Long time buyer truly disappointed - My bad experience

Question

On 10/28/2014 I bought a Sound bar, 75” TV and a 2 year warranty for roughly $7,100 at the Best Buy location in Arden-Fair, Sacramento, CA 95819. The sales rep who sold me the TV was named Jesse and was very helpful and professional, he made my decision easy after doing a lot of research shopping around at Costco, Fry’s, Amazon. I also scoured through social media review sites like Yelp determining the best place to purchase.
Having shopped with Best Buy since I was a kid I was already a bit biased and leaning towards Best Buy, I’ve purchased many products without issue. I’ve bought numerous laptops, multiple game consoles, many many games, CD’s, DVD’s over the years and just recently opened up a Best Buy credit card.
The $7,100 purchase went smoothly at first, I could have got an early delivery date but because of me and my wife’s busy work schedules the early dates would not work. I decide to have the TV delivered on Nov. 5th, 2014, a week from when the purchase was made. The night before the delivery was supposed to take place I received a confirmation email and a phone call saying the delivery was on schedule and that it would be delivered on time between 8am and 10am on Nov. 5th. Two hours later while we were sleeping and not tell the next morning did I see that an email was sent at 10pm on the 4th stating the delivery had been pushed back 3 days to the weekend which wouldn’t work with our work schedules.
The frustration began to set in after having waited a week for the delivery and knowing realistically it would need to be another week before receiving the product we paid for due to our schedules. To be honest, we felt Best Buy was very inconsiderate after having a week to make sure this sale was completed. I did not expect this lack of courtesy from a big reputable chain. We began to assume they sold the TV set aside for us because they had already made the sale, who cares about us right?
That morning when I read the delivery date change in my email we decided to call Best Buy to figure out why the delivery had been pushed back, the Store wasn’t open so we called the generic number for the Call Center. The first lady we spoke to said the TV was not in stock and transferred our call to the store which we knew was closed and therefore dumped our call. The second lady we spoke to said that instead of the Saturday delivery date she could change it to Thursday but that she could not guarantee the delivery date would be met and could be subject to change, which we assumed would happen and this was her way of getting rid of our call for the time being. She also stated that she would contact us back if the delivery date changed which later that night it was changed again at 10pm by email without previous notice.
Luckily, we didn’t fall for the gimmick, my wife and I decided to wait until the Arden store opened up to call and speak to a manager, we were able to get through at around 10:30am on the 5th and spoke to one, He told us that the TV that was supposed to be delivered was damaged and that they did not want to deliver us a bad TV. We assumed this was just a bad excuse and cover up for bad service and error which our thoughts were reaffirmed later. We told the manager that we were debating whether to just cancel the order and buy our TV somewhere else. The manager wanted some time to call us back and did so with a few options, one of which was to pick up a TV from another store and have it delivered to our house the following day. After much consideration we said yes and decided if they could get us the TV the next day then everything was settled. Later that day he called and gave us a time window on the delivery and we felt better about the situation.
Thursday Nov. 6th rolled around and the TV is delivered, the box the TV came in looked like it had been tossed around like a football. The bottom of the box had the TV falling out, the corner of the box was ripped open and the Styrofoam inside was smashed and torn in multiple places. Best Buy may make a lot of sales but for a big purchase like this for me and my wife, we expected better from Best Buy and were so disappointed. If what was true about the previous undelivered TV being damaged, how and or why would they attempt to deliver this TV to us when the outside of the box looked horrible, granted the TV may have been just fine but how do we know if the TV was even brand new and not used or a display? To add insult to injury, even the delivery guys felt bad and were apologetic saying sorry and that they just deliver as if they knew it wasn't right.
I called and talk with the store manager, took photos of the box, and after a lengthy decision with the store manager decided to cancel my order and have them come back up the product which I hadn’t moved or touched. I was so dissatisfied by the service I don’t think I’ll ever see Best Buy the same. They made no effort to right the wrong, but instead used sending an employee to pick up another TV at another store as if they were doing us a favor, it is Best Buy who didn’t honor the delivery time and the sale of a product with horrible reasoning.
The worst part is, is that my wife and I are good people, we understand that mistakes can happen, why at the last minute did this occur? Why we were not informed earlier? We didn’t treat their managers or employees bad, we didn’t yell, we didn’t throw a fit, we simply wanted the product that we purchased to be delivered a week later on time, in good condition. Making a big purchase like this and seeing the condition the box was in, felt like we went to a car lot and bought a used car for the price of a brand new one.
The store manager could of done plenty more to keep our business, not that we expected to get anything at this point after being so disappointed. But from a business perspective to keep a big sale, the manager could of up'd our 2 year warranty to 5 year warranty on them to make me feel better about the box, I probably would of kept my purchase had she done that, or let me buy the TV as what it appeared, an open box item. A lot could of been done to keep the sale and at the end of the day no effort was made. Whatever happened to getting what you paid for? I paid for a brand new TV to be delivered a week later, then told after confirmation and at the last minute my TV wasn't in stock and/or it was damaged and they cared so much about me to deliver a TV the next day in an open box that looked like it had been ran over by a truck a few times. (I have photos to remind me, some day I might look back and laugh)
I know that we are but a dot on a map in terms of the customer database, however if our feedback helps someone avoid the situation we had, then we will have felt this long and probably boring post was worth submitting. Here’s hoping I have a better TV buying experience elsewhere, I think I’m done shopping at Best Buy, I have no reason or purpose to shop at a store where I could previously spend hours in shopping and looking at all the latest and greatest new electronics. As a long time buyer, Best Buy let me down.
Why should I ever do business there? I had dinner at a food court with friends just last night and they wanted to walk over to Best Buy and look around, long story short after telling them my story we walked through the mall instead. I'm slightly embarassed by how passionately I'm against Best Buy right now but feel it's very much justified. A huge store like this should care more about their customers, right the wrong.

