The end of a beautiful relationship (long)

Question

I purchased a Sony 4K 49 “TV on Tuesday (11/4/2014) in the Palmdale, CA Best Buy. I was told it would be delivered on Thursday with a confirmation call on Wednesday giving me my delivery time. The call did come Wednesday stating a delivery time between 9-11 am.
I called at 11:10 asking where was my TV?  The CSR in Kentucky stated my TV was on back order. I eventually asked to speak with the Supervisor who also said the TV was on backorder. I stated how is that possible when the TV was in stock when I purchased it and someone called on Wednesday to state they were delivering it to my house.
The Supervisor transferred me to the warehouse in Chino, CA where my TV was stored for delivery. The person there also said my TV was backordered. I stated how is that possible? Not only did you guys call me the day before, the Best Buy Website is showing the television available in just about all Southern California Best Buy stores except the Palmdale location. This person did offer me a $50 gift card for the inconvenience but could not commit to a delivery date. I stated I did not want a 50$ gift certificate I wanted my TV, Today.
The warehouse person eventually transferred me to the Palmdale store. I initially spoke with who I was told was the TV dept. supervisor who again stated that the TV was on backorder and it will be a few more days before I can get my TV. I stated to her that she should be trying to get me my TV that was promised to me, from one of the other Best Buy store locations.  She transferred me to the store manager, Lawrence {Edited per forum guidelines}.
The store manager repeated what was told to me by other employees. I stated he should be trying to work with me and get me my TV. The best thing he said he could do was make some kind of arrangement with one of the other stores and have it to me in a few days. (No date specified) I said why don’t you get one of your Geek squad trucks and get the TV. He said he could not. I said why you don’t get one of your employees (or him) to drive to one of the stores and get me my TV. He said he could not. (Admittedly this is a problematic solution but one I used when I was a theater manager and one Sports Chalet did for me on their own recommendation).
I told him he was performing no customer service with me and one of his responses went along the lines of he did not like how I was talking to him. I will grant that my tone was “irate” but it was not belittling. I told him I was the one that discovered this problem, no one from Best Buy called to say my TV was on Back order. No one called from Best Buy to say my TV was not going to be delivered. No one called from Best Buy to say when my TV was going to be delivered.
Finally I stated that I could just cancel the order and drive to another Best Buy location myself and get the TV there, TODAY. Your manager said I could do that but then I would have two TVs. I said I’ll just cancel the store order from Tuesday. He stated that if I cancel the order I have to come into the store for a receipt. I stated why couldn’t he fax or email the receipt. He said he could not. But he said he would look into it and call me back. I told him that it was ridiculous that I had to come to the store to get my receipt and yet he was doing nothing to get me my TV today.
After an hour of waiting for a call back, I decided to drive to the store and cancel the order and get my receipt.
After 15 minutes of waiting in the customer service line with only one person in front of me and four people working the counter I finally got assistance. I told the clerk I need to cancel my order and I need the original documentation back. She was unable to assist me and requested help. She went to the back room and was gone for about 10 minutes. When I asked her what was the problem she stated they had to verify that the TV was not delivered to me . . .
The very same TV that was on back order. The very same TV that people throughout the Best Buy country stated they could not deliver to me today. The very same TV her store manager said I would have to come in to get a receipt in order to cancel the TV. (Who by the way had still not called me).
So I waited at the counter. At one point the manager came out of his office and did some paper work at an open desk, close to the customer service counter, but he did not acknowledge me. (Admittedly, he did not introduce himself to me, but I could tell by his demeanor he was the boss). The manager went back to his office and I continued to wait. About 45 minutes later I get a call on my cell. The manager is telling me my receipt is ready. I tell him I am in the store at his customer service desk. He comes out of his office, greets me and then shows me the cancellation receipt. We shake hands and I leave the store. I exited the store at 4:30pm.
I basically spent my whole day dealing with this issue (9-11, and 11:10 to 4:30)
Here is a little something about me. I am a recently retired civil service worker. I have been a huge Best Buy advocate over the years. Whenever any family members or friends need tech I always steer them towards Best Buy.  When I go in a store and see merchandise on the floor I will pick it up. When I see a bad customer messing with the merchandise I report it. When people talk about using Best Buy as a display case and getting the merchandise from somewhere online, I always mention how the local Best Buy employs their neighbors who need jobs. Most black Fridays you will either see me in line in the early AM or in the store right when it opens. I would guess that I have spent close to 100K over the years at Best Buy.
Yes, I was irate. Yes, I was demanding. Yes, I wanted my way.  Yes I was obstinate. However, it was I who discovered this back order problem. I never got a call from you people about a TV re-delivery. Except for the Warehouse person in Chino, I never received any type of empathy for my situation. None of your people looked at me as a human being but some mean guy that wasn’t being reasonable.
Your customer service model is utterly broken and probably beyond repair.
Today, I have no compunction about going to one of your stores, looking at the merchandise and going on my cell phone and ordering from Amazon. I think I gave you guys a ton of goodwill over the years and overlooked so many of your slipups. (Selling me a Mac for my mother-in-law with no CD slot, fixing my daughter’s hard drive in Aug only to have it crash in September, telling me my motherboard crashed only to have a tech expert tell me it was the power supply).
But in this most recent incident, not one person in your chain sympathized with my plight even to the extent that when I came in to cancel the order, they wanted to verify I did not get the TV. And get this when I went on the Best Buy site at around 10:00pm, it said I could do a store pick up in the Pasadena store at 10:30 am.
So what am I going to do now? I will probably never shop at Best Buy again.
It’s unreasonable and perhaps even delusional to think I was entitled to some kind of special treatment due to my years of loyalty and support. But if someone from the warehouse would have called me and stated there was a problem with my order, and the TV delivery was going to be delayed, I would be upset but I realize stuff happens. And if someone would have said to me, “Wow, that sucks, let me look into what we can do to make things right.” But alas, that is not even in the mindset of your vast work force.
Here is something else to consider. The reason I wanted the Sony 49” 4K was because it was a test TV so that my wife could see how great the new TVs are. We are in the market for getting a 70+ incher for the family room. She wants just a big screen, I want to make sure 4K features are part of the discussion.
As of now, Best Buy will not be in the discussion.

Answer 1

Good afternoon Dajjer,
Welcome to the forum, and thank you for being a loyal Best Buy customer as is evident by your Elite Plus status. Buying a new TV is an exciting event, and when my husband and I have decided to purchase one we make sure it's a model we will both enjoy for several years to come. I am very disappointed to read about your recent experience purchasing a new TV. It is certainly understandable that you would be upset after not being notified that it would not be delivered as previously scheduled. It also sounds like no one was very helpful when you called or visited the store, and I sincerely apologize for such a poor customer service experience. 
I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to post your feedback here on the forum. I assure you I will be forwarding your comments to the leadership team for review and further employee training. It is our expectation that each and every one of our customers receive no less than stellar customer service. It is truly disheartening that this experience has caused us to lose you as a valuable Best Buy customer. 
Once again, I am very sorry for any disappointment this has caused. I hope you will reconsider, and give us another opportunity to offer you a much better experience in the near future. 
Respectfully,
Maria|Social Media Specialist | Best Buy® Corporate
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