Complaint Review: Best Buy - Mesa Arizona
- Best Buy Alma School Road Mesa, Arizona U.S.A.
- Phone:
- Web:
- Category: Computer Stores
Best Buy Reward Zone Customer service is no service! Rewardzone service is a horrifying nightmare! ripoff Internet
*Author of original report: Update: RewardZone settled my complaint
listed on other sites?
Those sites steal
Ripoff Report's
content.
We can get those
removed for you!
Find out more here.
Ripoff Report
willing to make a
commitment to
customer satisfaction
Click here now..
My Best Buy RewardZone customer service experience has been a complete nightmare. Here's the email I sent in the "contact us" zone last week:
"Shame on you! Please make sure this letter makes it to the VP of Customer Service and/or IT, because this is perhaps the worst system I have ever dealt with. Well, Cingular's comes close. [I lost my rollover minutes when I changed plans, but that's another report.]
A month ago I bought a new HP laptop, and the nice Businesszone rep, Wade, convinced me I could earn 5 points for every dollar if I upgraded to a business account from my personal account. for free! Sounding almost too good to be true, I signed up, thinking I'd be getting 5 points for every one of those $740 I spent.
Now, Monday (3-26-07) I received an email notifying me my reward certificates were ready, and I had something in mind to buy, so I excitedly opened my account, only to find that not only did I not get 5 pts per dollar, but that 753 points weren't even released. I immediately tried to change the threshold back down to $5 instead of $20, but found I couldn't do it online, so I called Customer Care.
We had a significant language barrier, so I had trouble understanding him and he became as frustrated with me as I was with him. Ultimately he conveyed he couldn't help me change my threshold, and that I needed to contact my local Best Buy rep, Wade. I called BB, but Wade wasn't available, so I spoke with another rep until he was. This rep, not a Business zone rep, said he thought points were accumulated 1 cent per dollar, or somesuch, so that ultimately you had to have 25,000 pts to earn $5, so when I said I had 753, he thought I just hadn't earned enough. I assured him this couldn't be so, and he said he'd have Wade call me.
Eventually Wade called back, but was confused about why my 753 pts, or $15 in certificates hadn't been released. He said he'd have to do some research. He called back later Monday and left a message that he and all other reps had been misinformed, and the minimum threshold was indeed $20 or 1000 pts.
Well, I just wanted my certificates. I'm not planning any more big purchases anytime soon, so I knew it would take awhile to get to 1000 pts again. My company is too small to ever achieve the $7500 threshold to start earning more points per dollar, so I don't see any value in being in the business zone program.
So, today I called to talk to Wade again to see if we could change me back to a personal account, as the Customer Care rep told me to do Monday. CC couldn't do it, he said, only my local BB. Wade wasn't in, so I spoke with another business zone rep, and she said all she could do was sign people up and cash in their certificates. She told me to call Customer Care again.
Immediately, I called Customer Care and spoke to Nash. He said, No, he cannot change me from business to personal--can't go that direction--but if I create a new personal account, which must be done online, not through him, all my points would transfer in 48 hours, and I could get them as certificates. Of course, I hung up with him and went online to set up a new account.
Except, I couldn't. I tried three times to initiate a new account, trying different computers and different browsers, but I always got "Unable to process. please call Customer Care." Frustrated with me, yet?
So, I called Customer Care back, went through all the menus, all the verifications -- again -- and spoke with Paul, who also had trouble with English...nice guy tho and he tried to be helpful. Of course, there was nothing he could do. He put me on hold to confirm the problem, and it turns out, my address--the home address I have lived at for 10 years--is coming up in your system as "undeliverable." This prevents me from initiating or canceling anything. AND, neither I nor customer care can change the address; it must be done through the 'back office' only, and that, my friend, will take 7-10 business days. PLUS, they won't even notify me when it's done.
