Small victories, or How I learned to shop at companies that hire people, not robots

A brief update to my last post: I went in to Best Buy again today (in person) to speak to the manager. Over the phone they'd offered me a floor model version of the television we had bought, for pretty much the same price as what we had paid for the new model—nice! So I headed in in person, and after talking with the manager for about a minute, realized that this was a futile exercise, and so I just returned the television that we'd never received in the first place. [1]

Contrast that with Costco, which is where we bought our original television more than a year ago. I've spared my tens of readers the drama that brought us to buying a new television in the first place—seriously, it would make an entertaining set of posts—but suffice to say that over the past three months, we've had our television for about two weeks. The rest of its time was spent at a completely ineffectual "authorized" repair shop & in discussions with Sharp (the maker of said television).

So finally, I happened to mention to Barak that we'd bought the television at Costco, and he said, just bring it back there and return it. I was quite skeptical, but here's the thing: I brought the television in to Costco today and spoke with two people (a rep handling returns and his manager), both extremely competent, and who gave me a full refund for the amount at which I'd originally bought the television (and this one year later!). All while juggling about five customers at once.

Which is really the point of it all: Costco—or at least, the warehouse I've been going to—has made a point of hiring people who can think, who are empowered to take action & make decisions, and who actually care (or, at least, do a great job at pretending) about customers. Best Buy, on the other hand, has hired—or perhaps trained—a set of mindless drones who could very well be robots for the amount of critical thinking that they possess and/or are allowed to perform.

So, with that, I refuse to shop at Best Buy ever again. And yes, I'm realistic enough to realize that they don't care—but then again, isn't that the problem in the first place?

[1] Of course, they couldn't resist fucking with me one last time: when I went over to get a refund for the television, the service representative handling returns told me that he couldn't refund me the money for the delivery, since that was a separate company. But I got my way, & my refund.

Comments

[wbwither]

For what it's worth, Sam's Club does the same thing. A friend of mine bought a home theater projector there and was assured by the manager at the time of purchase that he would be able to return it for any reason and get a full refund.

I think that these warehouse clubs are able to do it because you're a dues-paying member and not just some schmuck off the street. Of course, any schmuck off the street can walk up and become a dues-paying member for a small fee, but hey, whatever works for the warehouse clubs.

[karen c.]

Costco's return policy is pretty much 100% refund for anything at anytime (except for computers). This sucks for manufacturers because the policy is widely abused (think TV sales & the Superbowl). But it's great for the consumer.

Best Buy bought a company called Magnolia Home Theater and has been integrating it into BB as a mini-store. My experience with the Magnolia guys has been much better than with the regular BB staff. If anything they know too much and tend to drone on about the history of plasma TV... it might be worth it to give them a try.

[Andrew Bunner]

Gosh, that's a great story, Ben!