Same here...shopped there for 20 years too. I read a lot of problems and it seems like most are caused by someone doing something out of the ordinary.
They refused to price match Frys on a Samsung tv because "they must be trying to get rid of them or get a bulk discount". What's the point of advertising price matching if you refuse if the deal is too good?
Sucks to be you, my local BB will price match Amazon.com. Yes, I've done it multiple times and never had a problem.
And your BB is still in business? Where is your local BB? I'm surprised it hasn't been shut down. All the ones in Socal I went to don't PM, either lie about stock, pretend to call the other stores but then lie to you that the other store has a different model, etc.
Case in point: Sears had a tv at a great price, I wanted to buy it at BB since they had the great financing deals for no interest for 24 months. I went to the TV department to get a price match. I gave them the Sear's store number and model and told them it was selling at the the sale price. The CSR goes to speak with his manager and takes 30 minutes to get back to me. He tells me that it's a different model so they can't pricematch. So I went to the Sear's store and got it that same day.
I am more shocked that this happened simply because I used to work in their tech dept. Too many times I had to console angry customers because BB management wouldn't treat them right. I really felt bad for them...I had to censor that post to soften the shock to be experienced by anyone reading the thread
Since Best Buy has eased up on the extended warranty pressure I hate them less. They're staffed by people who typically are far from experts, but I generally know what I want and do my own research before I buy a bigger ticket item, so that's no big deal. I used to hate buying anything, at any price it seemed, and they would push that extended warranty on me. No, I don't want your 4 year service plan for $19.99 on a pair of crap speakers I bought that cost me $29.99, and I don't want to have to explain this to 5 different people as I try and make the purchase.
Sucks to be you, my local BB will price match Amazon.com. I've done it multiple times and never had a problem.
I have had 0 problems with Best Buy. Absolutely 0. Any issue that arose was easily taken care of by a CSR, and I went about my business.
my one issue was back when the 56k modems came out. i purchased one and when i got it home it was a 28.8 modem. the box was shrink wrapped and undamaged.
needless to say i was not happy.
Recently bought a new receiver. Listed for $1200 on Denon website. BB could only offer it to me for $1100, but that one ran out of stock and the only BB in town with inventory would not honor the offer--they wanted list.
I bought from another authorized dealer and got it for $800, delivered (and no tax). Magnolia/BB failed.
Recently I bought a new projector. Listed for $6500. BB wanted $4500 for the lesser model. I got it from another authorized dealer for $3K. Magnolia/BB failed.
The closest BB/Magnolia can come to saying they got a major sale out of me with a video console. Yet, in the past five years I've spent $30K on electronics and appliances.
Oh yeah, the two older projectors didn't come from BB. The two plasmas and three LCD's didn't come from BB. Speakers did. Five Blu-ray players didn't. My LG washer & dryer upstairs and downstairs didn't.
Oh well, I am sure they get enough suckers since they are still around. Not that all their customers are suckers. ^_^
Always buy the extended warranty for your TV's. You do not want to own a 50" plasma that's outside it's manufacturer's warranty. The repair costs alone can sometimes cost more than a brand new TV.
I'd imagine that the catch is that most people see "no interest" as "omg free stuff!", make the minimum payments for a year and a half, and then act shocked when, on the 19th month, they get socked with 18 months worth of back interest because they didn't pay it off in time.Are you serious about 18 months no interest? What's the catch?
Bought my girlfriend an Ipod for a gift from Best Buy and bought the warranty on it figuring she would drop it cuz she's a clutz. Well the battery went south about a year later and I brought it back to them and they gave me another one. So in that particular instance the warranty was worth it. Haven't bought anything from them since with a warranty but I haven't needed it either.