Trouble for Best Buy |
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Best Buy reminds me a bit of Smiths Home Furnishings and FutureShop (in the US): a retail store that is cool to visit and shop at, but probably won’t stand the test of time. I don’t know if extending credit to people who shouldn’t receive credit, subpar customer service, shoddy pricing or something else will be the downfall, but they definitely invoke passionate reactions from their customers. Stories like this one from Wisconsin, certainly don’t help:
According to the Justice department, Best Buy allegedly violated Wisconsin consumer protection laws by providing misleading representations to Wisconsin customers about rebates, service plans, supplemental magazine subscriptions, exchange policies, restocking fees, gift cards, and reward zone points.
I’ve been sitting on part of this post for awhile, and added to it just now with the Wisconsin lawsuit news. Admittedly, I was a bit surprised by the number of negative comments when I posted about Best Buy before. Apparently in this particular microcosm, by and large MakeYouGoHmm readers do not care for Best Buy.
Some Best Buy practices, as alleged above, seem questionable and I’ve already pointed out that they are not truly the best buy unless you force their hand — and then they will match any retail store price out there. In that particular piece, they didn’t even ask for any documentation proving there was a better deal. Hmm …
However, my post was really more about their Reward Zone, which we have had no problem with to date, but apparently it’s not been so smooth for others. We also joined the Fred Meyer’s Rewards club recently and we received $19 back from the money we spent in their store first quarter 2005.
We’ll gladly get into these store clubs, even if it means they’ll track our purchases, because we don’t care if they know what we’re buying (with our consent). The money is going to be spent anyway, so why not try and get more value out of the money being spent? As you can see from the screenshot above over the last couple years at Best Buy we’ve accumulated nearly one million Reward Zone points as well as receiving $350 USD in certificates. Yeah, we had to spend around ten large to make this $350 back, but if we weren’t signed up for their club instead we would have received a big goose egg. Please choose the better deal.
A few folks see this tracking as some sort of privacy issue, which I suppose if Best Buy knows what video games, movies and other electronics we’re buying from their store — or Fred Meyer knows what type of cheese we buy — than that could be a very tiny, tiny, tiny invasion of our privacy. Really, I don’t see any issue there either. For one, I want these stores to see what kind of customers we are and how much money we’ll spend in their stores if they treat us right. If they treat us like crap, then we’ll vote with our feet and give their competitor the business.
Never say any one customer doesn’t matter. One just never knows how many people that customer knows; it’s the big X factor in marketing. If you strive to take care of that customer, h/she will tell all their friends good things, but if you do the opposite then you can expect negative PR. I live by the 1:20 rule in that it takes 20 good things to be said to equal one bad thing. This is why it’s so important for businesses to get their feet in the door in the blogging world and start working through the positive and negative feedback and follow up with both camps. Quickly. Decisively. Professionally.
Best buy, CompUSA, Fryes, all retail electronics stores that are also online that I’ve seen, frankly, have a terrible online presence in this regard. Sure, many have fancy online stores to buy their wares, but almost nothing in the way of customer interaction. Form based communication is so 1995 it’s not even funny. This is 2005. If these retail operations do not want to go out of business, they need to change with the times.
In closing, our family likes services that point out things we might like, contextual advertising, etc.; we don’t mind being tracked and periodically pitched so long as it is not too intrusive and with our consent.
Maybe some readers can explain the hangup with signing up for reward programs? Nobody forces anybody to sign up for these reward programs. In fact, please don’t signup for these programs, because that will force these companies to make thse programs even more attractive for those of us who do.
Related Posts- Buy The Police reunion concert tickets if you are a Best Buy Reward Zone member
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- More money spent online for clothes than computers in 2006
- I Sold It on Ebay: cool looking store, subpar internet presence
It amazes me that people even shop retail anymore when most times a better deal can be found online. Naturally if you’re going to be making a major appliance purchase, online shopping might not be the way to go. But the few times that I’ve been to either CompUSA or Best Buy, they are just too over-priced. And, I don’t get it…the parking lots are always packed! I usually only go to these stores in order to look at an item that I’m going to purchase online. I don’t want to be bothered with Rewards programs because then I end up with having this feeling that I’m missing out if I don’t shop at a store where I’ll get the Rewards. There’s little incentive for me to do this if I’m missing out on a better deal somewhere else. I don’t know…maybe I just have the wrong outlook on the Rewards programs. Just seems to me that if I can, for example, buy a computer from Best Buy for $1600 and possibly get a $20.00 Reward bonus to be used at another time, why would I want to do this if I can get the same computer for $1100 online?? All for a $20.00 Reward? Plus, like I said, you get wrapped up into thinking you should only be shopping at one store because otherwise you’ll be missing out on the rewards. It’s a gimmick. Like the song goes, “My mamma told me, you better shop around”.
Comment by Janine — May 28, 2005 @ 12:44 pm PST
Hi Janine - high ticket items and appliances (as you did note) make sense buying locally for a number of good reasons. It’s not falling for a gimmick with the reward zone thing, it is a touch and feel the merchandise thing.
