Best Buy?

[same_sky]

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.

Comments

[e11en.livejournal.com]

Seriously. And how can BEST BUY, the electronics superstore, employ a person who doesn't know how to CHECK THE COMPUTER!!?!?!?!?!?!!!

Sorry, having one of those days.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that one is pretty much a shocker, too. If I were her, I would have left that part out and gone with the second part of the explanation, the one that didn't make her look really dumb. :)

[ms-jacket.livejournal.com]

Hell, I live 5 minutes from our Best Buy, I can check if my store has it or see if they can check your store for you.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the offer! We had already left for Lexington.. I wouldn't have bothered if it hadn't been a forty minute drive to get there. I kind of wonder if they didn't suspect what I was trying to do and just didn't want to fool with me. Which.. it worked out so.. oh well. ;)

[drottningen.livejournal.com]

You can buy it online and pick it up in the store. The website will tell you what stores have it in stock. At least I'm able to do that here with best buy. Have you tried that route? Much better than phone tag with the asshats at best buy.

[drottningen.livejournal.com]

Oh, and they will email you when the order is ready to be picked up. it will be waiting for you at the customer service counter.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

You can do that with this store, too, but this particular item wasn't available for in-store pickup. My main concern (because it wasn't available for pickup like that) was that they didn't have it in stock at all, and I really hated to drive up there only to find that out.