Best Buy Store #377 Deceptive/Misleading Sale Ads & Untrained Employees Prescott, AZ Arizona

Update 12-26-2015>>>>It has been 14 business days! No refund or adjustment as promised by Best Buy's Executive Resolution Dept. I guess I should have known better!!!! I will follow up with all email correspondence and names of the people that failed to keep their promises.

Best Buy Corporate stepped up and offered to refund the amount we were overcharged at the store.  Thank you Best Buy Corporate.

I do appreciate you taking the time to respond to my report.  I would like to address a few of the comments you made.

1) We didn't go into the store asking for the $0 down deal, this was offered to us after they refused to honor the advertised price and the 4 hour flash sale.

2) I took a screen shot of the flash sale and there were no restrictions listed...also there was no mention of "contract phones only" with the trade in.

3) If the store manager tells you "this isn't the first time we have had issues with online/flyer ads being misleading," then I think there is definitely a problem.  When the store has to contact corporate for sale clarification how is the consumer supposed to understand the rules/restrictions?

4) There's no doubt the salesperson was poorly trained but I asked him several times about the return policy and I advised my son not to sign the 15 day return paperwork.  The salesperson told us not to worry about the paperwork because we are Elite Members and we had until Feb. 14th 2016.  I'm certain he was just trying to get the sale completed and didn't care about us...we were just an easy target.

5) I was contacted by Best Buy's Executive Resolution Dept. on November 19th, 2015 and to date they have still done nothing!  I would be glad to share the email Best Buy has sent to me, so far just empty promises.

6) In my opinion we were taken advantage by Best Buy, Best Buy Employees, & local Management.  I would like to note this isn't the first time we have had issues at this store (just this store).  If I personally want to purchase from Best Buy I try to use Best Buy.com so I can avoid our local store.  I'll give you another example of how bad their customer service is>  I recently purchased six Motorola Cell Phones @ Best Buy.com.  The phones arrived on time but when we tried to activate one of the phones Verizon told us it was still locked and showing up as "not sold."

I guess Verizon thought we had stolen the phones!  I was on the phone for 3 1/2 hours with Best Buy.com trying to get the phones I had paid for activated.  I finally got through to someone with a brain and he discovered none of our 6 phones had been scanned before shipping and this is why all 6 remained locked.  I gave the guy all of the numbers on the boxes and he assured me all of the phones should now be unlocked/ready for activation.  Yet another example of incompetence @ Best Buy.

Again, I really do appreciate you taking the time to give me your take on the whole situation.  I'm guessing you weren't too fond of Best Buy as a whole or you would still be working there. 

1) ...failure to honor the "$0" down contract...

This is not a promotion by Best Buy, this is basically what Verizon Edge offers to customers as an alternative for purchasing a subsidized phone contract (IE 399+ tax with a 2yr contract). It is subject to a credit check, I am assuming your son has little or no credit? So he did not pass the credit check to get him the $0 down, instead they financed part of the phone and you put a down payment.

Going here explains it more in detai, option 6 explains requirements or reasons for a down paymentl: https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/device-payment-faqs/

2) ...The salesperson also refused to take (on trade) my son's Samsung Galaxy Ring...

Usually these trade-ins do have restrictions. The employee may have refused to take it, but more than likely it was more related that the phone didn't meet the trade-in requirements. Addionally I believe this promotion is not sponsered by Best Buy but rather Verizon. More information here: http://www.verizonwireless.com/device-recycle/

2) ...lying about the stores return policy...

This may be due to a lack of training rather than lying or out right fraud. Most items in the store are subject to Best Buy's Holiday Return Policy (located here: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/help-topics/return-exchange-policy/pcmcat260800050014.c?id=pcmcat260800050014). Although because buying the phone includes a termed contract from Verizon "usually" it is excluded from this return policy as the contract is with Verizon and subject to it's terms and contions. Best Buy is only a intermediary. Any paperwork and/or receipts that gave you at the time of sale would indicate this.

3) ...he just gave us a $50 credit to try and smooth things over...

This is a standard "We are sorry but legally didn't do anything wrong but please don't be mad" offer. I find it a slap in the face, but Best Buy (as other retailers) are trying to make money. A lot of people don't realize that electronic products, especially in the last couple of years, are sold closer to cost than you would imagine. So taking $50 off a product like an iPhone could put them at a loss for this sale. This is why retailers, like Best Buy, sell a million accessories that go with the phone. These accessories are usually low cost to Best Buy but they sell at high prices and so have a good margin.

If you were given a $50 gift card, I've seen managers give them to "angry" customers, they usually come from the safe and don't look like "store credit" card or the ones they sell in the store. This is just a way to keep money at the store, chances are if you come back and use the card you will spend more than the cards value.

4) ...I am accusing Best Buy of Deceptive Trade Practices...False Advertising...

I would be pretty confident that no false advertising was at play here. Best Buy is very good about making sure any mistakes in it's ad/flyer are corrected by in-store signage. I am not say mistakes are made, but I know that management get's alerts/emails about this daily and they do follow through at a high rate. I would also say that they weren't deceptive. You may

From experience working retail, it is difficult to say if the employee really "lied". He could have been untrained, unaware, dumb, or trying to "make a sale". Overall when it comes to anything regarding a contract, including the Geek Squad Replacement programs, what the fine print on the terms and conditions matters most. Those terms and conditions are the written contract between you and the company and outline everything you and "they" are liable/responsible for. An employee can say pretty much anything to you, and be wrong, but the written contract matters more. Most people don't read it, but it explains your rights in detail (and small print).

Bottom line, I know how you feel but due to a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding Best Buy really didn't do anything "wrong". They may have lost a customer though, this happens when companies offer sub-par customer service as a result of hiring people and not training them properly. Actually as a former Best Buy employee this is not surprsing. The training offered is very limited, and usually the emphisis is to get to selling as soon as possible. Also this time of year, a lot of employees are temp/seasonal and so training is short so they can serve as many customers as possible in the time they have.