PanningForGold

I simply don’t understand how people stand in line for hours if not days to simply save a few dollars.  After I eat a thanksgiving meal that my wife has beautifully created, running out the door to wait in line till 4am is simply not on my list of things to do.  Let me break this down.  An Xbox 360 with Kinect I can find not on sale for $300.00.  For Black Friday I’ve seen them offered at $169.99  a savings of $131.00.  Of course the doors opened at 4am and you needed a ticket to qualify to purchase the item. You got a ticket by being first in line when the doors opened at 4am.  I have no idea how that makes any sense, but it is what it is!  Did I mention the add also stated that there were only going to be 15 available?  Is that really worth 130.00 bucks? Especially seeing as we are going into the holiday season in which there will be more sales? 

Friday, Black Friday I woke up at 5 in the morning and took the dog out for her morning walk.  I stepped out the door and laughed as I imagined all those people waiting in line, in the freezing temperatures and driving wind and rain.  Is it really worth it?  Really?

Last Black Friday my wife and I just happened to be up and out in the afternoon and we decided to stop at Best Buy to look and see if they had any laptops.  We didn’t expect much but we were in the area and at this point the lines were gone.  Much to our surprise we found what we were looking for.  They had a Sony gaming laptop and it was under a thousand dollars.  They were actually under $700.00, we each wanted one.  The sales clerk went to get them but he came back empty-handed, they sold out.  When we got home my wife decided to try best buy on-line, sure enough best buy on-line had exactly what we wanted.  unfortunately you could only order one per household.  But they offered a bundle package which offered the computer in question, a printer and some external speakers for just $50.00 more.  We decided to go for it,  We ended up with two gaming laptops, (exactly the same) a set of speakers and a printer for $1,114.00. 

We love our computers and I have no regrets.  But the process turned into such a hellish ordeal I will never shop on Best Buy online again. I won’t go into the months of grizzly details, but the following was one round. 

We had already received one of the computers, plus the speakers and the printer.  We paid for everything using a best buy line of credit, and upon checking the account we found that they had charged us for everything even though one of the computers was on back order.  I get an email saying there was a problem with the method of payment.  The following is basically the conversation that was had after waiting for an hour for an operator even though the call was important to them.

Me “Hello, my name is Brian and I got an email from you saying there was a problem with my payment method.”

Them “Okay what is your account number?”

“I already supplied my account number to the computer while I was on hold, but here it is again.”

“Mr. Brian I am looking at the account and we need another payment method from you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Perhaps another credit card?”

“I’m not sure I understand, the purchase has already been made, I checked with the card company and they confirm that the full price has already been deducted so I’m not sure how there can be a problem.”

“Well Mr. Brian there is no date of expire on your credit card and without that we cannot process the order”

“Again, I’m not sure I understand.  I purchased two computers a printer and speakers.  I already received one computer a printer and speakers and my card has already been charged for two computers and the printer and speakers, so again I’m not sure why you need to charge the card again.  Secondly this is not a Credit Card purchase.  It is a Best Buy line of credit purchase so there is no expire date.”

“I’m looking at your account and we need an expire date, without it I cannot process the order”

“Okay then tell me how did you process the first computer, after all it was purchased at the same time without an expire date”

“Mr. Brian I see there is a phone number here I can give you if you need more information”

“Wait a second, I got an email telling me to call this number.  I waited an hour on the phone for something I already paid for and now you want me to call another number?”

“Mr. Brian, I am not sure I can make you understand the problem so all I can do is give you this number.”

“Alright, give me the number”

“814-xxx-xxxx” At this point I could not believe my ears

“I’m sorry could you repeat that number?”

“Yes Mr Brian, the number is 814-xxx-xxxx”

“I’m sorry I can’t call that number”

“Why not?”

“Because I will get a busy signal, that happens to be my HOME NUMBER!”

“I’m sorry Mr Brian, I apologize for that, what I need from you is an alternate payment method to…”

“Can I speak to your supervisor?”

“No I am sorry they are all busy.”

I would love to say that the problems started and ended there but sadly they did not.  The problems actually started the night before when my wife noticed there was no ‘ship date’ but they had already taken all the money.  It ended months later with the help of one of the managers and a salesman from the local best buy store, the issues were mostly resolved and we ended up with two awesome computers at a fantastic price. 

Even with all the headaches and frustrations it would still not have been worth it to stand in line for two days to receive these computers.  Of course I will never again shop Best Buy online.  Just so you all know, Best Buy, and Best Buy online are two different companies and if I had not learned that little fact, I would probably never darken the doors of Best Buy either.