![](\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Best-Buy-check-box.png\" "\\"BEST")
<\/div>\nThe unit had not been terribly well packed back in its box, but well enough. I paid my money and left. Mistake #2: I should have opened it up right there and examined it.<\/p>\n
We did some shopping, and then returned home. Margie and Katherine went off for haircuts. I opened the box.<\/p>\n
The unit appeared intact and beautiful and all. I plugged it in, fired it up, and started looking around.<\/p>\n
I noted a few things:<\/p>\n
- \n
- There were no manuals or CDs in the box. There was an ASUS flier about a Recovery CD. There was a flier for ASUS tech support. There was a flier about upgrading to Win7 for free. But that was it, and those were all kind of munched down at the bottom of the box.<\/li>\n
- There was an odd icon on the status tray. Ah — no battery. I felt around underneath. Yup, no battery.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
*sigh*<\/p>\n
I called Best Buy. After talking to an associate, I was forwarded over to computer, thence to “Jarrod” in the Geek Squad. I explained about the battery — he asked me to stand by while he looked for one. He came back in a few minutes, unsuccessful in finding one lying about, but asking for my number so he could call me back. <\/p>\n
I told him as well that I wasn’t sure if anything else was missing, since there was nothing in the box in the way of setup info or anything else, so no list of contents. E.g., the whole Recovery CD thing. I told him I wanted a list of what should be in the box. He said he’d get it.<\/p>\n
I’m going to let him deal with the “we don’t have any others in stock” issue.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/pretty-incompetent.jpg\" "\\"Pretty")
<\/div>\nI also plan, when he calls back, to tell him I want my $39 refunded, since clearly the “optimization” effort by the Geek Squad (“Pretty” appears to be the name on the label) didn’t end up saving me any time.<\/p>\n
\nI just got a call back from Jarrod. They have discs for me, and a battery, from the floor model (the floor model didn’t have its battery in it, I noted while there). I’ll be asking for my refund and\/or a manager when I get there.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nDrove down to the Best Buy, rehearsing my lines. Walked in, and made a bee line for the Geek Squad desk. Imust have been expected, because someone — “Joe” — walked out from behind the counter with a couple of things and said, “Here you go — a battery and three disks.” And turned to leave.<\/p>\n
I’ll confess I was a bit flummoxed. I mean, I was expecting — well, I don’t know. “Sorry.” “Our apologies for making you drive all the way down here again for our own goofy error.” “How can we make this right?” “Is there anything we can do for you?”<\/p>\n
Instead, it was hand off the parts and get out of Dodge. So I said, “And now I’d like to talk about refunding the ‘Optimization’ service that caused these parts to go missing in the first place.”<\/p>\n
Joe emotionally brushed this off, though obviously he was expecting it. Expecting it, not offering it, you’ll notice. “They don’t let us refund services already performed,” he said, “but we can take it off the price of the computer.” Then he turned me over to a cashier there and never … made eye contact … again.<\/p>\n
She politely rang up a discount on the computer, refunded me $40 (one whole penny over the $39.99 I’d paid) and gave me the receipt.<\/p>\n
I considered asking for a manager, but I think Joe was one. At least, his Geek Squad name tag read, “Director of Counter Intelligence,” which sounded like an assistant manager type of role. <\/p>\n
Though I am a bit confused, because if I were Joe (perish the thought), I’d want to know more about what had happened, or at least asked if I knew the name on the side of the box as to who’d done the “Optimization” (“Pretty,” it seems) so that it wouldn’t happen again. Nope, not good ol’ Joe. He couldn’t be bothered.<\/p>\n
So now I have my battery, and my three discs (a Recovery DVD, a drivers disc, and some disc-burning software). Yay. Still ticked off. My observations:<\/p>\n
- \n
- I was wrong here insofar as I didn’t act as suspiciously and as pushily as I could have. It’s a shame that being nice is the wrong tactic for that Best Buy.<\/li>\n
- Best Buy (as policy and through salesguy “Andrew”) ought not force someone to purchase the “Optimize” package (or anything else) if that’s the only unit they have in stock (and, in retrospect, why was it in stock that way? Did someone cancel the purchase?). “Force” here means play “take it or leave it.” (I ought to have left it, but see #1.) <\/li>\n
- Best Buy (and “Pretty”) goofed up. They simply didn’t get back into the box everything that should have been in it when it was “Optimized.” <\/li>\n
- Unless they had another way of tracking who did it (assuming they are interested), they missed an opportunity to get that info from me. They further missed an opportunity to make me feel like they gave a rat’s ass.<\/li>\n
- If you goof, fess up to it. Don’t treat it purely as a problem to be solved (we found stuff for you, come and get it), but recognize the human factor, the impact on the customer, and how the customer is going to see all of this. Best Buy didn’t, as witnessed by “Joe” and his willingness to do what was right (when it was asked of him), but his unwillingness to at all acknowledge any fault or inconvenience to me as a customer.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
As Margie noted, in this age of internet buying, all Best Buy has to offer is personalized service. If they can’t do that, there’s not much there there, is there? As it stands, I may go to that Best Buy again for something small, but not for another major purchase (as opposed to the Park Meadows BB, which has done a much better job of making feel as if they actually care about customers being satisfied.<\/p>\n
On the other hand I have:<\/p>\n