RE: Trade-In System repeatedly down for over a week, causing me to miss sale.

Question

To Whom It May Concern,
I wanted to express my frustration with the difficulties I’ve had with the Video Game Trade-In service at store locations #266 and #274. Last week, there was a sale where you could trade in used video games for an extra 50% store credit. I had several Playstation 4 games that I had wanted to exchange (Madden 15, Last of Us: Remastered, Knack, Infamous: Second Son, and Fifa 14) to take advantage of this opportunity.
The first time I tried to exchange these games at store #266 last week, I was informed that the trade in system was down and that I should try again tomorrow. The next day I tried again and I was informed that, yet again, the system was down. Two days later, I tried again at the same store and was told the system was STILL down. After this I immediately headed to store #274 to try to turn in my games and was informed that the system was down there as well.
Today (almost a week after my last attempt to exchange these games), I tried to turn in my games yet again to at least get some store credit but, after waiting in line for half an hour, I was informed that the trade-in system was down again.
Fed up, I went down the street and exchanged my games at the local Target and picked up a new game there. I didn’t get the best deal, but I was able to accomplish my transaction without a hitch.
I understand that technology can be unreliable and systems can crash, however, I feel that 5 separate attempts at 2 different stores over the course of more than a week (causing me to completely miss the promotion) begins to get a but ridiculous. The staff, while all very courteous, told me that there was no work-around or anything that they could do. I think it would be wise for there to be some sort of fail-safe system in place if such. I would have even loved a simple deduction of the trade-in value of my games off of my immediate new purchases, for instance. However each time they told me this couldn’t be done. As a result, I took my business elsewhere.
I just wanted to express my frustration and disappointment with Best Buy and their trade-in system, which unfortunately caused me to miss out on a very good promotion, and caused Best Buy to miss out on my business. I hope that the trade-in system is updated and it’s obviously problems are addressed so that other customers won’t have to go through the frustrations I have.
Thank you for your time.
-Kevin D.

Answer 1

Hello Kevin-
Having worked in the gaming industry for another company that does trade-in’s on games (but will remain nameless), I really love that Best Buy is able to offer some great amounts and promotions for trading in games.  Obviously, that doesn’t mean much to you if you are not able to participate because of system issues.
I apologize that these system issue meant that you ended up missing out on the 50% trade-in bonus.  In some situations, stores were able to utilize a different register to process this, but for some, they simply had to wait until it was fixed.  Because we have to follow many state, county and city ordinances to provide this service, we generally cannot provide a work around when systems fail.
I am able to report that we believe we have corrected the issue and that our stores should be able to trade-in again.  However, I would recommend calling the store first to make sure that they are up and running if you have a distance to travel to the store.
Thanks for letting us know your situation.
Bill|Senior Social Media Specialist | Best Buy® Corporate
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