I have been a pretty avid Best Buy supporter for about 4-5 Years now.. Mainly because I was introduced to their Reward Zone program, and how I can make cash back on purchases that I make with them. Four years ago, I reached the almighty Premier Silver status, and Really enjoyed the Special treatment, and extra benefits of being in such class. I’m a real sucker for extra benefits no matter where they come from.
Since that day I reached Premier Silver Status Four years ago, I have maintained the status by spending more than $2,500 Per year at Best Buy. I have had Premier Silver status for 4 Years and still do today.
A Few months ago, Best Buy decided to change how Premier Silver was handled, Because I guess it was just too easy to get. They Changed the name to Elite Plus, and added an extra $1,000.00 /year Requirement. Meaning Now, you have to spend $3,500/year to qualify for Elite Plus. I was pretty upset over this Pay more to get nothing new that I was already getting deal, Until I reviewed my past 4 Years transactions, and discovered that I was already meeting that requirement anyway. So I sent in my Complaint letter, and pretty much let it go.
Today, I was introduced to yet another stupid policy change..
One month ago today, I purchased a All in one Laser Printer, And today I found out that Same printer is now $20 cheaper on their website. Previously, Within 60 days you could call in and Price Match anything you wanted, considering you were Premier Silver. So today I called in to attempt to get a refund for the difference. They informed me that the New policy says any time within 15 days, And if I wanted to get the difference, Then I would need to return the Printer, and rebuy it.
How does that make any sense at all? Let me return this printer That I have already used more than half the toner of, and buy a whole brand new one to save myself $20, Meanwhile BestBuy takes a loss of about $40 on the already used toner, not to mention having to try and resell a now USED product, or return it to their manufacturer. Any smart businessman knows this is NOT how to run a business. When you take more in losses due to stupid actions and policies, than you would have lost just making it right for the customer, You are doing it wrong.
After about an hour on the phone arguing with the incompetent Employee, I finally got his Supervisor, Who agreed to give me the refund, No questions asked.
After hanging up with that employee, I decided to continue my search through recent purchases, and sure enough I found another. A 64GB Memory card I had purchased 16 Days ago.. I figured I would get some resistance on this one as well, but Considering its only 1 day past their policy, They may just allow it, After all the printer was 15 days over the policy.
This however was not the case, Without even bothering to look at the order number, They refused to help me at all, refused to even look at the order, or see if there was anything they could do. They would rather me return the item to them, and risk loosing a sale to an unhappy customer, Who would gladly go over to their competitor and buy it PRICE MATCHED to their exact sale price. Which is exactly what I did.
Just because Best Buy has decided to turn in to the greedy Money hungry hope they fail company that they are today, I have decided to seize spending my average $3,500.00/year with them. They would rather inconvenience a loyal, and high paying customer in order to hold on to $9. That is the difference on the Memory Card that I ended up saving, By returning it to Best Buy, and buying the EXACT SAME CARD from WalMart.
Now, I cant say I solved much on Corporate greed by going to WalMart, Who arguably is worse than BestBuy at times, But just for simple fact of Spite is why I chose to do it.
Best Buy better realize who keeps them in business, Its not the little CEO’s in the office that take home way more than their entitled to, Its the customers, Especially those customers in the Elite Plus group like myself. If they start treating some of their top income sources like crap, then they will soon end up like Circuit City. Out of Business.
EDIT: After making this post, within an hour actually.. BestBuy reached out to me on Twitter, and apologized for the problem, and stated that they hope to be able to serve me as a Elite Plus member in the future. Glad someone cared.
One response
Wow