Funny, I just had a "great" Best Buy experience today. Started about three months ago, I had some rewards to spend. I literally needed nothing so I tired to order a vinyl LP, which they have listed on their site. After a couple of months, they canceled the order because apparently they didn't actually have the record or couldn't get it or some such. They gave me the rewards back and an additional credit for canceling on me. Ok, fine. So I try ordering another record, making sure this one is listed as "in stock". It actually arrives, but it is bent. The packaging was terrible and offered little protection.
Now, with this order, I'd ordered something else also, so I met the $35 for free shipping and I had a coupon I was able to stack on this too. This is an important mention. I jumped on chat to ask if I needed an RMA or a shipping label and I was told take it to the store, they'll take the damaged one and order a new one. In other words, they will do an exchange. Made sense to me and sounded easy enough.
So, I take this record to the store, with packaging and packing slip, and explained to them what was up. First, they looked at me like I took a shit on their counter. Then they told me because they didn't have the record in the store (duh!) they would have to return the one I was holding and I would have to reorder it. I tried to explain to them I just wanted an exchange and they insisted they couldn't do that. I said ok, well what about the coupon I used and the shipping limit that I'd now have to reach again. They basically just said again I'd have to reorder it, completely missing the issue.
I decided I didn't feel like wasting anymore time, so I just left. Got home, called the 888 number, and in ten minutes, the representative on the phone had a new record coming my way and told me they probably wouldn't even want the other one back. I'm hanging on to it, just in case, but wow, what a difference. Of course, I have yet to see the new, undamaged record, but I feel a little better about the transaction now.
I'm someone who used to shop Best Buy regularly but stopped because it just felt to me after Circuit City went away and they had no real competition anymore, they just stopped caring. I've been going back more recently as I feel they've been really competitive on pricing and when I use in store pick up, it's pretty painless. This situation, where they screwed up and should have been able to this resolve quickly, had three different solutions, depending on who I talked to. I'm hoping this comes out ok, but I'm starting to wish I'd just spent the extra $6 or so and bought this at the local record store.