bitter

I went to Best Buy Saturday evening to buy a router and a coffee maker ... things that I needed immediately, otherwise, I would have ordered them online ... the experience was less than pleasant.  I try to avoid such big box stores precisely because I have NEVER had a pleasant experience in one. I find them too big, too hard to navigate and their staff less than helpful -- unless you express a desire in buying something outrageously expensive.  I guess I don't really know that they would be helpful in that instance from personal experience, but I do know some people who have bought big ticket items and had pleasant things to say about the customer service.

I am inclined at this moment to call it customer dis-service... My friend suggested I write the company a little note, so I did.

I don't imagine that they will respond... and/or if they do that they will do anything to make me want to venture back into their store.

Please note that the title of this post is bitter, so it should not be expected to be more than a rant.


Here is what I sent them, I will let you know what they respond, if they respond.

I remembered last night why I don't usually shop in your store -- the utter lack of customer service.

Let me draw you a picture.  There is a person stationed at the door -- apparently not to be helpful.  I asked him where I could find a router -- perhaps I should have been less specific.  He pointed me to the home theater section.  I thought it odd, but he works there, and is stationed right at the door -- theoretically he wouldn't just make something up.

I asked because I didn't want to wander around the store. I had two items to get and not a lot of time ... if I could have waited, I would have ordered them online from some other company.

I went back to the home theater area, and there were no routers.  There were seemingly 20 people on the floor, wearing blue shirts, designating that they work at Best Buy, so I tried to get some help from one.  Two young men were taking down a display ... that is they were not helping any other customers.  They knew where the routers were, but were too involved in taking down the display to want to show me where they were.  One pointed vaguely towards another section of the store, in the direction from which I had come.  I insisted that he be more precise and he moved ten steps and pointed again.  I explained that I wanted precise directions because I had already been sent to the wrong part of the store. He pointed. I gave up and tried to follow the pointing finger.   

I found the routers, but the one that I had seen online for $29.99 seemed to be $32.99 in the store. I picked it up and tried to get some help from someone in the GeekSquad.  I think perhaps the name should be subtitled: condescension is us.  Every question I asked received the most condescending and unhelpful response.  I figured out at long last that he had NO familiarity with the bestbuy.com website or with any stock Best Buy carries that is not top of the line as he told me over and over that the unit I was asking about was basic, cheap and insignificant.  At no time did he ask me what I needed said router for in order to help me decide if this cheap, basic and insignificant router might be the one that would be most useful.  It is, by the way, not that anyone in the GeekSquad would care.  

As I write this, I sincerely hope that you care because in an economic recession where jobs and extra money for gadgets are scarce, one would hope that customer service might IMPROVE.  However, this was not my experience last night. 

I had one more item that I needed on an emergency basis, read I must buy it from a brick and mortar store.  I found it, on my own, I wasn't going to risk being sent on another tour of the store. 

When I returned to the check out, there were ten customers waiting and ONE checker -- this despite the fact that there were a sea of blue shirts standing around the store.
I made the mistake of asking the strategically placed unhelpful yellow-shirted young man why there weren't more checkers available.  He groused at me that someone (he named him) was on his way up.  I looked back and yes there was s young man walking slowly towards the piles of people waiting to check out. 

There was a flurry of moving around and more checkers arrived, but the priority was NEVER being of use to the customers.  The young man who walked slowly up to the register checked out one person and then had to switch registers (?!) and this caused customers to AGAIN have to switch aisles in order to spend money at your store.
I have never encountered an entire store of unhelpful salespeople who seem to detest the notion that they have to interact with people as much as those in your store on Hotel Circle in Albuquerque, NM. 

Please tell me that you do not train your employees to be this disdainful of paying customers.