with its logo and other counterfeit proof shrink wrap.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I purchased a sound card a few years ago, got it home, opened it up and there was an old Jazz drive and 3.5-to-5.25 bracket inside. Lucky for me, I had some leverage when returning it and did get my exchange. When the CS rep started giving me trouble about it I threatened to return the $3,000 in merchandise I had purchased in the prior 30 days.
When I got the new box, I noticed the shrink wrap was different. I always check the shrink now and often will open it after I purchase it while still at the register. I also NEVER buy the first item on the shelf, but go to one farther back.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
First of all, how do you prove that you didn't just stuff the box full of crap and try to exchange it so you could wind up with two drives for the price of one? It may be legitimate and the blame may be at some point in the supply chain at or before Best Buy, but how does one prove it? And how do you - as a retailer - not end up with a bunch of morons returning boxes that they've stuffed crap into, as well?
It would seem the only reasonable thing to do from this point on is to open a box and make sure your item is in there before leaving the store. That's what I intend to do after hearing enough of these stories. If you haven't left the store, then they can't put the blame on you and you can return it right there.
Best Buy has no way of knowing whether the guy is telling the truth. But it doesn't matter.
Unless they want to have their sales slowed down by every customer insisting that a salesperson open the box before the customer leaves the store... and plugging in it... and testing it... and initialling the sales receipt... which would add about half an hour to an hour's work time to every sale... they've got to believe the customer.
At least the first time.
If they've got records that show that this customer has been repeatedly returning items, each time claiming that the factory-sealed box had worthless contents, that's another matter... but one that should be handled by legal process.
There is no set of circumstances under which what Best Buy allegedly did was appropriate.
P. S.
When she was in college, my daughter once bought an item from L. L. Bean. UPS delivered it, not to my daughter, but to the front desk of the dormitory, and got an signature that wasn't my daughter's signature and that couldn't be identified. My daughter called UPS. UPS insisted there was nothing they could/would do, they'd delivered the package and got a signature. She called L. L. Bean. They said, "Oh, that's too bad, we're sorry, we'll send another one out right away." L. L. Bean made several customers for life that day.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
If I had the catalog handy, I'd be quoting you prices right now.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
My mom bought a refrigerator and purchased the extended warranty. It doesn't work well - it won't balance the freezer and the fridge. So either you have liquid ice cream OR your all the stuff in your fridge is frozen solid.
They literally refused to honor their warranty. The company sent a repair person who said it was on spec. Actually, what he basically said is this was a poor design that doesn't work well. And this is not uncommon for this model. So since it's not uncommon for this model they wouldn't fix it.
Go figure...that's like saying since it's not uncommon for the breaks to fail on this model car. So we're not going to fix it under warranty because this is pretty much a standard occurrence with this car.
***
All of this being BS as my mother's upstairs tenants have the same fridge and it doesn't have any problems.
I had a bad shrink-wrapping experience once.
Back in 1993 or so, I was not only the chief Macintosh programmer for an educational-games company, I was its only in-house programmer and also the main Mac tech support guy. That meant my working on our next game would be interrupted by answering the phone to deal with customer complaints about the last game I'd written. It sounds cruel but it may have helped inspire me to write better software :)
Anyway, I got a really puzzling complaint from one woman who was irate, and had a right to be. Our software had infected her PC with the Michaelangelo virus. She was mad enough that I had to take the call despite it not being our Mac version. It took a lot of calming-down but I was able to make her understand that it was impossible for the floppy disks to leave our warehouse with the virus because we'd shipped the exact same disks to thousands of other people and hers was our first Michaelangelo complaint. But she had taken the disks to her local PC-repair shop and they'd tested positive for Michaelangelo.
So I asked her where she'd bought them. J&B Computer World. Fine. I called up her local J&B and eventually got put through to a manager... after some prodding, it turned out they'd had a Michaelangelo outbreak at their store a month prior. Oh, and yes they did sometimes "test out" the software they resold by playing it themselves. Oh, and yes, they had a shrink-wrapping machine.
I called back our customer with the news and she said she was going to take it up with J&B. I always wished I could have listened in on that call :)
Also, are you implying that today you CAN return software with the shrink wrap broken? I find that surprising, but I haven't tried to return software in a long time.
Property is theft.
That's the way the world is overall. There are many, many ways to game the system or get away with murder, etc, and yet the vast majority of people comply with the laws (at least, the major laws). People are generally trusting, and people generally deserve it. It's one of the more interesting facts of life.
Bought a shrinkwrapped All-In-Wonder video card at one of those big-box stores, opened it up, and found an ancient ATI card from years ago inside. Either they re-wrapped a returned card and sold it as new (not legal), or there was an inside job by an employee.
