Bestbuy.com Instore availability?

[Pure Apathy]

How accurate are the counts on the bestbuy.com in store availability feature? I went to order MK: Deception Kollectors Edition online and it says I can pick it up instore at my closest bestbuy. I called them up, and they said that they did not have it in stock.

If I do the instore pickup option, and my bestbuy doesn't actually have it, what happens? Will bestbuy ship the game to me for free or just give me a refund?

 

[mcwilliams132]

I don't think it's very acurate...

I visited BB a while back when Shrek 2 was on-line for $10...

At the store it was $19.99 and had 2 copies in stock.

on-line it was $9.99 and said I couldn't pick it up at my store - not in stock.

I had an employee check "their web site" in-store and the price came up as $19.99!

I said, "Bull Schmidt"!

So I went home, printed off the shopping cart, which showed the item, and price and took it to the customer service counter and begged them to give it to me in-store at the on-line price.

After a few minutes and the CSR checking with a manager, I get, "We normally don't do this but we'll make this one time exception"...and she had to fill out a big form and finally rang it through for me.

NEVER check their in store web site - it does not mirror what you see at home. And if you see a descrepancy...point it out and demand you get the deal.

 

[vherub]

I have found the only way to really be sure is visiting the store, looking yourself and then asking a competent employee.
I have never tried the pickup store option, mostly because the previous time when i preordered a game was such a fiasco (there was no games held for preorder, thus defeating the entire purpose)

 

[superman1180]

Being a BB employee I will say that stock counts at times can be wrong, so as vherub said, "only way to really be sure is visiting the store, looking yourself and then asking a competent employee." However, the pricing discrepancy is common. Online prices don't always match that which is in the store. I know it's crazy, and I don't understand why it can be like that, but that's how BB decided to swing things. Oh, and always ask to have an employee look in the back, usually there are tons of games back there, not always the new releases though (because I've noticed a few BB's get very low allocation of units).

 

[shrike4242]

[quote name='RawisJericho']How accurate are the counts on the bestbuy.com in store availability feature? I went to order MK: Deception Kollectors Edition online and it says I can pick it up instore at my closest bestbuy. I called them up, and they said that they did not have it in stock.

If I do the instore pickup option, and my bestbuy doesn't actually have it, what happens? Will bestbuy ship the game to me for free or just give me a refund?[/QUOTE]

IMHO, they blow donkey balls because they're so spotty, it's hard to depend on them. I've seen items show OOS at a BB and within minutes, it shows that it's IS.

If you place an order online for instore pickup, and you get the second email saying your item is available for pickup, in theory, a BB rep has pulled the item off the floor and has it sitting at Customer Service, with a pick ticket from your online order attached to it. When they've pulled the item, they're supposed to do something on one of the computers in the Customer Service area that tells BB.com that the item has been picked up, which generates the second automated email.

If you go to the store and they didn't have it, then you have the right to call BestBuy.com order support (888-BESTBUY, Option #3, Option #3, Option #3) and have them ship the item to you at no shipping charge. One ugly issue with that is that I haven't had good luck with games shipped to me, due to their fixation with paper mailers.

Under normal circumstances, without an item that's hard to find or limited stock, it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Soujiro_Seta]

The counts are not reliable at all. Ive wasted a trip to best buy because they said they had a dvd but when i got there they didnt. And then I wasted money ordered a dvd online because they said that no stores in my area had it but when i went to the best buy they had it So i wasted $4 on shipping

 

[auralia]

Last time i ordered from best buy online the game never came it was supposed to be a gift so i ran out to buy another copy of it while waiting for my best buy one, called them after 2 weeks, they said i had to wait a month to report it missing, waited a month, called they said i was lieing and steeling from them. I said i never received it and i could provide a receipt where i purchased the game from target 2 weeks after my best buy order didn't show up. Well they finally gave in and i had to fax a signed letter stating i didn't receive the game and i wasn't steeling and then like 2 weeks after that they put the money back on my credit card. never do online shopping with them again as for instore pick up did it once on a computer, worked well but of course they tried to sell me their crap warrenty for like 10 mintues untill i just told him to stop because i had bought the warrenty once before and they refused to honor it because the computer was listed under my moms name and not mine grrr (this was like 5 yrs ago that they refused to service my refund and 2.5 years after the cpu was purchased). theres my best buy rant i feel better now.