Sorry Best Buy, but I’m done with you!

Here’s the deal with me, I’m a great loyal customer and consumer to all the brands that I love and adore especially when they have great customer service.  Did you read my post about Southwest Airlines? But when you cross me or give me pitiful customer service I’m going to have a little rant about it – sorry Best Buy, but you have just lost two previously loyal customers all because of how I was treated this past New Years Eve.

On to my story/rant:

This really starts in October at my parent’s annual chili cookoff when my dad knocked my amazing Kroger Easy Share 12.0 mega pixel camera out of my hand.  YES, I know I should have been wearing the gosh darn strap that comes with most cameras but I had just pulled the camera out of my pocket to take a picture and poof, shit happens.  Skip forward a few months to New Years Eve and I’m standing near the camera department at Best Buy.  I had been doing research on which camera I would own next and I wanted to make sure to get a good one because I am planning on keeping this on for a long time.  I was taking a gander around the cameras when a Best Buy supervisor noticed me and asked me if I had been helped.  I told him I’d like to talk to someone about the cameras and that I had done some research on the camera features and did some price comparisons on Amazon.com.  He was unfamiliar with the cameras and promised someone would be over right away, which they were.  I was talking to the suggested  Best Buy representative with notes in my hand and questions ready regarding the Nikon Coolpix S570, I also explained how I found the camera on Amazon.com for only $137.57 and their camera was $199.99.  Now I know that Best Buy does have a “Best Buy Retail Store Price Match Guarantee” that says the following: 

If you find a lower advertised price on the same available brand and model prior to your purchase or during the exchange and return period, we will match that price. Simply bring in the ad of the local retail competitor or Best Buy, while the lower price is in effect and receive your price match.

Here is where I get a bit sour!  The Best Buy representative said that Amazon.com is tricky and they are only able to match the prices when it comes from Amazon.com and not a retailer on Amazon.  Not a problem because I had already done my research and I knew that the price was from Amazon.com.  So we went to one of their in-store Mac computers and looked up the price I had found on Amazon.com, sure enough it was $137.57 and sold by actual Amazon.com.  The Best Buy representative told me that he would need to get this price approved from his supervisor and then I’d be good to go.  We went to talk to said “Supervisor” in which he informed me that the price on Amazon.com was too low for him to match, they would lose money and he could maybe negotiate with me somewhere in the middle.

WHAT?  Doesn’t the “Best Buy Retail Store Price Match Guarantee” state that “If you find a lower advertised price on the same available brand and model prior to your purchase or during the exchange and return period, we will match that price. Simply bring in the ad of the local retail competitor or Best Buy, while the lower price is in effect and receive your price match?”

That let down really wasn’t what set me over the edge, when I tried to talk to the Supervisor about their price for the camera he just turned around and ignored me and started to talk to another customer inquiring about a bag.  Are you kidding me?  I was in the middle of a conversation with you regarding this ” Best Buy Retail Store Price Match Guarantee” forget the fact that my husband and I have spent close to a thousand dollars with you in 2009 alone and you completely ignore me.

I turned around, told the other Best Buy employee that I’m sorry but I’m going to have to buy my camera on Amazon.com because this supervisor clearly didn’t want my business and I walked out the door.  The supervisor watched me leave and didn’t say one word.  So now that the nail is deep in the coffin, I went home and told my husband we are never shopping at Best Buy again and that we will be using Amazon.com for our future DVD, camera, video game and other gadget or accessory purchases.  God love husbands when they know they really need to get on board or get out of the way because he was all for my new boycott and even cut up his Best Buy Rewards card!

For a happy ending to this story (I love happy endings) I was able to purchase my new Nikon Coolpix S570 camera on Amazon.com and they gave me free shipping.  Life is grand!