# I pit Best Buy for one of the worst and stupidest shopping experiences of my life **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 26, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793 "2004-11-26T21:44:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/21 "2004-11-27T02:36:55Z")
> [@vinniepaz](#): > > I don’t get it… they were selling new laptops? Isnt in more the exception than the rule that they are broken? and if they’re so worried about testing them, why not do it before hand? Exactly - if they wanted to go the proverbial extra mile, they could have had employees test the equipment beforehand and slap a little sticker on it that says “Tested and working, 11/26” or whatever. Absolutely no logical reason for it to need to be done right there on the spot when they clearly didn’t have a good system in place to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/22 "2004-11-27T03:21:06Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > By the time I got in, no $499 laptops, no $149 digital cameras. Bought nothing, went home. Yeah, my husband tried to get that camera too. The Kodak Easyshare, right? He came back home a little after 6 am, saying “I didn’t have a chance.” By looking around online a little it seems I can get it for about the same price though. This was our first attempt to shop the day after Thanksgiving and we got our butts kicked. Oh, how naive we were! These people are serious, man! ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/23 "2004-11-27T03:33:29Z")
I didn’t even attempt to get near Best Buy today. You all are gonna hate me when you hear how my Black Friday shopping experience went. My husband and I managed to get a prime parking spot near the front of Toys R Us, Krispy Kreme was handing out free donuts at the door, we found every single item on our list and the nice, cheerful (almost freakily cheerful) employees herded everyone into 3 gigantic check-out lanes which moved relatively smoothly, like cattle through a chute. Of course, I’m leaving out the part about the wait for the checkout being over an hour and I’ve also completely blocked out our nightmarish visit to Target, but other than that it was great. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/24 "2004-11-27T07:09:46Z")
Our first Black Friday as well. We got out the door late at around 11am. Hit Target first. It was a nuthouse! Didn’t get everything and I’m pissed that I got the run-around on the Polly Pocket two-for-$19.74 deal. Floor guy says that the second item, the Plane, didn’t come in at all even though it was in the ad. Sorry, no rainchecks. Wait a minute. You run an ad, the warehouse doesn’t send product advertised, and _we’re_ outta luck? Yup, no rainchecks today. Go to customer service to complain and rep tells me they sold out already. Wait, someone else just told me they never came in. He’s wrong. They’re sold out. And, no, you can’t get a raincheck. Not sure if they were yanking my chain or what. Assholes. :mad: Come back to toy dept. to find my family missing. Walk around Target for a good half hour. No family. Go get some Christmas wrap, then back through toy dept. No family. Shit-tons of other families but mine has vanished. Shit. Oh, there they are! Cinn little had to pee. Split up again sending **Norwegian Blue** to pick up the munchkins Christmas presents. Munchkin and I check out with the rest. Despite the chain-yanking, we dropped a nice chunk of change. The Pixter is sure to be a hit! Across the parking lot to Best Buy. Nice people. Too crowded. Don’t find anything particularly interesting. Got a question answered on a printer I’ve got on my Amazon wishlist. Chatted up the associate who sold **Norwegian Blue** my digital camera about digital camcorders. I’m not sure why she decided to hang out with us after I told her we weren’t buying, but she’s a sweet girl. I guess since they don’t make any commission, killing time with nice customers who aren’t needy is kind of a welcome break. 😕 Off to Kohl’s to spend the last $15 of my birthday giftcard. Spongebob Santapants jammies. Yay! Oh, and Cinn Little got a Click-its watch when we split up again. Burger King on the way home and back in the door exhausted at 3pm. Sheesh, only four hours but the dodge-and-weave shopping cart derby made it seem like eight. Shopping for Christmas with your five-year-old in tow is not easy. She thinks everything we bought is for her cousins. Surely, by next year the jig will be up. Whew. Glad it’s over. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/25 "2004-11-27T07:11:42Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#): > > Wow, couldn’t these people have just brought the unit home, and if it didn’t work, bring back next week? WTF were they thinking? I don’t know. I’ve heard that some retailers are making it hard, if not impossible, to return eletronics, even with receipts. I think it has to do with a dishonest few ruining it for the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/26 "2004-11-27T13:17:51Z")
> [@Velma](#): > > Yeah, my husband tried to get that camera too. The Kodak Easyshare, right? He came back home a little after 6 am, saying “I didn’t have a chance.” Yeah, that’s the one. 4 megapixels, 4x optical zoom. > [@](#): > > By looking around online a little it seems I can get it for about the same price though. This was our first attempt to shop the day after Thanksgiving and we got our butts kicked. Oh, how naive we were! These people are serious, man! I’d only done the first-thing-Friday-morning once before, but it was in Bristol down on the VA/TN border, 7 or 8 years ago. Whole different ballgame. For the modest cost of two hours out of my life (including maybe one hour of sleep), I learned that in the future, I can skip past the day-after-Thanksgiving doorbuster specials when reading the ads, because I’m not gonna do that again. ---
