Best Buy no more!!!

Made my last purchase at any Best Buy. There are so many other places that you can get better deals and way better customer service. The 2 I highly recommend are www.newegg.com and www.amazon.com I've been blown away by both places, Newegg for electronics and Amamzon for just about everything else.

Let me say the "smurf's" at Best Buy are not the problem. The Smurf's as I call them are the guys and gals that work the floor, most all of these people are great, offering good advice from a non commission employee.

The problems I have fall further up the food chain of Best Buy. First are the customer service individuals behind the counter, the nice knowledgeable attitude is gone, or so it seems to be with the stores close to me. Yes, I understand that working a desk where some not so nice people come complain can test your nice-ness. I ALWAYS treat people the way I expect to be treated, and the same goes for her too. Last night in my latest adventure this was pushed to the max, well, the breaking point with Best Buy.

Here's the start of this adventure. My son Joseph, is 14, enough said, and owns or has owned 2 Ipod touches. The first touch was lost, stolen or vanished somehow within months of him getting it from us as a gift. Sorry, but our money doesnt grow on trees and the 2nd one he had to purchase on his own. Both Ipods have or had warranties, as do all my electronics. I own an Ipod, actually 3 Ipods and all but the shuffle have warranties. Well, by pure accident Joseph drops his Ipod touch and cracks the screen, a common problem (another issue I have with Apple). I haul it up to Best Buy for him, warranty in hand to have it replaces or fixed. Oh, that warranty doenst cover that, used to when we bought it, or so we were told, now there is another warranty that would have covered that. (Warranty trick IMO) But, I was told I could have upgraded my warranty and it would have been covered. So, as an owner of a Ipod touch myself I decided I needed to upgrade mine. Joseph's, which has been fixed no has a null and void warranty of which I canceled last night after 3 phone calls and 2 run around conversations with Best Buy CS.

I proceed into BB, my Ipod in hand as I assume they will need to inspect the unit before allowing me to purchase the upgraded warranty I was told I could do at another store. Well, first they couldnt find any record of my purchase of the unit, knowing damn well it came from BB with a warranty. BB CS cant seem to find it anywhere and I was told I must not have gotten it at BB more that once. I may be old but I am pretty bright and have a really good memory on some stuff, I know I got it at BB. I was told I can call 888-bestbuy and maybe they can back up my store of purchase it from BB. So I did, within 30 seconds of talking to 888-BB they had found it, found the warranty, told me when and where I had gotten it. Actually I had to purchase this online because there was a gift card that was associated with it and in-store wouldnt honor it. I actually purchased this Ipod in the store online, with the assistance of a BB smurf. I was told the order and warranty numbers and I could go back into the store at my leisure and upgrade the warranty.

So, I haul it right back into BB, as I was in the parking lot when I call 888-BB. Once again CS hell desk, I mean help desk, and gave them the order numbers. Still a major issue with finding it, this time I am told its online and thats just problems. Funny, online was WAY LESS of a problem than the BB cs reps run around I was getting. I was told on the first trip into the store, after their in ability to find my Ipod, that I must call online to cancel Joseph's warranty on his repaired unit. 888-BB said, no thats all done in store, and tried to cancel it for me over the phone, but it was 8pm at night and didnt have the right people to do so. Well, finally the cs reps pulled up the order and then started the next run around with upgrading the warranty. I was plainly told if I had purchased this in store there would be no problem with upgrading my warranty but since it was done online then it had to be done online or over the phone, BULL SHIT! I was beginning to lose my nice demeanor at this point and said no, you will take care of this for me, I am tired of getting run around, still no luck. So, I suggest we speak to the manager now, which he happened to be right there, what luck. Well, he tells me its against the law to upgrade my warranty, you know its like insurance and its against the law to change insurance policies. Funny, call any insurance company and offer them more money to upgrade your policy and they turn back flips to get your money. But, if it was purchased in store he could "make" an exception. I bluntly told this manager that www.newegg.com and www.amazon.com was looking much more appealing.

The issue isnt the fact I cant upgrade the warranty. Had I been told this up front I would have just dealt with it. The fact is I was told it was possible, had I bought it in the store and not online from the same company.

So, long story, but no more BB.