BEST BUY Modern Day Extortion Harahan Louisiana

I apologize for the way this looks it was printed with a defective laptop using MS office.

Monday, April 27, 2009
In less than 1 month I have spent over $1500 at your local store in the Elmwood shopping
center. I had plans to spend more money on a complete home entertainment center. As it stands
I will NEVER do business with you people again. I will also give you my solemn promise to
tell anyone and everyone about the attitudes exemplified by your clerks and the poor quality of
the merchandise you peddle.
I am typing this on your defective pc a DELL Inspiron which I purchased on 4/17/09.I had purchased an in-dash mount radio/cd player and was having it installed as I window shopped the rest of your store. A clerk with stocky build, white, with a beard, looked to be in his late teens or early twenties had the name of Stephen embroidered on his polo.
I informed him what I wanted to purchase, (a dell laptop with long battery life and moderate hard drive)
A few minutes later he retrieved the item and escorted me to the Geek Squad, he then began his pitch telling me about the extended warranty that ALL pcs must have and that I should have it. I told him no, I wasn't interested tonight, however I would be interested in the Optimizer software he offered.
When we got to the Geek Squad counter he deposited the laptop on the counter and
whispered something to the GS clerk. This is where I met another young man, white, beard, glasses with the name of Rodney. Rodney rang up my purchase of the laptop and the purchase of the software and installed the software.
I took my pc home ready to continue my class work and attack it with what I assumed was a better piece of equipment.

I began by typing my notes from the previous lesson, when, in the middle of it the screen went blank. I looked for the file but had only begun about 2 pgs of notes and had lost all that information. This was on the Friday night when I returned home.
On Sunday night I returned to my homework and began getting information off the net, IMing fellow students, and working with MS powerpoint and MS word.

I had to save frequently and often as the screen would often go blank and various program screens would pop-up with no provocation. To me there seems to be some kind of hardware problem if the unit keeps skipping freezing up.

Friday the 24th I brought the unit back to Best Buy where I purchased the unit unfortunately I did not have the receipt with me, but there should be absolutely no problem in looking it up in your database.

I was directed to the service counter and once again was met by the young man with
Rodney H. stenciled on his B.B. polo shirt. He asked me about my receipt and I said that I didn't have it but it should not be hard to locate. He took my name and entered it into the database and could only find where I purchased the in-dash radio and installation. He then told me that if I did not have the receipt he would not help me (his words). I repeated what he said, let me understand this, you will not look up my receipt or service my laptop, when you are the one who took my money and rang me up 7 days ago?

He then said, Sir, I'm trying to help you I replied No you are not, when you can go to the next register and look up my transaction, you shouldn't even have to go to another register, you should be able to look up my receipt from right where you are at. Especially since this is the VERY register YOU yourself rang me up on.
It was then that your tween clerk's snide attitude grew even larger and he once again tried to insult me by telling me that, if I didn't change my tone I was not going to get any help from him. I told him I certainly would rather talk to someone else. It was then the young child told the other salesman standing beside him Ryan to help me complete my transaction.

I told Ryan what I thought was wrong and he decided that he first had to run a diagnostic on the software. In the meantime two other clerks came to the other register and began looking for my purchase. Kendra tried several times to cross-check my purchase on 4/17/09 but was unable to look it up. Jilllian another clerk looked up all transactions on that date and finally found the receipt.
Ryan then completed his software diagnostic and told me that there was nothing wrong with the software, and if it was a problem with the hardware that there was no warranty on that. If I was going to exchange it that I would have to pay a 10% or 15% restocking fee.
What kind of extortion ring are you running? What kind of business refuses to exchange defective items? Who are these snide clerks? Is that the way you train them?
Do you have your GEEK SQUAD install some kind of ghost software to crash people's computers if they do not immediately accept your quote, WARRANTIES?
What is the age and hiring practices for your clerks? Is each and everyone as obtuse and abusive?
When a customer comes to Best Buy with a legitimate complaint is this also your practice to Bully and Cajole them by changing the subject of the complaint?
I walked out of your store/clip joint with nothing resolved. I had what appeared to be a hardware problem and your clerks first refused any service to me, next they told me it was a software problem. When no software problem was found they tried to sell me a warranty, the cost of which for only 2 years complete service was as much as the laptop.

I am writing you to lodge this active complaint and if nothing is done within the next 36 hours I do make this solemn promise to NEVER do business with BEST BUY again.

Chuck
Harahan, Louisiana
U.S.A.

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