Scott sent a message to Hubert Joly President and CEO, Best Buy – email address that said:
My 76 year old mothers washing machine finally gave out. It had been a good machine. Not living near her I hopped online and found a machine on bestbuy.com that was a reasonable price and that could be delivered within a few days. I ordered it on Nov 14th, , for delivery on the 19th, just a few short days later.
On the 18th I got a email that said the delivery needed to be rescheduled. No reason given. No apology. Just reschedule your delivery. I called, the person was unable to do anything, didn’t offer any solution other than take it or leave it. It could be delivered on the 22nd and that’s it. No apology, nothing. My mom had been without a washer for over a week, I needed it sooner. I canceled the order, the guy didn’t even blink, no hesitation, just canceled the order. There was a time a company would have fought for keeping its customers, that time seems to have passed.
I looked around, didn’t call any mom and pop shops, and couldn’t get one sooner. So, against my judgment I reordered the same machine online again. Delivery date for the 22nd.
I got the confirmation calls and texts the day before. The day of, at around noon, I got a call that the truck had “broke down” and they were running late. I told them that was ok, so long as they still made it today. The woman told me she would call me back if they weren’t able to. She never called. Nor did the delivery show.
At 9pm that night I called. The automated service told me the delivery was due before 10pm, I held out hope. Then I got a live person. He told me there was no delivery for that night and he would transfer me to the warehouse. He disconnected me.
I called back. Same thing, got transferred to warehouse where a nice woman could offer me no information. She told me to call back the next morning. I suggested that since I had been on the phone for 40+ minutes, she could have someone call me back. She said she would try and she would email all her supervisors. The next morning no one called.
Not wanting to waste more time I called today, the 23rd. I got a nice person who transferred me to the warehouse. The warehouse didn’t pick up. The voicemail said to call back during business hours, starting at 7am, it was 8:10am. Then it said the voicemail would not take messages and hung up on me.
I called back. Got a nice woman in the Corp office, she listened to my story again, she put me on hold while she tried to get ahold of the warehouse. 10 minutes later she got me on a conference call with an employee at the warehouse. Nothing could be done. No delivery last night, the truck broke down, mind you the other people just said the truck was never loaded, different stories. But regardless, nothing could be done, they could reschedule for Saturday the 26th. I asked to speak to a supervisor, the woman told me no. I asked again, she still said no and that there was nothing that could be done. 40 more minutes of my life gone.
Now this may seem minor to you. It’s a 399 washing machine. But to my mom, now waiting two weeks, it is fresh clothes, it is washing that napkins and table cloths for Thanksgiving, it is clean sheets for her guests.
For me it was making an easy purchase online so that I didn’t have to waste time going into a store with my 3 week old son, having just lost my job and trying to deal with all of those things, really I was just trying to be a good son and get my mom a new washing machine.
My mom waited up until 10pm last night because I told her it still might come. Might not be late for you or I, but for her, that’s a late night. Best Buy never showed. More importantly, no one even made the effort to try and get it to her today.
I am utterly disgusted with the level, or lack of, customer service. It is no wonder to me why companies such as Best Buy and Sears are downsizing and facing closure, the focus on the customer has been lost.
I was told, 2 hours ago, that I would be getting a call. Still hasn’t happened. I get that it’s a busy time, I get that this is a small order, what I don’t get is how such a simple order can get so screwed up to the point where now my mom will not have a washing machine to get her through Thanksgiving.
As a customer, how much work should I have to do to make this delivery possible?
You could have done a lot better.
Scott