Fortunately for me, the manager let me return it (I had never returned anything I bought from them before, so maybe that helped). Nowadays, whenever I go shopping for computer parts (or small-and-pricey things in general), if the box doesn't have a transparent window or some sort of manufacturer's seal (beyond shrinkwrap, which is too easy to re-do), then as soon as I pass the checkout counter, I tell the cashier that I'm going to take a peek inside. I step back a little so I don't block the next customer, and I open the box right there before exiting the store.
I don't see why you'd need RFIDs to track down the person returning rubbish. Most stores I've been to take your address when you return something, so if someone is scamming, it should be easy for the store to track down the person by looking up the serial number on the box.
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
First, the scam works the other way. You buy in cash and then do a return/exchange later (after which, you have two or more products). If you end up making a fuss in the store (as happened here), you'd end up like this, or at worst, arrested.
Anyhow, my guess would actually be a store employee having done this, especially if the dates on the drive are true. After all, they should have a shrink wrap machine, there'd be no return at all to trace back to them, and you leave some other customer hosed. The only good thing is that being too greedy (and petty crooks like this are ALWAYS too greedy...) should get him or her caught by the store and quietly prosecuted. The victims won't likely get much help, though. They're SOL except that they can issue chargebacks.
That said, if there was a return, it'd have been the guy before this. It's just the way the scam works. You don't make a fuss like this unless you're innocent, because drawing attention to yourself is exactly the sort of thing that'd get you caught. Yes, crooks are that dumb, but they're dumb in different ways. They'll avoid attention but get too greedy in pulling the scam too many times. Smart stores will start checking returns a lot better. And life will go on.
As an ex-BestBuy employee I know a little about the fraud that goes on in that store. During the brief holiday season that I worked there, Packard Bell had a promotion (if that gives you any idea how long ago this was) that you would receive a free OEM-bagged Sound Blaster card with the purchase of every system. We had a case of 100 Sound Blaster cards behind the counter that disappeared overnight.
One of the employees discovered that when you climb the ladder up to the stock area up above the shelves, there are no security cameras to keep an eye on you, so here's what you do... Get a case of printer paper and carefully slip the plastic bands off that hold the box shut. Remove the reams of paper inside and place them on the shelf for sale. Tear open hard drive boxes, sound card boxes, software packages, anything you want and toss the remnants around and pack the contents inside the now empty printer paper box until it's completely full, then replace the lid and plastic bands and carry the box down the ladder and put the box full of "paper" on the back of the shelf behind several boxes that really contain paper. Come to the store on your next day off and pull your box of "paper" from the back of the shelf and pay $19.99 for it and walk out of the store with several hundred dollars worth of gear. You got the BestBuy!
This stupid employee came over to visit my brother and told him (in front of me) how he managed to get away with it and just assumed (incorrectly) that I wouldn't mention it to my manager or the store manager the next day. The store manager told me that they suspected him but didn't know how he was doing it and after hearing how they confronted him and told him that they were giving him one last chance to return the stolen items or they would call the police. His reply was something to the effect of "go ahead, if you had any evidence you would have already called the police." And then they kept him employed!!! They did not fire him!!! He quit on his own a few weeks later when he realized that he was under constant supervision and wouldn't have an opportunity to steal again.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
There was a PC tech at the Best Buy store where I worked who was involved in this kind of stuff. He'd have a friend bring in his'computer' - really just an empty case, to be worked on.
During the day, he'd go pick up items off the shelf that he wanted to get into his system....a hard drive here, a cd-rom drive there, a nice new video card. He'd get them while showing people who were looking for similar items and then not return them to the shelf. Then a quick hop to the back, slip open the plastic, remove the item, and drop some junk in there. Walk around the counter, reseal the item, send it back to the floor, and spend the rest of the day 'repairing' the box and configuring his new computer.
Of course, since he did this 'in' the store, everything looked legit when it went out to the floor, price tags, etc. Things with clear cases (like RAM) he just put inside the computer and walked out when he was ready to go.
Of course, this isn't a big surprise, Best Buy has huge problems with employee theft. In the time that I was working security, I busted more than 6 employees for theft...two of them were my own loss prevention supervisors. Loss Prevention is really there for the employees, the customers we couldn't really stop anyway (nor will we when they pull a knife or other shit out). Of course, both of those employees were 'let go' for minor infractions, but they were robbing the place blind. The first one had the balls to mount 'investigations' every time something went missing...interviewing everyone in his office. It's hard to keep the sheep safe when the shepherds are cooking them up every night.
Mozy, free online backup service
--
"Have you seen who works in Best Buy these days?"
Do you know how their hiring process works?
