- Report: #531126
Complaint Review: BEST BUY - Florida City Florida
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BEST BUY
33590 S Dixie Hwy Florida City, 33034 Florida, United States of America
Phone:
7863496446
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BEST BUY Florida City Florida(Store 1178) They are selling opened boxed products claiming they optimize them and charge you 39.99 for it. Florida City, Florida
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First of all i went to a black Friday event and went to get a laptop. They were out and offered me an upgraded version for $249.00 they are compaqs. So I bought four, changed my mind and returned one to buy a Sony Vaio. Upon returning the item i was told that i would only get back $200 due to the fact that these laptops are optimized to make them run faster. I told them i had no idea there they were. They claim this is mentioned when i bought it. I advised i was not told anything about it except for when i came to return it. Called corporate and got my $40 dollars back.
There is no notice on any of my boxes that these computers were tampered with and every box was opened. They say that they reseal these boxes with a geeksquad sticker, there are none on my boxes yet i paid $39.99 for each laptop in opened boxes.
The corporate office was very hostile trying to say they gave me $20 back out of those $39.99 etc. etc. I told here there is no such credit on my receipt and I also saw i was charged twice for the same product of another item. Got that money back too.
After using the new Sony Vaio I go to return it as the battery life was terrible, two hours, when the specs say four. Also, while running on battery you could barely see the screen and i was online with it and internet explorer kept crashing. So i charged it again to work on a word doc, could barely see the screen on battery mode, and battery drained in less than two hours. I go to return it and they state that I opened my box so i have to pay a restocking fee as nothing is wrong with pc, unless i buy another product. I asked the two geeks from the geeksquad to open laptop and tell me if they could see the screen, they stayed silent for a moment as i asked for a full refund one guys states i could brighten the screen. I asked him why i would do that, if i did that the battery would drain in less than an hour, so that would mean the only way for my pc to work is on AC power and therefore, there would be no need for a battery.
Mike who was the guy i was dealing with states, i am being nice to you. Nice or not nice is irrelevant to what we were discussing, the issue is that i bought a laptop which is of no use as you couldn't see the screen on battery mode and what he was saying is that i could use it on AC mode and if i don't want to replace it i have to pay a restocking fee. I am demanding a full refund of my money and i would recommend you guys never shop at best buy, these people are ripping people off by tampering with your computers before you buy them and then charging you for it and will not return the full price when you return the item and claim they are optimizing your laptops they have no right to open your products unless you ask them to and secondly if the product doesn't meet specifications it should be deemed defective and a full refund should be honored. I don't recommend anyone buy products from these people as they are really defrauding their customers by opening their boxes and tampering with their products without the consumer's knowledge or consent and then they are charging you $39.99 extra for each computer product. I am a technician and it is wrong to open brand new merchandise and tamper with them and then charge you for it. For if you return it they will state that you cannot be reimbursed the labor they performed on that specific product.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
ruis1288
United States of Americaregarding optimization.
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, December 02, 2009
The geeksquad optimization is a program that is run on your computer that runs scripts and changes settings and uninstalls the bloat-ware that comes on factory installed machines. Generally consisting of upgrades to the Virtual Memory, and disabling of some of the more notable pre-installed headaches that most Microsoft platform computers come with these days. These services performed on your computer actually increase performance quite a bit, and are known as Agent Tweaks.
Regarding the increase to profit margin, yes and no. The increase to margin comes as a double edged sword generally in these circumstances.
Most of the time, what happens is there will be a big sale, or an over-abundant surplus of laptops that are due to switch to what is called End Of Life (ie. pretty much means if you dont buy it, they have to send it back to the manufacturer, and being that its outdated merchandise, they get pennies on the dollar they spent for it in return and cut a huge loss). In this situation the Services Manager will have an Agent from the GS counter take a fraction of the surplus or sale item laptops and open them to pre-optomize them. The trick and technically loophole here that many don't realize is that what Best Buy does is a "legal" way of inboarding.
When I was selling these computers, the pitch was to sell the computer and services without the prices being discussed until a later time. Upon being informed of the sale/surplus, any customer walking into my department would automatically be walked to that computer, and I would pitch the computer and service. If asked the price I would give a combined total of product and services, without itemizing, and ask for the sale. Generally the customer would ask for itemization, and I would give it to them, upon realising the price of the services the customer would generally walk, but my "saving throw" was to "toss the service in for free". Technically I'm selling the service and discounting the product, makes me look amazing for my service numbers, and we still took a margin boost for the laptop sale, even with the 39.99 discount.
The sticky situation that arises with this is when a customer tries to return the unit and can only receive the cost less 39.99 because that was sold through labor and its illegal to return labor that was performed (well in CA it is...). Most management of the stores that do this will credit a giftcard of something for the cost of the service, and accept the return.
I remember very well the times when I sold customers computers they didnt even know that they were paying for a service when they were purchasing the units. Because I was so good at repackaging the units without cutting the tape and knew how to use the Geeksquad services system, I would pre-optimize alot of computers, (mine would almost ALWAYS have the sticker though).
Restocking fee cannot be charged for laptops that were open box to begin with or opened by the employee to perform a service before the point of sale. That is BEST BUY policy, and was DRILLED into my head when I was an employee there. I have seen this time and time again where management will try to do this (which is a legitimate business practice in retail and more common that most think), and mess up because of the lack of a sticker being placed on the laptop, or the missing dotted "I" or the crossed "T". Grab the employee who sold you the laptop, (his user ID is a 6 digit number towards the top of the receipt, left hand side near the transaction number and stuff), and ask him in front of the manager if the unit was purchased pre-serviced. If he says yes, dont worry, manager has to pay up.
John
Memphis,Tennessee,
U.S.A.
What A Scam !!!
#3Consumer Suggestion
Tue, December 01, 2009
The only thing they optimized was their profit margin. These were obviously returned machines and they needed to move them without taking a loss. No one with a brain would buy a new laptop with a broken factory seal on the box. I'm curious as to what this 'optimization' was that they performed on the laptops. Most likely something very trivial that speeds up the systerm only marginally. A pure scam...........
