Very competitive price from Buy.com on the Western Digital 500GB My Book Essential II USB 2.0 External Hard Drive. Normally $169.00 on sale for 112.99.

First off, I’ve never had a problem with Best Buy before. Every product I’ve bought from them has worked fine, their staff has been reasonably friendly towards me and I’ve never brought an item back to the store. I’ve been a regular shopper there for about 20 years, so that’s a long time not to have any problems. Man, that was all changed in a span of two hours.

I bought an open box computer from a Best Buy near St. Louis, MO last weekend while visiting family in the area. It had a quad core processor, 256mb video card, 500gb hard drive, basically a gaming computer that was priced from $749 down to $499. I bought it, and like a moron didn’t have them take it out of the box and test if for me. Huge mistake on my part, however I was told that I could bring it back to my local Best Buy in Springfield, IL, 100 miles north if there were any problems, for a full refund. Cool I said, and left the store.

From here I’m going to make a long story short. The computer didn’t power on and I did bring it back to the local Best Buy, where instead of giving me my money back they gave it to the Geek Squad team who discovered that the original parts had been swapped out for non-compatible ones. Ok, not my problem I said, you guys screwed up. However the acting store manager said no, it’s your problem. It’s not our fault you bought this computer from us, you have to take it back to the store you bought it from, even though Best Buy is one big company, and all of the stores are owned by the corporate office. Also, he said, it’s funny that I didn’t use the Geek Squad to hook it up(I’ve been hooking up computers for over 20 years), and why would I buy an open box at one store and bring it back to another. Well, I saw what he was getting at: FRAUD. I explained the circumstances of me buying the computer, basically spur of the moment. When I told him how serious this charge he was making was, he told me I could swap out the computer. Still not happy I did so, spending an extra $50 for a core duo Gateway. It was the closest in price to the quad core, and all I could afford at the time. Mr. Manager also let me know I couldn’t bring it back for money a total of three times and also announced this to the cashier in front of other customers. Thanks, embarrassment complete for trusting that Best Buy was honest in what they sell.

I called the St. Louis area store from home later and was told by their manager I should have been refunded the money. He was also accused of selling bad computers by my area Best Buy manager, again the stick of accusation with no proof. And to top it off, the parts were probably put in there at the service center where the computer had gone after the first customer brought it back. Yeah, and the computer wasn’t tested by Best Buy after it had come back, so, so much for fraud.

I have got to say that their customer service was very good and that they apologized over the incident. So that makes me a little happy.

Now here are my suggestions when Best Buy screws you around:

• Don’t get into heated arguments with egotistical store managers. They have a God complex. Let them insult you, falsely accuse you of things and even throw things at you(Just kidding).
• Immediately go home and write down your entire experience. You can do this by using Best Buy’s customer service contact form on their website as well.
• Don’t wait for a response, call their customer service line at 1-888-BestBuy. Explain your experience to them and tell them you want to file a formal complaint against the person. Often times, depending on the situation, they will try to keep you as a customer by offering gift cards, refunds but at least an apology.
• And don’t demand the employee be fired. He/she may have been having a bad night or whatever. Your ego will survive.

I’m also against people complaining about something that really isn’t a problem. If a sales associate or manager didn’t kiss your butt enough, or didn’t smile at you don’t file a complaint. Wait for a real reason to call and you’ll be taken more seriously.

Anyway, Happy Superbowl Sunday!