Seven weeks ago, I decided to buy a microwave from Best Buy. A fairly simple pursuit, or so I thought at the time. In fact, I ordered several kitchen appliances from Best Buy’s Web site, and they were sporadically delivered to my house without much notice. All except for the damn microwave.
Last Friday, it was finally delivered. But not by Best Buy! It was sent by an eBay seller, who I bought the microwave from (again) after Best Buy failed to deliver the appliance. This was after 12 phone calls from my husband and me, a written letter of complaint, a flurry of negatively aimed Twitter posts, and false promises from Best Buy's delivery company, resulting in raised and dashed hopes over the period of a month.
Our conversations went like this:
Monday: “Your microwave is here! It will be delivered on Wednesday.”
Wednesday: “Oh, your microwave isn’t actually here. We don’t know when it will be.”
Thursday: “You ordered a microwave?”
Friday: “Your microwave will definitely be here on Monday. You’ll have it next week!”
Monday: “It could be weeks before your microwave is delivered. We just don’t know.”
I find it amusing that a company that devotes so much energy, focus, manpower and money to advertising offers very little in the areas of customer service, item tracking, and delivery services. You know – things that actually matter to the customer!
My entire kitchen remodel has been held up by this nonsense because the microwave has to be built-in above the oven. So I have been eating hot dogs, burgers, and things that can be grilled or cooked in a frying pan since August. Thanks, Best Buy, or as my friend Pamela so cleverly called it, WORST BUY. Never again.
I've decided to completely avoid big box stores whenever possible, especially when it comes to big expensive things like appliances, or, say, garage doors. Case in point, we ordered one from Home Despot, as I've always liked to call it. Some dudes came out to measure a few days later, and then I received an email claiming that the door had been installed. NOT ACTUALLY THE CASE! In many instances they are contracting with some outside company and claim zero responsibility for anything that goes wrong. F that.
ReplyDelete