I visited this store on January 4 while visiting from abroad and had an experience beyond comprehension. I bought a new iPhone 15. I then attempted to connect it to my carrier and discovered it was not compatible. As I had begun the phone transfer, I was then without phone reception in a foreign country.
I returned to Best Buy with the hope of either returning the phone or having a staff member assist me in either figuring out how to set up the new phone or reactivate the service on the old phone. I explained that I was without reception in a foreign country and had no ability to contact my family etc as a result.
The staff showed no concern whatsoever. Beyond this, they showed no willingness to help, and even further, they showed no knowledge of how to help. I was given incorrect and conflicting information from multiple staff members.
I finally phoned my carrier, who had almost resolved the issue, at which time the manager on duty intervened. He told me that he could assist to activate the service with an e sim. I then took his word and hung up with my carrier.
At that time, the manager on duty (January 4 6 pm) informed me he could not assist me further to set up my phone or else there would be a $100 charge. He was fully aware at the time that I was without phone service in a foreign country as a result of this, and again, showed no concern whatsoever.
At that point I had wasted over two hours at the store with no progress or help whatsoever. I simply asked to return the phone so that I could return to my hotel and phone my carrier again to resolve the issue (since Best Buy had no interest in doing so).
I asked for the $45 restock fee to be waived given the situation Best Buy had put me in. The manager again refused. No empathy or desire to help whatsoever.
At this point I indicated that I was going to write a poor review for the store on google. Immediately upon me saying this, the manager became visibly angry, refused my return, and told me I must leave the store. I began filming at this time.
I then asked the manager to phone the police (since I had no ability to do so given I was still without phone service). The police came and were very helpful, in fact one of them even recommended I write this review, but unfortunately the manager who was likely no more than 30 years old refused to take the return of my phone. Unbelievably.
I am now back in my hotel still attempting to recover my phone service. I drove back without gps in a foreign country and still cannot contact my family abroad. I have a police report number and will be using it when I file a formal complaint with corporate.
Summary: Best Buy put my safety at risk due to their terrible service, their inability to do their job correctly and either lack of required tech knowledge required to fix my problem, lack of interest in doing so, or both, and their manager forced me to leave his store out of spite because he became angry that he was going to get a bad review.
I am here visiting my 83 year old father in a care home. The last 2 days of my trip were wasted dealing with this entirely because of Best Buy, and they easily could have prevented it with little to no effort whatsoever. They chose not to.
The experience I had and the fact that the manager on duty chose to escalate this situation to the level that he did rather than simply doing the basic work needed to help a customer in a bad situation speaks volumes about not only this individual’s lack of professionalism, but about the culture of this store in general.
Good stock as well as friendly and helpful employees who are not commission based, so not pressure sales. They also price match some items. It's nice to go in and see and try display items before buying them for big purchases.
This is a perfect example how a bad sales person can cost a company a sale. I bought a Sony TV at the Manassas Outlet store two days ago. Through some more research I found out that I can actually buy a Sony TV that is way too superior to the Samsung that I wanted to trade in. I called and verified that I can return the Samsung to this store and pay for the difference on the Sony. The lady associate I talked to was very informative.
Fast forward 30 minutes, I brought the TV back and the guy behind the counter treated me like I was returning a stolen item. Multiple times he asked me why I opened the box. I explained to him that it was a open box model purchased at Best Buy outlet. Then he asked more questions about if it's working or not. I told him I never opened at home. He tried to verify that several more times. I felt so bad about his treatment that I decided just to return the TV. I will buy the Sony at Costco.
Response from Best Buy
December 30, 2025
Hello, Baha,
Thank you for sharing your concerns with the return questions when you brought back the television you bought from the outlet store. Returning an item to another store makes it so that we need to ask questions like why it is being returned and if something was wrong with it as we wouldn't want to put the television out for sale if there may be a problem. Items returned to the store they were purchased at can help with these concerns as they would have an understanding of the condition the item was in before it was returned. If you need support you can reach out to us on any of our social media profiles below with Review 97738 for support.
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