Also, we can return something we don’t like to the story personally and get our money back right away. Online? Yeah, right. I’ll give you a great example of how flawed this can be. My wife bought a ring online for $250 recently. It arrived and right away there was a problem with one of the stones. She’s still waiting, some two weeks later, to clear this issue up and it’s with a major online-only retailer. With a retail store, yeah, the price might be more, but you get what you pay for in convenience. And again, if you walk in with a Walmart’s price or something Best Buy will match the price so you can get the lower price
Jammed parking lots? That’s funny because, you have to know the best times to shop I guess. If you go when the store first opens, unless it’s a launch day, there are rarely jammed parking lots.
Thank you for taking time to comment.
Comment by TDavid — May 28, 2005 @ 1:14 pm PST
okay..so maybe going to Best Buy at 12:00PM wasn’t the best choice I ever made
And, you’re absolutely right about returning anything purchased online. It can be a royal pain in the #@#
Comment by Janine — May 28, 2005 @ 2:24 pm PST
I agree with both of you to a degree.
I thing a better deal can ALWAYS be found online. The added convenience of shopping at 10pm, in my PJ’s, away from the nutzo parking lot, avoiding the hustle and bustle of the crowds, and being barraged by sales teams, and advertisements are all good pluses.
Some items I will pay higher for - just for the touch/feel factor. Shoes for example. I would never buy shoes online. I may, if I first went to the store, tried them out, and decided I wanted them. But on that small of a purchase, the price deal online will have been surpassed by gas milage and my time.
Lestat
Comment by Lestat — May 28, 2005 @ 11:55 pm PST
[…] like Best Buy when it comes to retail electronics purchases. Both Fred Meyer and Best Buy have rewards clubs, not sure if Wal-Mart has such an animal (doubt it). I’ve checked out the Ne […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Lots of passion over Walmart Netflix deal — May 30, 2005 @ 11:19 am PST
I love the Best Buy Rewards program. My wife and I are electronics junkies. We do, however look for better deals online on occasion; but most the time the convenience of dealing with a brick and mortar operation just can not be beat. In the past two years we spent around 10 grand and not all for us we have purchased gifts for family and friends and at 5 bucks back for every 100 we spend not a bad deal plus they send us coupons all the time.
Comment by Erik — June 10, 2005 @ 12:12 pm PST
I think that the debate about buying on-line is better is mostly crazy talk. Example: ebay - 256 MB Thumb drive (might work when you get it) - 10$ + 20$ shipping + 1 to 2 week delivery, that makes $30 and having to wait for something that might not work then you have to pay for the return shipping and wait even longer for this to be settled. Best Buy on the other hand $35, they can make sure it works right there before you leave the store and most all items have a one year mfg warranty. Its all economics nothing is totally free, if you feel like five dollars is two worth waiting for a week for something that you can get today, by all means feel free
Comment by Josh — December 17, 2005 @ 3:37 am PST
Listen I’m not stupid and i do my homework ,but online is just plain stupid when it comes to certian products like TVs. A lot of manufactures will void their warranty if you did not buy it from an authrized retialer like Best Buy or CC so wake up you idiots your getting ripped off out there
Comment by Doug — August 12, 2006 @ 11:01 pm PST
idiots? very nice…..
Comment by Janine — August 15, 2006 @ 2:56 am PST
Hmmm. Best Buy where I live doesn’t let me check out anything in their store—they won’t let me unpackage it. I must go throught the purchase / return cycle. . .
Comment by Ronald — December 14, 2006 @ 4:03 pm PST
Your Best Buy must be a little different than the one I shop at. The one I shop at has product displays all over the store where a lot of items don’t need to be unpackaged.
Comment by Janine — December 15, 2006 @ 9:15 pm PST
Greetings
I am a Rewards Member since 2003 and I DID think highly of the program as a perk for shopping at Best Buy vs. another brick and mortar AND included it as a discount when price shopping. The last year though has been a nightmare. The Reward Zone department has been unable to correct my address and recently changed it to some strange address in another state AND changed my e-mail to a wrong one. I have spent hours TRULY tring to straighten this out only to hear with each call, “I gurantee you sir that this will be corrected in 6-10 working days.” Well, one year later it is still wrong. This situation causes re-verifications at store registers and my reward zone to be locked up. It is ridiculous.
Comment by Rod — April 21, 2007 @ 5:19 am PST
I recently bought a Gateway computer from Best Buy, and all they sell is Windows Vista, along with that the printer they sold me is not Vista compatible. I am going to do everything possible to get this problem resolved. I’ve tried downloading the driver that is Vista compatible, but it quits working after awhile. I’ve read other complaints the same as mine. If I can’t get any result from Best Buy, I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau, along with Howard Ain, and others. I think Best Buy intentionally sold me the two together and did not tell me the printer would not work with the computer.
Comment by Cheryl McNimery — August 10, 2007 @ 8:05 pm PST