Brian tells us:What a great story. We hope that Best Buy finds--and keeps--more managers like this one.It started when Best Buy announced "early" access to Black Friday prices for all Silver Reward Zone members. Since my wife and I just purchased new appliances for our house, we were recently upgraded to Silver status and decided we'd take advantage of a budget netbook sale price without having to face the crowds. We go into our store, ad in hand, which does clearly state that we must call a phone number to receive the special price. We only went in to view the product and make sure it was something we could live with as a secondary computer. While they didn't have the actual computer on display, they had a similar model that we tested and liked. We ask politely if they can just sell us one of their Black Friday inventory at the price advertised to silver members so we don't have to through the hassle of calling and waiting for our order to be shipped. The manager says that he can't do that, so we go ahead and call in the store while shopping. We get through and are informed that they no longer have any available for this special advertised sale and we are instead offered a higher priced laptop. It felt a little suspect (bait and switch?), but I asked if a Best Buy store was allowed to sell me the same laptop in-store at the advertised pre-sale price. The associate said it was the general manager's discretion, but that there were no specific rules against it.
I spoke with the general manager and as professional as could be, you could tell he really did sympathize with our situation and did not brush it off with a simple no. He wanted to help and was trying to think of ways to make it right, and although I didn't really feel we were wronged in any way, he truly cared about our satisfaction since we took the time to come into his store. He said he couldn't simply override the price that day because the laptop rung up as $999.99 and any sales prior to Black Friday would not go through. I told him that we simply could not come in Friday morning with the crowds and he understood. He said he valued our business as silver members and didn't want this pre-sale gone wrong to leave a bad taste in our mouths about Best Buy, offering to hold one of the units WITHOUT any type of payment received, and to simply show up on Black Friday in the afternoon after things calmed down to pay and pick it up. He said he'd be there all day and just to see him if we had any trouble and he'd make sure we were taken care of.
Sure enough, we showed up [on Friday] at 2:30pm. The crowds were still around of course, but there he was and without hesitation, he remembered and greeted us, told us to look around for 5-10 minutes while he went to the back and got our laptop. He met us at customer service, helped process the sale, and even jokingly laughed at the insane service plan price of $60 on a $170 item. Upon ringing it up, we realized this was actually the more expensive model with WIndows 7 and that he held the wrong one for us, but he still honored the lower price, so we ended up getting an even better deal than we expected without any hassle.
Was this a small gesture for an inexpensive sale that likely didn't earn them any profit? Yes. But it was something he didn't need to do and the whole experience left me feeling a lot better about shopping at Best Buy (at least this particular store) because clearly the manager cares about his customers.
(Photo: Vincent J. Brown)
]]>Now you're stuck with a limited OS since they only put Win7 Starter on Netbooks and you can only run three programs at a time. But I guess it was worth more.
]]>There's a field in there that contains a number, which is from 1 to 5, five being the kind of customer they kiss ass to keep, up to and including keeping Geek Squad field agents out at their homes until 3 AM. As an ex-employee, I'm still a class 5 customer, merely because I used to buy two or three cokes a shift (for three years) from the cooler up front. The average guy is a 1 or a 2. Class 4 kicks in around $2500 spent in two years, and Class 5 is at $4,000 or so.
The more you know...
]]>Yet again this week, I shopped at Best Buy and had to go to customer service to return something. Went off without a hitch. So will this generate another story.
For the record, NO, I am not a Best Buy employee. But maybe going into the store not acting like an ass probably helps when I have a problem.
]]>Watch out for store models. Especially on black Friday. You don't want to buy a model made specifically for one store or for a major sale. They are usually made cheaper so that the store still gets the same profit margin on the item.
]]>So, I suspect when this netbook dies, they will be in the same boat, or has this policy changed?
]]>Good try though.
]]>Then tickets were passed out to everyone up until the person in front of them. Sorry, buddy. You waited in the cold all night for not a damned thing.
This happened to me last year. I had limited funds to buy a laptop for my girlfriend, so I camped out all night. I had a place where I would be GUARANTEED a laptop. They had some sort of deals worked out and screwed me out of it. Thanks, Best Buy!
]]>So yeah, you know sometimes people just have large purchase and get a nice perk. I actually thinks its very nice that best buy treats big spenders well.
]]>"...on a $170 item..."
Am I missing something? Two options come to mind, one being Best Buy had a $1k laptop on sale for less than $200, or the price is just a failsafe at the POS system to deny the sale.
So I, personally, wouldn't classify them as lousy. From what I have seen in most stories about them, and folk''s problems, it's usually due to people not reading the fine print.
]]>Luckily the specific store this was said to occurred in is not mentioned. I'm sure he would certainly be let go very quickly.
Helping customer? On a Black Friday no less! Have you forgotten all your corporate managerial training?!?!
]]>Anyway, I doubt the couple spent that money at Best Buy to buy themselves into Silver status -- that's a silly charge to make.
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Well, yeah. When you know someone's dropping over 2 grand a year with you, it changes your perspective
I, as a regular RewardZone account holder, who can only get to a Best Buy once every couple months due to the lengthy travel, wouldn't get such a privilege. Nor would I be daft enough to spend several thousand dollars just for said privileged.
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