Best Buy?

So I call Best Buy today to see if they have an item in stock. I have found the item on the website and I need to know whether or not we should drive to Lexington to purchase said item this evening. I follow their automated menu through an opportunity to enter an extension, through three new menus. I finally get transferred to the department I wish to speak to, but guess what? It rings half a time and then the irritating recording lady comes back on the line to smugly inform me that the party I am calling is not available. I can choose other departments if I’d like, but she will not go backwards to a higher-level menu, so I have to hang up to try again. On my third attempt, I follow the instructions for someone with a rotary phone so I can talk to a real person. She transfers me to the correct department in mid-sentence, where a perky young man heads off to check if they have my item in stock. Minutes pass, and a not-so-perky gentleman comes back to take a message for perky young man to call me back. I’m pretty sure that he writes my phone number down incorrectly due to the noise level in the store. Perky does not call back. I call them two hours later and talk to another rotary phone representative, after another attempt to contact them correctly. She answers the phone with an apology that is obviously meant for another customer, since apologizing to me for taking so long to find something is not entirely appropriate in the situation. She then puts me on hold and then comes back on the line to inform me that the department I am calling is “really busy” and she can take a message for them to call back. I inquire as to why they can’t just check their computer for the item, and am informed that she does not know how, and besides that, if an item had been sold today, that count may not be accurate. Against my better judgment, I leave a message. It has been another three hours. I do not particularly expect a phone call.

Here is my problem with the above scenario, and the reason I am writing this. YOU ARE BEST BUY. You are an electronics superstore. I have called your establishment to purchase a technology-related item. Your telephone system does not work. Your computer system does not work. How can you not have working telephones and working computer systems when YOU ARE BEST BUY? I just do not understand.

Perhaps I am overly confident, but I feel that designing a computer system that takes the current stock, and subtracts from that stock when said item is purchased... it should not be that hard. One of the first programs I wrote, in college, was vending machine software in C++. I can see some similar concepts at work here. I mean, ten items in stock, minus one item being purchased... I’m pretty much thinking that will leave nine items in stock. What do you think? Am I out of line here?

On the other hand, my intent is to thwart the Black Friday special sale by buying an item today and taking my receipt in on Friday for a price matching refund and thereby saving myself $170, so I guess, ethically speaking, I can’t complain too much about their customer service.

Best Buy followup

Best Buy never returned my calls, of course. I understood just why when we walked in. There were only four guys working the counter in the very busy department! Of course, that very busy department had.. well, no customers there besides us, so I understand how hard it would be for them to tear themselves away from their duties to return one of two phone messages. Great job, guys! Also, I would like to investigate their idea of "busy" but okay.

Our mission was successful, and we came home with a digital video camera (to be marked down from $329 to $159 on Friday morning) and two 1GB mp3 players, hot pink (to be marked down from $69 to $35.) One will be for me, one for a gift for a difficult person on my list. (By the way, if you're not aware, you can look at the Black Friday ads here or here.) And if they give me trouble over it, then I'll just return them and I haven't lost that much, other than a little shopping trip this evening, which really wasn't that horrible.

I have also arranged transportation and a shopping trip for Friday. M has to work, and honestly, that's just as well because he hates being stuck in traffic and I have this feeling that's what Friday is going to be about. Since I have to be there before eleven or twelve (not sure which, I need to look it up) to get my prices matched, we'll spend Thursday night with my parents. That also means that I'll likely be at Walmart at six in the morning, because that's what they had planned to do. Yikes. I like a good bargain as much as the next person but sheesh, that's early.