Lynnwood Best Buy = IDIOTS

The best game in the world came out on Sunday – Mario Kart for the Wii. Joey preordered it from Best Buy.com for store pick-up. We went in and everything was fine. We got our game, took it home, and pretty much played it the whole day. ITS SOOO FUN.

Then yesterday I see that they charged us twice for the game from my online statement. So I called the store and explained the situation and the guy I talked to (I should have got his name) said to bring in both receipts and that they will take care of it. I will have to mention that when Joey preordered the game he gave them our card number to hold the game and when we picked up the game I did in fact get two receipts. One I thought was just a pick up receipt to confirm that we got it. The other was the normal receipt. I have never pre-ordered something for store pick up before so that is how I thought it worked. When they confirmed that we picked up our order they gave us a receipt and apparently charged our card. I didn’t know that though, I just thought they were just holding it under that number. So she asked for our card and at that point I thought we were paying (like when you go to a hotel). So that was the 2nd charge.

We went into the store yesterday and explained the situation and the girl at customer service automatically denied our request for a refund and said that she can’t return it with out merchandise. I said calmly, I don’t have merchandise to return, I only got one copy of the game. She said she can’t refund the money. And I in turn said, I am not leaving this store until I get my refund that is due to me. I didn’t walk out of here on Sunday with two copies. So she got her “Customer Service Operations Manager” ….and the battle started. He looked at the receipts for maybe a couple of seconds and said, “I am sorry we cannot refund the money. I can refer you a 1-800 number for further help.” I told him again that we didn’t buy two copies of the game and that this was a mistake on there part and to refund the money. To give you the short version of what excuses he gave me….here are a couple of his quotes (keep in mind they call him a “customer service operations manager”)

“This employee that helped you on Sunday is a long time employee and would not make a mistake like this.”….. My response… “I don’t give a crap how long someone has worked here, people make mistakes and she obviously did.”

“You will have to call your bank and discuss the issue with them.”…. My response, “It is not the banks problem, its your problem and you need to help fix it. My card was charged twice.” I then pulled out a copy of the online statement for my card. I kept telling him that I am not leaving the store till I get my refund and he said again to call the 1-800 number for further help.

Then my wonderful husband stepped and said, “Check your inventory for that day dude…beginning inventory and ending inventory and compare it with yours sales…it is going to be off. Your sales are going to be more than what you sold. I work retail buddy…I know how this works…its not hard to figure out.” Which is very true...it isn't rocket science. The idiot's response, “I have 200 copies of that game in the store, that’s impossible.”…..What??? What does that have to do anything? He has a computer system with ALL of the information in it. Every retail store does. And you are wondering why I keep calling this guy an IDIOT. And this was only a few of precious quotes that define my nickname for him.

We went back and forth for a while and had defiantly made a scene and everyone was looking at us. At one point this “Customer Service Operations Manager” we were dealing with looked up at the line of customers and I said, “I don’t care that I am making a scene, I don’t KNOW these people, I don’t care what THESE people think…your store was wrong and I want my money back.” Joey said that people were laughing. Great!! I'm glad I can entertain!!! We then asked to speak to his manager cuz obviously he was not going to help us or give us any new answers. He said, “I am in charge of customer service today, and you will need to call the 1-800 number.” We kept asking to speak to his manager and he WOULD NOT let us speak to anyone else and he kept saying he was in charge and for us to call number. I think that even made me more mad. I DO NOT like getting shoved off to someone else especially to a phone number. I even cursed (I think it was the "F" bomb) at him and he said, “there is to be no cursing.” I said, “I cursed cuz you’re an IDIOT.” While I was going back and forth, Joey went off to find someone else because obviously this guy was too big of a douche bag to be in charge of the WHOLE store and we weren’t getting anywhere with this guy and he wouldn’t get his manager himself. Joey came back with the store manager and said that he had “someone more important to talk with” and the guy left the situation to him. THANK GOD.

The store manager right of the bat told us calmly that we will all figure out the situation and try and help us get our problem solved. We explained the situation and after a couple minutes he figured out what the discrepancy was. The time frames on the receipts were two hours off. The “pick up” receipt had 12:52pm. And the other receipt had 10:53am. He quickly said that the receipt that had 12:52 was a different time zone because the online store where we pre-ordered the game from is based somewhere else. So, the receipt was in fact a minute apart. DING DING DING. That is what the discrepancy was and the other guy we were dealing with didn’t tell us that. He automatically denied our request and wouldn’t help us cuz he thought we were scamming them. And I understand that…but he didn’t take the time to try and figure out the problem or even believe what we were saying for that matter. The store manager took the time to listen to us and got our problem solved. He believed that we don't have two copies of the game. So after like 3 minutes with the store manager, we get our money refunded. And to top it off, the store manager tried to recruit Joey to come work for him. He was a really nice guy…and not just cuz he refunded out money. He treated us like we should have been treated in the first place. THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE PEOPLE!!!!!!

So, yes I did make a big deal and quite the scene only over $54.44. And I probalby should have been more calm. I think any one could have come un-glued when dealing with the kind of idiot we did though. But this battle ended up not being about the money (even though I can do a lot with 54 bucks…that is a tank of gas). It ended up being the principal of an employee making a simple mistake and getting over charged and them not wanting to help fix the problem. The “Customer Service Operations Manager” made things so much harder than they really had to be. All he had to do was explain the discrepancy as to why they wouldn’t refund the money in the first place and then we could have solved the problem from there. But NOOO…he was such an idiot it made me upset. AND if I think I am due something, I make sure I get it. I have quite the hard head about that stuff (it’s a Muller trait that ALL of us kids inherited from my dad. We will not be taken advantage of.) So, Joey and I walked out of the store happy campers, but will probably not go back there for a while. I have heard bad things about Best Buy’s customer service before, but never really had a problem. Karma is not on their side.