I went through the worst online shopping experience I have ever had on BestBuy.com.
I wanted to order a stereo stand for our new house. I went into the checkout section online and entered my new address. The system informed me that my address was not recognized as valid. I figured that was probably because it was a new housing development, so I decided to have the item shipped to my work address. However, the system would not recognize my billing address as a valid address either!
Now I can see not wanting to ship an item to a supposedly non-valid address, but what am I supposed to do about my billing address?! It has to match the credit card, for crying out loud, and the stupid system would not let me proceed.
I decided to call their toll-free number to order the item. The sales drone assured me he could process the order. I went through the whole process, and it became obvious that the sales drone was using the same web-based system I had been using when he informed me that my new address was not recognized as valid. He was also unable to ship the item to my office because he couldn’t enter an address into the billing address section without encountering an error.
The sales drone told me that their system compares all addresses to USPS address information. I told him that I was receiving mail at my new address and had a mailbox. He then put me on hold for 10 minutes.
The sales drone came back and told me that he had figured out the problem. My USPS address that the system was trying to match had the ZIP+4 suffix on my zip code, and he had just been entering the 5-digit zip code. I said, “so you should be able to just type in the whole 9-digit zip code, right?” He replied that his system only allowed him to enter a 5-digit zip code, so there was no way to get a match, and no way to override the system. I remarked that that was just about the stupidest ordering system I’d ever heard of. He then helpfully suggested I contact my local post office and request that they change my official address in the USPS system to a 5-digit zip code. I said that was a pretty ridiculous suggestion when the problem was with Best Buy’s computer system. The sales drone then asked if I had a credit card with a different billing address. :rolleyes:
As it turns out, I did. I had one card that I hadn’t yet updated the address on. I went through the whole checkout procedure again with my old billing address, shipping the item to my work address, only to have the transaction rejected because that card was within 30 days of expiration. (Kind of defeats the whole point of an expiration date, eh?)
I gave up for the night.
My wife really wanted that particular stand, though, and I was unable to find it anywhere else, nor was it available in the Best Buy store. So after activating my renewal card, but pointedly not updating the billing address, I was finally able to order the item, which was now back-ordered. :rolleyes:
Two weeks later the item arrived at my office. The office admin assistant refused to sign for it, though and called me over. The box looked like it had been run over by a truck. Pieces were falling out of the holes in the cardboard. I refused the shipment, and called Best Buy. Ever the glutton for punishment, I asked for another item to be sent.
This sales drone told me that I would be double-billed until the first item came back to the warehouse. The second item was also back-ordered.
Two weeks after that, the second shipment arrived (and the first item was credited to my card). The second shipment was somewhat beat up as well, but seemed basically intact. It wasn’t until the whole thing was nearly put together that I noticed the dents and scratches in the metal supports, and discovered that both backing panels were cracked.
I will probably just call the manufacturer for replacement parts.
I will never order anything from Best Buy again.
