Recent Best Buy buying experience

[Todd Anderson]

Wanted to share my recent Best Buy TV buying experience:


I bought a X900F Sony TV on Black Friday weekend through Best Buy's website. Years ago (many years) I purchased 2 plasmas from the company and found service to be rather ordinary, including out-of-stock issues when I returned one of the TVs because of a cluster of stuck pixels. So I wasn't exactly sure what to expect this time around... and what I found was nothing short of great. The online ordering process was crazy simple, including simple choice over picking a free delivery day (I took a Saturday spot). I did it all on my phone while I sat in a waiting room of a hospital ;-))

Then, over a week period, I received nearly daily updates on the purchase. First confirming the buy, then reminders about my scheduled delivery. As the day got closer, my hourly delivery window slowly narrowed down to about a 2 hour window (which was nice because we were crazy busy).

On delivery day, I got a reminder... then a text telling me my delivery was 30 min out. Then the driver called to tell me they were 5 minutes away.

This is a change! The good kind of change!

The delivery truck arrived... two nice gentlemen brought the TV into my home and put it right where I wanted it. They then opened it up, powered the TV on and had me confirm that it powered up. Took a photo. Unplugged it. Put the box back together (at my request) and they were gone. Took 5 minutes total.

And there's a 1 year return period.

Gotta say: Hats off to Best Buy for a really buying experience. While I'm not sure what kind of service I'd receive if there were an issue with the TV... they deserve a pat on the back for leveraging technology to make the buying/delivery process REALLY streamlined and pleasant. I'm impressed!

 

[tripplej]

Wow, I am impressed. I never had any good experience (inexperience employees and no product on hand) and rarely and only in emergency situation where I can't wait for delivery from Amazon do I even walk into a Best Buy store. Might have to revisit them later..Thanks for the update and good for them for turning things around.

 

[JStewart]

Those are not the Geeks I remember either. Thanks for the info.

My most recent best buy experience was year before last when I picked up a panny UB900 from them. It took 20 min for them to "find" it. In the end I had to show her where it was on the shelf. Wish I'd known she was gone to look for the last one. I could have saved the 20min.
Experience before that was looking at an Epson projector. It was clearly not well set up and the sales associate in the Magnolia store didn't have much projector knowledge. Probably OK for the average consumer looking to by a TV, not very helpful to a more knowledgeable enthusiast looking to explore what faux-k might do.

So, glad to hear they might be doing better. There is a definite need to have someplace where you can put your ears, eyes and hands on something. I want them to be successful.

 

[tripplej]

My default is Amazon and if an emergency need is required, I will take a look at Best Buy instead of Walmart, Target, or any other retail place that has audio/video equipment.

 

[mechman]

Nice job Best Buy! I had a similar experience with Amazon in the past.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Those are not the Geeks I remember either. Thanks for the info.

My most recent best buy experience was year before last when I picked up a panny UB900 from them. It took 20 min for them to "find" it. In the end I had to show her where it was on the shelf. Wish I'd known she was gone to look for the last one. I could have saved the 20min.
Experience before that was looking at an Epson projector. It was clearly not well set up and the sales associate in the Magnolia store didn't have much projector knowledge. Probably OK for the average consumer looking to by a TV, not very helpful to a more knowledgeable enthusiast looking to explore what faux-k might do.

So, glad to hear they might be doing better. There is a definite need to have someplace where you can put your ears, eyes and hands on something. I want them to be successful.

Perhaps I had an isolated experience... but this is one of the better buying process I've ever had. Of course, I didn't step foot in a store. I knew what I wanted and just ordered. But even at that, the communication/texts were great. When I read they wanted to establish a delivery day/time, my first thoughts went to experiences with Comcast over the last 20 years (where they give you an 8 hour window and show up two hours late). I actually blocked off an entire morning to sit around the house waiting... which is is why I was excited to receive update texts with a timeframe window that was shrinking! Unheard of!

 

[tripplej]

Happy that online is good but I really wonder if the brick and mortar experience will improve as well??

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'm going to assume: no. Only because Best Buy doesn't have the resources to staff their fleet of stores with the same kind of highly technical staff that you'd find at a mom and pop shop. But who knows - maybe they've taken steps to make it better?

 

[JBrax]

My default is also Amazon but I occasionally purchase from BB. I’ve always been pleased when purchasing from BB and like the fact you can search inventory by store location. I’m buying the Apple Watch 4 for my wife from Best Buy. Easy way to accumulate points which I use on movies.

 

[Todd Anderson]

How do points work? That's not something I've taken advantage of... sounding like I should have!

 

[JBrax]

Just sign up for their BB Rewards program. It's free and you earn points on every purchase.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Turns out I am a BB Rewards member... they just sent me a $15 gift certificate.

LOL.

And I didn't even realize!!! I must have signed up with my email years ago!

 

[JBrax]

Well there you go! It’s a nice little perk with the added benefit of being free. Between the movies and occasional gadget purchases I make the points add up quickly. I bought my wife’s Apple Watch 4 today so a nice amount of points coming my way.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Yeah I've had mixed experiences with them. On the positive, I do find their delivery service to be pretty good and they have a great system for sending reminders. Their pricing has improved so it's now competitive with a lot of the discount places (or rather, everyone's prices are the same). On the other hand, I've not found their staff to be knowledgable and I've had in-store inventory issues a lot. I needed to buy a BluRay players quickly, so I drove to BB to pick up the Sony X800. They had 2 in stock, but nobody could locate one. So I had to drive to another BB 20 minutes away and go through the process all over again to get one.