A couple years ago a new Worst Buy was opening, and I thought I'd apply - looking for a mostly back-room techie job. Went to their on-line application site, answered 2 or 3 questions about my technical expertise, then spent some FORTY FIVE MINUTES on psychological profile crap - you know, "would you rather kiss your car or step on a snake?" questions. Went to their hiring office in the mall, girl looked me up and told me they would NOT be calling me for an interview.
Apparently, based on that test, I wasn't enough of a "cheerful Charlie" which FAR, FAR outweighed any tech skills I might have possessed.
Haven't bought a thing from Worst Buy since them.
Teen Angel - a Ghost Story
My story is indirectly relevant. Back in undergrad, I was writing a research paper and had checked out a stack of books from the main library - probably about half a dozen. When I was done with them, I returned them. A few weeks later, I got a letter stating that I had never returned one of them, and that they were going to charge me a standard fee of $205. Now I knew that I had returned this book; I distinctly remembered doing it, and all the other ones had been returned, but since I had just dropped them all in the return bin and didn't have a receipt, I had no way to prove anything. I talked to a circulation person, and they conducted a "search," which took a few more weeks; eventually they told me they were going to not charge me the fee as a one-time act of mercy, even though they hadn't found the book. (Incidentally, I later found the book on the shelf where I had checked it out. I guess someone just didn't properly check it in).
Ever since that time, I always got return receipts for books - except once. It was a Sunday, and I was leaving town and had to turn in a book. So, I filmed myself returning the book - clearly caught the book cover, title, author, etc., and myself, and the book going into the return chute. Also had a friend state the date and time, etc. Sure, it might not have held up in a court, but it would've given the circulation people something to think about if they claimed that I hadn't returned it.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
Sounds about right. Both of my two loss prevention supervisors were caught (by me) with their hands in the cookie jar, but because they had either turned off or turned away the video cameras, they weren't fired for weeks until they slipped up on stupid things like dress code or arriving late.
Mozy, free online backup service
--
Long ago I worked in retail computer sales, and I had someone come in and ask to see a particular piece of software. There was only one copy on the shelf, which they asked me to open and show them, so I opened it for them, installed the software, and spent a half hour or so showing them around the software. This was back in the day when most customers didn't know anything about computers, so I ended up teaching people fairly often, so I didn't mind that part. Then, when I asked whether they wanted it, they said that they didn't want the copy that I'd opened for them, because it was a present for someone. When I pointed out that they'd asked me to open the box for them, they stuck to their guns and refused to buy the copy that they'd asked me to open, because it was open.
Yes, I'm not proud to admit it, but in the face of that "Catch 22" I told them that I'd check the inventory in the back, carried the box out to the shrink wrapping machine, re-wrapped it, came back and sold it to them. Luckily they didn't ask where the other box was.
On that front, I had many customers come in, get my recommendations for software, have me give demo's, even have me train them on the basics of the software, then not buy. That's all fine. But then they would come back in, clearly having bought the software mail order, and have the nerve to ask me more questions. I like helping people, but that's just insulting!
Enable 3D printed prosthetics!
Honestly it's not only best buy. I have stopped shopping "brick and mortar" stores all together with an incredibly small exceptions list. (Freewheeler bikes in grand rapids, hands down the best bike shop on the planet with the best staff)
Bestbuy sucks, compusa sucks, circuit city sucks.. all of them suck. They are staffed with minimum wage idiots that misinform more than they inform and their store policies treat you like you are more trouble than you are worth. Hell even Sears is doing this now. If I go in and spend $2500.00 on a new TV they better carry it to my car and put it in the trunk for me not eyeball me as if I stuffed my pockets while they went and got my boxed set out of the back.
What happened to common courtesy and making the customer want to even shop there?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Back in 99, i ordered a sound card and several other components from a company. I got everything but the sound card. Instead of the sound card I got a bunch a priority mail envelopes that equaled the weight of the sound card that was listed on the invoice. When I called the company and complained, they stated that I had to of received the sound card because the shipping weight matched that of all of the components. After that happening to me, I can believe this Best Buy story.
Windows is as solid as quicksand.
5. if Best Buy continue to not hand over the drive, sue them for selling you a brick (small claims) + taking money for it + ALL your time you lost + court filing fees. Just do not exaggerate your time - judges don't like that.
Unfortunately, one can't sue for time in small claims in the US. A small claims action is designed to replace property value. A plaintiff will never be made whole in small claims court.
IANAL but have been a plaintiff.
== First cross river, then insult alligator.