Answer 1

Hello Stanfield,
As someone who watches more television than she probably should, having the best TV possible is crucial to any viewing experience. If you ask me, watching a show on a 75” 4K TV would be mind-blowing, so I’m glad our Arden-Fair associate, Jesse, found you one at an unbeatable price. That’s why it’s so disappointing to hear your experience quickly down spiraled into disaster when a missed appointment turned into receiving a damaged TV, which lead to a canceled order. I assure you this is not indicative of the experience we seek to provide our customers, and we certainly can’t afford for this to be repeated considering the many competitive choices customers have today.
While unforeseen complications can cause unexpected delays for delivery on our end, these are far and few between, and we should be making every attempt to contact you when rescheduling is necessary. Emailing you is one way we do this; however, it’s less than ideal to communicate this to you so late the night before your scheduled delivery date.  It’s clear to me that we may not have ironed out all of these kinks yet, and I’m very sorry it has been at your expense.
Despite not having your TV in stock at the time of your original delivery date, other options may be available to us to make sure you receive your purchase at a timely manner. This could mean exchanging the particular model for a comparable one in stock to locating the TV with another warehouse or store location. Finding your TV in another store should have been a happy occasion and a great solution to your predicament; I’m sure it was beyond frustrating to find the replacement in less than pristine condition. It’s rare to receive a damaged item during delivery, but should this happen, we should be making every attempt possible to assist you, even if this means returning the purchase upon request.
However, it’s clear to me that you took considerable time to let us know of your experience, and I appreciate you providing us this feedback. Please know that I’ve documented your concerns here at the corporate office so that we may review this with the appropriate teams for future coaching opportunities. Should you have any further questions or concerns, or wish to provide us a second chance to change your opinion of us, please feel free to let me know. I’ll be glad to see what options we may have available to you.
Best wishes,
Alex|Social Media Specialist | Best Buy® Corporate
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