Re: Acutal Release Date of Note 4?

Question

I am impressed that someone was able to get a confirmation email that a phone was coming into the store a few days in advance as I keep getting misinformation from my local store, customer service and corporate that they have no idea until the day a shipment arrives if they have phones or not.
I was first told by the store that it was Sprint's fault that I hadn't gotten a phone yet because they were holding all of the phones for their internal sales before forwarding any to Best Buy. That didn't make sense but I contacted Sprint Corporate and after many channels found out that they do not distribute the phones to Best Buy but that Samsung does directly. Verified with the manager of the store (finally) and Samsung and Samsung does indeed provide the phones directly to Best Buy. However, the store manager said that Samsung does not inform anyone at Best Buy when or how many phones they are shipping and they just drop phones into the mail randomly for them to arrive at a store. That also made no sense so I contacted Samsung (again) and they agreed that they do not inform the local stores but that they do inform a central area at Best Buy that is in charge of their logisitics systems in relation to the phones how many are going out and when and that they have the information as far out as two months worth of shipments though there may occassionally be issues in which case that same department would be informed of delays and such but that they would definately know when orders were scheduled to arrive for at least the next two weeks -- with UPS tracking numbers, no less -- but it is up to Best Buy to distribute that information. Basically Samsung says that someone at Best Buy knows something and they just choose not to inform the stores. So then I call customer service, Best Buy Corporate, the "Bridge" program (it is the customer service line for the store to call to get a "bridge" to corporate as they cannot apparently talk directly to their own corporate office), and finally track down a guy in the Minnesotta office (I was going to name him but I don't want him to get fired) that says that they do inded get the information and that only 1 division has that information and that many requests have gone out to distribute that information but that at this time Best Buy corporate policy is that it would be cost prohibitive or at a cost disincentive to provide that information to the stores but that he will once again submit a report that a customer has requested that information be made available. 
The thing is, I am an IT Director for a small government agency and Best Buy is the only place in town that I could purchase the MS Surface Pro 2 and have it set up locally so that my staff doesn't have to be bogged down during the inital phase. I will be ordering 15 of them in the next two months but now I will not be using them or their service because the store, customer service and even corporate were either not up front with me or are completely clueless and I would be afraid of their service level. How can I trust that they can do something like install virus protection properly if they can't even figure out how to find out the status of a pre-order and keep making obvious mistakes? It also makes me wonder if my credit card information is safe with them because the security required to keep their system from being compromised is a lot more difficult than having someone keep track of a UPS shipping number and they apparently can't do that. Their right hand has no idea what their left hand is doing.

Answer 1

Hello ladyjanel-
When a big release such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 comes out, it generates a lot of excitement and potentially some anger if pre-orders cannot be fulfilled right at launch.  Based on the number of threads and pages to those threads on our Cell Phones & iPhones board, our customers have been vocal with their dissatisfaction around the launch of this phone.
Pre-ordering a product with Best Buy does not guarantee a product will be available on release day.  Product shortages and shipping issues are just a couple of things that can affect that availability.  We are always working to fulfill those pre-orders as quickly as possible as we receive inventory from the manufacturer, however, having orders placed with a manufacturer and having those orders be filled are two different things entirely.  The long and short of it is that our distribution procedure is a confidential process and not something that we can share with our customers, which is why we say that you should receive an email when your pre-order arrives.
This does not mean that our stores associates or managers should be laying the blame on the manufacturer or another carrier.  We work in partnership with those companies and we wouldn’t want to jeopardize those relationships by disparaging any company whose products we sell.  I am truly sorry that this was the information given to you by a store manager.  Based on the number of posts we’ve fielded (through Allan-BBY), I can only guess at how many more the stores field on a daily basis and they are just as frustrated as you are with not having your phone.  We obviously want you to have the product you pre-ordered, you are the reason we are here and we appreciate that you chose us for your pre-order. 
It’s disappointing that this pre-order issue has you questioning your future business with us.  I can assure you that we should be perfectly capable of handling the purchase of the Surface Pro 2’s for you, though I would recommend for an order of that size that you work through our Best Buy for Business division.  They are set up specifically to handle business orders with these quantities.  We also take the safety of your customer information very seriously and you can find more information on our Privacy Policy here.
Thanks for connecting with us and I hope that we are able to get your phone to you soon!
Bill|Senior Social Media Specialist | Best Buy® Corporate
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