**Author:** ![woodstock989](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f05b48/32.png) [@woodstock989](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstock989)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/27 "2004-11-27T14:30:10Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s the sort of clueless idea that says, "Hey, if we offer this free service, we can advertise laptops for $499 and people will be so pissed off they’ll leave and buy Skittles at the counter! Because that’s where the real profit is. The Skittles. If they’d had brain one in their skulls, they would have had 2 lines - one for customers to purchase the cheapie laptop, then at the end of the purchase ask if they want it checked for free, and immediately hand it off to the other line. The customers would still wait the ridiculous extra time, but most would be walking around the store while waiting, quite possibly spending big bucks on other things (like Skittles). ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/28 "2004-11-27T14:45:03Z")
> [@woodstock989](#): > > If they’d had brain one in their skulls, they would have had 2 lines … DING! DING! DING! There’s your problem. This IS Best Buy we’re talking about here. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/29 "2004-11-27T16:24:48Z")
I thank Og for a wife with a brain. We don’t do gift buying at Christmas. It’s not worth any of the aggravation, frustration and downright anger involved. I see the crowds of howling, milling people on the news and pity them. Here’s a suggestion: celebrate Christmas, if you must, but postpone the gift-giving until after the first of the year, when the prices on all of that crap they couldn’t sell come a-tumbling down to reduce inventory before tax time. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/30 "2004-11-27T18:06:49Z")
We hit Best Buy. I didn’t need any of the advertised things, although I did pick up a couple of Gameboy Advance games, a CD, and a gift certificate for Ivylad. They were selling DVD players for $17 after rebate. My SILs got a 5" portable DVD player for $89 after rebate. People were getting their cars towed because they were parked in a no-loading zone. The police came, ran one woman’s plates, and they paged her _by name_ to come move her car NOW. I think she ended up getting a ticket. Then the California stores opened and all the computers crashed. People who had been waiting an hour in line to check out were pissed. You know that McDonald’s promotion, where you can get a $1 off coupon to Best Buy if you buy a soda or a large fry or what have you? There was a woman in front of me who was paying with about 50 of those things. I don’t know what was going on, but they kept shifting her from register to register. I did do my good deed…I talked my SIL out of purchasing a service warranty for the DVD player. It was good for two years, and I pointed out (thanks, Clark Howard!) that in two years she could pick up a replacement for about $50 and that the technology would be better too. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/31 "2004-11-27T21:28:50Z")
Well that was amusing! I’m installing Office 2003 and other stuff onto the notebook, and just as I shutting it off discover\*\* it has no parallel printer port\*\*! I’m enough of a geek to get around that if necessary, but it was still a bit of surprise. Parallel ports are falling ino dinosaurhood faster than I thought. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/32 "2004-11-27T21:56:45Z")
ivylass, May have not been much of a good deed. She would have bought a two year service plan for something like twenty bucks. And then when the DVD player breaks next year (which for $17 it will), and Best Buy isn’t carrying the cheap “get you through the door” DVD player that will break any longer, they give her a “comparable” DVD player. The comparable digital camera went from 2.2 megapixels to 3. The comparable phone was a lot better. I have a friend who managed to get three alarm clocks out of Best Buy over a ten year period on a $3 service plan. We call it the “Best Buy Upgrade Plan.” And you guys are overestimating (or underestimating) Black Friday shoppers. If you pre-check the machines, they will steal some spare part and claim that the Best Buy staffer must have done it. If you don’t offer the check of the equipment at all, they will give it to Aunt Edna with the laptop set to external monitor and return it saying it doesn’t work. These are the people responsible for the thought that you can buy a TV, use it for the Superbowl, return it, and buy it later that afternoon at a huge discount as an open box purchase. I don’t shop the day after Thanksgiving, but I was in a Best Buy shortly thereafter last year. With all the people and all the stuff and the extra stock, there wasn’t a lot of room for extra tables for checking either. Although that does sound like the best idea. Although in my mind the best idea is getting rid of doorbusters, and putting out “random specials” throughout the day. Happen to get there when the $499 laptop hits the shelves, lucky you. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/33 "2004-11-28T15:54:03Z")
Goddamn, were all the bestbuys like that? I went to bestbuy in Muncie and the line was over 2 hours long so I left about 20 minutes after I got in line. Who was the idiot who came up with this idea? Luckily I got to staples before Best Buy so I bought my DVD burner, but yeah that was the worst black friday of my life. caphis - That is the purpose of black friday, to offer good deals. other places were selling laptops for $500-600 too, and they did not have inept management that encouraged 2-3 hour lines. I went to Sears and Staples and I was only in line 10 minutes and 2 minutes respectively at both stores. And if you are in line for 2 hours at best buy you will miss all the other sales in town. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/34 "2004-11-29T03:36:33Z")