I have to call in to see if it's been fixed. Of course, I can try sending an email, but I already tried that Monday, and the response I got was obviously auto-generated, because it answered the wrong question!! So, my faith in the email system is quite fractured. Will I even hear from a human regarding this? I doubt it greatly, so I'm considering blogging it and posting it at some complaint sites, too.
Ultimately, all I really wanted was to get my $15 in certificates released, so I could use them toward a laptop bag purchase. I've waited 30 days for them to be released, so I could buy that bag. I guess I should have just bought the one at Fry's Electronics because this is among the most insane systems I've ever seen.
I should be able to maintain my own records--such as my home address--online. I should be able to change my account backwards if I can change it forwards (personal to business to personal). Your store reps should know what the policies are, and there should be little or no discrepancy among them. I should be able to do anything regarding my account through Customer Care...or don't tell me to call them for everything!
I have a case number, #36159630, and I'd really like to see some changes made. I'd really like to just get my reward certificates, soon. I hope a real person contacts me with a real, non-auto-generated response. Thank you."
Well, here's an update. I got another automated email telling me to just go online and change my email address. Of course, this was something I had already done with my personal account several months ago when I had the same problem. I wrote her back that this wasn't helpful, could she please read my email again, but I never heard back.
So, tonite I logged into my account and VOILA! my account was working and apparently fixed. I couldn't remember what to do, so I called customer care again and got a guy in Russia, I believe, who again told me he could do nothing to help me, but this time he said I couldn't sign up online, I had to go to my local Best Buy to start a new account, and despite what the last guy said, I probably won't get those points. I simply gave up.
Why is it so hard, Best Buy? If everyone else can help customers, why can't you?
Wendy
Metro Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Best Buy
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 04/02/2007 09:34 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/best-buy/mesa-arizona/best-buy-reward-zone-customer-service-is-no-service-rewardzone-service-is-a-horrifying-ni-242048. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content
If you would like to see more Rip-off Reports on this company/individual, search here:



#1 Author of original report
Update: RewardZone settled my complaint
AUTHOR: Wendy - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Monday, April 09, 2007
After a few more exchanged emails, Best Buy finally seemed to "get it" about my issue and fixed my account. They simply upgraded my account from 753 points to 1003 points to enable me to clean it out, close it, and open a new 'Base Tier' account, which I will do once my points are released. Apparently that takes 72 hours.
I verified that the points are there and now wait to see if I can print my certificates. I spent several hours trying to get this resolved, and we exchanged at least 10 emails (plus several phone calls), and it in the long run, to upgrade my points by 250 points will just cost them $5 in certificates. Seems kinda silly to me that they didn't think of that solution before. In fact, I was the one who suggested they do it. Here's our last exchange:
Original Message Follows:
-------------------
Apparently no one can help me get my remaining points. There are not enough points (only 753) to earn a $20 minimum certificate under the account I do not want and was improperly advised about by your own misinformed people, meaning you are completely unwilling and unable to resolve my issue, getting my existing points released to me as $5 certificates.
I have decided it is better to not waste any more time on this idiotic, unbending policy and take my business elsewhere. It seems that Customer Care does not truly care about it's customers.
If, after reading this, you wish to find a way to release my 753 points as $5 certificates and save a customer, I will update my Rip-off Report and complete my business.
-----Original Message---
I am Nicole with Best Buy Customer Care.
I understand your concern about your points.
We are still unable to provide you the certificates for those 753 points. Instead, I have awarded you 250 points, that way you will achieve 1000 points and receive a $20 certificate. Please allow 72 hours for points to appear on your account.
I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and thank you for your time and patience.
Sincerely,
Nicole
Best Buy Customer Care Team
------------------------------
Thank you, Nicole. It is resolved.
-----------------------------
The lesson here for big corporations: Ask the customer what they want, it's probably cheaper than you think. And, empower your customer service reps to do what makes sense; don't be so firm about the "rules" that you can't help the customer.


Advertisers above have met our
strict standards for business conduct.