How Can Customer Service Go From Great to Poor Like This?

Question

Not sure of the correct sub-forum to post this in so I decided to post my experience here.
I purchased a 55 inch Vizio TV off of BestBuy.com after my old TV blew a fuse and died back on January 11th and it scheduled for delivery on the 17th. Mainly because my work schedule conflicts with the 7am-7pm delivery times that Best Buy offers and they could guarnantee that it would be delivered by 8am on a weekday.
I received an automated call around 8pm on ther 16th letting me know that my delivery was scheduled for the 17th sometime between 4pm and 7pm. The delivery drivers called me twice on the 17th, the first time was around noon, informing me that they would be at my apartment sometime between 6pm and 7pm. And again at 6:30pm letting me know they were 5 minutes away and would be there shortly. The delivery drivers showed, dropped off my new TV, took away my old one, and since it was extremely cold outside, I let the TV sit before hooking it up so that it could get to room temperature.
All in all, I was satisfied with the experience. No issues whatsever, the delivery drivers were nice and once I had hooked the TV up it was great. I loved the new TV.
Then a little over a month later on February 24th, a very large section of the TV (about 1/6th) of the screen, was all of the sudden darker then the rest of the TV. It wasn't completely blacked out, but the entire top left hand side of the screen was darker, in an almost perfect rectangluar shape, going from the left hand side to the middle of the screen and about 1/3rd of the way down. Almost like for that section the brightness level was set a lot lower then the rest of the TV.
So I went into my local Best Buy, Store #295 on Morse Rd in Ohio, to ask them what the proper procedure was to get it fixed/replaced since I only had it for a little over a month and had purchased a 2 year protection plan on it. Since it was a 55 inch TV, I was given a number to call and told to talk with a Geek Squad Agent to schedule an appointment for someone to come out and look at it. I called the number and scheduled an appointment for that Saturday (do to work my schedule) for someone to take a look at it.
Again, the people I talked to in Customer Service were nice and helpful in this situation. And the Geek Squad Agent himself, Alex that came out to my apartment on February 28th was excellent and helpful. Said it was a defective panel and since Vizio doesn't make replacement panels, it would have to be exchanged. Though apparently that day, the number he was trying to call in to get an exchange confirmation for was screwed up and apparently all calls being made into Best Buy (i'm not sure if he was calling the main headquarters or not) were all being re-routed to Consumer Relations regardless of what phone option he chose, and if he tried to get transferred it would get transferred back to Consumer Relations. So he had to wait till later hoping the phone system got fixed to get me a confirmation. It was around noon that he was at my apartment it wasn't until about 6pm that I call back and an e-mail from Alex giving me my exchange confirmation number. I know that the phone issue wasn't his fault, but he was very apologetic about the situation.
He told me take the confirmation into any Best Buy and they would get me squared away with a new TV and schedule its delivery and pick-up the defective TV. Unfortunately, I was no longer at home and was about 2 hours away with family for the rest of the weekend. So on March 2nd, I went into my local Best Buy again, talked with Ebony and the Customer Service desk, who was helpful and polite. I gave her the exchange number, she got me all set up with a delivery date for March 7th (cause I couldn't be there at any point during the week) and I was on my way.
Up to this point, even though I've had issues with the product I've purchased, everyone I've spoken with in regards to getting it fixed/replaced has been extremely polite and helpful. And then it all goes wrong apparently.
Now, unlike when I first purchased the TV, I received no confirmations for my delivery. I didn't get any e-mail confirmations, no automated call the night before, and no calls from any delivery drivers the day of the delivery. So since I had heard nothing, I called my local Best Buy to see why I hadn't heard anything yet. It was around 3pm when I first called, it took 10 minutes for someone to answer the phone after going through the automated prompts, the person I talked to, whose name I can't remember took my info from my receipt and told me that he is showing me in the system as having being scheduled a delivery for the 7th and that my TV should be on the delivery truck. I asked him why I hadn't heard anything, he said he didn't know, that's all the information his system was showing him and to get more detailed info he would have to call the delivery company. Which to me means that its not Best Buy who is delivering the TV but a 3rd party company. He asked me if he should call them, but he didn't know how long it would take to get a hold of someone, but assured me that the delivery was on the truck and would be coming today.
Thinking back I should have asked him to call, but I told him as long as you're telling me that you are verifying that its coming today thats fine, I was just concernced since I hadn't heard anything or gotten any confirmations except what was on my receipt. He said according to his system my delivery would be there today.
Well, 8pm came around and I still hadn't had anyone show up, nor I had I received any calls. So I called back, talked to someone else, who then told me had to research it and call me back. 8:40pm I get a call back and am told that they have no idea what happened or why I didn't get my delivery today, but because its so late now they can't get a hold of anyone and would have to wait until tomorrow. And that if I didn't hear from them by noon to give them a call. So no one knows whats going on, their system gives them limited info, and no can answer my questions as to what happened.
So today at 11:30am I get a call from Best Buy to tell me that the situation has been fixed and they've scheduled a new delivery date for the 14th. And that they still have no idea what happened in regards to the delivery not showing up yesterday. To me this in unacceptable, I still have no info as to what happened and no one can tell me what happened, a new delivery date was made without asking me first and it was made for another week from now. Why couldn't if be delivered today? And all this person could tell me, was that the Back Office Manager fixed the problem and I have new delivery date according to the note he had.
Taking out my anger on an employee is pointless so I don't do it. I'm angry, but I also know that the people i'm talking to an on the phone aren't directly responsible. They were just handed the call or told to make a call. But something, somewhere got screwed up and the only response I get is the delivery has been rescheduled. If I had known that this would have have happened, I would have rented a U-Haul truck and brought the defective TV back and picked the new TV up myself. The whole reason I had it delivered was because I can't fit a TV this size in my car without causing damage to it or my car.
Just how did I go from getting helpful employees with answers, to a bunch of people who don't know what's going on and can only say i'm sorry?

Answer 1

Hello kschleper,
Discovering that your brand new TV is quite working as it should would be incredibly disappointing, so I’m glad to hear we were able to offer you an exchange when repairing it wasn’t a viable option underneath your Geek Squad Protection plan.  It’s regrettable that the exchange delivery appointment didn’t go as smoothly as your first though, and I’m sorry for any frustration this may have caused.
As you may be aware, you should have received a call from us either the night before or early morning of your appointment date. Upon review of your account information using the information you provided when registering for the forum, I noticed that we never had you scheduled for March 7th despite your receipt indicating otherwise. This could explain why our agents were unsure as to why your delivery appointment wasn’t on our schedule. I truly apologize for the oversight.
Please know though I see that your new appointment is scheduled for March 14th, and I’ll be keeping an eye on it to ensure everything progresses as it should from here. If you have any further questions or concerns in the meantime, please feel free to let me know. I’ll be glad to help.
Best wishes,
Alex|Social Media Specialist | Best Buy® Corporate
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