I have to stop reading any further. No need. Any thign Ibuy in the past few years needs a knife, a pair scissors and or pilers to open. And has lots of tamper proof seals to show clear unwrapping / opening. I bought a nose-hair trimmer: seal in clear plastic > hard plastic > crimped unpriable around all freaking edges. A frigging $10 buy. Opened my new cell phone: wrapped in plastic > seals everywhere a joint / meeting occurs. Try flim flaming that. Bought a 4-pack of stylus (stilii? :-) Small & narrow flat package > clear hard plastic > crimped all around. Awkward pakaging for a human to open. No way to open that without a pen knife, a pair scisssors and 3 hands. No kidding. If a $4 pakage (and cheaper items similarly) can readily evince handling wtf not a piece of electronics.
This simply illustrates how the US is way behind in terms of customer service and corporate policies. If management cannot think to implement such a simple policy to protect themselves and the customers they serve, they deserve whatever negative press they get. They will get no sympathy from me for their laziness and ignorance.
Clearly the only way we can resolve this (and simultaneously cause major problems for Best Buy) is to unpack our purchases while we stand at the counter to check the contents. I mean, obviously you can't trust Best Buy.
A few years ago I went to the Virgin Mega Store and picked up a CD. I was with a friend and when we got back to my apartment I opened up the CD and inside was a blank CD-R. I took it back to the store and they thankfully exchanged the disc. I think it might have been touch and go there for a moment, but in the end we're talking a few bucks for them to replace it vs. losing my business forever if they don't.
Best Buy apparently doesn't understand this concept, that or they just don't care. Either way, I'm unpacking my purchase completely at the counter before I walk away, just in case.
The Generation
I'd say something witty here, but I'm not that bright.
A good friend of mine bought a Sony Digital Camera back in 2001 or 2002 at Frys. I was there with him when he bought it, when we got home and he unwrapped it, the Camera was missing, only the manuals, packing material and drivers were there. The Camera was missing. We went back to Fry's and tried to explain the camera was missing from the box. The CSR people basically didn't believe us and told us to get lost. My friend ended up writing a letter to the CEO himself. Surprisingly, he got a response (a form letter) that basically said they are sorry, but there is nothing that Fry's can do. I know I've shopped at fry's many times, and Fry's has a reputation of putting returned products back on the shelves. I've heard many stories about how people would buy a GeForce 8500GT video card and after opening the package, would find an older 6500 or something to that effect.
I remember back when I was a Best Buy salesperson... I was only 16 or 17 at the time... working in the computer sales department. One of our "duties" at the end of the night was to get all of the returned goods from Customer Service, bring the items back to the department, and place "open box" price stickers on them if they had been opened or reshelf the products if they hadn't been opened.
Going through the products one night, I came across a video card box that "felt funny." The shrink-wrap was hard and tough, not the soft shrink-wrap type that stretches when you pull on it. I brought the box to my manager, along with one from the shelf - wrapped in the softer shrinkwrap. We opened up the box that had been returned, the one with the hard wrapping, only to find an ancient, dirty / dust-covered modem inside rather than the $150+ video card. My manager searched the return receipts for that night, hoping to stop the refund to the guy's credit card before the transactions posted for the night. He found the receipt - the guy was careful and paid cash, so Best Buy ate the price of the card on that one.
So yeah, this type of bull happens all the time at brick and mortar stores. There's not much Best Buy can do about it, and not much a consumer can do other than beware of unusual packaging anomalies. I've come across similar "strange items" in my own shopping experiences. I usually leave the odd-ball package in favor of one that is more like all the others on the shelf. If it's the last one on the shelf, I'll usually buy it at customer service, then open it right there, in front of the employees, to make sure it's ok inside.
Buyer beware... and don't expect Best Buy to foot the bill for you being the unlucky shmuck to pick the box that someone re-wrapped. That just isn't how they roll, I can tell you, after 4 long, painful years of working there.
I've worked in retail and been a customer. While a majority is a scam, this is not always the case. CDs and DVDs are pretty good with their anti-theft packaging. Hard drives aren't. A lot of them just have plastic wrap and a seal. Our store had plastic and a heat gun to reseal any damaged packaging.
If you've worked in retail, you would know that not all employees care enough or are smart enough to figure out a hard drive was stolen. That doesn't even include the employees that are actively involved in theft themselves, which accounts for about 45% of inventory shrinkage.
If it had been me, I would have felt perfectly within my rights to put said manager on his ass the moment he tried to steal what was, by then, my property, and let the law sort it out if he objected.
The nearest we've got to Best Buy in the UK is PC World / Dixons, and I've had so many bust-ups with managers in those stores over mis-labelling, poorly placed stock, etc. that I now just don't shop there any more, else I would be risking getting done for GBH.
One swallow does not a fellatrix make
no, they are not on commission. I work there. The problem is that there are too many thieves that ruin it for everyone. More than once I have had someone try to return a laptop box full of books, so I can understand why the customer service was skeptical to accept the return. What most likely happened was that the hard drive was an open box item that was not properly checked when it was returned.