Maybe all of the other people in line knew about Best Buys policies that they aren’t responsible for any software problems once you purcase the computer. So if you don’t have it checked out and it doesn’t work… you are stuck with it. It is unlikely that I would ever go back into Best Buy ond give them my money again but if for some unknown reason I did, I would certainly want them to test it our before I bought it. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/35 "2004-11-29T15:52:25Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Yeah, that’s the one. 4 megapixels, 4x optical zoom. > I’d only done the first-thing-Friday-morning once before, but it was in Bristol down on the VA/TN border, 7 or 8 years ago. Whole different ballgame. For the modest cost of two hours out of my life (including maybe one hour of sleep), I learned that in the future, I can skip past the day-after-Thanksgiving doorbuster specials when reading the ads, because I’m not gonna do that again. The online stores I found suddenly shot up the price this weekend :rolleyes: Everyone in town was sold out of that camera, it is the hot item this year. We finally got the last one at Meijer for $179 after calling all over. It is a nice little camera, we are happy with it. ---
**Author:** ![haardvark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@haardvark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haardvark)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/36 "2004-11-29T17:26:54Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I don’t get it??? > Why do people blame retailers for defective vendors products??? > > Best Buy sells Sony, Yamaha, Toshiba, etc. etc. > > Are you telling me Best Buy is somehow responsible for selling “clinkers”?? > > You think that’s quality crap their selling over there at Walmart?? Shinsonic, Ultratech, Z-tronic?? They may sell name brands, but the interesting thing is that they generally sell model numbers of name brands which you will only find in the big-box retail environment. This is especially true for the entry level and loss leader stuff. e.g. when researching DVD players last year, I was trying to decide between the Panasonic S-35 and M-55 (for example). These model numbers were in use on the vendor website, epinions, consumer reports etc. Went to two separate big box retailers and what they had on offer was the \*\*S-_25_ \*\*and **M-_45_** , with apparently identical functionality. I checked after the fact and these model numbers were nowhere to be found in any review. Now, while it is possible that the “off-numbered” devices are identical in every way to their non-mass-market cousins, I find it a lot more likely that the big box versions are probably mostly culled from production for minor flaws or use inferior componentry to save a few bucks in distribution. I have had this assumption backed up by friends and acquaintances in non-big-box retailing AND electronics repair…not an iron-clad cite but I offer it for information purposes. ---
**Author:** ![haardvark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@haardvark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haardvark)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/37 "2004-11-29T17:29:03Z")
> [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](#): > > Do you think you got labelled as a Barry, a Jill, or a Ray? Hah? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/38 "2004-11-29T17:53:40Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > It is, after all, an item in limited supply being offered for a limited time. If I (#34, say) have my unit tested and it fails, I will then have the chance of buying the 35th unit, if that one passes, and so forth. :eek: Meaning the person with #50 waits for hours and doesn’t end up getting a working machine? Man, that would suck. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/39 "2004-11-29T18:09:15Z")
> [@haardvark](#): > > They may sell name brands, but the interesting thing is that they generally sell model numbers of name brands which you will only find in the big-box retail environment. This is especially true for the entry level and loss leader stuff. IIRC, Wal-Mart would go to the manufacturer and order, say, 5000 25" TVs. These TV’s would get a special model number. Wal-Mart would put these sets on sale and offer their “we’ll beat any advertised price” deal. However, the deal only worked on exactly the same model numbers. Obviously, you’d never find the same model number at Circuit City or K-Mart or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![haardvark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@haardvark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haardvark)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793/40 "2004-11-29T18:26:00Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > IIRC, Wal-Mart would go to the manufacturer and order, say, 5000 25" TVs. These TV’s would get a special model number. Wal-Mart would put these sets on sale and offer their “we’ll beat any advertised price” deal. However, the deal only worked on exactly the same model numbers. Obviously, you’d never find the same model number at Circuit City or K-Mart or whatever. Yeah, that occured to me just after I posted. Makes sense. Still and all, I do wonder if the off-number items are of identical quality? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-best-buy-for-one-of-the-worst-and-stupidest-shopping-experiences-of-my-life/276793.md?page=3)