Your Best Buy May Be Broken, So Take A Look First
Posted by admin in Buying Stuff
Kimberly Palmer had an interesting post last week about a Best Buy customer whose TV came out of the box broken:
So, as irritating as that would be, you would think that at least the store would exchange it for an undamaged one, right?
Wrong. When Jennifer took the television back to the store, customer service representatives told her the store could not replace it, because the company can't be responsible for what happens after products leave the store. Eventually, the store offered to pay for half of the repairs on the damaged television-which still leaves her out $500 and without the brand-new set she paid for.
Palmer went on to report that Best Buy will replace items that it delivers that are broken, but not items that the customer decides to transport.
Here was my comment to the post:
I think if it costs extra to deliver, then this is a horrible policy. If Best Buy was smart, they would simply take the hit when this happens, even if they believe the customer did the damage. The animosity they create by this policy probably costs them more in future sales than it would cost to simply replace the item – it's short-term thinking. Bad for the customer, bad for Best Buy.
A Best Buy employee defended the company with this reply:
I have worked for Best Buy for 8 years 6 of them in home delivery. I could count on two hands how many TV's came damaged out of the box. Its rare not impossible but rare. On the other hand I can't count how many times customers have brought there own products home and brought them back damaged saying it was like that in the box. Not one customer has ever confessed to damaging there product. Thats why Best Buy has this policy. If Best Buy would have returned the TV they would be in the same situation as Jennifer with the vendors. How do you prove who is responsible for the damage? Best Buy would have had to eat the loss. Its $1100 a tough loss for anyone. At leaast best Buy offered to meet them half way thats allot more than allot of other people or companys would do.
This person makes a couple of decent points, BUT I think what's most important here is that the customer has no incentive to purposely break an item, so there's no chance of someone "abusing" the refund policy. This can not be a massive problem for Best Buy. I have to believe it is a very small percentage of overall sales that come back looking for a refund due to damaged goods. Why risk the good will that a refund provides in order to save a little money in the short term? It's just not a smart policy for Best Buy.
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actually, i think a better response would be for the company to open and check the package before it leaves the store. this sets a point where both the consumer and the company are satisfied with the product’s quality. i don’t understand people who spend large quantities of money on items, sight unseen like this.
it’s not that people have an incentive to break stuff, it’s that overly generous return policies do not create an incentive for being careful. in general, people are dumb and not professional installers / movers. they are much more likely to do something by accident and try to pass it off as the company’s problem. why would they ever admit fault to breaking something?
i’d suggest that it would be a far better thing to prevent the question than try changing the answer.
my 2 bits,
randy
Of course there’s not an incentive to damage the stuff you buy… but that’s not the point, is it?
What it’s really about is whose fault the damage is.
In all likelihood this is done to prevent people from making Best Buy foot the bill for their own accidents… and is that really so bad?
Open the box at the store if you’re paranoid, like Randy suggests, or pay for the delivery and consider it a little “installation insurance”.
Pete is correct, it’s not the issue with someone deliberately breaking an item just to return it, it for people who have accidents like drop their air conditioner they are trying to install out the window and claim it was like that or someone self mounting a TV and did it wrong.
Best Buy will check items for you after you buy them to make sure they are not broke, take them to their Geek Squad and ask them to peek in the box for you.
I have worked for Best Buy for 14 years, and I have seen it happen all too many times. Instant gratification outweighs common sense, everytime.
In difference to what you might think is right, people don’t intentionally break their purchases; nobody is saying that. And when they purchase something and don’t use common sense in transporting or handling it, you can be certain that something bad is going to happen.
The unnamed Best Buy employee in your article is correct. When it comes to delivery and set-up of a customer’s purchase, we find there are very few times where we take an item out of the box and it fails, or is dammaged or broken. Yet, more times than I care to think about, a customer will decline a delivery merely because of the additional cost, and suddenly decide they know more than we do when it comes to getting their purchase home. And I have seen everything from scratches on the sides of ranges to totally fractured TV screens, yet the cry is always the same; “It must’ve been that way when I bought it”.
Companies like Best Buy do not get to be as big as they are, or as profitable, by misleading or misrepresenting products or services to their customers. It’s just that some of these customers feel we won’t be satisfied until we have pulled every nickel from their pocket, and that everything we say is designed to seperate them from their money and nothing else.
While you may THINK “the customer has no incentive to purposely break an item, so there’s no chance of someone “abusing” the refund policy”, those policies didn’t just invent themselves. If everyone was as honest as they could be in their dealings, then there would be no need for return policies, exchange policies and restocking fees.
NO CHANCE? You’ve never heard of a group of guys pooling their money to purchase a big screen for the SuperBowl, and then returning it to get their money back after the game? How about people buying cameras for graduation or birthday photos, and returning them…camcorders for vacations? As someone who has worked in all these departments and more, I can tell you it’s happened to me on more than one occasion.
And while you state this “can not be a massive problem for Best Buy. I have to believe it is a very small percentage of overall sales that come back looking for a refund due to damaged goods”, what experience leads you to believe this? Margins of profitability on electronic items are not infinite, and when loss eats into profits for a company, then this is where these policies come from. Yes, it has been a massive problem in the past, but putting these policies in place has helped retailers – not just Best Buy – control loss and keep prices in check.
“Why risk the good will that a refund provides in order to save a little money in the short term? It’s just not a smart policy for Best Buy”, you ask. Yes, it IS a smart policy that not only helps protect the company and keeps them in business, but insures fiscal profitability for their shareholders. These policies are not in place to alienate good customers. There are customers who DO have legitimate claim to damaged product, just as the majority of customers never return anything.
Last night I conferred with my manager on such a situation where we exchanged a unrepairable 52″ LCD for a customer who did as the customer in the article, and transported it home himself. There is a chance that our store will get stuck with this TV, but we felt that because of they way the damage occured, that it was in no way due to the method of transportation or because of some mishandling by the customer. If you see this stuff happen enough, you begin to understand how these things can and cannot happen.
In short; accidents happen. If you choose to take it yourself, then be grown up and assume that responsibility. If you want to have it done right, then let us handle it for you. Yes, it may cost you just a little bit more, but isn’t your peace of mind worth it?