I’ve heard the horror stories about Best Buy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), but I never actually experienced a problem. Well, I’ve never had to return an item, thus never having a problem. That is, until a few days ago. The conversation at the Best Buy customer service counter went something like this:
BB Employee: Ok, we are going to give you $31.99 in cash back.
Me: Oh wait, I have a penny.
BB Employee: Uh, for what?
Me: So I can have $32 even instead of 99 cents.
BB Employee: We don’t do that.
Me: Don’t do what?
BB Employee: We can’t give change.
Me: What? That’s not really change.
BB Employee: It’s a policy.
Me: Well, I don’t want cash then. Can you put that amount back on my credit card?
BB Employee: No, we don’t do that either. It’s against policy too.
Call me neurotic, but I’ve never worked for nor seen a company who cares what kind of cash is in their till as long as it’s the correct amount of cash. On top of that, I hate change. But hey, at least what I was trying to return wasn’t defective.
I don’t know where the Better Business Bureau is when it comes to Best Buy, but someone needs to take action. Not for my petty change incident, but for all the others who had thousands of dollars worth of trouble. My suggestion: shop Circuit City. They’ll price match everything Best Buy advertises and give you a small discount on top of that. Plus, their return policy seems much better.